Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Strip on January 19, 2010, 10:36:53 PM
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Does anyone fly long range missions in fighters anymore?
Today I logged on and jumped in MW with around 40 people to shake some rust off. Hadnt flown for three weeks nearly and wanted to enjoy the game a little. I upped a P-51B with 100% and drop tanks, then promptly set Normal Power. We climbed to around 17k and headed off towards a big fight about six sectors away. Cruising at around 380 dirty and 395 clean we made good time. Punched out an afk Spitfire and was jumped by two enemy cons climbing back up to cruise alt.
After try to shake them for a while the fight was joined by a few from the other side. This got a little interesting, shot down a unwary P-47D-11 who never saw me coming. A spitfire crosses my nose and I fire, hits sprites but no parts. Now I am fairly low but with some descent speed, a spot a zeke and 190 coalt. Still heavy with fuel (75%) I execute a zoom climb with not enough E and the 190 gets some shots off. After extending and climbing a bit I start to energy fight them a little bit.
The zeke latches on with to little of E and the 190 gets a bit too frisky. Pulling hard to cut me off he kills his speed while the Zeke flounders and I roll over. Not wanting to force the shot on the Zeke I roll in on the Fw-190A5 and score a wingtip. Zooming back up I see the Zeke has positioned himself very poorly and I roll over into a high six shot. As I close he rolls inverted and flys a perfect path for my gun solution, score a Zero.
As I climb back up for the return trip home I fly near a vehicle base being bombed by a set of B-24s. Running low on gas and ammo at this point I take a calculated risk. Rolling onto the B-24s I see them pointing the wrong direction, I am still four sectors from home with a little over 3/8 tank of gas. Scoring a kill the first pass I climb back up for another run as he dives down to bomb. Following him down I see his drone catch fire, flackers.
Following him through the flak I score major hits but no parts come off, I hear the explosion as I zoomed back. As the spitfire apparently dies I recieve kill message number seven. Empty of fuel and ammo I set max cruise and head for home. While low on fuel I still had a fairly good reserve, it was needed as a 190 bounced me from up high. I was able to dive away and use my speed advantage to evade. Burning copious amounts of gas the 190 final gives up chase, I throttle back, it will be close.
In the end I landed with about 1 minutes worth of fuel after taking off with over an hours worth. Does anyone consider that fun, its a bit boring at times but its a real challenge to me. Fighting a Spitfire on 50% while having over 75% represents a serious challenge coalt. On the way home some people nagged me about flying all that way but I didnt care. It did make me wonder if I was that far out in left field though.
Any one do anything similar? Maybe we could join up sometime if so...
Strip
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I fly long sorties but I do them in my TA-152 of Doom.
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Sounds like one heck of a fun sortie! I always love the Long sorties, but I never really plan one unless I join a mission.
Last night I upped a P-47D-25 with 75% fuel and 1 DT from a field that had multiple targets just appear on radar. I climbed the opposite direct from the enemy planes until I reached 8K. Then I turned back to them (who were by now over the field with the classic large fight over a base, many friendlies among the enemies) and climbed up to 11K to level off. I dropped my DT and started from the highest con and worked my way down. Unluckily for me the attackers were not too experienced when it came to teamwork, let alone capping a field, and I only got 1 kill and 1 assist before most of them were dead.
I decided to climb up over the base again while most of the friendlies went to pay back the attackers for the damage they did to our base. While most of the friendlies were just getting to the attackers field (1 1/5 sectors away) someone spotted a CV off our coast, and sure enough we had 2-3 uppers: 2 of which were zekes and 1 was a F4U. I was at 8K by now, 2 friendlies were attacking some gvs near the base, many more were across the pond attacking another base, and we only had 2 guys going for the 3 planes that upped from the CV. I decided to join the fight at the CV.
Once again these were not very experienced pilots (possibly new to the game) and all 3 were dead before I got to them, but they kept upping. I got a few more kills and assists before someone sank the CV. I checked the map and most of the friendlies attacking the base over seas either died or RTB'd during the CV engagement because there were very few friendly dots in the area, but I did notice a small dar bar in our sector. I thought it would most likely be a high fighter coming over to get a few kills so I climbed up to 9K. About 7K into my climb I spotted the con on the horizon, a set of B-24's at 6K! I turned to engage knowing my 8 .50cals could easily chew through those bombers.
I closed within 800 and opened fire as he dropped his bombs, and got the lead bomber. I pulled up and looked back to see a friendly closing in to help finish the bombers. I knew he'd go for the lead bomber, and not wanting to steal the kill or me just getting an assist off them and wasting ammo, I attacked the trail bomber. We finished off the bombers with me getting 2 kills off them and 1 assist. I was now low on ammo and fuel and it looks like the fight at the base was over for now, so I dove down and landed. I think I had 6 kills and 3-4 assists and the sortie must have lasted atleast close to an hour! It certainly was one of my best sorties all month, and one of the most fun!
