How did the average pilot in RL fly?

[Ardy123]

P-47s played the leading role in breaking the back of the Luftwaffe in the west.

Being an American myself, its important not to over-estimate our impact. The Russians took the brunt of the Luftwaffe as well as the Wehrmacht. By the time the Allied bombing campaign really took off, the US pilots had significantly more hours in the air compared to their German counterparts. Albeit hypothetical, the western forces would have had a MUCH harder time had the Russians not kicked the German's rears on the Eastern front.

EDIT: I think the real credit to our US airmen go to how they fought against the Japanese...almost singlehandedly broke the back of the Japanese air force.

[Karnak]

Ardy123,

That is why I included "in the west" in my comment.

[Oldman731]

I've flown in smaller light craft and never had a problem diving,  climbing or turning.  When we went to Malta last year my fiancee and I both had really painful ears descending.   I think a longer drawn out dive might have caused it.   

I knew a man who was a tailgunner on Helldivers, SB2Cs.  He said the long steep dives were hard on the ears, not something to look forward to.

I wonder what the rate of descent was for dive bombers in WWII?  Civilian planes descend, usually, somewhere between 500 fpm and 1000 fmp, maybe a little more if ATC wants you to expedite.  I suspect WWII dive bombers went down much quicker.

- oldman

[icepac]

It depends on sinus size and congestion.

I've never had any problem.......they just equalize easily whether flying up to 12,500 in a cessna or free diving 100+ feet.

[colmbo]

IIRC it almost never worked.
So.. the pain we have nowadays in airliners, that wasn't multiplied by their relatively larger altitude changes?  E.G. diving from say 15k to NOE in short time?

Skydivers do that all the time.  Ears plug a little bit (depends on how well your ears clear), but seldom painful.  A quick valsalva clears the ears.

[madrid311]

I'm curious, in game, some of the stuff we do would be insane in real life and our gunnery would've been 100x better than those of real life pilots. So then how was the average sortie in WWII?

Watching some gun cams, I would think pilots used probably all their ammo for maybe only 1 or 2 kill if they're lucky. And I assume they retained from getting into turn fights if possible? And the stories of pilots getting into 2min+ dogfights with an opponent would look like an everyday occurrence here in AH wouldn't it? We're the dogfights as extravagance as the ones we see in AH? With extremely heavy rudder and throttle work? Or were they simply trying their best not to stall the plane and flew as timidly as possible?

                                                                  

here is a book that will give you a real good idea of what air combat was like for pilots in Europe. An ace of the Eighth . Norman (Bud) Fortier. Ballantine books. An American fighter pilots war in Europe. You can get it at Amazon on line if you have the means. What I got out of it was the boring part of flying was a big part of the war. AH does a great job of replicating that. Makes you realize this is not really a arcade style game. It can be slow, the difference being if you die it doesn't physically hurt just mentally. Lol . Good book. Peace

[Krusty]

I've read accounts where a modern jet pilot went to a doctor and the doctor said he had tons of scarring on his eardrums. Asked if he knew he had blown out his eardrums a lot in his life. He said he didn't know this. Doctor asked him if he ever had a bit of blood in his earphone cups when he took them off after a flight. He said yes, quite often. Doctor said there you go.


So, moral of the story is it could happen quite often, but in the heat of adrenaline-fueled pre-occupation you might not even notice it when it happens.

[moot]

I'd think so..  Talking about your ear drums at a speech 50+ years after living thru WWII?

[Krusty]

This was an F-101 pilot, if I recall. Something like that.

[moot]

Ok, still what I meant.  Talking about ear drums as combat vet sounds like talking about how your boots had rocks in em every now and then as grunt.

[earl1937]

I'm curious, in game, some of the stuff we do would be insane in real life and our gunnery would've been 100x better than those of real life pilots. So then how was the average sortie in WWII?

Watching some gun cams, I would think pilots used probably all their ammo for maybe only 1 or 2 kill if they're lucky. And I assume they retained from getting into turn fights if possible? And the stories of pilots getting into 2min+ dogfights with an opponent would look like an everyday occurrence here in AH wouldn't it? We're the dogfights as extravagance as the ones we see in AH? With extremely heavy rudder and throttle work? Or were they simply trying their best not to stall the plane and flew as timidly as possible?

One BIG difference in this game and real life flying is the AH game is 2 dimension view, while in real life it is 3 dimension view and I would think that makes a big difference in attacking and evading attacks. Most of the stories I ever heard of air to air kills involved 1 to 3 second bursts, on Yak aircraft,  but that was Korean era kills, but I would think that the German aircraft were much more sturdy than that. Of course, most of the Japanese aircraft were flimsy at best!

[Karnak]

The separation distance on human eyes only gives us depth perception out to about 75ft.  After that it has no effect, which makes sense when you think of our evolutionary past.  We really couldn't throw a spear much further than that.

[Zacherof]

Although it didn't happen to everyone, I do know some pilots invokedear problems. IE one of bud andersons squad COs. 

[Ardy123]

The separation distance on human eyes only gives us depth perception out to about 75ft.  After that it has no effect, which makes sense when you think of our evolutionary past.  We really couldn't throw a spear much further than that.

I don't think most could even throw a spear 75 feet with enough force to kill anything...

[titanic3]

Interesting info guys, thanks.