Some very good news with the latest beta patch.
First of all, the revised ground handling physics make it much easier both to taxi and to takeoff with the Blenheim.
There is still a tendency to yaw to the right but nothing like before where we had to use differential braking to keep it going straight, which killed our speed, prolonged the take-off run and could kill our engines through prolonged full throttle use. Now it needs less braking, which lets it pick up speed and get in the air faster, in turn allowing us to reduce power before those gaskets start leaking.
Second, the new sounds make it easy to identify if something's wrong with the engines because there are some new sound effects for when they are running rough. This makes it easy to adjust power settings and cowl flaps without having to constantly keep an eye on the gauges, once you hear it running rough you take a look at the gauges, take corrective action and that's that.
This means that you can now give it about +1.5 boost and once it starts rolling down the runway you might need a couple of taps on the brake with the rudder full left to realign with the runway centerline, but after that you have enough rudder authority due to the airflow to keep it straight simply by stepping on the rudder. At that point you can advance throttles the rest of the way. I did it today in the cross country QMB mission (the one with the crosswind and small runway) and i had a heavy fuel load and four 250lb bombs in the bay.
Third, the bombsight now works. According to the patch notes it also has an angle of attack adjustment but it's not manual like in real life, you just have to fly smooth for a little while. In any case, the altitude can now be adjusted in increments of 100 feet instead of 1000 feet that we had pre-patch.
By the way, there is a magnetic compass with a course setter on the base of the bombsight too and it's much easier to use that to calibrate your directional gyro: you can see enough of the horizon from the glass nose to keep the aircraft level (more than you can see from the pilot's seat that's for sure) and you also have a clear, unobstructed view of the compass.
You align the red north marker with the end of the magnetic indicator (there's an arrow on it that points north), then press the relevant keybindings that you've set for the DG to calibrate it. It's also very useful for navigating, just set the course setter to the heading you want to fly and turn until they match. Also, moving the course setter in one of the cockpits (pilot or bombardier seat) moves it in the other cockpit too.
So, i started the allied free flight mission loaded with four 250lb bombs and set a heading to Calais, while leveling off at 8000ft. Using about +1 psi boost to keep within the lean mixture limits gave me about 180mph IAS.
By the way after a bit of testing while taxiing on the ground, i think that the carb heaters are indeed reversed as reported by others in this thread (set a key to toggle them all the way so the change is instantaneous, you can then tell when it's on because boost drops slightly when carb heat is engaged). So, keep that in mind while flying higher than 3500ft or so, or near clouds, or just listen for the engines.
I trimmed for a more or less hands-off flight while crossing the channel (it still needs corrective inputs from time to time but not much) and settled in my bomb run.
For aiming, i used the conversion tables from the manual and extrapolated from there. It says that at 8000ft a speed of 200mph IAS equals 225mph TAS. I was doing 180mph, that's 20mph less IAS so i reduced the TAS value specified in the manual by a similar amount and set it to 200mph.
Coming up on the target i simply flew the plane with gradual banking turns through the bombardier's position, keeping an eye on my altitude and airspeed indicators on the bombardier's panel and adjusting elevator trim as necessary, just a notch or two at a time. Once i was lined up and closing, i switched to bombsight view, selected my salvo and arming options, opened the bomb bay doors and took aim.
I think the stock mission has some wind because my bombs drifted to the left a bit, but i did hit the target (an airfield just west of Calais).
It was great fun and the slight inaccuracy makes it all the more enjoyable: there is a bit of bomb drift but not too much and it's definitely possible to carpet bomb a target with a couple of wingmen, it's just enough to give you a bit of welcome suspense
In short, our cranky little bomber is now a real joy to fly and bomb with, dealing with the 109s and 110s is another matter though