Cruising around , saving the gas

[HagarTheHorrible]

I've been following the thread about "Compression ratio and octane", a very informative read and well worth 10 minutes of your time.  It got me thinking about fuel consumption and why aircraft perform as they do.  One important factor is cruise speed and it's effect on range, some high performance fighters, of the era, having a rather low cruise speed.  My experience of MP, such as it is, is that generally a lot of pilots fly at best speed, with engine or oil temperature being the decider rather than flying economically.  This might be sensible as threat levels are generally far greater than in real life but it does mean that a whole area of combat flying is absent from the experience.  Maybe if mission builders gave some, or more, thought to how much fuel aircraft started missions with, forcing players to consider fuel consumption and range it might add considerably to the game play ?

[Herne]

Knights Of The Air had an interesting take on this. Two spawn Airfields per side with greater than your average server distance to the front line. Lots of target objectives, which tend to be densely packed for satisfying bomb runs.

 

Thing is on this server I will often use less than nominal settings to conserve fuel having launched with 100%. If I fly a fighter, I usually take a bomb just to get a few points if I cant find any trouble.

[LeLv76_Erkki]

Yes most players do miss an area of simulation experience. Fuel consumption and capacity do play a role in TAW and other places with long flight distances. I fly escort sorties that are regularly 1 hour 30 min or longer, I think longest so far has been 1 hour 47 or 48 minutes, in a 109. It takes long for Heinkel and Ju 88 to climb and get to the targets far behind lines and they need escort early(many bomber lost early to aggressive Peshkas and Yak sweeps), then when crossing borderline and possible locations where enemies patrol, then sweep target ahead or close escort over target and then I need to fly home. Fuel saving methods are must and fuel capacity and consumption, allowing higher cruise speed and longer time on target and in combat, alone make the Fw 190 my choice over the 109 if I have option to make that choice.

Edited September 24, 2018 by LeLv76_Erkki

[JonRedcorn]

Knights of the Air get on it. Without 100% fuel load and a reasonable cruise speed you will be hurting.