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#172
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On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 07:16:31 GMT, "Pete" wrote:
But put that same Aces High desk jock in a real fighter, and you'll have some poor crew chief spending the afternoon cleaning puke out of the cockpit. If the jet comes back. Familiarity in the particular environment. Spend a few hundred (or thousand) hours working a particular tool (be it jet or sim) and you might get pretty good. But being good in one does not instantly translate into being good in the other. A true Top Gun, but Aces High neophyte is working off a different set of reflexes and responses. And conversely, the Aces High ace has internalized the peculiarities and limitations of the PC sim environment. Pete Where PC based combat sims excel is at teaching Situational Awareness and basic ACM, even advanced ACM. I'm sure any combat pilot will tell that no other factor has a greater impact upon survival than SA. I would venture to say that it is the single greatest asset a combat pilot could possess. Moreover, it is, IMHO, the most difficult skill to teach and learn. There are factors in the simulation that actually make it more difficult than in real life. You have a single portal through which you must view the world around you. To scan the sky around you, an actual pilot merely turns his head. Flying a PC sim, you must do this via a series of hand manipulated inputs either thru a hat switch or specific keystrokes. Either way, it requires greater effort and concentration to do this as deftly as one moves one's own head. Yet, this must be done constantly, and you must learn to do it instinctively to boot. Just 10 seconds of inattentiveness is all it takes to get clobbered. Cockpit workload is minimized to a degree by the absence of an electrical system and simplified hydraulic controls. Reliability is completely removed as a factor as only battle damaged systems can fail. However, if a system is damaged, you still have to manage the aircraft and get it home if possible. Some things still remain. Weapon selector switches, fuel selector, propeller controls, trim tab adjustment, two channel radio (with hundreds of frequencies) and so on. There are some tidbits to help inexperienced players such as "combat trim", which constantly trims the airplane based upon its speed. However, this can substantially cut into agility when you have to fight the auto-trim, so experienced players simply trim the aircraft manually. This is done via keystrokes or on the more sophisticated controllers, via thumbwheels on the HOTAS. Furthermore, things have evolved a very long way from the old days of microswitch joysticks. A good controller system can easily set you back $200. However, this includes a programmable stick and throttle, along with rudder pedals with toe brakes. Systems programmable for hundreds of functions are commonplace. Virtually every input to the simulator is adjustable. The big names in flight controllers include CH Products, Saitek and Thrustmaster. Then there are environmental issues, rain, cloud cover, wind and darkness (yes, we have night time too, albeit abbreviated). Some things are over simplified in my opinion. Starting engines is a matter of pushing a single button. Going to full power on a cold engine does nothing to harm it. There's no cooler doors and cowl flaps to manage. There's no collisions between friendly aircraft (but there sure is with enemy aircraft). To prevent misbehavior, you cannot shoot down a friendly as the apparent damage is assigned to your aircraft. This is called "killshooter", and it is sometimes disabled in the Combat Theater, but is always on in the Main Arena. A word about the various arenas. Most of the action is in the Main Arena, also known as the MA. There is one of many maps up, the larger ones covering areas greater than 27,000 square miles. This arena is set up with three warring nations, each fighting the other two. There are no restrictions as to what type of aircraft (or vehicle) you wish to fly or operate, other than the higher performance aircraft require perk points to be accumulated before you can fly them. You earn perk points by killing the enemy or successfully destroying ground targets. The number of points is dependent upon what you kill and what you are flying. For example, you earn more points for killing an Fw 190D-9 with a P-40E than vice versa. Should you lose the "perked" aircraft, you lose the perk points as well. Peak perk point cost is determined by the number of pilots flying for your country. Cost goes up or down with those numbers. You may find yourself fighting against virtually any aircraft in the plane set. Mustangs vs Spitfire, Bf 109G-6 vs Ki-61 and so on. Most players are members of structured and well organized squadrons, some with traditions that go back to the MSDOS days of Air Warrior. It sounds hokey, but it does allow for better organization within a country. The objective is to reduce one the enemy countries to a single base facility by capturing their territory. That is the gamey part of the simulation/game, which I do not care for. There is also the Combat Theater which is structured along historical lines and consists of two countries. However, the same land grab objective is also in place. Set-ups are changed weekly, so one week you can fly an F4F-4 defending Guadalcanal and the next week fly a Yak in defense of Mother Russia or take