bombs not exploding?

[d0o0m]

0 delay. master arm on... what am i missing for the 109e3 B?

I drop the ordinance and expect to see some huey kablooey over my shoulder but nadda..

any tips?

[Plt Off JRB Meaker]

First of all tell us what your flying in,are you in FMB,Quick mission etc?

Second,make sure you have bombs loaded as per the weapon loadout,aircraft are empty of ordanance by default,so if you have not loaded any you won't be dropping any.:)

[Phazon]

The bombs might not be using the correct fuze. If they are using a high-altitude fuze dropping the bombs at a low-altitude will not trigger the fuze and the bomb won't detonate.

You will want to use the low-altitude fuze, there is also a special dive-bombing fuze for some of the bombs but I'm not sure what makes it different from the regular low-altitude. :)

[Blackdog_kt]

The most common reason is a combination of low altitude, incorrect bomb fuse for that altitude and incorrect settings on the bomb arming panel.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you're trying some low-level attacks in true Jabo fashion, so here's how to make it work.

First of all, you need to select the low altitude fuse. There are two of them, use the one that the Stuka uses by default.

Then, you need to make sure that this fuse is set to the correct profile because it has two available settings to choose from. I vaguely remember reading here that the way it was done was to send an electrical charge to a capacitor when arming the bombs: the bombs would arm after dropping depending on how fast the capacitor discharged.

In terms of bombs there are two control panels in the cockpit. One is for selecting which bombs to drop (in aircraft with more than one bomb like the Stuka and the 110), the other is for arming the bombs.

So, take a look at the weapon arming panel in your cockpit. If you can't find it, press the keys/stick buttons you've set for master arm and see which switch moves. It's a three way switch, when it points upwards the bombs are not armed. However, there are two modes of arming. One is for low level attacks and labeled "Sturz" (meaning dive) and is the one you want, the other is for dropping from higher altitudes.

Setting it to Sturz mode sets the bomb fuse to arm with a shorter delay when leaving the bomb rack and the subsequent detonation delay of 14 seconds that comes with this fuse lets you escape the blast.

So how do you do it? I don't remember if i've mapped anything to it in the controls so i do it with the mouse. If you hover the pointer over it a tooltip will appear that reads "toggle short delay" or something like that (that's probably how it's called in the controls section too, in case you want to map the function to a key/button).

Just clicking on the 3-way switch will select your preferred mode, even if the switch is still pointing up and the master arm is off.

When you click it you'll see an on-screen message (if you haven't disabled the on-screen blue text messages that give you information on secondary controls, eg gear/flaps/etc) saying "short delay on" (faster arming, the low altitude mode) or "short delay off" (longer arming delay for higher altitude drops):

a) If your master arm was already on, doing so will flip the switch from one arming position to the other (it alternates between dive bombing/low level and higher altitude bombing modes).
b) If your master arm wasn't on you won't see the switch move yet, but as soon as you enable the master arm it will move to the position that corresponds to what you selected.


Initially i didn't know about this either so i came up with a good dive profile to land bombs on trains and ships in the 110, releasing in a 30-40 degree dive from about 700 meters with the high altitude mode.

However, i recently tried this online and the low altitude arming works a treat, i released bombs at less than 100 meters and sunk a tanker.

[Raggz]

Some of the bombs are bugged afaik.

[SNAFU]

If you change payload of guns and bombs in multiplayer, it will only come to effect if you quit connection and reconnect. At least that was my and my squadmates experience while testing bomb settings and ammunition types.

Did not test this in SP mode, but might be similar.

[d0o0m]

i was flying online in the atag server in a 109e3b. only real option was the loadout fuse in settings screen and the master arm toggle - i set the smallest fuse (slid bar completely left) and created my airframe and flew off - I presume i had a bomb as it lifted like a turd but the f2 is disabled on atag server.

[Kozi]

Cheesehawk I think he's meaning F2 as in outside view, not the model Bf 109 ;-)

[Blackdog_kt]

i was flying online in the atag server in a 109e3b. only real option was the loadout fuse in settings screen and the master arm toggle - i set the smallest fuse (slid bar completely left) and created my airframe and flew off - I presume i had a bomb as it lifted like a turd but the f2 is disabled on atag server.

Setting the amount of delay isn't done in the preflight options but from within the cockpit.

1) Load bombs from the menus.

2) Spawn aircraft.

3) Hover the mouse over the master arm switch until a tooltip appears that reads "toggle short delay" or something similar, then click on it.

4) Engage master arm.

5) Drop bombs and watch the firewords ;-)

For more detailed information have another look at my previous post in this thread. Hope it helps.

[d0o0m]

ok two problems...

1) I can't seem to get the bombs to load in my loadout... I select them but when I create the plane on ATAG multiplayer server - the bombs are not there.

