Noob needs some advice

[R33GZ]

Hi all, just purchased BoK a few days ago, just about got my bindings sorted (after abandoning saitek profiles completely lol). 

 

Have a few concerns regarding engine management - or what I perceive as realistic engine management. So I guess Im after some tips or confirmation that things are performing as they should. 

 

The below observations are solely for the Yak 7B on the Kuban spring map with full realism. 

 

I was surprised to see so much automation in the start up procedure. No ability to turn magnetos and fuel systems on or off? There's nothing I'm missing here? So long as mixture is full with a bit of throttle all you need to do is press 'e' and away she goes? 

 

So far I have noticed no need to let the engine warm up ie, no detrimental effects. Just start up and taxi.

 

This brings me to engine temps and overheat scenarios. I was able to taxi to threshold and max power climb to 4k with oil and water rads closed before reaching an overheat condition, and level flight for maybe another 2 mins before engine critically damaged. All up I think the engine was at max power and RPM for approx 7 mins before the engine died - this all happened with next to no sounds or vibrations of an engine about to seize. 

 

In another flight I found I can basically run full throttle, full rpm, which I guess means there is no change to the prop pitch and adjust mixture as necessary with maybe 60% rads and the engine seems fine with it. 

 

This seems a bit unrealistic, but mostly I wanted to know if this is normal for BoX.... For context, I've been flying CLoD where if you look at an engine the wrong way sometimes they will self destruct. 

 

Thanks in advance. 

[co199]

Russian birds with few exceptions are designed to go balls to the wall all the time. There are some tweaks you can do to get every ounce of speed out of the Yaks, but for the most part it's firewall everything and tweak the coolers if you get hot. Throw it to 85%-ish RPM and throttle and tune your mixtures if you are at higher alts, but otherwise as long as you don't forget the supercharger switch you can basically just run around all day without worrying about breaking the engine. Yak was designed for killing fascists, comrade, not tweaking engine settings.

[BlitzPig_EL]

In your realism settings there is a tick box for "warmed up engine"  I think it's called.  If you want the full warm up, untick that.  The Russian engines in the early Yaks are essentially under rated by the factory so that critical boost (manifold pressure) levels cannot be reached, this was a concession to poor pilot training, and to make them easier to fly.  This is normal for the Yaks with the license built Hispano-Suiza engines.  Over heating is an issue on some maps, and the Yaks tend to run hotter than most.  In combat temperature management is a thing.  Try that same time to engine seize with a P39, you will be lucky to make half that time.  I've blown one up on test before I got it off the runway.

 

As to the start procedure, the animated start up is how it is done across the board in this sim.  A concession to not having "click pits", and to keep key binds to a minimum.  Also it makes for a very good balance between fun and becoming a tedious flight procedures study sim.

[LukeFF]

22 minutes ago, R33GZ said:

I was surprised to see so much automation in the start up procedure. No ability to turn magnetos and fuel systems on or off? There's nothing I'm missing here? So long as mixture is full with a bit of throttle all you need to do is press 'e' and away she goes? 

 

Yes, other than making sure the radiators are properly adjusted.

 

22 minutes ago, R33GZ said:

So far I have noticed no need to let the engine warm up ie, no detrimental effects. Just start up and taxi.

 

That's probably because you had the pre-warmed engine option enabled (which is realistic - the mechanics are the ones who'd warm up these planes). Otherwise, yes, it's entirely possible to kill an engine that's not been properly warmed up.

 

22 minutes ago, R33GZ said:

This brings me to engine temps and overheat scenarios. I was able to taxi to threshold and max power climb to 4k with oil and water rads closed before reaching an overheat condition, and level flight for maybe another 2 mins before engine critically damaged. All up I think the engine was at max power and RPM for approx 7 mins before the engine died - this all happened with next to no sounds or vibrations of an engine about to seize. 

 

In another flight I found I can basically run full throttle, full rpm, which I guess means there is no change to the prop pitch and adjust mixture as necessary with maybe 60% rads and the engine seems fine with it. 

 

This seems a bit unrealistic, but mostly I wanted to know if this is normal for BoX.... For context, I've been flying CLoD where if you look at an engine the wrong way sometimes they will self destruct.

 

It all depends on climb angle, engine power, and ambient air temperature. The Yaks can be run hard for a while before the engine will seize from overheating, and, typically, you'll need to keep the water cooler open nearly all the way to keep it from overheating when running it at full power.

Edited October 24, 2021 by LukeFF

[AndyJWest]

BoX engine management is rather simplified, but with regard to Yaks and other Soviet-manufacture aircraft, the behaviour you see may not be that unrealistic. There seems to have been a difference in design philosophy, where the Soviets chose to set up their aircraft in a way where engine performance was limited (e.g. by throttle limits) in a way that made it harder to damage an engine. This of course increased reliability, but made it harder for a pilot to get the last bit of performance from an engine when most needed.

[R33GZ]

Wow, thanks for the quick replies gents. So it appears the yak 7b was a good place to star lol. Perfect for a noob.... You've REALLY got to make a concerted effort to destroy them ?

[co199]

Just now, R33GZ said:

Wow, thanks for the quick replies gents. So it appears the yak 7b was a good place to star lol. Perfect for a noob.... You've REALLY got to make a concerted effort to destroy them ?

 

I've often thought the Yaks are perfect starters. No real complicated engine management (just coolers / mixture / rpm / throttle to keep the keybinds to a minimum), will out-turn just about anything the Axis can throw at it, and teaches good marksmanship with fairly limited ammo but they hit hard. Plus you can strap bombs to them if you want to blow up stuff on the ground.

[Halon]

I have noticed that climb angle in the Peshka seems to make a big difference with over heating as in level flight it'll run on max chat happily without too much opening of the radiator. It wasn't something I was really aware of until recently, especially with my more regular higher altitude trips.

[ShamrockOneFive]

2 hours ago, R33GZ said:

Wow, thanks for the quick replies gents. So it appears the yak 7b was a good place to star lol. Perfect for a noob.... You've REALLY got to make a concerted effort to destroy them ?

 

Yes indeed. As the others have mentioned, the Yak series was designed to be simple and easy to fly for pilots that may not have had a ton of time in them. The Yak-7 is infact the combat development of the UTI-26 which itself was based on the original Yak-1 design. So the Yak-7 was a trainer originally but fitted with combat equipment and used with success as the airframe was even more robust than the Yak-1 and intended to be abused by trainee pilots.

 

It's a fascinating bit of history.