Learn to fly the P-39L Airacobra

Learn to fly the P-39L Airacobra in IL-2: Battle of Kuban and be familiar with its cockpit, engine start, takeoff, and landing procedures. Various engine limitations, combat use, important airspeeds, and notes on flying the P-39L are also included.
Comments and feedback are always welcome, so if this video helped you out hit the like button and let me know in the comments below. Cheers!

[@gungriffen]

I wish this game had clickable cockpits. Makes it easier when you can just click a switch as needed.

[@thomasche]

Yeah but then the modules would take ages to be released. Like they take on DCS

[@Steven-cf1ty]

@@thomasche DCS goes for incredible fidelity, IL-2 doesn't. That's where the difference in time is. Clickable cockpits are present in IL-2 Cliffs of Dover Blitz which is far from a study sim and they're incredibly handy

[@TheRaptorXX]

Nice job, good stuff. Thanks mate.

[@gn728]

Was looking forward to this one - your library of videos is amazing...

[@RequiemsACTL]

Thanks gn728, glad to hear your enjoying them :-)

[@darbz2k]

Great video, well done!

[@RequiemsACTL]

Cheers Darbzy! :-)

[@JugheadJones03]

Great vid. Thanks.

[@RequiemsACTL]

Cheers Jughead! Glad you liked it :)

[@iluha220782]

Good Job!

[@chuffer3d564]

These are so useful and very well done. Thank you for all the effort you put into making these. ✈

[@RequiemsACTL]

Thanks Chuffer. I'll keep putting these out as long as people want me to!

[@davidjustin4589]

Great, understandable vid! Subscribed and looking forward to your A20 vid!

[@harmer4245]

Excellent tutorials.

[@RequiemsACTL]

Thanks Harmer! ~S~

[@cg_justin_5327]

Great stuff as always! I have not flown this bird yet, but I love shooting at it! XD

[@RequiemsACTL]

Do yourself a favour Justin and take it up for a spin! The 37mm is simply awesome as long as you focus on one shot at a time instead of holding the trigger down. The fire rate makes it difficult to judge successive shots.

[@renatoyap]

Great and Informative Tutorial once again. I actually didn't know it has an auto or manual prop setting. I was too eager to give it a spin ..... always the case, give it a try before reading the instructions

[@RequiemsACTL]

Thanks Renato. I'm usually guilty of that too :-) Just taking a new plane up and seeing how it feels while flying. With these planes though I've obtained the manuals ahead of time so I have a rough idea of how the procedures are laid out beforehand. No amount of reading replaces actually flying them though!

[@steveparker576]

Great job.

[@RequiemsACTL]

Cheers Steve :-)

[@fricken9207]

Now it is out XD. Thx ; and great job as usual.

[@RequiemsACTL]

You're welcome Fricken, I know you wanted this one ;-)

[@fricken9207]

Not only this one ; all of the stuff ; but i let you some time ;-D

[@old_guard2431]

Thanks, Requiem. Trim - I don't think people realize how important it is. And the "default" trim settings seem a bit crazy.

[@RequiemsACTL]

Yeah Old Guard, I ignore trim settings given by default and just go with whatever a manual says for the airplane.

[@DannyBooze1]

A20 needs a vid it took me a while but I figured it out with the mixture

[@RequiemsACTL]

Working on it :-)

[@tomservo5347]

Regardless of mixed combat performance I always liked the thinking outside of the box with the centrally placed engine that gave the P-39 a very stable center of gravity as well as helping to protect the engine/radiator from combat damage. The rather odd design seems to make perfect sense coupled with Soviet pilots loving them. Odd+Odd=happy Russian.

[@RequiemsACTL]

Odd+Odd = Happy Russian could be the best summation of design philosophy I've seen LOL

[@migmindy]

This aircraft is shockingly advanced.

[@mamedlashkari]

Good quality, what is your NVIDIA settings for this game, can you please make a video about that!!!

