gamey stuff and real life

[Slate]

  In Game cutting throttle or shutting down can fool the inexperienced. Many times you get these BNZ guys intent on picking. Act like you don't see them as they zoom in for the kill and if you do it right they overshoot giving you a shot.
  Half the time the picker will break off after you do a move and fly back up to thier perch looking for easier prey.   

[hitech]

What do you mean by spinner disintegration?

Came apart, decided it did not wish to fly with me any more. It liked to be in many pieces only not all at once so great shaking of the plane was felt. Where there was once a spinner , only a remembrance was left. Loudest noise I have heard in my plane, followed by throttle cut to ideal and engine no longing making that that wind that keeps the pilot cool.

Shaking stopped after last pieces of the back plate waved goodby. Then mixture was enriched and engine instantly came back to life. More power, still no shaking, nearest button on GPS was pressed.  Hearne Texas, very nice crop duster operation there. Turbo prop Air Tractors are cool.
On final something looks different then normal, wheels go screech screech, GREAT! I still have wheels on my plane, pull up next to the 1 hangar, get out. Hmm no spinner on my plane any more, that must be what made that noise.

1 week later after a solid week low ceilings , longest 40 mins I have had in an airplane taking n346ak home. The engined wanted to go into auto rough for some reason.

HiTech

[Shuffler]

The prop at idle creates more drag in AH than cutting the engine off. The reason is that when the engine is off the prop feathers... even though visually you don't see it.

I don't think you'll find where real pilots cut the engine as it may not restart.

[LCADolby]

I like seeing an AHpilot do that with the E key, most of the time it screams out 'I'm easy'.

[Wiley]

The prop at idle creates more drag in AH than cutting the engine off. The reason is that when the engine is off the prop feathers... even though visually you don't see it.

If the prop feathers when it is cut off, does it also feather when the engine dies?  I was always under the impression if you go dead stick you'll glide further if you turn your RPM down.  I had thought turning RPM down feathered the prop as well as turning down the RPM.  Does the turning down of the RPM also make it move through the air easier?

Wiley.

[999000]

I always cut props before landing my B17 on a turning CV..........
999000 <S>

[hitech]

The prop at idle creates more drag in AH than cutting the engine off. The reason is that when the engine is off the prop feathers... even though visually you don't see it.

I don't think you'll find where real pilots cut the engine as it may not restart.

Not entirely true. In AH if the prop feathers, you will see it stop , like on the p38 in which case it does not instantly start, and yes there is less drag when the prop is feathered.

If you see the prop spinning when the engine is off, it will be creating drag, and yes less RPM will create less drag.

HiTech

[Vinkman]

Wouldn't a closed throttle slow you down more than shutting off the engine?

This assumes that the wind moving over the prop is turning it. Like engine breaking a car. No idea how it's modelled in AH.

Also the plane seems to turn better with lower prop RPM. It's why many chop throttle in turns, and claim that's how you make tighter turns. Only reason I can think of that's based in physics would be gyro effect of large spinning prop. Is that effect modeled? I believe I've seen HiTech say that is not the case. If it were, shutting the engine off is taking the gyro effect to Zero. Perhaps that's what those who do it are thinking.

[Vinkman]

No, the concept doesn't work quite well at all.  There is no benefit to shutting down your engine in a fight, just like the thought of using elevator trim to make your plane turn tighter.  Both are AH urban legends that have been debunked many times through the years.  But by all means continue to do it if I'm in the area, I'd love the free and easy kill.

ack-ack

I don't think it's an urban legend that Elevator trim pulls the plane out of dive during compression. This shouldn't work in real life but it does in game. Coad glitch?

[Wiley]

I don't think it's an urban legend that Elevator trim pulls the plane out of dive during compression. This shouldn't work in real life but it does in game. Coad glitch?

The elevator trimming up to save you from compression-induced lawndarting is not making the plane turn tighter, it's allowing the little toon dude in the cockpit to overcome the forces acting on the elevator to be able to pull tighter.

What Ack-Ack is talking about is the belief that at controllable speed, there's a difference between full elevator up and full elevator up plus full trim up.  There isn't a difference, afaik.

Wiley.

[4Prop]

Or simply read a book on the 56th FG and why they were so successful, one of the reasons which they performed fighter sweeps at 30,000ft where german fighters simply could not do anything at all.

exactly where I get my flying style from

[Torquila]

Re: elevator myth

I think its the notion that since trim expresses authority in conditions when it shouldn't it might carry over to non-compressing situations like that as well.

Thus it is a completely *valid* idea and notion to believe since one assumes its coded outside of the basic elevator control system which is the impression you get when you magically control your plane while fully compressed. Even if it is untrue.

What it does do though, is keep your plane turning; so you are less likely to miss degrees you might not of gotten due to the delay in reacting if you are purely responding to actions in the middle of combat.

[colmbo]

What Ack-Ack is talking about is the belief that at controllable speed, there's a difference between full elevator up and full elevator up plus full trim up.  There isn't a difference, afaik.

Wiley.

And even if there is a difference it doesn't matter.  The turn is limited by either blackout or stall....not elevator position.

[Brooke]

Elevator trim would have no effect in compressibility in real life on some planes (such as in the P-38, where trim is the usual trim tab on the elevator) but might in other planes (such as the Bf 109, where trim moved the whole horizontal stabilizer) although that is speculation on my part.

[Torquila]

(such as the Bf 109, where trim moved the whole horizontal stabilizer)

That is a very easy piece of info to forget.