OFF Albatros D.II Cockpit Controls: What's all that stuff do?

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Ever look down into your OFF cockpit and wonder what all those switches, levers, gauges, and doo-dads are for? I wonder about that sort of thing far too often and as I am currently flying the Albatros D.II, that has been my recent focus of such wonderments. So, for those of you who are of the same inquisitive mind as I, here you go:

 

 

 

 

And here is what these items do, starting from lower left and working round clockwise.

 

Magneto switch: turns on and off the magneto.

 

Quadrant: controls throttle, spark advance, and fuel-to-air mixture, (though from what I've read the Albs only used this to control spark advance and had separate levers located elsewhere for the other two functions).

 

Mangeto: provides spark to start the engine by giving it a few robust cranks then flipping the mag switch.

 

Tachometer: used to tell you your engine RPM's.

 

Water Pump Greaser: you push in on the plunger every now on then during flight to make sure the water pump stays lubed so as not to sieze up.

 

Fuel Pressure Gauge Switch: used to pick which of the two tanks to read pressure in, (however, the OFF Alb D.II is not fitted with a fuel pressure gauge so this switch is superfluous).

 

Fuel Tank Pressure Valve: controls the amount of pressure in the chosen tank.

 

Air Pump Selector Switch: used to pick which of the two tanks to pressurize.

 

Fuel Tank Selector Switch: used to pick which of the two tanks to run off of, (like most WWI aircraft, the Alb D.II has a main tank and a smaller auxiliary tank).

 

Fuel Amount Gauge: tells you how much benzine you have left and how far behind enemy lines you will be landing because you've entirely misjudged your flight range.

 

Air Pump: used to pressurize the fuel tank of choice, (once your tanks had been punctured by a stray bullet or bit of shrapnal your right arm will be engaged in pumping this as if your life depends on it, becasue it does).

 

Compass: used to get lost because you actually trusted the unreliable little bastard.

 

Gun Triggers: used to fire the left and right guns either separately or together and generaly annoy the enemy to the point that when you crash land in their territory they will be highly inclined to give you a bunch of fives before hauling you off to a lovely POW camp for the duration.

 

 

And there you have it. Now you can sleep nights.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

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[Olham 164]

I always smile about the "Spartan" interiour of the Albatros, compared to the

"millionaire's Italian racing boat" design of the Spad cockpit (yeah, the French know how to live well!).

 

Thanks for explaining, Lou - I was never sure which pump was for the fuel pressure, and what the other

was for then? (Could that be the reason, why I demolish so many Mercedes engines? Mmuahahahaaa!!)

 

I like your deep interest in all these things - you have at least one person "east over the pond" with a kinship

there: me. And I think, Creaghorn is another.

I'm just having a mug of coffee, accompanied by "Stollen-Konfekt"*, and love to go through your stuff.

 

* (they are getting into Christmas spirit earlier every year - soon it will start right after Easter.

But "Weihnachts-Stollen" and "Stollen-Konfekt" can be quite delicious, if they used enough good butter

and almonds!)

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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MMMMMMMMMMM...Weihnachtsstollen and Stollenkonfekt. Set me up with a large cup of kaffee mit creme to go with those and I'm in heaven.

 

And nice to know someone else shares my desire to know such seemingly unimportant things. Glad the post was educational for you Olham. Now, if we ever find ourselves in the cockpits of some real Albs we'll know just how to fly them.

 

 

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[Olham 164]

Now, if we ever find ourselves in the cockpits of some real Albs we'll know just how to fly them.

 

Not so sure there, Lou - could I please fly behind you then? I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to fly the bird,

to check the map, and to scan the environement for enemy craft.

 

But what I read here recently in a British pilot's test report after flying the Albatros, he found it easy

and gentle to fly. So I think we would learn it.

[Olham 164]

With an Albatros - no problem! Fly Albatros!!!

[JFM 18]

As mentioned, the "quadrant" listed above was the Albatros spark control handle only. The Albs had no pilot controlled mixture and the throttle was located on the control column. As it is now in OFF the spark control handle is being used for a throttle but hopefully this will be fixed in P4.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Thanks for that bit of info JFM. I was not aware that the Albs had no mixture control for the pilot. Those Mercedes engineers must have come up with a much better air-to-fuel regulation system than their Entente counterparts had developed.

 

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[Olham 164]

RAF_Louvert: Those Mercedes engineers must have come up with a much better air-to-fuel regulation system than their Entente counterparts had developed.

 

Bordeauxred Baron: "Yess, off corse - did you doubt zatt? Vatt do ze Crumpetz know off engine technology?!? Schnorch!"

[Hasse Wind 46]

One of the reasons I enjoy flying those German planes with proper inline engines in the Other Sim is that you don't have to fiddle with fuel mixtures. Of course this can be quite satisfactorily simulated in OFF by turning auto mixture on. Still, there's a P4 coming, so maybe...

