Prop Pitch

[MA_Moby]

Up until now I've chosen to bury my head in the sand when it comes to Prop Pitch. How should I be using it? Is it question of different settings for different altitudes and speeds? I'm completely baffled at the moment

Also, what the heck is the Magneto?

Has anyone got some useful tips?

Moby

[Zak33]

Prop pitch is theangle of attack on the air...and it is arse about face from what you will expect.

100 is the least "attack" and is default.

An engine performs best at a certain revs, and keeping it spinning at the right revs, keeps it at peak power/efficiency etc.

If ya fly level and get the throttle to 80% trim it true....

thehn knock pitch down to 85% reall fast...the engine will bog down although given time if you get the engine speed back up to where it had been, the air speed will be faster.

As ya go higher, the air is less dense...you need leaner (weaker) mixture, youneed the Supercharger up a stage (if available) and the prop pitch could go down to 95% or 90% to get the airspeed high.

Lots of German planes have it Automatically adjusted tho.

Tell ya what......maybe its cos I read all this stuff that Idont spend enough time flying

[Skii]

Think of prop pitch as like gears in a car, 100% is equivalent to 1st gear in a car.

[Zak33]

ya see.,......Zak33 4000 words

Skii...one sentence....

unreal.....

*walks off shaking head*


and comes back really fast....

MAGNETO....now I have no idea about that..but I believe its to do with restarting bomber engines...and maybe I16 and I153 engines too

[Flibb]

Wasnt he in X-Men ?? Hows he gonna help start your engines?

Flibb

[Skii]

magneto, magnetoelectric machine -- (a small dynamo with a secondary winding that produces a high voltage enabling a spark to jump between the poles of a spark plug in a gasoline engine)

[MA_Moby]

Thanks Zak, Skii

Originally posted by Zak33
Tell ya what......maybe its cos I read all this stuff that Idont spend enough time flying

Good point. I should just be 'up there' tinkering around, finding out the hard way!

When my engine stalls in combat, at 200 feet, over woods, I welcome help from any quarter, even MAGNETO MAN

Moby

[Zak33]

pleased to help....Skii knows more than most, but getting him in a Prop job these days is hell...

he's a jet wash laddo now and with his E conservation, he's probably scary

[Dakaras]

Skii is always scarey... So how do I work magnetos at different heights? Does the i16 use a prop pitch?

[Zak33]

I really know nothing about Magnetos, but I think its for restarting the engine....not performance..

might be wrong.

Prop pitch..yeah Im sure its on I16....not that its a high flyer

[Hat]

The way I see it..........

A higher prop pitch will give a higher "grab" or "attack" of the air than a lower prop pitch... so a good place to use maximum prop pitch is in a power climb.

However, having a higher "grab" or "attack" of the air will also bring higher resistance... so when diving full speed, the increased airflow is going to force the propellor to turn even faster than the engine is really designed for.. so a good time to lower the prop pitch is in a power dive.

Everything else is just degrees of chnage related to these.

Im very likely wrong.. but. hey.

Magentos... havent got a clue! Dak and I flew our first mission in FB together and we messed around with the magnetos to see what they did. As both of us managed to cut the engine dead and didn't manage to turn them back on again, we have both stayed well clear from these!

Supercharfer and Fuel Mix however have a lot more documentation ...

Taken straight from the readme file

I-153 M-62 and I-153P

When climbing, it is required to set the supercharger to stage 2 (Supercharger Next Stage) when passing 2200 meters. When going below 2200 m, one should return the supercharger back to stage 1 (Supercharger Prev. Stage).

In addition, fuel mix requires adjustment at altitudes above 4.0 km. At those altitudes, the engine carburetor is incapable of producing optimal mixture with low-density high altitude air. When the engines begins trailing smoke and suffer power loss or RPM instability, adjust the mix level (using Increase Mixture and Decrease Mixture control keys) until the engine returns to the regular output.

I-16 type 18 / 24

Sharing the same engine with the I-153 series, this plane requires the same operations.

La-5 (F, FN) and La-7

The supercharger requires to be set to stage 1 when flying below 3500 meters, and to stage 2 above 3500 meters. Mixture adjustment is requires at altitudes above 5000 meters.

