Operation Lamplight...post-mission brief

[Rojo]

We tried to do something unique last night for TOD mission #8, and the fog and friction of war were much in evidence.  While the idea was cool, execution was fraught with difficulties (most notably, my own ineptitude at manipulating the arena settings).  We tried it twice, and in the end I had to through out the results for this TOD mission.  We will run it again Saturday (with all lessons learned incorporated).  Special thanks to the following people: Frenchy (GCI officer, extraordinare), Camo (LW CO volunteer), Buhdman (over-all RAF raid commander), and the Lanc drivers (volunteer clay pigeons, though in this case the night protected them pretty well).

The planned mission was a Luftwaffe intercept of a RAF Bomber Command night-time raid by Lancasters.  The RAF had radar castrated to show only sector-bars, while the Luftwaffe planes were allowed to turn on only friendly icons, and to keep the roster up on the clipboard so as not to have ANY radar OR map data (honor system).  We then made it dark (had some problems here, but at last found a time setting that made the sky reasonably dark but still fly-able for non-instrument rated pilots).

How were the intrepid LW pilots to find their quarry? Frenchy volunteered to act as ground-controlled intercept (GCI) officer.  The buffs traveled in groups of three, from three different bases, all headed to the same oil-refinery.  The interceptors were split into groups of two or three, and stationed at different bases located around the target.  The buffs would radio their position and heading to Frenchy (simulating radar tracking) every 5 minutes.  Frenchy would then vector the interceptor groups, one for one, to intercept the buff groups by giving the fighters only bearing to target, range to target, and heading of target.  He would try to get the fighters close enough to visually acquire the enemy.  Since these fighter pilots could not even use the map, they had to ask GCI for directions even to find their way back to base.  The hope was to recreate the colossal game of blind-man’s bluff that characterized the night-time air war over Europe.  Only the players can tell me if we succeeded, and if they liked the challenge it presented.

What went wrong:

First, I was late getting into the arena (sorry guys, family stuff).  Buhdman took on the task of organizing the buffs, while I attempted (with only partial success it turns out) to configure the arena properly.  The need to split into small groups and scatter them to different fields turned out to be terribly hard to do on the fly.  This caused almost a half-hour delay in mission start (thanks for everyone’s patience, btw).  Camo volunteered to lead and organize the LW, which helped.  Quite a few pilots were unfamiliar with the scenario rules, which meant we all spent a LOT of time repeating the rules.  Again, thanks for everyone’s patience.  After take-off, Suave gave me some tips that finally helped get the light levels right, but it was no doubt disconcerting to the pilots in the air to see the light levels jumping from nearly full day-light to pitch-black.

The final straw that broke the scenario-camel’s back was a residual arena setting I was unaware of.  Someone had set up some crazy wind settings that alternately tore wings off or sent people to 60,000 feet (weird   )!  For some strange reason, I couldn’t change the wind settings individually.  The final solution was to reset to the arena defaults, but it was too late to save the situation .

Again, my thanks to all whom endured this one.  My goal over this TOD has been to keep things new and interesting from mission to mission.  We pushed the envelope on this one, no doubt about it.  In the attempt, we also came closer to the real life facts of night combat…except for the Bermuda Triangle winds, of course.


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Sabre, a.k.a. Rojo
(S-2, The Buccaneers)

[NHFoxtro]

   Sabre, I still had a good time though. The adrenalin started pumping fast as soon as I got sight of those three Lancs. Couger and I started to climb up to them. I would say we were about maybe 2-3K away. So I let Frenchy know that we had them in sight, and soon to make contact. Then all of a sudden they were gone  . I said to Couger were did they go? He kost sight also. Then I saw them heading N about 20k higher, I thought we were geting discoed. lol
    After hearing about the wind factor being way out of control I felt better. I thought there was a certain realism added into the event that I wasn't aware how to control. LOL Still I had alot of fun and I will try my hardest to make this Saturdays.


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NHFoxtro
-XO- Night Hawks

[LLv34_Camouflage]

S!

I had a BLAST!  

