F-5A Lightning

[ny59giants]

I am in mid-Feb '42 using CHS and have gotten a squadron of these F-5's. I notice their ceiling is 40,000. [X(][X(]

What is the highest altitude a Japanese fighter can reach in '42??

These recon guys should be able to fly over anywhere with impunity (as long as they have good quality control on their oxygen masks). [:D][:D]

[KDonovan]

altitude doesn't matter with recon planes.....my routinely fly above japanese fighter ceilings, and they still get shot down

[Rob Brennan UK]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

I am in mid-Feb '42 using CHS and have gotten a squadron of these F-5's. I notice their ceiling is 40,000. [X(][X(]

What is the highest altitude a Japanese fighter can reach in '42??

These recon guys should be able to fly over anywhere with impunity (as long as they have good quality control on their oxygen masks). [:D][:D]

I tend to leave mine on default 20k . don't know why really , one of the mysteries of WITP engine , and i lose very very few

[rtrapasso]

ORIGINAL: KDonovan

altitude doesn't matter with recon planes.....my routinely fly above japanese fighter ceilings, and they still get shot down

Yes - ditto... [:(]

[Panther Bait]

ORIGINAL: KDonovan

altitude doesn't matter with recon planes.....my routinely fly above japanese fighter ceilings, and they still get shot down

Is it possible that the game is moving the planes down to take the pictures? Similar to the attack altitude of DBs and TBs?

In other words, they might fly to the target at 40K, but then they descend to <30K to take pictures before leaving?

What altitude did F-5 snap pictures at in real life?

[rtrapasso]

ORIGINAL: Panther Bait

ORIGINAL: KDonovan

altitude doesn't matter with recon planes.....my routinely fly above japanese fighter ceilings, and they still get shot down

Is it possible that the game is moving the planes down to take the pictures? Similar to the attack altitude of DBs and TBs?

In other words, they might fly to the target at 40K, but then they descend to <30K to take pictures before leaving?

What altitude did F-5 snap pictures at in real life?

From tree-top level to maximum altitude, iirc. It depends what they were ordered to do, and that depended on what people were looking for.

[niceguy2005]

The F-5 is a God send to the Allies. I fly mine between 20k and 25k. Lower my losses are too great, higher the results aren't as good.

[crsutton]

But do detection levels rise at lower set altitides, or should I not worry about that?

[niceguy2005]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

But do detection levels rise at lower set altitides, or should I not worry about that?

I'm not sure that this is actually known for certain. The manual says nothing about altitude having an effect on Recon. However, the general conscensus around here is that it probably does....is that sufficiently vague? [;)]

[rtrapasso]

ORIGINAL: niceguy2005

ORIGINAL: crsutton

But do detection levels rise at lower set altitides, or should I not worry about that?

I'm not sure that this is actually known for certain. The manual says nothing about altitude having an effect on Recon. However, the general conscensus around here is that it probably does....is that sufficiently vague? [;)]

i thought it said in the manual (and it HAS been said on the forum) that recce is worse the higher you go - you get fewer details, so i ASSUME that DL goes down.

High altitude has advantage of spotting MORE units (supposedly) - esp. in naval search, but info you get on each unit is less.

[niceguy2005]

I just checked the manual before making that post, granted I'm at work and read throug it fast, but I didn't see anything under the section of recon aircraft.

[dtravel]

I don't think anyone has tested Recon altitudes.&nbsp; Given that DL is a "hidden" factor, I'm not even sure how anyone could.&nbsp; So everything here is just speculation, guesses and "I think it should work this way so I'm going to assume it does".
&nbsp;
As for F-5As getting shot down when flying higher than Japanese fighters can fly, the&nbsp;most likely&nbsp;explanation is that the programmers just didn't put a max altitude check in to that part of the program.
&nbsp;
Actually, now that you've got me thinking about it, has anyone tested that aircraft can not climb above their max altitude in combat?&nbsp; I know you can't set their altitude higher than the fighter's max in the unit screen, but will the program have them climb above that when intercepting enemy aircraft?

[RUPD3658]

They will. In early 42 I decided to get cute at Noeuma and fly a Betty strike against the air base at a higher altitude than the defending P-39s could fly. Well, they flew high enough anyway and shredded the Bettys. [:@]

[dtravel]

I believe that would now be item #12,859 on the list of things to fix then.

[Nikademus]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

But do detection levels rise at lower set altitides, or should I not worry about that?

Yes. The lower you fly, the better the info you get more quickly. The con is the lower you fly the more likely you'll get tagged by enemy flak. A2A interception is largely a chance affair and altitude doesn't really impact it a whole lot.

[FeurerKrieg]

That's odd - when I did this (30K alt Betty strike on Noumea) a message came up in the combat window that was something like 'Bombers to high for ### to intercept' where ### was the name of the fighter squadron.

ORIGINAL: RUPD3658

They will. In early 42 I decided to get cute at Noeuma and fly a Betty strike against the air base at a higher altitude than the defending P-39s could fly. Well, they flew high enough anyway and shredded the Bettys. [:@]

[RUPD3658]

This was in a stock game before the last patch

[rtrapasso]

Some time ago, players were jumping and down and screaming when fighters couldn't intercept bombers flying 50 FEET above them (or at least 50 feet above their maximum altitude). [X(] [:D]

i haven't seen this lately, so i guess it must have been patched... i guess fighters theoretically could shoot at bombers some distance above them, and probably the game has been patched to reflect this. How FAR above them is an open question.

i've lost many F-5s that were flying well above the maximum CAP altitude (in prior games)... i always rationalize it that the plane had some sort of mechanical problem during its mission that did not allow it to fly to its max alt, and so got intercepted and shot down.

[Yamato hugger]

Well, look at it this way. If you are flying at your maximum altitude and an enemy plane is 50 feet above you, HOW are you going to shoot at it? You nose up to bring guns to bear and you immedately stall and go spinning down. I suppose a Defiant or some other type with a turret could, but your run of the mill fighter types certainly couldnt.

[tabpub]

First, a "max altitude" is kind of a range.....I mean, you don't really konk out at an exact altimeter setting. And most degrade in performance as they near this "max" in RL.
So, I would not have a problem with some air to air in this instance.

2nd, I fly my F5A and C at max over most recon missions and don't seem to have any unusual loss rate on these types; and it mostly seems operational in nature when I lose one.