IL2 Birds of Prey: Hints, Tips, and FAQ's Thread
 

Since many people are having some problems with their plane or just want a few tips on how to fly, I figure everyone can post questions and answers here so that future forum members/readers or IL2 gamers can learn everything they want to know and ask some questions if they have any.

Here are some FAQ's from players of BoP:

1) Why does my plane go into a spin/stall everytime I try to turn?

If you are having problems keeping your plane from whirlybirding into the ground, I and most people here would reccomend turning down the elevator sensativity down a couple of knotches or buying yourself a flight stick and get into the true flying experience.
Also, keep in mind that in real life, a pilot can't pull the stick all the way back and when pulling tight turns, you LOSE airspeed resulting in a stall/spin.

2) Why does seem that my engine dies for no reason?

If your engine dies on you while your flying, you may have suffered some hits earlier that you didn't notice. You can overheat your engine by using too much WEP(War Emergancy Power) which you should only use when neccesary and not for extended periods of time.

3) Why do some of the planes not have a cockpit view?

When development of Birds of Prey first started, it was never originally planned to have 40+ planes for the player to use. It was only planned to have only 12 flyable planes for the player to use, while the rest was for the A.I. You can expect to see cockpits in future DLC's.

4) How do I use Trim?

Trim is what keeps the aircraft stable without so much use of the joystick. Trim can be set by pressing A on the gamepad. There will be no indication that trim is set when you use it. You can only feel it. When you set the trim, it will lock the plane's current roll and pitch and keep it that way. If your planes tends to roll in one direction after leveling it out and setting the trim, try applying the rudder in the opposite direction of the roll. The roll is caused by the torque of the engine, which make the plane tend to want to turn with the propellers.

Anyone wanting to read more about Birds of Prey, you can visit the website http://www.il2game.com/

Tip: You don't need to complete all of the training missions to access realistic and simulation difficulties in the demo, just the last one.


How the Trim Button Works:

Move the sticks to where they need to be to keep the plane level, then press A. For example, to cancel out the torque effects of the engine press the rudder stick slightly to the right until it stops the plane rolling and press A. The game will keep the rudder in that position even after you release the stick. Same with elevator. Most planes of that era didn't have aileron trim.

Here's a simple but neat thing I found, you can cycle through views of all of the planes in the air after you crash by pressing the LB and RB buttons. I've crashed a lot so I know!

When attacking bombers don't fly straight and level behind one for more than a few moments or you'll have your engine shot full of holes.

That's neat. I never noticed that.

Incase anyone missed it, I found a glitch to where if you bail out, pause, go to options, hit apply, then resume, the camera will no longer zoom out and will return to it's position before you bailed and you can watch your plane crash from close up and have the pilot survive.:)

I have a small question, in the Tiger Hunt mission the FW190 seem a bit faster then P-51, what am i doin wrong?

Got another thing to say.
I'm always dogfighting in the Tiger Hunt mission.
WHY do i keep losing speed after a while of playing?
I didnt use WEP at all, might have had a minor hit but no Damage acoording to the indicator.
So why do i keep losing speed until my Engine just stops?
Is this another bug or thing just in the demo?

Probably engine damage, you may have only taken 1 hit which won't make the indicator change enough to notice.

I wish it would post engine damage in the scroll on the right side of the screen where it says your flap and gear status.

Like:
Engine: Damaged
Engine: Overheat!
Engine: Dead
Engine: Inoperable

No dont think my engine ALWAYS get hit, to me now it is 1 small hit no sight of damage = dead within 5 mins.

Edit: I just have to complain for a sec, I hate trim so much...
Excuse me!

That should really be the other way round, the P51 is about 15mph faster at low level, but the P51 does not accelerate as well as the Fw190A so it may be that neither of you are reaching your respective top speeds, and all you are seeing is the Fw190As superior acceleration.

That could be it, mostly in climbs i catch up to them then they dive and turn a bit and i lose distance.

Lately i just keep following one, and the chase just keeps goin for alot of minutes. But hes just out of range for my guns hehe.

I wish the trim button was easier to reach on the AV8R stick.

Can someone confirm that you have to correct the trim every time you change direction? At least it seems like that to me.

