basics of b17 bombing

[guncrasher]

can somebody help me with this, i upped b17's with full fuel, normally I take 3/4.  now having a hard time climbing.

i know nothing about flaps except for it produces lift when flying slow on my pony, on b17's i know nothing.

so what is the best setting to climb, flaps, no flaps.  i see the wind factor, i understand that. but other than that, i know nothing about flying bombers.

so question here is to use flaps or not during climbing and if flaps what is the best setting/


semp

[AKKuya]

75% fuel is plenty if you're looking for 2 hour sorties.

Pick a large base for a NW, NE, SW, or SE takeoff.  If you find one that the terrain starts to drop down past the runway, then that will be best option.  Stay away from any runway where there are trees at the end until you get some experience.

Once in the air, just use auto climb.  Your climb rate will be slow.  Launch from a rear field and point away from the frontlines.  take care of a chore or snooze for 30 minutes.  Come back and see if you need more altitude to resume chore or nap.

Get to your altitude and level off.  Fly to enemy bases and blow some stuff up and defend from enemy fighters.

Flaps just keep at 0 degrees.  B-17s will take off fine under these parameters.  Holding brakes while revving up and using flaps are for short runway takeoffs and end of runway obstacles.  Practice and learning from mistakes will get you proficcent.

[guncrasher]

actually this is for city or strats, bases I normally have 50 and climb to 10 or 15k for town.  but today it took me 30 minutes to climb from 27k to 30k.


semp

[Lusche]

Climb time in minutes:

[Eagler]

Gotta wonder if air spawns wouldn't be away to speed up the action

It's boring enough fly to fights in fighters ... bombers sound painful

Eagler

[DmonSlyr]

Gotta wonder if air spawns wouldn't be away to speed up the action

It's boring enough fly to fights in fighters ... bombers sound painful

Eagler

TBH, not a big fan of airspawns for the MA.

Bombers are one of those things that you really have to appreciate and enjoy the flight of it. Sorta like Microsoft flight simulator in a way, only cooler cause you get to blow stuff up. 😎

[hgtonyvi]

Very excellent graph Snailman.....Well presented as usual. 

[The Fugitive]

Climb time in minutes:

(Image removed from quote.)

Actually its climb in miles, not time unless you want to do the math 

[CptTrips]

Actually its climb in miles, not time unless you want to do the math 

Aren't the data points labeled with the minutes?

[fuzeman]

As in real life a B-17 will takeoff faster using a three point takeoff and is the preferred method per Arther Kennedy.

[mERv]

Semp if you want to meet up sometime this week I'll share with you my strat run strategy in B-17's. Fuel load out, dot speed climbing, defensive flying against interceptors, all of it. We need to shave your time investment by 25% while maximizing your effectiveness and increasing your kill score without flying to outsoace

[Lusche]

Aren't the data points labeled with the minutes?

Yes.

[guncrasher]

Semp if you want to meet up sometime this week I'll share with you my strat run strategy in B-17's. Fuel load out, dot speed climbing, defensive flying against interceptors, all of it. We need to shave your time investment by 25% while maximizing your effectiveness and increasing your kill score without flying to outsoace

I'll take you up on the offer. normally I take 75% fuel. but this time I took 100 because my flight plan was basically thru maybe 6 or 7 sectors of rook fields with dars up. had no problem climbing to 27k after that it took forever.

in fact, I took so long to climb that rooks were down to 10 players and knights took 4 or 5 bases.  by the time I dropped on the city I had 15 or so minutes left of fuel. think when I started rooks had 30 or 40 players.

anyway, I'll pm you later.

semp

[Chalenge]

When I was flying bombers a lot I was using the ".speed" command religiously. In the B-24 it was critical for escaping interceptors. There's a placard in the cockpit that tells you the Vne (from memory 358) which will have the airplane in a slight dive (if I remember correctly). Many climbing 109's wondered why they couldn't catch me. As far as I know all of the planes conform to the pilot handbooks, so information can mean survival.

[mERv]

I'll take you up on the offer. normally I take 75% fuel. but this time I took 100 because my flight plan was basically thru maybe 6 or 7 sectors of rook fields with dars up. had no problem climbing to 27k after that it took forever.

in fact, I took so long to climb that rooks were down to 10 players and knights took 4 or 5 bases.  by the time I dropped on the city I had 15 or so minutes left of fuel. think when I started rooks had 30 or 40 players.

anyway, I'll pm you later.

semp

I look forward to it. Maybe we can coordinate a mission out of it and take a few others.