Cool.

[Siggi 10]

Got into a scrap behind enemy lines and took a burst in the tail. I got clear and was within sight of my home field, at about 250ft altitude, when the engine suddenly quit. I looked at the fuel-gauge, expecting to see it empty (holed tank) but it still showed 3/4 full. I tried to restart it, thinking maybe I'd accidentally hit the ignition-switch, but no joy. I put down safely in a field.

 

A few minutes earlier I'd flown straight through a balloon-wire (the wife was chatting to me) and caught a glimpse of it right on the nose as I looked back at the screen. I looked back, thinking I'd imagined it (it had looked like a stalk of corn ) and there was the balloon, still thethered (so I hadn't severed the wire). Do wires usually do damage? In reality I'd expect either the wire to be severed or the plane to be brought down.

 

Anyway, it was either the enemy bullets or the wire that damaged the engine, unless random engine-failure is modelled? It was a cool moment, whatever the cause.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Sweet! I of course will now go out and fly through some balloon wires to see what happens.

 

.

[Olham 164]

In early P3 I believe to have flown through a wire without result.

 

But I often have to land dead stick, because I use "fuel management",

but am very lousy in calculating it right.

For escorting a recon flight, I would have to add the actual zigzag over the recon area,

and I often don't get that right yet.

 

That the tank is still half full, but engine goes out, would/should also happen through

a bullet hole, cause the pressurisation would get lost, I'd think.

Edited December 24, 2009 by Olham

[GeorgeBoles 0]

Likewise engine failure for NO apparent reason ( parted fuel line ) amongst others, have long been featured in OFF.

 

There was one chap in Phase II, whose engine would crap out with alarming regularty.

That was on the seventh attempt at re-installing, stubborn problem.

 

I don't know whether this is my refurbished throttle (done by me ) or the game and slightly duff engines being modelled?

 

I am flying Nieuport 24s in Sep 1917 and even at the beginning of a flight the power drops to 50% from full throttle, and I have to throttle back and throttle forward again to get 100%. Is this part of having crummy engines or is it part of my crummy throttle?

 

I am just the "always worrying" type of person. I did have one spectacular crash on take-off, while my wife was watching of course, when my plane just careened to the hard to the left into all of my squadmates. On re-checking the controller calibration, for some reason I ONLY had left rudder. (I kicked and shook my pedals, and forced a recalibration, and everything seemed to work again! But you can see why I might be concerned.)

 

Regards.

 

Salute!

George.

[+Polovski 441]

There are engine failures in there, from oil, fuel, or just general damage - occasionally fairly rarely they pack in for no apparent reason too.

 

Some controllers you have to calibrate all axis before take off, including throttle, rudder etc. My Saitek Cyborg for example needed that.

[Mr. Lucky 0]

 

Some controllers you have to calibrate all axis before take off, including throttle, rudder etc. My Saitek Cyborg for example needed that.

 

And that's why we do our pre-flight checks for real before takeoff.

[Bullethead 12]

occasionally fairly rarely they pack in for no apparent reason too.

 

I haven't yet had an engine just quit on me, but about 1 out of every 4-5 hops, sometimes more, sometimes less, my engine loses a noticeable amount of power but keeps running with no damaged sounds. It just sounds like a lower throttle setting and the plane has much less macho. I bring up the HUD text and sure enough, I'm at 100% throttle. I work the throttle back and forth a few times, and still I can't get what I consider full power for that altitude and weight. It's never until just now occurred to me to check my tachometer to see if I'm losing revs (I NEVER look at my instruments), but I must be because of how the plane's flying.

 

I've always thought this a cool, yet frustrating feature. If it's something wrong on my end and not a game feature, I don't care, because I'm continually reading about how many sorties (on the order of 25% at least, way more in some really unreliable cases like for DH9s) were aborted due to dud engines.

