AH vs real WW2

[bozon]

How many of AH "aces" are even physically fit to fly a WWII fighter? Perhaps the most valuable trait of a WWII fighter was his eye sight - not just focus, but peripheral vision and depth perception too. You don't have these on a monitor and your SA does not require you to move your head more than 15 degrees. You don't change focus between 40 cm to the instrument panel and infinity to find enemy planes. Not to mention that real planes do not have a red label under them.

How many of our "aces" are 4 eyes?
and this is just the vision issue.

[Wyld45]

A cessna can't preform 1/8th of the acms I use. Theres a difference.

                        Bahh!....Cessna yeah,....but we havent seen you in a "spitty" yet!   

[evenhaim]

                        Bahh!....Cessna yeah,....but we havent seen you in a "spitty" yet!   

know someone who owns one, cause i sure dont

[Zazen13]

The only thing you can really compare is the innate aptitude for deflection gunnery and knowledge of ACM. You could probably say those with good ACM knowledge or excellent deflection gunnery could, with the proper general combat aviation training, translate that into real world performance. But, almost absolutely everything else is different. There's no physical sensations of flight in AH, real combat flying was physically rigorous and exhausting.

There's also no real death in AH, that has an enormous impact on how people fly. Not having real death makes people experiment more, whereas in real-life they would tend to stick to tried and true methods they find themselves particularly good at. Real death made people think a lot more before acting impulsively. Real death made people pay attention more so SA and communication was much more important. Real death made cooperative tactics necessary for survival, most patrols were in larger and tighter groups. Real death made certain tactics used very efficiently in AH very dangerous and therefore much more rarely employed in the real world. So, in a game with no real death, most of what we do is not what a real life pilot would probably do in the same situation, unless you fly specifically to survive and even then it would just be a crude approximation.

[avionix]

For those of you saying that there are pilots in the game, I am one as well.  I can get by in here.  Die more than I land, but that is ok.  I have done and can do aerobatics and have even flown one of those flights where you dogfight someone.  But, I wouldn't be able to do it for real without alot of work.  It is so much easier here and you take take chances without worrying about the consequences.  Being a private pilot is so much easier than trying to keep an eye out for someone.  Most of us just have what is ahead of us on our minds not what is below, behind and sometimes even off of our sides, unless its in the traffic pattern.  I was just pointing out that there are people that can play this fine but would not be able to fly well.  And then there are guys that fly well but have  a heck of a time with this.

[Yenny]

isn't most top surviving ace some kind of opportunists fighter and bnzmer, runner, hoer,vulcher! etc?

[pluck]

ya and also the "pucker" factor that my father and law likes to talk about.  I think maybe some theory of ACM and general concepts might carry over, but I don't really think your going to have much of an advantage over someone who has never touched this sim before.  It would be a bit like saying that because you play alot of NASCAR on your xbox360, that you would be a good NASCAR driver.  Or if you played alot of WoW, you would make a great fairy paladin, or an elf wizard.

[BMathis]

know someone who owns one, cause i sure dont

I do... Well did. He's our neighbor. His insurance was over $100,000 a year... His only choice was to let it go to a collector in Galveston, TX.
It's an actual reubuild, flown by a Frech pilot in WWII, who is actually still alive. He got it off a Post in England. This is the same plane & skin for the Spit 9 (in game).



He's still got the Zeke 


I told him bout AH, but I think he's too busy bulding things... He just finished an R22 Helcopter. The guy is a genius.

[DustyR]

I had the pleasure to meet a Brit that had flown in WWII, he was older than dirt but still very much the gentleman.  He trained to fly a Spitfire at the ripe old age of 16 along with 6 other from his school.  His first mission he survived out of luck not skill and returned to fight another day.  The six other from his class didn't.  He left me with the sobering statement "I know & enjoy flight simulators such as ACES HIGH, but on those you always live to fight another day."  He was in the states to bury an old comrade.  <SALUTE    

[yanksfan]

It's the whole death vs back to the tower thing that puts me off the idea

[Guppy35]

I do... Well did. He's our neighbor. His insurance was over $100,000 a year... His only choice was to let it go to a collector in Galveston, TX.
It's an actual reubuild, flown by a Frech pilot in WWII, who is actually still alive. He got it off a Post in England. This is the same plane & skin for the Spit 9 (in game).

(Image removed from quote.)

He's still got the Zeke 
(Image removed from quote.)

I told him bout AH, but I think he's too busy bulding things... He just finished an R22 Helcopter. The guy is a genius.

That's a beauty of a Spit.  I did a profile of that one for someone associated with it.  The "Zeke" is actually a modified T-6, probably one of the Tora Tora Tora birds.

[BMathis]

The "Zeke" is actually a modified T-6, probably one of the Tora Tora Tora birds.

It's not a Tora Tora bird, I don't think... It's got a bunch of everthing. The Gear is from a Mustang, engine from some random warbird, Half the fuselage is T-6 and the rest is mainly all custom. The tail was actually designed by them tracing an A6m Models' tail, with a light shining the shadow onto the wall...    Crazy how these fabricators come up with stuff like that.

[Agent360]

I think if AH2 was re worked into some kind of legitimate flight trainer model it would help real world pilots. Take for example the Army tank trainer sim. They replay the "battle of 23 easting" (not sure if this is the correct name). This tank battle from Iraq is famous. Of course they practice in real tank enclosures made into a simulator. The whole thing is in a giant hanger where each sim pod is a tank. IF you look at it from above you see rows and rows of sim pods.  But everything is played out like a video game.

It teaches squad tactics. communication, timing and maneuver against an enemy. Of course this is followed up with real live fire training. But the "tactics" are much easier to practice and much learning is done this way.

I believe the Army and some other services are now using FPS trainers to teach team work, room entry, and maneuver on the ground.

My conclusion is if in WW2 there was a "simulator" that could employ the kind of dogfighting we have in this game it would have helped real pilots immensily. There were simulators back then but they only taught things like navigation and familiarazation with flight controls...not any acm. That was done in the air and resulted in many training accident deaths.

[AKDogg]

I sometimes believe I Pappy Boyington reborn, hehehehehe.

[Gixer]

This thread is a troll right?

It is ridiculous to compare any level of sim experience in something as gamey as this of all things to real world aviation, especially at a combat level. Almost as bad as the flightsim crowd who think they can fly a real 747 just because they can do so on their home PC with a twisty stick and mouse. And often throw up in forums the "what would you do if the pilots were knocked out". Simple you'd shutup stay seated and pray with everyone else that there is someone on the plane with real world flight experience and plenty of it.

I think if AH2 was re worked into some kind of legitimate flight trainer model it would help real world pilots.

AH2 in it's current state is far too dumbed down to almost PS2 status and would certainly take some massive flight and environment update before built into a full motion spec Level-D simulator. And even then it would only be good enough for instrument and procedures training just like commercial airliner Level-D + rated simulators.

I've spent years with 747 sims in FS/Vatsim with real world fixed wing experience and helicopter ratings. But I was blown away be the difference in a real full motion commercial airliner simulator. Chalk and Cheese. I might understand how to programe the FMC,ATC,SID,STARs and other procedures but hands on flying is a different ball game even in a commercial sim let alone real world..


<S>...-Gixer