Thanks for the guide, it's been a great help. I'm still having some problems actually turning my freaking plane though. I've pretty much mastered shooting down average AI (haven't tried Vet yet, but I managed to bring down 7 later year Laggs (don't really know if thats impressve or not)). Thing is, I've learned pretty much all I can offline from the AI.

Thing is I still can't turn my plane even remotely quickly without either rolling the thing the other way, or going into this strange spiraling death stall. I go online though, and I see people out-turning me when I myself am blacking out and stalling while pulling my stick back as hard as I can. I've tried raising my flaps to combat, but all that does is slow the plane down further, and make the stalls even more frequent. Takeoff and landing have the same effect only on a larger scale.

I also can't seem to find a decent plane to use. There are simply too many to choose from, and seeing how I diddn't really know much about WWII planes before now, I don't know which ones were even supposed to be good. I've tried:
Yak9's - Flying bricks basically
Yak3's - Probably my favorite, really sensitive when turning though...
Yak7k - The nose cannon freaking stops you in midair...
Hurricanes - Slow and hard to turn
Migg 3ud - I liked it offline, but online it's a flying deathtrap.
Bf-109 - Maybe I just picked a bad model, but the one I tried rolled itself over when I pulled the stick back 1/2 an inch.
Spitfires - Quick, but overly sensitive for a beginner such as myself.
P51 - The history channel lies apparently...

Lase issue I'm having is picking up speed. I know you can get it by diving, and flying straight with your throttle up, and you lose it in certain turns and when climbing. Problem is, people in identical planes are outrunning me even when i'm diving on some of them. I've gotten my plane timed perfectly, going at 450kmph, and someone (Yak-3, same as me) climbs up in front of me, levels out, and slowly speeds up ahead of me...!?!

quote:

Originally posted by Splinter7700:
I go online though, and I see people out-turning me when I myself am blacking out and stalling while pulling my stick back as hard as I can.

It seems to me that if you are consistently outgunning the AI on Average settings, online you should be able to at least hold your own against players with experience equal to yours. Therein is one explanation as to what is happening: you are getting bested by highly experienced players who have been practicing this sim as a discipline for several years. If this is the case, there is no shame; everybody starts out as mere target practice for the vets. Imagine that your opponent is nimble-fingered and has a HOT-AS setup under one hand, rudder pedals under his feet and a Track-IR dot on his forehead, and it eases the pain of getting sieved a little.

A second explanation is that you are in a lawless server with compromised FMs. If you have Yaks climbing like Me-162s, there is a possibility that they have been altered to fly like Me-162s. I stopped flying online (even casually) over a year ago when there was a rumor that the FMs had been hacked and I thought some of the planes I was encountering were 'suspicious.' Since then it has been verified that hacked FMs have been used in multiplayer arenas for quite a while now. Furthermore, I know exactly where I can download the 'tools' to crack IL-2's .SFS files and alter the FMs if I were so inclined. The link to this tool is closely guarded even by the growing community of cosmetic modders but that doesn't make the source tools impossible to find. The only apparent safeguard against flying against modded FMs and DMs at this time is to be sure you are in a server that uses Check Runtime=2.

The third explanation is that you simply aren't flying your aircraft correctly or properly using their natural advantages. I think this might be at least partially the case for you, especially when you say you are 'pulling the stick back as hard as I can' in a turn. You're bleeding your airspeed very quickly by doing this and its throwing your plane into a stall. You're also increasing the Gs of your turn and that's causing your blackouts. So while it may seem counterintuitive to your problem, don't be so heavy-handed on your stick.

quote:

I also can't seem to find a decent plane to use...I don't know which ones were even supposed to be good. I've tried:
Yak9's - Flying bricks basically
Yak3's - Probably my favorite, really sensitive when turning though...
Yak7k - The nose cannon freaking stops you in midair...
Hurricanes - Slow and hard to turn
Migg 3ud - I liked it offline, but online it's a flying deathtrap.
Bf-109 - Maybe I just picked a bad model, but the one I tried rolled itself over when I pulled the stick back 1/2 an inch.
Spitfires - Quick, but overly sensitive for a beginner such as myself.
P51 - The history channel lies apparently...

