Serious engine problems!

[Discus]

I´m looking for some advice. Has anyone had trouble with the player aircraft engine power?

Lately, when I succed in having some free time and also succed in the "dispute" with my son, daughters and wife over for some time on our home PC, my aircraft will have some trouble starting. After having to crank the engine more than one time I can take off with no problem as also do my wingmen. But after getting to the next waypoint by pressing X my engine losses power and refuses to start again. Wingmen aren´t affected by thos strange behaviour. What I do is change the aircraft several times until I end up with one whose engine runs normally and then I switch back to the original aircraft. I´ve encountered this in a Tirpitz mission flying a Seafire III as close escort to some Lancasters. The plane that fix the problem was a mz-190-d9. I ended up flying Fw190 D vs Fw190 A8!!

Cheers, Discus

 

[Milton Shupe]

Assuming you have fuel is it possible you are at a higher altitude airport?

Not sure how CFS2 handles fuel air mixture, is it automatic?

If fuel air mixture is adjustable manually, you might have this statement available to you:
fuel_air_auto_mixture = 0 (0=manually adjust, 1 = auto-adjust)

Do you adjust mixture with altitude?


Also, do you have a starter torque parameter in your aircraft.cfg? If so increase the value.

normalized_starter_torque = 0.158

If these statements are not available to you in the cfg file, they can be adjusted in the air file.

If this does not fix it, you can try replacing the table 506 in the air file with one from a working aircraft. Right click the good table, Copy the table to the clipboard.
Right click the bad table,replace it from the clipboard.

 

[Discus]

Assuming you have fuel is it possible you are at a higher altitude airport?

Not sure how CFS2 handles fuel air mixture, is it automatic?

If fuel air mixture is adjustable manually, you might have this statement available to you:
fuel_air_auto_mixture = 0 (0=manually adjust, 1 = auto-adjust)

Do you adjust mixture with altitude?


Also, do you have a starter torque parameter in your aircraft.cfg? If so increase the value.

normalized_starter_torque = 0.158

If these statements are not available to you in the cfg file, they can be adjusted in the air file.

If this does not fix it, you can try replacing the table 506 in the air file with one from a working aircraft. Right click the good table, Copy the table to the clipboard.
Right click the bad table,replace it from the clipboard.

Milton
Thanks for your hiperfast answer!!

I was trying to take of from an aircraft carrier so the altittude wasn´t an issue. At least not before reaching Norway.
In CFS2 you can handle mixture either manually or automatically.
Tonight I will look in the CFG file and AIR file (the latter will be the first time for me, but there is always a first time)

Cheers, Discus

 

[JapLance]

I´m looking for some advice. Has anyone had trouble with the player aircraft engine power?

Lately, when I succed in having some free time and also succed in the "dispute" with my son, daughters and wife over for some time on our home PC, my aircraft will have some trouble starting. After having to crank the engine more than one time I can take off with no problem as also do my wingmen. But after getting to the next waypoint by pressing X my engine losses power and refuses to start again. Wingmen aren´t affected by thos strange behaviour. What I do is change the aircraft several times until I end up with one whose engine runs normally and then I switch back to the original aircraft. I´ve encountered this in a Tirpitz mission flying a Seafire III as close escort to some Lancasters. The plane that fix the problem was a mz-190-d9. I ended up flying Fw190 D vs Fw190 A8!!

Cheers, Discus

Check your fuel tanks after arriving at the new waypoint. Are they empty?. I think it's a bug in CFS2 fuel management when using the shortcut to reach next waypoint..

 

[Fibber]

fuel management

I think Japlance has hit on it. I found that if you watch the fuel gauge and then hit the "X" to go to next waypoint there is a penalty that is paid in fuel. Varies as to the penalty as it depends where the next waypoint was programmed. Hit it too many times and you are bingo! I have tried and found that if you reduce your power THEN hit "x" the penalty doesn't seem to be as much.

 

[Discus]

I think Japlance has hit on it. I found that if you watch the fuel gauge and then hit the "X" to go to next waypoint there is a penalty that is paid in fuel. Varies as to the penalty as it depends where the next waypoint was programmed. Hit it too many times and you are bingo! I have tried and found that if you reduce your power THEN hit "x" the penalty doesn't seem to be as much.

Thanks JP and Fibber for your answers. I haven´t been able to sit in front of my PC. I certainly reduce propeller and engine RPM, and fuel mixture before warping to the next waypoint (unless I have to fight near my airbase in wich case more consumption = less fuel = less weight = more manoeuvrability).

I´ll try this line of investigation tonight.

