Get the most out of the bf109

[Geronimo989]

Thank you Blackdog for taking your time to explain this so well.
I have a couple of questions:
If you wanna achieve highest performance out of your 109 (not worrying about fuel or engine lifespan etc) Do you keep the full throttle and adjust the RPM with your pitch?
What is the maximum IAS you can get out of 109 in level flight at 1500m? I cant get over about 460 km/h (full throttle, about 2100 RPM) even though I was sure that in IL-2 I could get 500+ out of it...

[zwiebacksaege]

be sure that the E3 won't reach 500 km/h IAS. Not here and not in IL2.
460 is a nice value and possibly very close to the real machine

[Positronic]

good info, will put this into practice

Thank you SO much, Blackdog. That is the best explanation I have read on this thing.

One thing still bugs me though but it is likely my fault:

I go quick mission one of the last ones and jump into a 109 where theres a lot of blemheims and spits around

I fly a long time (20mins or so).

I end up slow on deck. Ok

Now it takes an eternity to accelerate from 250 kmh to something higher.

Also even though I have full throttle (no WEP tho) and full prop pitch, the pp doesnt go further than 22000 or 23000 ...

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Geronimo989

Thank you Blackdog for taking your time to explain this so well.
I have a couple of questions:
If you wanna achieve highest performance out of your 109 (not worrying about fuel or engine lifespan etc) Do you keep the full throttle and adjust the RPM with your pitch?
What is the maximum IAS you can get out of 109 in level flight at 1500m? I cant get over about 460 km/h (full throttle, about 2100 RPM) even though I was sure that in IL-2 I could get 500+ out of it...

Highest performance would probably be the highest manifold pressure you can run, with the lowest RPM within the useful power-band you can run at that manifold pressure without causing detonation (engine knock/pinging).

The tricky part with the RPM is that
a) going below the power band is not useful and
b) even when within the acceptable power band, there are limits to how low you can run the RPM at higher manifold pressure before detonation occurs.

Originally Posted by 41Sqn_Stormcrow

Thank you SO much, Blackdog. That is the best explanation I have read on this thing.

One thing still bugs me though but it is likely my fault:

I go quick mission one of the last ones and jump into a 109 where theres a lot of blemheims and spits around

I fly a long time (20mins or so).

I end up slow on deck. Ok

Now it takes an eternity to accelerate from 250 kmh to something higher.

Also even though I have full throttle (no WEP tho) and full prop pitch, the pp doesnt go further than 22000 or 23000 ...

To be honest, this is the first i've heard of this. I was tinkering with bombers the last couple of days and the 110 before that, so i can't really remember if i've experienced a similar effect because it's been a while since i last sat in a 109.

As you can see i'm not an expert by any means, i've just read up a lot of stuff and practiced some of it in varying levels of realism when flying 3rd party add-ons for microsoft flight simulator X on a friend's PC.

Some of what i say might be inaccurate and i bet most of it is very simplified (if you want detailed, scientific explanations, look for Viper2000's posts) in the interest of learning enough to get the job done in the game without having to get an engineer's degree

I just go by some widely accepted norms and test them in-game to see what happens, then describe the process with a real-life analogy that's easier to understand for those of us who are not real-life pilots or aeronautical engineers. Apart from that, there are others on this board that can provide better and more in-depth explanation and i'm in turn learning from them

[Cap'n Crunch]

Don't have the game yet, but as far as your water rads, most will regulate the flow of water both ways. If it's cooling to effectively, a thermostat on the rad exit flow will close stopping the cooler water from flowing to cold back into the engine block. Most are familiar with the hot thermostat controlling flow to the rads, the autos have these, it's all they need. They don't operate in such extreme temperature bands with rapid changes.

Your oil system should be modeled similar, two control points. In real life, oil rads are often locked full opened a little prior to descents, if your going from cooler altitudes to extreme heat at low levels. It can buy you several extra minutes of ground engine run time dropping oil temps a few degrees and cold soaking the rads, handy for a quick combat turn around or an engine running offload.

Might be a better idea to open the rads full in a dive and slap them shut in the zoom. If your taking long dives and max effort zooming for it might pay off.

[Blackdog_kt]

Hmm, that's actually an interesting point. I'll have to remember to test it next time i fire up the sim, thanks for the heads up