So, about that little red light...

[Kurfürst]

Originally Posted by 99th_Flyby

Sorry guys. Just want to know how much fuel the Emil has left when that little read light comes on.

Flyby out

The red warning light would light up when you have apprx. 20 minutes to go.

[Viking]

Originally Posted by Kurfürst

The red warning light would light up when you have apprx. 20 minutes to go.

A quick look at the facts books I have;

With 400 litres tank and minimum 260 lit/ hour, say 300, makes 100 lit left to go. Is that correct? Just how was this red light triggered? Floating switch or..?

At approx 400 km / hour its 130 km to go and from London to France is just a little bit less, that will give you one go at landing, exciting!

Viking

[GADGET]

Red light is 10 minutes of flight in real Bf.109s, as I have been told by Lwf. pilots.

I remember an old pilot friend of ours reporting the red light to ground control, when he was a young Ltnt.. The answer was: "Leutenient, you put your finger over the light and keep flying against those B-17s"

[Viking]

I can accept that as it was over Germany, B-17: s and all you had to do was to glide down to the nearest airfield or meadow. Over England: different story.

Viking

[JG52Uther]

A lot of 109 pilots ended up in the channel. When SoW comes out,if you fly on the full size map there will be none of this '110%' flying all the time,not if you want to get back to France.

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by 99th_Flyby

High over southern England, in the area of the London docks, you lead a flight of Emils, and see a climbing flight of Huricanes. Just as you're about to signal your flight to attack, suddenly a little red light comes on in your cockpit...

i'd be more worried about Oleg getting the visibility for distant aircraft right, rather then the fuel gauge warning light.

right now in il2 it is impossible to see that "climbing flight of Huricanes" below you unless you stick a telescope with tunnel vision out of your cockpit and slowly scan every yard of space below you.

[Flyby]

good point, Zap. I'm guilty of being optimistic, if I may say so.
Flyby out

[Skoshi Tiger]

Originally Posted by zapatista

i'd be more worried about Oleg getting the visibility for distant aircraft right, rather then the fuel gauge warning light.

right now in il2 it is impossible to see that "climbing flight of Huricanes" below you unless you stick a telescope with tunnel vision out of your cockpit and slowly scan every yard of space below you.

Considering that 'most' pilots that were shot down never saw their attacker, I think that that would be a fairly accurate representation. All credit to Oleg!

Its been a few years since I got behind the controlls of a cessna, but airplanes are hard to spot. Even when they're painted white and your both within a circuit at the same altitude, and the controller has told you where the other plane is!

"Wiskey India Foxtrot, Join down wind, follow the Piper Mid-Downwind!" "AaaH, Wiskey India Foxtrot"

[WTE_Galway]

Originally Posted by Skoshi Tiger

Considering that 'most' pilots that were shot down never saw their attacker, I think that that would be a fairly accurate representation. All credit to Oleg!

Its been a few years since I got behind the controlls of a cessna, but airplanes are hard to spot. Even when they're painted white and your both within a circuit at the same altitude, and the controller has told you where the other plane is!

"Wiskey India Foxtrot, Join down wind, follow the Piper Mid-Downwind!" "AaaH, Wiskey India Foxtrot"

Back before I was grounded by diabetes, I vividly recall being in the landing circuit ever a small uncontrolled Australian regional airport at 1000' talking to a Dash 8 (50 seat twin turbo prop commercial flight) coming in on a straight in approach from 20 km out.

My passenger and I kept our eyes peeled for this aircraft whilst continuing our circuit and could not spot it. Eventually after 5 minutes had past we contacted the Dash 8 to confirm its position only to be advised by the pilot in control it was already on the ground and had cleared the runway (something he should have announced on the radio out of politeness if nothing else but regional commercial pilots can be a law unto themselves).

Sure enough on scanning the apron outside the main terminal, there was a very large shiny White and Red Dash 8. My passenger was an experienced pilot with several 1000 hours up yet soemhow this large brightly painted aircraft managed to land and taxi off the runway we were circling at 1000' and we missed it.

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by Skoshi Tiger

Considering that 'most' pilots that were shot down never saw their attacker, I think that that would be a fairly accurate representation. All credit to Oleg!

that is not a rational comparison, you'r then basically saying that because there are many car accidents on the roads, we might as well let everybody drive blindfolded !

yes many pilots in ww2 got jumped by the enemy and never saw the attacker, and yes some aircraft are difficult to spot under certain weather/light circumstances even if you know their approximate position, but in il2 it is totally unrealistic how aircraft between 300 and 1500 meters can be nearly impossible to spot or track in a dogfight.

viewing aircraft against a terrain background is the problem, because the 2D level of detail model for medium and far distances might look pretty in a grafix editor program but they blend in to much with the 2D terrain background textures (viewing them against open sky is not a problem). in real life when tracking a 3 dimensional object that is seen moving against a stationary background, it is much easier at those distances.

btw, this is a problem in il2 when using the normal and correct FoV setting for your monitor size, dont compare it with what you see on a zoomed view setting which artificially magnifies what you see.

you have the exact same problem in il2 when trying to spot tanks/trucks on a road or in a field, in real life you can still see them from 1500 meters, and in il2 you need to be at 300 or 400 meters. if you ever fly VFR in real aircraft just look at the scenery below you and compare at what altitudes you can still spot individual cars/trucks etc.. then compare it again to what you can see in il2. in il2 there is a MAJOR problem with object visibility, its down to about 30% to what it should be.