help flying the corsair

[TheGrunch]

Originally Posted by dflion

I have just spoken to an 87 year old WWII vet who flew Liberators, Ventura's and Hudsons. They always used 'fine pitch' for take-off and landing (more RPM) and 'course pitch' (paddle effect) for cruising to save fuel. I don't think Oleg has modelled this faithfully in IL2 and this causing all the confusion? (this has probably been discussed many times before)

DFLion

I don't think he has modelled it incorrectly, I don't understand the confusion. Prop Pitch is just RPM. 0% Prop Pitch is coarse pitch/minimum RPM, 100% Prop Pitch is full fine/max RPM. What's the problem? I have mentioned this several times already, you control the RPM governor, not the pitch directly.
If you're trying to conserve fuel you just turn down the Prop Pitch to about 75% or something. For economical flying, for example, the Spit IX manual recommends flying in the lower MS supercharger gear at the highest obtainable boost for that altitude, up to a maximum of +7 lbs/sq. in., and reducing the speed to 170 mph using the RPM governor down to a minimum of 1800 RPM.