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where is a good place to get info on how pilot training works.
am I missing it in the manual?

ORIGINAL: DeaconBlues

where is a good place to get info on how pilot training works.
am I missing it in the manual?

There you go:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p8xvll290jgws ... m.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtngtf081kkrp ... x.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4aw9zji68rh8y ... 4.pdf?dl=0

Helpful stuff you might need.

Klink, Oberst

Thanks for these reference items. They will be very helpful. As a new player to the game, do you have any thoughts on how to maximize the use of pilots through the various training and deployment options? I am playing my first game as the allies in Grand Campaign.

I played the original WITP a ton, and this looks to be as much fun once I get the hang of some of the differences.

Here is a stab at it.

Fighter pilots in order of importance. Exp,air to air,then perhaps strafe and low ground bombing
Bomber pilots: exp, high level bombing, low level bombing (or low naval) strafing.
Recon pilots: exp,recon-whatever.
Transport pilots:exp,transport-whatever
Patrol Pilots: exp, naval search,ASW and low naval
Torpedo bomber pilots:exp,torpedo bombing, low naval, search, ASW
Dive bomber pilots:exp,high naval,search, ASW

Although secondary skills in most cases, ASW and search is a good thing to have with just about any combat or patrol pilot. But you can't train them all in all skills so it is best to have a few specific units with these skills as secondary.

hi pbiggar, & welcome to the forum.

Best pilot training occurs at Train 100, Alt 5k', Range 0. The exceptions are LowN & LowG skill, set the Alt to 1k', and Strafe, set the Alt to 100' (for Fighters, change the training Mission to Sweep). The rationale for the 5k' alt & 0 range is to keep pilot & airframe fatigue accumulation to a minimum.

Note that the training altitude is a different animal than the active-ops altitude. Attacking Dive-Bombers must be set to alt 10-15k' to use their most-effective dive-attack mode, but they gain the needed skill (NavB or GrdB) if they Train at 5k'.

A robust pilot training program is essential to success in the game. You must portion out your airgroups between the combat, rear-area, & training roles - then learn to manipulate their pilot & airframe use. A well-trained airgroup will have Exp ~50, & Skill ~70 - Training beyond those levels won't be effective, pilots are much more likely to gain add'l Exp when running active combat operations, such as bombing missions. The exception seems to be Fighters - a Fighter airgroup set to 60/40 or 70/30 active/rest will gain Exp, even if it's in a rear area & never fights an enemy attack.

There are some important dates in the Allied scheme (late '42 & late '44) where US bomber groups increase in size. So it's important to have enough trained bomber pilots to man them effectively - this could mean using CONUS Fighter airgroups to train exclusively for GrdB, instead of Air skill, for the 4 months previous to the expected bomber-group size increase.