Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: hazmatt on May 04, 2021, 10:25:18 PM
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Is it possible to take off in this configuration? If so how?
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Fully loaded the in game B29's have to hit 140 knots to rotate. Currently there is NO runway long enough on any of the bases to accommodate that. The last two maps I submitted for the MA have at least 2 bases in each country set up to accommodate these planes. All they are is extending the flat terrain out far enough for the B29's to get airborne in "Auto Takeoff" on one runway. Take a look at the Large Airbases on maps 3points and texark. The bases setup are adjacent to the strats.
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Just did it on a altitude 202 feet base. Granted, it was a 2-runway base (Medium Air Field?).
100% fuel, formation, 40x500lbs. Take off with WEP and gently baby the plane to 2k+ feet
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I've done it on the longest of runways for large airfields, near sea level, at least for runways where the ground dips away from end of runway after you clear some trees.
I went with wep on, deploy 2 notches of flaps once past half way point of runway, gear up as soon as off the ground.
I can then clear trees barely and baby it up to enough speed to get 1 notch up, then 2nd notch up.
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Ive done it many times at low alt.
I even watched the chief pilot of the CAF do it the first time.
HiTech
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Didn't say it couldn't be done lol, but again there is NO base with a runway long enough for the fully loaded B29 to takeoff from, in "Auto Takeoff". :D
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I go and look at the bases in f8 mode and look for the terrain to be treeless and fairly flat from the end of the runway and out a ways. I personally begin with no flaps, brake on, full throttle and WEP. I release the brakes and roll down the runway to build speed. Nearing the end of the runway, I hit 2 notches of flaps and lift, raising gear as soon as I'm in the air. But no, I have never been able to lift the beast on just the runway with a full load out. Suggest practicing off line. If someone has a better thought here..lemmme know....I've crashed a few B-29 formations on take off in the past...Thank god I have an enormous amount of bomber perks. :)
Cheers, One-eye
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Bear in mind it's been more than a good while since I flew the 29, AH2 days if I recall correctly:
With a formation (100% fuel, 40x 500lb), you want a large field with the longest runway where the end of the runway has flat terrain and no have trees for light years, ideally with down slope off the runway. Jam the brake go full power and wait until the gal starts to overpower her brake, then release. Let her build up as much speed as possible then, around 2/3rd down the runway, drop two notches of flap slowly (no quicker than 1s between each notch), but do not pull back on the stick just yet. Give her another 2-3 seconds then very gently pull back. Once she's off the ground, get your gear up and let her stay just off the ground and keep building speed. After a few stars are born and die, she will start to very slowly climb on her own. Don't do anything, fly straight and let her climb at her own pace. Let her keep building speed and altitude and eventually you will be able to bring up one notch. Wait until you have sufficient speed and altitude then only bring up one notch or you'll have a quick trip back to tower and a few perks less. You will begin to dip, do nothing, she will stabilize and start climbing back up at her own pace (providing you gave yourself enough altitude of course). From there you should be in the clear and will eventually be able to get the last notch of flaps up.
With a single, the same applies, only you actually have a little more leeway. If you screw up, won't cost you as much. :P
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Ive done it many times at low alt.
I even watched the chief pilot of the CAF do it the first time.
HiTech
Yes sir
Couple of important things pilots with little experience on the subject should consider and implement when attempting this...
1) When starting up the engines you need to just sit there a few minutes and allow your engines to warm up. This allows the maximum performance on take off.
2) Always WEP Up at full throttle with brakes on for 5 seconds before disengaging the parking brake.
3) Keep those flaps up until the last moment to gain as much speed as possible. Don't over due it with the flaps as maintaining the right amount of airspeed while producing lift is critical. 2 clicks should be enough. 3 clicks is really pushing it but it works. Problem is your not going to gain much airspeed once up and as soon as you raise your flaps up a notch your gonna drop very quickly from 3 click to 2.
4) Once you got 100-500' clearance off the deck and around 165-170 airspeed go ahead and try to level out while slowly pulling back the stick to maintain alt when you start pulling up those flaps one click at a time. Once you got around 180 mph airspeed go ahead and set you climb speed to 180 and let the auto pilot do all the work. Hop into a gun, select F3 mode, and gently rudder left or right if you need to turn your bird to maximize climb rate and not stall.
