Why is my engine shutting down after a few minutes?

Modified on Tue, 14 Jun, 2022 at 1:55 PM

We have carefully modelled accurate engine thermo dynamics for the Spitfire. This means you can't just go full throttle and hope for the best. Your engine will most certainly fail because your RPM, Oil or Radiator Coolant limits were exceeded for too long, just like what would happen in the real Spitfire.

Of course you may exceed these limits for a while, but stresses will build up. Eventually though your engine will fail you. You may be able to restart it again mid-flight if it has a chance to cool enough, or if you're lucky, you can re-start it straight away.

You may enable/disable Dynamic Engine Stresses in the tablet's Settings page, as well as monitor the engine health status. When either the RPM or Temp stresses reach 100%, your engine will shutdown. 


So, what can go wrong?


1) Your RPM is too high for too long.

The tablet's Checklist Miscellaneous page has a handy reference for maximum durations:

 3,000 (+18) 5 min

 2,850 (+12) 1 hr

 2,650 (+7) no limit


2) Your oil or radiator temperature are too hot for too long.

When too hot, stresses build up overtime, depending on how hard you push your engine. Limits are:

- Oil 90 degrees Celsius

- Radiator coolant 125 degrees Celsius


3) You climbed above 12,000 to 13,000 feet and forgot to pressurise your tank.

Make sure the Fuel Pressurasation switch is set to ON


4) You're out of fuel for the selected tank

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