Dear Pyro:
I had to write some "flight manuals" for my squad pals, and during the process I have discovered some interesting facts. HITECH ask me to pass these hints to you, as they might be helpful on the improvement of the P-38L flight model. I have been studing old USAAC intructional films, the original P-38L Flight Manual (50+ years old... and a tresure in our family as it once belonged to my father in law when he flew P-38s), other several technical books and all coincide in the following items:
EGINES RPM: I have noticed that the power settings and engine rpm on the AH P-38L FM are inacurate, and maybe this has something to do with the reported lack of acleration. The P-38Ls were equiped with Allison V-1710-111 for the right wing and Allison V-1710-113 for the left wing, able to reach 3.000 rpm in normal operation, being these the recommended power settings, acording to the original aircraft manual:
TAKEOFF AND MILITARY: 3000 RPM 54" AUTO RICH 162 GALS/HOUR/ENGINE
WAR EMERGENCY: 3000 RPM 60" AUTO RICH 160 GALS/HOUR/ENGINE
NORMAL RATED: 2600 RPM 44" AUTO RICH 115 GALS/HOUR/ENGINE
MAXIMUM CRUISE: 2300 RPM 35" AUTO LEAN _60 GALS/HOUR/ENGINE
I have tables for power settings and comsumptions in several phases of flight and aircraft weights nad altitudes, but is too extense to be included in this e-mail and to take more of your precious time.
FUEL TANKS: The P-38Ls (and some last model P-38Js) were issued with 6 fuel tanks, 2 x 93 GALS. MAIN WING TANKS on the rear part of the inner wing, 2 x 60 GALS. RESERVE TANKS on the front part of the inner wing, besides the pilot, and....missing in AH..... 2 x 55 GALS. OUTER WING TANKS on the outer wing leading edges, besides 1 or 2 165 or 300 GALS. DROP TANKS. The Flight Manual recomended the following order for compsumption for those tanks:
1) Reserve tanks for the first 15 minutes of flight (something to do with a not messurable amount of fuel on those tanks)
2) External drop tanks
3) Outer wing tanks
4) Main fuel tanks
5) Reserve tanks
FLAPS: The P-38 late variants were equiped with a Fowler type of flaps, as you very well modelled (I love the animation of their deployment), but it only had 3 positions: UP, MANEOUVRE and FULL. The maneuvre position coincided with a 50% flaps down and was used for combat up to 250 MPH, acording to the manual. I would encourage you to fix this problem in the FM, as my pals, as many other pilots, were using only 1 notch of flaps (of the 4 actually avalaible) as MANEUVRE and though the P-38 on AH was "castrated" and not well modeled acording to their readings....
DIVE FLAPS: I hope those devices will be included soon... we already missed them in WB for several years....
STALL: The P38 had no tendency to drop any wing on a stall, due to the neat effect of the propellers (toque and air wash efect on surfaces) and the good distribution of mass. This was put to a good use in combat to perform very tight turns, driving the plane in the in-and-out the stall regime, while other fighters had a tendency to spin if tempted to follow or... failed to evade the pursuer P38s. Actually the AH P38 FM drops one wing viciously while stalling... There are reports of P-38s turning inside japanese Zeros at 1.000' AGL and 100 MPH. I believe this to be actually inacurate in AH, but I dont know if it could be corrected
STALL WARNING: On the other hand, I have noticed that all planes start the STALL WARNING sound at least 15 MPH before the real stall. This is not only really annoying (due to the constant buzz sound on the speakers - my wife will kill me one of these days), but also inaccurate. I want to remember from my Aerodinamics classes from college, that those fighters were cetified to activate stall warning at about 7% above stall speed. Making use of that important cue, a good pilot could take a good advantage of the maximum lift of the wing, being it just before the real stall. I then ask you the personal favor to please correct this error, it will not only make a much quieter simulation, but also an accurate one.
I don't even know if you will read the e-mail, but I hope that if you do, these statistics help you somehow. If you need more info on this or other subjects, please let me know. I still have a ton of small thing I would like to share with you, but I understand that you might be really busy, so I will not abuse more of your time. Thank you for your work and dedication for this gift to all aficionados, such is AH.
Plase take good care.
Miguel A. González Domingo
GADGET
gadget@ncsa.es
http://www.geocities.com/~ala-10/ ------------------
101 Escuadrón de Combate Virtual
