1st Bomber Squadron Looking for Pilots

[rkirk77]

Just wanted to throw it out there that the Squadron i fly with is looking for more pilots! We will soon be putting up a server of our own (already have one for RoF) but for now, we just need numbers!
Anyone from any nation may join!

Go here to join up and create a login --> http://www.1stbombersquadron.com/forum

If you have any questions.. message me here

[41Sqn_Stormcrow]

Kudos from me. I am not a bomber pilot (only occasionally) but I always have big respect for those virtual squadrons dedicated to the apparently! less glamourous*) bomber missions as they usually show dedication and have an approach of team work that I so often miss during online missions. I hope to see soon a stream of bombers flying in tight formation and going for the mission goals.




*) although it is the bomber arm of air forces that are the war winners, fighters are just for defense and defense never wins a war.

[rkirk77]

I believe it is teamwork that wins the day! Nothing could be accomplished with just one or the other.

[scissorss]

Is your clan axis or allies or both? I am a proficient Stuka pilot looking for some more. :)

[rkirk77]

Both sides!

[Riksen]

S!
I love flying bombers, regardless of the side, however, currently there is no way to accurately bomb targets in the game. The horizontal stabilizer just doesnt seen to be working and the alternativies to circumvent this problem are not good enough. So, at least for me, bombing will only be as nice as it was in the old il-2 when they fix this issue, otherwise im sticking with the fighters.

[Blackdog_kt]

The luftwaffe bombers that require a steady approach due to the automatic bomb-sight have an autopilot to help you do it. You need to set the directional gyro to match your magnetic compass, set the second compass card that shows desired heading in the dir. gyro to align with the actual heading and then you can engage the autopilot. From that point on you can move the compass card that shows your desired heading left and right and the autopilot will fly the new heading, so you can fly the aircraft from the bomb-aimer's seat by giving commands to the autopilot.

The others don't have autopilots but they also don't require a rock-steady approach because they have simpler bomb-sights, you just trim the aircraft to fly relatively steady and fly from the bomb-aimer's seat, input your TAS and altitude and manually steer the aircraft to the target, then when the target is below the bomb-sight's reticule you release the bombs.

I just made a low level run (about 1300 meters of altitude) in a BR.20 and i had no problem flying the aircraft from the bomb-aimer's seat. What i usually can't do well is have the bombs explode or even release them in aircraft with non-automatic bomb-sights, but that's an issue of lacking documentation on what kind of controls to use. For example, if you don't have an auto bomb-sight it seems that the way to drop bombs is switch to the pilot's seat and press the bomb release key, that is like giving the bomb-aimer a command to drop them. Otherwise, it seems we're stuck with clicking the actual control on the bomb-aimer's panel.

This is just an issue/bug that can be fixed if the developer's make the bomb release button work from the bomb-aimer's station however for the bombers that use manual release, not an unworkable problem. I find that especially the BR.20 is very steady and can be flown almost hands-off from the bombardier's seat by manual inputs, just like flying from the pilot's seat.

In conclusion, if it was done a certain way for a certain aircraft, CoD follows the exact same method. The IL2 level stabilizer is like telling an AI pilot to keep the aircraft level and yes, it would be useful when flying bombers with a manual release system.
However, no aircraft with an automated bomb-sight would do things this way in reality, they all bombed on command on the master bomber which in turn would use the autopilot and bombsight to guide the plane to the target.