B29 full fuel and heaviest bomb load

[mERv]

In AH, there is no need for warming up the engines. You have maximum performance right from startup.

Reading this thread, I wonder what anyone needs 100% fuel in a B-29 in this age of small maps. 
Checking my logs I never had any used 100% on any map but the old large ones (like Compello), and even on those just occasionally. (87 out of 596 B-29 missions in my flight log).

I always wondered if that was the case but has that actually been confirmed by HT in the past? The old timers swore up and down you had to let em warm up in the game so I adopted the habit myself.

[mERv]

I’ve wrecked a few on takeoff, perks gone...lol 

Wasn’t until then I realized that when I went with 50% that was enough fuel to fly around for a couple hours or more...

I miss the days of the mid-war arena. I wasted a lot of hours in my life farming perks on town centers in AH2 just so that I could fly 29's at will. The name of those Jap bombers has escaped me at the moment but man at times you could farm a whole set in 1 sortie if 2 sides were stacked.

Pure joy flying 3 sets at one time working 3 separate ops over 2-3 hr time period. If there was one thing about me I loved to sneak a base but I loved a good fight defending bombers even more

[hazmatt]

I did a milk run early this morning while working on an online traffic school thing that has timers that you can't click through and takes fiveever.

I took off from the base off-line that I was going to take off from online without a hitch with 40 500lbs and 1/2 fuel without a hitch. Was very easy.

I did the same thing online for the money, (cost was about 1/3 of my bomber perks) and struggled to get up airspeed. The only think I think I might have done different is offline used 1 notch of flaps and online used 2 or offline used 2 and online used 3. It was not until I got the flaps up some that I could build any speed.

I did see that hill in the distance that was mentioned earlier come into view alarmingly quickly, however was able to make a gentle turn and avoid it.

I did not realize how fast those 29s are until I saw a 190 that was attempting to close on me and was never able to get into gun range.

Since it was early in the morning and there were minimal defenders I just bombed some towns, and accidentally dropped a few bombs in the middle of a field but my mission was a success in my book as I didn't lose any perks!

Thanks for all the info and tips.

[Volron]

As you figured out, with 50% fuel you don't need 2 notches.

[mERv]

I did a milk run early this morning while working on an online traffic school thing that has timers that you can't click through and takes fiveever.

I took off from the base off-line that I was going to take off from online without a hitch with 40 500lbs and 1/2 fuel without a hitch. Was very easy.

I did the same thing online for the money, (cost was about 1/3 of my bomber perks) and struggled to get up airspeed. The only think I think I might have done different is offline used 1 notch of flaps and online used 2 or offline used 2 and online used 3. It was not until I got the flaps up some that I could build any speed.

I did see that hill in the distance that was mentioned earlier come into view alarmingly quickly, however was able to make a gentle turn and avoid it.

I did not realize how fast those 29s are until I saw a 190 that was attempting to close on me and was never able to get into gun range.

Since it was early in the morning and there were minimal defenders I just bombed some towns, and accidentally dropped a few bombs in the middle of a field but my mission was a success in my book as I didn't lose any perks!

Thanks for all the info and tips.

if you can master your gunnery skills, understanding how to play to win the war, and have the patience to really get the most out of a 29 sortie.....

You can swing momentum or stop it. Setup entire fronts for advances or neuter an enemies front porking ords on your way back from an ammo strat run.

You don't get much accomplished at 30k but that 20-22k sweet spot both delivers and makes you a nice target for intercept. Learning the balance while being able to defend yourself can be a game changer.

But like the rest of these flying tin cans she is not invincible as my POTW counterparts repeatedly reminded me of over the years 

You could shoot 6 of them down and there were 3 more that would finish you off

Don't even get me started about their ME 262 fighter sweeps

[hazmatt]

How do you aim the guns on the bottom. I only seemed to be able view where I could see anything below from the waist position.

[Volron]

How do you aim the guns on the bottom. I only seemed to be able view where I could see anything below from the waist position.

That is how you do it, from the waist.  I've found no problems dealing with people who came in from below.  If I can't hit them from one position, I switch to the other and usually took a wing.  Then there is switching to one of the drones if you are in formation.  You'll always get an angle on someone from below using that method.  They can only line up on one of your aircraft, not all three.

[mERv]

They can only line up on one of your aircraft, not all three.

Snailman aka Lusche has lined up and towered 2 of my birds in one pass on multiple occasions when he got the right angle...

Granted both he and the occasions were rare but it's possible.

I always found the side turrets were the best position for engaging targets below my 29's.

[mERv]

Which brings to mind engaging aircraft trying to come up from behind the aircraft

Can't tell you how many times I plucked a wing at 1500m with the stinger Cannon using click bursts. Poor guys would spend 20-30 minutes just to get that close lol then all of sudden there's a *clunk* and their aircraft rolls over

[Volron]

Snailman aka Lusche has lined up and towered 2 of my birds in one pass on multiple occasions when he got the right angle...

Granted both he and the occasions were rare but it's possible.

I always found the side turrets were the best position for engaging targets below my 29's.

Never said it was impossible, but most don't setup like that.  And if he was able to nip 2 of your bird in one pass from below, you must've been asleep at the wheel and too low.

I don't fly the 29 at low altitudes because of how "squishy" she is.  If she was more durable, then I'd be more willing to fly at a lower altitude.  By "squishy", she's hella easy to light on fire, at least in my limited experience intercepting them.  As for being intercepted, only one person was able to fire on me, and he was in a 163.  But he came in dead 6, and as you pointed out in your next statement, coming in dead 6...not a good idea.

