S3 Series

Radar Range of 87 miles. That gives us, assuming a slow 180TAS (GS) for inbound bombers, 29 minutes to get to altitude. Climbing at Bst 1 105 climb towards the bombers gives us about an average of 1.75 miles per minute GS....so that gets cut down to 17 minutes. But its not the bombers we have to worry about.

Inbound fighters will be over Malta 17.5 minutes (assuming 300 GS) after they break dar. Climbing at bst1 towards the incoming strike force will make it at best 12 minutes to contact. By then, we will be at or near 29k and assuming boost 1 climb (No drop tank) around 96 degrees temp.

No Drop tank 100% internal.105CS BST 1 (including take off roll)
8:15 20K
11:00 27K 95 degrees.

Drop tank 69% internal 105CS BST1 (including take off roll)
4:44 10K 83 degrees 120GS
6:57 15k 87 degrees 135 GS
9:00 20K 91 degrees 144GS
11:00 24900 95 degrees
Jettision Tank at 11:30 and you have 56 minutes at 100%, 31 minutes at Military (BST+9)

So regardless 109s will have altitude on us at first contact.

My thoughts are maybe climb first flight (drops plus 69%internal) up to 22k and then go level to intercept bombers (bomber ceiling should be 20k tops). If they get bounced they can jett tanks and be at a fighting weight. Buffs are back to 1.5 Bufftuff so pray our weapons are the same as the main.

All the Rest climb 100% fuel, no drop, and hard climb to alt. They can support the low spits, engage the sweep, or hit the buffs if the low guys drug the sweep off.

Rough nums for speed @ +9 Boost
SL 289 (boost +12 =307)
15k 348
20k 371
25k 371
30k 360
35k 338

But in hindsight...we are well and truly fucked....

RAF Command will order airfields to scramble depending on the number of contacts reported on radar or by visual sighting from patrols. As more e/a are detected more scramble orders will be announced. The CM will indicate to the Frame CO when 1 airfield may scramble and he\she can then choose which one. Once all airfields have been scrambled then play may continue as normal for the rest of the night.

Unless we keep the first flight climbing over the airfield we are going to be fed piecemeal to the grinder....

With the AE/8th as scouts that puts us down to 26.

With Knights hitting ships that puts us down to 16...if we all show.

So the nice thing is the 352nd will have us matched in numbers IF we do scramble the entire rest of the fighters...

So I think bombs are going to fall on Malta....how good are our air raid shelters and how much booze do we have?

My question is in the rules under AC table..Each fighter group is assigned spit VC..wellingtons and swordfish...does this mean each squad has to fly all AC listed..so each squad has a frame in swordfish..A frame in a wellington ???

I like the idea of Mallory's big wing...

Taken from Jabo's opening post about the series, (elsewhere on these forums):

Jabo wrote: "All squads will now have the option to fly any a/c type and use the two different logins depending on their aircraft and style. We are now below 100 pilots per frame and only 10 percent of them are bomber or strike pilots. Mission planning and teamwork become even more important with such limited resources."

Is the Spit 5c capable of strafing the ships?

Jabo said boats can be straffed down, but freighters and destroyers cannot be.

The big advantage is RAF radar. You will have to scramble like hell but should be able to swing away and circle back to hit the bombers. Once you get those dive away to Malta.

If the Luftwaffe come at you hard RAF Command will scramble all fields. If the Luftwaffe wants to CAP and screen Malta first the RAF will scramble appropriate amounts of fighters. If the Luftwaffe wants to play it sneaky its up to the first 2 steps launched to watch low for Luftwaffe planes coming in over the water below RDF.

RAF gets good points taking down the Ju88s. Remember their AI are always 1.0 hardness and ever since we have started using them they go down pretty easy regardless of plane type or who is shooting at them. Player bombers and AI wingmen score you the same points.

RAF heros should take Wellingtons once the enemy is RTB from the first attack and hunt out static shipping at the islands to the west. Follow the shipping lanes and you may come across Italian freighters. You could also try and end around and hit the ports on the NW side of Sicily. The ports on the SE corner are probably going to see lots of enemy aircraft nearby so could be dangerous though they are the closest.

Weapon files are the same in the MA so testing there should be beneficial there. Torps or bombs for big ships. Strafe down the boats. NS did some excellent mid alt bomb runs on FRs in the last series.