Flying and Skip Bombing the Blenheim on Cockpit Instruments

[ATAG_Dutch]

Originally Posted by Feathered_IV

Thanks Dutch. I did mangage to get the Blenheim into the air last night using a simple mission I made in FMB. Yours looks like a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to giving it a go too. Cheers!

Pleasure mate.

The more chaps we get up in Blenheims the better I'll like it!

[JG52Krupi]

There already has been a huge increase in the number of blenhiems in the ATAG server normally it was a few ATAG guys and occasionally I would take one up, congrats and getting people to fly this craft not many realised how fun it was.

[ElAurens]

I took it up on the open server last night for one hop.

Flew over to France to attack an airfield for grins.

Started seeing damgage reports on my screen. Looked over and noticed my right engine was missing.

Never heard or felt a thing.

Still a ways to go with the sim I'm afraid.

[JG52Krupi]

Yeah there is no sound currently for flak hits which is a pain, especially if you fly with no damage data. It's quite something to suddenly lose control and look behind to see your entire tail section has been blown off with out a single sound

[ATAG_knuckles]

Hey Gang: I think I have missed this thread: Dont know why ??

anyway I have been working with the Blenheim for about 2 months now. Recently I have developed a profile for my joystick (Saitek X52) to fly the rear turret . Tried it last night in a Blenheim flown by "Rush" and it worked perfect. Kind of a hoot riding in someone elses aircraft. Never could find a 109 (never can find one when you need em ?) But I believe this will be much more effective than A.I. Using DeWild and NO!!!! tracer. As 90% of shots will be to the front. Wait till thye start to shoot and go for a pilot kill or engine. See "turret" post on ATAG.

Next will be a profile for bomb aimer. Which will leave the pilot to concentrate on speed and level flying. This aircraft has more potential that we think. However I need participants to work these profiles out (like pilots) So anytime you see me in the ATAG servers or comms give me a holler and lets get competent with all these features

ATAG_Knuckles

[ATAG_knuckles]

Bomb Aimers profile is complete

Lets go Bomb crap !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


ATAG_Knuckles

[ATAG_Dutch]

Originally Posted by ATAG_knuckles

Lets go Bomb crap !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amen to that!

[Blackdog_kt]

So, i just came off ATAG, which i had joined to have some quick action when Bliss told us he wanted some people to join the ATAG #2 and test some improvements to the mission.

I hopped in a Blenheim and did a run on the blue ships, sinking two tankers. Then i took a 5 min break and by the time i got back, Dutch had finished getting killed by a Minenshuchboot and Jimbop had logged in.

So, after they told me that the Blenheim doesn't seem to suffer that much from the CTD bug (they had a formation of four going before), we decided to team up and head out.

I think it was Dutch who forgot his rads and cooked the engines on take off, so i followed Jimbop out over the channel and towards a target at Desvres. I was just formatting on him, listening on TS but with no mic myself, so i just waited to see him drop.

At some point i see his bomb bay doors open, i follow suit and drop after him (we were at about 5000ft). He said he would go low to see what we hit and i followed but i couldn't see much...i had too much fun dodging flak and following him through the hills

The target was very well laid out and it almost made me sorry we didn't go low level to skip bomb it. By that time Jimbop had been shot down. However, Dutch had caught up, on his own ingress route and going in at tree top height, so i stuck around to draw some flak for him. I was doing fine until i decided to strafe the tents with my measly single .303 gun

Flak didn't get me but just like when i used to play IL2 back in 2001, my GPU wasn't fast enough to take all that smoke in zoomed in view, i got a couple of skipped frames and crashed right next to the target...which then enabled me to sit there and take screenshots

I like this aircraft more and more each day, if you get a feel about anticipating changes to engine temps you can really throw it around the place. I can finally fly confidently without looking over my shoulder to the CHT temps all the time, i just close flaps a bit when i'm about to cut throttle and get in a long dive, or open them a bit when i want a brief burst of high power, etc. Then i only look at the gauges briefly when i have the time to, not when i'm busy executing maneuvers. It takes some getting used to, but it's lot's of fun when you get it down.

Yesterday i was on ATAG #1 again and after making a run on the blue ships, i picked up a 109 "escort".

I got hit and my starboard wing was on fire because the fuel lines were hit, but the engines were going strong at +5 boost, so i thought "what the heck" and decided to see what she can do.

I kid you not, i don't know if it was the fact that i was losing fuel and getting lighter, but i was evading the 109 all the way to the UK coast. At some point i got into a scissors contest with him, which of course i couldn't win but came close to...the guy was forced to drop landing gear to stay behind me, because i was doing reversals and barrel rolls at 90mph a mere 500ft from the water surface

I lost my starboard engine when i pulled up to gain some altitude and spot a suitable landing place, he got some good hits on me and the engine came clean off the wing. I put it down on the beach, no problems at all until i came too close to the water and triggered the "sinking" animation...it flipped over on its back and i was looking at the sand from inside the ground

All in all great fun. Here's some screenshots from today's test run on ATAG #2 with Dutch and Jimbop.

[Blackdog_kt]

... and the rest.

[ATAG_Dutch]

Heh, heh. Yep that was a blast.

When I crossed the enemy coast, flying up the river estuary at zero feet, calling out for directions to the target, with BD and Jimbo giving me instructions, I suddenly got the theme tune from 633 squadron going through my head.

And what's more, we destroyed the target.

Bloody marvellous.