Discus

 

[Discus]

Well. I haven´t solved the problem yet. Last night I was again trying to start the engine of a Seafire III on an aircraft carrier near the Norweigan coasts but it would start and 10 seconds it would later shut down by itself. The fuel gauge in the on screen gauges indicated 100%. The fuel gauge in the VC and 2D panels indicated empty tanks, no mater wich tank (main or reserve) I selected. Maybe the VC and 2D gauges werent working. I changed my aircraft by adding a slipper tank. The same readings and the same behaviour of the engine. If I pushed the throtles a little the engine would keep on running and I was able to take of. After climbing and with my wing men formed up I reved down the engine and propeller, and lessened the fuel mixture. Then I warped for 20 miles. I appeared at the next waipoint with my speed getting lower and lower. The propeller was turning but with no power at all. I couldn´t start the engine pressing E. Sleeper tank full or not. On screen fuel gauge read something like 96%. VC and 2D fuel gauges red 0%. I tried to shut down the engine manually (0% throttle, 0% mixture, 0 RPM, both magnetos off) to see (jut curious) if the propeller would stop rotating. The propeller kept turning. But after that I could restart the engine manually and recoverd power ¿?

I was tired and tried another mission before going to sleep and had similar problems with a Tempest. In this case engine start up failure in normal CFS2 procedure. Succes if I pushed the throttle a little. That kept the engine running. But after warping and with the on screen gauges indicating tanks almost full (unfortunately I didn´t look the cockpit guages) my engine/propeller again loosed power. I succeded in recovering power by shutting down and starting up the engine manually, but the power was far from the one expected for a Tempest. In clean configuration after ejecting my two wing tanks I could get 170 mph ¿?. I changed the aircraft in flyght to a Spit IX and boom! I reached more than 230 mph in les than a minute. :isadizzy:

More on this mistery to come.

Cheers, Discus

 

[Discus]

Assuming you have fuel is it possible you are at a higher altitude airport?

Not sure how CFS2 handles fuel air mixture, is it automatic?

If fuel air mixture is adjustable manually, you might have this statement available to you:
fuel_air_auto_mixture = 0 (0=manually adjust, 1 = auto-adjust)

Do you adjust mixture with altitude?


Also, do you have a starter torque parameter in your aircraft.cfg? If so increase the value.

normalized_starter_torque = 0.158

If these statements are not available to you in the cfg file, they can be adjusted in the air file.

If this does not fix it, you can try replacing the table 506 in the air file with one from a working aircraft. Right click the good table, Copy the table to the clipboard.
Right click the bad table,replace it from the clipboard.

The Seafire Mk III, by Marc Siegel & Martin Wright, hasn´t a "normalized_starter_torque" parameter in the aircraft.cfg.
I couldn´t find a similar parameter in the air file. It was the first time I opened an air file, I used Aired.

Next I opened the aircraft.cfg of P.H.F. Burnage Hawker Tempest V. It also hasn´t a "normalized_starter_torque" parameter or something even similar. But I found something that atratcted my attention and this is the best place in the world to ask: [propeller] rotation=-1. What is this supposed to mean? What does it control?

Cheers, Discus

 

[Allen]

Can we get a link to said aircraft.

As for your prop question. Here is from the stock P-38F. I filled in the abbreviation with in the "( )"
[propeller]
thrust_scalar=1.0
rotation= -1,1 //Engine 1,2,3,... Rotation direction. 1 = CW (Clockwise rotation), -1 = CCW (Conter Clockwise rotation or anti-clockwise rotation)

 

[Discus]

Can we get a link to said aircraft.

As for your prop question. Here is from the stock P-38F. I filled in the abbreviation with in the "( )"
[propeller]
thrust_scalar=1.0
rotation= -1,1 //Engine 1,2,3,... Rotation direction. 1 = CW (Clockwise rotation), -1 = CCW (Conter Clockwise rotation or anti-clockwise rotation)

Allen

Thanks for your answer

Thanks to Rami´s excelent Readme files, this one from "Tirpitz missions", it took no time to get a link:

"Supermarine Seafire Mk. III by Marc Siegel and Martin Wright

Location: www.flightsim.com

Log in, (get access if you need to), scroll to the bottom of the page (look for ‘main menu’) then go to ‘search file libraries’ (it’s on the right-hand side) Then, in the box that says ‘search for text’ type in ‘Marc Siegel’, then you should see only two files."

And for the Tempest, I copy Rami´s "Battle for Europe" Readme file: Location: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/syb2.cgi?section=cfs&file=TVglare.zip

Thanks also for explaining the propeller parameter in the aircraft.cfg file.

Cheers, Discus