5) Always scout an airfield before attempting a take off with a full bag and max ordinance load out. Us vets aren't too worried about that row of trees close to the end of the runway as we are the subtle hill 5 miles away you can barely make out from the runway or tower. You can get 29's over the trees but if you have to avoid a hill or mountain in your first 3-5 minutes something could go terribly wrong. Always always always scout ahead.
6) A full bag of fuel is totally unnecessary in AH3. Yes your buying yourself a lot of extra flight time if you know how to squeeze every drop efficiently from the start of your sortie but the time it takes to climb to +20k vs 1/2 to 3/4 bag just isn't worth it in my opinion. You can get a lot done in that extra 30 minutes of climb time doing something else post sortie IMHO.
7) You don't need a large airfield to pull this off. Medium airfields work just fine :huh besides not every map has a large airfield.
8) last but not least it's always better to take off from a runway that's higher than it's surroundings. Even if its at the back of the map.. If you can get it up and then nose down shortly after take off your getting to that 180 climb speed without flaps quick. Sooner your safely climbing the better. Never start your ascent immediately after take off :aok
Once you have 1000-1500 of altitude you can adjust your climb speed to whatever speed provides the best climb rate. Just take into account the altitude your taking off from and what direction the wind is coming out of. Don't want to take off from a runway that's already high up but your going with the wind. Had that happen once and it didn't work out to well. Not sure if this is the case nowadays but it was in the past on very rare occasion.
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1) When starting up the engines you need to just sit there a few minutes and allow your engines to warm up. This allows the maximum performance on take off.
In AH, there is no need for warming up the engines. You have maximum performance right from startup.
Reading this thread, I wonder what anyone needs 100% fuel in a B-29 in this age of small maps. :headscratch:
Checking my logs I never had any used 100% on any map but the old large ones (like Compello), and even on those just occasionally. (87 out of 596 B-29 missions in my flight log).
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In AH, there is no need for warming up the engines. You have maximum performance right from startup.
Reading this thread, I wonder what anyone needs 100% fuel in a B-29 in this age of small maps. :headscratch:
Checking my logs I never had any used 100% on any map but the old large ones (like Compello), and even on those just occasionally. (87 out of 596 B-29 missions in my flight log).
Snailman, your consistent methodical approach to AH2/3 is an inspiration to the rest of us. Hope to some day see you back in the air hunting bombers again. :salute
Hope you and the family are doing well, God Bless.
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I’ve wrecked a few on takeoff, perks gone...lol :bhead
Wasn’t until then I realized that when I went with 50% that was enough fuel to fly around for a couple hours or more...
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In AH, there is no need for warming up the engines. You have maximum performance right from startup.
Reading this thread, I wonder what anyone needs 100% fuel in a B-29 in this age of small maps. :headscratch:
Checking my logs I never had any used 100% on any map but the old large ones (like Compello), and even on those just occasionally. (87 out of 596 B-29 missions in my flight log).
Yeah, that is did strike me as a little odd as well, just didn't care enough to bring it up. :) I used 100% primarily because I flew very high. It takes a while to get above 30k after all, and I did a bit of the climbing over friendly territory. I always planned to return to the launching field as well, which was generally deep in friendly territory. :aok
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If the fuel load showed approximate time in the hangar noobs might get a better idea how much to take in any plane they select.
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If the fuel load showed approximate time in the hangar noobs might get a better idea how much to take in any plane they select.
There are a few factors that make that difficult. 2 of the more obvious would whether a player is flying at full throttle for time purposes or flying in a more fuel efficient manner. The other is how long In a flight is the bird flying with or against the wind. Later on in my AH career I started utilizing the wind at different altitudes for fuel conservation just for the heck of it to develop the habit. Ended up being a nice time investment when I actually needed it.
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In AH, there is no need for warming up the engines. You have maximum performance right from startup.
Reading this thread, I wonder what anyone needs 100% fuel in a B-29 in this age of small maps. :headscratch:
Checking my logs I never had any used 100% on any map but the old large ones (like Compello), and even on those just occasionally. (87 out of 596 B-29 missions in my flight log).
I always wondered if that was the case but has that actually been confirmed by HT in the past? The old timers swore up and down you had to let em warm up in the game so I adopted the habit myself.
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I’ve wrecked a few on takeoff, perks gone...lol :bhead
Wasn’t until then I realized that when I went with 50% that was enough fuel to fly around for a couple hours or more...
I miss the days of the mid-war arena. I wasted a lot of hours in my life farming perks on town centers in AH2 just so that I could fly 29's at will. The name of those Jap bombers has escaped me at the moment but man at times you could farm a whole set in 1 sortie if 2 sides were stacked.
