dasuto247
May 26th, 2018, 13:56
December 28, 1943- Flying F4U on fighter sweep over Rabaul.32 F4U's at 25,000, 32 F6F at 15,000, 30 Kittyhawks at 10,000
Swept in over area around 0900, soon encountered large numbers of fighters(81 total) , mostly Zekes. Shot down one Zeke in a head on pass, then spotted one on an F6F below with two Zekes on his tail near Lakunai Airfield, dove down and flamed the closest one shooting, other pulled up and away as I recovered and leveled off at 13,800. Had another lined up when tracers began flashing, I pushed throttle to max and went for a dive but had to pull UP to avoid a collision as a Zero crossed right in front of me, this fouled up my evasion and began taking hits from the Zero. As continued to dive it continued to fire, I began taking hits but finally gained enough speed(over 370 knots in dive and pulled away leveling off at around 5,000. I headed away from the scene at full speed and eventually climbed back to 10,000, then 20,000. With plenty of ammo and enough fuel for one more jaunt, flew back. as I crossed Cape Gazelle one of the three planes in my division joined up with me. Soon spotted groups of planes fighting over Simpson Harbor, so headed in and set up on three Zeros climbing away, seemingly easy targets. Suddenly, wingman reported he was taking hits, I looked over and saw him diving away on fire(eventually crashed) , I crossed over to pursue the Zeke when heard sound of hits on my plane and suddenly lost control(status messages off, but assume control cables were hit) , I regained control around 9,000 feet but was still under fire and soon noticed had a fire in port wing(plenty of bullet holes as well) .I dove for the deck and fire went out but I had 1 or 2 Zekes on my. I struggled to hold the plane level but gunned the engine and activated WEP(glad I saved most of it) as they chased me NORTH. I managed to pull away eventually and Zekes gave up. Could tell flight home was going to be rough, as it was difficult to control plane. I had also used a lot more fuel than anticipated.
I turned towards Bougainville, avoiding Rabaul area best I could and trimmed my plane best as able. Noticed over Cape St George, engine started sounding rough, so began babying it as much as possible. Soon after two division members thought long lost, joined with me.Noticed hydraulic warning light was on and engine was sounding rougher, noticed loss of some power as well. Finally Torokina was in sight. Hydraulics shot, gear would not lower, tried manually lower(real life it has a emergency blow system which would force the gear down, but its a sim) both wheels came down. However, with no flaps, would be coming in "hot". As was lining up, the rough sounding engine sputtered out. Still had enough fuel, engine failed finally, time for dead stick. Managed to make a rough landing, nearly flipped but managed to not.
One of those intense missions.
Swept in over area around 0900, soon encountered large numbers of fighters(81 total) , mostly Zekes. Shot down one Zeke in a head on pass, then spotted one on an F6F below with two Zekes on his tail near Lakunai Airfield, dove down and flamed the closest one shooting, other pulled up and away as I recovered and leveled off at 13,800. Had another lined up when tracers began flashing, I pushed throttle to max and went for a dive but had to pull UP to avoid a collision as a Zero crossed right in front of me, this fouled up my evasion and began taking hits from the Zero. As continued to dive it continued to fire, I began taking hits but finally gained enough speed(over 370 knots in dive and pulled away leveling off at around 5,000. I headed away from the scene at full speed and eventually climbed back to 10,000, then 20,000. With plenty of ammo and enough fuel for one more jaunt, flew back. as I crossed Cape Gazelle one of the three planes in my division joined up with me. Soon spotted groups of planes fighting over Simpson Harbor, so headed in and set up on three Zeros climbing away, seemingly easy targets. Suddenly, wingman reported he was taking hits, I looked over and saw him diving away on fire(eventually crashed) , I crossed over to pursue the Zeke when heard sound of hits on my plane and suddenly lost control(status messages off, but assume control cables were hit) , I regained control around 9,000 feet but was still under fire and soon noticed had a fire in port wing(plenty of bullet holes as well) .I dove for the deck and fire went out but I had 1 or 2 Zekes on my. I struggled to hold the plane level but gunned the engine and activated WEP(glad I saved most of it) as they chased me NORTH. I managed to pull away eventually and Zekes gave up. Could tell flight home was going to be rough, as it was difficult to control plane. I had also used a lot more fuel than anticipated.
I turned towards Bougainville, avoiding Rabaul area best I could and trimmed my plane best as able. Noticed over Cape St George, engine started sounding rough, so began babying it as much as possible. Soon after two division members thought long lost, joined with me.Noticed hydraulic warning light was on and engine was sounding rougher, noticed loss of some power as well. Finally Torokina was in sight. Hydraulics shot, gear would not lower, tried manually lower(real life it has a emergency blow system which would force the gear down, but its a sim) both wheels came down. However, with no flaps, would be coming in "hot". As was lining up, the rough sounding engine sputtered out. Still had enough fuel, engine failed finally, time for dead stick. Managed to make a rough landing, nearly flipped but managed to not.
One of those intense missions.