Balzarog

Before I start up, and all during the warm up, the needle of the CHT gage sits just above 150. Last night, as I was doing an “Instant Action” free flight, my engine died as I was trying to get the hang of a proper controls setup for raising and lowering the gear. When I scanned the gages to figure out why the engine died, I noticed that the CHT needle was below 120 (Caution, do not allow CHT to drop below 125 ....). So, it appears that the gage does in fact work. I posted my original question after having seen it before starting, during warm up and early flight only. I’ve been a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration licensed airframe and powerplant mechanic for 44 years, and I must say that I have never seen a temperature gage that indicated at the top of it’s range before startup, and that didn’t move during a 30-minute warm up, so I stand by my thought that the CHT gage is bugged.

I read in one of the threads that is what one of the users does, but as I said, I open the throttle about an inch, and it starts first time, every time. I use the same throttle setting on all my airplanes. The only time i’ve Ever used a full throttle to start a reciprocating engine was on my old cars, and that was only to open the choke.

I’ve noticed on startup that the cylinder head temperature (CHT) gage is pegged at 150 before starting the engine, and doesn’t move at all while the engine is running on the ground or in flight. This could be a problem since the specs require we keep the CHT above 125 degrees C during flight. Has anyone else noticed this? I would expect the CHT to be ambient temperature during a cold start and gradually rise to the 150 degrees C as it warms up.

Most of the earlier WWII fighters were equipped with guns that were about 0.30 Caliber. Most were upgraded as the war progressed because of the increased armor on later model airplanes.

How about using an apples to apples comparison instead of an apples to oranges. Compare the I-16 7.62mm rounds, rate of fire, and gun spacing to the Spitfire Mk IX 0.303 caliber rounds, rate of fire, and gun spacing since they are both basically 0.30 inch instead of the P-51’s 0.5 inch rounds. You’ll have a much more accurate comparison for how effective the I-16 might be.

I must confess that the engine has started for me on the first try, every time for about a dozen starts. I follow the specified start procedure EXACTLY. While the starter spool up sound is nice, it isn’ really necessary. Follow the procedure and left-click with the mouse on the pull-push switch and count to 12. At 12, immediately right-click on the switch. Hold the right-click until the engine starts. The only thing I do that isn’t in the instruction, is to crack the throttle about an inch, as I do with every other reciprocating engine that I have. Follow the instructions, and the engine should start first time, every time. As a side note, i’ve never heard the inertial starter in the -190 spool up either.

While the supplied manual is rudimentary, it has very good graphics of the instrument panel and views of the cockpit with each switch, gage, and control itemized in English. The cockpit is very simple, unlike the -109 or -190, so it takes only a couple of times to learn the switches and gages. An English cockpit, while nice, isn’t really necessary if you read the instructions.

Use Canopy open/close command.

I have taken off in the I-16 about four times now, and haven’t crashed once. I advance the throttle gently, dance on the pedals, and get the tail up as soon as possible. Be aware that the tail wheel is linked to the rudder, so getting the tail up as soon as possible (like the spit) should make takeoff less difficult. I must admit that i’ve flown the I-16 in “the other WWII Eastern Front” game, so that might have helped. Now if I can just get the gear up ....

Outstanding!!!! The master has arrived.:book:

I don’t believe anyone on this forum can answer that question. That is something that only the module designer can provide. The video you attached showed a very rudimentary model at what seemed very early in the process. Perhaps the sound scripts conflicted with some other part of the model. If the lack of the starter flywheel sound really bothers you, submit a bug report.

For crying out loud, it’s Early Access! According to specs on “the other WWII Eastern Front” flight combat game, it has ground adjustable trim tabs, the same as all the other WWII airplanes, except the P-51. The Spitfire is the only reciprocating European fighter in DCS that has an actual elevator trim. The Germans have only an adjustable horizontal stabilizer (angle of incidence), which isn’t a true trim tab. None of the Europeans have adjustable roll trim, so the developers have to program the “straight and level flight model” for a specific true airspeed. Give the developer some slack.

I’ve followed the starting procedure in the rudimentary manual step by step about half a dozen times, and it has started on the first try every time. I crack the throttle about one inch, the same as I do on every reciprocating engined airplane that I have. I really think the key is switching the pressurization valve from 12 O’clock to 9 O’clock for three seconds, then switching it from 9 O’clock to 6 O’clock for three seconds, then switching it back to 12 O’clock. Check the fuel pressure gage to ensure you have at least 1 atm pressure.

