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Sometime I get mad and like to break things. I'm noticing that no matter how hard I land or crash, there seems to be no way to damage the P-51's landing gear under any circumstance. I'm pretty sure Accusim is working because I get spectacular prop stikes, hydraulic leaks, worn breaks, etc. My landing gear always comes out unscratched though.

Just once, I would like to really break my P-51's landing gear and then be able to put it up on the jacks for repair. I would be such a happier person.

Thank you.

Lower your gear @ 400+mph dive

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"The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams

I had my gear go yellow the other day for some less than decent landings. Try putting it through it's paces. Take-off, land hard, take-off, land hard. I think eventually it will snap.

You want to break it for sure, just simulate a hydraulic pressure failure and don't rock it.

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You guys have re-inspired me, thank you. I shall follow the sound advice of all and commence trying to break my gear again.

Even though FSX have years of coding behind it, it does have its bugs - ground collision detection is one of those. Sometimes you wreck your undercarriage on some invisible objects, or going from runway to taxiway, sometimes the aircraft bounces, sometimes it feels indestructible, as if the runway was made from rubber

It makes beta testing quite interesting

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Chris Oleksy

I've yet to destroy the engine from running it at war emergency power continuously.

Best regards,
Robin.

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A2A/AccuSim. 'nuff said!

Me neither

After take off I firewalled my throttles, breaking the throttlegate wire. RPM was 3000.
I flew for 20 mins without a problem, keeping my airspeed around 150-200 mph.

Oil temp was a single division above redline and Coolant temp was at redline.:


After landing then this:



FinnJ

This was discussed heavily, in regards to how much time you can run that engine at WEP. All the evidence we had found showed that it wouldn't wear down your engine in a catastrophic explosion when doing over five minutes for example. The manifold regulator does a good job of keeping the plane within limits and not destroying itself. You can be assured however that running it for long on WEP can and WILL wear your engine at a very accelerated rate.

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It makes sense...

Running it only for 20 mins might not be enogh. Temps where not that high and RPM was still kept at 3000 RPM.

But I think that "random" failures should be more likely putting such high strain on the engine.

What puzzles me a bit is that the Spitfire would start to "cook over" doing this.
I know that the P-51 cooling system is alot better than on the early Spitfire marks - but still !!


FinnJ

A lot better almost seems like an understatement. North American Aviation had the opportunity of understanding the predecessors. They designed the intake do be aligned under the fuselage and the propeller specifically for this reason. The air flow coming from the prop alone helps significantly. The early Spitfires were barely adequate. When you are warming up sometime you may find your coolant to be very high while your oil temperature is still fairly low. You can open up your coolant door and rev up the prop a bit higher to get better airflow and you will see the affects that is has on your coolant temperature. I've done this before under certain circumstances to delay the coolant temperature rise while waiting for the oil temperature to get up. Just have to watch the oil pressure.

Interestingly enough the vent for the coolant system is present on the P-51 like it is with the Spitfire. The system is so much more adequate at cooling however that few people ever see that vent pop open.

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I just made a similar test with the Spitfire MkIIb...

While coolant temp reached 120°+ and oil temp max needle deflection, the engine kept running nice.
Alot of coolant was lost through the vent -> 7% for those 20 mins.

This was with the coolerdoor fully open.

I think I must conclude that it isn´t unrealistic, but I should expect the engines to wear down quicker and for the Spitfire the amount of coolant will definitly sets a limit for how long it´s possible to run full power.

I can clearly see that the cooler system on the P-51 is alot better than on the Spitfire MkI-II.


FinnJ

You have to get that coolant REALLY hot in both the Spitfire and Mustang to start causing catastrophic damage. The wear rate however is much more significant when you start pushing them that hard, and even more noticeable with an engine that is already not in pristine condition. From memory on the P-51, 5 minutes of WEP required them to inspect the engine. She'll run for a long time on WEP though, but you really must be cautious. Also keep in mind that the Packard Merlins were built outside of Britain, and as we were not under war conditions the quality seems to be a bit higher. I'm not really qualified to speak however on the quality so that is just conjecture.

I could imagine that at higher altitudes with colder air causing the oil temperature to cool down that excessive use of high power could cause a lot of problems. Again however, I don't know this from experience.

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From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_emergency_power

Seems that up to 5 hours of WEP use (I guess thats the accumulated number over serveral flights) before the engine had to be totally overhauled.
The engine should be inspected though when WEP had been used.

FinnJ

Interesting discussion!

Best regards,
Robin.

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A2A/AccuSim. 'nuff said!