The Dickweed Heavy Bomber Group [DHBG] has flown a Doolittle Raid on April 18 off a CV every year in Aces High since the game started. It takes a little inginuity to make it happen. It requires flying a fully loaded B-25C [100% fuel, 6x500 bomb load, glass nose, no formation, Doolittle skin] from a land base and landing on a CV you or your squad has control of. Drop your bomb load on the way to the CV.
Landing on the CV takes some practice but is easy enough with the gear down and full flaps at 110 KIAS. Approach the CV at 300 ft in level flight in the landing configuration. Slightly reduce power and follow a visual glideslope to landing in the first 20% of the flight deck [OK 3-wire for you Navy guys]. Line up and touchdown should be slightly left of center to avoid a wing strike on the CV island [superstructure]. Chop your throttles for landing and apply full brakes
. The B-25C will stop about mid-island or slightly beyond. Don't land too far left of center or your left gear will drop off the edge of the flight deck
. Ramp strikes on landing are not good either as they generally result in bent props, damaged wings and tails or just plain destruction and death. Either way the OPS BOSS is going to push your aircraft over the rails as he has no use for your worthless aircraft and you're taking up valuable flight deck real estate.
Once aboard, raise your flaps and taxi the bomber back to the rearming area on the CV [just behind the aft deck elevator] for a full bomb and fuel load. There are two ways to accomplish this:
1. If you have split throttles and rudder pedal controllers, use them to turn around, taxi back, rearm and then continue taxi to the aft end of the flight deck, turn around and set up for take-off. Caution - this takes some practice as directional control for taxi on the flight deck in AH can be difficult due to wind modeling and other unknown factors
. It takes the right combination of rudder, brakes and asymmetric power to successfully manuever on the narrow flight deck which, come to think of it, is exactly like the real world.
2. If you don't have all the above stuff, you can get the B-25C to actually taxi backwards on the flight deck
. After landing with the nose pointed straight down the carrier deck, reduce your prop rpm to full decrease [Keypad - key]. Add a tiny bit of throttle and the decreased blade angle of the prop will produce a small amount of reverse thrust and the aircraft will taxi in reverse. You might have to tap the Keypad +/- key once or twice to adjust rpm slightly to find the sweet spot for reverse thrust taxi but it is there. Be aware the aircraft moves excruciatingly slowly. Once you have the aircraft moving backwards, control direction with your left and right rudder controls and/or left and right brake controls. Stop in the rearm area to reload and then continue your reverse taxi to the fantail and set up for take-off.
You are now ready for a deck launch CV take-off with full fuel and bomb load in the B-25C. Do the following:
1. FLAPS - UP
2. HOLD FULL BRAKES
3. RPM - full increase
4. Throttle - Max Power
5. WEP - ON
6. RELEASE BRAKES
7. At mid-island on the take-off roll, drop all five notches of flaps
8. At the pointy end, rotate and immediately raise the landing gear [crucial to get the gear up at rotation or you will end up as fish bait]
9. The fully loaded B-25C will be at minimum flying speed but will slowly accelerate and with your expert flying skill, stay out of the water
10. As airspeed slowly increases, raise flaps one notch at a time and accelerate to mission speed and altitude and set cruise power
That's it! Your on your way for a surprise low-level attack on your enemy's homeland and if your lucky, you may even make it to a safe landing at a friendly airfield [like China for the Doolittle Raiders]. Good luck
.
If you would like to fly this mission with the DHBG, all are welcome to contact me, Knob, DHBG CO, or any of my squadmates and fly with us next April 18th. The Doolittle Raid is the most challenging mission we replicate and it does take practice to get on and off the CV in a B-25C. We require you complete Carrier Qualifications [CarQuals or CQ] on your own consisting of five traps [landings] and take-offs in the B-25C prior to joining this mission. We also do other historical [or is that hysterical] missions throughout the year like the Lancaster Dambuster Mission and the B-24J Polesti Oil Field strike. All these missions require low level [under 50 ft] flying skill. The rest of the time, we fly the venerable B-17G on high-altitude strat missions over our enemy's war production facilities every Tuesday. We don't advertise much but to repeat, you can fly with us anytime if long-range bombing missions are your thing. Or, you can fly fighter escort for us too. We welcome your support.
Cheers
ezglider
USN Retired - very retired