It's a bit annoying, but as long as it is like the real thing I decided to enjoy the accuracy of the simulation :)

The plane shifts trim every time you change speed or angle of climb, so there isn't much point trying to trim an aircraft in a dogfight. Trim is really about letting you maintain a constant cruise flight path without excessive control input, because the only time trim changes a great deal in combat is when you change speed substantianly.

I don't use it during dogfights - too busy for that :)

But what I mean is e.g. at the end of the Dover mission. I head for the airfield and correct the trim (which is a nightmare with the deadzone). Then I circle around to get the right approach and when I'm lined up with the airfield it appears to me as if the plane is out of trim (if this is the correct term, I'm not a native speaker).

You speak very good English, I didn't realise it was not your native language.

Back to the subject of trim, lowering the flaps and undercarraige will have a major effect on the planes trim, and so will slowing down as you approach the runway itself. Therefore trimming is not really effective when landing, and you will need to be making constant adjustments to the controls as you come in to land.

Thanks for both - the compliment and the advice!

Just to list a couple of things that affect changing trim as you land,

Speed: As you slow down, the planes trim shifts forward, making the plane nose heavy.

Power: The prop on a Merlin powered plane such as the Mustang or Spitfire rotates to the right, which makes the plane rotate slightly to the left. As you throttle down the amount of rotation to the left reduces, so if the plane is trimmed to fly straight at full throttle it will start rotating right as the power is reduced.

Flaps: The flaps increase the amount of lift generated by the main wings, pushing the nose up.

Undercarriage: When the undercarriage is lowered the drag generated in its position pulls the nose down. The effects from the flaps and undercarriage will largely but not completely cancel each other out.

As you can see, setting up the planes trim before starting your landing approach isn't much good:)

During most of my landings I wouldn't have time to readjust the trim after lowering the gears which is about 10 seconds before touchdown or shiny explosion. I'm still proud each time I bring her down in one piece and manage to stop on the airfield (wish we had a brake button on the AV8R...)

I put the gear down as I start to line up the runway, and I try to touch down at the end of the runway instead of further down, coming in a slow as the plane can possibly stay in the air. Sometimes slower.........

My problem with trim is: once i use it, my plane doesent feel ballanced anymore, cant seem to get it right :(
Is there a way to reset the trim? it is really confusing me.

I think there's no possibility to reset it. I hardly ever manage to get the plane into a level flight due to deadzone issues, but I'm already satisfied when I manage to reduce its tendency to move out of line. Slowly increase pressure on the joystick without making the nose turn into the other direction and repeat the process as often as necessary.

Ye, but i find my plane good enough stable right at the start.
Once i press the trim button (wich i did by accident last night) the fun starts and i have a much harder time controlling my plane.
Also having that deadzone issiue, im wondering if its less with the hori!

Really? Usually the nose drops and I'm banking to the left when I start.:confused:

it slowly banks to the left and nose points up a bit. but i hardly go into WEP maybe thats it.

with the voice telling me "let go" I totally didn't bother with trim and got an 8 kill tally on sim Dover...nothing special but my best yet...

if you have a stick- forget trim...if you are going to survive you really don't want to be flying in a straight line too long anyway....

use the force.....let go....forget trim...
________
Honda Nsr Series Specifications

I like to fix the trim before meeting the bombers - at least marginally. Fighting against the enemy and my own plane never gave me good results.

The following tips are from my experience of private pilot in real world, and you can expect to use then in IL-2 game:
the total trim amount necessary to keep a straight flight reduces as the speed increases.

the prop blade descending generates more thrust than the prop blade that is climbing. If your propeller has a clockwise rotation (inside the cockpit, behind the propeller), the torque effect of the blade will generate more lift in the right side of the propeller, generating a yaw momentum to the left.

In take-off and landing procedures, don't focus too much in trimming (only use it to keep the climb attitude and the cruise attitude). In descend for land, try to keep constant speed and vertical path to not come too hot (high speed) and too high in the approach. If you are too hot and too high, go around and proceed to another approach.

