Pilots to TRACOM ?

[sdhundt]

When I move some pilots to General Reserve some end up in TRACOM. Why is this ? They ALL had very low exp. levels.

[topeverest]

sdhundt,

I cant think of any reason you would have pilots less than 81 experience in TRACOM.  If you do, I would get a save file over to tech support. 

In Group or General Reserve that is OK --- this is Working As Designed (WAD)

[hunchback77]

ORIGINAL: sdhundt

When I move some pilots to General Reserve some end up in TRACOM. Why is this ? They ALL had very low exp. levels.

I have one with 47 experience in the TRACOM pool in my AI game. Can't even click on his name in TRACOM to get him out, don't know how he got there but suspect as sdhundt says i was moving him to General Reserve and he ended up in TRACOM by bug.

[rev rico]

I routinely see pilots with experience les than 80 - usually 50-60 sitting in IJN TACOM. I never know where they come from.

[Mike Solli]

Those guys are reinforcement pilots specifically for TRACOM. Initially, it drove me nuts. It's actually a benefit. It increases the number of pilots you have in TRACOM thus improving the chances of speeding up your rookie pilot's training. Cheer every time you get one and then move on to the important things. I think I have 3 or 4.

[hunchback77]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Those guys are reinforcement pilots specifically for TRACOM. Initially, it drove me nuts. It's actually a benefit. It increases the number of pilots you have in TRACOM thus improving the chances of speeding up your rookie pilot's training. Cheer every time you get one and then move on to the important things. I think I have 3 or 4.

Thanks Mike. So will I eventually be able to click on him and get him out of TRACOM or do these reinforcement pilots for TRACOM only stay in TRACOM.

[Mike Solli]

hunchback, I've never had the ability to pull them out of TRACOM. I suspect it won't really matter because they really aren't very good and there's only a few.

[Mike Solli]

I just checked and their exp levels are 72, 72, 70 and 36. I guess most aren't all that bad. Ah well, they must be the paper pushers of TRACOM. [:D]

[hunchback77]

Thanks again Mike for clearing up something I thought was a bug.

[Satansbraten]

My observation is different. The reason for low exp pilots in TRACOM is, you put them there (unintentionally):

When harvesting or "saving" pilots from an unit which has a (permanent) disband date, i.e. the unit will not return, pilots which are send to "General Reserve" end up in TRACOM.

The following conditions should be in place to observe/create this behaviour:
- The no. of pilots in the unit is equal or less the nominal unit size (eg. <=27 pilots in a 27 planes unit)
- Put those pilots into Group reserve (pilots greyed out in groups' PILOTS list, with delay 1)
- "Get Veteran on self": You have to use the "Get Veteran" function in a given group, use the filter to show the current group pilots, click a pilot, confirm "send to GENERAL reserve" with yes (the true outcome is that the pilot is send to TRACOM)
- For some units (which return) the effect may only occur if you wait until the withdraw date turns into orange/red
- You can check if the conditions are in place by trying to send a pilot to general reserve through "normal means", i.e. access the PILOTS list in the unit and try to send a pilot to general reserve: if the pilot will be greyed out with a travel delay of 1 you are ready to use the "Get veteran on self method" in order to dump him into TRACOM
- this procedure may work with normal units also (no withdraw date) but I did not test it (only noticed it for units that will wwithdraw)

All low exp pilots in TRACOM can be returned to active service by again using the get veteran function (remember the travel delay before you can access/see them in TRACOM), like you would normally do with high exp pilots if you need them!

[Satansbraten]

One additional note:
While playing the Allies I noticed that I was unable to do this with a B-18 Bolo unit which already had its withdraw date turned into red. So if you are keen on pulling pilots out, you may have to do this before the time limit is reached. The difference may be between white/orange and red withdraw date...

It may be the same as with plane upgrades (the plane upgrade function is "locked" when the withdraw date turns to red).

[Mike Solli]

Interesting. Never seen that myself. Here's where I asked the same question:

tm.asp?m=2402952

[Satansbraten]

I routinely use this method to empty WC training squads before withdrawal, i.e. I don't use the "Fill them with rookies to get the veterans" method. My squads leave with zero pilots if possible. Eventually I also pull out all pilots from the PI-based fighter squadrons to have some combat experienced guys at hand (e.g. you can then transfer them to the USAAF "adhoc" squadrons that show up in Australia). This is of course after they had their share in combat over the PI.