Uptown - P51 WEP

[Chalenge]

I wrote 'Bud' Anderson and a few other pony pilots from the war about the power settings for the P51D. Bud had what I would call the best reply and answered most of the questions I put to him. Concerning the 'quadrant wire' he confirms its use to mark FMP and beyond which was WEP.

I am pretty sure that we had war emergency power in our
mustangs but I have little recall about it and never used it that I
remember. According to the Pilots handbook if you needed war emergency
power you pushed the prop pitch to full 3000 rpm and also the throttle
  to full and then past the detent breaking the wire and again full
travel. This gave you 6 more inches of manifold pressure At sea level
you could get 61" of manifold pressure with 3000rpm for take off under
normal situations. So that would be 67" at sea level. It would be
degraded some at altitude perhaps depending when the supercharger cut
it.  At high altitude in combat or any altitude you use whatever the
situation called for, full throttle or even idle power if necessary. if
you used war emergency you were required to write the amount of time
used and after 5 minutes of such use the engine was required to be
inspected. Back to your question most likely in actual combat at high
altitude you would use full throttle until the situation called for
something different. Hope this answers your question. Sincerely (bud
anderson)

Note that he said he never used it? My question about high altitude was about engine heat. You see the engine should not overheat in the P51 but I think HT uses it as a way to limit WEP and to better recreate RW limitations. There have been other games that forced the P51D to use 70% power for most flying or the engine overheats. It looks like AH is still the best going! 

[Guppy35]

Seems like I remember the Spit drivers referring to it as pushing through the 'gate' when they rammed the throttle to get wep and broke that wire between full throttle and wep.

[Chalenge]

I asked about the wire because inspecting quadrants I have come across I havent found any sign of the wire. After talking with one of the modern day pony owners at an airshow I was convinced the wire was urban legend but now I have it from a pilot that 'was there.' I guess once my 'pit' is finished I will have to have a special ceremony once the wire is broken.   

[Guppy35]

I pulled out the pilot's notes for the Spit VIII and it does specifically mention the 'gate'

For take off  "Open the throttle slowly to the gate if +12 lb/sq.in. boost is needed.

Seems like +12 boost was full throttle and +18 boost was max.  I know I've seen a photo showing the wire on the throttle, but can't for the life of me find it.

[Furball]

I pulled out the pilot's notes for the Spit VIII and it does specifically mention the 'gate'

For take off  "Open the throttle slowly to the gate if +12 lb/sq.in. boost is needed.

Seems like +12 boost was full throttle and +18 boost was max.  I know I've seen a photo showing the wire on the throttle, but can't for the life of me find it.

They had the 'gate' on Lancasters too, i don't think WEP is modelled in game on them.

[uptown]

It's funny you should post that Chalenge, for I usually fly around in max cruise..41mp & 23 rpms, and use full throttle as wep. I really only use wep for emergencys and gain the advantage in a reverse during a knife fight.
But one thing I never really understood is why manifold pressure does not increase between the altitudes of 13 to 16K? I'm thinking it's supercharger related, but from what I'm getting from "bud" Andersons comments, those alts are not necessarily set in stone. Could this be because of their fuel mixture and density of air at any given alt? But, then again, after you break 16k the wep comes back again.
So why the dead spot between 13 and 16K?

[SectorNine50]

Uptown, it's because the Supercharger hadn't changed speeds, so when your at max throttle at those speeds, the supercharger is already working as hard as it can to reach the manifold pressure requested.  Once you hit that point where WEP comes back, that's when the supercharger changed speeds.  At least that's my understanding.

I'm guessing it varies very much from pilot to pilot and scenario to scenario, I watched something that said WEP was used in all sorts of maneuvers among spit pilots.  I assume it was probably used more in 1v1 scenarios than anything.  I know this is considered somewhat of a lame source, but I was watching a Dogfights episode where they specifically said a P-47 pilot threw the Jug into WEP when engaged in a continuous flat turn with a 109, and actually started gaining on the 109.

[hitech]

uptown: The super charger takes HP to create pressure.

At the altitudes where the MP is not increasing it is more efficient to run at lower MP than to change gears of the Super Charger.
As the MP continues to drop, it will become more efficient to run in the higher gear, and we change the Super Charger to hi blower and your MP increases,total HP output from the engine increases, but your propeller horse power does not because the extra HP is taken by the Super Charger.

[Chalenge]

It's funny you should post that Chalenge, for I usually fly around in max cruise..41mp & 23 rpms, and use full throttle as wep. I really only use wep for emergencys and gain the advantage in a reverse during a knife fight.
But one thing I never really understood is why manifold pressure does not increase between the altitudes of 13 to 16K? I'm thinking it's supercharger related, but from what I'm getting from "bud" Andersons comments, those alts are not necessarily set in stone. Could this be because of their fuel mixture and density of air at any given alt? But, then again, after you break 16k the wep comes back again.
So why the dead spot between 13 and 16K?

Just to clarify about 'high altitude' we are talking above 25k. Even the four versus four fight that 'Bud' talked about in the dogfight episode featuring him he was above 20k. Most of the fights in AH at that height quickly go to lower altitudes.