Ink, I have to apologize. I have some issues at home to deal with and trying to do so on a severe lack of nicotine isn't helping. Without dwelling to deeply I have a father with ALS and I have received some bad news, a wife in a fight with my mother in law, and it looks like I have to pawn my computer tomorrow to keep from getting evicted. I've been carrying that frustration over to here. For that I apologize (thank my wife, she smacked me upside that head after reading some posts) One point still remains valid, you have never experienced it. To me it's like saying you can be a police officer because you were a hall monitor. First of all, let me clarify a few things. The remark about flak at 30K was an offhand remark. I was trying to be funny, and apparently failed. Yes, I bomb strats at 30K, I also have hit them at 25 and 20k. Hell I went as low as 15k (that I don't advise, flak will chew you up). When I talked about getting swarmed, I'm not saying the skies are black with enemy fighters. When 1 pilot has to deal with 6 or 7 fighters at once, that's getting swarmed. By your admission, more and more fighters are upping to 30K, so it happens fairly regularly. You can see by the 5th and 6th picture I posted that's what happened to DHawk. That's what I mean by getting swarmed. All those planes in the first pictures did come up after us. They were doing the same thing, teaming up and picking off outlying bombers. Remember one thing, once our escorts are used up, that's it, they're done. They can't just re-up and join the fight in 5 minutes like the enemy can.
Here's a walk-thru of a normal strat run. I'm not going to use and opposition, just the basic run.
1: Lift off, level 1k AGL, manifold to 35 in, collect bomb group. Make first turn towards target. Full throttle. Engage auto climb. At this point escorts take position at 12, 9, 6, and 3. If we have enough we also position them at 12 high and 6 low.
2: Make whatever turns are necessary, stay in climb for BZ speed, flight lead assigns targets and lanes.
3: reach altitude, make final turn head towards target, 2 sectors bombers start to line up on assigned targets. At this point is when things get hairy. Most of the time buffs will get spread out enough that we can only effectively cover 2 bombers at a time. Most of the time we're 500 off each others wings, but when you take into account stragglers and different alts sometimes, this can leave some very big gaps. At this point we start getting aggressors. Usual routine is groups of 3 to 5 aggressors start to target one bomber per group and they start working their way in. Now our escorts are being expended, either they have to RTB due to fuel or they get shot down. This whole time we're in our bombsights, lining up. Alot of times we can't get gunners because 1/3 of the population is flying with us, another is already airborne trying to capitalize off the resources we're drawing away, and the rest is just AFK. On average we have 1 gunner for every 3 planes. So at this point, during line up and calibration, we're flying speed bumps.
4: Make drop, 1st turn for second pass. Now formation gets even more spread out because people miss the turn and the differences in formation already, gets amplified thru the turn. Top that off with diminished escorts and low level cons during the line up are now co-alt. Make next 2 turns jumping between guns and cockpit. Again differences get amplified, we're spread out more, now we have to line up and prioritize the drops to cover for lost bombers. Now any cons that were dropped during the initial line up are back up and co-alt. Back into the bombsights, back to being flying speed bumps.
5: Final drop, turn for home, again differences are amplified, now we're stretched out. lead bombers have to slow down more, while rear has to speed up. That whole time we are vulnerable. At this point, on average we may have 2-3 escorts left. So now, we are low on ammo, low on fuel, and we have to descend over enemy territory. So at that point we're real easy targets, and the whole damn country knows where we're at. During descent we'll lose bombers to lost engines and fuel leaks, and our escorts are dead or booking it home. Now we're being harassed by 262's and anything else.
It's not as easy as it sounds to fly to 30k, bomb a target, and head for home. There is no "milk run" to this. The only milk part is the take off and the climb, after that all hell breaks loose. We warn our pilots every time we take off "If you get separated, you will die", because that is exactly what will happen.
Look, I'm sorry. Things are extremely frustrating right now, and I'm doing all I can to hold the house together. Playing this game is my way of escaping. I don't have really any other means. But either way, I'm not going to be on for a while after tonite. I'm going to have to figure out a way to get my computer back.