[+Polovski 441]

Yeah exactly BH I like the odd thing like that sometimes you have no idea why something happens, but it all adds. P4 we can look at adding a more features around failures as there are not enough ways to die yet :D.

[Duce Lewis 3]

I don't know whether this is my refurbished throttle (done by me ) or the game and slightly duff engines being modelled?

 

I am flying Nieuport 24s in Sep 1917 and even at the beginning of a flight the power drops to 50% from full throttle, and I have to throttle back and throttle forward again to get 100%. Is this part of having crummy engines or is it part of my crummy throttle?

 

I am just the "always worrying" type of person. I did have one spectacular crash on take-off, while my wife was watching of course, when my plane just careened to the hard to the left into all of my squadmates. On re-checking the controller calibration, for some reason I ONLY had left rudder. (I kicked and shook my pedals, and forced a recalibration, and everything seemed to work again! But you can see why I might be concerned.)

 

Regards.

 

Salute!

George.

George, Sounds like youn might have multiple controllers in conflict

If you install Rudder Pedals, for example, they will have the same 3 Axis as your Joystick

The Aileron and Elevator needs to be deleted on the Rudder Peds and the Rudder deleted on the Joystick

All can be fouind on Controls\Axis Commands

Conflicting throttles is not very common, but I'd check all your controllers just the same

All assuming you do have multiple controllers

HTH,

[Bletchley 8]

I suspect that some of the random engine failures that you read about in the pilot memoirs were from carburettor ice (or icing of the induction system). This was an unrecognised problem at the time, and pilots were often puzzled to find on landing that their fitter could find nothing wrong with the engine after they had reported loss of revs. or a complete (but temporary) failure (the ice would have melted by then). This did not occur at high altitude, as one might expect, but at low to medium altitude (temperature range 0 to +15 deg.C) in very damp or misty conditions, or flying through cloud (high relative humidity). Passing heat back from the exhaust alongside the induction manifold, or heating the carburettor (as was done for some of the German inline engines, to improve mixture distribution to the cylinders) could cure the problem - perhaps one reason why these German engines were regarded as more reliable.

 

Bletchley

[Bullethead 12]

I suspect that some of the random engine failures that you read about in the pilot memoirs were from carburettor ice

 

I suspect you're right.

 

However, some engines were total junk mechanically, too, or required a lot more still to operate than others. The engine of the DH9 had both problems. Several key parts of it liked to break on a regular basis (connecting rods, oil pumps, etc.) and it would overheat easily if you weren't very careful with the radiator shutters. Luckily for the DH9 crews, most problems occurred during the long, high-power climb to high altitude, mostly done over friendly territory. Once they throttled back to cruise over enemy territory, far fewer engines failed, and most such failures happened still within gliding distance of the lines. But a 40% rate of early returns seems to have been their usual fare.

[Hasse Wind 46]

Considering how new the whole aviation thing was back then, it's almost a miracle there weren't even more problems with the rather primitive engine techonology of the time. But it tells something that more pilots were lost to accidents than in air combat. Of course many of those losses were not caused by mechanical failure but rather by the sheer inexperience of the pilots.

 

I didn't know engine problems were simulated in OFF. That's good to know and much appreciated. I must have been extremely lucky that I haven't experienced anything noticeable - I get hit in the engine all the time, so maybe that explains my lack of non-combat engine failures.

 

Sure would be exciting to sometimes burst a few tubes of the notorious Gnome Monosoupape rotary in my N.28. Preferably during combat behind enemy lines, of course.

[GeorgeBoles 0]

Hi there Polovski,

 

Keeping it short because you are a busy man:

 

Yesterday you wrote:

 

There are engine failures in there, from oil, fuel, or just general damage - occasionally fairly rarely they pack in for no apparent reason too.

Were you referring to my quesion where my engine appears to be a bit poorly even shortly after take-off? It is just that, as the thread reads, you might have been referring to some of the other people posting.

 

Regards and many thanks,

George.

