Quote:
Originally Posted by Redroach
okay, so what the freeek am I doing wrong? I can't seem to be able to load bombs (or get them to drop) on this thing -.-
After getting familiar with that diva, spending a few hours to get that big old gasket-blowing thing in the air and fly comfortably, I thought "hay, now let's bomb something". Not. I've done a.. well.. standard load-out in the options/plane menu with red tracers and 4x250lbs bombs (it's over max. takeoff limit then). So I tried, and tried, several times, then scoured the forums and found out that the loadouts are STILL not working in stock quick missions (I did the cross-country one).
Okay, next step: FMB. I set up a quick route to bomb the Boulogne harbor, set my loadout done earlier in the plane options, and changed fuel loadout to 90% to bring T/O weight down to below the max.
So I flew to Boulogne - I couldn't change fuel loadout in the preflight screens, and everything was greyed out(again) but in the air, I tried my guns, which had red tracers by now. Good sign, but I still couldn't bomb in any way...
Could someone please give me a step-by-step checklist to get (droppable) bombs on that thing? That would be great, while we wait for a fix...again.
Oh, and what about the bombsight? I figure that (after entering ALT and TAS) you've got to get the target into that little ring mounted on the rails, then drop, right?
P.S.: Also, when throttling down to sink before landing, I somehow freeeked my engines.. they didn't rev up properly anymore (when going to fine pitch for landing approach) and delievered no more power, leading to a crash 200m before the landing strip  . Whats the proper procedure to prevent this? I think the engines got too cool during descent - maybe I should have re-activated carb heaters...
P.P.S.: Do I have to switch on the autopilot for my tail-turret gunner? Or is that done automatically and he becomes active when bandits are near? |
I once had a sample mission made and loadouts worked from within the FMB. I can also load them from within the normal menu interface by going to the "plane" menu on the map screen and applying the changes there, plus saving at every screen (fuel, guns and bombs) with the same name. Then the loadout is saved, i can go back to the QMB and select it for the entire flight.
For bombing you need to map keys to open/close the bomb bay doors first, as well as the salvo selector keys. As for detonators, i use the so called "ever ready" ones because they are always armed and always explode. Take care though if bombing from low altitude, in need to jettison them or you get engaged by fighters and your bomb load gets hit, because these detonators are primed and ready by default and will explode under all these circumstances.
The reason you're probably having trouble is a known bug with the bombardier's controls, the bomb release key/stick button only works from the pilot's seat. To drop from the bombardier's seat you need to click on the cockpit switch (the yellow buttons on the small "bench" to the left of the bombsight), so once you're a couple of seconds from dropping zoom out to a wider FoV to bring them into view and click them (the medium one works well as it's a good compromise between viewing the cockpit and being zoomed on the target).
For the landing part, i had that happen to me as well and your assumption is partially correct: you did over-cool them but it's not something that can be fixed with carb heat.
What you need to do is reduce throttle and bleed off some speed while on approach, enough to drop flaps and gear, then re-apply some power to overcome the drag and trim for your descent. During all this you need to also monitor the cylinder temperature (gauges are on the right-hand cockpit wall, to the pilot's 4 o'clock position) and adjust cowl flaps accordingly.
The aim is to prevent yourself from pulling back too much on the throttles and cooling the engines too much, because then they won't produce power. Keep them at 200 degrees minimum to ensure the engines can develop full power, if it drops further close the cowl flaps or apply some throttle while still in the descent, or both, to make it rise back to operating temperature (200-250 degrees).
Of course, all this workload necessitates a bit of experience (trial and error mostly but you can get it right in just a couple of tries, i flew some touch and goes to practice) and most of all, giving yourself some time to juggle all these parameters. This means a longer glide path from further away from the airfield and some prior planning of what to do.
In other words, it's a full blown approach in the proper sense of the word and not a "cut throttles, bring it in and firewall it briefly for the flare" deal like we could do in IL2.
I think the CEM is somewhat masochistic in the radials but i can't help it, i like quirky planes
I can't judge how accurate it all is, but when i'm in the mood for a challenge i always select the Blenheim. There are at least a few things that need tweaking (pilot's manual from back in the day says "do this" but it doesn't work in the sim), but overall i think it will be one of my favorite aircraft once we get a few gameplay-related fixes in a subsequent patch.
I think the main issue in terms of CEM is how certain parameters affect the temperatures. It's realistic that the radials are more susceptible to temperature changes, but what might be off somewhat is how these temperatures change.
For example, warm up takes so long that we can close the cowl flaps, step on the brakes and apply throttle to accelerate it. However, for start-up, warm up and taxi the pilot's operating handbook recommends open cowl flaps because the temps rise too fast when on the ground.
I think this is an issue of environmental modeling and it's also noticeable on the liquid cooled fighters, it's just that their engines handle better over a wider part of their allowable temp range.
My theory is that it's part of the dynamic weather module which is still under development: ambient temperature and heat build-up from idling on some hot tarmac doesn't have as much of an effect as it had in real life (according to the pilot manuals at least).
On the contrary, the manual recommends closing the cowl flaps for take-off! The reasoning is that once the aircraft is finally moving, there is enough airflow through the cowlings to maintain acceptable temps for the small amount of time that take-off power is used. In the sim it's reversed, we need full open cowl flaps.
I've done some observing and it seems this is true for other aircraft too (Spits were notorious for overheating on the ground if idling somewhat high, but it doesn't happen in the sim), but it's more noticeable in radials because they are temperamental and can't develop power if not at the correct temperature range.
It seems both the effects of airflow on cooling during flight and of lack of airflow on overheating while on the ground could be bumped up a notch.
However, the pilot's manual also categorically states that cowl flaps should be opened as soon as the pilot has configured the aircraft for climb. This means pulling the throttles back to 5 psi boost and also switching to coarse pitch as soon as the aircraft picks up some speed.
I've climbed on coarse pitch, it's not hard and it goes at a pretty good pace too as long as you follow the observation you added in one of your later posts: the pilot's manual recommends staying level after take off and not climbing straight-away.
This builds up some speed and once you hit 120 mph or so, you immediately switch to coarse pitch. This not only results in more speed (which if left untrimmed will result in a climb, so you just trim the elevators and rudders a bit and let it climb), it also lowers the RPM and prevents heat build-up somewhat. Climb gently until you hit 150mph, then you can properly climb.
I'm sorry for holding back (hey, it's summer
), i should just bite the bullet and finally copy the relevant parts of the pilot's handbook here during the coming days. Ironically enough, it might have "cost" me more typing answering set-piece questions than having copied the manual right from the start