on the Luftwaffe's Bf 109s in a Commonwealth Kittyhawk over Tunisia. There is also a Training Arena and a Dueling Arena, their titles being self-explanatory. Finally, there is Special Events Arena (SEA) where weekly events are held, such as the Wednesday night Snapshots (two hour historical scenarios). There are also large, multi-week historical events played in frames of 2-3 hours each Saturday for three or four weeks. What's a typical combat sortie like in Aces High? Here's a brief AAR of a recent sortie. Word was received of a large enemy gaggle of aircraft headed towards one of our forward airfields. I immediately selected that airfield on the map and double-click on the icon. That puts me in the control tower. A quick scan around the field reveals more than a dozen Hawker Typhoons with P-51s for cover making bomb and rocket runs on the airfield. Too late to get airborne, I man a 40mm anti-aircraft gun. I score hits on two Typhoons, both going straight into the ground. But, there are too many to deal with and my gun mount is disabled by a strafing fighter-bomber. So I go to the nearest airfield to get a fighter. Meanwhile, one of the guys that I had just shot down sends a message on the general text buffer (you can write messages to anyone in the channel 1 text buffer, everyone online sees this text unless you purposefully squelch the channel). PilotX writes, "Widewing, was that you in the friggin ack?" "You bet!", I replied. PilotX then types, "Fly an airplane, you fukkin jerk!" (note that people alter spelling deliberately to avoid the wrath of the auto-censor) Even while he typed his remark, I'm easing on power to a P-51D, fueled with just half tanks, more than enough for this sortie. Speed and agility are required, not range, the enemy being just 30 miles away. You need a lot of rudder and aileron to counteract the torque of the growling Merlin as speed begins to build. Tail is up now, speed building quickly, and at 140 mph I rotate the Mustang just enough to let her slip off the runway. In a very shallow climb, I cycle the gear up, a quick glance shows me three good flags. I ease the nose up, maintaining optimum speed for the best rate of climb. At 12,000 feet I level off, rocketing along at full Military power. In minutes I'm hustling towards the enemy at better than 400 mph. Five miles out now, and I can see the swarming dots, all below my altitude. At two miles, I can identify all the aircraft, several Typhoons, Mustangs and a few La-7s and Spitfires are strafing and bombing the field. Guns hot, I pull off throttle and split-s in on a pair of P-51s oblivious to my presence. Side slipping to limit my speed, I dive beneath the heavily laden Mustangs and rocket in on their low six. I pick the trailing plane to the left and let his wingspan fill the gunsight. A short burst crashes into the P-51, and the left wing tumbles off. Quick feet on the rudder and I skid behind the second, still blissfully unaware of the danger. At 200 yards a one-second burst sends this Mustang on its death plunge, smoke and fire trailing behind. I immediately pull into a climbing left-hand spiral, clearing my own six and giving a good view of the mayhem below. Lot's of enemy aircraft still beating up the field. I spot a lone La-7 slightlybelow me on an opposite course. Unloading, I throttle up and accelerate towards the speedy Russian fighter. I'm about 1,000 feet above him and as I pass over he does what all Lavochkin pilots do in this situation, he pulls up into an inverted zoom climb trying for a low attack. The counter is simple, I pull into an oblique loop, deploying maneuver flaps as I come over the top. This forces the La-7 to go pure vertical, and he can't keep the nose high anywhere near long enough… As the Soviet fighter stalls, it flips onto its back, the pilot fighting to avoid a spin. Before he even realizes the danger, a concentration of .50 caliber API literally blows the entire tail off of his Lavochkin. It flutters down like 3 ton leaf. That was the last fighter above 5,000 feet. Everything else is below that. That's means, it's PARTY TIME! I spiral down assessing the situation. Seeing a Typhoon diving on a rocket run I see another easy opportunity. Typically, these guys dive down, pickle off some rockets, then zoom up, reverse at the top of the zoom and repeat. I race over to meet him at the top of his zoom. Right on schedule, the big Tiffie looms up in planform, I need very little lead. The entire burst slams into the wing root and cockpit. A bright orange flash indicates that the Typhoon is no more. The notification text buffer states that "you have shot down PilotX". LOLOLOL. I blast through the debris and look for the next target. To the southeast I see two dots moving low and slow about 1,000 feet above the forest. I know what those are, C-47s packed with paratroops destined for the base. Racing towards the transports I drop a notch of flaps, trim the elevators a bit. Power to idle, split-s down on the transports. Once again, they don't see me until it's too late. One burning Goony dives into the trees. The second breaks hard to the left, but he has no chance and his fuel tanks explode on my first gunnery run. Well, the loss of both C-47s has seriously incensed the remaining enemy, and all of them are trying to claw their way up to my upwardly spiraling Mustang. Typhoons are poor climbers, but their four Hispano cannon make them very dangerous. Yet none can get near me. However, a Fw 190D-9 "Dora" is