Hey Pyro - What about a Fuel Mixture Light

[joeblogs]

Pyro:

I think there's limits to how much engine management a game should require players to do, but here's a simple idea that might benefit players regardless of skill or experience:

Why not add on the dashboard a simple light or switch that tells you if, at your current MAP and RPM, then engine is running in auto-lean or auto-rich.  Nothing more.  

This would help pilots when they want to maximize their endurance.  Yet it would not require them to memorize a lot of engine settings for differnet planes.

It would not hurt to have a similar light or switch that tells the pilot what suprcharger setting the engine is running at.  

-Blogs

[Kweassa]

Gotta admit this.

 The introduction of Complex Engine Management mode in Forgotten Battles was really a great experience for me.

 Managing the engine in different conditions and situations, is a real thrilling experience.

 Things like not being able to do a power dive going 500mph blindly, having to watch out for over-revving the engine.. not being able to just switch on MW50 whenever and whatever way you want... watching your control over the throttle..  having to watch coolant and engine temperatures... setting radiator positions, controlling mixture and etc etc..

 ...

 I'd like to sea more complex engine management options in AH2, too. But I think half the fun is learning which guages mean which, what to watch, which situation to remember and etc etc.. I don't think adding in a separate 'crutch' guage, is a good idea.

[Batz]

The CEM in FB is porked. Slowly the details are coming out. Over revving in VVS planes is impossible. There is a thread on SimHQ that has tracks and a good explanation.

It gives you more "fiddling" around to do but theres some real problems with it.

The lack of instant action in il2 and long flight times used to be boring. Now you can distract yourself a bit with CEM. But so far its poorly done.

Also in most lw planes you dont need to do much other then set fuel mixture depending on alt and maybe use mw50.

[2Hawks]

I think this would be a good thing for the bomber pilots to do. Getting those huge beasts off the ground took a lot of skill and presently I think the modeling of that difficulty is very poorly done, and not adequatly compensated by hills at the end of the runways.

Not to mention I often will leave my Bomber on autopilot while I do other things for an hour and come back for 15 minutes of bombing then another hour back to base...

CEM would give me something interesting to do.

2Hawks

[flakbait]

For a good idea of mixture control, read some of John Deakin's articles under Columns over at http://www.avweb.com regarding LOP (lean of peak) ops.

As for a mixture light "crutch", it's useless. Anyone can just look at the mixture knob and see if it's in auto-lean or auto-rich. Since the automatics are handling the mixture, you don't really have anything to worry about. Auto-lean gives the best range, while auto-rich gives more power for combat. Manual mixture (like some of the foreign birds) is just a PITA, but you get finer control over things. Most US aircraft had automatic mixture control (hence auto lean/rich) which is less fiddling for the pilot to do. Unless you're driving a P-38, of course

Now in FS2k2, playing piano on the mixture knobs is kinda fun. 16GPH in a B58 Baron sure makes for some looooooong flights!


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Flakbait [Delta6]
Delta Six's Flight School
Put the P-61B in Aces High

[joeblogs]

No mixture knob or even a throttle quadrant is modeled on any plane I fly.  Some cockpits have a picture of a throttle quadrant, but it never moves.  I've yet to see a mixture knob on a fighter.


-Blogs

Originally posted by flakbait
For a good idea of mixture control, read some of John Deakin's articles under Columns over at http://www.avweb.com regarding LOP (lean of peak) ops.

As for a mixture light "crutch", it's useless. Anyone can just look at the mixture knob and see if it's in auto-lean or auto-rich. Since the automatics are handling the mixture, you don't really have anything to worry about. Auto-lean gives the best range, while auto-rich gives more power for combat. Manual mixture (like some of the foreign birds) is just a PITA, but you get finer control over things. Most US aircraft had automatic mixture control (hence auto lean/rich) which is less fiddling for the pilot to do. Unless you're driving a P-38, of course

Now in FS2k2, playing piano on the mixture knobs is kinda fun. 16GPH in a B58 Baron sure makes for some looooooong flights!


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Flakbait [Delta6]
Delta Six's Flight School
Put the P-61B in Aces High

[flakbait]

Since AH2 hasn't been released yet, I'm not surprised you haven't seen one. No one has. But when AH2 is released, we'll probably see mixture and prop control levers. If you wanted to see what the engine is doing, simply look at the levers and gauges. Adding a light to tell you what dent the mixture control is in is a little redundant when you can glance at the knob.




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Flakbait [Delta6]
Delta Six's Flight School
Put the P-61B in Aces High

[joeblogs]

Well yes if the throttle quadrant is actually modeled, my suggestion would be redundant.

-Blogs

Originally posted by flakbait
Since AH2 hasn't been released yet, I'm not surprised you haven't seen one. No one has. But when AH2 is released, we'll probably see mixture and prop control levers. If you wanted to see what the engine is doing, simply look at the levers and gauges. Adding a light to tell you what dent the mixture control is in is a little redundant when you can glance at the knob.




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Flakbait [Delta6]
Delta Six's Flight School
Put the P-61B in Aces High

[mosgood]

maybe the ability to bleed off fuel in midair would be nice to have soon  :-)