Sorry I'm a little slow, but back to trimming on the aviator, (I'm aware of the post that says forget trim with a stick, but I would like to know if it's possible) the A button seems to be the trigger, and I can't be sure if it's helping at all because I am away from home.(and my xbox) So what I'm getting out of the other explanations is you level the plane and then click the A button to trim. Makes sense, but again, the A button on the aviator is the trigger. So is that correct? Thanks in adavance.
P.S. Anyone have any tips/mods for fixing the deadzone on the throttle?(any more than 3/4 forward on the throttle is WEP)

It's RB on the AV8R.

But with the deadzone you'll have to live - on the throttle and on the stick itself.

Just in case some players are unaware of this, the torque of the engine in the plane is what causes the plane to roll. To counter this, simply apply the rudder in the opposite direction and then set the trim. It will at least help a little.

av8r trim is RB on the base...but if you are engaging the he111s you'll need to be moving and rolling...fly straight and you'll get so shot up you won't be able to fly straight...just sayin
________
BOB BONDURANT

Could someone please define the terms "deadzone" and "WEP" for noobs like me?

Thanks!

WEP is "War Emergency Power" just think of it as an afterburner.

DeadZone is an joystick term which means an area of the joysticks field of movement that will cause no input to be registered.

I would never have figured that out, thanks.

Thanks guys for answering my earlier post. Shame about the deadzone for such a pricey joystick. I guess I'll also have to make some kind of wooden platform to set it on as the vinyl on the couch doesn't like suction cups. ;-) Another Q on the Ace Edge, it doesn't say anywhere what the two dials (the smaller and larger gray rotatable "buttons") do or what their purpose is. I'll probably end up looking noobish...but I really can't figure it out.:|

P.S. Stupidity Alert: I've been saying "Aviator" instead of "Ace Edge" for my past 3 or 4 posts because I've seen it so many times in other posts...So If anyone could answer my last question as well as this one (What is the trim button on the ACE EDGE, not the aviator, that would make me feel a lot less dumb. Thanks in advance.

Has anyone figured out why the aircraft like to nose over when landing on sim mode? I have real world flight experience, and I can't figure this one out.

I came in the other day with the most beautifull textbook landing. At 55 knots...WHAM! prop strikes the field. I've tried this with my Ace Edge and the reg controller about 100 times, but to no avail.

I know this is an ongoing problem for many, but has anyone out there actually landed on sim mode?

My only other idea would be to set the trim with my pitchladder at about +10 before making my final approach. I belive this would reduce downforce on the nose when slowing on the ground.

Any ideas?

While I still suck score wise on sim mode I at least managed to pull off a decent landing without flipping over. There are speculations that pulling the throttle back completely acts as wheel brakes. I always pull back the stick when I'm below take off speed, maybe that helps to reduce the chance, but sometimes I also flip over.

Thanks for the input.

I know that there are no wheel brakes on the Ace Edge. I have run several tests to confirm this. I also keep the yoke back while rolling out, but it seems I always flip. :-x

I had a go at landing without use of brakes with the control pad, it is definatly possible.
As mentioned above: pull back on the stick to stop flipping over and to slow down faster. A planes engine is heavy and the tail is light, combined with the layout of the wheels on most WW2 planes the plane is inclined to tilt forward when slowing down.
Make sure you set the flaps to landing aswell.

That's what is doing it. I can land fine in sim mode as long as I don't apply any elevator to get the tail down and keep the nose high to help to slow down. It does not seem to matter how low your speed is, if you pull back on the stick, it crashes. Every single time I do that it then tumbles and crashes, if I leave the elevator alone after landing and just use the brakes then it is fine.

That mode where you have to capture the airbases is going to be impossible for the flightstick crew in sim mode, you will either crash or roll off the end of the runway because you can't brake.

Perhaps the fields will be more forgiving in multiplayer...I seem to land fine...but then keep on rolling into the blue yonder (or green, depends if trees are there) with no brake. I guess that's the trouble with bringing flight sims to consoles is that there's just not enough buttons in enough convenient places on a controller for all the features neccessary in flight.

Steps for landing with controller
 

I'm going to avoid things like come in straight with about 20% throttle yadda yadda yadda. I hope you guys know all of that (not trying to sound snobbish).

