Rich mixture exhaust smoke question...

[[APAF]VR_Spartan85]

Hey all, I think imthis has been discussed but I can’t find it..

why is it again that we have the darker exhaust when full rich?  

Its manageable but with ai they are literally streaking across the sky all the time... 

 

I started flying 109 g2 in career mode and most of the time ai seems to be a t full throttle in this case... 

 

and with the p-40, in the map briefing notes it says to use full rich for take off then back to ‘auto-rich’,,, but in this case your getting the smoke again,  flooding the engine?  Or am I wrong?

 

anywho, not complaining,,  I’m still loving the game just want to know the reasoning behind the new smoke effect at rich mixture...

 

 

[Legioneod]

Iirc it's because of too much fuel, it can't burn it all up or at least not efficiently which is why there is black smoke.

 

For American aircraft or anything similar there should be a "snap" feature when using mixture due to the fact that you can never tell if you are in auto rich or not. In American aircraft most or all of the mixture control was automatic, all you had to do was set it to Auto Rich, Auto Lean, Full Rich, etc in game however it's impossible to tell if you are in those proper settings.

 

We need a snap feature where it automatically goes to the next setting like in DCS.

[Ehret]

You can look at the mixture lever in the cockpit to see what mode it is. For tech chat: around 66% is Auto Rich, around 33% is Auto Lean, close to 100% will engage Full Rich. You don't have to be precise; those settings are more like zones than points on the lever.

[40plus]

55 minutes ago, spartan85 said:

Hey all, I think imthis has been discussed but I can’t find it..

why is it again that we have the darker exhaust when full rich?  Its

 

 

 

Overly rich mixtures lead to incomplete/poor combustion of the fuel and thus increased soot in the exhaust.

[[APAF]VR_Spartan85]

For the allied, most have manual mixture control. And it’s easy to manage.. but for majority of axis aircraft they are automatic,,,    ....  so if you rip at full throttle you’re gonna get that smoke

 

Dumb question being a sim but, does/did this happen with real aircraft?

Edited October 23, 2018 by spartan85

[Legioneod]

35 minutes ago, spartan85 said:

For the allied, most have manual mixture control. And it’s easy to manage.. but for majority of axis aircraft they are automatic,,,    ....  so if you rip at full throttle you’re gonna get that smoke

 

Dumb question being a sim but, does/did this happen with real aircraft?

Yes. It also happens with vehicles. I've seen footage of 109s and they have a pretty dirty exhaust trail.

[RedKestrel]

46 minutes ago, spartan85 said:

For the allied, most have manual mixture control. And it’s easy to manage.. but for majority of axis aircraft they are automatic,,,    ....  so if you rip at full throttle you’re gonna get that smoke

 

Dumb question being a sim but, does/did this happen with real aircraft?

I've been re-reading some WWII memoirs and every pilot mentions seeing black exhaust trails from enemy fighters when using full throttle or boost. Johnny Kent describes seeing 'fingers of smoke' fly past him in a blur when passed by a 109, for example.

[[APAF]VR_Spartan85]

Cool, Very interesting!  

Say, don’t suppose you’d be able to recommend something of a memoir to read???

[blitze]

Going full rich was used in combat to help keep engine temp under control as well.  When leaned out the engine will run hotter which is ok in cruise but when pushing the engine, you want it to run as cool as possible.

[[APAF]VR_Spartan85]

I suppose that would be know as “power enrichment”.    

[ZachariasX]

The mixture settings are wrongly implemented for several planes in BoX.

 

Fact is (and this is CORRECT in the game) that all, and especially the automatic mixture settings, will not enrich linerarly with increasing power, but will do so almost exponentially once you are around 70% throttle. It will do so both at rich and at lean mixture settings! Rich and lean mixture settings just will move the entire reatio slightly to the leaner side. Running "lean" will however still produce a very rich mixture at high throttle settings.

 

What is wrong in the game, is that even with automatic settings, I can shift the entire mixture ratio curve up an down between full rich and full lean at my discretion. In fact there should only be two settings in the Spitfire "rich" and "weak". Same is in the American planes, weher you have 4 posiotions, from "full rich" to "idle cut off", I can gradually shift the mixture ratio curve.

 

Beside being nonsense (as this is not how the systems work internally), it produces a significant exploit for online flight. The black smoke trails are a huge giveaway for your presence. Not trailing smoke is the good way for more casual sniping on Berloga.

 

Now, what you do is you take your aircraft, say a P-40 or the Spit, and in flight give full power and observe your black smoke trail. Then move your mixture lever to lean until the black smoke is gone at full power. And I should absolutely not be able to lean out my rich-rich mixture setting. If I did, my engine would be dead quickly. One shouldn't be able to do that. Besides, you should be overheating and ruining your engine rather quickly at full throttle, yet I found no disadvantage in the game for this abusive regimen. (Same as maximum torque, low rpm.) The 109 and the 190 don't have the luxury of smoke cheat, so they are easily made out and you can see when they run at full power. If you remove the smoke in your Spit IX, the other may be tempted to save some of his engine timer, as you are supposedly not trailing smoke, they may thing they can be careful on the throttle, when in fact when you have the throttle firewalled and creep up on them fast.

 

I like the smoke trails a lot, and I think it is a great feature. But it most be done right.

[LukeFF]

The Hs 129 is another plane that in reality had discrete mixture settings. It's something that I'd like to see as well.