Everybody has a favorite plane that works 'best' for them. The caveat to this is that practice in a certain plane increases your luck with it...
I won't try to sort out the pros and cons of everything you've listed, other than to note that the Hurricane should be--at the very least--a good turning plane if treated with respect. It used to be the recommended 'noob' plane back when it was a new flyable in Forgotten Battles; I haven't flown it much in 1946 though so I don't know how much its FM has changed. You won't be able to chase down late-war planes with it though; your best hope is to out-turn your opponent and either get a firing solution or pray he will stall and plummet into the earth.

Your comment about the Mustang not living up to the History Channel is revealing also. I won't sidetrack this to a discussion about the 'infallibility' of HC's research but I will ask you to consider the context in which the Mustang was historically successful: High altitude operations defending bomber streams and, to a lesser extent, 'on the deck' against ground targets. In the first instance, Mustangs were able to escort the bombers further than any previous fighter so this meant the Luftwaffe had to contend with an Allied fighter screen at almost all times. The Luftwaffe primarily avoided the fighters as much as possible and concentrated on killing as many bombers as possible in high-speed passes; Allied fighter pilots sometimes chased the Luftwaffe 'downstairs' but to do so meant both leaving the bombers unprotected and risking a low-level dogfight where Mustangs were at at a disadvantage. In the role of ground attack, Mustangs were successful late in the war because the Luftwaffe was suffering from shortages of pilots and materiel. Flak and AAA was arguably more of a risk to Allied pilots than direct aerial combat.

When you enter into an online dogfight arena you are foregoing any semblance of reality. How often did Mustangs 'scramble' to meet enemy planes that were attacking from only a few kilometers away? How many dogfights were drawn out affairs originating only a few meters above the ground? The 352nd FG's response to surprise attacks by the Luftwaffe during Operation Bodenplatte is a rare historic example of Mustangs performing in this type of scenario but it is hardly a basis for choosing the P-51D as a low-level dogfighter in online arenas.

Thanks for the help (and quick reply ) skycat.
For the most part online I play in the UK-dedicated or Skies of Valor/Fire servers, and every once in awhile a message flashing "Cheating has been detected" pops up, and someone gets a kick.
As for holding my own in online servers. I can typically survive by staying out of trouble long enough to jump in and at least shoot someone up a little bit (only two kills so far though, and one was a bomber).
Bad thing is, once someone gets on my tail, I really don't know how to try and get them off. I'll swerve, turn, dive, climb and roll, but once they get on, it seems like my only way out is having a teammate clear my tail. Short of that, it's only a matter of time before the back have of my fuselage is missing...

The trouble I'm having with turning isn't so much that Im jerking the stick back to far, it's that even if I start doing that I'm still getting out-turned. Even if I'm in a spitfire. Or I'm turning and blacking out, while my target ahead of me is turning just as hard, if not harder, and still manuvering fine.

Hi all,

I'm new here but I've been playing IL-2 for a few months now. I haven't dared to try online play yet, but me and my friends spent many a joyous hour bombing around in LAN coop missions. This brings me to a major problem: I know and appreciate the realism of this game. I spent 2 hours after Thanksgiving dinner with the sole aim of landing a Corsair on a carrier without external views. But the Norden bomb sight, and all bomb sights for that matter, give me endless trouble. But the trouble isn't the bomb sight itself - it's flying straight and level at constant speed, without lateral drift. It's a skill that seems to completely elude me. Are there any tips one can offer on learning how to get a bomber to actually fly itself long enough for me to properly miscalculate a bomb-drop?

Most of the level bombers have a level stabiliser that you can use to keep you straight and level. Then you can make small corrections to course and vertical change by using trim. However, on some of the planes the level stabiliser is not 100% perfect and still has a very small drop. If I recall correctly, the Norden bombsight is difficult because of the metric-imperial translation but I'm afraid I don't know the exact specifics of the problem.

Hey guys. Great guide! I have the original IL2, but haven't played in ages. I just ordered the 1946 version (still waiting for it to arrive via usps). The wait is killing me!