coming on strong. Again, I unload and throttle into WEP. Dragging the Dora away from his friends, we race North at 4,000 feet. Once I have about 3,000 yards of separation, I reverse and head straight at him. Typically, he tries for a head-on shot, but I roll out of the way, chop throttle, drop maneuver flaps and reverse again. The Dora executes the standard Fw 190 climbing reverse. I expected that, which is why I dumped E rapidly to get the deflection shot as he zooms past, searching for the P-51 that just disappeared. My nose up about 20 degrees, climbing on a track to intercept the Focke Wulf, the Dora claws around, the pilot not seeing me below his left wing. At 350 yards I take the 80 degree deflection shot, and see hit flashes forward near his prop. A steady stream of fluid pours out. Coolant, the Dora is fatally injured. Rolling in on his tail 700 yards back, I send another short burst his way, a few hit strikes evident. Rolling right, the Dora breaks hard. Dumb, very dumb. My Mustang easily cuts across his turn and a half-second burst blows off the outer half of his right wing. The pilot struggles to retain control, but the loss of lift combined with torque corkscrews the Dora into an open field. Having expended about two-thirds of my ammunition, I head back towards the hard pressed airfield. Fuel is barely adequate with about 25% remaining, meaning that I have about 10 minutes before it becomes a real issue. Arriving over the field at 10,000 feet, I see that the enemy has departed the immediate vicinity, but spot two low dots running on the deck towards the southwest. Well, a clear field means fuel is not a factor now, so I begin a shallow dive in pursuit of the fleeing enemy. Winding the Mustang up to 500 mph TAS, I close rapidly on the tow contacts, now discernable as a Bf 109 and a La-7. Closing quickly I see the 109 is smoking heavily, black smoke indicating that light tripleA had drilled either an oil line or the cooler itself. Once the oil is gone, the engine will seize, so the 109 won't be a threat for very long. As I roar in the split up, the 109 going left, the Lavochkin going right. I go after the healthy La-7. Typical of the tactics used by La-7 and La-5 drivers, the La-7 progressively tightens his turn, hoping I'll do likewise and burn down my E. The La-7 accelerates faster than the Mustang, and climbs much faster until about 8,000 feet where it evens out. I pull into a high yo-yo, throttle back and deploying flaps to the maneuver setting. I won't kill my speed without some altitude in my hip pocket. Besides, I'm still above him, squarely on his 6 o'clock. Initially, the Lavochkin driver doesn't realize that I'm above him and reverses hoping for the overshoot that will not happen. That reverse gives me a solid opportunity for a 45 degree deflection shot, but first a quick scan for that 109. I see his dot receding into the haze. He's gittin gone while the gittin is good. Tough break for the La-7... I pull the nose through the La-7 as the pilot pulls hard having finally spotted me. Too late though, my guns stitch the Russian fighter from nose to tail. Smoke pours out and the La-7 snap rolls into the ground. Fully cognizant of my tactical situation, I turn a full 360, clearing my tail. Once again, I unload and pour on power heading towards the airfield, about 5 miles northeast. I check the map and the airfield icon is flashing. That means that there is yet another enemy within 15 miles of the base. I ease up to 3,000 ft and finally spot him weaving around hills and knolls. Another C-47 is trying to sneak in. I head directly for the Goony Bird, he sees me and turns hard right. I fire and blast his left wing and #1 engine, which windmills uselessly. I line up again and he breaks to the left this time, but the weakened wing gives way and the C-47 cartwheels into the trees. Fuel and ammo are getting critical now, so I once again head for the airfield, but that damn map icon is STILL blinking! As my speed edges above 300 mph, I spot an enemy Typhoon about 5,000 feet above and behind me on the same heading. Here he comes, claws out and hauling ass. Too fast to bring guns to bear when I break. I jink right, vector roll and break left, immediately reversing to the right. As the Typhoon blows by he pulls into a steep climb. Again, that was expected. That's all the Tiffie drivers ever do, zoom up. Not a problem though, as I'm very near the airfield parameter, meaning that the Typhoon will have to brave the tripleA to try again. As Forrest Gump taught us, stupid is as stupid does, and the Typhoon driver does something stupid. On his way back down he decides to strafe one of the 20 mm guns plinking at him. That buys me about 5 seconds, and that's all I needed for a 90 degree snap shot as he blows by. I take the shot and see some strikes. His left elevator control surface flutters to the ground. That's very bad news for him. Tiffies aren't stellar turners as it is, now it's little more than a fast whale. If he was a smart pilot, he would bug out, using his E advantage to disengage. However, this isn't a smart pilot. Instead, turns left, but the turn radius is huge. Once again with maneuver flaps out, I turn towards the big Hawker, circling to the left, inside his circle, slightly aft of him. I ease off and fire a distraction burst his way, just missing in front. I notice that only two guns are firing now, that means there's less than 200 rounds in the magazines. But that will be enough. Somewhat scared now, the