Two Bits for the day

[Sarg Willy]

Setting up Drop tank using CFS-1 panel and gauge
files , Added in Mopar,s drop tank select switch ,
Fired up the aircraft and switched over to drop
tank , Taxied out of Leiston , doing some CFG
Ai weight ck,s 10870 Lb,s empty weight with
full load out , Needed the whole runway to get
lift off , I,m Ok with that , but some English
runways may be shorter than this one , as long
as you remember that fact , you,ll do ok ,
I went to hit the Y key (Slew) and must have
caught the Numeric 6 key above it , which is coded
release drop tank , At 800 ft altitude and 125 Mph
having the engine cut out after lift off , is a bad
thing , Under the wings was 2 x 250 lbers ,
So relizing I must have kicked out the drop tank
I thought no problem just restart the engine ,
I hit the E key , once , twice , three time,s
By now 200 ft and sinking like a stone , I had the
feeling this would end badly , It did !!

Curious the plane would not restart after
release drop tank ,

Investigated the cause showed that the P-47 tank
select was on Main tank , of the 2 available ,
Aux your second choice ,
But where was it on Mopar,s drop tank = Main Tank ,
and it would not restart ???

I guess the sim know,s your on drop tank , goes empty
on detach and does not revert to Main tank that was
still full ,
The repeat test confirmed , you have to click the
P-47 gauge ,cycle to Aux -- and then hit E Key -
which cycles the tank select of the p-47 gauge
back to Main tank , that the sim now recalculates
as full , and allows the restart ,

Panic mode was not the time to figure that one out ,
The end result was replacement of the P-47
select tank gauge , For all of Mopars tank switches ,
Thank,s Mikey ,,

Sarg,s Ghost !!

[misson]

Setting up Drop tank using CFS-1 panel and gauge
files , Added in Mopar,s drop tank select switch ,
Fired up the aircraft and switched over to drop
tank , Taxied out of Leiston , doing some CFG
Ai weight ck,s 10870 Lb,s empty weight with
full load out , Needed the whole runway to get
lift off , I,m Ok with that , but some English
runways may be shorter than this one , as long
as you remember that fact , you,ll do ok ,
I went to hit the Y key (Slew) and must have
caught the Numeric 6 key above it , which is coded
release drop tank , At 800 ft altitude and 125 Mph
having the engine cut out after lift off , is a bad
thing , Under the wings was 2 x 250 lbers ,
So relizing I must have kicked out the drop tank
I thought no problem just restart the engine ,
I hit the E key , once , twice , three time,s
By now 200 ft and sinking like a stone , I had the
feeling this would end badly , It did !!

Curious the plane would not restart after
release drop tank ,

Investigated the cause showed that the P-47 tank
select was on Main tank , of the 2 available ,
Aux your second choice ,
But where was it on Mopar,s drop tank = Main Tank ,
and it would not restart ???

I guess the sim know,s your on drop tank , goes empty
on detach and does not revert to Main tank that was
still full ,
The repeat test confirmed , you have to click the
P-47 gauge ,cycle to Aux -- and then hit E Key -
which cycles the tank select of the p-47 gauge
back to Main tank , that the sim now recalculates
as full , and allows the restart ,

Panic mode was not the time to figure that one out ,
The end result was replacement of the P-47
select tank gauge , For all of Mopars tank switches ,
Thank,s Mikey ,,

Sarg,s Ghost !!
being that true, i just can say that cfs2 like a SIM , still impressing me.

[kelticheart]

Setting up Drop tank using CFS-1 panel and gauge files ,......

Hi Sarg,

what happened to you it's the main reason why I got rid of almost all of CFS1 stock gauges wherever I could. Especially regarding fuel switches, which are terribly inadequate to select the entire range of main and auxiliary fuel tanks in a multi-engined bomber, for example. CFS1 throttle gauges never worked in my CFS2 either, I don't know why.

Even stock CFS2 fuel switch gauges aren't that great. This is obvious when we think the strictly stock package puts you in the cockpit of a few PTO fighters, period. Single engine fighter planes did not usually have a wide array of internal fuel tanks, but some of CFS2 addons had.

Take the Hurricane for example, two fuselage tanks, a main and an auxiliary, and two small wing tanks. The P-40, with two fuselage tanks, one of them erroneously called "wing tank" by many aviation books just because it was created taking advantage of the space under the cockpit floor, created by both wings as a single piece joined in the middle. Such extension of the wing fuselage section was the P-40 "wing tank". All Spitfires had two fuselage tanks, a main and an auxiliary, both located between the engine and the firewall. The P-51 was first produced with two wing tanks, then, shortly after the Merlin-engined "B/C" versions reached the frontline, an extended range fuselage tank was added, allowing Mustangs to escort the heavies deep into German homeland. Several Axis aircrafts had wing/fuselage fuel tank arrays.

The same lack of accuracy goes for the majority of fuel gauges available. Whilst there are plenty of wing tank gauges, basically none of them gives a true, main fuselage tank reading. I'd like to see actual fuel quantity readings as it can be seen on many WWII cockpit pictures, instead of the car-like 4/4, 3/4, 2/4 and 1/4, or even percentage readings. I only found very few gauges displaying how many gallons/litres are left per each tank, some of them are stock CFS1 gauges, whose accuracy one can never be sure of.

