Blenheim take off

[Blackdog_kt]

There is some bug with temps resetting/fluctuating when you change crew positions for the first time, it's this that kills the engines.

A temporary work-around is to cycle through all the crew positions when you first spawn on the ground, before your engines are started. I haven't tried this, but several people reported some improvement.

[JG53Frankyboy]

WOW, never expected this..........................
And it always happens. THAT IS a serious bug for online play !!!

[1PL_Lucas]

I would like to thank you all for all the tips regarding the Blenheim. Today, I finally managed to take her off and I flew the Cross Country mission to France. Looks like we have to keep CHT temperature between 200 and 250C Deg. Once I broke the upper limit, my starboard engine started to vibrate and lost about 200 RPM's. However, I managed to continue the flight and land in France. The next step will be to take off with the full fuel load and then I will expriment with the bomb load. That advanced system modeling creates lots of fun and teaches to check gauges every few minutes.
While I did not have any problem with the Sptifire and Hurricane (i have learnt a bit about their behaviour thanks to the A2A S. Spitfire Mk.I/II for the MS FSX), the Blenheim was a mystery for me Pity that only four planes are mentioned in the manual, but maybe we will have some pdf tutorials in the future, just like there are some for the RoF for example.
Thanks,
Lucas

Have read all the posts and it appears that after a week the thread starter didn't bother to drop in and say thanks for all the Blenheim tips. My DVD hasn't even arrived yet but thanks in advance. Will return to this thread when the challenge (love a good challenge) of flying the Blenheim is on.

Cheers,

OC

[SYN_Flashman]

On the Syndicate server we have set up one of the two airfields with blenhiem as an airstart (the north western one). You still need to be careful once you have spawned (and for the love of god DO NOT switch crew positions until that bug is fixed!) but it certainly helps get you flying!

Its not on all our missions, but look for the tag when you hover your mouse over the NW belnheim airfield as it will say if its an airspawn. Whilst airstarts for this sort of thing are not our normal practice at SYndicate, the Blenheim is so delicate (and I believe possibly unrealistically so) it simply isn't being flown and given its the only human flyable offensive aircraft the RAF has we do need to get pilots into it!

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by Old_Canuck

Have read all the posts and it appears that after a week the thread starter didn't bother to drop in and say thanks for all the Blenheim tips. My DVD hasn't even arrived yet but thanks in advance. Will return to this thread when the challenge (love a good challenge) of flying the Blenheim is on.

Cheers,

OC

I haven't said thanks here (although I hope I've acknowledged some posters i other threads) 'cos I still haven't managed to get the dam thing off the ground yet.

Seeing as other people obviously have, the problem's me, not the game, so I'm keeping my big mouth shut until I've learnt something useful.

Sorry about that.

[Seeker]

I'm beginning to hate this game.

Jumped on to Repko this morning to try yet again to get the blenheim off the ground.

No sound but thought I'd try any way.

attempt #1: Engine 1 suddenly loses rev during warm up. No indication why.

attempt # 2 I have to keep jabbing the brakes despite full left trim and rudder to keep the nose straight, engine 0 suddenly loses power half way up the runway, no indication why.

Frustrated, I restart off line to get sound back.

attempt #3 same as attempt 1
attempt #4 same as 1
Attempt # 5 same as 2

This is supposed to be fun?

Obviously I'm cocking it up somewhere, you guys are managing to get the dam thing off the ground, so I accept that my procedures are at fault.

What burns me is that I can't find out why. I've got all kinds of stupid info windows open (there's realism for you! But WTF can't I get an info window with my current heading? Not real enough?) and NOTHING is giving me any feed back on why my engines keep failing. Temps are in spec, revs are in spec, manifold pressures are in spec etc. etc.

So I guess flying Red buffs is just not for me.

BTW, Old_Canuck: bite me.

Edit: My UP 3 download has just finished, so I guess that's it for this POS until the next patch. Never thought I'd say it, but a bunch of amateurs working free are producing better quality work than this.