1. Make sure your flaps are set to landing (X button on 360)
----They will only set that way when your landing gear is fully lowered.
2. When touching down pull all the way back on the throttle stick (Right Stick) and all the way back with the Left Stick so your nose is pointing as high as possible with the wheels touching.
---Pulling back on the throttle acts as a wheel break.

At around 50 KM/h your plane will try and flip. The best way to avoid this is by making sure you are level and rolling straight and having both sticks pulled back. Make sure to remember that speed when trying to turn the aircraft around as it will still try and flip.

For turning the aircraft around on the ground use nothing but rudder (Right Stick) and have a constant battle with throttle percentage. You don't want to go above 30% but you don't want to stay at 30% for very long as you will start to pick up a lot more speed the necessary and will probably lose control. I tend to bring it up to 30%, start to move and turn, then quickly bring it back down and even apply break if necessary.

If you have any more questions about this or additions, just say.

Thanks for the detail.

No it's the pulling back on the stick that makes it tumble and crash, just leave it alone and it will not. I've tried it loads of times, back pressure on stick = crash, no back pressure on stick = no crash.

Throttle/rudder control- help!
 

Ok chaps, just wondering if anybody can help out a complete novice...

When it comes to throttle managment or rudder control, i'm pretty much clueless:confused:

Can anybody can offer any advice on how to manage either, especially in regards to dogfighting?

I would also be grateful for any tips regarding control of either in other situations, such as strafing, diving, etc.

Many thanks in advance:)

I ran three hours of tests on the demo last night.

To land successfully:

Aproach the field, etc., etc. (throttle to 30%)

upon touchdown REDUCE throttle to 20%

slow the aircraft to around 150 and pull back on the yoke (stick) and adjust trim.

Continue to keep back preassure on the yoke while slowing to 57 (throttle to zero)

at exactly 57 give a short burst of engine power by increasing the throttle to around 25-30% and immediately reset to zero. The idea here is to give just enough throttle to keep the aircraft from flipping WITHOUT GAINING SPEED. Your speed should slowly decrease throughout this entire step.

Roll out untill your speed reaches zero.

Works every time

Now I know some of this sounds like a bit much. Some of it doesn't make sense in terms of real worl physics, but this is what works.....

Rudder:
Rudder helps a lot if you wind up in a turning fight. Turning the rudder in the direction on your turn will help you turn harder.

Speed:
When your in a dogfight you will need to concentrate on your speed in response to your enemy's speed. Make sure to slow down before you approach so you don't overshoot and have him on your six. And if you see him try to barrel roll or spin around you, slow down and try to get the edge on him by barrel rolling as well sometimes. This is called Rolling Scissors.
If you wind up doing a loop, slowing down and give you the edge sometimes.
But most importantly, just try to do your best to make sure you keep him in front of you.

If you want anything more specific just ask.

Well, not to play the I'm right you're wrong game, but this is what works for me. I guess that means that there are other mitigating factors that induce the flip.

Thanks! Thats pretty much what i have been doing, so it seems im on the right track:-D

Just a couple more questions if i may...

When turning in a dogfight, i tend to lower the throttle - is this a mistake? Or Should full throttle be used?

In regards to the rudder - is it best to minimise its use for extremely sharpe turns or should every turn have a touch of rudder? - ( i
thought maybe its use caused more resistance and thus, a loss in airspeed):confused:

Hmm sometimes i still lose fuel pressure, even though i didnt got hit, neither overused WEP, hardly used it at all actually.

Why could this problem be?

It could be a thing called Vapour Lock.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapor_lock

Hmm i dont fully understand, but I can also say i didnt go that high.

Ahh ok. Does your engine cut out or splutter when doing negative G?

Hardly do Negative G's hehe
But its probably some manuever thing, or still Engine abuse even without going into WEP. It was 40 mins into the game.

yes 40mins of furious flying is enough to kill the engiene in the original so it might just be your pushing the aircraft to hard!

I don't know if this factor would be included in the game, but I believe that some aircraft relied on gravity to supply fuel to the engine. IRL this was an issue during inverted flight and other acrobatic manouvers.

