This is mainly for those who are new to B-17, or for those who really want to control the engines more than letting the AI do it all. This mainly applies to the landing cycle, as there were many who became frustrated seeing their planes pile up during the landing sequence after a great mission.

So here we go!

When you approach the base, you will get a radio signal from the tower to orbit, and wait for landing.......................blah blah blah.

The planes leave formation in this order: 2,1,3,and 5,4,6. The sequence is still the same order even if you lost one or more during the mission, just direguard that plane is all, and go to the next. (If flying in Squadron mode), otherwise disreguard, as you only need to worry about your single plane.

1 Once you receive the above message, you should be in plane No. 2. Go to the the internal view F1 key.

2 Go to the co-pilots instument view, the 4 key followed by the I key.

3 Access the intercooler controls, F9 key. Note: listen during this part for the engines to throttle down, and you just start your decent.

4 Using the "right" mouse button drag the individual intercooler controls down to the bottom (cold) setting. If you use the left mouse button, the AI are locked out from the engine controls and can't fly the plane, just crash land. Not good!

5 Go back to the standard instrument view, over to the right side of the panel you will see a silver switch, with 4 green vertically aligned lights, left click the switch and the lights will turn yellow. Yellow indicates that the intakes in the wings are now set to the filter setting. You should always do this if flying below 8000 ft. Keeps the dirt out of the engines.

6 Your plane(s) now set up for low altitude flying, and your engines won't burn up and smoke causing high losses to the group.

Also, as a side note, I did a little engine management tutorial in the "What are your difficulty settings" post by Fritz. As you will also want to balance out your manifold pressure, especially at the higher realism settings. But the above will work just fine for easier settings, and learning. Once this is mastered and you are comfortable, try the next higher realism setting, and add some throttle, prop pitch, and manifold difficulties to the mix.