Training pilots (advice please)

[John B.]

Hello all,

I've seen many references to using stateside air groups as training vehicles. Train the heck out of the pilots then strip them for newbies just before the groups have a mandatory withdrawal or when the pilots reach their maximum training level. Well, sometimes I can transfer pilots to the general pool and sometimes I can't (sometims the only option available is group reserve or sending the pilots home for rest). Am I missing something? Thanks.

John

[Mundy]

I believe it's a two day process.

The first day, they're sent to the group pool

The next day, those in the group pool can be moved into the general pool.

Ed-

[mbk2043]

It seems that you can usually move 5-6 pilots a day to 'reserve' then 'general reserve' ... so you have to start moving pilots over a week+ in advance to get them all cycled out

[topeverest]

John,

Pilots in the reserve pool do not train-up any skill or experience. That is only done through on-board training. Using a squadron on an HQ with good commander and 100% training can take green pilots and train up a skill to 70 in 60-90 days. Once they hit that, you pull them out to the reserve pool for use in combat units. be sure to troll the various reserve pools and get lower skill pilots into training programs. If you do that, you can avoid time cosuming manual selection of reserve pilots.

IIRC, air units that are due to withdrawal must maintain a minimum number of pilots, so if you try to reduce pilots below sqaudron maximum planes, it will fail.

[terje439]

You need to have more pilots than the squadron number of planes (for a full squadron). So if the squadron has a normal setup of 25 AC (like most US fighter squadrons), you cannot send pilots to general reserve if there are 25 or less pilots ready for the squadron.
What you need to do;
1. Send as many as you can to general reserves
2. Fill it back up with replacement pilots (sort of overstrengthening it with pilots)
3. Goto 1 untill you have gotten all the pilots you want out of the group.



Terje

[John B.]

Thanks all, I really do appreciate everyone's willingness to deal with these questions.

John

[crsutton]

Any squadron that is scheduled to be withdrawn or disbanded before the game ends or is white "restricted" will not let you remove pilots below the minimum required squadron limit. You must either add pilots from the reserve or the replacement pools to get them above the limit. Then you can withdraw pilots to the reserve pool until you get back to that minimum. It is a pain but just wash and repeat until you have pulled all the good pilots out.

However, you can pull any and all pilots from a unit that is never scheduled to withdraw. I don't really know why it works this way but it does.