single player
 

Since the release of 4.11 I've noticed a bug in the autopilot . When I connect to autopilot my aircraft will intermittently flip over onto a wing tip and then right itself. It performs this maneuver very rapidly and with some frequency while autopilot is engaged.

Also I don't know what happened to the flight characteristics of the F6F Hellcat. Considering it's 2,000 hp. it's become a real slug that can't even perform an Immelmann turn now with out going over on one wing at the top of the loop. The F6F no longer has the horsepower of the earlier pre-4.11 version.

As far as flipping onto a wing, this is an AI behavior to check for bandits below the aircraft.

There has been much discussion about the power for the F6F and F4U, do a search and i am sure you will find the threads.

This is a move that the AI performs to check behind them for trailing bandits coming up on the 6 o'clock blind spot. I do it too although with sometimes less or more frequency depending on how much paranoia I have that night :D

F6F is a tricky bird... not sure what exactly is right but it's worth keeping in mind that it is a VERY large fighter (bigger than a P-47) with a lot of weight to it. If it turns, accelerates, or otherwise performs the way it should... I'm not 100% sure.

Might be the AI checking their six.

Tried that in QMB at 1000m and 8000m. Works fine at 1000m, little more tricky at 8000m. Reqiures lots of nose down trim to get the plane to accelerate - else it just keeps climbing at a speed that is insufficient to do an Immeman. At 8000m acceleration takes considerable time to have enough speed for an Immelman. The F6F-3 ingame now has no water injection - should be historically correct. It doesn't fly like a 2000 hp Wildcat, yes, but it is also an almost 6 ton plane.

No gentlemen this is not the AI checking their six. This is my plane on autopilot exhibiting violent flip onto wing tip vertical to the ground for a millisecond before righting itself and then repeating the maneuver. Same wing tip each successive flip. This is during a single player campaign mission.

I just did a another two autopilot test flights [full and partial]. If I engage auto from take off no issues. I disengaged autopilot and flew for several minutes in short dog fight with 3x I16's and then reengaged autopilot. After a minute same wing flip which continued intermittently until I entered the landing circuit then it stops. ??? It seems to kick in only during return flight for some strange reason. Also with this prolonged use of autopilot I noticed some nose dipping also. I get the impression, not being a code writer, that the computers control of player aircraft during return flight is struggling to keep on the flight path built into the campaign. ???

I checked my computer stats for in game usage and IL2-1946 doesn't take up a lot of resources of either CPU or memory. Video card GPU usage ~68-70%

Computer = Intel920 w. 12 gig memory. Video frame rate unknown but no stuttering with my 460 1gig mem. @ 780 mhz core clock/ 1900mhz mem. clock.

This is a feature of the new AI.
When you engage the autopilot your plane behaves like AI aircraft.
The Maneuver you discribed is the AI, checking if there are any enemies below the aircraft.
This maneuver is always performed by the last plane of your formation during cruise flight.
If you are the last plane and you engage the autopilot, it will perform this maneuver.

I guess I'll have to accept that as the answer. My problem is that as wingman or flight leader my aircraft performs these 'rapid jinks' maneuvers when I engage autopilot and I'm still in formation. These are not tail-end-charlie positions in the flight.

In one SP mission I'm to escort a flight of FW190's on their bombing mission and every AI FW190 went down before we cleared friendly territory because of these 'jinks'. I had to replay it to get everyone over the target. This is happening more than once.

That shouldn't be happening. The "check your six" jinks should not lead to ground contact. Can you please post the mission file? And describe what you did, I'd like to get this reproduced. And if possible a vid of the AI behavior in *.ntrk format.

Have not seen that behavior manifest into a crash on the ground. Mission you built or from somewhere else? Be good to see what is happening.

I'm afraid I didn't save the mission file and I don't have the tools to post a vid in ntrk format. I don't even know what a ntrk format is. :(

I play the in game single player campaigns.
Not a crash on the ground. Multiple in air collisions as the entire flight ends up "jinking to check their six" [?] then there is this total out of formation scramble as the planes fight to reform. There are one or two aircraft in the fight after that cluster ***k who's wings are beating the air like a humming bird. If you stand and hold both arms out from your sides, you're the plane, then wag the wings. That's the behavior done quite rapidly while the plane is weaving and bobbing all over the sky. Then the invariable crash into another member of the flight and then they're all in pieces, with every body screaming over the net about how they're bailing out or on fire. And that's the end of the mission because it has to be restarted so they can all swan around the enemy landing field until they are all shot down. :( I got taken out once because the number 3 plane on my right started that nonsense and I couldn't keep enough focus on him and hold my position as flight leaders wingman.
When I'm playing there's a lot of "stay with your leader" ringing in my ears. :grin::grin:

For creating a NTRK, you have to set up a key in your 'controls' menue for 'Quick start/save track'. Pressing it in flight will start the recording, pressing it again will stop it and save a file in your game/records folder. You can post (attach) it here in the forum and everyone can put it into his own game and watch it. Simple as that. ;)

Thanks. You make me laugh at my own ignorance. I've been playing IL2 since day one and I have never used the 'save track' option. :-) I'll have to have a look around and if I can get it together maybe I will post an out of cockpit view of some turkeyneck gyrating about the formation. Though usually it goes to hell in a hand basket quite rapidly about 1,000 ft ahead and below my position as escort. We'll see. Thanks again for the tip.

Actually so long as you have the recording going while the problem happens the reviewer can look at the situation from any available camera angle. Even if you weren't watching. Beauty of track recordings in Il-2.

It's how I (and others) make in-game cutscenes for single player campaigns.