Can anybody explain how any aircraft can still fly and DOGFIGHT when one wing has been shot off? Don’t they usually spin into the ground! Shooting off a wing is an IMMEDIATE KILL but in this game 30 seconds can elapse before it crashes. Developers get this right please.
It’s just like that. I once died to a glide bomb dropped from kilometers away and the plane was killed way before impact but still could drop it. In real life, if the plane starts to spin, a pilot doesn’t start inserting coordinates on the computer and drop the bomb, they eject but that’s how games work. Sometimes might seem fair and sometime it might not.
I mean, it depends on what plane you are referring to.
Google “F-15 without wing” to read about the time an F-15 flew ~17km without one of its wings and landed safely. :P
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Hehe, was it a Swedish J/A21, by chance?
I’ve managed to successfully RTB after losing a wing, multiple times, in the A21
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I wanted to write that too, but the point I think OP is making is that yes loosing a wing may be survivable, BUT, that’s not a situation where one is still able to fight…
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I survived that one, long ago, but I had my hands full, that’s for sure! (and a very thin pants bottom, as we say…)
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Yeah, flying with one wing certainly is a handful!
I almost RTB’d after losing a wing in the Finnish Bf-109 once, didn’t quite make it unfortunately, I think I was still around 3 km out? idk, it was a while ago.
That is very true :)
The absolutely most bonkers one i’ve had was in the early days of the JAS39 before the flight model was adjusted, i flew 5km+ and landed this one:
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Wow, just wow.
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After seeing these photos, when the kill is credited to a player, what happens if you fully repair? Is it removed? (a bit off-topic, sorry).
Ah, had it a few times with the Warthog that I lost maybe 30% of one wing. And shot of tailplanes - thanks Fairchild Republic for the redundancy…
This was before the “severely damaged” mechanic existed, but at that time:
You repaired and got to fly again, the kill was still in your stats and the player still got the kill.
I used the last image for a bug report, was told it’s intentional and not a bug (Community Bug Reporting System)
Now however the new mechanic works differently.
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Ah, but the F15’s flight is controlled by computers, so losing a wing just makes it more unstable; computers to the rescue. One of the aircraft to which i refer is the F6F; not only the wing with all of the control surfaces and guns removed but the recoil from the remaining 3 50’s had no adverse effect. In fact recoil from cannons don’t seem to be factored at all. The Yak9K for example can fire at a target with it’s automatic 37mm and it doesn’t miss…not realistic. The recoil would make the aircraft move around so much multiple hits one after the other again is not realistic. Funny how the same developer got this fact right with Birds of Prey/Steel…so why not with this game?
The only F-15 with Fly by Wire is the F-15EX. The others are all handflown.
Recoil does indeed effect the flightpath but since you are in mouse aim mode (i assume) the game steers the plane back towards the aimpoint automatically as if the pilot is counteracting the recoil with steering inputs. Not only that, but most planes have their guns mounted in such a way where the recoil goes trough center of mass and so doesn’t steer but only slow the plane down ever so slightly.
Here i have the SK60B with a gun pod on only one side to simulate the other side being destroyed. I then hold the “Free Look” key bind, look behind me to get the crosshair outside of the screen and steer using keyboard keys. This effectively “turns off” the auto centering as long as i hold down the “Free Look” key bind. I then level the plane and start shooting, at the second and third burst you can see the plane turning due to the recoil (the first burst is counteracted by wind turning the plane up to the left as i shoot).
In mouse aim mode every plane in the game is effectively controlled by computers. If you want to not have it like that you can manually change to “full real” controls or play Simulator mode.
Not a Hellcat, but another fine product by Grumman’s Iron Works:
Mouse aim and instructor allow you to retain sufficient fine control to point the nose and shoot the gun.
However it’s still very possible with full-real controls if you’re skilled enough but with the risk of losing control for sudden maneuvers. I’m quite capable of RTBing in messed up planes (a point of pride), not dogfighting (gunfighter, propeller planes) with stick & rudder in full-real but I’ve managed to reverse a do-335 and kill with p-51h using mouse-aim.
I might be hallucinating things, but I’m pretty confident recoil is a thing. Again, mouse aim & instructor compensate for things. If I set my plane to have 800 meter convergence with vertical targetting and start shooting I feel my nose dip below the horizon in Full-real controls with light enough aircraft and large enough burst mass.
You don’t need wing control surfaces to fly a plane.
Here - landing a Bf109 with its ailerons disabled:
To confirm it’s indeed FUBAR, I wiggle the stick to prove it has no impact. I still move it around out of being used to it, but it’s not doing anything but affect pitch.
I am abusing the real life physical reality that conventional designed aircraft with dihedral wings, upon experiencing yaw and consequent slip, have different AoA experienced by its two wings and different relative airspeeds. This has the consequence of assymetric lift, which leachs to one wing rolling high and the other low. As an added bonus, you can use your left-turning tendencies (especially the massive kick when rapidly throttling up/down) to help with your roll control.
You can do the exact same “trick” in DCS to survive flak-scarred missions with the exact same damage I sustained.
And it’s worth noting that the F6F is a far more docile and easy to fly aircraft than any Bf109.
Play on a PS5, no mouse for me…or joystick as the Hostas4 does everything on the tin for PS4. Couldn’t set it up for PS5 Flight Simulator mode and playing in Realistic mode is not for me. Less said about Arcade the better. Suppose i shall have to wait for the Hostas5 but i won’t hold my breath.🙏
I most commonly have this occur in My spitfire. As long as you have at least 1/4 of your wing left it still creates enough lift for flight. If you get lucky and you only lost half of your wing then you can still dogfight to some degree too. All of this depends on your speed though, if you were going slow as bricks then you will just roll over because not enough airflow over your rudder and ailerons to counteract the lift imbalance