He-111 Engine Woes.

[d3rt13n]

I am trying to accomplish the 'flight school mission' of the He-111 H6. You're tasked by flying a few waypoints and they are not far apart.

 

I am trying to manually control the engines and have set controls to open and close both the oil and water radiators. I am able to keep the temperature of the water and the oil below 80 and above 40 degrees (both needles point to the 12 o'clock position) and the ATA within limits needles pointing at the 9 o'clock position, but to no avail after a few minutes of flying (even on ATA 0.8 and radiators open) one engine quits and then the next. The RPM (above the ATA) start to flutter and a few moments later the engine shuts down. Same happens in quick mission scenario, so it is not the mission that is bugged.

 

I don't have this issue with other aircraft but the He-111 H6 is turning my hair grey. No matter what I try, the engines still shut down.

 

Is this plane bugged?

 

While the game manages the engines this does not happen. Only when manual management is set to 'on'.

 

Help.

Edited May 23 by d3rt13n

[Plurp]

2 hours ago, d3rt13n said:

I am trying to accomplish the 'flight school mission' of the He-111 H6. You're tasked by flying a few waypoints and they are not far apart.

 

I am trying to manually control the engines and have set controls to open and close both the oil and water radiators. I am able to keep the temperature of the water and the oil below 80 and above 40 degrees (both needles point to the 12 o'clock position) and the ATA within limits needles pointing at the 9 o'clock position, but to no avail after a few minutes of flying (even on ATA 0.8 and radiators open) one engine quits and then the next. The RPM (above the ATA) start to flutter and a few moments later the engine shuts down. Same happens in quick mission scenario, so it is not the mission that is bugged.

 

I don't have this issue with other aircraft but the He-111 H6 is turning my hair grey. No matter what I try, the engines still shut down.

 

Is this plane bugged?

 

While the game manages the engines this does not happen. Only when manual management is set to 'on'.

 

Help.

You have to control engine rpm also.  For the climb:  2400 rpm @ 1.2 ata (good for 30 min)  cruise:  2250 @ 1.15 (unlimited)

 

You can hit the spec tab to get plane info when you are in the big map.  I believe o (oh) is default for the map.

Edited May 23 by Plurp

[d3rt13n]

Thanks for your reply Plurp, but as mentioned in my OP, I keep the ATA at 0.9. It is bound to my Hotas warthog and I have the luxury even to assign each engine its separate throttle control.

 

Even in level flight with the ATA set way below safe parameters for level flight, the engines still shut down. Not at the same time, but always within 30 seconds to a minute. Both the green and brown circular dials showing the oil and water radiator temperatures are also within acceptable limits.

 

So I am managing the RPM's correctly AFAIK, but this does not solve the issue.

 

I'm making a video of this and can hopefully post it here.

 

 

Edited May 23 by d3rt13n

[RedeyeStorm]

No your not. Throttle does not control RPM. They are separate controls you need to bind. Your engines seize because your flying at full RPM.

[d3rt13n]

@RedeyeStorm 

 

Right. The He-111 has variable pitch propellers. When setting up two buttons to control the pitch of both propellers, I was able to reduce the RPM's to around 2000 while keeping the ATA (Manifold Perssure) at around 1.2.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. It seems the issue is hereby resolved.

[R33GZ]

2 hours ago, d3rt13n said:

@RedeyeStorm 

 

Right. The He-111 has variable pitch propellers. When setting up two buttons to control the pitch of both propellers, I was able to reduce the RPM's to around 2000 while keeping the ATA (Manifold Perssure) at around 1.2.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. It seems the issue is hereby resolved.

Pretty sure the pitch is automatically controlled. It will adjust as necessary depending on altitude, RPM etc. What you need to be setting is the RPM. From memory, the He 111 is only good for 1min at max RPM

[d3rt13n]

12 hours ago, R33GZ said:

Pretty sure the pitch is automatically controlled. It will adjust as necessary depending on altitude, RPM etc. What you need to be setting is the RPM. From memory, the He 111 is only good for 1min at max RPM

 

- https://aergistal.github.io/il2/planes/he111h6.html

 

This link states that:

'Engine RPM has an automatic governor and it is maintained at the required RPM corresponding to the governor control lever position. The governor automatically controls the propeller pitch to maintain the required RPM.'

 

- 

 

In this thread, @finkeren points out that the 'RPM governor (constant speed prop)' should be set up in the key-binds.

 

However when searching for the word 'RPM' or 'governor' ingame in the 'Find Command' search bar, the search only yields 4 results with the word 'RPM' in it:

 

- Automatic RPM limiter

- Propeller RPM control

- Engine 1 propeller RPM control

- Engine 1 propeller RPM control

 

- There are 6 levers on the throttle quadrant ingame on the left side of the pilot seat.

• 2 manifold pressure levers (ATA) (that I have bound to the throttle of my Warthog hotas - one for each engine)
• 2 RPM levers (that I have bound to the red thumb switch aka the 'china hat' forward is more RPM, backward is less RPM)
• 2 oil radiator levers that close or open the air inlet on the top of the engine.

 

When moving the thumb switch on the hotas, the RPM levers ingame replicate my movements. 

 

The 'Automatic RPM limiter' keybind does not warrant the presence ingame of the 2 levers on the He-111 quadrant.

 

I've come to a point that I want to go from 'Normal' to 'Custom' and after that to 'Expert'. Historically accurate engine automation implemented by the engineers of WW2 is great. Flying without IL-2 assists or 'cheats' is an itch that needs to get scratched at some point.

 

Edited May 24 by d3rt13n

[czech693]

The statement that the rpm is automatically maintained might be confusing to some.  Typically with an rpm governor the pilot manually sets the desired rpm with the prop control and the governor maintains that rpm when the pilot changes the throttle setting to increase or decrease power.  The exception is when he decreases the throttle below a certain limit the governor cannot maintain the set rpm and the rpm decreases.  The German system (at least on the fighters) is fully automatic and changes the rpm to match the throttle setting and the pilot is not required to set the rpm manually.

[BlitzPig_EL]

What czech693 said.  The He111 uses a constant speed prop, like the US aircraft do.  You manually set the propeller RPM separately from the throttle position (manifold pressure as measured in PSI for British planes, inches of mercury in US planes, and ATA in German planes).

[LukeFF]

Yep, another way to look at it is that prop RPM is your gear shifter and the throttle is the gas pedal. 

[FeuerFliegen]

On 5/23/2025 at 2:14 PM, d3rt13n said:

@RedeyeStorm 

 

Right. The He-111 has variable pitch propellers. When setting up two buttons to control the pitch of both propellers, I was able to reduce the RPM's to around 2000 while keeping the ATA (Manifold Perssure) at around 1.2.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. It seems the issue is hereby resolved.

 

2000rpm is quite low; it'll work at lower altitudes but not ideal. At 1.15ata you should do 2250rpm.  2400rpm for 1.25ata.  I'd only do 2000rpm if I was doing under 0.8ata.

[d3rt13n]

@FeuerFliegen Thank you. Will try these settings.