Trouble getting PBY's off the West Coast

[Dgsbdy]

Hopefully not something stupid I'm doing wrong, but Jan 17, 1941, I have two Groups of PBY's at San Diego, One PBY- 4 and the other PBY -5 . In the same turn, I can relocate the PBY-4's to Pearl, the PBY -5's won't list Pearl on the selection. I know the 4's have a longer range but still,....the 5's should be able to make the hop no problem? I tried changing HQ's, I'm not sure how to get PBY's off the mainland at will. Weather is not the problem, literally flew the PBY-4's the same instant. Range is obviously a factor but I don't see how. Can anyone tell me what I might be doing wrong?

[Yaab]

I guess the second group is restricted. Does it have the "(R)" letter in its HQ assignment line?

[Dgsbdy]

That's what I was thinking, but I spent the points to change HQ's to South Pacific, still no dice. I'm sure it's something simple I'm over looking. The great thing about this game to me is the learning curve . I played the old Witp and Uncommon Valor to death. I thought for sure I could hold my own, but nope, I held Wake, Singapore so far, and ran off the KB at PH the morning of the 7th by having Enterprise come out of a morning rain squall at daylight at French Frigate Shoals and the two CV groups were within visual range, both Bull Halsey and Nagumo screamed and ran away after chucking a few shells, (very few) at each other. Never had that happen before.

[btd64]

It's the range. The newer models don't have the range. So you have to send them by ship....GP

[Yaab]

PBY-5 max range is 63 hexes. Select San Diego hex, and then hover the mouse over the Pearl Harbor hex. You should see the distance between the two hexes in the tooltip.

[Alfred]

You are making the common mistake of coming to the game with your own preconceived ideas. The data is all there in the game, you just have to look at it.

Both the aircraft database and the aircraft data screen, both of which are easily accessible within the game itself (IOW no need to access third party software) show the PBY-4 with a maximum range for transfer of 76 hexes and the PBY-5 with a maximum range of 56 hexes. The distance between San Diego and Pearl Harbor is 61 hexes. There is your simple explanation as to why the PBY-5 won't transfer. The San Francisco-Pearl Harbor distance is 56 hexes.

Alfred

[Leandros]

Transfer to Eureka and fly from there to Lahaina, Hawaii. Exactly max range for the "A"s

Fred

[Leandros]

ORIGINAL: Leandros

Transfer to Eureka and fly from there to Lahaina, Hawaii. Exactly max range for the "A"s

Fred

Sorry, mixed things up. Alfred is right. I suppose you have to move the "A"s by ship to PH.

Fred

[Encircled]

Dunno if you've got an Air support at Adak yet, but you can use that a jump off point to Midway

Much safer flying if you can as the Japanese Subs are a real pain in the first few months of the war

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Leandros

ORIGINAL: Leandros

Transfer to Eureka and fly from there to Lahaina, Hawaii. Exactly max range for the "A"s

Fred

Sorry, mixed things up. Alfred is right. I suppose you have to move the "A"s by ship to PH.

Fred

A PBY 5A is different from a PBY 5. The former has retractable wheels which make it able to use land AFs, but reduce its range.
I presume the PBY 5 has better armor and/or defensive armament than a PBY 4, which would mean more weight and less range for the PBY 5.

Strange as it seems, SFO is closer to PH than San Diego, because of the indentation in the coast line at Santa Barbara. The Aleutians-Midway-PH is indeed the best one if the PBY cannot make the direct hop. If Wake is still in Allied hands you can go from Midway to Wake to SoPac bases. Not sure about reaching the Philippines from Wake - probably not and probably too late to be useful anyway.

[RangerJoe]

Fly up to Prince Rupert, then to Dutch Harbor, then to Midway, then to Oahu. Keep the plane size to a minimum and there are fewer planes to lose to operational losses.

[BBfanboy]

I forgot to mention - check plane fatigue after each hop and rest the unit until all the aircraft have low fatigue before the next one - "low" being your judgement based on urgency vs the threat of ops losses. I would use 10 as the max fatigue if non-urgent - those hops are long, sometimes the arrival is shown next turn!

[Leandros]

Using a couple of days extra on ship to PH could be less expensive, loss-wise, than those long, roundabout, flights. Apart from the enemy subs, of course.

Fred

[RangerJoe]

Well, you can always just shuffle the PBY units around in the order that I mentioned, if you have a PBY unit at each base.

[Ambassador]

SF-PH is 56 hexes, ships will take 10 days to bring the squadron. If you do one leg north (Prince Rupert, or Alliford if you brought enough AV there), one leg west (to Dutch or Adak), one leg south (Midway), one leg to PH, that’s four flights, and you can schedule two days between each to let fatigue go down. Ten days in total, with the advantage you took no risk with subs.

You need good XP, to avoid Ops losses, when the flights are long. The route north keeps the legs under 40 hexes, limiting flight time.

However, keep an eye on plane fatigue, it goes down far slower than pilot fatigue.

[Ian R]

Eventually the 5As get "external" tanks on 440101. Ferry range increases to 54.

They can then make the hop from Eureka to Pearl/Hilo.

[castor troy]

I usually just downgrade the 5 to the 4, fly them to Hawaii and upgrade them

[btd64]

ORIGINAL: castor troy

I usually just downgrade the 5 to the 4, fly them to Hawaii and upgrade them

Me too....GP

[Dgsbdy]

I usually just downgrade the 5 to the 4, fly them to Hawaii and upgrade them

That sounds excellent!

Thanks for all the input, range was my suspicion, thanks for the tip about hovering the mouse.