Thank you for confirming that. My wife usually doesn’t allow me to fly until after supper. :music_whistling: Another thing I noticed, and this might be just an issue with my Warthog, when I move my ailerons, my elevators move slightly. When I move my pitch, my ailerons move slightly. I don’t know if this is some sort of “auto coordination” or a bug. I need to test it on one of my other taildraggers.

And you know this from what quoted historical source? Military pilots of WWII era always found ways to make their jobs easier, even though it was not the “required method.” I remember reading an account of U.S. Marine and Navy pilots in the Buffalo or Wildcat not cranking down the gear in the specified manner. Instead of cranking, they would unlock the gear, start to crank it down, and then rock the plane from side to side to allow gravity and inertia to lower the gear. Strictly unauthorized, but much faster. How do you know that Soviet pilots didn’t use similar unauthorized methods to easy their flight? Also this aircraft had ground adjustable trim tabs in the elevator and ailerons that were set to fly straight and level at a specific true airspeed, exactly the same as the Bf-109 and the Fw-190.

The Developer has already included a number of skins for the I-16; Spanish Nationalist, Spanish Republican, Finnish, and I think some others. Just do quick missions or create missions with the historic adversaries. Now you have adversaries. They don’t have to be existing German aircraft!

Don’t know about that. According to the specifications for the I-16 in “the other WWII Eastern Front” flight game, the I-16 ceiling is more than 20k feet. Anyway, the mixture is supposed to be automatic when set to normal (all the way fwd).

According to the I-16 specifications in “the other WWII Eastern Front” flight game (I flew it there last night to compare the two flight models), mixture is automatically controlled when the mixture is in normal. Those specs say that you can move the control out of normal to manually control the mixture (but why would want to other than to test it).

In the specifications description for the I-16 in “the other WWII Eastern Front” flight game, it states that the mixture is set to normal (I believe that’s the term), and the mixture is automatically adjusted while it is fully forward in the normal position. You can manually adjust mixture by moving it back out of normal. Unless the Developer provides us with expanded specifications in the manual, I don’t know of any way to check it outside of trying to adjust the mixture control in flight and watching for RPM changes. So, we’ll just have to trust that the DCS model works the same. Also, for what it’s worth, those specifications also stated that the tail wheel is connected by linkage to the rudder. That one we can test by using an external view to see if the tailwheel moves as we use the rudder pedals. I haven’t had time to test it yet.

I have a Warthog H.O.T.A.S., and I mapped the prop pitch (RPM) to my left throttle. Works perfectly.

Having flown it in both VR and TrackIR in another flying combat game, I bought it on 5/10 when I got the e-mail of the news sight unseen. Everyone just has to accept that this is an early release module, so it WILL have it’s issues. Report them and wait patiently for OctopusG to work them out. I shoutout an extremely well earned WELL DONE!

Congratulations on this EARLY RELEASE little gem! I put “EARLY RELEASE” in caps because there are some folks out there who will focus on, and complain about bugs and issues that just need to be worked out during the process. I love flying the WWII prop jobs, even though I suck at landing them, so I bought this on 5/10 as soon as I read about it, knowing that there would be some issues to be overcome. This is probably the most complete and bug-free early releases i’ve seen so far in DCS. You folks have done a fantastic job with the I-16.

They "refuse" to provide "in-flight adjustable trim" because the "real life" airplane never had them.

You are absolutely correct about it being a GROUND adjustable trim tab. The elevator, ailerons, and rudder have trim tabs that are adjustable by the ground crew only. They are NOT adjustable while in flight. The only adjustment you can make in flight is to the incidence angle of the horizontal stabilizer. The elevators are attached to the trailing edge of the horizontal stabilizer. You can use the wheel in the left side of the cockpit to adjust the horizontal stabilizer angle of incidence to compensate for higher or lower takeoff weight of the airplane. It is NOT a trim tab like those in the P-51 or the Spitfire. The Misc tab in the options menu provides you the opportunity to pretend you are part of the ground crew and "fine tune" your pitch, roll, and yaw for a specific ATA, but you still can't adjust them th flight. That is how it was in "real life." The Fw-190D is the same as the BF-109k-4.