[@RequiemsACTL]

Although I fly on my gaming PC with AMD...I do use NVIDIA on my laptop (GTX 1060) to film the track recording after I've flown, but there's nothing special settings wise as my NVIDIA settings are standard with zero adjustments.

[@mamedlashkari]

The Air Combat Tutorial Library Thanks!

[@Drspoe]

I always seem to struggle with the fragility of the Alison engine. For me, the p-39 feels too sluggish on continuous power settings, and if I throttle up too quickly, the engine blows.

[@RequiemsACTL]

Yeah it's a delicate thing Spencer. Under combat power it does ok but you definitely need some fancier footwork when flying it as it's pretty sensitive with rudder input. As you noticed it doesn't do a good job at compensating for large throttle movements so the smoother the better!

[@Drspoe]

The Air Combat Tutorial Library, yeah. The more I fly it, the more I realize the importance of smooth, subtle input for this machine. I guess I'm just used to the rigidity of the Russian engines, and the responsive automatic systems of the German aircraft.

[@iancaesar427]

The title says 'use in combat'. This seems to be missing. This aircraft takes off and lands like any other but I would be really far more interested in how to fight the damn thing.

[@SabnuaAstro_TH]

How To Start P-39?

[@RequiemsACTL]

Its the standard procedure. Mixture rich, propeller RPM full forward, E to start.

[@SabnuaAstro_TH]

Thank You.

[@SabnuaAstro_TH]

:)

[@manuelgearbox7309]

Is it an interactive cockpit?

[@renatoyap]

Unlike Cliffs of Dover, it's not interactive.

[@Aardvark892]

No. I don't think that any of the BoX cockpits are, but hopefully someday they implement more stuff.

[@npatrcevic]

The Variometer in ft/min can't be right, 4-6 feet per minute would be max. It's probably per second.

[@Deadmeat313]

I spotted that too! It actually indicates 1000s of feet per minute. :)

[@alanglover369]

Standard vsi

[@1marcelfilms]

Full throttle until the engine explodes

[@AngelusFromHell]

Shame on the automated engine start procedure. :(

[@pureflamezz1818]

On the first Il2 game this plane is awful can hardly land it and it stalls all the time in dogfights this is the game from 2001 so maybe its the game not the plane hopefullly its better in this

[@tornadoman1054]

Well, it's kinda authentic, the 'Bellochka' (that's how Soviet pilots used to call P-39) really needs a gentle approach, this plane doesn't forgive mistakes, but in the right hands, it's a weapon that can turn almost any situation in your favor, that's why Soviet aces were preferring P-39.

[@martijn9568]

It's a lot better in later versions of the original Il2 series. I seem to be able to fly the Bell P-39 pretty close to the manual in Il-2 1946 v.4.13m, though it has some minor realism issues surrounding the powerplant.

[@slobodancekic2755]

A lot of playing with gadgets you did not have to do in original Il2. P-39 had a nasty habit of flat spinning and difficult recovery. No word about that. Most of this gadget juggling is simply boring. Flying these things was interesting though, and turning 5 knobs just to change the throttle does not make the game more interesting. I think staying with the essential a better idea for a game. Flying these things is difficult and interesting enough. Good graphics, but too much juggling.

[@christ4032]

There is difficulty settings for turning off the complex engine managment so all you have to worry about is the throttle :)

[@slobodancekic2755]

@@christ4032 In online flying the server sets it. And it follows the player's tastes, I guess. Let me think what these may be.. I do not have to worry about anything, you know . Stopped flying these things years ago.

[@christ4032]

@@slobodancekic2755 yes in online it's true. But you can have fun in the career mode offline or in cooperative play with a couple of friends. You can also fly the 109 and 190 which are all automatic.

[@daseladi]

Well I flew Il-2 for nine years, and offline wouldn't have kept my attention for nine weeks. My favorites were the Spit, I - 16 and Tempest. German ones were not my usual choice.