[Freycinet]

Who's the amateur? - I got it off and flew fine after 5 minutes of perusing youtube vids online. See my movie thread for how to do it with no trouble at all, full CEM of course...

[Anvilfolk]

Here's a quick step by step list of what I do to take the Blenheim off the ground online on the SYN server:
- Fuel cocks at the back to the right to "outer tanks", fuel cock #3 on (the lever)
- Radiator and carburettor closed
- Brakes on during the whole procedure
- Magnetos on
- Full left rudder trim, full left rudder
- Pitch fine
- Mixture low (1/3 or less on the little image)
- Throttle slightly open
- Ignition for both engines
- Wait.....
- Keep increasing RPM slowly, never allowing it to shake. If it's shaking, reduce throttle.
- At 180º engine temperature, set radiators full open, increase RPM to 2200
- At 190-200º release the brakes
- All rudder and trim is still full-left at this point, but brakes will be needed almost up to takeoff to nudge the aircraft in desired direction
- Plane starts rolling, but the engine temps will stay within the 200-250 range because radiators are open and you are gaining speed. If you're still getting temps too high, you can either reduce RPMs to 2100 or 2000, or start take-off roll at 190º or less so that you gain speed to keep it down.
- Let it go until you get some speed, pull back on stick, and you're off. You will have to leave almost full-left trim.

You'll need to close radiators a bit once you're airborne. The key seems to be engine temps between 200-250. Too low and it'll shake, too much and it'll blow. When changing prop-pitch, adjust radiator as well. I usually put carb heat on 2/3 up... it's a very heuristic choice, no particular reason, but my engine hasn't blown with those settings!

The rudder might actually be full-right, I can't remember. Whichever makes the trim spring in front of you go down. I hope I haven't forgotten anything.


On another note: don't bite people, and be cool. I read for hours to get the Blenheim in the air, was trying to make bombing runs for about 4-6 hours. The first 2 or 3 were all about trying to get the Blenheim off the ground. The rest was me dropping into the channel because of bad engine temp management, etc.

It's supposed to be part of the experience in simulations. It was the best feeling when I finally managed to get it up. And again when I did my first bombing run. It does take dedication, calm and a certain type of personality. Coming on the forums and being insulting or aggressive isn't going to get you any sympathy...

[Buzpilot]

Originally Posted by Seeker

I'm beginning to hate this game.

Jumped on to Repko this morning to try yet again to get the blenheim off the ground.

No sound but thought I'd try any way.

attempt #1: Engine 1 suddenly loses rev during warm up. No indication why.

attempt # 2 I have to keep jabbing the brakes despite full left trim and rudder to keep the nose straight, engine 0 suddenly loses power half way up the runway, no indication why.

Frustrated, I restart off line to get sound back.

attempt #3 same as attempt 1
attempt #4 same as 1
Attempt # 5 same as 2

This is supposed to be fun?

Obviously I'm cocking it up somewhere, you guys are managing to get the dam thing off the ground, so I accept that my procedures are at fault.

What burns me is that I can't find out why. I've got all kinds of stupid info windows open (there's realism for you! But WTF can't I get an info window with my current heading? Not real enough?) and NOTHING is giving me any feed back on why my engines keep failing. Temps are in spec, revs are in spec, manifold pressures are in spec etc. etc.

So I guess flying Red buffs is just not for me.

BTW, Old_Canuck: bite me.

Edit: My UP 3 download has just finished, so I guess that's it for this POS until the next patch. Never thought I'd say it, but a bunch of amateurs working free are producing better quality work than this.

Try selecting airfields without grass only, it's supposed to be a light bomber, but taxiing on grass, or even try takeoff on it, is too hard. It's too much friction on grass, and you overheat too easy.

Edit;

Engine run-up:
Make sure to cycle the props between low and high RPM before applying power for take-off, as this will cycle the oil inside the governor and get warmed up oil from the engine into the system. This is called exercising the prop and is done during the engine run-up, prior to take-off.

Thanks for the tip, haven't read this before, sad this isn't in the manual yet.