Frequency of adjjustment of the inlet flaps?

[Voyager]

P-47, La-5, I-16, A-20, as far a I can recall all use the inlet flaps for various things, and I'm wondering how frequently do pilots need to adjust them? I'm asking, mostly because I'm thinking about where best to bind it to, and am leaning towards the throttle wheel on my joystick (I've got a separate throttle quadrant that the engine throttled are bound to.)

 

The Thunderbolt uses them to control the intercooler, and while that sometimes needs to be adjusted from neutral, it's fairly rare. The La-5 and I-16 series use it to keep the engine from freezing in severe cold, and I believe the A-20 uses it for the cowl flaps that need to be closed in flight.

 

All of these seem to be co trolls that should be set correctly, but are generally configured at or near takeoff, aand generally left alone after that. 

 

I'm trying to think, are there any others I'm missing here? 

 

Thank you, 

 

Harry Voyager

[-TBC-AeroAce]

FW190s

[Voyager]

26 minutes ago, AeroAce said:

FW190s

What does the 190 use it for? The cooling gills I though were controlled by the outlet flaps, same as the cowl flaps on the jug? 

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, Voyager said:

What does the 190 use it for? The cooling gills I though were controlled by the outlet flaps, same as the cowl flaps on the jug? 

 

The 190 inlet flaps aren't controllable, so don't worry about them. Other than that, the only other plane with controllable inlet flaps is the Ju 52.

Edited March 7, 2019 by LukeFF

[-SF-Disarray]

From what I have read on the subject and things I have been told be people more knowledgeable on the subject and in game experience the inlet flaps are generally set and left alone. On the LA-5 and I-16 for example, not leaving the inlets full open will result in an overheat and dead engine if not left fully open.

[RedKestrel]

Inlet flaps on the I-16 I tend to adjust as needed for engine cylinder head temperatures, but usually keep the oil wide open as it costs almost nothing in speed. 

On the La-5 I keep the inlet flaps and oil radiator at 100% and adjust the outlet flaps to keep from overheating. In extreme cold I would close both a bit to keep from overcooling. 

In my experience, the I-16 suffers some speed loss from the inlet flaps being wide open, while the La-5 experiences almost no loss from inlets, but the outlet flaps are reeeeally draggy. Neither plane seems to suffer much from wide open radiators.

I have all my radiator settings set to hatswitches on my throttle. I set the inlet flaps and water radiator adjustments on one direction of hatswitch and the oil radiator on the other.

So on one hat switch I have Inlet flaps/Water Radiator: left closes, right opens. Oil radiator: Down closes, up opens. On another I have outlet flaps: down closes, up opens.

I have a throttle quadrant now so I have mapped mixture and RPM to some levers, which has freed up more hatswitches (though I still need one hat for the Pe-2 ser. 35 RPM adjustment, its modeled as an electric switch, not a lever). 

[56RAF_Roblex]

On the La5 the oil rad has only a small effect on your speed and a big difference on temperature (100% loses you 3mph compared to 0%).  Technically you could squeeze an extra 2mph out by using 75% but it is not worth risking overheating so I leave it at 100%

 

The outlet flaps have a big effect on speed, 100% loses you about 28mph,  but don't affect the temperature a lot so can safely be left at 10-15% (losing you about 4mph) and can even be closed completely for short periods if you need that 4mph back.

 

The Inlet flap has no effect on speed so may as well be left at 100%