Edited January 21, 2010 by GeorgeBoles

[GeorgeBoles 0]

Hi Bletchley,

 

Just the man I wanted to talk to.

 

I know nothing (essentially) about aircraft engines so forgive me if this question makes little sense.

 

Of course I can start my engines using the E key, which is not very interesting. In the old CFS manual the method of starting by setting magnetos and switches and mixture was described and that works well on all the planes I have tried in OFF:BHaH.

 

But, I presume (by clicking around in some of the cockpits - some have two magnetos, others appear not to, for example) that the start procedure, at least in WWI was not generic. Does BHaH model different, more "correct" start procedures for different aircraft? It probably doesn't matter a lot, but when I land and cut the engine, I cannot restart reliably, especially if I am trying to do it not automatically. I guess that I might have inadvertently hit a switch or several too many times which means that the "toggling" function is out of sync with where it needs to be to successfully restart an engine. If BHaH does model the different start procedures, is there a list of these for various planes/engines around?

 

Regards and thanks,

George.

Edited January 21, 2010 by GeorgeBoles

[+Polovski 441]

George I was just generally commenting on the thread re engines failing, not specifically on your controller issue.

[GeorgeBoles 0]

Thanks for the input, Pol, Uncle Al, and Duce.

 

I am pretty sure now that it is a "controller" issue. After one flight when this was a real pain, I went to Game Controllers and found that the three unused axes of my (home made) MJoy16 were having an occasional "spike" to zero, at about roughly the intervals that I was seeing in the flight. This was associated with an extraordinarily brief flicker of the Z-axis (throttle) to about the 50% mark which in the game would have been when I lost power.

 

Duce, it is a single controller, so the problem is not a controller conflict, but thank-you anyway.

 

But the surprising thing is that the problem seems to just "go away" either when the computer is not working hard (as of now, writing this letter) or after it has been running for quite some time: I haven't worked out which of these is the real correlation. I hope it is not a "computer straining" issue :( .

 

Anyway, it is not OFF giving me MY problems.

 

Salute,

George.

Edited January 23, 2010 by GeorgeBoles

[Duce Lewis 3]

I am pretty sure now that it is a "controller" issue. After one flight when this was a real pain, I went to Game Controllers and found that the three unused axes of my (home made) MJoy16 were having an occasional "spike" to zero, at about roughly the intervals that I was seeing in the flight. This was associated with an extraordinarily brief flicker of the Z-axis (throttle) to about the 50% mark which in the game would have been when I lost power.

George, what's an MJoy 16?

Can you elaborate?

[GeorgeBoles 0]

Hi Duce.

 

It is a DIY USB controller board which has 8 * 10 bit axes and supports LOTS (?112) of buttons AND toggle switches. I used it to renovate my second hand Gameport CH F-16 fighter stick, Pro Throttle and CH (Vanilla) Pedals, but it can be used in many ways in a "cockpit". It is equivalent to the ready-to-use BU086 by Leo Bodnar, but a lot cheaper and probably more versatile.

 

It is a design by someone called Mindaugas, and I made it up as my first EVER digital project, which works just fine (for the last two days anyway ... no more stuttering!? )

I have a brief description on my homepage http://www.stolenantiques.bravehost.com . This is the beginning of the thread which I referred to in my early endeavours: http://www.x-simulator.de/forum/mjoy16-usb-avr-joystick-t726.html , and this my PCB design of the MJoy16 which fits in the base of the CHProThrottle: http://www.x-simulator.de/forum/mjoy16-usb-avr-joystick-t726-70.html#p15786 .

 

I had lots of fun making it and the CH gear is BETTER than it ever was as gameport ... no button ghosts, no button hold downs, the axes are smoother +++ and it maintains its calibration better AND it can auto-calibrate.

 

Regards,

GB

[Duce Lewis 3]

Interesting stuff

Howm does OFF see it, as 1 controller, or are all 3 shown?

