In the Navy

[Wanker]

No, this is not a thread about the Village People.  

Now that 1.03 is soon to be here, I'm starting to wax nostalgic about being able to land on a CV in my SBD or Kate. Sure would be nice to have naval ops sometime in the future. I know HiTech and Pyro indicated that it would indeed be otw, but they didn't give out too many specifics.

Think of it, not only could we take off and land from carriers, but AH could also be the first online sim to introduce the floatplane as a viable weapon of war. Imagine the thrill of lumbering down the waterway in your Emily bomber, those eight 250kg bombs lashed to the wings, the spray washing up over the sides of the canopy.

The Chance-Vought Kingfisher would be another interesting plane to fly. If HTC could come up with a useful purpose for it(like naval gun barrage spotting, or pilot rescue), then people would fly it. Think of the rush of being catapulted from the deck of a battleship in your Kingfisher, as you go out on a mission to rescue your countrymen whom have bailed out and need a ride back to base.

*Sigh*.........Someday.....someday...my ship will come in. I hope it's in 1.04.

[Saintaw]

Could not miss that occasion...I'M IN !

[SFRT - Frenchy]

How about a catalina? Let's say that Rooks bombed our HQ for the 20th time in the day, Catalina pilot will be able to 'awac' a couple of quads, giving some relief.

borring to fly along but surely appreciated by his countrymen.

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Olivier "Frenchy" Raunier
       www.sfrt.net

[This message has been edited by SFRT - Frenchy (edited 06-16-2000).]

[Westy]

 I'm with you banana, all the way. Pyro had alluded to a Storch or Birddog (i'm not sure due to the angle of the picture in the book on his desk) coming some day help with the artillery.  I think a PBY or Emily would be ideal. And even an OS2 or the Heinkel ( not sure what the Japanese used for observation aircraft with naval units) would really be nice in a Naval environment.

  BTW, how were CV's landings in WB's? It's the one thing I can;t ever recall trying to do whenever I did try it in offline mode.  AW was ok. Not very realistic as you could land even a B17 on the flight deck. But still it took a little skill - with full realism settings=on anyway.

 -Westy

[Graywolf]

Personally I can't wait for CVs in Aces High. Not only is it great fun to launch from the CV, bag a couple of kills over an emeny base and then get the trap first time on the way home, but they add an element of unprdictability. Being in a formation of bombers just climbing out from a rearware base and stumbling across a CV group in mid-ocean is not a nice experience.

I used to love just sitting in the 'tower' in a CV in Warbirds and watching the fun.

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Graywolfe <tim@flibble.org>

[Karnak]

I hope our first seaplanes are the H8K2 "Emily" and the PBY Flying Catalina, preferably in the same release.

Sisu

[Beefcake]

I'm with frenchy, give me the PBY-5 Catalina. With its 3x50s and 4 500s, plus RADAR!!!!!!! hehehehe

[Nash]

"BTW, how were CV's landings in WB's? It's the one thing I can;t ever recall trying to do whenever I did try it in offline mode. AW was ok. Not very realistic as you could land even a B17 on the flight deck. But still it took a little skill - with full realism settings=on anyway." -Westy

You can land a 17 on the WB's CV no problem.

[Sparks]

Surely THE plane for water operations has to be the Sunderland - reasonable bomb load, three turrets and drop dead fantastic.
 

[Replicant]

Although I think the Catalina is one hell of a gorgeous plane, I can't help feel that the Short Sunderland Mk II - V would be a better addition purley for its better armament - 2 bow .303 MGs, provision for 4 x .303 on sides of bow, 2 x .303 in dorsal turret and 4 x .303 in tail turret, 1 x .50 MG in each beam position plus internal bomb/depth/mine load of just under 5000lb.  It also had radar.

Haven't a clue how it would fly... but at least it would have some chance of defending itself.

'Nexx'

[AKSeaWulfe]

 

Originally posted by Westy:
I'm with you banana, all the way. Pyro had alluded to a Storch or Birddog (i'm not sure due to the angle of the picture in the book on his desk) coming some day help with the artillery.  I think a PBY or Emily would be ideal. And even an OS2 or the Heinkel ( not sure what the Japanese used for observation aircraft with naval units) would really be nice in a Naval environment.

