Quote:
Originally Posted by Notorious M.i.G.
Out of curiosity, do you stay at 100% pitch the whole time for manual pitch aircraft? I'd think that at higher speeds you wouldn't get as much out of the engine with pitch at 100%.
Maybe a few runs in a 109 or 190 to compare auto pitch vs manually having it on 100% could result in some different numbers. I'd be interested to know how efficient the auto pitch on the German fighters are - maybe smart manual management would be preferable in some instances.
Either way, thanks for putting the effort into this in-depth testing. Turning out some interesting results and it's good to see some solid numbers from ingame.
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So far, I'm staying in 100% prop pitch for the speed runs. I have experimented a little at the point where the aircraft no longer seem to be accelerating, dropping PP to 95, then 90 and down to around 80%, but there seemed to be no improvement in the short term (15-20 seconds) once you 'top out'. I haven't found any material in pilot's notes, manuals or on these or the Ubi boards that indicated that a lowered prop pitch improved top speeds in anything except the Mustang, where the 'throttle' setting determined the manifold pressure rather than how much fuel was being supplied to the engine, at least when you want to get to the top end in a hurry.
I have the impression that in most cases, setting prop pitch at 100% is similar to going to a lower gear in a car or bicycle; when you want to get as much of your power directly to the tires as quickly as possible with as much torque as possible, you gear down and push up the RPM. The way that the Spit Vb and 109G-2 reacted to very minor increases above level flight once they reached the last 40 kph or so of their acceleration leads me to think that once you are at the upper reaches of what the aircraft will do, the 'higher' gearing of 90% prop pitch may just load down the engine...
As time consuming as the process is, I haven't tried to experiment much though. Some aircraft in the game may respond better to that technique.
cheers
horseback