Easy-to-Learn list for each plane commands/keyboards

[E_Davjack]

So, unlike DCS and RoF, this game doesn't appear to allow you to customize controls for each plane.  That's okay, overall, but it does require a lot of memorization since these planes are rendered faithfully.  Controls can be "over-bound" and be acceptable, but it takes knowing which planes want which controls.  Water/oil radiator?  Auto pitch?  Who knows!  I have a Three-Lever Saitek controller, and some planes want an axis for stuff and some just want High or Low. 

 

Is there any resource that explains which key-bindings each plane needs?  "This plane uses water radiator, this plane uses oil" or something like that. Which planes need which controls. 

 

My gut feeling is that each plane needs have its engine management learned separately.

Edited September 11, 2018 by EmerlistDavjack
reasons

[OrLoK]

I put trim on a hat

 

water/oil radiator on another. (you can cover most planes with this even if they have different cooling just assign whichever type they have)

 

prop pitch I've never assigned. correctly or not.

 

mixture, rpm and throttle will go well on your saitek levers. still useable on multi engine planes.

 

there's no real right or wrong ratherif yo can control your planes, whatever works for you is good.

 

tbh, I find Box just as complex as DCS except for engine startup.

 

indeed, compared to my DCS hawk, Box planes feel far more invoked to fly once I'm off the ground.

[unreasonable]

You have to learn the engine limits separately: allowable rpms, boost, temperatures and associated time limits, which is fair enough.   The inability to control all planes using a single HOTAS binding set is IMHO a poor design decision, but we seem to be stuck with it. Why pushing a button is supposed to be more "realistic" in changing a Spitfire V's radiator setting than using an axis is beyond me, but there seems to be no prospect of the developers changing their minds .  

 

Try the guide posted here: not fully up to date, but covers many planes.  

 

[E_Davjack]

That guide is exactly what I was looking for!  Thank you!  I can see already that the Mig3 has both a water radiator and an oil radiator.  Using this I can decide what goes where.  My keybindings would probably seem strange to people, but using trackIR allows for the whole numpad/Home cluster to be all the useful stuff. 

 

If anybody knows any good youtube engine management basics tutorials, I would appreciate it.  I'll do my own search later when I can watch em.  Just kinda seems like every plane is a little different.

 

Edited September 11, 2018 by EmerlistDavjack
reasons

[E_Davjack]

Question: is there any reason NOT to bind Water and Oil radiators both to one lever on the Saitek body?  Is that a problem one runs into?  Are there combinations of conditions/planes where (for instance at the absolute coldest, high altitudes, etc) where having both radiators on the same setting will cause a severe enough temperature imbalance to matter? 

 

 

Eventually I feel I'll have to get another $50 Saitek throttle quadrant.  I very much prefer physical toggles for Radiators and stuff because I know what I've set without taking my eyes off the sky.   Although, Prop Pitch control is not bindable to an axis it seems?  It HAS to be a pair of buttons?  Boooooo. 

[Guest deleted@134347]

29 minutes ago, EmerlistDavjack said:

Question: is there any reason NOT to bind Water and Oil radiators both to one lever on the Saitek body?  Is that a problem one runs into?  Are there combinations of conditions/planes where (for instance at the absolute coldest, high altitudes, etc) where having both radiators on the same setting will cause a severe enough temperature imbalance to matter? 

 

 

it's all about the 'max' speed you can achieve with the opened drag inducing rad flaps. There are some purists who set oil and water rads in accordance to the precise gauge read-outs. For the immersion sake I guess. Practically, though, I have seen little difference in aircraft performance when the settings aren't the same, however I do have separate controls .. i just move them simultaneously... now this is for the inline engines.

 

I will advise, however, to have separate controls for the vvs radial engines, such as LA/ld-fn. If you open up those water flaps too much (because you see oil temp is climbing) you'll introduce way too much drag and it'll slow your plane quite dramatically. Typically with these planes you'll fly with 10-20% open water and 60-70% open oil rads.

Edited September 12, 2018 by moosya

[Mac_Messer]

You can easily set some of the controls so that they overlap. Good example is prop pitch - rpm lever. There is no plane which has both, but the idea of those quite different systems gameplay-wise is the same.

 

Oil/water radiator is not one of them.

[E_Davjack]

Augh that is what I thought.  I would really like both radiators on levers.  Peering around the cockpit to see the setting is super annoying.  I really wish individual planes could be bound separately (don't you all...).  All I need is ONE. MORE. LEVER. Lol.  The kludgey solution is to hook up a second joystick and use the throttle lever on that stick for something.

 

Thanks for the help. 

[Guest deleted@134347]

39 minutes ago, EmerlistDavjack said:

Augh that is what I thought.  I would really like both radiators on levers.  Peering around the cockpit to see the setting is super annoying.  I really wish individual planes could be bound separately (don't you all...).  All I need is ONE. MORE. LEVER. Lol.  The kludgey solution is to hook up a second joystick and use the throttle lever on that stick for something.

 

Thanks for the help. 