It really is satisfying when you up from a field with a fully loaded plane and return back to the field with low fuel, almost no ammo left, and bullet holes all over your plane. :D :aok
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I enjoy long sorties as well. Like to grab an A8 with a DT and go looking for buffs.
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Glad I'm not the only one who does this. In the funky Y shaped map (where there's always a fight at A1/A19, up in MW a lot) I am usually on the wrong side to join in that fight for whatever reason, so I have to up from one of the bases half-way across the map to get there just for the heck of it, the fights make it worth it. I typically take a P-38 100% and DTs and get to 12K and punch it there.
Today when Knights were hording the Bish in MW at one base I was a Rook, and decided to help the Bish. Had to up about 3 sectors away and fly over at 10K, and with some luck we held off the Knight attack. Had some good fights, and Bish didn't seem to want me dead, all worked out nicely. Ran low on fuel (had to ditch DTs to get there fast) so I had to cut it short, but still left with 7 kills (1 of which was an M3 :D ). (Now that I think about, I may have Rooks/Bish mixed up, I switch a lot)
Those runs normally end up being the most fun of any sorties I have.
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i was chasing fights around last night in a 262 forever before contact ...
like 2 refuels the fights just kept evaporating before i got there ...
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Why fly six sectors when you can fly one and still show up above the fight? Do you do it for the roleplaying? Sorry if it was already answered, i was only reading the posts not the stories.
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Read the stories and it might help....
The obvious, fuel is a big deal, I started to RTB with more fuel than some pilots take off with in a Pony (50%). A coalt fight is nothing like it would normally be had I taken off one sector away. To start with an oil hit (and fuel to some extent) is an instant death, your not flying home. Same for a pilot wound, a wingtip is survivable but certainly not fun that far from home. Your alone, at least the sorties I fly, with two different sides ready to hunt you down. A 4-6 sector flight to a fight will totally change the way you fly, especially if you value landing. Landing seven kills like the sortie above is so much different than the same in a sector hop. It forces you to fly the way a P-51 (or any plane for that matter) should be flown. You get a feeling of what the real deal felt like better, everything happens slower and yet it can change in the blink of an eye.
I guess I am role playing a bit.....
Strip
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Flying more than a sector and one half is long range for me.
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On OzKansas there is a spot between 133-144(?) that is almost 2 sectors in range, had some great high alt fights there with some Temps.....they couldnt handle the 152 :)
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Most of my sorties tend towards the longer side. Hell I upped a C202 and (along with 2 other knits) chased one guy for 20+ minutes up to 35k, as he entered 4 sectors of our airspace and almost ended up over our HQ.
Yes, I know, C202, never gonna catch him, but I did it anyway!
I'll almost always take 30 minutes or MORE of fuel on any sortie, and then maybe DT on top of that.
Do I plan on "we're going here for 15 mins, then dogleg here at the 30 mins mark"? No, I just intend on loitering, hanging around, moving to another fight, etc. I also like having enough gas to egress from alt monkeys, climb back up to their alt, and monkey them right back! Fuel is quite helpful in doing things like this.
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In a 152 Ill take tops 75% in my interior, maybe a DT(not often). Still gives me plenty of loiter time :salute
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Long for me is anything over five sectors one way, even then I can cover that ground in 20 minutes once at altitude. I plan most of mine, looking for a large fight in MW (10 to 15 pilots) or similar numbers in the other arenas. The pony will cruise at 380-390 even a lower settings carrying droptanks at 17k. If I plan to be gone a while I will not takeoff without at least an hours worth. Call me weird but that is a true long range sortie to me, not just long duration. Two or three sectors is like a short hop once I get to cruise alt and speed. A sector goes by in only four minutes and I can get to that profile in a little over ten.
Strip
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I don't really count in distance as much as time in air. I could only go back and forth over the same sector, but do so for 35 minutes in a row. So in that case it's short range long duration.
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It's been a while, but I used to enjoy taking a Mossie and flying a low level intruder missions just to try and replay stuff I'd read on Mossie history. That goes back to the Airwarrior days when the Mossie was ungunned too. Kinda fun seeing how deep on the deck I could get.
Now where's Del to tell folks about that DGS sortie where the 38s landed on fumes after 3+Hours escorting bombers.
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I like to fly the shortest route with a full tank(no DT). I dont dive into the nearest furball in sight but i would get lonely if there wasnt at least one red guy in the sky. A good sortie for me is unloading all my ammo, rtb, and still have a capable plane to rearm and do it again. I think my experience is similar to yours, strip, just condensed.