Pure joy flying 3 sets at one time working 3 separate ops over 2-3 hr time period. If there was one thing about me I loved to sneak a base but I loved a good fight defending bombers even more :salute
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I did a milk run early this morning while working on an online traffic school thing that has timers that you can't click through and takes fiveever.
I took off from the base off-line that I was going to take off from online without a hitch with 40 500lbs and 1/2 fuel without a hitch. Was very easy.
I did the same thing online for the money, (cost was about 1/3 of my bomber perks) and struggled to get up airspeed. The only think I think I might have done different is offline used 1 notch of flaps and online used 2 or offline used 2 and online used 3. It was not until I got the flaps up some that I could build any speed.
I did see that hill in the distance that was mentioned earlier come into view alarmingly quickly, however was able to make a gentle turn and avoid it.
I did not realize how fast those 29s are until I saw a 190 that was attempting to close on me and was never able to get into gun range.
Since it was early in the morning and there were minimal defenders I just bombed some towns, and accidentally dropped a few bombs in the middle of a field but my mission was a success in my book as I didn't lose any perks!
Thanks for all the info and tips.
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As you figured out, with 50% fuel you don't need 2 notches. :)
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I did a milk run early this morning while working on an online traffic school thing that has timers that you can't click through and takes fiveever.
I took off from the base off-line that I was going to take off from online without a hitch with 40 500lbs and 1/2 fuel without a hitch. Was very easy.
I did the same thing online for the money, (cost was about 1/3 of my bomber perks) and struggled to get up airspeed. The only think I think I might have done different is offline used 1 notch of flaps and online used 2 or offline used 2 and online used 3. It was not until I got the flaps up some that I could build any speed.
I did see that hill in the distance that was mentioned earlier come into view alarmingly quickly, however was able to make a gentle turn and avoid it.
I did not realize how fast those 29s are until I saw a 190 that was attempting to close on me and was never able to get into gun range.
Since it was early in the morning and there were minimal defenders I just bombed some towns, and accidentally dropped a few bombs in the middle of a field but my mission was a success in my book as I didn't lose any perks!
Thanks for all the info and tips.
if you can master your gunnery skills, understanding how to play to win the war, and have the patience to really get the most out of a 29 sortie.....
You can swing momentum or stop it. Setup entire fronts for advances or neuter an enemies front porking ords on your way back from an ammo strat run.
You don't get much accomplished at 30k but that 20-22k sweet spot both delivers and makes you a nice target for intercept. Learning the balance while being able to defend yourself can be a game changer.
But like the rest of these flying tin cans she is not invincible as my POTW counterparts repeatedly reminded me of over the years :police:
You could shoot 6 of them down and there were 3 more that would finish you off :rofl
Don't even get me started about their ME 262 fighter sweeps :cheers:
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How do you aim the guns on the bottom. I only seemed to be able view where I could see anything below from the waist position.
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How do you aim the guns on the bottom. I only seemed to be able view where I could see anything below from the waist position.
That is how you do it, from the waist. I've found no problems dealing with people who came in from below. If I can't hit them from one position, I switch to the other and usually took a wing. Then there is switching to one of the drones if you are in formation. You'll always get an angle on someone from below using that method. They can only line up on one of your aircraft, not all three. :)
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They can only line up on one of your aircraft, not all three. :)
Snailman aka Lusche has lined up and towered 2 of my birds in one pass on multiple occasions when he got the right angle...
Granted both he and the occasions were rare but it's possible.
I always found the side turrets were the best position for engaging targets below my 29's.
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Which brings to mind engaging aircraft trying to come up from behind the aircraft :rofl
Can't tell you how many times I plucked a wing at 1500m with the stinger Cannon using click bursts. Poor guys would spend 20-30 minutes just to get that close lol then all of sudden there's a *clunk* and their aircraft rolls over :x
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Snailman aka Lusche has lined up and towered 2 of my birds in one pass on multiple occasions when he got the right angle...
Granted both he and the occasions were rare but it's possible.
I always found the side turrets were the best position for engaging targets below my 29's.
