Bomber practice for newbies

[AAC_Maj. Hubbabubba]

~S~All

Next Saturday, at 10 AM EDT. (15h00 GMT), I will practice high altitude level bombing. For this first session, we will concentrate on practicing "click" bombing.

We will use a Heinkel He 111H6 modified for Bluezulu's mission. As I am limited to 1MB per upload, the first installment will be of the aircraft itself with aliased sound and panel (stock P-47D). Sound and panel will come later.

You will need to tweak your COMBATFS.CFG file as well. Under the [CHEATS] sub-header, create this entry;

bomb_trainer=1

This will create a triple red-blue-yellow cross moving on the ground as soon as you are airborne. This cross represent the computed point of impact of your bombs. Once released, each bombs will project a "bullseye" where the impact is supposed to happened. Don't be fooled by these bullseye; they are only approximating the point of impact and the real explosion will be nearby, but not exactly on them.

To remove the triple cross, simply replace the "1" by a "0" (zero).

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[AAC_Maj. Hubbabubba]

For your first assignment, I want you to practice "click" aiming. For that, you don't need any special panel. Just aliased the panel sub-folder to any a/c panel you already have that has a decent auto-pilot. Simply change;

[fltsim]
alias=P47D\panel

By the name of the aircraft folder containing a suitable panel with AP.

WHAT THE HECK IS A "CLICK"?

A bit of CFS history is in order. For a long time, dropping bombs was impossible in multiplayer games. Then came TG2, at first only making possible flexible aiming gunnery, but soon permitting bombing.

CFS1 "Bomber Boys" were elated! For years, they had been relegated to the role of big fat juicy flying targets. Bombing was performed by "let's pretend" formula in which a bomber fly-over a target, mostly runways, was deemed to have destroyed it.

But bombing in FreeFlight, QC and Mission-Campaign modes was possible and many methods were developed. The first one was dive bombing, as many stock a/c had the possibility to carry bombs.

Level bombing is a quite different ball game, especially when aiming is concerned. You don't see what you are bombing!

The first method, and its numerous variants, was based on the use of the "map view". By guessing or with the help of panel overlays, bombs were being dropped when a certain point ahead on the map was reached. It is a very precise method... providing that your aircraft is at the right altitude and at the right constant speed.

When TG2 made possible the dropping of bombs in multiplayer games, this was the main method of bombing. If an intercepting fighter was able to damage your bomber sufficiently to make you loose altitude or speed, you had to bomb "by the seats of your pants". Incidentally, some were very good at doing just that!

Adding to your misery, you could not switch to "padlock" mode to defend yourself once the map view in place. By the time you made the switch to "cockpit view" and, then, "padlock view", the fighter had riddled your cuckoo with shells and bullets. Going back to the map view, you could only realized that the target was on your six and out of reach.

Then, someone realized that, under Customize Controls > Assignments, it was possible to "Pan down" by using the combination SHIFT+ENTER keys. Each "click" of the ENTER key while holding the SHIFT key depressed lower your point of view (POV) by ±2.5°. Note that this change of your POV has no influence on the pitch axis.

This way, you can "look down" without having to go on map view. You can padlock back-and-forth to your hearts content. If you want to return to a straight forward POV, just hit and release any numeric pad view keys.

I want you to go and practice the "click" aiming by having your gunsight coincide with the triple cross of the bomber_trainer. Try different speeds and altitudes. Count the number of clicks you need. I suggest as a practice target the intersection of the two main runways at Ripe.

Once you feel confident, go into QC against one Hurricane in Offensive Tactical situation and try to hit a target while defending your bomber. Save a flight ±20 nautical miles south of Ripe to speed things up.

As a bonus, this post has a part of the sound file attached. DO NOT INSTALL!!! Just save and wait for the rest.

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[AAC_Maj. Hubbabubba]

This is part II of the sound file. Put everything in your Heinkel "Sound" sub-folder and say "YES" when asked if you want to replace sound.cfg.

Original sound file by Mike Hambly, remastered by yours truly. I have also added a specific "bomb.wav" track that will add a je ne sais quoi to the experience. Tell me what you think.