2) I can see the bomb control panel behind my stick in the 109 cockpit. I see the dial move when i key the master arm "on" but I am unable to click the panel like i can with other in cockpit switches.

[SNAFU]

ok two problems...

1) I can't seem to get the bombs to load in my loadout... I select them but when I create the plane on ATAG multiplayer server - the bombs are not there.

2) I can see the bomb control panel behind my stick in the 109 cockpit. I see the dial move when i key the master arm "on" but I am unable to click the panel like i can with other in cockpit switches.


-> 1 Bombs are not shown in the preview window. After changing you ammunition, bombtimer, - and settings, save, disconnect and reconnect. Otherwise the change will have no effect. I spent one hour trying to find out why I can`t see any tracers and why my bomb won´t explode, after changing timer and ammunition, until I disconnected and reconnected. Same problem was experienced by a squadmate on TS.
Furthermore you have to set the bombs in loadout menu and choose the ETC + Bomb in the next menu. In the one menu you define the bombsetting, in the other the loadout. Maybe you just defined the bombsetting, but forgot the loadout in the 3rd row after the guns, something like "...ETC+SC250..." and not only the ETC.

-> 2 Bomb control panel is not clickable. It is, as the most parts in cockpit, fake... ;)

[d0o0m]

do you mean disconnect from the server to save loadout ??? Seems like a pretty important bug. Is this a known bug for many or an unfortunate few?

Will try this and see what happens then report back.

[Blackdog_kt]

For clarification purposes, let's get this straight: there are two delays.

One is the arming delay: how much time or distance (depending on fuse) the bomb is allowed to fly before it is armed. Setting the master arm to on doesn't over-ride this, it just enables the bomb to arm once it has separated from the bomb rack and traveled some distance.

The second is the detonation delay: assuming the bomb was correctly armed (see above) and dropper, it controls how much time will pass from the time the detonator is triggered to the time the bomb explodes. Think of it as a grenade fuse.

Both of these mechanisms are mostly used to ensure the safety of the attacking aircraft in the event of low altitude drops, so that they don't get caught in the blast of their own bombs.


So, which is which in the interface?

The detonation delay is controlled through the preflight options, from the bombs section of the loadouts menu. This is what the slider at the bottom of that screen is for, controlling the amount of time between a successful impact of a successfully armed bomb and its detonation. It does nothing however to ensure the bomb will arm in time and if it hasn't (due to dropping from too low an altitude for example), so your bombs can still fail to explode even if you set this to zero.

The arming delay is selected indirectly and not directly, because it's a function of the selected fuse for the bomb. Some bombs have the option of using a low altitude fuse which lets you drop from as low as 100 meters, while all/most of them also have a high altitude fuse. Depending on which one is used, you might have to drop from as high as 700-1000 meters in order for the bomb to have enough time to arm. On the other hand, the Blenheim also has the so called "ever ready" fuse, which means your bombs are armed no matter what.

Up to this point, it's equivalent to having your ground crew/armorers set up the correct detonators and delays.

Things get a bit more complicated due to what i described earlier: one of the fuses available for the Luftwaffe enables the pilot as well to select between two modes of arming: if the master arm is turned one way the bombs are set for a short arming delay (giving them enough time to arm even from a low altitude drop), if the master arm switch is turned the other way the bombs are set with a longer delay for higher altitude drops.

The way to do this in the sim is by clicking on the actual moving switch.
Someone said clicking on the bomb control panel doesn't work? Well, i haven't tested it in the 109 but the 110 uses the same panel and the switch is clickable alright. What this does is effectively pre-select the direction that the master arm switch will be turned to: if you toggle it on you'll see "short delay: on" displayed on your screen (assuming you haven't disabled the on-screen text info windows) and when you engage the master arm it will turn to the "sturz" position.

If you toggle it off (i think it's also off by default), enabling the master arm will have the switch turn the other way and a longer arming delay is selected.


Edit: Here's a picture of the switches, found on the excellent http://www.cockpitinstrumente.de website. Turning the switch left (sturz position) arms the bombs with a shorter arming delay for low level attacks, turning it to the right (Wagerecht position) sets a longer arming delay for high altitude attacks.

Clicking on the switch in-game selects the direction to which it will be turned once you engage the master arm: if you see "short delay: on" displayed on your screen it will go left and you'll have the low alt arming, if you see "short delay: off" it will go right and you'll have the high alt arming.

http://www.cockpitinstrumente.de/instrumente/katalog/Schaltkasten/gross/Fl%2050869-1.gif


Hope this helps, cheers ;-)

[d0o0m]

unfortunately that is the panel in the 109e3b that is not clickable... when i set master arm to ON, it defaults to Wagerecht... long delay. For the life of me I cannot figure out how to get it to Sturz.

Trying some more tonight.

Thanks for the clear post though. Can I ask you to try the panel in the 109e3b? it is located behind the stick between the legs.