November FSO: Mighty Eighth - WARNING TO BOMBER PILOTS

[APDrone]

I just wanted to point out some obscure details in the writeup for our next FSO series. It may be necessary for any potential bomber pilots to spend some time practicing the following topics to minimize the mayhem that could occur.


See the Designer notes:

Designer Notes

- Air launches enabled

- Bombers will use the manually calibrated bomb-site for frame 1.  Refer to manual or AH veterans for help.

Air Launches are where aircraft will launch at 20k feet and hurl towards terra firma until adequate speed is reached and the plane will begin to raise it's nose and attain a 'normal' climbing attitude ( assuming auto-takeoff is used )

B24s are particularly susceptable to losing their wings during this time if you aren't careful.

A series of procedures to keep the wings on are thus:
1. Set throttle to minimum before launch
2. When launched, raise gear
3. Ride out the trip until speed reaches around 200kts then hit X for autopilot ( or autotrim..). Apply throttle. This levels out the plane and allows drones to catch up.
4. After everything is stable, resume auto-climb ( or auto-speed )  

To test this, load ahrhine2 or rhine maps and launch from A3, A72, A73 or A28 using S runway.


Manually Calibrated Bombsite

See this thread for some good help in how to calibrate.

http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77036&highlight=calibrate


To test,  in off-line mode, you will need to set the flightmodes a certain way.

From clipboard, follow this path:

Options>Arena Setup>Environment>Arena Settings>FlightMode
and make it look like this:




I highly recommend you spend a little time and test these features.  We haven't used them very much lately.

[Kurt]

Thanks Drone, I am able to teach my squad manual calibration and air launch, and I'm happy to have this heads up because 80% of them have never seen it

[daddog]

Good post APDrone.

A series of procedures to keep the wings on are thus:
1. Set throttle to minimum before launch
2. When launched, raise gear
3. Ride out the trip until speed reaches around 200kts then hit X for autopilot ( or autotrim..). Apply throttle. This levels out the plane and allows drones to catch up.
4. After everything is stable, resume auto-climb ( or auto-speed )

APDrone unless they changed something you want to start your engine. I don't think they start with engines on. I would make a minor change to the above list.

1. Set throttle to minimum before launch
2. When launched, start engine and raise gear
3. Ride out the trip until speed reaches around 200kts then hit X for autopilot ( or autotrim..). Apply throttle. This levels out the plane and allows drones to catch up.
4. After everything is stable, resume auto-climb ( or auto-speed )

With a little practice this is really easy to do, except in GV's. Even starting your engine in GV's does not help.

[APDrone]

Thanks for the reminder daddog.

My notes are based on using auto-takeoff enabled ( which is what I've always used ) which does start engines when you spawn.

I would highly recommend using that for this launch sequence.

[Viper61]

APDrone:

  Great info on the air spawn.  Have passed it out to the 325th.  However I am sure that a few pilots will auger in reguardless of skill level or luck.

  If one augers in during air spawn can they re-up?

Viper 61
325th Ops Officer

[APDrone]

Still pondering that one, Viper.

The purist in me says.. 'One life, use it wisely'

The softy says 'C'mon.. nobody knows how to launch at 20k.. '

The observant says 'But Kurt posted a bulletproof sequence of steps to do it succesfully' ( See other thread about bomber surviving )

The realist says 'Yeah, but who takes the time to test?'

I should get my Magic 8 Ball back from the shop tomorrow.  We'll see what it says.

[Viper61]

APDrone:

  Thanks for considering it.  My thought is that it should be allowed for the same amount of time that restarts are allowed for during a normal event where take off starts from the runway.  About 5 minutes.

  During take offs from CV's I have watched many flop into the water due to turning CV.  And all restarted again.

  I have watched guys restart from a botched take off from a smooth runway (although this doesnt happen often).  And all restart again.

  In both cases I have restarted myself.  I dont think it takes away from the game either.  The outcome of the battle should not be decided because a force lost 10% in a air spawn.

  I agree that a air spawn is very simply provided you practice a few times.  But we all know most will not.  In fact the air spawn will come as a surprise to some who didnt get the word at all.  I also predict that as many as 25% of the planes will have to belly in to land as the langing gear will have been ripped off during the air spawn, because they forgot to pull them up.

  Request that the same standard for restarts be extended to the air spawns as is done on the ground or boat.  So that we dont lose pilots and the game remains fun.

  Again thanks for the consideration on this issue.  I also hope this doesnt even become an issue.

Viper 61
325th VFG

[Keeler101]

The softy says 'C'mon.. nobody knows how to launch at 20k.. '

I Have to agree, I hadnt done it in a long time folling the instructions it still took a lil getting used to finnaly got lvl on the 5th try with gear and wings  , Probly would been easier if If had made a printout of instructions

 Part of the problem will be remembering what do do in the excitement of the launch and voice com get the film running etc

Lets give the buffs a break:D

[Viper61]

Keeler101:

  Your right the bombers need a break.

  If a guy air apawns and can't recover until he's lost say 10K in a bomber.  This guy will have no hope of regaining flight altitude before we cross into bad guy land.  The LW will see that and pounce on him.  Or it will force the escorts to try to cover a very large area.  This situation gets compounded as the low guy climbs and falls back even further because the main formation is level and picking up speed.

  If that were the case the guy would be better off to bailout and re spawn again so that he could start at a better altitude.

  Like I said above I hope none of these issues happen.  However once they do guys will start doing what ever they can to get back into the game.  That I would think would cause seroius administrative pains during the first 10 minutes of the game.

  This is going to be a fun frame tonight!

Viper 61
325th VFG

[APDrone]

Good points, guys.

Ok.. let's just say that it is highly unlikely that I will review bomber losses in first 5 minutes of the frame.. unless somebody gets credit for a kill.

Fair enough?

[Viper61]

APDone:

  Roger that.  But how do we REALLY know which your working for????

  Just kidding you always keep the game fair

  These frames with the 8th AF only come around once a year and I would hate to see anyone lose out on the fun (especially me).  I like to win but the scoring isnt the reason I play.  Coordinated, Monster mayheim at 25K is

Viper 61
325th