I found this original (and previous classified) P-38 Lighting manual (pdf).
This manual was posted on this thread back in Oct 21 by @FogoWar (Kudos!)
It’s a cool read and a great find for those looking to geek out on the P-38.
4 Likes
Is there an actual manual by Flyingiron?
Yes. On PC, it’s a folder called (I think) /Documentation inside the aircraft folder.
I’m on Xbox and don’t have access to that. Have they made it available on their site? I looked but did not see it
I couldn’t attach the PDF of the FlyingIron P-38 user manual that comes with the plane on PC here. If you go on their Discord, someone uploaded the manual in the #p-38l-lightning channel.
1 Like
My friends and myself are loving this aircraft on XBox….
Can anyone please tell me where I can find the manual?
Thanks would you be able to send me an invite to their Discord Please🙏
Here you go! FlyingIron Simulations
Thank You 
Now got the start down to a tee. Better late than never haha.
What a flight I had… first I over primed one engine, so delayed flight.Then after shutting the canopy and taking off, my canopy blew off as I had not locked it, 
It was a bumpy ride but actually more like I would have imagined this plane back then, ha ha.
I love this plane!
7 Likes
I wanna know how everyone finds flying this and what’s “normal”.
I find I have to constantly add rudder trim both left or right, often by huge amounts depending on how it wants to behave minute for minute. I had something like -11% at one stage and she was still listing quite a lot to the right. Then there’ll be moments where it acts almost complete opposite. Is this normal behaviour?
Fuel tank swap?
I kinda figured it was best to just select the crossfeed option after starting in reserve on the selector as it looks that fuel draws from the tanks one by one automatically. Is there a rule of thumb here?
On the fuel issue, I notice one engine seems hungrier than the other as I see the tanks deplete at a vastly different rate. Is this also normal? I’m kinda thinking this may be contributing to the trimmings I have to do as the weight bias is forever changing.
What power are your engines developing? Crossfeed is normally only for one engine at a time and generally only if one engine is shut down. As of the latest update, setting both engines to cross suction shuts them both down - which sounds like what’s happening to you. Normal procedure is to keep each engine drawing from its own tanks - reserve, then drop tanks if you’re carrying them, then wing if they’re filled, then main, then back to reserve for landing. Check the manual for the right procedure.
Also, check to see if your side windows are rolled up. If they’re open, the aircraft becomes unstable because of the disturbed airflow and might behave the way you’re describing. Others have talked about it’s bobbing if the windows aren’t closed. It’s normally a very stable, forgiving airplane. But open windows change that.
Hope this helps.
2 Likes
I should mention I’m on Xbox to get that outta the way. Probably on the previous version knowing the marketplace. I dunno about the power sorry. They both definitely run when I select crossfeed so that probably explains why. I notice I have to fiddle with the prop speeds as they go out of synch for some reason. I’ll definitely do the fueling your way from now on, it just makes sense doesn’t it? Haha.
I make sure to close/lock canopy and wind up the windows before I even start engines, which is something I do normally with any plane so that rules that out. We don’t get manuals on Xbox so I’ll have to try FlyingIrons Discord to get access to it by the looks and find out what version we actually have in the process. This should help clear things up no doubt.
There is definitely something wrong here. I don’t fly on the Xbox but I can tell you that once airborne this plane is one of the easiest of all the A/C in the sim to fly. It handles and performs exquisitely in my experience.
Their Discord channel is very active so hopefully you can get some insight over there. Once you get it figured out you will be amazed at how gracefully a bird with such a strange design can fly.
2 Likes
I’ve flown the P-38L quite a bit recently (it’s addictive!) and am on xbox and haven’t needed to touch rudder trim at all to remain stable so I wonder if it’s something in your controller sensitivities? I use Velocity one with TM Hotas stick+pedals and have always had rudder sensitivity to -20% and a small dead zone (3-5%) for all planes.
1 Like
“an electrical crossfeed system makes it posible to feed fuel to either engine from any tank except outer wing tanks. use the crossfeed system when you want to operate both engines from fuel in one drop tank, or when prolonged single engine flight makes it necessary to draw fuel from the dead engine side.”
You’re right - I mangled that description a bit.
But in terms of procedure, it’s worth reading a little farther down the page (p. 40 of this edition):
Crossfeed Operation
…
P-38J-15 through P-38L
- Turn fuel selector to tank you want to draw fuel from.
- Turn the other selector to CROSS SUCTION.
CROSS SUCTION or CROSSFEED does not operate on the outer wing tanks.
The point being that, if you set both engines to cross suction, as the poster seems to have done, then neither of them is set to a tank and they’re both going to shut down.
Which is why the Flying Iron manual says…
Note that there is no OFF option with drop tanks installed. To shutdown fuel flow with drop tanks installed, the pilot can either use the mixture lever, set to Wing Tanks and turn the booster pump OFF, or set both selectors to Cross Suction.
Italics mine.
And, from the 1.1.0 changelog…
Cross Suction scenarios now working as expected:
Simultaneous left and right Cross Suction cuts fuel to both engines
Italics mine again.
So… while I misspoke (apologies for that)… getting the crossfeed procedure wrong can lead to a bad day.
All of this also raises a question - practically speaking, apart from an engine-out scenario when you’d want to maximize the amount of fuel available to the good engine, or the scenario noted in the manual where you want to draw fuel from a single drop tank, is there any other reason to use cross-suction?
Seems like you’d just be asking for things to go wrong.
1 Like
Sorry, should have asked about that first.
If changing the fuel management doesn’t help, the next thing to try would be restarting the flight immediately after you load it. I don’t know if this is an issue on XBox, but in general, it seems that there are times when the first time you load an aircraft, it doesn’t initialize correctly - for example, some switches won’t work, and there can be other bad behavior. A restart seems to fix that.
Let us know if either of these moves helps.
2 Likes