 

problem is you can't assign in-line engine's rads to axis.   You can only assign axis to radial engines (la-5, fw a5) water rads.. and p40 for some reason.  Other planes require buttons.  With la5 you can see the flaps from cockpit and in p40 you can easily see the lever indicator, in lagg3 you can see the position of levers, and in mig3 there's an indicator gauge. For the rest of the planes you need to count the wheel rotation's..  

[4driano]

1 hour ago, Mac_Messer said:

You can easily set some of the controls so that they overlap. Good example is prop pitch - rpm lever. There is no plane which has both, but the idea of those quite different systems gameplay-wise is the same.

 

Oil/water radiator is not one of them.

Mac,

 

if I remember correctly, the P-40 use both systems.

49 minutes ago, EmerlistDavjack said:

Augh that is what I thought.  I would really like both radiators on levers.  Peering around the cockpit to see the setting is super annoying.  I really wish individual planes could be bound separately (don't you all...).  All I need is ONE. MORE. LEVER. Lol.  The kludgey solution is to hook up a second joystick and use the throttle lever on that stick for something.

 

Thanks for the help. 

Does your mouse have a wheel?

I use it for water and oil radiators shutters.

[E_Davjack]

I could do that, but I prefer the levers so I know what the settings are by feel.  Mousewheel is no different than buttons in that regard. 

[DD_Arthur]

49 minutes ago, EmerlistDavjack said:

  All I need is ONE. MORE. LEVER. Lol.  The kludgey solution is to hook up a second joystick and use the throttle lever on that stick for something. 

 

 I got myself one of these recently

6 minutes ago, moosya said:

 

problem is you can't assign in-line engine's rads to axis.   You can only assign axis to radial engines (la-5, fw a5) water rads.. and p40 for some reason.  Other planes require buttons. 

 

This is simply not true.  Have another look at your control assignments. 

 

Btw; radial engines don't have water rads...........

[E_Davjack]

That would be awesome for DCS as well.  How do I get one, email the guy? 

 

EDIT: Weird, I just noticed it doesn't have a prop rpm lever. 

Edited September 12, 2018 by EmerlistDavjack
reasons

[DD_Arthur]

16 minutes ago, EmerlistDavjack said:

That would be awesome for DCS as well.  How do I get one, email the guy? 

 

EDIT: Weird, I just noticed it doesn't have a prop rpm lever. 

 

I keep meaning to set it up in DCS but I never seem to get round to it!  You can e-mail Vasilij at gvl224@ukr.net

Check this thread out

 

Oh yeah;  engine rpm is set by the second lever from the left marked 'prop pitch'

[E_Davjack]

Oh wow, so many options!  I will definitely be getting something by him.  I like supporting independent artists!

[E_Davjack]

Is there seriously no way to put the Bf-110 Oil/Water radiators on a lever axis?  You have to use buttons?  Augh.

[Finkeren]

Specifically about the MiG-3 engine management (since you asked about it):

 

The Mikulin AM-35 engine is pretty straightforward, except for one specific feature: It has a higher boost mode, which is engaged, not with the throttle, not with the special “extra boost” button as found on other aircraft, but with the mixture lever.

 

For normal flight (auto rich) you should keep the mixture lever at 50%. In combat and with throttle and RPM set to max (100%) you can push the mixture forward to 100% as well to engage the extra boost (it will kick in somewhere between 50-100% but in reality there are just the two settings 50 and 100) The engine can run in boosted mode for a maximum of 10 minutes. Below 50% the lever functions as a normal mixture, so once you go down to 49% you start leaning the mixture as normal.

 

There is no time restriction on RPM settings, so you can leave it at max during take off, landing, climb and combat with no issues and only reduce RPM during cruise (to keep temperatures low) and if your engine is damaged (reducing RPM really goes a long way to extend your engines life when damaged) 

 

One word of warning: If you have RPM set to max and throttle down (like if you have to slow down to avoid an overshoot) Don’t suddenly slam the throttle forward again, especially not if you are in boosted mode. The sudden increase in power can cause an over-rev’ that will destroy your engine instantly. Either open the throttle slowly or reduce RPM before moving the throttle.

 

The water- and oil coolers are pretty standard, but both have very large shutter flaps, which pretty much functions as air brakes when opened more than about halfway - they will slow you down a lot if opened too much, so try to avoid that by running your engine as cool as possible during cruise (it is better to reduce rpm and throttle to do this instead of opening radiators fully, you’ll actually go faster)

 

One final MiG quirk: The MiG-3 is not the most directionally stable aircraft in the first place, but this issue is really compounded during take off and (especially) landing by the way the tail wheel is operated. Basically the tail wheel is always locked by default, but once you push the rudder beyond about halfway to either side, you actually start steering the tailwheel in the direction of the rudder. This is really useful for taxiing but can be a major nuissance during take off and landing, where it can often lead to ground loops. Best thing you can do is trim your rudder and just keep it in mind. If find that during the roll out when landing it is better to use quick kicks of rudder to keep straight than trying to hold the rudder in one position.

 

One final thing, which has no direct effect in the sim but is just a cool little factoid I learned recently: The AM-35 has an absolutely insane displacement of 46 liters, which basically makes it the largest engine of any WW2 single seat aircraft (it is 25% larger than the 24-cylinder Napier Sabre on the Tempest) So treat it with respect.