Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Widewing on August 15, 2003, 07:53:05 PM
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Today, I decided to fly the P-51B in the CT (latest setup is western Europe, fall of 1944).
With few enemy in the arena I decided to conduct some simple tests on the aircraft. Since the fuel burn in the CT is 1.0, there's never any reason to take more than 50% gas in a Mustang.
So, after flying to a quite area, I decided to check rate of climb. With about 40% fuel, the B-stang surprised me with a sustained rate of climb of 4,100 fpm from 16k, right up through 19k in MIL power (that means max power, no WEP). Gentlemen, that's Bf 109 country!
Also, the climb rate hovered at 3k per minute from sea level to 5k, where it appears the aircraft shifted to high blower, because the climb rate jumped to 3,900 fpm and stayed there or higher (see above) until passing 22k where it finally eased down to about 3,800 fpm.
If you take a look at the HTC chart (below) you will see that this is WAY above the data provided. I'll assume that the HTC chart reflects max fuel. Nonetheless, at 50% or less fuel load, the P-51B is one hell of a climber. This was confirmed by another pilot who saw better than 3,900 fpm@20k with about 50% fuel.
(http://www.hitechcreations.com/ahhelp/models/charts/p51bclimb.gif)
The next issue centers on maximum speed. I climbed to 20k and leveled with MIL power applied (no WEP). Within a few minutes the P-51B was doing 440 mph TAS. Again, looking at the HTC chart, this is much faster than shown on the chart (see below).
Now, when I was done flying in the CT, I tried the same tests offline and could not duplicate the numbers attained in the CT. What gives here, any explanations?
(http://www.hitechcreations.com/ahhelp/models/charts/p51bspeed.gif)
My regards,
Widewing
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Check the wind?
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The HTC charts are for max internal fuel, just like charts from USAAF and just about every other air force.
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Wind should have no bearing on what the instruments read, except when the wind change. If your flying into the wind your instruments still record your IAS and TAS, there is no ground speed indication in AH.
One pitfall you need to avoid (as I failed to earlier) is the autospeed (autoclimb) setting. Your climb rate numbers will be off as altitude increases because the autospeed does not fly at your best climbspeed at altitude. When comparing with R/L charts (and prolly AH's aswell) you need to fly at the speed listed as best climb speed at any given altitude.
As for top speed I think every plane in AH is a couple of mph slower that what R/L charts suggest, or so I've read in other threads.
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Well, gscholz and I figured it out. It seems that the wind direction on the current CT map is UP!!!! Every aircraft in the CT sees about a 1k per minute increase in climb rate. The first wind layer is at 4k. As soon as you pass 4k, your climb rate goes up by nearly 1k per minute.
Glad I didn't know that when I tackled those two 109s... Lol
B-Stang still ate 'em up....
My regards,
Widewing
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Why would they put the wind direction up? Thats just silly.
I like the B-stang. However it is slower than the P51D on the deck and at 25,000. At 30k it is about 3mph faster.
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Originally posted by davidpt40
Why would they put the wind direction up? Thats just silly...
Originally posted by Mister Fork
:eek: - fixed the winds. Had rise on. Eep! There are now just annoying headwinds from the south with NO rise...