[Lusche]

Hope to some day see you back in the air hunting bombers again. 

This is highly unlikely. I miss my AH days a lot, though. 

(Funny how everybody remembers me hunting bombers, when I actually spent more time flying them in the last 5-8 years of my AH life  )

Hope you and the family are doing well, God Bless.

We are doing reasonably well, though the wife being at home all the time because of the lockdowns really starts getting on my nerves 

I always wondered if that was the case but has that actually been confirmed by HT in the past? The old timers swore up and down you had to let em warm up in the game so I adopted the habit myself.

I spend quite some time in AH over the years (yeah, I admit I was a no-life full time player), but I have never ever seen anybody mention something like that until your post. Wouldn't make much sense either, as engine temps are not even really modeled in AH, even WEP is strictly a time based mechanism.  It's also very easy to confirm or dismiss it by a simple test (acceleration on the runway), which I would have done immediately if I had ever heard that claim.

You don't get much accomplished at 30k but that 20-22k sweet spot both delivers and makes you a nice target for intercept. Learning the balance while being able to defend yourself can be a game changer.

Yes!.
In the beginning I also tried to get the costly 29 as high as possible, but I quickly learned most of the time that was simply a waste of time both for myself as for everyone going against you. In later years, the only times I would really get to really high altitudes (27k+) was when getting near Me 163 bases to force them into compression, something only a few pilots could cope with. According to my stats, less than 10% of my B-29 sorties were flown at 30k and above:



The main factor that determined my exact altitude when going above 20k was the wind layers. The missions I did below 15k were mostly anti shipping sorties, for the 29 makes a great sinker of carriers and battleships.

Also, maybe I can look up later how much combat I had at  those different altitudes...

That is how you do it, from the waist.  I've found no problems dealing with people who came in from below.  If I can't hit them from one position, I switch to the other and usually took a wing.  Then there is switching to one of the drones if you are in formation.  You'll always get an angle on someone from below using that method.  They can only line up on one of your aircraft, not all three.

Absolutely! Switching between the drones is the key for engaging low altitude cons. You will find that there is no blind spot that way.



One word about loadout: I not only rarely flew with 100%, even rarer was using the 40x500lbs loadout. In most cases, I found it to be total overkill and a very inefficient way to fly the B-29.

I would use the 4x4k for sinking CVs (@25% fuel), milking town centers, some single factory targets. The 8x2k I used for hangar smashing, flattening towns for captures, attacking several factories (especially in the old central strats) or the new city. 12x1k and 20x500 were my 'light' loadouts for very distant, relocated strats or airfields & towns. 56x250 I used for the old city in the central starts with its rectangular city blocks. 80x100 was the lightest (old) city smashing loadout.

[svaalbar]

Great posts guys.

My 2cents about bombers and bombing:

The key to being a better gunner in AH besides aiming (duh) is switching to drones and really memorizing your gunner keybinds to maximize firing back at enemies. Not really saying more than what has already been said, but I like to pretend I'm a decent bomber so I like to think I know what I'm doing

I used to fly Lancasters often since it is easy to WF towns, but you are easy to kill because your guns suck. Unless someone sticks on your dead six and you get the 50cal tail gun load out, you need 18k plus alt, and even climbing to that alt is like 2 hours lol

B-17/B-27's - I fly from 10 to 15k feet usually (strat runs 22k+) mainly to get people to bite and fight me. One thing I used to like to do is hunt bombers, but seems like its either people like me flowing low to get fights/greedy/fun, or b17s that take 2+ hours to get 30k alt or more.

Flying a b29 feels like cheat codes if your aim is on for the night. You have so much ammo to kill easily 5+ bandits as long as some 410 with the tank rounds doesnt snipe you at 1.5k 

[svaalbar]

Whoops

[Vinkman]

I think flying B-29s at 20K is a huge risk. The strength of the plane lies in it's ability to fly at 30K+ at 400mph..  slight directional changes at that altitude will frustrate most planes and ensure that an attacker will be creeping up from behind you making him an easy victim.

If you let an attacker get over the top of any buff formation in AH your toast.  It's extremely hard for almost every fighter in AH to get to 35K and fast and maneuverable enough up there to get over the top of a set of B-29. By the time the do they may get one slow pass. After that one slow pass they are damaged or out of gas.  If you fly your B-29s at 20K, even if you are a good gunner, an A8 will take two of them before you know him out of the sky. I've killed a 3 buff formation of B-29s with a K4 several times because they were at 20K.   Lucky to get one if they're above 30k.

[Lusche]

I think flying B-29s at 20K is a huge risk

If you let an attacker get over the top of any buff formation in AH your toast.

In theory yes, but in practice things often look(ed) a bit differently.
First, unless something has changed radically in the past two years, most AH fighter pilots don't even bother to get in a proper overhead attack position. In fact, a higher percentage those climbing up to me at 30k  took some extra time to attack me properly than those who would encounter my B-29s  at 20k or below.

The B-29 is also immensely fast at lower altitudes, so that the combination of speed, sturdiness, and firepower makes them very much survivable at 20k or even lower.


I looked up my plane kills & losses of my B-29 runs from March 2012 to January 2019 and compared them to my sortie altitudes:



As you can see, I did much better at <20K than in the 20-24.5k altitude band. Much more 'casual' fighter pilots with lazy approaches and less-than optimum planes tried their luck with me. Above 20k it's more the dedicated hunters (with a better choice of planes) coming into play, with my chances improving again above 25k when altitude alone starts to make interception more difficult for the fighter pilot.