Quote:
Originally Posted by ATAG_Snapper
Good to hear, guys. We had some vigorous opposition initially to the early a.m. mission starts -- understandable in that it's hard to see when taxiing, much less spotting enemy (or friendly) aircraft once aloft. Nav and landing lights would be a nice feature to have on and around an airfield! However, we did get a lot of voices in support of the early-dawn starts: bomber pilots taking off and traversing the Channel in cloak of darkness, and fighter pilots like yourselves who just enjoyed the beauty of watching the sun appear in the eastern horizon. I've read so many accounts of RAF pilots being awakened on midsummer mornings at 3:30 a.m. by their batmen bringing hot tea to ready them for a 4:00 briefing and a 4:30 a.m. take off. I suspect the Luftwaffe did not wait around for the morning mist to burn off by 9 a.m. before THEIR ops began, either!
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That's true and its very beautiful too.
The only thing i'd add though is that it can be hard for new players trying to learn spotting though, because they don't yet have an 'eye' or 'feel' for what to look for, when and how far away dots appear and how to spot them among moving perspectives and against terrain.
These players would benefit from learning to spot properly in the daytime initially, before progressing onto the more advanced dusk situations. I know this because I happen to be such a player
Actually, it would be great if a simple training program consisting of short videos timing how long before a pilot was able to spot things at various distances and letting them know what they missed was available.
But I appreciate the dusk/dawn timeslots.