S3 Series

18 Dec., afternoon Left Coast:

The S3 Arena has been open for a couple of days now. Test away.

So, what could they do IF they just sat on the ground and waited for buffs to show on radar?:

FW 190A-8
20,000' --- 09 minutes --- 38 minutes of fuel remaining
25,000' --- 13 minutes --- 34 minutes of fuel remaining
30,000' --- 20 minutes --- 27 minutes of fuel remaining

It takes two squares to reach 30,000'.

Observation: The Axis don't really care if the buffs score any points with their bombs. They can meet you over Berlin and follow you all the way to the coast if necessary and get additional Axis points on the way out.

Salute!

@ wolfie

How about same numbers for Allied lites WRT climb times and distances.?
+++++++++++++
MY rough test shows a Pony getting to 30K in about 27 or 28 minutes. Turns and such pretty touchy, and can't see how any LW lite could do an easy stern conversion. Can't figure out total flight time available without dropping the drop tanks.

Buffs of all varieties take 60 minutes to reach 27K.

So you lites come up with a plan to get as many buffs over Big B as you can, huh?

Gums sends...

I'll run some Allied numbers for you, Sir. Look under separate cover later.

However, it's not really that hard to get a flight time estimate. Time-to-climb does require a physical test, endurance does not.
Go into the S3 Arena.
Select Allied.
Pick your plane and loadout.
Select a large airfield and a SP that will put you in takeoff position.
Go OTR. Select Auto Feed on your fuel.
Go to full power for take off.
Observe the time stamp at the end of the fuel line on the HUD. Viola, you know the endurance in minutes at full power for that aircraft and loadout.
Shut down, brake, roll out. You don't even have to take off.

You will note that for each loadout, you will get a different endurance time. IF you happen to load only the header tanks (no external stores) it will give you a time for that load only.
That's the Wolf "quick and dirty" endurance checker. I only do this when the S3 Arena is available. I NEVER count on it that S3 FUELDIV will transfer to Free Flight.

Gum's,

I would caution going with less gas unless we have to. I found out a new thing last frame. When I got fueled, I shut one tank down (way cool by the way, thanks for the info), and had enough fuel to finish the mission (barely).

Of course it didn't matter as I was then fueled in the other tank by the Ack at Berlin

Question,

Do we want to go for ToT or pick out smaller targets. I have been watching the conversations and over viewing our past 2 frames in what has worked and what hasn't.

Salute!

I vote to hit F96 tgts, but even a miss should give us tonnage and we might even get personal points ( for whatever they are for). Like this from the log:

DESTROYED -gums- B-24J F096WH037 1600lb GP Bomb

Secondly, I see no problem climbing after we release. 30K seems viable and provides great GS and a long, low power descent if we have friendly lites around us. Think 60 miles from the Cliffs of Dover. So less gas/weight better , and make it up coming home.

Gums opines...

The code indicates that you destroyed Warehouse #37 in downtown Berlin. Lots of targets there, but, in general, they are rather well separated. A "near miss" "should" count towards TOT on that target. Warehouse #37 is destroyed and if hit again would only count towards TOT.



IRL the targets were significantly closer together. TOT meant something on a real city.



The lot adjacent to Gum's warehouse resembles the site of the 1936 Olympic Games.



God bless Jesse Owens.

I'll post some more pics of possible targets today. Think about this one. There is no way to keep them from doing the slash and dash, but maybe along with tac turns and putting some escorts out front of the bomb group would help.

I think the AI's are worthless to cover and haven't worked for us this series. I would had rather they be out front of us, but not sure if that would be possible.

Salute!

TNX Wolfie.

I aimed at four tgts and used salvo 2, delay 60 msec best I recall. So 2 x 1600 took down big buildings like the
warehouses.

Sun Dec 14 21:41:34 2014 KILL -gums- B-24J pppepp FW-190A8
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 HIT -gums- B-24J F096WH020 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 HIT -gums- B-24J F096WH020 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 DESTROYED -gums- B-24J F096WH020 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 HIT -gums- B-24J F096WH037 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 HIT -gums- B-24J F096WH037 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 DESTROYED -gums- B-24J F096WH037 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 HIT -gums- B-24J F096WH045 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 HIT -gums- B-24J F096WH042 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 HIT -gums- B-24J F096WH040 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 HIT -gums- B-24J F096WH044 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 HIT -gums- B-24J F096WH015 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 HIT -gums- B-24J F096WH040 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 DESTROYED -gums- B-24J F096WH040 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 HIT -gums- B-24J F096WH015 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 HIT -gums- B-24J F096WH015 1600lb GP Bomb
Sun Dec 14 22:06:39 2014 DESTROYED -gums- B-24J F096WH015 1600lb GP Bomb

Note that the "seconds" are equal, although I dropped at least one or two seconds apart. Also note I got the 190 kill on a scout 25 minutes prior to reaching Big Bee.

So I say "pick a tgt complex". We just gotta divide up the city into grids to cut down on overkill.

Gums sends...

I'll take us in on a 090 heading and try to set up a grid for everyone to use.