Quote:
Originally Posted by Sutts
I'm in agreement that the Norden was linked to the autopilot and actually flew the aircraft on the bomb run. However, the Brits had much less complex devices and spoken instructions were required for course adjustments.
I believe I've seen footage of german bomb aimers waving course corrections to their pilot but I can't be sure. Perhaps someone can clarify?
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I'm sure you are right about the Brits and it is the same with the Italians (BR.20).
Here are some additional things from a german manual for the He111 H-16:
There are two L-R switches to control the autopilot. On is on the right end of the stick (we have this without funktion in the game). It should be just like in the Ju88. The other is left to the bomb-sight and control can be given to the "Bombenschütze". It looks just like the on on the panel left of the pilot.
The autopilot works a little bit different to what we have today. Here is a translation of the steps:
1. Press left button below the gyro (Kurskreisel).
2. Main autopilot switch to 1 (stage 1 of the AP)
3. Wait 3 minutes (or 10 if it is cold)
meanwhile
a) Use L-R switch to set the upper course on gyro to actual cours
b) Use right button below gyro to sync lower course on gyro to the upper
4. Main autopilot switch to stage 2 (this is our stage 1)
keep at least 300m safety margin above ground
5. Pull out right button below gyro
Autopilot is now working
....
Changing Course
1. Use L-R switch on stick or at bombsight to change upper course on gyro
2. Use airleron to keep slip indicator centered
....
bomb run
1. Switch to L-R switch at bombsight
2. The switch on the stick is now out of control (this is our AP stage 2)
switch back imideately after the bombrun
3. There is an idicator-light showing that control is at the bombsight
4. there might be a device called "Y-Anlage". Bombruns with this radio direction control device are not using the bomb sight
5. Landing with autopilot "ist VERBOTEN"
So to sum this up:
The two course displays on the gyro are handled vice versa. The upper shows the course we whant to go, the lower shows the course we are going to and is corrected by the right button below (which makes much more sense)
The pilots L-R switch is not on the stick (but the position of all kind of instruments and switches is changed a lot from version to version).
I didn't find any information about a stage 2 controling all three axes. We have this two stages, but with fewer switches and we don't need to wait 3 minutes until the gyro is warmed up and on speed.
In total, we are very close to historical correctness and I think they should fix the more important bugs like the Ju88-gyro first.
For the planes without AP, I would recommend an Autopilot which holds course, speed and altitude as soon as we switch the bombsight. With the L-R button-commands we can change the course in small steps. A "Left" or "Right" call is played to make this as realistic as we can get with one player.