Blenheim Mk IV start up ?

[DocSigma]

Originally Posted by Siegfried

My problem is that the plane turns heavy to right. i can't go straight on the runway... All rudder left, more throttle for right engine and the plane turns heavy to right...

I'm experiencing the same thing.Cant keep her straight, veer off runway, not enough power to get lift.. crash..

[Eklund89]

I managed the whole cross-country mission with the blenheim at full realism CEM + temp. took me 1h 51 min. the engines work fine at 7000 feet -2 boost 24000 rpm

[DocSigma]

How did you get her off the ground without her veering right into the forest or the hanger?

[ytareh]

Originally Posted by skouras

if in real life was like that
i have no problem

Thats practically the same as if the mission took 15 minutes to load from your hard drive!What the heck are ya meant to do for those 15min....fill in the pre flight checks?!Outrageous !

[mcler002]

Originally Posted by ytareh

Thats practically the same as if the mission took 15 minutes to load from your hard drive!What the heck are ya meant to do for those 15min....fill in the pre flight checks?!Outrageous !

Its not that bad ... Its when the ai can manage to taxi and take off within 5 mins of startin its engines... Gr damm cheat ai lol!

So again if you can't wait ai it or have cem and temps off!!

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by ytareh

Thats practically the same as if the mission took 15 minutes to load from your hard drive!What the heck are ya meant to do for those 15min....fill in the pre flight checks?!Outrageous !

There's nothing to fix here, air-cooled radials require warm-ups in real life too and they are also really difficult to start in cold weather.

In case you're interested in improving your engine handling methods and saving some time, here's a little method that i found works on most aircraft i've tried up till now. It doesn't take 15 minutes, much less in fact.
I tried it in a 109, taking off right behind the AI with a minimal amount of time warming up, so i started replicating the method and it has considerably shortened my warm-up times.

The trick is that you don't have to keep idling until the temps come up, in fact they never will reach optimal temperatures if you are idling too low. In a real aircraft in fact, there's a lower limit for idling (usually 800-1200 RPM depending on the engine) otherwise the spark plugs get dirty with unburnt fuel and other residue and that requires bursts of full throttle to clear (unless you keep idling too low and they become completely fouled, after that they need to be inspected by a mechanic).

This is also part of the reason for the run-up procedure, along with checking how the engine operates prior to committing to the take-off. The values depend on each aircraft/engine, as a rough guide you set pitch to full fine (high RPM) and advance throttle moderately but not fully with the brakes on and tail held-down (pull back on the stick), until you get about 2000RPM or so.
At that point, in a real aircraft you check the ignition system by disabling one magneto and checking how much the RPM drops, enabling both and letting the RPM stabilize, disabling the other magneto and doing the same RPM check, then again enabling both. This is not necessary in the sim, because there are no random failures modeled and both magnetos are working fine every time you spawn into the mission.

What it shows us however is that it's possible to use moderate power settings very shortly after start-up without causing damage to the engine. So, i decided to use this in order to shorten my warm-up times.

First, apply brakes and then advance the throttle for as long as your oil pressure doesn't skyrocket.
As the temps climb due to the increased power, the oil becomes thinner and pressure drops. At that point you can advance the throttles a bit more and so on. Within a minute or even less, you'll be having a minimum of 40-60 degrees oil temp which is just fine for taking off.

In a plane with a liquid cooled engine i can manage scramble-style take offs running flat out in less than 2 minutes. The air-cooled radials are a bit more temperamental and require some more warming up, but it's definitely less than 5 minutes if you take the time to experiment and find a method that works. I don't even close my rads to warm up and the plane is up and running in no time, i just need to watch the gauges to prevent the oil pressure from getting too high and starting leaks.

That's what this game finally simulates in a WWII sim and why i can't go back to IL:1946, despite CoD having a smaller planeset and bugs: the gauges in a real aircraft are not there for decoration purposes, so if i fly full switch i prefer the sim to reward players who pay attention to instruments and learn how to operate their aircraft.

The main problem is the lack of documentation, but i'm having an immense amount of fun experimenting and finding out what works on my own. Of course that's not everyone's cup of tea, so if you still don't like waiting for a warm-up or learning a few tricks by trial and error, just turn off temperature effects and enjoy yourself without having the extra workload to worry about

[mcler002]

+1

[ATAG_Dutch]

Originally Posted by mcler002

+1

Ok, I'm fine with the start-up, but what's the secret to going straight down the runway?

Can't lock tailwheel, have only one throttle control, help please!

[Blackdog_kt]

If you're trying the cross country mission, there's a couple of extra difficuties. First of all, i don't know if this is how it spawns in all missions, but in that one the Blenheim spawns with quite a bit of right rudder trim dialed in. There is a spring-loaded bar indicator on the bottom right of the instrument panel with the neutral setting clearly marked, dial in some left rudder trim until you get it to neutral and then some.

Most of all, in the cross country mission there's a significant crosswind from your right to deal with on top of the already existing pull to the right.

It's very visible if you try that same mission with the Tiger Moth which is lighter and easier to observe the effect of wind on. First it veers to the right with the engine still off, then as you apply power, start rolling down the runway and commence your take-off run you can see it's dipping a wing in accordance with the crosswind.

So it's not only the Blenheim's engines pulling right, it's the trim too and the crosswind. Out of all these the trim is the easier to correct. The pull by the props could be mitigated by mapping keys to select the engines separately and give more power to the right engine so that it wants to turn left and counteract all these effects. However, the crosswind is built into the mission's weather conditions.

I get the feeling that the default setting of "blenheim+crosswind that pulls the same way as the props" is meant as some sort of challenge. If you open up that mission in the FMB, remove the wind (set it to zero) and save it under a different name, i guess you'll have a much easier time

[O_Smiladon]

With going down the runway just tap the brakes and she will com back on line, keep tapping till the tail lifts and then use your rudder.

works for me.

O_Smiladon