I set up all of my 2d panels with a popup fuel panel and a proper fuel icon on the main instrument panel. At the top, all MAPE fuel switches necessary to operate each single tank independently for the others. The airfile tells me how many tanks I can count on, their capacity and location. Since MAPE switches haven't got a switch off, I usually add "Internal tank #3" (I never found an aircraft that uses it) as a switchoff, plus an "all internal tanks" switch when I do not want to bother with too much realism. For the droptanks I use the "all external tanks" switch, pilots flying aircrafts with two wing droptanks did not fool with their flight balance by emptying one droptank before the other one, they were always used up together!
Then I add whatever individual tank fuel gauges to the left and a small stock CFS2 fuel gauge on the instrument panel, with its low fuel warning light (F4F) to keep an eye during flights of the total fuel availability.

I think that the above cannot be improved further with what's downloadable out there. I'll attach a picture of what I mean.

Sarg, I think if you had a setup like mine you would have not risked what you described above. I am saying this because I added external droptanks to several aircrafts, which used them historically, but were uploaded with no provision for them. For example, the German aircraft collection by the late Akemi Mizoguchi.

When I modify an aircraft *.dp file by adding a droptank, I always make sure such tank is present and enabled in the airfile, first. I then test fly the new setup taking off with the droptank on, which I drop suddenly when I reach altitude. After switching to an internal tank, I always restarted my engine with no problems and returned to my airbase.

Cheers!
KH :ernaehrung004:

[kelticheart]

Hello Sarg,

attached below two 2d panels I did, showing what I meant. The first is Araks' P-47D-30 panel and the second Lobo da Silva's P-51 "razorback" panel.

Both have an historical gauge layout as accurate as CFS2 allows it, taken from WWII cockpit pictures. The Mustang fuel panel shows the correct 85 gal. amount of the fuselage tank selected at the moment, while the P-47 shows one of the two fuselage tanks selected. The P-47 shows also the ADF panel, with a WWII-compatible array: ADF radio and finder plus an automatic pilot control. GPS was quite unknown back then!

I touched-up the original *.bmp panel image, where I lowered the instrument panel, simulating a raised pilot seat effect with a better forward visibility. The fuel panel has a generic background where I painted on the acronym for each fuel tank switch. For example, "LT" left tank, "C1" center1 tank, "FT" fuselage tank, "DT" droptank and so on.

The fuel switches are MAPE's, the icon button on the instrument panel to activate the fuel panel comes from the Concorde fuel panel set. My personal standard is navigation panel icons on the left, engine and fuel panel icons on the right. These are fighter panels, in bombers I also use the "all tanks" switch to keep the aircraft weight equally distributed during long bombing missions.

Cheers!
KH :ernaehrung004:

[Rami]

Stefano,

Those panels look great! Very authentic, as you said, considering CFS2's limitations.

[kelticheart]

Stefano,

Those panels look great! Very authentic, as you said, considering CFS2's limitations.

Thank you! If the original authors of the bmp image will not have problems with them, I am more than willing to upload them. As I said, I lowered the "dashboard" because I did not want to go HUD during takeoffs and landings.

Even in combat more visibility comes in very handy, considering we can't stick our heads in the pc screen to "watch our six" better! :biggrin-new:

I have a whole collection of modded 2d panels, I even did stock throttle panels translated in German and Italian, twin-engine controls with Japanese letterings taken from the stock gauges....I set no limits in search for deeper immersion factors, you know, "I can't leave 'em alone"!

The only problem, a while ago I did send e-mails out asking permission to re-upload original works, Araks and Lobo da Silva among them, but I never received any answer.

Cheers!
KH :ernaehrung004:

[CrisGer]

wow that is amazing work very very accurate from the photos i have seen, well done, indeed. what a great enhancement. I was baffled the first times i flew a number of the CFS2 planes from what i expected to see from my knowledge of the history and from actually seeing the real planes in Europe back in preservation in the 1970s.

very nice indeed if you or can share them would love to try some out.

ME 262

http://www.world-war-2-planes.com/images/Me262_cockpit.jpg

F4U Corsair

http://www.world-war-2-planes.com/images/F4U_cockpit_300.jpg

BF 109

http://www.world-war-2-planes.com/images/Bf_109_Cockpit_BW_450.jpg

[Roxane-21]

http://www.world-war-2-planes.com/images/Bf_109_Cockpit_BW_450.jpg

Am I wrong or is this picture reversed ? I remember the gunsight of the 109 was offset to the right, and the engine air intake was on the left side.

[kelticheart]

Am I wrong or is this picture reversed ? I remember the gunsight of the 109 was offset to the right, and the engine air intake was on the left side.

Yes Roxane-21,

I believe this Bf109E cockpit picture is reversed, too. Congratulations for your sharp eyesight! :encouragement:

CrisGer:

thanks for posting these pictures! Good photo resources are always welcome, especially if theyshow original gauge layouts, since I noticed that on many restored warbirds the instrument layout was changed a lot from WWII era.

Cheers!
KH :ernaehrung004:

[CrisGer]

ok glad you liked them i found some more i will post when i have time. the colour ones are nice for reference tho one cannot really know if they are original or not.

I have some family photos of my cousin Heinrich's cockpits he was a Luffwaffe pilot and flew most of the various planes and ended up pilot for General Student... he loved the 109 have to see if i can ask someone to scan them from the german side of my family. they are black and white but a lot of fun to see as there are a lot of pictures of his bases, operations, and various planes he flew. Heinrich Gerlach