Panel will be distributed Friday.

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[AAC_Maj. Hubbabubba]

Those who have practiced a bit with the "click trick" should know by now two things;

1- It is difficult to have the clicks coincide with the gun sight in the up-down axis;

2- The triple cross almost never coincide with the gun sight in the left-right axis.



The first one is easy to explain. As I told before, the clicks only works by increments of ±2.5°. As far as I know, there's no ways around this one.

The second needs some explanation. Auto-pilots, when heading is engaged, try to keep the a/c on its heading. Most, if not all, aircraft have a tendency to side slip. To correct that, the AP will use rudder and ailerons. In all the a/c I know, the side slipping is done to the left, causing the AP to apply a bit of right rudder which, by consequence, make the a/c bank slightly to the right.

Now, imagine a pendulum dangling from under the a/c representing the bombs trajectory. Looking from behind, the pendulum will look like it is going straight down only if the wings are leveled! If the right wing is a bit lower than the left, the pendulum will lean to the right. This is what you're experiencing.

What I just said only works for a/c undamaged. Once you engines are running rough, or one of your wing is damaged, or any other problem causing side slipping, the AP will do its best to counterbalanced that effect... until it can no longer do that.

It is now time to get some of the gauges for the panel. Unzip the file and put the files in your main "gauges" folder. If prompted that the gauge is already present, say YES or NO. As a rule of thumb, I always keep the latest gauge and I always verify that they are the same size. If the size is different, I say NO and I verify if it is the same gauge. If not, I renamed the latest gauge and modify the panel in consequence. But I doubt you will have to do that.

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[AAC_Maj. Hubbabubba]

At first, when "would-be-bombers" wanted to know how many clicks they needed, they would practice the mission's parameters in Freeflight until, by trial and errors, they found it. The "bomb_trainer" trick was only discovered later.

But someone, alas anonymous, made a series of gauges that would calculate for us how many clicks were needed. The first one was only giving a number with one digit after the decimal, and is called "clicks.gau".

The second version added bombs count but works essentially the same way. It is called "clicks2.gau".

The third version is like the second one but is "mouseable" and let you enter a target altitude. It is... "clicks3.gau" (what can I say, if you want originality, go look at a Picasso!).

The third gauge mentioned will be part of the panel... but we will not use it much. Up until recently, it was the best click gauge around but, thanks to Rebel, we now have better.

The main problem with these gauges was that they do not always give you the right number! To take the example of the preceding post, the 500 ft "suggestion" was 6.3 (rounded at 6), the 1000 ft was 8.7 (9), the 5000 ft was 16.4 (16), the 10000 ft was 19.9 (20), the 20000 ft was 24.2 (24), and the 30000 ft was 27.6 (28). All are undershooting the "real" number by 1 or 2 clicks. Seasoned bomber pilots would adjust consequently, and some would be very good at it.

Here is second ZIP file for the gauges, it goes at the same place as the first one... duh!

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[AAC_Maj. Hubbabubba]

I will explain the panel tomorrow... but upload it now!

Place it in the Heinkel "panel" sub-folder and say YES when asked to replace panel.cfg.

Good night all!

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[AAC_Maj. Hubbabubba]

This is the bomber panel we will use. Created by smilo, I only corrected the "switchboard" panel (E) in the lower right so that switches would be properly identified. To smilo's credit, he did it entirely by hand without any third program such as CFGEdit. To get to the bomb aimer panel, click the "BMR" switch.



Starting at 12 O'Clock and going clockwise, I will enumerate and explain briefly all the gauges we will need. The first gauge(A)is also the heart of this panel. Called "VirtBSight04.gau", again by an anonymous creator, it lower the POV by simply switching the left toggle ON. Through experimentation, I can say that it is as precise as if you had used the "click trick" to get to the first and closest sight position over the triple crosses bomb_trainer. The second switch lets you choose between target altitude (TA or AGL) or real altitude (RA or MSL). You can enter the altitude of the target by mouse clicking the digits under the switches. This gauge has greatly simplified our task compared to the click gauges, like clicls3.gau also present on this panel (A1). We will discuss this gauge pro and con during our training.

