S! Hello 3./JG51!

[dexxra]

Hello!

A friend of mine recently turned me on to flight sims and being the WW2 junkie I am, IL-2 was obviously the next step for me. I have a few questions regarding your squad and the game itself if you wouldn't mind taking some time to answer them for me.

Ok, I am pretty new to flight sims and what not, but I am eager to learn whatever information people can throw at me. I have flown in a few WW2 flight sims before, but IL-2 is nothing at all like them. I feel like I am flying blind when I play this sim.

Your front page says you will consider training anyone with the desire to learn, but do you have any hard card requirements you expect recruits to have before training with you? At the moment, it feels like the only thing I can do halfway right is a take-off. I am getting closer and closer to landing successfully, but have not been able to do it yet in single player. I think it's partly due to the fact I can't train specifically for taking-off and landing.

Combat training experience? Aside from shooting at some AI that seems to be dodgy, I don't really have any. I knew coming into the world of flight simming there would be a HUGE learning curve and I still accept it, but I am eager to learn as much information as possible no matter how long it takes to become even just mediocre.

Aside from simming, I love to read about almost all WW2 aviation articles and biographies I can get my hands on. Luftwaffe has been my historical past time in learning about their crucial techniques that changed aviation forever.

Anyways, I was wondering if you would be willing to train a newbie in or outside of your squad. The front page says you fly 190s whenever available and that is exactly what I was looking forward to coming into this sim.

My current control setup is less than desirable, but I am looking into upgrading. Currently in the process of buying parts for a Freetrack setup also which *hopefully* will be up and running in the next week or two. I read that your squad trains on Wednesdays, but unfortunately, this Wednesday is my mom's birthday so I will be out of town for the majority of the day most likely.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this and hopefully I will speak to you all soon.

[Mölders]

Greetings dexxra!

As you have no doubt learned from the information on our website, we fly at the full realism setting in IL2. It certainly is quite a challenge to flying single player and the learning is quite steep for new pilots to IL2.

We are currently active in an online war called "Forgotten Skies": a full realism, dynamic air and ground war based on full realism. This is by far my favourite aspect of 3./JG51 and of IL2 in general. On a good night, you can expect up to 90 people, 45 axis and 45 allied pilots to go head to head over a large map complete with a huge array of ground targets. Tactics and strategy here are essential to take and maintain the advantage throughout the campaigns that we are involved in. These missions happen every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday at 9:30pm EST so if you can't make them all, hopefully you can make one.

As for training, we are more than happy to train pilots who are willing to learn. We are not like other online units as we focus on specific combat (air and ground) tactics while participating in our online war. As you know, we meet officially on Wednesdays at 9pm EST on our teamspeak.

I look forward to seeing you online .

[Stecher]

As it says, we're willing to train anyone who is willing to learn. If you commit the time to it and are serious about improving and becoming a member of the team, you'll get all the help you need. If you can't land yet, then we'll start there and work up. Basics first. Just be sure you come in with a realistic time frame in mind. You won't be an ace of the sky in a few weeks, or even a few months. Especially when you start from the beginning, being a good virtual combat pilot takes a lot of time and practice. It's a long, gradual process that is never complete. More importantly though, being a valuable member of the Staffel can take considerably less time, if you have the basics down. So we do that before we do anything else. Staffel "off" nights are Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. We can use those nights to work with you until you're up to speed enough to fly with the Staffel on Wednesday's training. Let me know what days and times work for you and we can get started as soon as you'd like. Just to confirm, are you up to version 4.08m?

[rudel]

Stecher is one of the best around here to ask for help. When i joined in February i only had about 10 hours of IL2 under me. For five weeks he taught me almost everything i know. I am no ace of the sky yet, not even average but i am getting there. Its been almost 6 months now and when i look back on things it still amazes me on what im able to do now that i could not even imagine when i joined.


If you can make it Tuesday around 7:00 pm Eastern time zone, i can show how to land the best i know.


If you know what temspeak is than i will give you the address and you can join through hyperlobby into a game i can run from my pc.

Let me know if you can make it.

Just post a message here on send me a private message.

Also let us know where you live and whats your timezone.

If you can make i look forward to flying with you.

[dexxra]

admin said:

Let me know what days and times work for you and we can get started as soon as you'd like.

Whatever day(s) and time suits you all best is good with me, just let me know. Like I said though, this Wednesday is a rare occurrence that I will not be around and out of town until later that night. I live on the west coast (-8 GMT), but timezone differences really don't effect when I can or cannot be on most of the time.

admin said:

Just to confirm, are you up to version 4.08m?

Confirmed. Teamspeak and Hyperlobby are installed and good to go also.

Finally getting used to the physics in the game somewhat. Have been landing successfully most of the time now. Been making missions with the mission builder just to practice certain aspects that I know I need to practice on.

Just out of curiosity, what model of the 190 does your squad fly? Is it personal preference or just what is available at the time?

[Specter]

Hey dexxra welcome to the boards,

We primarily train in 190A-6's, but we fly whatever aircraft is available to us in Forgotten Skies online war. Right now, we're flipping between the 190F-8 and 190A-6 depending on the mission for that night. The next campaign will be in Kurland 42 in a few weeks and that will put us in 190A-4s.

Here's the quick and dirty lesson in landing.

• Fly parallel to the runway heading in the opposite direction you intend to land, about 1km off to the side of the runway at 500m altitude.
  
• When the front of the runway is over your shoulder (the runway threshold should be either under or behind the horizontal stabilizer), turn to the base leg(90degree perpendicular to the runway) and slow down to 250 kph. Do this by pulling throttle back and holding the aircraft level. Deploy combat flaps if needed.
  
• Turn final when lined up. Deploy landing gear and flaps. Maintain 200 kph
  
• Control decent rate with throttle (less throttle -> drop faster) and forward speed with elevator (nose up -> slower) The VSI in these old planes are slow to react (and modeled so in game) so its not a good idea to watch this while landing, watch how fast things are changing around you. After a few times you get the hang of it.
  
• When you are about 5 ft off the ground throttle up a bit (+10%) to flare and decrease your decent rate and hold back pressure on the stuck till she settles on the ground. In a perfect world you want it to stall when your wheels touch the ground.
  
• Raise your flaps and keep back pressure on the stick to keep the tail wheel firmly planted.
  
• Add brakes or just let it coast to a stop
  

If only I could practice what I preach ;D