10-14-2004, 12:46 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-14-2004, 04:05 AM by Rhydderch Hael.)
First time I flipped my MiG onto its back was after having it shot up a bit by a Bf109 over Moscow. Smoking a bit, and I had a fuel leak, but I was able to dis-engage and get the MiG back home. Naturally, I turtled the kite, but as I was there hanging upside-down in the cockpit and watching my view turn a bit red under the negative-G loading, I could not help but notice a white stream flowing from a point on my inner wing panel down to the ground. I then realized that that was the fuel flowing out of a puncture in the tank. I hit the bailout key and watched my pilot pop out of the inverted MiG and run some distance away before leaping to the ground in "duck and cover" fashion. MiG never lit up, though. That's not always the case. Fires suck. While flying a Bf110 in the Crimea, a Russian P-40 that snuck in on me and set my right engine aflame. Turning northwest for home with this trail of fire streaming off my crate, I could only pray that the wing would hold together just a little while longer... then the inner left wing began to smoke, and minutes later my left wing's fuel tank caught fire. Two gouts of flame flowing off my crate kinda told me that now was a pretty good time to join the caterpillar club, so I left.
If you crash-land your crate within enemy territory, you will notice geysers of black earth begin to erupt around you. Yeah, in this sim the field artillery will try to murder you and your machine if you elect to stay strapped in.
Bailing out isn't all that safe either. The sim models three possible states of a parachuting pilot: 1) fine and dandy, hanging like string candy; 2) dead guy hanging from the 'chute harness; 3) very unlucky fellow whose parachute just got popped, plummeting to certain death. The anti-aircraft artillery doesn't give a rat about us flyboysâ you will be shot at by flak shells and guns if you do something as foolish as bailing out over the place you just happen to be bombing!
And that's all dependent if you manage to get out of the crate alive. Bailout logic applied in the sim will only allow you to leave the plane if it is physically possible for you. There will be instances where a pilot never manages to egress. And altitude is key: you can still suffer a fatal impact if you bail out too low and the just-deployed parachute envelope has not deccelerated you quickly enough for safe landing. And in one memorable instance that I saw play out in the sim, getting out may not save you in time if your plane is on fire. Switching to an external view of an enemy '109 that whose engine was aflame, I watched the pilot pop the canopy, ready to leap away from the stricken fighter. Switching back to cockpit view, I saw this smear of flame and smoke erupt in the sky. The burning Messerschmidt exploded. Going back to external views of the enemy, the camera locked onto the escaping pilot (externals go to enemy machines or airmen who'v bailed out). Pilot was already in a "dead" pose and falling to earth with no paracute deployed. He was not far enough away from his machine when it detonated.
If you crash-land your crate within enemy territory, you will notice geysers of black earth begin to erupt around you. Yeah, in this sim the field artillery will try to murder you and your machine if you elect to stay strapped in.
Bailing out isn't all that safe either. The sim models three possible states of a parachuting pilot: 1) fine and dandy, hanging like string candy; 2) dead guy hanging from the 'chute harness; 3) very unlucky fellow whose parachute just got popped, plummeting to certain death. The anti-aircraft artillery doesn't give a rat about us flyboysâ you will be shot at by flak shells and guns if you do something as foolish as bailing out over the place you just happen to be bombing!
And that's all dependent if you manage to get out of the crate alive. Bailout logic applied in the sim will only allow you to leave the plane if it is physically possible for you. There will be instances where a pilot never manages to egress. And altitude is key: you can still suffer a fatal impact if you bail out too low and the just-deployed parachute envelope has not deccelerated you quickly enough for safe landing. And in one memorable instance that I saw play out in the sim, getting out may not save you in time if your plane is on fire. Switching to an external view of an enemy '109 that whose engine was aflame, I watched the pilot pop the canopy, ready to leap away from the stricken fighter. Switching back to cockpit view, I saw this smear of flame and smoke erupt in the sky. The burning Messerschmidt exploded. Going back to external views of the enemy, the camera locked onto the escaping pilot (externals go to enemy machines or airmen who'v bailed out). Pilot was already in a "dead" pose and falling to earth with no paracute deployed. He was not far enough away from his machine when it detonated.
Political Correctness is the idea that you can foster tolerance in a diverse world through the intolerance of anything that strays from a clinical standard.