True Wingman Flight

[Devildog73]

Guys,
I need some guidance.
I am working on Tommy Lynch's final flight with Dick Bong as his wingman. I have Lynch (AI) taking off from one of the Nadzab airstrips and Bong (Player) taking off from the parallel strip.
Of course CFS2 allows for Lynch to get airborne before Bong because Bong is the player plane and has to start both engines, allow them to idle back and increase throttle in sync. otherwise you have to rudder back to the center of the runway. I have WP2 for Lynch about 1/2 mile off the end of the runway with a 1 minute loiter, allowing Bong to catch up to him.

As long as I set up on his wing and fly the entire way to Tadji area (about an hour) I have no problem with the mission. When I warp, I cannot get Lynch there at the same time, or it seems, even within a minute or so, no matter how I adjust the timing of the waypoints.

I cannot make Bong and Lynch a flight because then I have no way to have his engine catch fire and him bail out over the jungle south of Tadji. That event affects both flight aircraft, not just Lynch's. Bong's aircraft does not sustain any damage on this mission, Lynch's goes down with an engine on fire.

Works just like the real thing, if I fly the entire mission as two separate flights of one aircraft each and I stay on Lynch's wing. Perhaps the "alt" key and times 4 the sim rate to make it only 15 minutes? That might make the dp distances cause a mid air crash?

Anyone got any ideas?

[Talon]

Why don't you try this. Set Bong to strike and Lynch to escort.This way they should get to the waypoints together.Just a thought.


Talon

[skylane]

Devildog,

I also made a few missions where the player flies as a wingman for my upcoming Buffalo campaign and initially had the same problem.
I found out that the speeds of the player and the ai flight have to be the same. If you set the speed for the ai flight to, say 180kts on the waypoint page in MB and do the same for the player flight it should work:
You take off, join up with the wingman/leader and start flying towards the next waypoint. If you warp now, the sim advances both flights to the next waypoint at the same speed, therefore you should arrive there at the same time.
The ETAs on the waypoint page will not be the same with this method, but that doesn´t matter. If the speeds are the same, you should be fine.

Hope this helps.

Wolfgang

[Ali Cat]

I had a similar problem with a mission I'm working on and here's how I got it to work.

At takeoff (player in a hellcat) a flight of Avengers buzzes the field overhead. The player is to escort the Avengers on their torpedo run. After you get in the air and warp I wanted the player to come out of it above and ahead of the Avengers but with them still visible on the Tactical Display. Setting the player to escort the Avengers did not work because you always came out to close to them. Like you I fiddled with the way points (with the player now as an independent flight) and could get it close but not just right. I was about to give up when I had the idea to set an intermediate way point (one that you warp right through) at a slightly different speed. I then moved this intermediate way point along the overall flight path depending on whether I came out of warp to far ahead or to far behind the Avengers. It took several tries but I was finally able to get it on the money.

Hope this helps.

[Devildog73]

I had not thought of "escorting" Lynch. I will try your suggestions.

Talon, I cannot set just Bong to attack, because they both attack and get fire from the barges.
Lynches Lightning gets the worse of it and he dies on this mission. I want Bong to be the player to fly back to Nadzab alive to continue the campaign. If I have the player be Lynch, would that not make the campaign end with the player dying?

[bearcat241]

... If I have the player be Lynch, would that not make the campaign end with the player dying?

Of course DD, no doubt, but my question is, if you're flying as Bong escorting Lynch, given the random nature of AA fire in any combat -- real or virtual -- how do you guarantee that the barges will concentrate enough fatal fire on Lynch to take 'him' down for the sake of historical accuracy? Is there some trigger to program this in MB that i don't know about?

[Jagdflieger]

1. Try giving him a waypoint near where you want him to crash and set it to give him an engine fire.

2. You can also preset his damage level to ensure his demise after just a couple of hits.

[Devildog73]

Bearcat, Yes there are triggers and events that do just that, as Jagd indicated.

Jagd, I did just that. I have a waypoint with engine fire, then a bailout over the jungle near where I have to surmise is where he went down. That part works fairly well.

I am getting closer on the timing of arrivals. I will get there, just wanted to know if anyone had already created this wheel, so I don't have to..............

[Jagdflieger]

DD,

Remember that you are fighting technology that is 10 years old and was not really refined to begin with. Sounds like you are doing everything possible.

I'm setting up a similar mission to see if I can find any other options. How many barges are you attacking and is there any other AA in the area?