PITCH CHANGE RATE AND USING THE PITCH CONTROL LEVER TO SIMULATE A VARIABLE PITCH SYSTEM

Pitch change rates Coarse to Fine and vice versa have been revised to documented historical speeds
Pitch change from Coarse to Fine or vice versa takes 10 seconds.

Pilots may use this slower pitch change mechanism in the same way as the real RAF pilots did, as a means to mimic a variable pitch system and gain a bit of acceleration when Coarse Pitch rpms are very low. When the prop is in Coarse Pitch and the rpms are low, the pilot can engage the lever to change to Fine Pitch. The rpms will then rise as the blade angles change giving more bite to the prop and a brief burst of acceleration. Before the rpms reach 3000 and the engine over-revs, the Pilot should change the lever position back to Coarse Pitch, so that the Prop pitch reverses, and the engine goes back to lower RPM's. This technique is only recommended for use between 0- 10,000ft, or when at altitudes over 20,000ft. Extreme caution should be used to avoid over-revving the engine.

===Temporary description to cover TF ver 3.01 with use of VP system. Detailed Re write to be added later.=== The Spitfire MKI 2 pitch system could in fact be used with limitations as a Variable Pitch system. Though not exactly designed with this in mind it was found by pilots that careful use of the Prop pitch control allowed them to set any desired RPM rather than just Coarse or Fine pitch setting. This did not provide the complete flexibility of a dedicated VP system but did allow intermediate RPM control.This was good for certain flight phases like climb and Cruise. Due to limitations in the Pitch plunger design it does not really lend itself to combat flying. In this patch we have enabled the pilot to select a desired RPM. Blade angle change rates are still the same as was used in the original 2 Pitch system. We have not changed the 3d modelling of the Pitch lever, this will be done at a later stage. In the real aircraft the Pitch Change control was of a plunger or Push Pull type control.

With this in mind I seem to have a fair bit of success setting the boost pressure to a desired setting with the throttle, then flying entirely with the prop pitch at that point to control the RPM. I doubt it's the "right" way to do it, but it works until I find out the right way with whatever type of prop the Spitfire Mk I has (because it's almost certainly not the De-Havilland or Rotol as far as I can tell.)