[GeorgeBoles 0]

Duce,

 

All games see it as one controller, because that is what it is. You can make MORE of them if you need MORE axes or buttons, and each subsequent controller will be seen as ... another controller. It is not seen well by Red Baron though, and I think that that is because of the large number of axes or the slightly unusual(?) naming of axes ... Rudder is Rotation X. I thought that was unusual, but it is apparently pretty normal, so I presume Red Baron gets confused by the large number of axes, so I have to use PPJoy and PPJoyJoy for it to work in that game, but that is no problem.

 

All good fun.

 

Regards,

George.

[GeorgeBoles 0]

Well folks,

 

I have NO idea why my controller was playing up the other day. Perhaps it was a mysterious computer thing. I have taken off a few recent programs including a lot of video utilities that came with my ASUS ATi card. If in doubt blame the thing I least understand.

 

Everything works fine now, with the axes nice and stable again.

 

Salute!

George

[Duce Lewis 3]

Well folks,

 

I have NO idea why my controller was playing up the other day. Perhaps it was a mysterious computer thing. I have taken off a few recent programs including a lot of video utilities that came with my ASUS ATi card. If in doubt blame the thing I least understand.

 

Everything works fine now, with the axes nice and stable again.

 

Salute!

George

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" I say

Good luck with it!

[nbryant 8]

Signed on with a new pilot sporting a slightly used Sopwith 1 1/2. First mission, long range recon. Weather... heavy cloud front but moderate winds. All was going well. Passed through a number of cloud banks without incident while cruising at 12,500 ft. Flak was getting heavy and we lost 2 of our escorting Pups to it. I lead the flight down breaking through the cloud cieling at about 5000 ft. While doing so the remaining 2 Pups jumped a flight of 3 Alb III's keeping them off us. Thinking we were clear for now I suddenly hear my engine begin to sputter. While contimplating my options, like I had many, she quit cold. So here I am, first mission, and in a hurt looking for a friendly place to try and come down...... don't think I will make it!

 

 

 

 

Follow up: Didn't catch it at first but apparently the flak punctured my fuel tank and as I wasn't paying any attention to it I ran it dry. I was able to bank left heading to the front but as it was 5 miles away I ended up having to set down in between an army camp, spotter and airfield. Well the huns were quick to react to an aircraft rolling in an adjacent field and I was captured. Must admit, was treated well, shared some drink and song, but after a bit they relaxed and I escaped making my way across the front with some serious help from the underground and returned to my squadron after only 19 days.

Edited January 26, 2010 by nbryant

[Bullethead 12]

I escaped making my way across the front with some serious help from the underground and returned to my squadron after only 19 days.

 

Lucky you .

 

For future reference, I just used AirWrench to check the Strutter's glide properties in OFF. According to the .AIR file, it should have a max glide ratio of 7.26:1 at its best Vmax L/D speed of 61mph. IOW, from your altitude of approximately 1 mile up, you should be able to glide a bit over 7 miles horizontally.

 

You might also want to read this page: http://www.auf.asn.au/emergencies/aircraft.html

 

Interested students can look the glide values up for any other OFF planes. The read-only demo version of AirWrench is a free download, found here: http://www.mudpond.org/AirWrench_main.htm. Once you have it, launch it and go to your OBD Software\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\aircraft folder. Click on any of the folders for the airplane you're interested in and open the .air file there. The glide ratio and best L/D speeds are displayed on the 2nd tab (Dimensions) right in the center, just above the big button that says "Estimate Control Surface Dimensions".

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Even if you don't have Airwrench, you can look up the glide ratio for each airplane by opening the aircraft .cfg file with a text editor and typing "glide_ratio" into the search function. For example, the glide ratio for the Alb DIII is 5.74095. However, I cannot find the value for optimum climb speed. The climb speed in Airwrench must be based on a calculation of some kind between two or more variables in the .cfg file.