What the Heck Happened???

[tuton25]

I was taking off in a set of B-29s
Role
WEP on
Flaps down
Climb to 250ft
Gear up
Climb to 1000ft
Flaps up
Level flight

So as I level off I turn around to admire the amazing plane but BOOM, no planes to see
I throttle back and begin to climb to see if they need to catch up but nothing is to be seen
After I fly a sector and a half I dump my ords and turn aroun and land, and to my horror I lost 250+ perks
What did I do wrong????? What the heck happened??????

[gpwurzel]

Sounds like you lost your drones Tuton, which would also cost you perkies - not sure why, given your description, but possibly you outclimbed em, they got a distance away and popped (as they do)

Not done it with b29's - done it with other birds tho, it happens.

Wurz

[Lusche]

Did you, at any point
- turn?
- minimized AH?
- experienced an internet/lag 'burp'?

[tuton25]

Did you, at any point
- turn?
- minimized AH?
- experienced an internet/lag 'burp'?

Nope,nope,and nope

[Lusche]

Well, then it will remain a mystery 

[Karnak]

Were you filming at the time and if so did you save the film?

[tuton25]

yes I did but out of habit I didn't save it

[68ZooM]

Sounds like you found the aceshigh triangle, planes go in it but never are found again....

[pembquist]

sounds like the same algorithm the stock market uses

[Daddkev]

 

[Bizman]

Two questions:

1) did you hear that BOOM you mentioned? IIRC the popping drones are audible.
2) did you check there was the checkmark for drones, or did you just assume they'd be there just because they had been there every time before? I mean, the check mark can drop off either because of an update or because of having participated in a mission without drones.

[Getback]

Did you auto climb in a gunner position?

[ImADot]

Do you remember the map, the base, and the direction you spawned? Some bases are/were positioned such that bomber drones would take off opposite direction from the player's plane, causing the drones to pop shortly after takeoff.

[Volron]

Did you auto climb in a gunner position?

Auto climb in a gunner position will not cause you to lose your drones; at least it has yet to happen to me.  And I do it almost every time and quite often while in the B-29, depending on where I'm taking off from, of course.

[Babalonian]

A field and heading would help the most.  I suspect, with flaps deployed prior to hitting WEP, you're takeoff roll was long and initial climb very shallow (I suspect, if no other bugs/issues are to be found, too shallow).

My personal strategy (if not uber-heavy) is to have flaps up, WEP on, and then drop a couple nothches of flaps before the end of the runway, and to thus pop-up/porpus into the air a good height (all of maybe 50-ft at best) before clearing the end of the runway.  I'm left grasping to keep that altitude, usually loosing some of it, but it "pops" my drones off the runway and forces them into forming up on my B-29.

Edit: also, important/critical to note with B-29s, a small air field's singular runway is only about as long as the short fighter-only runway at medium and large air-fields.