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How long does it take to train AC on a carrier to make them carrier capable? Got hit on the Saratoga by a torpedo and bomb and lost most of my planes attempting a return strike. Ran into a wall of Zeros.

Being carrier trained would have done nothing to reduce the aircraft losses from combat.

There is no pilot accreditation for carrier operations in AE. In the game the classification only applies to whether the aircraft model itself or the air unit itself can conduct normal flight deck operations. 90 days on a carrier is all that is required to uprate the unit from carrier capable to carrier trained. The aircraft model itself will never uprate from non carrier status to carrier xxxx status.

Alfred

I understand. My question is on how long it is going to take me to get replacements for the losses carrier trained. I know about the pilots. At the same time I need to repair the 23 major float damage.

Your question is not clear - replacements for what? The only thing that may correspond to your "losses carrier trained" would be the destruction and removal from the map of a carrier-trained air unit. Since Saratoga is still alive, I don't think you need to replace a destroyed air unit. Therefore you may want to replace airframes and/or pilots of a gutted air unit. Neither of the two requires "carrier trained" items. Airframes are either land-based only or carrier-capable (omiting floatplanes and flying boats), and any Navy pilot can be pulled into a Navy carrier air unit (and Marine pilots into Marine carrier units). Only an "carrier capable" air unit can become "carrier trained".

I think what you are asking is how long it takes to train a pilot to land on a carrier. Just put them into a carrier trained air unit and they are carrier trained. There is no special designation for carrier trained pilots, only the carrier trained air units.

Actually I was considering replacing the squadrons with zero airframes due to losses with ones that are only carrier capable, but with the comments I am guessing it is better to just wait on replacement airframes.

?

If you ever want the carrier air groups to fly from the carrier and return, they have to be carrier capable.

If you have "carrier capable" unit, they will soon become "carrier trained" when based on carrier.

ORIGINAL: ggeilman

Actually I was considering replacing the squadrons with zero airframes due to losses with ones that are only carrier capable, but with the comments I am guessing it is better to just wait on replacement airframes.

Saratoga is going to take quite a while to repair 23 major float damage. If your intention is to make use of the interval to get a squadron that is carrier capable qualified to carrier trained status, you could try that - but I am not sure if the qualification can progress while the CV is in the dockyard. My guess is that it can, simply because there was no time to program anything other than presence on the carrier to make the qualification.

Nothing prohibits you from beginning this qualification period and then, if the CV is out of repair sooner than 90 days, landing the carrier-almost-trained squadron and reembarking the original squadron. The progress of the carrier-capable squadron toward trained status is not lost by interrupting their stay on the carrier. Depending on the CVs plane capacity, you may be able to keep both the squadron under training and the original squadron on the carrier throughout the repair and beyond.

I am not clear if landing the planeless squadron at a major base will enable it to gain replacement aircraft and pilots at a faster rate than if it remains on the carrier. I believe that skills (Air, NavB, NavT, etc.) training can proceed faster at a large airfield than on a stationary carrier disbanded in port.

See how long it takes to repair the damage plus any upgrades that need to be done. You can always leave a carrier trained air unit off the ship or at reduced aircraft to keep the air unit on the ship trying to become carrier qualified.

I'd suggest that when Saratoga arrives back at the shipyard, you -

(a) move its air groups ashore, pull in some replacement pilots, and set them to 100% training at zero range and 10,000 ft in the primary skills. The airframe losses will be replaced over time.

(b) find some marine air groups you want to carrier train, and move them on board the ship while it is being repaired - so they will collect lots of days towards carrier trained status.

(c) You can also use the Saratoga to resize some VMF/VMSB from 24 (or less) to up to 90 airframes. Early in the war you don't have enough aircraft to fully fit them out, but you can put 120 nugget pilots into one with a few F2As or SBC-4s and train, train train. Also give them a non flying CO with high leadership rating (aggression does not seem to matter for this task).

Note as to (c) - you can only resize a group that (i) had a programmed resize (or more than 1), and (ii) have finished all their programmed resizes. There are a few marine groups that can be resized early, and later withdraw, but it is worth paying the PP to change their HQ to put them on a ship, so as to get an expanded pilot training program running smoothly.