Alright, this is rather annoying and I don't know when it changed, but the ditch model has gone from bad to completely ridiculous. In the past week I have seen a number of planes that I shot wings off, set on fire, killed the engine off, etc, just push it down to the ground and they get a ditch.
Case 1) About three or four days ago I was working over a set of 26s. I killed one, some else got another and I was coming back for the third. I set it on fire, but had to break off. At this point we were just a few hundred feet off the deck and his airspeed had to be better that 250. While I am coming around he pushes the nose down and ditches in the water. Just that quick, he returns to the tower and no kill is awarded.
Case 2) Tonight I was chasing this Typhoon in a P-40E. I have lit him up good and parts came off. He is chasing a friendly over some trees. He blows up the friendly, clears the trees and immediately pushes the nose down to make a nice high speed ditch (we were going close to 300), Now remember, top of the trees (over 150 ft) to the ground in less than a second move at around 300 MPH. His wings come off on ditch, we are within about 3K of my field and I am right over him when he goes to tower, gets the ditch and I get jack.
Case 3) I get in a looping match with a spit over his field. At one point during the loop (as he is one the downward portion, I cut his wing off. He rolls up on his side and falls to the ground about 100 feet below. He slide across the ground, across the runway, loses his tail as he hits the green again...and did I mention he was on fire? When he comes to a stop he goes to the tower, and I get nothing.
Now, in case 3 I could see someone arguing that he was on his field and not dead (), but there are plenty of other examples of problems with the ditch model. I think it is reasonable that if you do serious damage to a plane and they ditch it (voluntarily or not) you should get the kill.
In WWII and other wars you are awarded a kill for the aircraft you destroy, not whether the crew survives or not. If the plane is totaled, a kill should be awared.
Sorry if this doesn't make sense...I am half asleep.
