Interviews with B-24 pilot and P47 pilots coming soon.....

[eddiek]

Sometimes opportunity doesn't land on your doorstep, it falls right on your head!
In the next couple weeks, I am gonna have the opportunity to interview at length a B-24 pilot I met last night.  He told me he would be more than happy to visit with me, and when I told him about Aces High, he pointed me to a Jug pilot who lives nearby.    
Am gonna get a map of Europe and plot some of his missions, several of which were from his base in Italy to Ploesti.....
As a hint, he already told me what he thought of the Norden bombsight, and what fighter escorts he most preferred to see when he looked out his cockpit window.  Jug lovers delight!  You will love it when I get through.  P-38 and Mustang pilots too!
He wants to come check out AH, and really wants to know how HTC models the B-24 if we ever get one.  He said in his opinion, the B-17 got all the glamour from the boys in the 8th Air Force in England, but he felt the B-24 was every bit as tough as the Flying Fortress.  Gonna check out some combat photos he has in his private stash while I am at it.
Any serious questions you guys think I should ask him?

BTW:  I did ask him how nimble a B-24 or B-17 was at hi alt, i.e. over 20K, and he laughed.  "They were rugged as hell, but nimble...never!  You had to watch what you were doing that high."  When I mentioned the AH buffs' superb hi alt performance and their edge over the fighters, all he said was "that ain't the way it was...up there, THEY were king!  If you saw one, you prayed he wasn't interested, cause unless you had escorts there to help you out, you were dead.  There was NO way to outmaneuver a fighter at those alts."

[ 12-28-2001: Message edited by: eddiek ]

[Am0n]

Ask him if he was able to rolling scissor a 190 @ 25k.. hehe  

just joking, but that is awesome! im green with envy.  

Im mostly entrested in what the jug driver has to say.

[fdiron]

I am very much looking forward to your interviews.

[Hajo]

Hazed...ask him if he has read "The Wild Blue" by Stephen Ambrose.  It chronicles the life of B-24 Pilots.

[Sancho]

For the P-47 pilot:

How much of a factor was engine management in the P-47?  What settings were used for cruise, climb, etc.  When flying in formation, how did a flight leader communicate engine settings to his flight?

What models of P-47s did he fly and which did he like the most?

[Raubvogel]

Ask the Jug pilot if he ever took off with 2500lbs of bombs, 10 rockets, full fuel and an overload of .50 cal ammo   j/k

I'd love to read the interviews when you finish them. Nothing is better than a firsthand account.

[GRUNHERZ]

It's interesting how the real crewman didnt know how B17s flew at 30K but HTCs BBS cheerleaders do...  Turbocharging my ass, its still a big heavy piece of toejam at 35k.


I really think its time for HTC to cut out the crap when it comes to buffs, I hope they do so in 1.09.

[eddiek]

Just got off the phone for what was intended to just be a set-up-a-time call....ended up being a 45 minute call........  
One thing I went ahead and asked him was the bomb load issue, and his response was that he took a 1K egg on each wing, one on the centerline (had to remove the fins for ground clearance), 6 rockets, overload ammo and 100% fuel and the thing took off with no problem.  The only limiting factor on the ammo was that to get into overload you had to remove the ends of the ammo trays, and that left the ammo belts free to hang on braces and such inside the wing, which could result in gun jams, so, he often as not took the standard ammo load to reduce the chance of jams.
This guy is a hoot!  Told me about getting shot down:  "It was stupidity on my part really.......I was looking for a cigarette and this 109 climbed up my ass...."
I'll get more info posted late next week possibly, as I am scheduled to go to his house and do a more in-depth interview Monday and Tuesday, if his schedule allows it.............

[ 01-02-2002: Message edited by: eddiek ]

[Vector]

Originally posted by eddiek:
"It was stupidity on my part really.......I was looking for a cigarette and this 109 climbed up my ass...."

Smoking is dangerous to your health  

Good work! Keep us updated!

[skernsk]

I was looking for a cigarette and this 109 climbed up my ass...."

So AH is just like nthe real thing...only I get shot down while going to the fridge for a beer

Looking forward to the interview.

[K West]

So AH is like the real thing...."

 Yup. I imagine. If he'd not been looking down for that damned cigarette (AFK in otherwords) he'd have seen that bogy on his in-cockpit AWACs radar scope and then seen the 109's icon when he was 5.9k out  

<g,d,rlh>

 -Westy
 

p.s. Looking forward to the interview too!!

[eddiek]

I told him that I get shot down while afk a lot.....STEPPING OUTSIDE TO SMOKE!!!!!  
He agreed when I said it just goes to prove smoking can be fatal........am gonna have to bring the guy over to my house and show him AH, maybe even get him into the virtual cockpit of a Jug.....just wanna see some respect shown to the guy if I do........will squelch anyone who starts being a smartass.

[Sancho]

good stuff eddie  

Here's some follow-up questions when you get a chance to talk to him next time:  

What group/squadron was he with?  What model jug was he flying with the 3 1000s and rocks?  And does he remember what kind of rockets?  The tube launched kind or zero length?  Could he fire the guns before the rockets were fired?  I've read that some zero lenght rockets were placed right under the brass ejection ports and if the guns were used, hot brass might burn the ignition wires on the rockets.

[fats]

Was his 47 ( and the other dude's 24 ) using higher manifold pressure than the factory limit?


// fats

[hblair]

Lookin forward to it Edmund!