Tips from a Triple Ace

[@ReflectedSimulations]

Something interesting I forgot to include in the video: Before General Doolittle changed the USAAF fighter escort doctrine, i.e. let the escort fighters go after German aircraft, making it their main priority to destroy the Luftwaffe instead of protecting the bombers, so before all this, the fighters had to stay with the bombers. Anderson clarified what it meant: they weren't allowed to dive after enemy aircraft lower than 18,000 feet. It's pretty specific, and it's interesting to try in DCS when you fly one of the escort missions in Blue Nose Bastards of Bodney.

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

Thanks ❤! The realism aspects of World War II missions is something I strive to re-create during my enjoyment of your campaigns. Keep it coming!

[@Sinni64]

Can’t belive that people complained about Mission 1 in Debden Eagles. The Moment when you dive down to france was one of the most atmospheric moments I ever had in DCS. You trottle back for the dive, the engine goes quiet and you only hear the wind around the canopy. Before you enter the cloud layer you take one last glance at your formation and then complete darkness. The only thing you see are the instruments and the exhaust flames of your wingmen. The altimiter spins at a frantic pace downward, the wind gets louder and louder. Everytime I think about that I get the chills. Can‘t imagine how those pilots felt at that moment.

[@casteldredge]

It depends on how you are playing it. If you are in vr on a quest 3 headset it is basically unplayable.

[@Sinni64]

@ I played it in VR (Reverb G2) and it was fine.

[@casteldredge]

@Sinni64 like i said, on a quest 3, it's not. It's just black. The only way sort of play it was to crank the gamma all the way up (you still can't see) and turn the labels on, which just ruins the immersion and makes it look terrible. I understand that it's a niche case, and he says it's EDs fault, but it's cold comfort to anyone who bought it with that setup and wanted to enjoy it. I don't disagree with what he was going for with the mission, but it just didn't work for me and others.

[@casteldredge]

@Sinni64 does your g2 still work since they canceled support? I have one as well, but I do not use it anymore since I got a quest 3. My g2 also had lots of issues with the audio cutting out so I haven't wanted to even try and use it.

[@Sinni64]

@@casteldredge I have mine since 2021, use it almost daily and never had any problems with it. Audio always worked fine aswell , but since 2023 I use my normal headset, instead of the G2 Speakers, because the sound is better. I´m still on Windows 10, so maybe that spares me some headaches, that other people experience.

[@pixy67_]

I met Col Bud Anderson at a local airshow about 10 years ago. He was a very nice guy, we had an interesting conversation about the BF109 and how it compared to the P-51. He was selling his book and I was able to buy a signed copy of "To Fly and Fight" which is probably my favorite WW2 pilot memoir alongside Roald Dahl's "Going Solo".

[@ReflectedSimulations]

@@pixy67_ I haven’t read Going solo, I’ll put it on my list!

[@dogsbd]

I met him in Atlanta, 2015. He signed my copy of his bio.

[@Flyboy_Gospel]

I would love to see ED visit the P-51D and update the visuals. Feels almost like WWII Europe is on the back burner for now. I imagine the efforts are going to the Pacific

[@ReflectedSimulations]

@@Flyboy_Gospel the Mustang fought in the PTO as well…I’d also love new cockpit textures and the P-47 pilot model implemented

[@iloveamerica1776]

Well one things for certain: Reflected is gonna make an absolutely amazing Pacific theater campaign when all the required modules come out

[@ReflectedSimulations]

@@iloveamerica1776 you bet I will!

[@Boots3862]

Great reading choice--I am literally in the middle of this book right now! Highly recommended reading for all. Thanks!

[@TOMCATnbr]

Always interesting to have those insight of those who have fight on those machine. Thanks for all those great informations. It's alwaus greatly appreciated.

[@OgamiItto70]

Something I remember from Anderson's _To Fly and Fight_ was that, during takeoff, the ailerons on the P-51 didn't have enough authority below 100MPH to overcome the torque of the engine thrashing that big 4-bladed prop through the air. So pilots were warned not to lift off before 100MPH airspeed, otherwise the plane would roll over onto its back and crash. Which did happen. I don't know if this behavior is modeled in DCS World or not. I've never seen it in any other game or simulation, although I've never tried a high fidelity, "study-level" one.

[@ReflectedSimulations]

@@OgamiItto70 I also thought about this. It happened to me once in DCS but I had to be very ham fisted

[@imdoobie80]

Like General Olds father had told him, and I'm paraphrasing, "never think you know it all, you always learn something new every flight. " I personally apply that to life itself.

[@ReflectedSimulations]

Very true!

[@grievesy83]

Love this kind of content Reflected.

[@thunderace4588]

Thank you Reflected Simulations.

[@dunbar555]

I met Bud Anderson in France, along with Chuck Yeager, like 20 years ago. Will never forget this day

[@ReflectedSimulations]

@@dunbar555 no way, really? That must have been quite a memory!