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A long sortie for me is to up an IL-2 and head for town to kill the M3, then RTB with a well earned victory. If I am lucky there is 2 M3's and I get my name in lights. :x
:rofl
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Good AAR Strip. We don't see many of those anymore. Sounds like a fun night. :salute
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Now where's Del to tell folks about that DGS sortie where the 38s landed on fumes after 3+Hours escorting bombers.
Best scenario hands down!
I also enjoyed escorting the 91st on their squad night with the 82nd. Once we flew 13 sectors up, 13 sectors back and I had to ditch in the water about a mile from base.
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a few guys in the 71st once upped 4 P47M's fully loaded to flew to a City/HQ area. we loiterd in that area picking off uppers who thought we were buffs, then had to fight our way out. 2 of us got home, and we were in the air a good 1hr30!
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Best scenario hands down!
I also enjoyed escorting the 91st on their squad night with the 82nd. Once we flew 13 sectors up, 13 sectors back and I had to ditch in the water about a mile from base.
Holy crow I remember that, That was a ton of fun :aok
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Does anyone fly long range missions in fighters anymore?
Today I logged on and jumped in MW with around 40 people to shake some rust off. Hadnt flown for three weeks nearly and wanted to enjoy the game a little. I upped a P-51B with 100% and drop tanks, then promptly set Normal Power. We climbed to around 17k and headed off towards a big fight about six sectors away. Cruising at around 380 dirty and 395 clean we made good time. Punched out an afk Spitfire and was jumped by two enemy cons climbing back up to cruise alt.
After try to shake them for a while the fight was joined by a few from the other side. This got a little interesting, shot down a unwary P-47D-11 who never saw me coming. A spitfire crosses my nose and I fire, hits sprites but no parts. Now I am fairly low but with some descent speed, a spot a zeke and 190 coalt. Still heavy with fuel (75%) I execute a zoom climb with not enough E and the 190 gets some shots off. After extending and climbing a bit I start to energy fight them a little bit.
The zeke latches on with to little of E and the 190 gets a bit too frisky. Pulling hard to cut me off he kills his speed while the Zeke flounders and I roll over. Not wanting to force the shot on the Zeke I roll in on the Fw-190A5 and score a wingtip. Zooming back up I see the Zeke has positioned himself very poorly and I roll over into a high six shot. As I close he rolls inverted and flys a perfect path for my gun solution, score a Zero.
As I climb back up for the return trip home I fly near a vehicle base being bombed by a set of B-24s. Running low on gas and ammo at this point I take a calculated risk. Rolling onto the B-24s I see them pointing the wrong direction, I am still four sectors from home with a little over 3/8 tank of gas. Scoring a kill the first pass I climb back up for another run as he dives down to bomb. Following him down I see his drone catch fire, flackers.
Following him through the flak I score major hits but no parts come off, I hear the explosion as I zoomed back. As the spitfire apparently dies I recieve kill message number seven. Empty of fuel and ammo I set max cruise and head for home. While low on fuel I still had a fairly good reserve, it was needed as a 190 bounced me from up high. I was able to dive away and use my speed advantage to evade. Burning copious amounts of gas the 190 final gives up chase, I throttle back, it will be close.
In the end I landed with about 1 minutes worth of fuel after taking off with over an hours worth. Does anyone consider that fun, its a bit boring at times but its a real challenge to me. Fighting a Spitfire on 50% while having over 75% represents a serious challenge coalt. On the way home some people nagged me about flying all that way but I didnt care. It did make me wonder if I was that far out in left field though.
Any one do anything similar? Maybe we could join up sometime if so...
Strip
Yep I like to do that as well. I tend to do it in an F4U-1A since that is my ride but I seldom go more than 4-5 sectors from the CV or base I take off from. I can't say that I end up knocking down more than one or two other cartoon pilets but I get a couple most of the time.
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Mid War could easily exist with a grand total of three fields with a total distance from one another in such a way that a grab allowing 5000 feet or so would be just fine.
I beleive the VF15 would still flip the map for fun even if no other map existed <S>
So....to up six sectors away and come in at anything over 10,000 feet puts a big red flag on your beenie cap.
Lastly, do whatever makes you feel good.
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We have done some very long missions, some as long as 2 hours in the air. Memorable ones include bombers escorts in P47s, P51s, and most recently mosquitos. Usualy it's an hour of getting to target, 30 mins of fighting over target and then 30 mins to get everyone home and landed. It can really add alot of realism and excitement to be cruising along chatting away and then suddenly someone calls out a contact and everything explodes into action. I have some films of long range missions if you want me to post the action sections or even full 2 hour clips. I like long range stuff, kind of like our own mini senario in the MA. Mosquito missions tend to last a long time anyhow if you dont take damage.
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I love flying long missions. They are limited in German A/C with 1.5 fuel burn.
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the "lets take a bunch of buffs and go bomb the knits capitol" flights are one reason to like titanic tuesday ...
thanks B-17 guys that was fun/cool ...