Never said it was impossible, but most don't setup like that. And if he was able to nip 2 of your bird in one pass from below, you must've been asleep at the wheel and too low. :P
I don't fly the 29 at low altitudes because of how "squishy" she is. If she was more durable, then I'd be more willing to fly at a lower altitude. By "squishy", she's hella easy to light on fire, at least in my limited experience intercepting them. As for being intercepted, only one person was able to fire on me, and he was in a 163. But he came in dead 6, and as you pointed out in your next statement, coming in dead 6...not a good idea. :t
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Hope to some day see you back in the air hunting bombers again. :salute
This is highly unlikely. I miss my AH days a lot, though. :salute
(Funny how everybody remembers me hunting bombers, when I actually spent more time flying them in the last 5-8 years of my AH life ;))
Hope you and the family are doing well, God Bless.
We are doing reasonably well, though the wife being at home all the time because of the lockdowns really starts getting on my nerves :devil
I always wondered if that was the case but has that actually been confirmed by HT in the past? The old timers swore up and down you had to let em warm up in the game so I adopted the habit myself.
I spend quite some time in AH over the years (yeah, I admit I was a no-life full time player), but I have never ever seen anybody mention something like that until your post. Wouldn't make much sense either, as engine temps are not even really modeled in AH, even WEP is strictly a time based mechanism. It's also very easy to confirm or dismiss it by a simple test (acceleration on the runway), which I would have done immediately if I had ever heard that claim.
You don't get much accomplished at 30k but that 20-22k sweet spot both delivers and makes you a nice target for intercept. Learning the balance while being able to defend yourself can be a game changer.
Yes!.
In the beginning I also tried to get the costly 29 as high as possible, but I quickly learned most of the time that was simply a waste of time both for myself as for everyone going against you. In later years, the only times I would really get to really high altitudes (27k+) was when getting near Me 163 bases to force them into compression, something only a few pilots could cope with. According to my stats, less than 10% of my B-29 sorties were flown at 30k and above:
(https://i.imgur.com/YMYDgA6.png)
The main factor that determined my exact altitude when going above 20k was the wind layers. The missions I did below 15k were mostly anti shipping sorties, for the 29 makes a great sinker of carriers and battleships.
Also, maybe I can look up later how much combat I had at those different altitudes...
That is how you do it, from the waist. I've found no problems dealing with people who came in from below. If I can't hit them from one position, I switch to the other and usually took a wing. Then there is switching to one of the drones if you are in formation. You'll always get an angle on someone from below using that method. They can only line up on one of your aircraft, not all three. :)
Absolutely! Switching between the drones is the key for engaging low altitude cons. You will find that there is no blind spot that way.
One word about loadout: I not only rarely flew with 100%, even rarer was using the 40x500lbs loadout. In most cases, I found it to be total overkill and a very inefficient way to fly the B-29.
I would use the 4x4k for sinking CVs (@25% fuel), milking town centers, some single factory targets. The 8x2k I used for hangar smashing, flattening towns for captures, attacking several factories (especially in the old central strats) or the new city. 12x1k and 20x500 were my 'light' loadouts for very distant, relocated strats or airfields & towns. 56x250 I used for the old city in the central starts with its rectangular city blocks. 80x100 was the lightest (old) city smashing loadout.
(https://i.imgur.com/zDJfY80.png)
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Great posts guys.
My 2cents about bombers and bombing:
The key to being a better gunner in AH besides aiming (duh) is switching to drones and really memorizing your gunner keybinds to maximize firing back at enemies. Not really saying more than what has already been said, but I like to pretend I'm a decent bomber so I like to think I know what I'm doing :)
I used to fly Lancasters often since it is easy to WF towns, but you are easy to kill because your guns suck. Unless someone sticks on your dead six and you get the 50cal tail gun load out, you need 18k plus alt, and even climbing to that alt is like 2 hours lol
B-17/B-27's - I fly from 10 to 15k feet usually (strat runs 22k+) mainly to get people to bite and fight me. One thing I used to like to do is hunt bombers, but seems like its either people like me flowing low to get fights/greedy/fun, or b17s that take 2+ hours to get 30k alt or more.
Flying a b29 feels like cheat codes if your aim is on for the night. You have so much ammo to kill easily 5+ bandits as long as some 410 with the tank rounds doesnt snipe you at 1.5k ;)
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Whoops
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I think flying B-29s at 20K is a huge risk. The strength of the plane lies in it's ability to fly at 30K+ at 400mph.. slight directional changes at that altitude will frustrate most planes and ensure that an attacker will be creeping up from behind you making him an easy victim.