Yes, that is the case for the spitfire. The 109 did not have this issue.

As for throttle, it's like I said, keep it in relation to your oponent's speed(don't go so fast that you overshoot and do go so slow that you lose him).

As for the rudder question, tight turns kills airspeed anyway. The rudder contributes just a little bit.

Pretty much yes - The Merlin engined spit and hurricanes used a float type carburettor - basically a float valve similar to a ball-cock on a toilet cistern which in positive gravity maintained a reservoir of fuel to the engine, under negative G it simply shut the fuel supply off temporarily. The 109 had fuel injection which was unnafected by G. Whist the Merlin had the disadvantage in this respect the carburettor fed system gave it a bit more 'grunt' compared to the fuel injected Daimler Benz.

Nice one, thanks for your help

Ok this time i lost power after 15 mins without using WEP and not getting hit... Wtf dude... its starting to really annoy me now.

I mean, come on red outs are a "bug" but something random like this i cant understand isnt?

I get the same thing...after so long the engine damage indicator just turns black...I figured it's a kind of times up as its only a demo...
________
Volcano digital

It's random dude, i've had it after 40 mins or 15 mins.
But i also notice it before my engine fully stops.
I notice my speed is slowing down, and then i watch my fuel pressure gauge and thats half way down, and slowly goin down even more.
If its at the bottom the engine turns black.

I think the German's just put a few well placed shots into your engine. Just a streak of bad luck I guess.

If it makes you feel better, 4 He-111's collided with me 4 seperate times in the last time I played the Cliffs of Dover mission.

No no hits at all!

The more i play this game the more frustration i get :???:
Trying BnZ tactics but i just dont get them, seem to lose my targets more often, crash more often i dunno whats goin on with me aswell.

Practise makes you better right? Doesent seem to work with me.

I'm clueless, i just cant like the demo anymore :confused:
I hope when i finally have the full game i can get more knowledge play some games with cool ppl. And all will be fine.
I hope

If you keep having trouble finding your mark, switch to the virtual cockpit for a while... it will allow more visibility. Just stick to the basics, the AI isn't all that challenging for the situation. In dogfights, the 109 will just use a simple spilt S or just try and out climb you. Don't expect anything, just keep with him and put well placed shots into the engine.

PS: if you want more detailed help PM, or stay close to this forum, we are all willing to help you see the beauty of this game.

I do see the beauty, Im fighting against the FW190's mostly in Tiger Hunt.
Im just having really bad days lately, like i keep getting worse now :(

Im trying to figure out BnZ tactics, after reading. But im just having a hard time succesfully applying them.

Also trying to improve my Awareness, But i lose targets often with a blink of an eye even if they are right in front of me, with some difficulty i find them again though.

Still getting frustrated about the engine, feeling it just can stop any second..
Sounds like a xbox 360 to me! haha. Hope to figure out what is causing the stopping engine.

A) I don't even know where to begin trying to apply new tactic, so good luck with BnZ. B ) Tiger hunt has REALLY bad visibility. The sun is pretty direct and the there are a lot of thin clouds that restrict visibility w/o you even realizing it; so don't be too discouraged about that level. If you want a confidence boost, dog-fight in Dover as there are a lot of escort 109's after they tell you to go to the harbor. You can usually find one pretty quickly and engage it. That level is a lot easier to spot and keep track of targets.
C) The lack of sound for stalling is a bug in the demo that will be corrected for the final product, so don't fret too much.

Thanks!

Well im lucky not to have too much problems with stalling ;)
I guess im just having some bad flying days haha.

Hey Guys i was wondering if all the gauges work and if they do what gauges do what, and if some work how do u know which stands for what like oil pressure or hydrolic fluid pressure???? maybe some one will map them out or something???:???::???:

You can memorize where they are by zooming into the guages and reading what they measure.

Biggest use of rudder in combat for me is to yaw the plane left and right to spray a target without turning off of that target

Hey I am originally from Naples thought I would say hello.

Well Hello back and when we get the real game, we should spar... BTW, I like your sig file...

Thanks, would love to spar what is your psn?

Oh crap. I'm xbox 360, imagecrafting if you have one of those as well...

