With the recent changes to level bombing in AH2, I've had a bunch of questions in the TA recently about getting bombers off the ground. Seems a lot of new people, or new to bombers, are running into troubles. Here are some tips if you are having take-off troubles:
1) Only take what you need in the hanger. 50% fuel is usually tonnes, 25% is more typical. The more bombload/fuel you take, the heavier you are and the worse your climb/acceleration/etc.
2) Look from the Tower to see which direction is best for you to launch. The AH airfield planners tend to suffer brain cramps and many runways head straight into mountains/hills. Even the AH boyscouts seem to be over-zealous and clearing the trees they plant 50ft off the end of the runway can be troublesome enough.
(the rest assumes you aren't using auto-takeoff)
3) Flaps are for landing, not takeoffs. Most bombers automatically deploy 1 notch of flap when you spawn, that's alright or you can retract that immediately. Flaps create more lift, but also add a lot of drag, something that is not good when you are tying to pick up enough speed to take-off. When you are just rolling down the runway though flaps aren't helping you.
4) Hold the brakes on for a second or two when you throttle up. The runways in AH are not long enough for bombers so every inch is important (especially if you are taking off from a high field or at high weights). Hold the brakes, spike the throttles, and once the engines are at full power, release the brakes. ([SPACEBAR] is brakes)
5) Use all the runway you need but once near the end deploy 1 notch of flaps if you aren't sure you are fast enough or are very heavy with fuel/bombs. You need to be able to get up about 50ft incase there are trees and 1 notch of flaps can help. It's typically not necessary, but it'll help a bit if you are unsure.
6) Be gentle. Don't yank the bomber into the air, pull back on the controls gently and let it fly off. Retract the gear [G] as soon as you leave the ground, it seriously impairs your acceleration and adds a lot of drag. Don't try and climb too agressively, your target is only to get up to about 200-300ft initially.
7) Level out and pick up speed. 200-300ft is enough to clear small bumps and trees on the ground. You want to get to about 200mph and then can start to climb (either manually or using one of the auto-pilot functions). Most people climb on auto-climb [ALT-X] but that works by keeping a constant speed in a climb, typically around 150-175mph in bombers. If you engage it while slower, the bomber will dive to pick up speed (and crash), if you engage it at 200mph, the bomber will zoom up a bit, level out, then get into a nice steady climb.
And that's it. Hope that helps.
