Engine start and taking off with the Hs 129

[danielprates]

I have noticed that when you start your 129 parked,  the procedure to start the engines will go through all steps necessary and then,  when its over,  it will reduce mixture to cutoff,  effectivelly turning off engines!  Why does it do that?

 

I have to keep my hand on the mixture lever (so to speak) and as soon as the procedure is over, I have to raise the mixture quick before the engines die out. It is doable,  and certainly no hassle,  but it sure is strange. I'm imagining this is something that ought to be fixed,  as no start procedure  drill should end with the mixture lever being brought to zero!

 

Now,  about the takeoff. The first 20 or 30 meters of running sure are tricky! The rudder has not enough autorithy yet to steer the plane and it veers to the left very strongly. Nothing new there,  all planes do it to one side or the other,  save they have counter-rotating propellers (come to think of it,  isnt it the case in this plane?  Hmmm...). The issue is,   long before you finally get fast enough for the rudders to be effective,  you already are spinning out of control.

 

 

I am imagining this is true historical behavior of the craft. I am not seing this as an issue or bug. To deal with it, what I do is to keep the plane alligned during the early stage of takeoff with small inputs of the differential brake. It does the job,  counterintuitive as it is to break during acceleration. My question is: is this indeed the procedure?  How are you guys doing it?

Edited March 24, 2018 by danielprates

[busdriver]

Prior to engine start set the mixture (30% IIRC) and after all the automatic magical stuff finishes...viola engines are still running. Have you watched Requiem's Hs-129 tutorial?

 

[-SF-Disarray]

The A-20 has the same behavior on start up. I'm not sure why it happens at all in the A-20 as the start up has the mix at 100%.

 

As for takeoff run in the Duck, and the A-20 oddly enough, I have found that a light application of breaks to correct drift to be perfectly viable. Obviously you don't want to sit on the breaks as that will slow you down and that is kind of the opposite of what your on about. But a lite tap of break or two will get you sorted until the rudder starts to bight.

[Royal_Flight]

The mixture thing is a bug, albeit one that hasn't been fixed. 

The automated push-button engine start sequence is trying to set the mixture to whatever percentage is used for normal running (Hs 129 is about 30% iirc) but doesn't take mixture setting before you start the sequence into account. 

You have to manually set mixture to full before hitting the start button so it cut from 100 to 30, rather than to 0 and starving the engine. 

[AndyJWest]

Regarding keeping the thing straight, the best technique seems to be to throttle up quickly and engage boost as soon as you reach full throttle. It may still wander a bit, but you get some rudder authority sooner. 

[danielprates]

Nice input fellas,  thanks!

[LLv24_SukkaVR]

21 minutes ago, AndyJWest said:

Regarding keeping the thing straight, the best technique seems to be to throttle up quickly and engage boost as soon as you reach full throttle. It may still wander a bit, but you get some rudder authority sooner. 

 

Best way is to raise your tail wheel off the ground as soon as possible by pushing stick forward. Makes it a lot more stable and your plane accelerates bit faster.

[AndyJWest]

39 minutes ago, NahkaSukka said:

 

Best way is to raise your tail wheel off the ground as soon as possible by pushing stick forward. Makes it a lot more stable and your plane accelerates bit faster.

 

I'd have thought that by the time you have enough elevator authority to get the tail up, the rudder should be working too. Worth a try though. 

[[_FLAPS_]Grim]

For me it works best to go full breaks and throttle quite a bit up before releasing the breaks again. Without that I spin too while take off.

[Mac_Messer]

DIdn`t notice the mixture thing. Always I started it no pre-heated was engine shutoff because overcooling - setting throttle to 15% immediately after startup fixes that for me.

 

For takeoff, I do the same crude method I do for all planes without tail lock. Allign her slightly off the straigth path to the right so the propwash itself forces it on straight at the first 50m runway, then rudder inputs are enough for stable takeoff.

[Sgt_Joch]

On start up, I set the mixture setting to 100%, then the start up sequence works fine. You can then adjust the mixture as required. This quirk has been discussed before.

 

On take-offs, I find light taps on left or right brakes work best to keep the AC straight. Once it picks up speed, you can use the rudder.

[Henree]

mixture does not seem to work at all for me

[LukeFF]

13 minutes ago, Henree said:

mixture does not seem to work at all for me

 

Select both engines.