How to reproduce pilot allocation screwups

[XPav]

Take a bunch of Marine F4F squadrons, each with damaged aircraft.

Move them all to a different base.

After the move, all the damaged aircraft and remainder pilots will be placed into one squadron remnant.

All the pilots and planes then bleed back to the full squadron.

So now I've got VMF-212 with 24 planes and 8 pilots and VMF-223 with 81 pilots.

This is annoying.

[XPav]

And the easy way to fix it? Don't combine pilots into other squadrons on a move.

[Drongo]

XPav,

I agree with you. While not a game breaker, its bloody annoying. You can avoid it by having only one squadron of that type at a base when you move it or by carefully only moving squadrons with no damaged a/c. Sometimes, though, time isn't on your side (like when you have a multi BB bombard group bearing down on your base).

I've also found certain squadrons begin with more a/c than their maximum. These are the worst offenders as, obviously, reserve a/c never repair (I think they only move up to ready status if you take losses).

I was under the impression that all this had been fixed in 1.20. Maybe it needs another look.

[RevRick]

the squadrons that never get up to full strength. Playing Sc. 14 - third restart because of patches - and VP9 has never had more then 4 pilots for 12 PBY's. I have three P-39 squadrons at Gili Gili - and one has 40+ pilots - the others have 19 or so. Pilot allocation routine is not functioning as well as it should. And I can't wait until the B17 are turned back into useful AC - five days to fix one AC. Good Grief. The guys in the 8th would be walking around sans posteriors with that kind of performance..

[Bernd Hesberg]

I've played scenario 14 as well and noticed the same behaviour. But this is not restricted to certain a/c types. It depends on the actually flown missions.
So if you set your PBYs to supply transport once a week, you'll see how they get some pilot reinforcements. That way my squads got at least 10 pilots for 12 planes.

Before I forget, it works the same way for the Japanese a/c.

[jcjordan]

In my experiences, 2 things seem to make this happen. Tranferring a group & not all of it transfers especially when it takes several turns for all A/C to transfer due to repairs. I think the AI sees one detachement as being understrength so it adds pilots to it. Also if you put units on LRCAP for awhile, they seem to start getting pilots they don't even need.
Has anyone ever figured out what the pilot replacement rate is for either side? Gary has always seemed to be tight-lipped about it for past games, can't understand why since you know how many planes you would be getting each turn it would stand to reason you would know how many pilots are coming in.

[AP514]

Hey
I an so mad about this pilot troulbe.......I just started #16 afew days ago. I transferred my B-17 to cooktown. Now I have all of my units in cooktown. they all have 1 ready pilot each. What kind of B/S is this I said. So I look at the original location and see 6 A/C damaged and 16 pilots...........



Help me with this problem..........

1) how do I get my pilots to rejoin with the units that have A/C ??




AP514

[BPRE]

Hi,

I think you'll find that when your damaged B-17s have been repaired and joins up with the rest of the squadron they will bring the pilots along.

Regards
BPRE

[RevRick]

It worked just fine. Had the boys fly one supply mission to the north Luganville with supplies, and when I checked the next turn, they had full pilot allocation. They weren't terribly happy from the morale factor, but they may have been transferred out of a cushy stateside job.

[Deban]

Ok I see there is a work around for squads that can do supply missions. But what about those that cant? Im playing a PBEM game right now with 1 Zero squad with 27 planes and 57 pilots and another with 27 planes and 2 pilots. Is there anyway I can fix this?

David

[Bernd Hesberg]

I'd suggest you set them on LR CAP and select their home base as target. This will trigger pilot reinforcements for fighter squads, but I don't have a clue how this will be accomplished (except flying combat missions) for dive bombers or torpedo bombers.