Surely the Luftwaffe should not be able to

[Johntxic]

launch fighters when the airfield is undergoing a Fighter Sweep or NI Raid without incurring casualties? They seem to launch with impunity.

Anyone else seen this?

I'm playing the '43 Long Campaign.

[joey]

On the other hand, I have seen the Allies shoot down -during daylight hours - landing Axis fighters while the Allies were on their return flight home. I have yet to see any of these Allied fighters get hit with any flak while shooting down Axis fighters during landing operations. I would expect flak to chew up these Allied fighters over Axis airfields while Axis planes were landing. Second, I would expect the Axis fighters to scatter before getting shot down, But I have seen up to ten Axis fighters get shot down at a time. I would not expect such behavior in real life. Have you seen this?

[Johntxic]

The first - no - but I have seen some massacres on your second point.

As to Luftwaffe fighter airfields, I have no knowledge of these: did they have concrete runways, or were they grass so that fighters could land from any point of the compass? If the latter, I presume Flak would be less effective as it could not be channelled into approach lanes.

[Mappo]

Hi, in my 1943 Campaign as Axis I have seen some strange things like this: the Allied is aproching to sweep an Axis airfield, I make my fighters take off, but after a couple of minutes, when the allied fighters are over my airport, my fighters start to land off and the allies massacre them. There is probably a bug that forces planes above their airport to land off even if they have just taken off and are full of fuel. I'm in the 120 turn and this has been repeated at least four or five times or even more. On the other hand, in my pbem campaign as Allied I have never been able to shoot down a plane taking off. In this game it is absolutely impossible to shoot down a plane taking off. My night fighters every night were over the Axis airports, my opponent made his night fighters take off and I couldn't do anything, instead when he was forced to land them I massacred them very easily

[mark dolby]

I've been playing the LW for decades and have never seen an Allied FS destroy Axis planes as they take off. Maybe the flak does keep the AI Allied at a respectful distance allowing for take offs. At what height do players send in their FS? Anything below 7K and the flak will probably be hitting as you circle.
I have had plenty shot down on landing and it gets as annoying as not shooting down any when taking off! And not one of the Allied aircraft was hit by flak, and I have over 300 light flak guns at some of my fields.

LW night bases had to turn their landing lights on for a landing nightfighter making it fairly easy for a beaufighter or mossie to attack the landing plane. I am not sure if lights were turned on to allow a launch as the fighter should just go in a straight line from one side of the field and reach flying speed well before the other side. Most LW fields were grass, but the jets required concrete.

Recently I launched almost a full Gruppe of 190A6 to avoid a FS I could see coming in. I was a bit late and although my planes got up before the FS arrived it was spotted and engaged. I say engaged but no attacks were made, just a lot of wheeling about for position I guess. Literally 5 minutes after the first little blue squares appear and my planes start to land and are shot to pieces. I know that combat speed uses fuel at twice the rate but a flight time of only 10 minutes max??Getting up and and least 10 mile away works.
Mappo, were you too close to your airfield and therefore engaged when you had to land?

[simovitch]

There was no code to fire flak at aircraft attacking those hapless pilots on final approach. I have added some for the next patch but needs testing.

Also fixed a possible bug where interceptors would obtain target altitude immediately after take off. I fixed this so they have to climb at their climb rate each minute. The code may have been written to prevent aircraft from hitting balloon cables which is happening more frequently now. I would think the pilots would know where their own balloons are, so I can fix this too.

It will be interesting to see how this effects sweeps.

[Mappo]

Yes Mark Dolby, as I said I was over my airport, but what I don't understand is Why I had to land when I have take off only a pair of minutes before

[Johntxic]

Thanks, Simo - but will the Luftwaffe incur losses when taking-off under these conditions?

[mark dolby]

I stopped putting balloons near my airfields as I had too many collisions at low altitude so if this can be rectified so much the better.

[mark dolby]

ORIGINAL: Mappo

Yes Mark Dolby, as I said I was over my airport, but what I don't understand is Why I had to land when I have take off only a pair of minutes before

Get up and 10 miles away, wait for the FS to go home and then land. If you use that fuel up too quickly it will hurt. No point in climbing too high either.

[joey]

ORIGINAL: mark dolby

I stopped putting balloons near my airfields as I had too many collisions at low altitude so if this can be rectified so much the better.

I have done the same thing. I thought it was just me...