109 cant do XXXX anymore.

[CaptainDoggles]

Well I just had some good dogfights on Repka #1 (full real) flying the 109 and have had no trouble using energy tactics against either spit1s or hurris.

As any 109 pilot ought to know, the key is to stay fast and always maintain an E advantage. Use the vertical, not the horizontal.

Robtek is correct that patience is key.

[Blackdog_kt]

I'm suspecting it's prop pitch management but i can't be sure until you tell me what kind of RPM you were using during different stages of the fight.

As a rough pointer:

Go to a coarser pitch (lower RPM) during dives and you'll pick up speed much easier, then start adjusting towards fine pitch during the climb back up.

I usually adjust pitch to maintain about 2000-2100 RPM when diving and it picks up speed really fast. On the other hand, i only use finer pitch in a dive when i actually want to prevent it from picking up speed.

Diving with your RPM at 2500 is like driving downhill on 3rd gear, it will go faster if you switch to 5th gear (going to coarser pitch)


The useful powerband is of course pretty limited (2000-2500 RPM) and getting used to how much RPM you need for a given attitude and airspeed range takes some time getting used to, but it's definitely doable. You just don't get the performance for free anymore like we could in IL2:1946.

I don't fly online yet until some more bugs get squashed and we get some form of quality control for mods, but i have no problem almost rear-ending even the AI that many people constantly complain about its exaggerated performance, to the point that i've now set my cannon convergence to 100 meters and i would set it even lower if i could
The only thing that outruns me is AI Spit Mk.IIs and that's because it's the aircraft with the closest to real life performance in the sim, while most of the rest are a bit slower than they should be.

Heck, i can close in on AI Hurricanes and Spit Mk.Is with a 110 in a climbing contest if am careful. You just need to familiarize yourself with how prop pitch works and flying a few free flight and quick combat missions in the QMB is the quickest and easiest way.

I just pretend i'm driving a manual transmission car and act accordingly:
climb/dive = uphill/downhill driving
high RPM = low gear
low RPM = high gear

Hope it helps

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by cheesehawk

Just to add to Blackdog's explanation, although you get the most engine hp at the higher rpm, you actually want the engine to have some room to "pull up" to its hp peak. Again, to use a car analogy, if you are already redlining it in 3rd gear, you can get more speed by dropping the rpm back into a lower part of the powerband by shifting to 4th.

In 109 terms, as you approach the 2500 mark of the rpm, you need to give it a coarser pitch so the engine can again work its way back up to its max rpm. I try to keep the rpm around 2300-2400 where I have room to increase or decrease my speed/rpm's and yet stay withing the 2100-2500 rpm powerband. If I'm cruising, I stay on the low end, if I know I need to increase speed/energy (in a climb or exiting a turn for instance), I'll let it hover on the high end, and back the pitch up when it hits 25-2600.

Yup, that's also a good practice to follow.

[335th_GRAthos]

Flew a Bf109 on the REPKA Server after a long time...

It appeared somewhat strange to me (compared to the Spitfire Ia I usualy fly), when the water cooler was damaged engine vibrations started.

Engine vibrations were shaking the plane so violently that I could no longer aim and shoot properly.

I do not recall having experience to such extend the same in the Spitfire.

Has anybody noticed similar behaviour between the two planes?

~S~

[Ze-Jamz]

Originally Posted by 335th_GRAthos

Flew a Bf109 on the REPKA Server after a long time...

It appeared somewhat strange to me (compared to the Spitfire Ia I usualy fly), when the water cooler was damaged engine vibrations started.

Engine vibrations were shaking the plane so violently that I could no longer aim and shoot properly.

I do not recall having experience to such extend the same in the Spitfire.

Has anybody noticed similar behaviour between the two planes?

~S~

You don't get vibrations from damaging the water cooler mate or at least I've never had it... youve obviously overcooked the engine which does cause vibrations just like in a Spit

[335th_GRAthos]

Thanks Ze-Jamz,

It was the first time after weeks flying a Bf109 so I probably you are right.

Maybe the Spitfire (I fly mostly the Ia) has the same kind of violent vibrations as well, I do not know, maybe I have not "cooked" a Spit engine until now, you can not do it by overheating the water system (probably it is a bug; I posted it).
The best case I had was "overcooking" a Spit engine by flying too long at max throttle, oil temp exceeded the limit and got a "grosvenor failure" message but even then there were no serious vibrations either...

Of course it can be due to my superior knowledge and flying skill supremacy when in a Spit or, the abesimal skills and native inferiority of the Bf109 noobs who are trying to cause damage to my superior machine that I never experienced the same kind of vibrations when flying Spitfires.... (just joking )

Anyway, I just mentioned it here, it was the first thing that I noticed taking a Bf109 (besides this horrible gunsight aiming disturbance).

~S~

PS. Thank God they fixed the propeller change speed, the Bf109 can do some serious B&Z now

[TomcatViP]

Originally Posted by 335th_GRAthos

Thanks Ze-Jamz,


PS. Thank God they fixed the propeller change speed, the Bf109 can do some serious B&Z now

Really ? When ?

[ZaltysZ]

Originally Posted by 335th_GRAthos

Flew a Bf109 on the REPKA Server after a long time...

It appeared somewhat strange to me (compared to the Spitfire Ia I usualy fly), when the water cooler was damaged engine vibrations started.

Something else was damaged too. Sometimes you can get no damage message, but plane will feel damaged anyway. I think damage messages have threshold, which is not the same for effects like vibrations.

[VO101_Tom]

Originally Posted by CaptainDoggles

Well I just had some good dogfights on Repka #1 (full real) flying the 109 and have had no trouble using energy tactics against either spit1s or hurris.

As any 109 pilot ought to know, the key is to stay fast and always maintain an E advantage. Use the vertical, not the horizontal.

Robtek is correct that patience is key.

I read this in Messerschmitt 109 - myths, facts and the view from the cockpit page:

"
Me 109 E:
"Performance by 1940 standards was good. When put into a full throttle climb at low air speeds, the airplane climbed at a very steep angle, and our fighters used to have difficulty in keeping their sights on the enemy even when at such a height that their rates of climb were comparible. This steep climb at low air speed was one of the standard evasion maneuvres used by the German pilots. Another was to push the stick forward abruptly and bunt into a dive with considerable negative 'g'. The importance of arranging that the engine whould not cut under these circumstances cannot be over-stressed. Speed is picked up quickly in a dive, and if being attacked by an airplane of slightly inferior level performance, this feature can be used with advantage to get out of range. There is no doubt that in the autumn of 1940 the Bf.109E in spite of its faults, was a doughty opponent to set against our own equipment."
- RAF Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Farnborough handling trials,Bf.109E Wn: 1304. M.B. Morgan and R. Smelt of the RAE, 1944.
"

I quoted this because this works in the game, not only BnZ