The A2A Simulations Community

In January I started a tour with the RAF Tomahawk IIb. The tour began in RAF Thorpe Abbots and I today I reached Cotonou in Benin.

Here's a list of the complete tour until now:
RAF Thorpe Abbots - Coltishall - Calais Dunkerque - Montpellier - Punta Raisi Sizilien - Luqa Malta - Karthago - Tabarka - El Aroui - Taza Sandstrip - Ouarzazate - Plage Blanche - Dakhla - St. Louis (Senegal) - Dakar (Senegal) - Banjul Intl. - Bissau - Spriggs Payne - San Pedro Elfenbeinküste - Accra - Cotonou





Around 30 hours on the clock and I've had only some small problems. In San Pedro (Ivory Coast) I had to change both brakes because they were completely worn.
After the landing in Accra the maintenance hangar showed all filters (fuel, oil and air) in yellow. I thought, okay, just watch it closely.
The next trip should go to Lagos in Nigeria, but after approximately one hour of flight, the engine started to sputter and I decided to land in Cotonou (Benin).
The maintenance hangar stated inspect engine, but the filters were still yellow. I did a restart on the ground but the engine was still running rough. After having cleaned all filters, the engine ran smooth again.
So for the next time, there's a longer flight, I'll clean the filters in advance.

For most of the flights I travelled at around 15000ft with 2300 rpm and 27" MP.
What are your preferred settings?





Jens

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"Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please."

That sounds like a interesting tour. So far I've just been flying around the US trying to get used to range and all the different systems. Usually I cruise at 15,000 with 27" and 2300 RPM. Sometimes I have gone up to 18,000 to try and get some more speed/range.

Have you flown with the drop tank?

How many hours in the air has that been so far?

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Jim

I often use the drop tank instead of carrying fuel in the fuselage tank, because it's easier to trim. Fuel in fuselage tank shift the CG too far aft.

I think the longest flight was around 2,5 hours.

Only bad thing with the drop tank is, that you don't know, when it's empty. There is no fuel gauge. I cheated a little with the shift + 4 Panel and subtract the other tank's fuel weight from the whole amount of fuel.
Waiting until the engine sputters can't be the solution to switch from drop tank to wing tank. How did the pilots figured out, when there is not much fuel left? Calculating time of flight with drop tank with the help of average fuelconsumption at a specific height and engine power?

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"Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please."

Watching for fuel pressure drops is a sign that fuel is running low and a new tanks needs to be selected. All the more reason to pay attention in the pit, although I tend to wait for the sputtering...

Hi,

I am on my way around the world with my p40, I have made one trip around the world with all my accu sim aircraft. I stay at 30,000 feet, making an average of 1700 nm before I land and fill the tanks. But its hard to get her to stop rocking when I fly with aouto pilot on, do you have the same problem?

Best regards,
Stefan

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Yes, this is the only sign just before sputtering. I use the level auto pilot, doing some stuff alongside at home during such long distance flights.
And you need left rudder trim to keep the plane on course.

I think a rocking plane is because of weather and wind shifts using FSX's real weather. Changing altitude can be the solution.

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"Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please."

Did you get the autopilot working in the P-40? It does not seem to work at all with my P-40, but the Spit for example has it working. I checked the entries of both airplanes in the aircraft-cfg and it is the same. Does anybody know about this "minor problem"?

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The fuel pressure gauge doesn't give you much warning; only a few seconds after it starts to drop the engine starts sputtering so you need to have an idea about when it will run dry if you are not paying attention.

When I am cruising I like to move the prop to manual. Seems to be a smoother ride that way as the prop doesn't hunt around for the proper rpm.

What do you figure is the best altitude and power settings for maximum range ?

I haven't changed anything in aircraft.cfg except some new plane skins.
The level autopilot works with the default z key (on german keybord layout), noticing with the beep - beep - beep if you turn it off.

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"Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please."

My Spitfire does have a working AP with "beep-beep-beep" to confirim it's off, while my P-40 does not react at all upon pressing "Z", which means also no "beeps"... I will do further testing, strange thing...

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Hi,

I use Ctrl+t to turn the "autopilot" on, but she only holds the altitude not the heading, so I must trim the rudder my self.

25000ft - 30000ft is where I fly the longest routes, Mixture on auto lean, manifold pressure is as high as I can (on that altitude it is maybe 22-25) and RPM 2300. With a ground speed at 290-350mph its easy to fly at least 1500Nm.

The sky is so beautiful up there, so clear

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Auto pilot: Ctrl+t to turn it on, Z to turn it off.

To turn the auto pilot on with Z don't work in my P-40, but Ctrl+t does. But if I turn it on with Ctrl+t and off with the Ctrl+t, it turns off but next time I use it she don't hold the altitude any more, I don't know why. So thats why I turn it on with Ctrl+t and off with Z , then I hear the loud piip piip piip sound

Best regards,
Stefan

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the Radio switch must be turned on to use the autopilot feature in FSX, I think accusim has linked "radios" to "avionics" for the on/off sense in the P40 and the Spitfire

Here are the results of the last flights:
Cotonou - Calabar - Tchibanga (Gabun) - Luanda - Walvis Bay (Namibia) - Cape Town - Durban - Maputo.





The flight from Cape Town via Durban to Maputo was a VOR-to-VOR flight plan and took almost 4.5 hours. I travelled at 24.100ft. 17% of oxygen was left at the end. I took the drop tank but after landing there were still 15 gallons in the reserve tank.

Engine and airframe have now 45,7 hours. After around 40 hours I had to repair the radiator. The generator has been marked in yellow for 9 hours.

Kind regards
Jens

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"Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please."

Your like the P-40 Magellan.