Typhoon pilot rolls right and reverses his turn. As was the case with the Dora, this is a bad idea. The big Tiffie is a miserable roller, and my reverse puts me just 500 yards behind. I fire two short bursts, the first of which punctures his radiator. The second burst carries away his vertical stabilizer and the Typhoon yaws with the torque and tumbles into the ground. "You shot down PilotX" LOLOLOLOL...... With my fuel down to less than 5%, I pull off power and dirty up for landing. Coming to a stop on the runway, the engine quits for lack of gas and I exit the Mustang. "Widewing landed 10 victories in a P-51D of the =Ghosts=" Time to rub it in a bit. In the channel 1 text buffer I type, "So PilotX, I flew an airplane, are you satisfied?" No response..... Sometimes it's the little things that bring the most satisfaction.. : My regards, Widewing (C.C. Jordan) http://www.worldwar2aviation.com http://www.cradleofaviation.org |
#173
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You seem to think the MS sims are etched in stone. New ones are release
every couple of years to take advantage of the newer and better technology. While I'm sure they will never be as good as the state of the art stuff you used in WW2, still they are getting pretty good. Buy a decent computer and try out the latest, you might be surprised. Jarg "ArtKramr" wrote in message ... Subject: PC flight simulators From: "Jarg" Date: 11/21/03 7:50 AM Pacific Standard Time Message-id: Funny you should say that. I was just chatting with a 60 year old pilot who had recently tried his son's flight simulator (FS2004) for the first time and was able to land. He said he was impressed with what he saw. Jarg When I first got MSFS I got a big kickj out of shooting carrier landings (no arresting wire) in a number of different planes. I got so good at it that I could touch down at the first 6 inches of deck and brake to a stop before running off the other end. I am certain that if you put me in a real plane I could do those carrier landings easily even without the arresting wire. You believe that don't you?. Wanna buy a bridge? Regards, Arthur Kramer 344th BG 494th BS England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany Visit my WW II B-26 website at: http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer |
#174
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One note, the Track IR allows you to can in a simulator using your head,
adds a little more realism. Of course it works imperfectly in my experience. Jarg "Corey C. Jordan" wrote in message ... On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 07:16:31 GMT, "Pete" wrote: But put that same Aces High desk jock in a real fighter, and you'll have some poor crew chief spending the afternoon cleaning puke out of the cockpit. If the jet comes back. Familiarity in the particular environment. Spend a few hundred (or thousand) hours working a particular tool (be it jet or sim) and you might get pretty good. But being good in one does not instantly translate into being good in the other. A true Top Gun, but Aces High neophyte is working off a different set of reflexes and responses. And conversely, the Aces High ace has internalized the peculiarities and limitations of the PC sim environment. Pete Where PC based combat sims excel is at teaching Situational Awareness and basic ACM, even advanced ACM. I'm sure any combat pilot will tell that no other factor has a greater impact upon survival than SA. I would venture to say that it is the single greatest asset a combat pilot could possess. Moreover, it is, IMHO, the most difficult skill to teach and learn. There are factors in the simulation that actually make it more difficult than in real life. You have a single portal through which you must view the world around you. To scan the sky around you, an actual pilot merely turns his head. Flying a PC sim, you must do this via a series of hand manipulated inputs either thru a hat switch or specific keystrokes. Either way, it requires greater effort and concentration to do this as deftly as one moves one's own head. Yet, this must be done constantly, and you must learn to do it instinctively to boot. Just 10 seconds of inattentiveness is all it takes to get clobbered. Cockpit workload is minimized to a degree by the absence of an electrical system and simplified hydraulic controls. Reliability is completely removed as a factor as only battle damaged systems can fail. However, if a system is damaged, you still have to manage the aircraft and get it home if possible. Some things still remain. Weapon selector switches, fuel selector, propeller controls, trim tab adjustment, two channel radio (with hundreds of frequencies) and so on. There are some tidbits to help inexperienced players such as "combat trim", which constantly trims the airplane based upon its speed. However, this can substantially cut into agility when you have to fight the auto-trim, so experienced players simply trim the aircraft manually. This is done via keystrokes or on the more sophisticated controllers, via thumbwheels on the HOTAS. Furthermore, things have evolved a very long way from the old days of microswitch joysticks. A good controller system can easily set you back $200. However, this includes a programmable stick and throttle, along with rudder pedals with toe brakes. Systems programmable for hundreds of functions are commonplace. Virtually every input to the simulator is adjustable. The big names in flight