Suggestion regarding improvements for the P-38

[AKA_Greywolf]

Not sure if anyone brought this up before, if so I apologize.

 

I actually have 2 suggestions to bring up.

 

1st suggestion concerns the bomb select mode that is currently present in the sim. You current have Left side single, Right side single, and Pairs as the three available choice if you choose the additional bomb racks on your load out and a 6 - 500lb bomb load out or a 4 - 1000lb bomb load out.

 

Here is the issue, If you choose lets say "Left side single", the game will drop ... 1 bomb from the left side as it should. This now leaves the aircraft UNBALANCED regarding the load out, if you do not physically change from that Left side single mode and drop another bomb your UNBALANCED loadout gets even worse. Do it again and drop another without switching sides, you have a 1,500lb UNBALANCED loadout now left on the right side our your aircraft.

 

I cannot believe that an aircraft manufacturer or even the US Army Air Force would have accepted aircraft with that kind of bomb distribution setup. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that in the heat of combat they would have wanted to put that choice of having a pilot remember to change that switch after ever bomb drop.

 

They would have probably just made the choice to drop bombs in either single mode or pair mode only, and when a pilot's choice was single bomb drop mode it would have some sort of alternating switch so it would drop 1 from the left, next it would drop 1 from the right, and so on and so on. 

 

2nd suggestion concerns the nav lights on the P-38. Compared to other aircraft in this game, the P-38's nav lights are very hard to see from the rear of the aircraft. Can you please fix this.  

[busdriver]

1 hour ago, AKA_Greywolf said:

I cannot believe that an aircraft manufacturer or even the US Army Air Force would have accepted aircraft with that kind of bomb distribution setup. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that in the heat of combat they would have wanted to put that choice of having a pilot remember to change that switch after ever bomb drop.

 

As it turns out, that's what they did. Look at the switch positions for the three options in game. 

 

[Ctrl] + [B] the first time selects the right side and single. Note how the Left selector switch is now down in the OFF position and the Right selector switch is up in the ON position.

 

 

The second time selects pairs. Note that both switches are now up in the ON position. Oh and the bomb release button is not on the yoke or throttles, it's just to the left labeled RELEASE BUTTON.

 

 

And the third time selects Left side single. Now the Right selector is down in the OFF position.

 

 

 

So yeah, a P-38 guy would simply flip the switches if he wanted to pickle from alternate sides. IOW there's nothing to fix as far as I can tell. The change I would make is to have the bomb/tank selector lights (Yellow lights above the switches) illuminate ONLY when the corresponding selector switch is in the ON position.

Edited March 24, 2021 by busdriver

[Denum]

You can switch them while bombing if you want, but this isn't a new modern aircraft where it will have alternating drops. 

 

I haven't found that it throws the P38 out of balance to much, it's noticeable but easily managed because they're so close to centerline still, the P47 or Tempest with 1000lbers on the other hand.. that will make an honest attempt at killing you if you aren't ready!

[AKA_Greywolf]

Busdriver, thanks for the info. I admit I was wrong in my thinking. I will go out on a limb here by saying I think this system may be just something that was incorporated on the earlier versions of the P-38. I wonder if the later P-38 L varient had the same same bomb select setup.

 

I still stand on my thinking that the Nav Lights are somewhat porked on the 38, especially when looking at the Aircraft from the rear. Very hard to see IMHO.

 

Denum, you are also correct. It is noticeable but manageable. Unless of course if you have the German AAA gunners take out your right aileron and your overloaded balance is also on the same side. It for sure makes for an honest attempt at killing you.

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, AKA_Greywolf said:

I wonder if the later P-38 L varient had the same same bomb select setup.

 

It was a slightly different system (the pilot now released bombs with a button on the yoke), but he still selected bombs in much the same manner: