Several things I have discovered about my squadie since I put up the original post.
1) He never designates an attack sortie for what it is, everything is flown under "fighter" sortie. That means every kill of a ground target is not counted, and strafing decimates his hit percentage.
2) He simply doesn't care if he gets shot down, as long as he takes out his target. Should he miss it, he'll fly right down into the horde just to de-ack or de-strat the field. He'll stay at it until his guns are empty or he gets clobbered. Should he survive the ack and fighters, he'll rearm and head right back again.
3) His SA is non-existant. He rarely knows what killed him unless it shot him in the face (in our last visit to the TA, I flew in the slot position at his low 6 for several minutes without being detected, even sent tracers whizzing by that failed to get his attention).
4) When he does detect a threat, he never seems to know what to do about it.
He catches alot of crap from the other guys for his constant chatter on VOX (Hey, he's just enjoying himself, but tends to ramble too much). His most common statement; "I'm in my chute", which gets responses like, "Naw you're kidding, right?" or "Who'd a thunk it?" and so on.
One thing everyone should know about him is that when he says he's going to take down a target, come hell or high water, he does. Even if he gets shot down several times trying to reach the target, he stays at it until it's dead. Should he get whacked while gooning, no complaints, he just ups another one.
Upon reflection, I have to agree with those posters who suggest that he's an asset just the way he is. In fact, despite the possibility that he is the game's worst fighter jock, he just may be the games best squadie as well, always willing to take the heat for the team, usually first on line for the honor of doing so.
I wish I could pay him a visit and work with him, but he lives in Alaska, and I'm out on eastern Long Island, about as far away as is possible within the borders of the USA.
However, I will suggest that he wing with me with the understanding that whatever I do, wherever I go, he follows. I will also suggest he join me in my fighter for a few sorties. Finally, I'm going to suggest that he spend more time in fighters like the FM-2 and Hurricane IIC, where running is not an option, and fighting out of trouble is the only way to get back. Nothing seems to sharpen SA and ACM skills like that environment.
Thanks for the input guys, it's appreciated.
My regards,
Widewing