[@dunbar555]

@@ReflectedSimulations Indeed. to tell you the truth, I even have a copy of the Il2 Forgotten Battles manual autographed by both of them. I was a beta tester for the game at the time. They were there for an airshow commemorating the crash landing of a B17 in the french alps.

[@avion34]

Awesome video dude! I love your work

[@tamasratkai1130]

I hope there will be more book recommendation like this. Thanks!

[@michaeldavid6284]

Read "1000 Destroyed" by Grover C. Hall, Jr. He was the PR officer for the 4th Fighter Group in WW2. It's an outstanding account of the pilots, their lives, and combat experiences and is second to none regarding WW2 fighter pilots. Yes, I'm biased, and have been a 4th FG and Mustang junkie ever since I read it as a boy decades ago. It was also published under a reprint version titled "Death Squadron". Read it...and I'll bet you reread it again and again.

[@phunkaeg]

theres a good video idea @ReflectedSimulations!

[@JAubrey11]

Sometimes interesting things happen 🙂 - I recently started reading the german book "...zum Fliegen und Kämpfen" ("...to fly and to fight") which covers the memories of Bud Anderson from 1922 up to 1999, written by Kurt Braatz, who wrote a lot of memoirs of fighter pilots, especially on the german side in WW2. The first few pages describe an air battle in the Mustang against a BF109 pilot which he nearly lost, the german plane stalled just a second before his Mustang, giving him the chance to counterattack and to survive. A memory he will never forget and looking at the 30mm gun in the nose of the BF109 is a picture, that sneaks in his mind from time to time. Really looking forward the read on. Interesting: According to this book he was not only a very good friend of Chuck Yeager but also a friend of Günther Rall, who was one of the top WW2 aces with 275 air victories. Both shared an interesting hobby: If they just wanted to fly for the fun of it, they both preferred the F-104 and never got tired discussing the characteristics of this airplane. And nice to see you talking about warbirds again 🙂

[@Brazmannslittlegamingcorner]

That's so cool, man! I heard Günther Rall was a very nice guy too and made a lot of friends, many of which were former enemies from the war

[@bigrivercod]

Thanks Reflected :)

[@heilped]

It’s awesome how you move the camera around! ❤

[@ReflectedSimulations]

Thanks!

[@luizvasco77]

Excellent video! Congratulations once again and thank you! I have a somewhat off-topic question. Can you answer me? Why doesn't Eagle Dynamics put a mask on the P-51D pilot like they did with the P-47D and Spitfire?

[@ReflectedSimulations]

@@luizvasco77 I don’t know, maybe you can ask ED to update their P-51 pilot model to the P-47 one. I already requested it.

[@luizvasco77]

@@ReflectedSimulations Thank you very much and please, keep the excellent work.

[@suecobandito8954]

Good video. Crucial to flight was using the HEFOE scan every few minutes. So as not to miss a vital change in indications in the A/C systems, Hydraulic, Electrical, Fuel, Oxygen and Engine or HEFOE scan is needed. As I recall one performed this very few minutes. Never know when the instructor may pull a CB to see if you're paying attention...so good to incorporate it into your routine. Also, Reflected, ED needs to update the graphics for engine smoke exhaust on start, esp. P-47 or any round engine. Spit stacks spit flames in DCS how about some love for the Mustang?

[@BlueBaron3339]

He passed away early this year. The last of his ilk, he lived over a century.

[@ejb6822]

thanks for the video reflected, appreciate it very much! apart from that i wonder if you noticed that in the blue-nose-campaign, mission 2, there's a car standing on the runway making taxi impossible, so i can't try andersons tips out at least in this mission.^^

[@ReflectedSimulations]

I put the car there in case somebody doesn’t read the briefing and attempts to taxi before White flight. He’ll move when you are cleared to taxi ;)

[@9MyXX]

I’m a triple ace as well but in the P47😊

[@PappyGunn]

The thing ED need to update for WW2 fighters is the AI climb behaviour. It causes problems in campaigns. It is difficult to maintain formation during the climb unless you really push the engine to its limit and sometimes beyond, into the "no more than 5 minutes of this" territory. Applicable to all Allied fighters in my experience.

[@ReflectedSimulations]

It's all hard coded. But it's not Il2, so your engine won't blow 1 second after exceeding the limit, until your temps are not above the red line.

