Answers from BoB Spitfire pilot and Rigger

[zxwings]

Originally Posted by PeterPanPan

Me: Could you hear other aircraft from inside the Spit cockpit?

KW: No. [Looked at me a little strangely as if he really wanted to say, of course not, what a silly question. [So flyby sounds within closed cockpit need to be disabled or at least made optional in the realism menu.]

Thanks a lot for the interview and for asking that question .

Valuable information to me who have never flown a piston engine aircraft in real life, not to mention a WWII fighter; neither have most IL-2 sim pilots, I suppose. So it is a definite clarification for many.

Haven't tried COD yet. Is COD's in-cockpit sound effect realistic in this respect?

[ATAG_Snapper]

At a local airshow a few years ago I paid for a 20 minute hop in a Harvard. Not a WW2 fighter, but not a modern-day Beechcraft either. The pilot was a former RCAF CF-18 pilot who flew these demos for the love of it - a real cool dude. I had a chance to chat with him a bit prior to the ride and told him about IL-2. He responded by snapping in the joystick (it had a spring-loaded button - just like a vacuum cleaner!) in the rear seat (my) position.

After getting us up in the air he demonstrated a few basic air maneuvers over rural Ontario, including a wing-over keeping a barn in sight through the canopy top. Cool!!! He then let me take over for a few coordinated turns. Make that "attempted" coordinated turns! LOL

It was all over much too soon. One lasting impression I got was the NOISE!!!!! Even with the modern insulated helmet I was wearing the noise was still almost overwhelming and almost visceral! Obviously, it was necessary to use the built-in intercom to communicate back & forth. I swear someone could've fired eight .303's beside my ears and I wouldn't have heard a thing! Dunno how a P&W Wasp air-cooled radial compares to a R/R Merlin V-12 glycol-jacketed behemoth from inside the cockpit (ie. Hearing passing nearby aircraft). Probably the best descriptor for either is "EH????"

[winny]

There's a passage in Geff Wellum's book First Light where he overshoots and can hear the engines of the LW bomber from inside his cockpit, but he was very, very close.

I've also read a few BoB pilots accounts where they heard the engines of the enemy, all were also, very close (less than 50 yards).

[mazex]

Really interesting to hear his answers! It's always special when one is talking first hand with the men who where really there!

I once met an old pilot at a late night barbecue at an airfield that flew in the Finnish winter war, we had a bunch of beer together and one of the interesting parts of that discussion I remember was when he told me they used bear fat to smear in a thick layer in the face as it got so cold in the open seat cockpits of the old biplanes he flew (I think he flew Bristol Harts and later some captured Russian planes in the continuation war). As they never knew when the alarm would go off and it took rather long to smear bear fat all over the face they slept with it. They had it for a couple of days but when they got to much lice in the fat they had to take it away and smear a new layer

Another time I flew with an old 109 pilot in his own plane as his certificate had been withdrawn for a weak heart (was in the late 1980:ies). He still wanted to fly so I went with him in his Grob as my certificate was valid He flew all the time but left the landing to me... Later (by a fire with a beer too actually, common at Swedish air fields late summer nights after a day of flying) he told me he never liked landings any way after flying the Me109 during the war He flew late war 109 G:s from 1944 and said half of the pilots at his unit (late war rushed out recruits) where killed in the landings and he was scared to death at every landing.

When I asked him if he shot down any enemies he laughed - "When we where in battle it was all chaos with planes everywhere and I just tried to stay away from the enemies - I fired my guns a couple of times at enemies but I don't think a single bullet hit the target".