  BTW, how were CV's landings in WB's? It's the one thing I can;t ever recall trying to do whenever I did try it in offline mode.  AW was ok. Not very realistic as you could land even a B17 on the flight deck. But still it took a little skill - with full realism settings=on anyway.

 -Westy

***Disclaimer: Haven't played WB since day 1 of WB2.0****

However, what I remember from the WB's CVs from then, it was quite a challenge to land on a carrier. You NEEDED a plane with an arrestor hook or chances are you'd just slide right off the end of the deck(unless you flew a SpitV to about 100MPH and stalled it just above the deck, then it plopped down just fine and rolled to almost the end of the deck). I remember that if you fudged the landing a little too much you'd damage your plane a great deal. Examples being: Too fast when you hook catches and you bounced forward, nosed in and lost your engine, then your tail bounced back to the ground and the entire rear fuselage came off. Was a site to see a few guys land damaged zeros or F6Fs or Seafires on the carriers, they'd touch down, and just go right off the end of the deck or into the tower on the side of the carrier(sorry I forget what that thing is called.... the part of the ship where the control deck was located?). Another thing that could happen would be you'd come in too hard(too high of an AoA and too much drop), you'd come down hard on your gear and if you were lucky the gear wouldn't break, but your engine would. Most of the times you lost your gear and did one of two things. Slide off the end of the carrier or just blew up. Flying into combat from a carrier or landing with a damaged plane (like missing control surfaces or something) was extremely fun and the biggest adrenaline rushes in the arena. It also meant that sometimes the CV group would go by an enemy field and you'd launch and be over the field in about a minute. This of course was back when acks only arched about 1,000 yards into the sky and were for the most part widely inaccurate. This lead to major furballs around fields.. which while fun really didn't do much to influence actually taking bases. ;-)
-SW
AKSeaWulfe+

[Karnak]

For armament, try the H8K2 Emily, 20 mm Type 99 Model 1 cannon in bow, dorsal and tail turrets and two beam hatches, and 7.7 mm Type 92 machine-guns in ventral, port and starboard fuselage sides and cockpit hatches.

Thats 5 20mm defensive cannon, plus some light MGs.

For loadout, two 800 kg torpedoes, or eight 250 kg bombs, or sixteen 60 kg bombs or depth-charges.

Clearly the flying boat for the job is the Emily.

Sisu

[Wanker]

Westy,

Landing on the CV in WB is difficult for the beginner, but not too bad after you practice. Hehe, as AKSwulfe said, you could have a lot of fun just sitting in the CV tower, watching guys miss with their arrestor hooks and go careening off the end of the CV. Or coming in too hard and bouncing off the flight deck and landing back with a crash and an explosion.

In Warbirds I was CO of a squad for three years, and one of my favorite squad night missions was to hold inter-squad air races. We would roll from the CV, fly to a field, fly through the hanger, then back to the CV. The winner was the first one to perform the required activities, and he had to land successfully on the CV. Did I forget to mention that killshooter was OFF, and I set no rules about the use of weapons?   It made for some pretty fun squad nights!

[popeye]

The PAC might be just the place for early war planes -- Zero, F4F, and the like.  Carrier battles can be fought at relative close range, and it would give lovers of Japanese aircraft a place to enjoy an (historical) advantage.  I'd be happy to fly an F4F target drone.  

(Early war planes would also be easier for newbies to land on a carrier.)  

popeye (The Sailor Man)

[funked]

Trapping on the CV in WB was a hoot.  It was one of the things that sold me on the game.  Nothing else at the time came close in modeling that kind of flying.  

I can remember leading Hellcats in scenarios, flying a nice pattern with each plane breaking on to base leg at intervals.  Then getting aboard first and then doing an LSO imitation on RW from the tower.  It was a blast watching experienced guys (even a trainer or two) having to go around or damaging the plane on touchdown, with all the guys who had landed hollering on RW "pull up" "more power" "oh sh|t" etc.  

[This message has been edited by funked (edited 06-16-2000).]