MIG-3 Flaps don't work

[Gromyak]

Pretty new to IL-2, have started trying to learn the MIG-3 after learning the I-16.  The problem I've found is that the MIG-3 flaps don't work...they won't retract unless you set the flap limiter to zero...and if the flap limiter is set to zero, yeah, that's right, the flaps won't deploy.  The technochat says that the flaps are retracting, but if you look at them in 3rd Party view, you'll see that they are not.

I saw a lot of posts on the old forum about the MIG-3 flaps, with the devs saying that they were "working as intended", which seems hard to believe, since they don't work at all.  For now I'm going to drop the MIG-3, which is a real shame because otherwise I liked it a lot.

Sorry if I seem a bit bitter, but I've just spent about four hours trying to get the flaps to work, without any success.  

[Flashy]

Did you watch Requiem's training video on the Mig 3?
 

 

[bzc3lk]

 

Edited December 5, 2025 by bzc3lk

[MaxPower]

Hey yo Requiem made a cool video about that.  You might have heard of it (jk)

[AEthelraedUnraed]

On 12/5/2025 at 4:05 AM, Gromyak said:

Pretty new to IL-2, have started trying to learn the MIG-3 after learning the I-16.  The problem I've found is that the MIG-3 flaps don't work...they won't retract unless you set the flap limiter to zero...and if the flap limiter is set to zero, yeah, that's right, the flaps won't deploy.  The technochat says that the flaps are retracting, but if you look at them in 3rd Party view, you'll see that they are not.

I saw a lot of posts on the old forum about the MIG-3 flaps, with the devs saying that they were "working as intended", which seems hard to believe, since they don't work at all.  For now I'm going to drop the MIG-3, which is a real shame because otherwise I liked it a lot.

Sorry if I seem a bit bitter, but I've just spent about four hours trying to get the flaps to work, without any success.  

You're correct about the flaps not working as they should; it should historically be possible to extend/retract them with a single push of a button regardless of the flap limiter setting and right now it isn't.

However I personally don't think that's enough reason to drop the MiG - it's still one of my favourite aircraft 🙂 Combat flaps are usually not worth the hassle anyhow IMO since they bleed energy, and after takeoff / before landing you have enough time to adjust the flap limiter.

[cigad]

You don't seem bitter, you seem justifiably frustrated—and rest assured: you're not crazy, and it's not a bug in the traditional sense. It's just very poorly explained and quite counterintuitive, especially if you're used to aircraft like the I-16.

[Czech693]

Unfortunately, Requiem's video was made when the MiG-3 was using the original flap control method.  So, it's not useful for the current flap system, which is more borked than the original one.

[FuriousMeow]

Here's how the flaps work:

Lower flaps - hold. The degrees down you are getting is the red writing and indicator on the floorboard behind the control column. Once you release, that's the angle the flaps will deploy to. You keep doing this until full extension of the flaps, but the flaps retract each time you press the key/ button to deploy more.

Raise flaps - hold. Same as above, the red writing will show where the flaps will stay retracted to when you release but the flaps fully retract while the retract key/ button is being pressed.

Its pretty simple, it just takes time and doesn't have set deployment points like some others.

There's the flaps lock/unlock lever to the left, and the wheel below that which indicates the direction the flaps are being set to. But other than something to see move, they don't offer much help just the deployment settings matter in red on the floorboor behind the control column.

The MiG3 is not much for turn fighting, the flaps wouldn't help even if they were like the 190 or 51's anyway with set steps.

Edited December 16, 2025 by FuriousMeow

[Gromyak]

On 12/5/2025 at 3:22 AM, Flashy said:

Did you watch Requiem's training video on the Mig 3?
 

 

Yes, and what he does doesn't work, that's how I spent four hours on something that didn't work.  Someone above says that the controls have changed since Requiem's video, so...

On 12/15/2025 at 7:07 PM, FuriousMeow said:

Here's how the flaps work:

Thanks; I've been swamped the past couple of months, so haven't been able to play much, but will give this a try!

I wasn't really trying to turn-fight in the MiG, just to take off and land properly!

[FeuerFliegen]

This has been a problem for years.

 

The biggest problem?  It used to work in a usable way, that was just fine.   Then they changed it, and it stopped working as it should.  They should have reverted it, and I have no idea why they didn't.

 

Devs, please just revert it to the way it was, like around 2019 or so?  I don't recall when you changed it but it used to be much better.

[FuriousMeow]

I think the current way would work great if the flaps didn't retract when pressing the deploy/retract key.

I'm not sure why it was done this way, it doesn't make sense to have them fully retract to either deploy flaps a bit more or to retract them a bit as that would totally screw up very critical points of flying - taking off and landing. I don't know how they functioned in reality but the full retract when deploying/retracting couldn't have been it. 

[Czech693]

The flaps are pneumatic (compressed air and not hydraulic fluid) like the flaps on the Spitfire and Yak.  In reality there are two controls. One raises and lowers the flaps using an air valve.  The wheel below that raises and lowers the limiter using a cable.  The limiter stops the flaps from fully deploying.  If the limiter wasn't there, the flaps would always fully deploy like they do on the Spitfire and Yak.

The initial problem was that you could raise and lower the limiter while the flaps were deployed, which cannot happen in the real aircraft.  You had to raise the flaps to raise the limiter (I don't know if that was necessary to lower the limiter an additional amount.  Seems like it wouldn't be necessary).  The flaps would be pushing against the limiter so raising the limiter would have the limiter and flaps pushing against each other.  Anyway, you could set the limiter without lowering the flaps, which was handy for setting them in advance.  Raising or lowering the flaps would be instaneous and you didn't have to hold the valve the entire time.

[FuriousMeow]

Thanks for the explanation. To me it seems like what would make most sense is that retracting would always be a full retract, no adjusting the limiter. Then would have to deploy each time setting the limiter. Then the flap remain deployed if you adjust the limiter for more deployment but if you hit the retract key then it's full retract and limiter reset.

So rather than adjusting the limiter to lessen degrees the flaps deploy to until fully retracted it always full retracts and also the limiter gets reset. This way you only have to adjust the limiter to what they deploy to but have to do that for every deployment because there's not a way to adjust the limiter the other way - only adjust towards full deploy.

To get the full flaps feature would require at least one additional key and maybe there's even a code limitation to how flaps can behave that prevents fully recreating the functionality so there's a compromise that makes at least one part of it not right. Also at this point its unlikely to get revisited so just wasting bits and bytes here.

Edited February 16 by FuriousMeow