Blackdog
That is more or less how it is done.
Unfortunately, I don't have any histrocal data about the autopilots in those maschines. I just did some testflights and found this to be the best way to do it. It is strange, that the developers are spending lots of time, to build those functions in to the simulation and then there is not a single word in the manuals about how they work and even that they exist. How are we supposed to find out?
The speed in your Point 8 it not that important. The speed is entered for an first estimation. The exact speed is measured with the croshair. The speed and the movement to the side has to be corrected until the croshair remains on a position. This eliminates the influence of the wind. Now, the bomb sight knows the exact speed over Ground and the course it is moving. The course can be changed with the AP and the bombing is done with the automatic.
If everything is done correctly and the drops are still short, it is a misinterpretation of the speed in the simulation. (The ground crew has to recalibrate the equipment).
It may be that it is on purpose. If a series of 8 Bombs is selected, it might be a good idea to drop the first bombs early in order to hit the taget with the Bombs in the middle. In this case, a single bomb would drop later than the first of a series.
Actually the german Lotfe is kind of a copy of the Norden device used in US Bombers. I have done a lot of flights on the B17 with the Mighty 8th on the Amiga (a millenium ago). So the Lotfe was pretty familliar to me. At that time, they had about 500 pages of manual just for the B17 in a game that was much simpler than anything we have today.
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