The stats are now up in Finnish, it looks like the G4 and A8(they are in the
same squad) I saw in my film following you got all three of you, the G4 getting
Pod, A8 Bo and Roke.
I do agree that the La5FN would have given you a better against the G4 and A8,
as it is faster than them, where the MkIX is not at that altitude. The La5FN
also climbs as well as the G4 and better than the A8, it is the best aircraft
at low to medium altitude, until the late war aircraft or mw50 come in to play.
But the MkIX is no slouch against the G4 and A8, I would take 2x MkIX against a
G4 and A8 any day of the week ;). The main issue is the scenario which normally
dictates the fight and if you are in a poor scenario it influences the result,
and the main reason people get shot down not the aircraft match up.
Also agree if Cina had not been taken out by ack you would have had a better
result as two pairs is better than a three.
The Sunday night mission is tough one for the fighter escort, the range is an
problem the positioning of the enemy airfields for the route in and out also.
Map reading for all a nightmare one it being a snow map, and two the land
features of the Moscow map.
The fighter leader has a lot on his plate, keeping position with the bombers,
keeping the fighter formation relevant to the threats, managing the formation,
map reading, to name a few and the underlying jobs that need to be done to make
the above work.
This also helps creates the scenario low fuel, long way to go, slower speed
because of fuel, etc, which gives the advantage to the other side.
Now with the MkIX what I would advise when planning a bomber escort mission is
no more than a 25 min outward and return legs, and you will have enough fuel
for a 5 min full power combat with that.
5 mins full combat power uses just over 10 gallons, so that leaves you 75
gallons to play with, so the 75 gallons will give you flight time approx:
2850rpm 12lb = 42mins
2650rpm 7lb = 56mins
2650rpm 4lb = 63mins
As a norm you will use a mixture of these setting so a good estimate is 50 mins
(25 each way legs), to let the MkIX fight effectively, key word effectively.
Yes I know you can use lower settings, but that will make it less effective,
and if you are counting on those lower setting just to get you from A to B, you
have no room for combat situations.
Now another option to give longer range is altitude, also it helps to fly over
the front line area like the airfields we saw on Sunday night if need be.
Just food for thought;).
Obviously this is only for the MkIX, other aircraft have other options.
On the objective attacked it was right next to the German spawn resupply point,
which I think will tell you how many enemy aircraft are there.
Stickz thoughts on the bombing, ToT, dealing with AAA are pretty valid from
little I know of A-G work;).
Colin
Sent from my iPad
On 8 Apr 2021, at 18:24, Joe Stronach <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I didn't film it, so tbh I'm not clear on the sequence of events once we
started to egress.
I know Bo was hit, by either the 109 or 190 you mention Bart and went down.
Pod and I chased them about for a bit but they were too fast for us and we
couldn't get in guns range. We (I thought) successfully disengaged and formed
up on the deck, running South East.
Sighting low cons ahead, I figured we were coming up on the enemy airfield to
the south east of the target. Very concious of fuel state, I turned south but
made an error by not immediately reforming line abreast, content to run in
echelon for a short time.
At which point the bandit who had been following us all along opened up and
damaged Pod. Two more bad guys showed up and we were never able to shift from
a defensive posture. Ultimately we both went down, which was annoying. We
were very deep inside enemy territory with marginal fuel and few options.
La5FNs would undoubtedly have given us a better chance of survival, but I'll
never complain about flying the Spit IX.
Can I just say I hate strafing flak in this game? Had Cina not been shot
down, I think we would probably have made it.
Roke
