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Old 04-17-2011, 03:15 AM
Blackdog_kt Blackdog_kt is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2008
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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.
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