Besides what has been covered already, I'd check to see if the anthropomorphic control are causing the issue. I have had issues with it not letting me adjust the rad's. so you might turn it off.

Blown engines
 

I think most of us have had the same problem you mention. The advice from previous posters is the solution. Once you get off the ground and into a furball then the pitch issue becomes an on-going challenge, particularly in vertical combat. Juggling engine management and bandits is a handful, but it is the complex nature of the challenge that makes it fun. I seem to blow my engine and have to bug out of the action most of the time at the moment!

well, for the start the pitch should be on fine to get the best acceleration. So you have also to be carefull not to overrev the engine. And overrev with a cold angine is even worser !

As example, when you have the Mercury of the Blenheim at the desired 200°, the propeller at fine (you have only the two setting fine and coarse in the Blenheim) giving FULL throttle is very dangerous as the revs are very high..........i personally dont get over 2400rpm , 2500rpm only for short time. But, thats part of the game, everyone has to make his own Pilothandbook ................

Spitfire and Hurricane:

• Fully open radiator vent for takeoff and climb out
• Do not exceed a 'Boost' value of "4" for any more than 30-60 seconds, but DO use full power for takeoff
• radiator vent can be half-closed in the cruise
• Changing prop pitch directly affects the 'Boost' pressure, if you change to course pitch, reset your boost to somewhere below "4" to prevent engine damage
• In a dive, throttle back to prevent an propeller overspeed condition and only throttle back up when you've slowed down again
• Prop pitch can overspeed the engine causing damage, but often the problem lies in the increasing manifold pressure (boost) as the pilot decreases prop pitch

How do i judge boost value? What is it?

small advice, select a plane, enable the mouse icon (F10) and move it around the cockpit and learn what is what in the cockpit.

Manifold Pressure, or Boost, is an instrument on the right side of the panel above the RPM gauge. It features a redline that starts around "3" and finishes after "5". "4" is the maximum continuous power setting - ie: running continuously without overheating. You can exceed it, but only for short periods.

Yes,this is top advice,you need understand how the actions you take whilst in you're cockpit effect the behaviour of you're aircraft.

Without this understanding you're just going to go round in circles mentally trying to grasp what's going on with the controls.

Another top tip,that I learnt is don't keep changing aircraft,stick to an aircraft,learn the controls,understand as I mentioned earlier what these controls do and how they affect you're aircraft.

It takes time and patience mate:)

If I may I would have two questions regarding boost and radiator position.

Do I understand it correctly that boost can only be influenced "indirectly" by adjusting throttle and prop pitch (WEP excluded) ?

In combat would it be advisable to leave the radiator(s) fully open or does that cause too much drag and will give you a significant disadvantage, enough of a disadvantage to close them fully or to a degree and live with the risk of blowing your engine/overheating your engine?

I finally did manage to get my Me 109 in free flight to run cool enough ( no more oil on the cockpit window, looks cool though :rolleyes:) but I tend to leave the water radiator fully open and the oil radiator maybe 1/4 open with throttle set to 75% or a little less and playing around with the prop pitch.

It is quite amazing how much speed you can actually get with a trimmed aircraft and the right prop pitch-playing-around (yes that is the professional nomenclature for the procedure) at a rather low throttle setting.

Thanks for the advice, I do like a margin of error ;-).