General Operational Information and Guidelines

The following information is provided to help pilots become familiar with the Wings of Power series of aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004. These aircraft are materially different in terms of the flight modeling than what is commonly available. In fact, what is generally accepted as standard performance or aircraft behavior, in many cases will not apply to these aircraft.

The reason? Wings of Power aircraft were made using a new and ambitious process called, “Absolute Realism.”

Absolute Realism

There are several areas where the Wings of Power aircraft depart drastically from the standard fare. Until now, an aircraft was considered to fly accurately if it reproduced a handful of specific performance figures (top speed, max climb rate, stall speeds, etc.) These figures really only represent how an aircraft is performing at a single point in time. Absolute Realism goes beyond these limited numbers and authentically simulates all flight through an almost unlimited amount of conditions. If you take a minute and read this article through you will begin to understand just what a significant advancement Absolute Realism truly is.

Designed by pilots, for pilots

As the pilot in command, you can take a Wings of Power aircraft to any given altitude, choose your own power setting (adjust the throttle and watch the manifold pressure / boost gauge), adjust your prop speed, and witness your aircraft climb and cruise exactly as it did in real life. You will even experience accurate fuel consumption rates. You can plan realistic and even historic flights based on your aircraft weight and calculate cruise speeds, distances traveled, and even authentic figures like “distance-to-altitude” shown in the manuals.

These figures are not just “estimated,”, they are finely tuned and put through a rigorous and exhaustive testing process by pilots. Wings of Power aircraft are the only aircraft we know of that are certified to be flown "by the book" using nothing but the original training manual for that particular aircraft. This is why we call it, “Absolute Realism.”

Performance charts like the one shown below were created by hand from in-house test pilots verifying they fly accurately throughout all flight regimes.

We encourage people to go out and buy the actual pilot training manuals for these aircraft and use them. When it comes to unique stall characteristics and other aspects not documented in the manuals, we refer to actual pilot flight-test reports and our own pilot interviews. Lastly, only hands-on pilots were involved in creating the way these Wings of Power aircraft fly.

The bottom line is, for the first time ever, you can experience these thoroughbred aircraft today for everything that they truly were, and still are.

Power and Propeller Settings

The flight simulation industry has commonly accepted that the maximum throttle setting (100 percent throttle) should reflect the published takeoff power of piston-engined aircraft. For example, the published takeoff power setting for the B-24D Liberator is 49" of manifold pressure and 2700 RPM. A standard FS2004 model of the B24 would expect the pilot to simply shove the throttles and propeller controls to the stop and head for the wild blue yonder.

Not with Wings of Power.

While you can throw the throttle forward in a Wings of Power aircraft, and it will takeoff, the difference is the Wings of Power aircraft will deliver the power these engines actually produce if you were to just throw the throttle forward. Let us explain:

High performance aircraft require setting both the power and propeller speeds for takeoff, landing, and cruise. Aircraft utilized turbosuperchargers” and normal “superchargers” to increase boost so that very high altitudes could be reached. These boost systems were quite complex and required a lot of attention as well as very specific settings for all flight regimes.

For example, the normal takeoff setting for a B29A was with the turbo boost knob set to 8, which left plenty of headroom for additional boost. While you can throw the throttle all the way forward in Wings of Power with a turbo boost of 10, in reality a real pilot or copilot (or flight engineer) would never under any circumstances shove the throttles all the way to the stop unless war emergency power was required. On takeoff, a pilot "walks" the throttles carefully but briskly forward until the proper takeoff power setting is reached. This setting is read on the manifold pressure gauges.

Read this excerpt from a report issued from Bomber Command:

So as you can see, Wings of Power aircraft accurately model the available power for these aircraft, and not limit you to the lower published maximums for takeoff. If you decide to do a standard takeoff, just like the real pilot, you would raise the throttle slowly while watching your manifold pressure / boost gauge until a specific power setting is achieved. However, as pilot in command, if you want to experience a takeoff with military power, the choice is now yours to make. You can see by the report above, it clearly specifies that if necessary, war emergency power can be obtained (and was) by using full throttle. In some cases, as with the B-17, the propeller governor can also be set to a higher RPM than normal.

Takeoff

The takeoff distances provided in each checklist are precisely what is indicated in the performance tables for that airplane’s respective pilot’s training manual. However, to achieve these figures, the airplane must be flown exactly according to the procedure in the checklist. Using full throttle, incorrect flap positions, incorrect takeoff weights, erroneous trim settings, or improper liftoff technique will materially affect the takeoff distance.