controllers include CH Products, Saitek and Thrustmaster. Then there are environmental issues, rain, cloud cover, wind and darkness (yes, we have night time too, albeit abbreviated). Some things are over simplified in my opinion. Starting engines is a matter of pushing a single button. Going to full power on a cold engine does nothing to harm it. There's no cooler doors and cowl flaps to manage. There's no collisions between friendly aircraft (but there sure is with enemy aircraft). To prevent misbehavior, you cannot shoot down a friendly as the apparent damage is assigned to your aircraft. This is called "killshooter", and it is sometimes disabled in the Combat Theater, but is always on in the Main Arena. A word about the various arenas. Most of the action is in the Main Arena, also known as the MA. There is one of many maps up, the larger ones covering areas greater than 27,000 square miles. This arena is set up with three warring nations, each fighting the other two. There are no restrictions as to what type of aircraft (or vehicle) you wish to fly or operate, other than the higher performance aircraft require perk points to be accumulated before you can fly them. You earn perk points by killing the enemy or successfully destroying ground targets. The number of points is dependent upon what you kill and what you are flying. For example, you earn more points for killing an Fw 190D-9 with a P-40E than vice versa. Should you lose the "perked" aircraft, you lose the perk points as well. Peak perk point cost is determined by the number of pilots flying for your country. Cost goes up or down with those numbers. You may find yourself fighting against virtually any aircraft in the plane set. Mustangs vs Spitfire, Bf 109G-6 vs Ki-61 and so on. Most players are members of structured and well organized squadrons, some with traditions that go back to the MSDOS days of Air Warrior. It sounds hokey, but it does allow for better organization within a country. The objective is to reduce one the enemy countries to a single base facility by capturing their territory. That is the gamey part of the simulation/game, which I do not care for. There is also the Combat Theater which is structured along historical lines and consists of two countries. However, the same land grab objective is also in place. Set-ups are changed weekly, so one week you can fly an F4F-4 defending Guadalcanal and the next week fly a Yak in defense of Mother Russia or take on the Luftwaffe's Bf 109s in a Commonwealth Kittyhawk over Tunisia. There is also a Training Arena and a Dueling Arena, their titles being self-explanatory. Finally, there is Special Events Arena (SEA) where weekly events are held, such as the Wednesday night Snapshots (two hour historical scenarios). There are also large, multi-week historical events played in frames of 2-3 hours each Saturday for three or four weeks. What's a typical combat sortie like in Aces High? Here's a brief AAR of a recent sortie. Word was received of a large enemy gaggle of aircraft headed towards one of our forward airfields. I immediately selected that airfield on the map and double-click on the icon. That puts me in the control tower. A quick scan around the field reveals more than a dozen Hawker Typhoons with P-51s for cover making bomb and rocket runs on the airfield. Too late to get airborne, I man a 40mm anti-aircraft gun. I score hits on two Typhoons, both going straight into the ground. But, there are too many to deal with and my gun mount is disabled by a strafing fighter-bomber. So I go to the nearest airfield to get a fighter. Meanwhile, one of the guys that I had just shot down sends a message on the general text buffer (you can write messages to anyone in the channel 1 text buffer, everyone online sees this text unless you purposefully squelch the channel). PilotX writes, "Widewing, was that you in the friggin ack?" "You bet!", I replied. PilotX then types, "Fly an airplane, you fukkin jerk!" (note that people alter spelling deliberately to avoid the wrath of the auto-censor) Even while he typed his remark, I'm easing on power to a P-51D, fueled with just half tanks, more than enough for this sortie. Speed and agility are required, not range, the enemy being just 30 miles away. You need a lot of rudder and aileron to counteract the torque of the growling Merlin as speed begins to build. Tail is up now, speed building quickly, and at 140 mph I rotate the Mustang just enough to let her slip off the runway. In a very shallow climb, I cycle the gear up, a quick glance shows me three good flags. I ease the nose up, maintaining optimum speed for the best rate of climb. At 12,000 feet I level off, rocketing along at full Military power. In minutes I'm hustling towards the enemy at better than 400 mph. Five miles out now, and I can see the swarming dots, all below my altitude. At two miles, I can identify all the aircraft, several Typhoons, Mustangs and a few La-7s and Spitfires are strafing and bombing the field. Guns hot, I pull off throttle and split-s in on a pair of P-51s oblivious to my presence. Side slipping to limit my speed, I dive beneath the heavily laden Mustangs and rocket in on their low six. I pick the trailing plane to the left and let his wingspan fill the gunsight. A short burst crashes into the P-51, and the left wing tumbles off. Quick feet on the rudder and I skid behind the second, still blissfully unaware of the danger. At 200 yards a one-second burst sends this Mustang on its death