LaGG-3 (early series)

The supercharger requires to be set to stage 1 when flying below 2200 meters, and to stage 2 above 2200 meters. Mixture adjustment is requires at altitudes above 4000 meters.

LaGG-3(66 series) and LaGG-3IT

The supercharger requires to be set to stage 1 when flying below 2200 meters, and to stage 2 above 2200 meters. Mixture adjustment is requires at altitudes above 3000 meters.

Yak-9 and Variants (D, K, T)

The supercharger requires to be set to stage 1 when flying below 2000 meters, and to stage 2 above 2000 meters. Mixture adjustment is requires at altitudes above 3000 meters.

Yak (Other Models)

The supercharger requires to be set to stage 1 when flying below 2000 meters, and to stage 2 above 2000 meters. Mixture adjustment is requires at altitudes above 4000 meters.

Hurricane

The supercharger requires to be set to stage 1 when flying below 2800 meters, and to stage 2 above 2800 meters.

P-40M

The supercharger requires to be set to stage 1 when flying below 2200 meters, and to stage 2 above 2200 meters.

P-40E M-105 (Field mod.)

A Russian modification with the engine found on the LaGG-3 requires the same engine handling. The supercharger requires to be set to stage 1 when flying below 2200 meters, and to stage 2 above 2200 meters.

Bf-109G-6/AS, Bf-109G-10/G-14 and Bf-109K-4

These aircraft are equipped with MW50 injection system. The system operates automatically, giving the engine additional power as you move the throttle control beyond the 100% mark. The system can be switched on and off (using the WEP control key), however, it may only be done when the engine is idle or running on lower throttle to prevent damage. Also, it should be switched off when it runs out of water-methanol mix as it can’t operate properly without external pressure and may lead to engine damage.

FW-190s

Mixture corrections may be required above 9000 meters.

FW-190D-9 (1945)

The plane is equipped with MW50 system, similar to the one installed on the Bf-109, and has the same restrictions.

FW-190F-8

The boost is effectiveness only bellow 1,000 meters. It was even prohibited to use over 1000 meters altitude.

He-111

The supercharger requires to be set to stage 1 when flying below 2800 meters, and to stage 2 above 2800 meters.

Ju-87

The supercharger requires to be set to stage 1 when flying below 2800 meters, and to stage 2 above 2800 meters.

[Dakaras]

We were DFing at 4500 in em the VEF before you came on mate, that is till the sodding thing spun and took me 2000ms to recover, then the sodding thing spun again at 2700 and got her back at 1250..Had to sod off found a nice quite spot and get back up, meantime Clingy and I spot 2 planes obviously recon on our left, and 2 on our right so we figure (well I did) that the ones going away were OURS off to recon target, and the ones incoming were german..So doing me whole flight leader bit I tell Clingy get stuck in to them, which he dutifully does, meanwhile I cut accross country to intercept them at 90% deflection then pull in behind to nuke em...Nice strafe down the length of it, flip over the top and roll, at this point I notice the red stars!!!!!!!!!! Bloody IL4s shouldnt look so much like JU88s

[Hat]

In addition.................Some of the missions contain supply reenforcements aswell as the normal attack/recon planes. Usually 30 minutes into the game you will see a whole rack of resupply planes comin to the direction of your home base... usually LI2s as VVS and JU52s as OKL.

This is notified in the mission briefing text.. .but not in the pretty map picture

[Tumble]

You don't need to touch your magnetos until you're in trouble... the magneto is there in place of the alternator, because it's lighter, it's what creates the spark that makes the engine go. Hence when you get a .50 bullet straight through your fuel lines, the best thing you can do is turn off your engine to stop fire. But even if you switch the ignition off - the prop is still turning, and therefore so is the magneto, making current. so you unbind the magneto as well and you stand a reduced chance of the motor going on fire....

[Hat]

so.. is it possible to restart the i16 engine in the air using magnetos?

.. and if so.. how?

... this would be especially sueful for those who have managed to bunt it to a stop by mistake

[MA_Moby]

Thanks all...

..... I've been experimenting with Prop Pitch. It lead to a bit of a disaster in my last VEF mission though. I hadn't mapped Pitch 100, so I got stuck on 80 after a dive. Then found I couldn't climb :/