Flying the DC-3 in MSFS2020

I would like to ask a question or two or three.... etc., about flying the new DC-3 in MSFS2020. I have seen a few videos online and now know how to properly start this beauty and use the Sperry Rand autopilot. Does anyone know the proper procedure for engaging the superchargers at or above 10,000'? I tried it once and lost both my engines! I was able to recover from a dive and restart them and at that point I should have landed while I was still alive, but I tried to re-engage the autopilot and fly on when the plane flipped on its back and dove to ground level or below! And, in the retrofit DC-3's, when using the modern autopilot in heading mode is there any way to change the heading? I cannot find a dial to change the default heading from 0 degrees (mag) on the compass rose? I can fly the DC-3 using GPS and VOR (I have not tried ADF or NDB yet). Thanks!

I don't know about this 2020 sim, or about the specific DC-3 model you have, but a real DC-3 did not have superchargers (nor turbo-chargers, for that matter). Their engines were normally aspirated. Of course that doesn't preclude someone from installing them, either in a real aircraft or in a sim model.

I don't know about this 2020 sim, or about the specific DC-3 model you have, but a real DC-3 did not have superchargers (nor turbo-chargers, for that matter). Their engines were normally aspirated. Of course that doesn't preclude someone from installing them, either in a real aircraft or in a sim model.

 

Various versions of the R-1820 Cyclone WERE available with turbosuperchargers.... Not the ones usual to the DC-3 nor C-47 though.

Here is the doc from MS.

The C-47B was developed to fly the Hump across the Himalayans. It used the R-1830-90 with a two stage supercharger. Only about 3,500 out of over 20,000 DC-3s built had this capability.

Edited November 18, 2022 by plainsman

I don't know about this 2020 sim, or about the specific DC-3 model you have, but a real DC-3 did not have superchargers (nor turbo-chargers, for that matter). Their engines were normally aspirated. Of course that doesn't preclude someone from installing them, either in a real aircraft or in a sim model.

Both PW and CW engines had at least a 1-stage supercharger - they pulled above normal aspirated manifold pressure (FAA TCDS info), but how much depended on model / series of the specific engine. However, those might have SC selector levers but did not operate any additional SC mode. Edited November 18, 2022 by mikeandpatty

I stand corrected- in addition to the comments from you folks above, I found a checklist calling for throttle to 48" which, of course, is far above normal aspiration, among other things.

 

My apologies for misinformation, but in all the things I've read about that bird over the years (a lot), I never came across reference to superchargers, and with having trouble getting over the Hump, and many other things I've come across I didn't suspect it had them.

 

So something else I've learned today...

That's one thing I've learned over the years: sub-variants of various vehicles sometimes had incredibly minor differences, and other times had such profound changes that you wondered why they weren't considered a full on variant by themselves!!

 

Also, give yourself a break: even the people who worked on the real example are often surprised decades later about differences in variants that they never even knew about when they were actually working on them!

 

One example: British F-4 Phantoms made in England with the Rolls Royce Spey turbines, were SUBSTANTIALLY different from those made in St. Louis by McDonald Douglas... the airframes and wings didn't even have the same dimensions or even same shape to the point of affecting it's aerodynamics and some performance., the nose gear was different on Royal Navy variants because they needed the nose pointed at the Moon... I mean, ultimately they too were flying F-4 Phantoms, but the maintenance crews knew there was differences! https://forum.dcs.world/topic/294489-british-phantoms/

 

http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2012/05/spey-powered-phantom-changes.html

Edited November 21, 2022 by Herc79

One example: British F-4 Phantoms made in England with the Rolls Royce Spey turbines, were SUBSTANTIALLY different from those made in St. Louis by McDonald Douglas...

Another example is the F 86 Sabre produced in Australia in the 1950s. It had a British RR Avon engine and two 30mm Aden cannons instead of the six 0.5 inch machine guns in the US design.

Interesting!

 

Canadian Sabres had their own jet engine, more powerful and thus used for world records. And there was a Navy Carrier capable variant known as the FJ-2 Fury (and seeing the Wiki, apparently an FJ-3 as well!!)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_FJ-2/-3_Fury