This was the most interesting and fun scenario setup I've had, largely because of the unconventional setup.    Too bad the wind settings were screwed, first I thought there was something wrong with the FM of our 190 A-8's... lol.  When we restarted, we changed to G-10's because of that.  After takeoff we learned that the wind settings were out of whack.

As we climbed after the first takeoff, I noticed some wind as we crossed 15k or so.  This actually got me into a spin, even though I was climbing on auto trim. When I recovered from it, I noticed I was at 50k!!      I should have understood that it was the wind, but somehow I thought the arena settings for the A-8 FM were porked.

Anyway, I got the vector from our CGI (who did a marvellous job, btw!   ) and headed for the buffs.  I literally had to fly over them before I saw them some 15k lower.    I went into a descending spiral to get on their level but noticed it was impossible to go any slower than 400mph.  I tried slipping, stalling, falling, flaps, throttle, rpms, everything. Finally I managed to get my wingtips to rip off, lol.  And I was still some 10k above the buffs.    At this point Sabre decided to restart the scenario, so I bailed.

Second try, this time in G-10's.  Everything went well, until we hit the wind. Boom, back to 40k.    Now we learned it was the wind.  I tried to stay below 30k, which I barely managed to do.  It was damn hard.  The speed and alt tried to increase by themselves, atleast a few of us had to bail due to compression.  In level flight, I believe, lol!

The buffs had already reached the target, so now it was a matter of whether we can catch the bombers before they escape and manage to RTB.

Frenchy the CGI did a great job again and soon enough the buffs were in sight.  3 Lancs.  In the black of the night I crept behind the trailing one and as he filled my gunsight, I let rip with my 3x20mm.  I saw flashes all over the wings and fuselage, and concentrated on the tail.  It fell apart and the plane went into a spin, finally exploding behind me. I dont think the gunner ever saw me.  First kill for Überfinns Perkele.    I got closer to the remaining two, passed the trailing one, and went for the first one.  He tried to shoot at me, but too late. My shells landed on the plane and ripped it apart.  Kill #2.  

Then for the last one.  First burst hit well, but then I ran out of cannon.  At this point Sabre had called the mission over due to faulty arena settings.  Since my ToD life was no longer under threat, I closed in with my 12.7mm's blazing.  But I met too many .50 bullets in return and lost my left wing.  I bailed safely NW of 56 and walked home. Yep I checked at the map once I was down.  

All in all, the mission was FUN!  The fact that we didn't have enemy icons or map made it very exciting.  I hope we can disable in flight radar from the arena settings in the future.  And maybe the GPS too.  

Great fun Sabre, thanks - also for all the pilots who were there!!  

Camo

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Camouflage
XO, Lentolaivue 34
 www.muodos.fi/LLv34

Brewster into AH!

"The really good pilots use their superior judgement to keep them out of situations
where they might be required to demonstrate their superior skill."

[SFRT - Frenchy]

Thank you very much, I really appreciate your feed back.

I'm whilling to do GCI as often as you guys need me. Just beware that I'm working 7 days a week as a flight instructor so I may not always be available but I I work around my schedule.

Let me know : Rauns@mindspring.com

[LLv34_Camouflage]

You know Frenchy, I'm just in the process of reading Johnnie Johnson's "Wing Leader" and in the book he describes the value of a good CGI.  Now I know what he meant! I guess you could compare it to leading an orchestra.      Thanks for the excellent directions, I hope to see you in future events!

Camo

[Duckwing6]

Hyas Rojo !

If i may suggest the following:

You can setup the arena so that both allies and axis don't have dar at all (or only sector markers if you want.. that would be radar modes 0 and 1 IIRC) and have the 3rd country simulate the GCI controllers, they can have radar mode 15 which shows all radar dots at all time (i think the Freya Long range radar was sophisticated enough to spot lacs already forming up after takeoff)

The GCI controllers can then contact their Interceptors on Private channel or on a inter country channel (200 and up) or RW which would be even more realistic !

if you need help setting up the arena for that just e-mail me and i'll make the changes for ya ...

I hope i can join yas for the next one as it sounds like real fun (wanna be a controller  )

Cyas UP there
DW6