OK....engine overheating, oil loss...does one land ASAP on any road or field...or try to slog home @ 1/4 speed and save the ground crew another sleepless night. Pilot the crate back to base or ditch before damage? Viper campaign w/ RFC56 in 17....practically every 3rd mission is a wash out due to mechanical issues.....feels like it's just right. I LOVE the new BHAH 2....it's awesome. Just tried the goggles thingie....very cool but a painful toss up...go real or enjoy the scenery? Thx

That's about right for those Hissos, until they got them figured out, which took months. Great stuff !
Cheers,
shredward

I find the nearest place on my side of the lines, if possible, and put it down.

gaw1,

Gets the blood flowing don't it?

That was my experience in the current DID Campaign where my character flew with 56 from (14 July - 15 Dec, 1917)
In the course of 221 missions he experienced 16 engine failures. Possibly 17, but I think that one was AA fire.
Fortunately, he only flew the first month on the ghastly SE5 before upgrading to the SE5a in mid August.
This was with WOFF PE, so it's entirely possible that the mechanic changed a bit with BHaH2

BTW, you won't be flying a Viper with 56 until October of 1918. As Shred says it's those temperamental Hissos.

Gotta love the Royal Aircraft Factory.

p.s to answer your question, I tried to nurse the machine home, keeping an eye on the temp gauge. When it spiked I usually shut the engine off and put her down. Exception was when the failure occurred over Hunland, in which case I took a much greater risk to get back to friendly lines.

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I've mentioned before that I read somewhere about what was ultimately determined to be the overheating issues with the Hisso engines - paint flakes in the water jackets. After the engine blocks were cast, they were then cleaned and dip painted to prevent corrosion. This unfortunately resulted in the paint inside the water jacket passages flaking off once the engine was in service, and after enough of these flakes collected in various corners of the water jacket they caused coolant flow restrictions that would overhear the engines. It took quite some time to realize the root cause of the problem, but once it was sorted out the factory stopped the dip paint process and things improved considerably.

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Wow! Talk about not thinking something through.