What are the essential controls?

[Rigsby]

I Just wondered what the main controls are to get this thing off the runway? At the moment all I am doing is spinning round and round before colliding into something. 

[Finkeren]

Required:

 

Obviously the three control axis'

 

Throttle, which you might have to invert to get it to go to zero (at least I did)

 

Flaps (on a slider is good but not really needed since it's a press-and-hold system rather than the 3 different pre-defined settings from the old IL2)

 

"E" for engine startup

 

Mixture (doesn't do a whole lot yet, but needs to be set to "full rich" to start the engine)

 

Landing gear toggle

 

Oil and water radiators

 

Wheel brakes

 

Not required but nice to have:

 

Head movement up and down and to the sides (really helps in ground handling)

 

Prop pitch (You can run the engine ok at 100% on the short, non-combat flights that we do, but you've got to learn to use it sooner or later anyway)

 

Mouse is fine for looking around

 

Open/close canopy

 

Ctrl-E (makes your plane invulnerable)

Edited November 19, 2013 by Finkeren

[Feathered_IV]

Prop pitch is the secret.  Once you get that working the prop starts to bite and you get forward movement rather than just torque.  In my enthusiasm it took me a while to work that out 

 

I'm curious about all the cooler vents and flaps and whatnot.  Not sure which ones I need yet.

[Finkeren]

According to King Hrothgars videos, only the oil and water radiators are present on the LaGG (or at least those are the ones that work right now)

 

There seems to be no cowl flaps on the LaGG, so I guess it makes sense.

[Matt]

The cowl flaps control is for the air cooled planes (FW-190, La-5 for instance).

 

The radiator and oil cooler flaps are not essential, i think damage due to overheating is not modelled yet.

 

The rpm lever (or prop pitch) can be left to full. Mixture should be set to full (and when it's set to full, the lever in the cockpit is pulled all the way back), unless you fly higher than 3000 meters or if you want to save fuel.

 

Throttle is the most important. If you open the throttle slowly, it's much easier to keep the nose pointed in the right direction when on the ground. If you go full throttle right away, take-off can be tricky.

Edited November 19, 2013 by Matt

[Bearcat]

You have to throttle up slowly. Don't think of this like IL2. Keep your rpms low to taxi. throttle uo slowly and when you begin to move don't throttle up any more you will pick up speed. Be patient. Make sure your prop pitch is getting the most bite.

[Skoshi_Tiger]

Prop pitch is the secret.  Once you get that working the prop starts to bite and you get forward movement rather than just torque.  In my enthusiasm it took me a while to work that out 

 

I'm curious about all the cooler vents and flaps and whatnot.  Not sure which ones I need yet.

Remember there is a constant speed prop on the LaGG 3 So "Prop Pitch" control actually adjusts the engine RPM setting for the governor.

[Finkeren]

The radiator and oil cooler flaps are not essential, i think damage due to overheating is not modelled yet.

Not sure that is correct. I've seen posts from people who have cooked their cooling system and suffered breakdowns from it as well as suffered overcooling by waiting too long on the runway with radiators open. 

 

The thing is: Unlike in ClOD, damage because of overheating happens gradually and only after the cooling fluid has evaporated.

[Panzerlang]

Take off (full difficulty in settings, every single check-box un-ticked):

 

Oil and water rads closed (two straight levers behind mixture/pitch/throttle quadrant).

Mixture lever full back (most left lever on quadrant of three).

Pitch lever full back (middle lever on quadrant of three).

Throttle lever about 10% forward (most right lever on quadrant of three).

 

Press 'E' to start engine.

 

Warm engine to about 20 degrees.

 

Select flaps about 20% (pair of buttons on bottom of dash).

 

Ready for take off, push pitch lever fully forward and slowly advance throttle lever to full. Use the rudder to keep straight. The nose goes down very late and plane then lifts off.

 

Raise gear. Raise flaps. Adjust oil and rad to about 20% open. Close canopy. Keep an eye on the engine temp (top right of dash, three-in-one dial).

 

I can't get the wheel brakes to work.

Edited November 19, 2013 by JG3-Siggi

[FlatSpinMan]

Good idea. The number of control optioons , while a good thing, is fairly overwhelming. I liked someone else's suggestion of having some presets to help people new to flight sims.

 

I understand the spinning around off to the side of the runway thing. I find the night mission easier to take off in than mission 2. I think one problem is caused by my PC being gutless, leading to fps loss which makes my input response time delayed.

By the way, regarding overheat damage, isn't there info in the mission briefing about "no damage", or something?

[Hopper64]

I'm having the same problems. If anyone sees a tutorial video, please post it.

[Rigsby]

Take off (full difficulty in settings, every single check-box un-ticked):

 

Oil and water rads closed (two straight levers behind mixture/pitch/throttle quadrant).

Mixture lever full back (most left lever on quadrant of three).

Pitch lever full back (middle lever on quadrant of three).

Throttle lever about 10% forward (most right lever on quadrant of three).

 

Press 'E' to start engine.

 

Warm engine to about 20 degrees.

 

Select flaps about 20% (pair of buttons on bottom of dash).

 

Ready for take off, push pitch lever fully forward and slowly advance throttle lever to full. Use the rudder to keep straight. The nose goes down very late and plane then lifts off.

 

Raise gear. Raise flaps. Adjust oil and rad to about 20% open. Close canopy. Keep an eye on the engine temp (top right of dash, three-in-one dial).

 

I can't get the wheel brakes to work.

 

Am I really missing something here, Is this a clickable cockpit? Because I have no mouse cursor showing to select what you have said here?

Edited November 19, 2013 by Rigsby

[Finkeren]

Am I really missing something here, Is this a clickable cockpit? Because I have no mouse cursor showing to select what you have said here?

No clickable cockpit, you're not missing anything.

[Rigsby]

I tell you how I am getting it to start. I press RCtrl and 1 and that's it. I have no idea what I am suppose to do, even after reading all your helpful comments. I press the keys like it say in the controls, but apart from a couple of levers that move in the cockpit when I do this, the rest seem to do nothing. Pressing Ralt minus or equal for example, doesn't  move the Engine mixture control. And pressing right win plus minus or equals moves what looks like my throttle control and not my oil radiators shutter control like it's supposed to. Or is the oil radiators shutter control part of the throttle lever? Who knows? They should have done a video on how to start this since there are no instructions. So far it's ruined my experience of the game, but only because I am spending ages crashing this fricken thing without a clue about what I am suppose to do still.

Edited November 19, 2013 by Rigsby