How do you navigate without landmarks or a homing indicator?

[rogueblade]

I'm new to IL2 VR from the Steam summer sale, I've got BoS and BoK and so far playing the Yak-7b exclusively having done the scripted tutorial missions a few times over, numerous quick missions and reading engine management guides. I used to play 1946 over 10 years ago.

 

Before taking on a real mission I thought I better learn something about navigation, because none of the gameplay I'd experienced so far required it. I watched this guide as well as this one and then jumped in.

 

I did my first 'real mission' from the Kuban Missions folder which contained a single Yak-7b mission. It had me fly over the ocean to protect some ships. Because it was entirely ocean, aside from pointing my nose South West, I had no idea how to get there, when I'd get there and where I was at any given point in time. I had no landmarks to follow or homing indicator to point me where to go.

 

How do players or IRL WWII pilots fly a mission like this? In the end I just flew the mission with the map overlay on which made it feel like cheating and too easy.

 

 

Edited July 9, 2020 by rogueblade

[40plus]

Dead reckoning. Airspeed, compass and clock

[FlyingH]

You have the  speed, time, distance and headings on the map. make a note of them and try to keep your speed as noted. note the time on the clock and change course when reaching the set number of minutes. It´s called "dead reconing" and was the navigation used in the war. (You may need to check the wind direction and speed to make the required adjustments too)

[gimpy117]

i wish the map had measurement tools,like what silent hunter had, and a compass so you could determine what directions to steer 

[rogueblade]

Got it. I will try planning my flghts with 0 map and 0 HUD using high school maths before I hit multiplayer 

[=BES=Senor_Jefe]

Try youtubing dead reckoning.  As an IRL pilot, it's one of the first skills you learn, other than keeping the bird above 0.  

 

You don't necessarily need to plan your route, especially if you fly fighters.  Simply learn to triangulation your position using two known points (ie. Town A at 10 o'clock, river intersection B at 3 o'clock).  Then memorize basic trigonometry so you can guess basic headings (ie. If you need to go one grid up and 2 right, then go heading 060) and then plan for a validation (ie. Once I get there on my heading, I should be flying over the southern edge of town C).  The. If you're off course a bit, correct on the next leg.  

 

It can seem like a lot to manage, but my best advise is to VERY regularly go through the practice of figuring out exactly where you are using landmarks. Once you do that, the rest is really quite easy.

 

But again,

 

Youtube dead rekoning and areal navigation.

[56RAF_Roblex]

Here are some snippets from my own experience.

 

If you are lost try flying one of the four cardinal directions while looking for recognisable  landmarks like river forks and cities etc.  If you see a landmark off your right wingtip and look at at the map to find it then it is much harder to match it up if you are flying 220 or 15 degrees etc.  while your map is oriented with N up and S down.

 

If you end up chasing an enemy for several minutes in a straight line then don't forget to take note of what your heading is.  In the early days I would often know exactly where I was (perhaps patrolling over a known target to protect it)  then I would chase an enemy away and keep chasing because I was faster then when I caught him and we had a bit of a dogfight before shooting him down I would suddenly realise that I had no idea whether I had chased him N or W or WNW so no idea where to start looking for landmarks on the map ?

 

If you manage to work out where you are then put the mouse cursor there before closing the map because the cursor will still be there when you next open it and you will know where to start looking again for your new position.  There is no point knowing that you have been flying 225 degrees since last time you knew where you were if you then can't find that last position on your map.

 

A basic rule of navigating is don't ever look at the map and say "That looks straightforward. Just fly 75 degrees to the target." and put the map away waiting for the target to come in sight.  What you should be saying is 'If I head 75 degrees then I should pass just south of a small village then cross a North-South river just above a big loop then when I see an airfield on my 10 o/c the target should be visible." and keep looking for each of these waypoints as you go so you know you are still on track and how far along the route you are.    To be really sure,  plan your route from waypoint to waypoint eg "fly about 70 degrees until you reach a small village then head for the river loop ahead which should be about 80 degrees then from there you should see an airfield at about 50 degrees and when you reach that the target will be due East."

 

Sometimes you can just look at where you are and where your target is and say "If I fly due west from here until I reach a river then I can follow the river North until it forks then the target will be a few minutes flight on 330 degrees"

 

The example you gave, flying over featureless sea, is so much harder of course but really that route they expected you to follow would never happen in the days before GPS and very unlikely with GPS either eg "fly 239 for 11 minutes then 245 for 3 minutes"  It is a pointless course change.  More likely they would just say "Fly 241 for 14 minutes" and if they really needed you to go via interim waypoints it would be because they were a long way to one side and they would try to send you straight there.

Edited July 14, 2020 by 56RAF_Roblex

[TAIPAN_]

On 7/9/2020 at 10:17 AM, gimpy117 said:

i wish the map had measurement tools,like what silent hunter had, and a compass so you could determine what directions to steer 

 

Try this

https://il2map.info/

 

 

[Solitojorgesoo]

I there a way to save and print the briefing map  ?