Quote:
Originally Posted by Sternjaeger
I'm sorry mate but "we" who? You really switch off your propeller plane by cutting the mixture? That is one helluva dangerous game man.. If I did something like this with my instructor would have kicked my ar$e, you switch off the engine by bringing the engine to idle and cutting both magnetos off, that is like the first thing they teach you..
I think you are a bit confused about the use of batteries and generators on aeroplanes. Just like in a car, a battery is used for startup and operating electric/electronic parts, but the alternator (or generator) does the rest (from the P-51 Mustang manual):
The electrical system runs off the battery until the engine reaches 1500-1700 RPM, when the generator is cut in by the voltage regulator. Power for the electrical system then is supplied by the generator.
besides, if memory serves, back in WW2 they already made use of dry batteries, so there was no "icing" problems. If the generator fails the engine simply quits, the battery doesn't replace its work.
I don't mean to tell anyone off, but guys, please check your sources and info before posting stuff, if there's one thing that is worse than lack of information, that is the wrong one! Think of the sake of the simulator, not just the fact that you want to say yours about a subject.
SJ
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Actually, a lot of things are done differently depending on aircraft type. I don't know what happens in aero clubs, but in the army the preferred method to shut down pretty much anything seems to be cutting the mixture.
I saw this when serving my conscription tour as a flak gunner on Rheinmetal 20mm twins. These guns are operated with the aid of a 160cc wankel engine. During training they told us there's two ways to stop that engine, pressing the stop button or cutting the fuel supply. When we asked which is best, they told us "stop button for emergency only, fuel cutoff for everything else".
Months went by, i got posted to a unit, started doing the things a soldier does and at some point i got posted to the unit's AA company and came in contact again with the Rheinmetal guns. Each day we'd take a different gun out of the hangar, so that we checked all of them in rotation, set it up for firing, etc. Sometimes we took out the same gun after only 3 days or a week and that's when i understood their obsession with fuel cut-off. Depending on weather conditions, the exact same engine on the exact same gun driving the exact same hydraulic actuators would run smooth as butter one day and give us hell to start the next one. There's no sophisticated mixture control in that engine, just an ignition, a primer and a pull-cord starter. When people swtiched the engines off by pressing the stop button and not cutting the fuel, what happened was that unburnt fuel was left inside the engine. Depending on weather, the next time we wanted to start that engine the amount of fuel left in it could be wrong for the weather we had at that day.
If it's insufficient you can prime some extra fuel into it, but if there's excess fuel in the chamber all you can do is spend 5 minutes pumping out the excess fuel and clearing the engine by repeatedly pulling on the rip-cord starter with the ignition and fuel supply turned off,which is not very pleasant during peacetime and bad weather, or worse, during an actual air-raid. Hence the "always use the cut-off" emphasis.
It's a similar case for aircraft engines, even though they differ a lot with their huge displacement and compression ratios compared to a puny 160cc wankel, what mattered the most was making sure the engine will run when you need it the most and not that it will run for the longest amount of years. Better have a "dry" engine that needs to be primed before start, than have an overflooded engine that needs to be turned without ignition to be cleared before being primed before being started during a scramble call.
That's the reason most of the restored warbirds are ran at different power settings than the wartime values, in the war they wanted to ensure performance when they needed it the most, but in the airshows the main care is to ensure maximum component life so as to keep them flying for longer.
Also, you say this
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sternjaeger
yes, dead generator means dead systems. Game over.
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but it makes it seem like it all goes dark in a split second. What you say next is a better description
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sternjaeger
If your generator fails your battery won't be able to run your systems for long.
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"For long" being the operative phrase. If you switch off everything you don't need, there's an airfield within 20 miles of your position and you get priority/emergency clearance by ATC, i guess you could make a safe landing without a generator, running only a couple of instruments from the battery. Of course, it would be a different story at night where you need more radios, more light equipmeent and so on.
Actually that is exactly what azimech was hinting at. Dead generator--->need to conserve battery to RTB--->player will have to choose what to keep running and what to turn off=interesting gameplay.