Quick question on stalling

[RandomFlash]

I understand that WW2 planes were not as agile as they are today. Every plane had (and has) its limits. But when flying some of the larger aircraft, the "climbing rate" cannot exceed something like 5 degrees before that incessant buzzing sound starts up and you plane loses control as it start to show signs of stalling  . I know the programmers who wrote the codde for the physics engine in the game spent alot of time at their screen making sure players would be exposed to only the most realistic experience. So I know it's obviously something I'm doing wrong.
  But most planes I've tried can't even successfully take off from a carrier. Maybe one of you veterans can reveal some of the secrets of obtaining maximum lift while taking off. I'm sure it's something with those flaps.

[ft]

Hmm, first off, full flaps are for landings. You generally don't want to use them for takeoffs. Too draggy.

A common mistake is not letting the plane get up to speed. A plane has two speeds of interest during the initial climb-out, Vx and Vy. At Vx, you will have the best (steepest) climb angle and at Vy you will have the best rate of climb.

Falling below these will give you a slow climb and in some of the planes modelled, ending up on the "backside of the power curve" should be quite possible. In this region of slow flight all your available thrust is spent on countering the drag, making acceleration out of this region without lowering the nose impossible.

Has anyone ever made V-speed tables for the planes in AH? Just getting back into it all and guessing a Vref made the stall horn come on in the early flare in the Arado... Right there and then, I was glad it is not my real butt in the pilot's seat!

Cheers,
  /ft

[GunnerCAF]

On a carrier take off, use a notch of flaps, go to full power and turn on WEP.  Stear it down the deck and off the end.  Keep it level, pull up your gear and flaps.  You should have speed now to start a climb.

I hear the auto-take-off can be a problem on carrier take offs, so you may want to turn it off.  If you are still having problems, try to lighten your load.  If you need lots of rockets and bombs, try backing off on fuel.  

If you have a heavy aircraft on a runway, you may need all the runway.  Keep it on the ground and pull lightly at the end of the runway just enough to get your gear and flaps up.  Stay as level and straight as possible until the stall horn quits, then you should be able to climb.

Once you get the feel of it, it will become more automatic.  Good luck.

Gunner <CAF>

[Dux]

As for flaps, don't extend them until you near the end of the runway... they will (if they are modelled correctly, and I think they are) cause drag and reduce your acceleration.

[Seeker]

If you enable auto take off, hit wep as soon as you can, and pop two notches of flaps at the very last minute, you'll take off from a C.V. even in a fully heavy D-Hog. Try it a couple of times and watch what the trim indicators do. That's the control movements you need to make in a manual take off.

As for the buffs, the climb angle is right. Fully laden with bombs and fuel for a 10 hour flight, these birds took several hours just to get up to cruise alt. Think of an 8 hour run to berlin and back. You know how fast a Fort is in level flight, you know how far Berlin is from England, how much time do you think was spent ascending?

[ft]

Oh yeah. One more thing. At least for conventional gear fighters, get the tail up in the takeoff roll! This will stop the wings from generating lift until you rotate and rid you of induced drag. Especially when taking off from carriers, this should be important. As a sidenote I can mention that in the good old 1942:PAW getting the tail up was essential unless you wanted a short flight and a swim.

Cheers,
  /ft

[Booky]

Never use more than 3 notches of flaps on take off. I can successfully get off the CV with a F4U-D with 8rkts and 2 1k bombs and 100% gas. Just start eng. full power + WEP, about half way down deck drop 3 hit to flaps. When you get to end of CV let the plane fall off deck some, youshould come close to the water before you start to maintain level flight. Make sure you raise gear as soon as possible. Once you maintain level flight raise flaps 1 hit at a time. Well this works for me and if it gets a Hog off the deck fully loaded, any other plane you try to TO in should work as well.

[Betown]

It really depends on what you are doing. One of the ways I have found to take the Lanc off is to stick down full flaps and then lift the tail. You can usualy get into the air really quickly if you are heavy with a long distance raid.

Flaps are used to generate lift and drag. During the landing flaps can be used to assist in controling the level of glide and can also be used to generate a lot of drag if used correctly.

When landing on a CV deck the use of flaps is essential, espessily when trying to do it in a Lanc