Nope, oh well.:rolleyes:

now that i know how to read gauges and ive tried to pass tiger hun on sim with one life my p-51 keep losing all the fuel pressure even tough i havent been hit i hope it just a glitch but it seems impossible to pass it with one life because of this, the spitfire doesnt seem to have this anyone passed it with one life??:confused::(:|

One life seems really hard, because you only have 20 shots. First target you already need to take out 5. And it aint easy to hit them!

And yea i also dont know what is goin on with that fuel pressure.

i have no problems with getting targets, u only need to destroy 5 heavy arty and the five tanks then the train my problem is by the time i get to tanks my fuel presure is going down steadely and dont have energy to fight the squad of fw190s, and then i find my self wreaking cant even set her down....:confused::confused::confused:

A plane isn't going to start loosing oil pressure for no reason. Look behind you and see if there is smoke, remember that there is a lot of flack in the air during that mission, so while you might not think you have been hit, you probably have been.

Nah no smoke when im losing fuel pressure! and even getting hit by flak should get your attention ;) and then there is always the damage indicator next to your map!

So yea the plane is losing the pressure by it self, but it might be just because of heavy manuevers!

I suppose if you are pushing the engine to its limits then you might blow something. Try not using WEP too much and maybe maintaining flight with flaps set to combat, to reduce the amount of force needed to produce lift. That IS strange though.

Has anyone else experienced this or is it isolated with you two???

Ever since i got it i barely use WEP and still it happens 95% of the time, it happend to me after 30 mins mostly but also have it happen after 15 minutes.
Just try and dogfight in tiger hunt for as long as possible not getting hit, high chances it WILL happen to you.
It feels like its a bug, but cant say for sure.

In IL2, you can put stress on your engine and cause it to stop or cut engine performance. Have you been doing negative g's and stuff like that?

Nope, and im sure im not the only one with this problem. ;)
i mean if there are so many targets, you are gonna be busy for a while, doesent make sense your plane cant make it through the mission.

Have you tried to just fly away from all of the action? Don't even engage on anything then see what happens.

Could try but what would be the point of that? this game is about plane battles now is it :o

Aye, it is, but to see if it is a bug, then you have to verify that it is not damage (even if you don't think you are getting hit) or over-exertion of the engine.

My guess could be that you are just taxing the engine for to long. I'm not sure how long a plane can last up there, but could it be that, given the demo doesn't have fuel consumption, that the engine is being used for too long? I'm not a HUGE plane nerd, so I can't say definitively.

Well for missions with limited Ammo and such i can understand it, but if you say we cannot put limited ammo in the campaign missions because you need to kill to many targets, it doesent make sense if your engine breaks down after using it so much, In that mission you have to face ATLEAST 20 FW190D's.

Yeah, I truly don't know..

continue to talk about this in http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=8912

that is dedicated.

Yea i dont know either, i'll just see if its in the full game and see if its only me. I might do something wrong never know, but up to now it doesnt feel like i did anything wrong.

So we'll see!
I enjoy the game anyway :grin:

not to mention the six 50cal. dont do anything to ground targets, ive seen old ww2 gun cam films were they blow up tanks and trains with out rockets maybe it would be good to mention to developers because i think that should be part of game:confused::confused::confused:

Unlimited fuel ;)
But i think its just over use of WEP.

Well I had my engine stopped in Dover but it was due to damages.

Was it in sim mode or another one ?

Shooting a tank with .50cals wouldn't do anything. It would do some damage to a train though, so maybe that should be modelled.

Must have been a lucky shot to take out a tank on a strafing run. The only way that would happen is if a round went through the hatch and hit some shells.

It really depends on the tank, you could chew up a Pzr Mk 3 pretty easily with 6 M2's but on a Tiger you'd be limited to chewing up the fuel tanks and exhaust (A tank with no fuel is almost as bad as a destroyed one anyway).

Regardless I did notice that your guns have no effect on ground targets/objects which was a confuing choice from the devs. I'd like to be able to destroy Flak guns and other unarmored ground targets instead of wasting rockets on them.

I blew up some AA with the machine gun on Tiger Hunt. Took a few sweeps but it went up.