New player need help

[Redhammer]

Hello everyone, so as the title says it, i am a new player just recently got this game. I am also new to plane simulators in general . So with that out of the way I would like to ask you if you guys can share material or perhaps explain a few things mainly about plane engines and how to manage them, things like (what is) fuel mixture, engine RPM, superchargers ,trimming etc..

I am not asking for guides of individual planes but about the general concepts of such features and how they interact with each other, with the environment etc..

Thank you.

[Jade_Monkey]

Im on my phone so it's harder to share links but search for Requiem's tutorials on YouTube. He covers most planes as well as concepts like mixture and propeller pitch.

[[DBS]MDS1]

Hi Redhammer welcome to IL-2

 

 As Jade_Monkey suggests, check out this you tube series of tutorials, I found them very useful when starting out. Good luck and have fun!

Kind Regards,

MDS1

 

 

 

Edited December 1, 2018 by MDS1

[MasserME262]

https://www.mudspike.com/chucks-guides-il2-battle-of-stalingrad/

 

This is something helped me when trying to learn how to manage the 109 G-2 engine properly. It just had the BoS planeset, but since its one of the most, if not the most, important planeset, I found that guide quite useful for a starter (or even for a "PRO")

[JimTM]

In addition, there's lots of stuff here for the new player.

[ShamrockOneFive]

4 hours ago, Redhammer said:

Hello everyone, so as the title says it, i am a new player just recently got this game. I am also new to plane simulators in general . So with that out of the way I would like to ask you if you guys can share material or perhaps explain a few things mainly about plane engines and how to manage them, things like (what is) fuel mixture, engine RPM, superchargers ,trimming etc..

I am not asking for guides of individual planes but about the general concepts of such features and how they interact with each other, with the environment etc..

Thank you.

 

I'll take a stab at the really basic parts of this and how it affects you as a sim pilot in IL-2 but the tutorials and guides that other folks are posting are where you'll want to get more detail. Chuck's Guide is a good one (though maybe out of date?): https://www.mudspike.com/chucks-guides-il2-battle-of-stalingrad/#bos-sov-section

 

Fuel mixture = This is the air to fuel mixture that's being fed into the engine. You'll need to reduce from 100% down to a lower percentage progressively as you gain altitude as there is less air at higher altitudes and you'll need to feed more air in to get the best power.

 

Engine RPM = Same as your car. Higher RPM, more power.

Superchargers = Nearly all or all WWII aircraft feature a supercharger of some kind and they help with performance at higher altitudes. This force feeds compressed air into the engine to help maintain power as the air thins. Some aircraft have an automatic system (the Bf109) while others have single or multi-stage superchargers. The Yak-1 for example has a manual two stage and you'll select the second stage at higher altitudes.

Trimming = As an aircraft gains speed it also gains lift causing the nose to rise naturally. Well this isn't always what you want so trim lets you keep the nose level. Trimming makes small but important adjustments to the aircraft's control surfaces to ensure that it flies smoothly and that you don't have to keep pushing forward or back on the stick as speed changes. Nearly all aircraft have elevator trim. Some have adjustable rudder trim and fewer still have aileron trim too.

 

Hope that gets you started.

[Redhammer]

Thank you all this is really what I've been looking for :D

[Warpig]

MEC isn't all that complicated once you realize that all you have to do is look at the gauges.

 

-Prop pitch/RPM: Most planes offer auto prop pitch control. Other planes might require control of RPM's that's separate from throttle control.  The important thing to know is the planes RPM limitations for the given mode (cruise, combat, emergency power). By knowing your RPM numbers, all you have to do is use the gauge know where you should be.

-Manifold pressure/ATA: This is controlled by the throttle. Like RPM's, the plane will have different ranges for cruise, combat, and emergency power. Use the gauges to properly adjust your manifold pressure.

-Fuel Mixture: This one can be tricky since there's no gauges to manage fuel mixture with. Some planes you'll just set the mixture to Auto Rich, and leave it there, unless you want to save fuel. In that case you would use Auto Lean. In other planes like the some Russian planes, different mixtures will serve you better at different altitudes. The general rule is, thee higher you are in altitude, the less fuel mixture is required. This is because the air is thinner up high in the atmosphere, so less fuel is required up there. I don't have much experience in planes that use dynamic fuel mixtures. It's best to find discussions regarding the specific planes that do require more fuel management.

-Radiators Management: Planes with inline engines are water cooled have water and oil radiators. Planes with radial engines are air cooled and have cowls and oil radiators. For inline engines know where the water and oil temperature gauges are, and use the shutters to keep the temps at their safe limits. For radial engines, use the outlet cowls and oil radiators to manage the temps, also using the correct gauges. Inlet cowls can usually be left open (La-5FN), or at a neutral setting (P47) if they have one.

-Superchargers: You'll have to know your planes altitude bands if it has more than one supercharger gear. Simply use it at the correct altitudes according to the manual. Most planes will only have one, two, or three supercharger gears. One gear means no control is required.

-Boost: Boost is a mode that can be used to increase manifold pressure for a period of time (I think). I don't know the exact mechanics of it, but knowing your planes operating limits is how you'll know how to manage it.

 

Once you combine this knowledge with the planes operating limits, you'll start to catch on pretty quickly. Just pick a plane, and watch the familiarization video for it on Requim's channel. He'll show you where all the gauges and controls are. It does pay off to know what to look for in the cockpit, even if you have everything mapped. Use one plane at a time, and learn its controls. Pretty soon MEC will be second nature to you.

 

Also know that not all of these controls exist on all planes. Start with the easier ones and move your way up. Generally, the Germans are the easiest to manage because of auto systems. The Russians get a little more involved, and the US and British planes require the most management.