++S++
t
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If you like flying that high it is better suited to one of the LW arenas.
Too boring and slow for my taste though.
Thought I'd add that flying in a Scenario like DGS was enjoyable but doesn't lend itself well to the MAs IMHO.
Also will add a point about the B-17 raid last night. They say they are looking for realism yet I heard several reports they were at 35K. :rofl
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i said fun, it was something different and greatly appreciated by a lot of us, but you go ahead and make fun of people who's idea of fun is different from your "clearly superior type of fun" that everyone must feel exactly the same about or be ridiculed ...
after all these are the AH boards ...
If you like flying that high it is better suited to one of the LW arenas.
Too boring and slow for my taste though.
Thought I'd add that flying in a Scenario like DGS was enjoyable but doesn't lend itself well to the MAs IMHO.
Also will add a point about the B-17 raid last night. They say they are looking for realism yet I heard several reports they were at 35K. :rofl
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i said fun, it was something different and greatly appreciated by a lot of us, but you go ahead and make fun of people who's idea of fun is different from your "clearly superior type of fun" that everyone must feel exactly the same about or be ridiculed ...
after all these are the AH boards ...
:rofl Who made fun of anyone. I stated a fact... and I did not belittle anyone, I leave that up to folks like you.
I have noticed you like to accuse folks of things they don't do. I also know the crook is the one who thinks everyone is trying to steal from him.
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:rofl <<< confused me ...
is not that some sort of passive aggressive way to say a bunch of stuff you don't have to type ...
if not well i guess i "misunderstood" you :lol
and i apologize :rofl
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All good :)
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:salute
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It's been a while, but I used to enjoy taking a Mossie and flying a low level intruder missions just to try and replay stuff I'd read on Mossie history. That goes back to the Airwarrior days when the Mossie was ungunned too. Kinda fun seeing how deep on the deck I could get.
Now where's Del to tell folks about that DGS sortie where the 38s landed on fumes after 3+Hours escorting bombers.
That has to be one my most memorable moments (if you can call a 4 hour scenario frame a "moment"). We got hit fairly early as I recall and I took a bullet to the radiator so we turned back. On the way home we heard the calls that the primary target was completely covered with clouds and they couldn't make the drop and the decision was made to go for the secondary target. We started to hear the increasingly anxious P-38 pilots talk about fuel states, and Del telling everyone to go to one engine to save every last drop they could. Hitting the tarmac we replaned and roared back into the air bending the throttles past the stops to get back to the buffs because we knew if the escorts had to engage enemy fighters for more than a minute or two they wouldn't make it home. The bombers had made their drop and had turned back west for the homeward journey, and just as we got there they formations got bounced by enemy fighters we got a couple and the 38's drove the rest off and continued home all the 38's made it but some engines quit on the taxiway back to the revetments.
Then we learned that while the formations were flying due W on the compass they were unwittingly sitting in a wind layer that had blown them south and off the map during the running firefight and we were penalized points. :lol
One of the all time high points of my AH "career". :)
Was looking through the film folder last night, and I think I still have that one. I wonder if it works in the current film viewer.
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That's the first part of that sortie. One of my best formation landings covering the wounded 38 of Soulyss back.
(http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s199/guppy35/Snap3-3.jpg)
The buffs outbound were a pretty sight.
(http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s199/guppy35/17Formation.jpg)
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Yep I like to do that as well. I tend to do it in an F4U-1A since that is my ride but I seldom go more than 4-5 sectors from the CV or base I take off from. I can't say that I end up knocking down more than one or two other cartoon pilets but I get a couple most of the time.
was going to say the same, my F4U sorties usually max out at 3-4 sectors. When I use to roll the JUG/Pony out then I would travel as far out as my fuel would let me. JUG mission are a blast, miss those.
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I love long sorties. Every Tuesday the 81st Pogues host a Strat run to either the Bishop or Knight strat that normally take 2-3 hours. Last night we had a good run, got jumped early by a lone 47 but once we got over the Knights strat it really started to heat up. Personally I like the long sorties better then the 2 sector hop.
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I tend to alternate. I'm not a very good stick, so I'll sometimes up a ship with good range (P-47 or P-38) and stick myself to somebody that could use an escort- a bloke with a box of 24s or perhaps a C-47 going to drop troops. If there's a GV battle nearby I'll up a P-40 with a 500lb'er and plink it at a tank, then wait for the yank-n-bank action to commence. I love dogfighting, and there is nothing that sucks down bandits like a low P-40.
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For long range mission I usually fly 190D9 w/ 100% fuel and DT. Internal is about 25 minutes, if I use every drop of my DT that's another 15 minutes. So total air time is about 40-45 minutes depends on throttle setting. Normally I won't drop DT until it's empty.