 

Ah, the brilliant German engineers. (Unfortunately Opel seems to have got all the poor ones, as I still keep having trouble with my car...)

[Olham 164]

HW: Unfortunately Opel seems to have got all the poor ones, as I still keep having trouble with my car...

 

Opel is American since the war - belongs to General Motors.

If you want the best German car - the grey eminence of the German automobiles - you should buy an AUDI.

[Hasse Wind 46]

HW: Unfortunately Opel seems to have got all the poor ones, as I still keep having trouble with my car...

 

Opel is American since the war - belongs to General Motors.

If you want the best German car - the grey eminence of the German automobiles - you should buy an AUDI.

 

Not on my salary!

[Bletchley 8]

I think the quadrant on the left is the auxilliary throttle lever (?), the main throttle lever being on the joystick.

 

There was no mixture control. Mixture control was not automatic, either. The carburettor was adjusted at the factory to give optimum mixture at around 1300 m (1800 m for the overcompressed version of the D.IIIa engine), and the engine ran 'lean' below this threshold altitude and increasingly 'rich' above this altitude. You will see that it is already modelled in OFF - fiddling with the mixture control has little effect, other than to kill the engine, and you will notice that the rpm rises slightly after take-off up to the threshold altitude, and then drops thereafter (mixture going from lean to full-rich and then to over-rich). The Allied (French) altitude compensating carburettors (mixture control) were a great improvement on this, giving aircraft such as the SPAD much better performance at higher altitudes (over 12,000 ft), and were introduced as early as late 1916. The Germans did not develop altitude compensating carburettors of their own until late 1917, and did not use them in scouts until the Spring of 1918.

 

Bletchley

Edited November 9, 2010 by Bletchley

[Slartibartfast 153]

Good write up... as to the Stollen I prefer mine with a good melange wrapped in a warm coat sat watching the world go by with the old laptop so it looks like I am working... life is good...

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Thanks Slarti. And life IS good.

 

Bletchley, thanks for the added info. As to the quadrant, from everything I've come across concerning this in the Albs it only controlled spark advance. As you and JFM have noted, the throttle control lever was on the joystick, and just below the triggers on the left side, IIRC. I believe on the D.II and D.III there may have also been an auxilliary throttle control rod located just below the bottom edge ot the instrument panel to the left side, much the same as on the Alb DVa.

 

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[Bletchley 8]

Yes, Lou, you are probably right - I always assumed it must be the auxilliary throttle because it looks throttle-like, but the spark-advance makes sense as well :)

 

Bletchley

[Olham 164]

Perhaps this helps - I had a closer look and translated the words:

 

 

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Yuppers, that is definitely spark advance.

 

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[Olham 164]

Yes, I'd think so, too.

Lou, you said you liked the Albatros' flying behaviour.

Enjoy it's good dive ability, before you will get the D.III with the fragile wings.

The D.II has very stabile wings. (If the AI Nupes' wings would break in dives

like the real pilot's wings, it would be a great advantage).

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Thanks for the warning Olham. BTW, for those who might not understand the basic principle behind the spark adjustment allow me to elaborate.

 

A lean mixture, (such as that found at idle, cruising speed, and/or at lower altitudes), will take longer to burn than a rich mixture. This means the lean mixture needs to be ignited earlier in the compression cycle in order to have a greater burn time to achieve peak cylinder pressure a split second after top dead center of the piston stroke. This is done be advancing the spark timing. Conversely, a rich mixture, (such as that found during acceleration and/or at higher altitudes), will burn faster so it needs to be ignited later in the compression cycle to achieve maximum cylinder pressure at the same point after top dead center as with the lean mixture. This is done by retarding the spark timing. What this meant for the WWI pilot was that he had to fiddle with that lever fairly often as he was flying in order to maintain peak engine performance as air density, engine speed, and altitude changed.

 

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[Olham 164]

Could they hear that they had found the right setting - or did they feel it?

[NS13Jarhead 6]

I had an old Datsun 240Z that I used to adjust the timing on without a timing light. It had a "straight six" engine and dual side-draft carburators. I would turn the distributor cap (advance or retard the spark) until it sounded "right". Then I would go to the back of the car and feel the exhaust for any excessively powerful puffs of gas coming out and very gently twist the distributor until it evened out the exhaust flow. I wonder if the pilots could have done something similar based on the location of the end of the exhaust pipe being almost within arm's reach?

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Many, many years ago I had a Model T Ford as one of my projects. It was fitted with the same type of spark advance/retard lever as the one we are discussing in the Alb D.II. With very little practice I was able to positively feel and hear when I had it set at the right spot for any given speed or driving conditions, in much the same way that NS13Jarhead described.

 

So I say "Yes" to both Olham. WWI flyers could both feel and hear when they had everything dialed in properly.

 

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[Olham 164]

Thank you both Jarhead and Louvert; that reminded me of my first motorbike - a 1954 DKW with 250 ccm.

 

To be precise: my picture shows the handle of the D.III; but should be similar or the same in the D.II?