plunge, smoke and fire trailing behind. I immediately pull into a climbing left-hand spiral, clearig my own six and giving a good view of the mayhem below. Lot's of enemy aircraft still beating up the field. I spot a lone La-7 slightly below me on an opposite course. Unloading, I throttle up and accelerate towards the speedy Russian fighter. I'm about 1,000 feet above him and as I pass over he does what all Lavochkin pilots do in this situation, he pulls up into an inverted zoom climb trying for a low attack. The counter is simple, I pull into an oblique loop, deploying maneuver flaps as I come over the top. This forces the La-7 to go pure vertical, and he can't keep the nose high anywhere near long enough. As the Soviet fighter stalls, it flips onto its back, the pilot fighting to avoid a spin. Before he even realizes the danger, a concentration of .50 caliber API literally blows the entire tail off of his Lavochkin. It flutters down like 3 ton leaf. That was the last fighter above 5,000 feet. Everything else is below that. That's means, it's PARTY TIME! I spiral down assessing the situation. Seeing a Typhoon diving on a rocket run I see another easy opportunity. Typically, these guys dive down, pickle off some rockets, then zoom up, reverse at the top of the zoom and repeat. I race over to meet him at the top of his zoom. Right on schedule, the big Tiffie looms up in planform, I need very little lead. The entire burst slams into the wing root and cockpit. A bright orange flash indicates that the Typhoon is no more. The notification text buffer states that "you have shot down PilotX". LOLOLOL. I blast through the debris and look for the next target. To the southeast I see two dots moving low and slow about 1,000 feet above the forest. I know what those are, C-47s packed with paratroops destined for the base. Racing towards the transports I drop a notch of flaps, trim the elevators a bit. Power to idle, split-s down on the transports. Once again, they don't see me until it's too late. One burning Goony dives into the trees. The second breaks hard to the left, but he has no chance and his fuel tanks explode on my first gunnery run. Well, the loss of both C-47s has seriously incensed the remaining enemy, and all of them are trying to claw their way up to my upwardly spiraling Mustang. Typhoons are poor climbers, but their four Hispano cannon make them very dangerous. Yet none can get near me. However, a Fw 190D-9 "Dora" is coming on strong. Again, I unload and throttle into WEP. Dragging the Dora away from his friends, we race North at 4,000 feet. Once I have about 3,000 yards of separation, I reverse and head straight at him. Typically, he tries for a head-on shot, but I roll out of the way, chop throttle, drop maneuver flaps and reverse again. The Dora executes the standard Fw 190 climbing reverse. I expected that, which is why I dumped E rapidly to get the deflection shot as he zooms past, searching for the P-51 that just disappeared. My nose up about 20 degrees, climbing on a track to intercept the Focke Wulf, the Dora claws around, the pilot not seeing me below his left wing. At 350 yards I take the 80 degree deflection shot, and see hit flashes forward near his prop. A steady stream of fluid pours out. Coolant, the Dora is fatally injured. Rolling in on his tail 700 yards back, I send another short burst his way, a few hit strikes evident. Rolling right, the Dora breaks hard. Dumb, very dumb. My Mustang easily cuts across his turn and a half-second burst blows off the outer half of his right wing. The pilot struggles to retain control, but the loss of lift combined with torque corkscrews the Dora into an open field. Having expended about two-thirds of my ammunition, I head back towards the hard pressed airfield. Fuel is barely adequate with about 25% remaining, meaning that I have about 10 minutes before it becomes a real issue. Arriving over the field at 10,000 feet, I see that the enemy has departed the immediate vicinity, but spot two low dots running on the deck towards the southwest. Well, a clear field means fuel is not a factor now, so I begin a shallow dive in pursuit of the fleeing enemy. Winding the Mustang up to 500 mph TAS, I close rapidly on the tow contacts, now discernable as a Bf 109 and a La-7. Closing quickly I see the 109 is smoking heavily, black smoke indicating that light tripleA had drilled either an oil line or the cooler itself. Once the oil is gone, the engine will seize, so the 109 won't be a threat for very long. As I roar in the split up, the 109 going left, the Lavochkin going right. I go after the healthy La-7. Typical of the tactics used by La-7 and La-5 drivers, the La-7 progressively tightens his turn, hoping I'll do likewise and burn down my E. The La-7 accelerates faster than the Mustang, and climbs much faster until about 8,000 feet where it evens out. I pull into a high yo-yo, throttle back and deploying flaps to the maneuver setting. I won't kill my speed without some altitude in my hip pocket. Besides, I'm still above him, squarely on his 6 o'clock. Initially, the Lavochkin driver doesn't realize that I'm above him and reverses hoping for the overshoot that will not happen. That reverse gives me a solid opportunity for a 45 degree deflection shot, but first a quick scan for that 109. I see his dot receding into the haze. He's gittin gone while the gittin is good. Tough break for the La-7... I pull the nose through the La-7 as the pilot pulls hard having finally spotted