Patrol - Time on station

[Dili]

Does the game takes in account the cruise speed of an aircraft to check how much time it is on station and then increase detection probability? Let's say i choose the most economic speed instead the most range speed. Will i get any advantage from that for patrol aircrafts? Or the game is only interested in range and not on time?

[el cid again]

The game system is crude but effective: cruising speed times duration divided by 3600 = range in hexes. Cruising speed is all that matters and should be chosen for the aircraft primary mission: a bomber should use operational cruising speed vice max range cruise speed; but a patrol plane is the opposite - use the patrol speed - and you will get significantly more hexes. The code will sometimes change to "thinking about" max speed - but it is automatic - and you don't have to worry about the details.

[Dili]

Why you say i will get more hexes? I should not get more hexes i should get more loiter time with less hexes if i choose patrol speed.

Theoreticaly there are 2 cruise speeds:

Operational: for fighters this should be the best speed for air combat while not loosing too much the range (choice depends also on enemy performance). A Patrol aircraft typically should choose the loiter time.

Economical: the best range

[el cid again]

OK - lets reset and try again:

IF all other factors were equal - lower cruising time would simply increase endurance - and that is exactly what you said you wanted - more time per hex.

But since all other factors are not equal - slower cruising is more fuel efficient - so you get even greater increases in endurance = more hexes if it is significant - which for a long range plane I promise it will be.

You get both actually - more minutes to transit a hex at the lower speed - but also more hexes.

What you probably do not get is any impact on searching or such functions. As far as is mentioned in programmer comments in the Forum - cruising speed may be used in air combat (probability of intercept) calculations on some occasions - but no one ever said it is used for other things.

Technical note: in WITP there is a limit of 1440 minutes endurance - more than that buys you no more range. I gather this will double for AE - maybe.

[Dili]

No for example in Hudson VI for greates endurance 120 kt IAS for greatest range is 125Kt IAS in this plane there isnt muh diference but it is not the same. For Catalina 92kt Vs 80Kt(Pilot and Flight Engineer Notes says the less speed the plane can fly safely).

You can see in the chart for Catalina:

[el cid again]

Well - each plane is unique - and not all planes follow the rules of thumb. PBYs are pretty awful for fuel efficiency due to external loads. Hudsons are wierd for Allied bombers - they are the most Axis like Allied bomber - long range with very little payload - so there is not much change when you change cruising speed. A more typical - and heavy - Allied bomber or patrol plane has an all internal load - but it is a big load - and the efficiency of changing cruising speed matters a great deal more to such planes.

If you have hard data on a given plane - it is best to use that. If you drop cruising speed, you increase encurance in minutes - and that may or may not increase the range in hexes. Unless you increase range by 3 hexes - you won't get any more useful extended range - just greater transfer range. Anyway - reducing cruising speed does always increase time in the hex - and for very long range planes with serious internal loads - it also increases total mission range potential. I THINK this only matters insofar as a lower cruising speed will get you intercepted more often - but that is fair for patrol planes that really do cruise at that speed. And getting data right is part of the process of making the system better - programmers might use that data some day in other ways.