If you let an attacker get over the top of any buff formation in AH your toast. It's extremely hard for almost every fighter in AH to get to 35K and fast and maneuverable enough up there to get over the top of a set of B-29. By the time the do they may get one slow pass. After that one slow pass they are damaged or out of gas. If you fly your B-29s at 20K, even if you are a good gunner, an A8 will take two of them before you know him out of the sky. I've killed a 3 buff formation of B-29s with a K4 several times because they were at 20K. Lucky to get one if they're above 30k.
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I think flying B-29s at 20K is a huge risk
If you let an attacker get over the top of any buff formation in AH your toast.
In theory yes, but in practice things often look(ed) a bit differently.
First, unless something has changed radically in the past two years, most AH fighter pilots don't even bother to get in a proper overhead attack position. In fact, a higher percentage those climbing up to me at 30k took some extra time to attack me properly than those who would encounter my B-29s at 20k or below.
The B-29 is also immensely fast at lower altitudes, so that the combination of speed, sturdiness, and firepower makes them very much survivable at 20k or even lower.
I looked up my plane kills & losses of my B-29 runs from March 2012 to January 2019 and compared them to my sortie altitudes:
(https://i.imgur.com/ti1yNbE.png)
As you can see, I did much better at <20K than in the 20-24.5k altitude band. Much more 'casual' fighter pilots with lazy approaches and less-than optimum planes tried their luck with me. Above 20k it's more the dedicated hunters (with a better choice of planes) coming into play, with my chances improving again above 25k when altitude alone starts to make interception more difficult for the fighter pilot.
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In theory yes, but in practice things often look(ed) a bit differently.
First, unless something has changed radically in the past two years, most AH fighter pilots don't even bother to get in a proper overhead attack position. In fact, a higher percentage those climbing up to me at 30k took some extra time to attack me properly than those who would encounter my B-29s at 20k or below.
The B-29 is also immensely fast at lower altitudes, so that the combination of speed, sturdiness, and firepower makes them very much survivable at 20k or even lower.
I looked up my plane kills & losses of my B-29 runs from March 2012 to January 2019 and compared them to my sortie altitudes:
(https://i.imgur.com/ti1yNbE.png)
As you can see, I did much better at <20K than in the 20-24.5k altitude band. Much more 'casual' fighter pilots with lazy approaches and less-than optimum planes tried their luck with me. Above 20k it's more the dedicated hunters (with a better choice of planes) coming into play, with my chances improving again above 25k when altitude alone starts to make interception more difficult for the fighter pilot.
the idea that at lower alts you find less skilled attackers makes sense. But don't you end up with both the skilled AND the unskilled? Dedicated is a good term for it. If I up and go hunt High altitude Buffs it's a 40minute adventure. :salute
YEs, miss you in-game Snailman.
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I just did a b29 sortie at 18 to 20k alt and no one intercepted me :( :furious
Did land 47.5k damage tho, that was sweet. Only 6 perk points tho lmao :)
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I just did a b29 sortie at 18 to 20k alt and no one intercepted me :( :furious
Did land 47.5k damage tho, that was sweet. Only 6 perk points tho lmao :)
Only 6??? That's quite high for a 29 sortie even for a milk run standards. Must have been on the clean side of end to get that kind of perk multiplier score. I've cleared 60k and got 2 perks before.
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Only 6 perk points tho lmao :)
That's a fortune!
When I was flying B-29 missions, I made an average of -15 perks per run. Flying perk bombers is an expensive hobby :old:
(The most I ever lost in a single sortie: -424.4. Went AFK into a mountain. Ouch :uhoh)
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I think each buff was 103 perkies, so 309 in total. I porked 3 town centers to see how much damage I could do since I haven't done that in like a year so.
50% fuel load, 4x4000lbs. Fuel was a bit too much, but last time I took 25% I literally landed with a few gallons to spare lol.
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I think each buff was 103 perkies, so 309 in total. I porked 3 town centers to see how much damage I could do since I haven't done that in like a year so.
50% fuel load, 4x4000lbs. Fuel was a bit too much, but last time I took 25% I literally landed with a few gallons to spare lol.
you'd be surprised how much fuel you can save AND how much time you don't lose by not running at full throttle the entire flight. Maybe try that next time. Had you been intercepted and had a fuel bag punctured you were surely doomed. :azn:
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That's a fortune!
When I was flying B-29 missions, I made an average of -15 perks per run. Flying perk bombers is an expensive hobby :old:
(The most I ever lost in a single sortie: -424.4. Went AFK into a mountain. Ouch :uhoh)
was a time in this game when I coveted those perks so much when something like that happened I could of used a certain hotline to get me through... :bhead