me. Too late though, my guns stitch the Russian fighter from nose to tail. Smoke pours out and the La-7 snap rolls into the ground. Fully cognizant of my tactical situation, I turn a full 360, clearing my tail. Once again, I unload and pour on power heading towards the airfield, about 5 miles northeast. I check the map and the airfield icon is flashing. That means that there is yet another enemy within 15 miles of the base. I ease up to 3,000 ft and finally spot him weaving around hills and knolls. Another C-47 is trying to sneak in. I head directly for the Goony Bird, he sees me and turns hard right. I fire and blast his left wing and #1 engine, which windmills uselessly. I line up again and he breaks to the left this time, but the weakened wing gives way and the C-47 cartwheels into the trees. Fuel and ammo are getting critical now, so I once again head for the airfield, but that damn map icon is STILL blinking! As my speed edges above 300 mph, I spot an enemy Typhoon about 5,000 feet above and behind me on the same heading. Here he comes, claws out and hauling ass. Too fast to bring guns to bear when I break. I jink right, vector roll and break left, immediately reversing to the right. As the Typhoon blows by he pulls into a steep climb. Again, that was expected. That's all the Tiffie drivers ever do, zoom up. Not a problem though, as I'm very near the airfield parameter, meaning that the Typhoon will have to brave the tripleA to try again. As Forrest Gump taught us, stupid is as stupid does, and the Typhoon driver does something stupid. On his way back down he decides to strafe one of the 20 mm guns plinking at him. That buys me about 5 seconds, and that's all I needed for a 90 degree snap shot as he blows by. I take the shot and see some strikes. His left elevator control surface flutters to the ground. That's very bad news for him. Tiffies aren't stellar turners as it is, now it's little more than a fast whale. If he was a smart pilot, he would bug out, using his E advantage to disengage. However, this isn't a smart pilot. Instead, turns left, but the turn radius is huge. Once again with maneuver flaps out, I turn towards the big Hawker, circling to the left, inside his circle, slightly aft of him. I ease off and fire a distraction burst his way, just missing in front. I notice that only two guns are firing now, that means there's less than 200 rounds in the magazines. But that will be enough. Somewhat scared now, the Typhoon pilot rolls right and reverses his turn. As was the case with the Dora, this is a bad idea. The big Tiffie is a miserable roller, and my reverse puts me just 500 yards behind. I fire two short bursts, the first of which punctures his radiator. The second burst carries away his vertical stabilizer and the Typhoon yaws with the torque and tumbles into the ground. "You shot down PilotX" LOLOLOLOL...... With my fuel down to less than 5%, I pull off power and dirty up for landing. Coming to a stop on the runway, the engine quits for lack of gas and I exit the Mustang. "Widewing landed 10 victories in a P-51D of the =Ghosts=" Time to rub it in a bit. In the channel 1 text buffer I type, "So PilotX, I flew an airplane, are you satisfied?" No response..... Sometimes it's the little things that bring the most satisfaction.. : My regards, Widewing (C.C. Jordan) http://www.worldwar2aviation.com http://www.cradleofaviation.org |
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"Brian Colwell" wrote in message news:69hvb.445262$pl3.76306@pd7tw3no... Thanks Vaughn, I was beginning to suffer from a complex....:-)) My 6000 hrs didn't seem to help that much when I experimented on a PC sim......but my friends 12 year old was a real ace ..:-)) My hours are only measured in the hundreds, but I have had similar luck with PC sims. I am sure that any 12 year old could eventually teach me, but I find the experience to be so different that I am afraid of picking up some bad habit that will rear up and bite me when I am really flying. I also do not encourage my students to use them. Again, they may be good for practicing instrument procedures, but I am a sailplane CFI. Vaughn |
#176
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Widewing, I have studies a lot of ETO air combat footage frame by frame during
restorations. All I have to say is that like the MS Combat Flight sim for WWII, it sounds like it is too easy to down an enemy plane. The only good P-47 300+ yard shots I have seen are by Roberts and Gabreski. In most footage there are obvious hits and sometimes sheet metal coming loose, but they usually keep on flying. Once a wing is blown off an of course, a bail out on film is definite confirmation. Granted most of my footage is from P-47's and the way to stay alive in them was to make a fast attack from higher altitude then run like hell. P-51 pilots could be much more aggressive about follow ups. -- Charlie Springer |
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On 22 Nov 2003 07:28:17 GMT, (Regnirps) wrote:
Widewing, I have studies a lot of ETO air combat footage frame by frame during restorations. All I have to say is that like the MS Combat Flight sim for WWII, it sounds like it is too easy to down an enemy plane. The only good P-47 300+ yard shots I have seen are by Roberts and Gabreski. In most footage there are obvious hits and sometimes sheet metal coming loose, but they usually keep on flying. Once a wing is blown off an of course, a bail out on film is definite confirmation. Granted most of my footage is from P-47's and the way to stay alive in them was to make a fast attack from higher altitude then run like hell. P-51 pilots could be much more aggressive about follow ups. -- Charlie Springer Hi Charlie. There are several factors to consider here and I'll address them one by one. 1) Ballistic modeling; HTC was meticulous in using actual ballistic data to model the aircraft weapons in Aces High. However, they have deliberately (IMHO) modeled bomber defensive guns with increased power, just to keep bombers viable. However, the forward firing guns in fighters are fairly accurate for dispersion and muzzle velocity. Gravity and wind effect accuracy. 2) Marksmanship; Having been involved in twenty to thirty THOUSAND aerial engagements, I can state without reservation that my shooting skills are vastly better than any WWII pilot could hope for. I know this because the software records the hit percentage, which is usually in the 20% range. A typical WWII pilot would be very fortunate to get 5% of his rounds on his target. Likewise, players new to the game (less than 200-300 hours) are lucky to reach 2%. There are also mitigating factors that can reduce your accuracy, such as net lag and lost data packets. Generally though, it boils down to experience and practice. 3) Shooting range; Although I didn't state the exact ranges I fired in the post (with one or two exceptions), typically, I do not fire until the range is below 300 yards. Sometimes I will take a longer shot, but those are purpose shots fired to cause the enemy to react. For most types of fighter, I set gun convergence at 300 yards. The exceptions are for the P-38, and Bf 109s where the armament is concentrated in the nose. I set those at 600 yards as the dispersion is minimal. Deflection shooting is a skill that many never master. However, those that do master it and who have flawless SA become the mass murderers of the game. 4) The damage and ballistic modeling used for MSCF are inferior and far more "gamey" than that used by HTC for Aces High. MSCF concentrates on graphics rather than dynamic accuracy. It's important to remember that many of the "virtual" WWII pilots have more practical combat experience than entire 8th AF fighter groups! How is that possible? Stick time, combined with almost endless combat. Between its deployment to the ETO in early 1943, through the end of the war, the 56th Fighter Group was credited with 1,006 kills (combining air and ground kills). I've exceeded that in a single month! I've had months (classified as "tours" in AH) where I've destroyed over 700 of the enemy, and lost just 15 fighters, mostly to tripleA. The greatest difference is that you don't really die or get captured. If you get shot down, you simply grab another fighter and head off for another fight. Aces High II, due out in early 2004 is designed to minimize that aspect. All sorties will be mission based with penalties for NOT returning to base. The idea is to place greater emphasis on survival, thus adding to the realism by creating a sense of urgency where none truly exists now. Many players do fly to survive, but most do not. After all, Aces High is entertainment, and the vast majority of those who fly the game haven't the talent to achieve a high degree of proficiency. So, they fly reckless and die often. But at least they're having fun and providing a target-rich environment for guys like myself, who almost never lose aircraft, but kill the rank-and-file by the gross. Think of Aces High as a simulator within a game.... Art is right to some degree, but the simulator fans are also right in some respects. Understanding this allows one to place these sims/games in their proper perspective. Just because a guy is a terrific sim pilot doesn't mean he'd display the same talent flying real aircraft. Possibly not. However, as a combat pilot trainee the sim player will have a significant advantage in SA, ACM and tactics knowledge over someone with no sim experience at the outset of training. Therein lies the value beyond simple entertainment. My regards, Widewing (C.C. Jordan) http://www.worldwar2aviation.com http://www.cradleofaviation.org |
#178
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On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 23:28:37 GMT, "Vaughn"
wrote: I have a better test, one that many PC "flight simulator" fans say is somehow unfair. Simply put a qualified pilot that has never "flown" computers in front of your "flight simulator". If he can take off, fly safely and return to earth (exactly the same as he could undoubtably do in the real thing), then you MAY have made a real flight simulator. If he can't, then whatever it is that you are simulating, it is not flight! I recall the days of Janes F-15, when Sean Long contributed greatly to one of the flight sim newsgroups and taught many of us how to land the Mud Hen. The procedure in the manual didn't work too well and from what I remember, his teachings were the same as in real life. There were many other aspects of the sim that seemed to mimic the real thing. That said, even if PC sims are not "real", they should certainly be counted as valid training aids. That depends on exactly what you are simulating and what the training objective is. Have you ever hear of "negative transfer"? Like in WWII simulators? :-) Your up's and down's are the wrong way round etc. Or is there something else? -- Steve. |
#179
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