Next gauge of interest is "CDZOOM.gau" (B) that gives you the zoom ratio of the actual view. It is an important information because the bomsight only works at 0.50 zoom. When you don't have such a gauge and are in doubt, hit the BACKSPACE key to be sure.

Next gauge is "AAC100.gau" (C). Although I created it by tweaking Chuck Dome's "CFS100.gau", it is not simply a copy of it. It is more precise and, used the way it was intended to be used, will bring you on top of your target until the visual alignment. I will show you how it's used to get maximum performance out of it.

Next gauge is an "all in one" radio stack (D) that contains COM1, NAV1, NAV2, ADF, and TRANSPONDER. The ADF on the left side (Q) is therefore a bit redundant. smilo is in love with that gauge, I'm not. It may be compact but, in the heat of the action, it is a blunder waiting to happen. Always make sure you're dialing the right frequency on the right band and, once finished, hit the BACKSPACE key to "freeze" the dials.

The "switchboard" panel (E) is an idea of mine to stop the hassle of SHIFT 1-2-3... keys. It lets you concentrate on the screen rather than on the keyboard. I have treated the bitmap to remove the green and red "seepage" into it (still visible on this picture btw...).

Next gauge cluster concern the auto-pilot functions. Smilo has done a superb job here. The main AP(F) has a master switch, heading and altitude switches, like the secondary AP (F1), but they work differently and, for the bomb-aimers, in a complementary fashion. The main altitude and heading buttons will hold the altitude and heading chosen in the main AP while the altitude and heading of the secondary AP will hold the altitude and heading that the a/c has at the moment. The main AP also has a level button that we may use during our practice. This button disengage the heading button and gets the a/c perfectly horizontal from wingtip to wingtip. The other buttons of the main AP are less important for our purpose. Inserted in-between the AP clickable windows, we find magnetic heading (G), altitude MSL (H) and ASL (I), digital VS (J), trim (K), airspeed TAS (L) and throttle % (M).

The "HSI+" gauge underneath the master AP is doing multiple tasks associated with the AP. The dial is a magnetic compass and the bug heading button (N3) is mouse-clickable and, during bomb runs, is used to steer the a/c and changes the heading of the master AP. The course button is also clickable and is used to change the position of the green arrow on the dial and the course digits of the master AP. The ADF button (N2) will reveal the ADF needle which will point towards the frequency chosen in Q or D gauges.

Gauges on the left are less important and, in some cases already explained, redundant. You have the clicks3.gau (A1) that suggest a number of clicks to be applied, a clickable target altitude digital readout and a bomb counter. Next to it is a gun counter (O). The last gauge to be mentioned is the clock (P) which can also be mouse-clicked to change time.

We will use extensively this panel tomorrow so, in the meantime, practice with it and get used to it.

[AAC_Maj. Hubbabubba]

Place these in your "Pilots" folder. Saved flights in the He 111 at 20 NM from Ripe at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 thousand feet.

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[Minuteman]

~S~ Gentlemen...Thank you to all that attended! You have all earned your Bomber Badge for an outstanding job! As I stated, I think that you boys can fly anything! Congratulations to Minuteman, Hubba, Graham, Limy,and Cobra for your outstanding skill!

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[Minuteman]

Thanks to Cobra for the screenshot!

[Minuteman]

~S~ Graham...Looks like a devasting bomb run to me!...Good job!

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[AAC_Maj. Hubbabubba]

~S~fellow virtual bombers

On Saturday, at 10h00 EDT (14h00 GMT-UTC), I will practice bombing Ripe 180-360 rwy from 15,000 ft. But this time, we will depart from Étaples.

This will be the occasion to practice t/o and change of heading in formation. I will show you how to align the target by "bending the needle".

If we have time, we will bomb Le Havre at 10,000 ft, t/o from Ripe... but this time someone else will lead!

In the meantime, practice over these targets. I have joined two "bombing plates" of Ripe and Le Havre.

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