Okay, now I'm genuinely confused. After reporting above that I could track a formation all the way, quite the opposite was true yesterday.
After the usual lack of success following "chain home" instructions, I followed the type of report that is reported in big yellow letters in the middle of the screen ("Ju88s have been spotted over Calais, heading west".
To my delight, I could make out a formation, consisting of about 25 elements, followed by another one, also around 25. I hooked myself on the trailing formation, only to see all the dots de-spawn, pretty far out. Then I went for the leading formation and the same happened... after a while of frustration, one of those "ghost" formations apparently bombed their target (completing a blue objective) and I could make the formation out again, only to have it despawn again :(
This is really another game-breaking bug! I'm annoyed big time...again :(

P.S.: I wondered what was the difference between this experience and the one in the post before. And I think the formation on the post before was escorted by a human player, in contrast to yesterday. Could it be that the code only considers KIs with human friendlies in the vicinity "real"?

These are indeed "ghost" formations which are a major glitch in this sim. Many of us have wasted much time, fuel, and strategic positioning chasing these things all over Kent and the Channel. My understanding is that they are like mirages, reflecting the existence of true formations somewhere else on the map....only to disappear like ghosts as you approach. I have encountered single contact "ghosts" as well, but less frequently. The absence of defensive flak is the only real clue, but obviously you have to close on this ghost formation anyway to witness that aspect. Frustrating and confusing to all of us.

Blimey Red,

Have you just discovered the ghost dots? They've been here since the beginning.. probably the worst thing for me apart from the create new launcher crash

I believe Red has many 1946 hours under his belt (along with other sims), but has just recently joined us online in CoD. He is in the process of discovering the, ahem, occasional blip that we've been enjoying all this time. For some strange reason, I doubt Red has spent the requisite 50 hours of reading time that is required to go through all the bug reports since March, 2011! LOL

yep, I flew a lot of Il21946, though mostly custom-built offline missions :D

And I'm a CoD owner since release (pre-ordered the CE >.<), but after witnessing what happened, threw it away for quite some time and got back rather recently - and then, exclusively fixating on bombing with the Blenheim.
So, sorry, those glitches are, well, not totally new for me, since I read about them, but now I encounter them for the first time in person, which is, of course, much more annoying ^-^

I'm not entirely sure if the AI bombers attack mission objectives. The missions may have changed on ATAG (i remember talk of a new high altitude mission, that might be it), but i'm pretty sure that in the ones i flew last week the AI only attacks targets that are not required to end the map (usually they go for airfields where players spawn).

That being said, maybe the setting you enabled in your conf.ini is responsible for the ghost dots, as this problem had been largely fixed for the default installations. I think i haven't seen any ghost contacts at all with the two latest test patches (the current beta and the alpha before it).

I'm sorry to confirm the "ghosts" still haunt us, even with the latest beta patch. :(. I wonder, though, if they're more prevalent in some missions than others.

Our mission designer wizards are, as I write this, designing missions with AI bombers that are more numerous (larger formations & more frequent), fly higher, AND (you'll like THIS, BD!) --- attack targets necessary for the Blue Team to take the map. Not only will this encourage Red Team (RAF) fliers to gain altitude quickly to intercept these ongoing threats to survival, but the Blue Team fighters are encouraged to provide effective escort to enable the AI bombers to achieve their objectives. If Blue Team bomber pilots wish, they may either join the AI formations (difficult in a practical sense), or more readily fly their own missions to greatly hasten the process.

I know one of these missions is already in the ATAG Server rotation, I and a few others are separately testing a new one on a private server. Blackdog, I know your input and others go a long way towards the creation of even more challenging & satisfying missions and is always greatly appreciated.

I believe AI bombers just attack airfields and not mission objectives.

Someone who I can't remember said they believe the ghost are because of despawn scripts.

I personally believe they are caused by a secret weapon being developed and tested in an area on the map known as beer goggle ally.

Thanks for the input guys ;)