Thanks Shura. I had seen this level stabiliser mentioned, but it's one of those things that isn't often explained. And yes, the metric conversions make the Norden a bit of a problem, but once I figured out how to read the altimeter and the indicated airspeed it got easier. And I DID find a cheat of sorts for using it. Mostly it involves using the FMB to set your plane on a way point over the target at the appropriate altitude and speed, and then autopiloting, turning it off for 1 second at a time to adjust the sight, and then resuming right up to the point of turning on the sight. A little hack, as I haven't hit within 300 meters or so yet, but better. Which brings another question: Is there any way (I doubt it, but hey) to retain control of the bombsight whilst in autopilot?

Can we get this thread stickied again before it is lost?

yeah another bump.

some idiot has been goofing around with our forum again. chaninging stuff and un pining posts. nice job jerky.

Thank you for this, just got this sweet game

sticky required

It's sort of stickied here: http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/23110283/m/9661073236

Some great information.I just received my Gold addition of pacific fighters. Outstanding graphics. I Have a Saitek X 52 and was able to Map some of the controls but not all. How do you get the throttle mapped? I fly in warbirds now and look forward to being able to fly online in PF. Thanks for any help and if any one has a profile for a X52 please let me know.
Again thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by GIAP.Shura:
Can we get this thread stickied again before it is lost?

Yeah I can do that....

quote:

Originally posted by Copperhead311th:
yeah another bump.
some idiot has been goofing around with our forum again. chaninging stuff and un pining posts. nice job jerky.

Uhhhhh that would be Ms. Kleaneasy ... I think she was cleaing up the board in the whole NPL thing there....

quote:

Originally posted by DD_crash:
sticky required

By popular demand...

Jimbow to map your throttle just go into the controls menu and scroll down to the HOTAS section... Highlight throttle and then move the throttle slider.. the sim will take the adjustment.. If you find that the axis is reversed then just move your throttle to the opposite end that you had it at before and do the same thing again...

Thanks for this excellent guide, it has made it a lot easier!

RE game servers, HL came up blank on mine - are there any servers still out there?

Bearcat,
Back in the saddle after a long absences. Before my absence I was flyin the P40E out of the Big Island. I practiced, taxing, takeoffs and landings. I got into the aire three times and put three nice holes in the ground on my landings. Getting use to the effects of propeller torque took some getting use to. That was with an X52 controls and homemade rudder peddles, upgraded the peddles to CH Pro found a a flea market. Version of game I have is IL-2 1946 patched to 4.08m,still need to patch that beta.

By the way thanks for the guide I am going to use it as my flight school bible to get off the ground and land safely. You recommend La-5s, A6M2 or the Hurricaine MKII. If I was to choose USAF or USN/USMC aircraft, which would you recommend as the most forgiving? I wish someone would mod the Navy Sterman trainer, I think that it was called a Sterman?

I will keep ya posted on my progress. Ya might think of adding a Nuggate flight school section to this forum.

Now to finish patching and se my rigger. I also have my chute rigger on stand by to reload chutes.

Xaviercrush, make sure that you are patched up to version 4.08 and also that you are selecting the Forgotten Battles lobby, not IL-2 Sturmovik.

MudMarine, the SBD is very forgiving for (re)learning flight maneuvres.

Obviously not a dogfighter though. Don't tell CrashMoses I said that.

Has anybody heard about when the full version 409 is going to be out....409 beta is boring.

Bearcat99,
I thought I would let ya know whats up. First x52 and n52 speed pad all rigged. I down loaded Zues-cat's , " Straight From the Farm" missions. Twice I got off the ground in mission #1. In thepast I would be a fire ball on the runway. Haven rudder peddles makes all the differencein the world. I am using Oleg.ini control settings for now. Haven the proper controls makes all the difference in the world.

If ya here from Zues-Cat tell him thanks for the missions. They are a great help. I wish that there was others designed that way for different types of aircraft.

GIAP.Shura,
That SBD-3 is a forgiving bird.Have to have cocpit lights to read the instruments.

I plan on working a couple of hours a day on each mission for at least a week depending on my confidence level. I will start another thread called A Nugguts learns to fly.

MudMarine3,

I'm glad the missions are helping you. I included a lot of single takeoff anf landing missions for other aircraft, but they are all carrier missions.

If you need grass takeoff or landing missions for specific aircraft let me know and I can modify the missions in the campaign for you.