Engine Stalls

[Spade777 0]

Is there a way to turn off engine stalls? I'm much more an arcade type of guy than hardcore realism. I messed with some of the realism settings and now the stalls seem to be less frequent, but they're still giving me trouble. Is there any way to turn them off completely?

 

I searched through the forums but couldn't find this info.

[Check Six 2]

Spade777,

 

To quickly answer your question...I don't think you CAN turn off stalls completely. I understand where you are coming from, wanting the enjoyment of flying these beautiful aircraft without having to stress about engine revs, speed, attitude etc. (an "arcade experience" if you will).

 

But there is enjoyment to be had simply flying these aircraft without crashing them. Remember that the first powered flight was a mere 11 years before the start of the Great War, and aircraft were seen as "very dangerous toys" that had no real purpose. Sure, you could get from "A" to "B", but you couldn't take a passenger or your luggage.

 

History has proven many, many times over that "Necessity is the mother of invention". The father of invention is war. HUGE technological advances that would have taken decades in peacetime take mere weeks in times of conflict. We seem to be very adept at improving ways of killing each other.

 

So these fragile craft...it's an art form to keep them aloft sometimes. Fly some of the earlier craft in this sim, and try to climb...it doesnt seem right, does it? You can't ZOOM to the heavens, and quickly get on the tail of that two-seater 2000 feet above you. That is how it was. You had to manoeuvre and be patient. You had to observe Boelcke's Dicta (rules that govern how one should fight in the air if you wished to survive).

 

I believe, and I think I'm not alone here on this forum, that stalling is a necessary evil. It gives you a NEED to respect your aircraft and the limitations it has. I think half of the "fun" of this sim is mere survival, not success over your opponent (though that is very satisfying).

 

So, I don't know for certain that you can turn stalling off altogether. Try setting it to Automixture, easy flight model. That helps a great deal. Next thing I suggest you try...enlist a new pilot in RFC 92 Sqn (it's down toward the bottom of the list). Your assigned aircraft is the Wolsely Viper engined SE5a. This aircraft WILL stall, but it is very powerful, and it is harder to stall than most. It has a higher speed than many of the aircraft here, so that if you DO stall, and your aircraft begins to fall, it recovers VERY quickly, and you won't find yourself wallowing about the sky in a "falling leaf" stall, madly swapping your rudder from left to right to correct the stall.

 

The only other thing I can think that might help you is a Force Feedback joystick. They shake violently just as you are about to enter a stall, which prompts you to put the nose down a bit to try to regain some speed.

 

Whatever you do, enjoy the sim, my friend. Please don't uninstall it and put it on the shelf as being "too hard". Please be patient and learn how to fly the way these aircraft flew...slowly and deliberately. I really think that once you do that, you will be amply rewarded. If you read many of the threads here, you can "hear" the joy and relief of merely surviving for 5 or 10 HOURS (in total). "I MADE IT! 10 HOURS ALOFT AND I'M STILL ALIVE!". Survival is the measure of success in this sim, not victories. When you can get your mind around that, I'm sure you will have may hours of enjoyment ahead of you.