Edited December 3, 2018 by Warpig

[JimTM]

59 minutes ago, Warpig said:

MEC isn't all that complicated once you realize that all you have to do is look at the gauges.

 

...

-Fuel Mixture: This one can be tricky since there's no gauges to manage fuel mixture with. Some planes you'll just set the mixture to Auto Rich, and leave it there, unless you want to save fuel. In that case you would use Auto Lean. In other planes like the some Russian planes, different mixtures will serve you better at different altitudes. The general rule is, thee higher you are in altitude, the less fuel mixture is required. This is because the air is thinner up high in the atmosphere, so less fuel is required up there. I don't have much experience in planes that use dynamic fuel mixtures. It's best to find discussions regarding the specific planes that do require more fuel management.

...

 

Actually, the Pe-2 s35 has a couple of mixture gauges (described here and here) and an extra fuel gauge (described here).  

Edited December 3, 2018 by JimTM

[Warpig]

50 minutes ago, JimTM said:

 

Actually, the Pe-2 s35 has a couple of mixture gauges (described here and here) and an extra fuel gauge (described here).  

Didn't know that. Thank you.

[Mauf]

'lo there, welcome to the wonderfully crazy world of flight sims. Don't be dismayed, flight sims aren't for the faint of heart, they take a lot of time to get comfortable in (the so called learning curve, fondly called the learning cliff sometimes).

 

Most of the previous posters are correct, I'll try to add a bit more info to certain things:

Mixture: In order for your engine to produce power, it needs to burn fuel (in fact, explode it in the cylinders). Fuel generally doesn't want to burn unless you give it oxygen to burn with. The mixture pretty much describes the relationship between fuel and air being mixed to finally get exploded. What does this mean for you as the pilot? The mixture controls how fast your plane uses up it's fuel and how much power it can generate. Lean mixtures are fuel efficient, but your engine could generate much more power if you gave it more fuel per cylinder cycle. On planes where you can see the exhaust pipes and their flames, a blueish flame is indicative of a lean mixture. The more rich your mixture gets, the more power you get up to a certain point. If you can see the exhaust flames, a short blue flame with a whitish base should be seen on an optimal rich setting. After this point there's more fuel than oxygen for the burn off and you end up with fuel not burning completely, losing fuel in a sense that could have been used more efficiently. You can tell if your mixture is too rich if your plane is streaming a black soody trail behind it. On the exhausts, a red flame can be indicative of a too rich mixture as well. In some situations, going to a too rich mixture is a good thing, as it will provide a certain amount of cooling to the engine and prevents knocking. That's also why some automixture planes will fly around trailing black in higher powersettings.

 

Now that would be all fine and dandy, but there's also altitude. And with increasing altitude, the thickness of the air decreases. That means, the higher you go, from a certain point, the engine will not be able to draw as much oxygen anymore as it was able to do down low. That means, a mixture setting that was rich and fine at sea level can turn into too rich as you climb which requires you to lean your mixture as you go higher. This is where super- and turbochargers come into play. Their principal idea is: "If the air gets too thin... let's compress it before we pump it into the cylinders so it becomes thick again". Superchargers do this by drawing a bit of power from your engine, thus they always cost you a bit of performance. At low altitudes where the air is thick enough, they don't produce more power and generally should be left off. Only once you climb and the gain from compressing the air overcomes the loss from the supercharger overhead, it's a good idea to turn them on. Superchargers are usually set to an optimum altitude above which they lose their efficiency as well. Some superchargers have multiple gears to allow more room for operation. The turbocharger does the same thing but works on a different principle as it uses the hot air coming from the engine exhausts to drive it. Thus it does not incur such a high cost on the engine but is offset by being much heavier than a supercharger (think of the P-47, you need a fat plane to stow away these things). They're also not bound to a specific altitude as they can be adjusted dynamically.

 

Now to engine RPM: RPM is the speed with which your prop spins. Plain and simple. Think of your prop as a shovel and it's goal is to shovel air backwards to generate thrust forward (technically, it pushes itself forward off the air and pulls the plane with it). Take a big piece of cardboard and wave it through the air with the flat side into the direction of travel. You will feel a lot of resistance but doing so, you will also move a lot of air around. Now do the same thing a few times but rotate the cardboard a step each time until you swing it through the air with the edge cutting through the air. You feel basically no resistance anymore but you push less air around (so you need to wave it a few more times to get the same volume of air moved as the flat sided swing did). You just went from coarse to fine pitch. Fine pitch gives you the best acceleration (that's why it's used on take-off and accelerating when you run or chase someone) and also top speed in planes (bar a few exceptions), but it's more stressing on your engine and will damage it over time if you run it too hard for too long. Coarse pitch will not get you as fast but it goes easier on your engine. That's called a continuous setting.

 

Manifold pressure (or boost or aTa or Ladedruck or Hg) is the pressure at which the cylinders are loaded with the combustible mixture. Basically, your throttle is a little gate that controls how much air can be sucked into the engine as it runs. Opening that gate makes the engine suck more air in. More air means more material to go boom with the fuel (mixture permitting, of course) which means more power generated. More power generated means more stress on the engine and quicker and higher heat buildup. There's a relationship between RPM and boost. You want to keep both within certain ranges of each other. You especially don't want to apply high boost on a low RPM setting as that increases the mechanical wear on the engine parts and will lead to quicker engine death. It's also not efficient.

 

Hope you liked the wall of text and I didn't include any errors (inaccuracies are fine! :P).

Edited December 3, 2018 by Mauf