The distances provided are the distance it takes to clear a 50' obstacle, which is a common pilot training procedure. These can be reduced by about 1/3 by using full war emergency power and up to 1/2 flaps on most airplanes. See the checklist for details.

Climbing

There is far more to climbing than meeting a single rate of climb figure published in a book, or a single time-to-climb figure. The rate of climb for piston aircraft is normally greatest at sea level and falls steadily as the aircraft gains altitude. The weight of the aircraft, the power setting, and the climbing speed are absolutely critical in obtaining proper and accurate climb performance and if any of these parameters change, the time and distance to climb will also change. For most aircraft there are two climb power settings, rated power and desired climbing power. The lower power setting is usually reserved for lower aircraft weights and in some cases is not desirable due to fuel economy or engine cooling reasons. It can easily be seen that a simple figure published in a book cannot begin to accurately indicate an aircraft's actual ability to climb.

The climb is a very critical phase in any flight, and with these complicated aircraft, climbing speed and power settings were very important. Fuel economy, time to climb, range, and engine performance are all affected by the way the aircraft is set up to climb. The Wings of Power aircraft have been designed to climb at exactly the settings in the original aircraft manuals, and match the published climb performance data for each aircraft. This B-17 aircraft was climb-tested to 30,000 feet MSL at the weights, power settings and speeds specified. Even the time and distance to climb match the manual.

Critical Altitude

Turbochargers have a turbine wheel (fan) that spins, forcing more air into the engines. The thinner the air, the less resistance on the turbine, which means it has to spin faster to maintain the same pressure than at a lower altitude. The critical altitude, for turbocharged aircraft, is the altitude at which maximum power can no longer be maintained because the air is so thin, the turbine can’t spin fast enough to maintain the desired pressure. From this “critical altitude,” the higher the aircraft climbs, the less power it can produce (in reality, above these altitudes the turbine would over-speed if excessive boost was applied). Depending on the type of control system -- electronic or oil type -- the critical altitude falls somewhere between 26,000 and 30,000 feet. For supercharged aircraft, the critical altitude is the altitude beyond which the supercharger can no longer produced the maximum rated manifold pressure.

Tech note:

The turbine wheel speed is determined by the difference in pressure between the exhaust system and the atmosphere, which is controlled by the opening of a relief valve called a wastegate.

Landing and Approach

Most aircraft commonly available for Microsoft Flight Simulator have drastically exaggerated flap and landing gear drag values, including the stock aircraft. Therefore most virtual pilots habitually fly the landing approach far too high and have a much greater rate of descent than is actually specified for a particular aircraft. These very high flap drag values allow pilots to get away with unrealistically steep, high approaches.

This is not the case with Wings of Power aircraft.

This can easily be demonstrated by setting the aircraft up on a simulated final approach at a specified landing weight. For example, according to the manual, the B-17G final approach is to be flown at 120 mph with full flaps, a power setting of 20" of manifold pressure, propellers at high rpm, and a rate of descent of 500 feet per minute. Take your Wings of Power B-17G, at a nominal landing weight of 45,000 pounds, to 5,000 feet and set up an autopilot-controlled descent with full flaps and gear down at the above power settings. You will find that it descends at the specified speed, give or take 1-2 mph. This confirms that the thrust, drag, and weight are in the proper equilibrium as specified. The same is true for all

Wings of Power aircraft, which can be tested in the same way.

The bottom line is that flaps are not airbrakes; these aircraft need to flown at the proper speeds and power settings, or landings are going to be very challenging!

Absolute Realism

To obtain ultimate realism, fly the Wings of Power aircraft by the numbers using the information given in each aircraft's checklist. Even better, go out and buy a copy of the aircraft's actual flight manual and use that to fly the plane. That’s what we did. Now that's Absolute Realism.

Now go fly.

Visual Effects and Sound

A host of new visual effects were created to immerse the pilot further into an authentic experience. This includes realistic startup effects and natural engine smoke (hit the “I” key to enable jet engine smoke). Once started, experiment with the throttle in any aircraft and notice the subtle differences of the engine sounds inside and out. When your aircraft is taxiing on a dirt strip, you will see more dust being kicked up by the wheels.

Each aircraft was carefully tuned to perform highly realistic belly landings on both the runways and the dirt. These can be very satisfying and challenging to do in each aircraft.

B17F making a belly landing

A new explosion has been added should you plunge your aircraft into the ground, among other visuals.

Lights are all authentically created, and make these aircraft look outstanding when flying at night.