War Thunder Manual Engine Controls Guide

War Thunder Manual Engine Controls Guide by iffy

Not many people playing it seems are using the manual engine control options.

I thought it would be good to make a thread explaining these controls and how to set them up, the advantages it gives, and when to use them.

I’m not the best pilot by any stretch of the imagination, so you obviously shouldn’t take it as gospel, but it’s easy to have a considerable increase in performance by having the extra control options to hand. Even if you don’t use them in combat.

Setting up manual controls:

In the control options, any buttons mapped in ‘full aircraft controls’ section will work in other modes (except trim, which is disabled in other modes).

All these settings can be set to a key, an axis, mouse wheel, whatever. Using a key to control a setting to increase, then shift-key to decrease works well for keyboard. Hat switches and rotary dials are a blessing for JS users.

Now understandably as there are a lot of keys to set up, I’d suggest saving your current set-up before messing about.

And also, stand alone units like the Saitek throttle quadrant can be useful, if pricey.

The controls-

Auto/manual control button:

This is the button used to switch from auto to manual control.

Prop pitch: This is the angle of the propellor blade into the oncoming air. ‘Fine pitch’ is adjusting so the prop so the blade is flatter against the airflow, reducing power transmission and drag and increasing engine RPM. ‘Coarse pitch’ is the opposite, turning the blade to chop into the airflow, increasing power, drag and reducing RPM.

‘Feathering’ the prop makes the blades 0 degrees on, making minimum drag for gliding with dead engines.

Coarse pitch is used when diving, to avoid overspeeding and increasing drag. Full fine pitch is used on the ground and when stationary. It provides no thrust (kind of).

Mixture: This is the amount of fuel used to send to the combustion chamber along with air (either injected or mixed in the carb). This isn’t modelled very well in the game at the moment, and not many planes have the option, so I would avoid messing with this setting.

Radiator: This controls the cowlings or flaps used to send air to the radiators and cool the engine. Auto control does not use this well so a decent cooling increase (more WEP) can be achieved by manually controlling this.

Supercharger: This engages the second stage of some planes’ superchargers for high altitude. I don’t think it’s modelled correctly yet even on planes that should have it.

-A good time to use the manual controls would be when climbing or cruising to be in a better position than you could otherwise be. In combat, increasing the workload for yourself is a bad idea, and vertical manoeuvres and dives without strict prop pitch control will often result in overrevving the engine.

On initial climb, try going full WEP, full open radiators, and varying prop pitch between 90% and 98%. You will soar.

For bombers, it can be easier to keep revs up while climbing by using full control.

Try it

If anyone else has tips and tactics for using the manual controls, please post them!