[@Gunfreak19]

​@ReflectedSimulations while the DCS engines are a bit more correctly modeled then IL2. They are still way to fragile. It seems some time back in the 90s. Someone decided that to make warbird engine management more "complex " they made the manuals engine limitations hard limits. And this has stuck. When any manual says 5 minutes of WEP max like in the Spitfire. Those 5 minutes didn't mean engine go boom after 5 minutes and 30 seconds or even 60 minutes. It ment of you exceeded 5 minutes for too long. It ment those ground crews had to work overtime to maintain your engine. These engines often just lasted a few missions, before they were simply dumped and new ones put in. Having read many a war diary. There's very little talk about engine management. When bandits were seen. It was usually WEP until the action was over. Be it 5, 10 or 30 minutes. The engine would be worn and might not take many more of those types of abuse. Hence use and throw away of engines. A P47 wouldn't suddenly kills its engine over France because you abused the engine far above the manual specs. Sure it's less "fun" if everyone can just use full power in their online games during dogfights. But that would be correct. Ideally the upcoming wear and tear in the F4 could be transferred to the warbirds. And so these hard limits could be made more correctly. So if you abuse your Merlin. Mabye less aircraft are available in the next mission as its down for maintenance, or engine replacement. I know the upcoming Combat pilot is actually considering removing those artifical hard engine limits for their game. Which would be the first moden ww2 flight sim to do so.

[@ReflectedSimulations]

@@Gunfreak19 I very, very rarely have had an engine break on me in DCS, and I abuse them a lot. Maybe the P-47 is the one that stands out, it's easy to overboost.

[@sebywest3736]

[@badgermilk760]

lmao you got me thought you were talking about yourself LMao

[@ReflectedSimulations]

hahaha :D :D

[@badgermilk760]

@ but it looks like some camps I could consider

[@PappyGunn]

1. Warm up your engine to operating temperature! One fuel management trick for the campaign, where the map isn't YUGE: Use up the fuselage tank first for CG purposes. Then burn off some of the wing tanks before you switch to externals. Why? Because when Jerry shows up, if you just ran on the drop tanks and drop them, you'll still have a heavy P-51 with full wing tanks. Ideally, you burn off the wing tanks until you have enough to fight and get home. Then switch over to the drop tanks.

[@Hackspear214]

How interesting you completely skipped the part where after the missions released, and after you got complaints, you admitted the first mission was too dark (darker than the pilots said it was back in June ‘44) and it was due to a bug in DCS (you even posted pictures showing the bug). Since DCS has never fixed the bug and you refused to modify the mission to make it playable, now you say “that’s just how it was”. Very convenient. I’m not the only one who thought the first mission was unplayable, a single Google search will turn up a bunch.

[@ReflectedSimulations]

OK, I see you like putting words into my mouth in order to prove your point, so for the 1000th time: pitch black = realistic. period. But in game, normally, you can cheat by cranking the gamma (like I did in the video), but due to a DCS bug you can't do it just before dawn because it remains pitch black (which is realistic). Do you understand now why what you wrote is a bunch of malarkey? And if you want to be able to crank up the gamma so bad, why don't you keep bugging ED to fix their bug instead of suggesting I should 'change' the mission. How? Move a historical night mission to daytime?!

[@Zilch79]

Somehow, the badasses in 1944 managed to do this is pitch black conditions and no gamma slider, while being shot at flying in the middle of the night. And then they flew two more missions immediately after. If flying in high historical realism your cozy home simulator rig is too difficult for you, maybe this whole DCS WWII thing isn't for you. And, hey, there's always Ace Combat.

[@Hackspear214]

@@Zilch79 lol People still can’t grasp the concept that computer hardware is different and what is dark but playable in one headset is almost pure black and unplayable in another. No matter how high you jack up the gamma. Who knew headsets were different? Not you. Who knew people have different experiences? Not you. Go ask the badasses if they’d fly the mission with a blindfold on. I’m guessing they wouldn’t. And hey, there’s always the option of not talking about things you don’t understand, but I guess white-knighting is more important to you. Who knows, maybe he’ll give you a campaign for free if you suck up hard enough to him…

[@Hackspear214]

@@ReflectedSimulations Same old same old… not surprised. It’s embarrassing that a developer doesn’t understand the differences hardware can have. It wasn’t just dark on a Quest 3, it was like you’re wearing a blindfold. But just ignore that, even though I’m not the only person in these comments telling you it was unplayable. Just ignore everyone else’s experience, you’re always right. Right?

[@Hackspear214]

​@@Zilch79 Somehow the badasses weren’t wearing blindfolds, which is what the first mission was like on some headsets. But hey, that wasn’t your experience so feel free to talk down to the people who had the problem. It’s embarrassing to see you white-knight someone so hard. Maybe if you keep sucking up to him, he’ll send you a free campaign and a kiss. 💋

[@cowtown9437]

3:47 "people should appreciate what these young men went through to liberate Europe from a tyrant" Clipped and added to a compiling list. You run a DCS channel not propaganda.

[@ReflectedSimulations]

@@cowtown9437 are you denying Hitler was a tyrant or that he occupied Europe? Calling a spade a spade isn’t propaganda

[@cowtown9437]

@@ReflectedSimulations Screenshot and compiled.

[@ReflectedSimulations]

@@cowtown9437 sure, please do. Make sure you report me to daddy ;) You would have thrived in the 1930s...

[@sedlo]

Remember how teens would clip and compile magazine photos of their celebrity crushes? I think someone likes you!

[@ReflectedSimulations]

@@sedlo I don't think he's a teen yet, that would mean he's already attended at least one history class.