Damaged Gear Carrier Landing

[shiro_amada_jp]

I've flown missions where my landing gear was damaged. How do you land on a carrier when this happens? During final approach for landing, I fly the plane as if everything were normal: flaps down for landing, hook down and I have managed to put my plane on the deck of the carrier (with damage of course). Any suggestions on how to go about "minimizing" the damage to the plane? I fly the F4U Corsair and the A6M Zero.

 

[GrauGeist]

Carrier Ops are a little different than how things were done on land...

If you're aircraft were damaged beyond repair or if it was during a battle, they'd just shove the damaged aircraft overboard.

 

[sturmer]

its been a while that i posted here.

but this is what i usually do, when my landinggear is damaged i mostly try to do a belly landing.
to minimize the damage (aircraft is scrap anyway) i cut of the engine, lower the hook, landing flaps and try to glide on to the deck. most of the times my props are crooked and my gear broken but thats it.

sturmer

 

[Shinpachi]

A B5N pilot of IJN got a fatal shell on his right landing gear above Pearl Harbour and was unable to land on his carrier. He asked how to do to his mothership as he didn't want to lose his precious plane. Answer was simple "Ditch on the sea."

If the flight deck had been damaged, all other planes might have lost their home.
Never damage the flight deck.

 

[Pong]

How about bailing out? I've forgotten the gameplay about PF, but does the mission fail if you bail out over friendly territory? If it doesn't, I think that's the best option instead of fatally crashing into the sea or the flight deck.

 

[GrauGeist]

Shinpachi is correct in the fact that if your aircraft were damaged, you were waved off and requested to ditch, thereby preserving the hardwood decking of the carrier and/or other aircraft on deck at the time.

The carrier would continue on it's course, but there were plenty of escort ships nearby that would move in to fish you out of the drink when you ditched. Usually a Destroyer was the fastest for the task, though I have heard of a couple instances where screening subs have also picked up pilots who ditched thier damaged aircraft.

In IL-2, you normally keep your score if you land/bail safely within 70km of your base. If you die, your score takes a serious hit, and you lose points if you shoot down a friendly aircraft/hit a friendly target and/or bail out over enemy territory. If have even seen it posted where someone was "captured" by the enemy (posted in the text, upper left-hand of the screen) when they bailed out near an active enemy airbase...

By the way, ditching at sea isn't all that difficult, you keep your gear up, flaps down like your landing and get it as close to stall as possible keeping it aloft by working the engine's RPMs while keeping the nose up SLIGHLTY...don't nose up attitude too much or it'll dig in hard when the tail hits the water (in real life you'd be pounding the gunsight through the windscreen with your forehead).

 

[shiro_amada_jp]

its been a while that i posted here.

but this is what i usually do, when my landinggear is damaged i mostly try to do a belly landing.
to minimize the damage (aircraft is scrap anyway) i cut of the engine, lower the hook, landing flaps and try to glide on to the deck. most of the times my props are crooked and my gear broken but thats it.

sturmer

Yeah, I've done the same thing on a carrier once my landing gear was damaged from battle.

 

[Pong]

By the way, ditching at sea isn't all that difficult, you keep your gear up, flaps down like your landing and get it as close to stall as possible keeping it aloft by working the engine's RPMs while keeping the nose up SLIGHLTY...don't nose up attitude too much or it'll dig in hard when the tail hits the water (in real life you'd be pounding the gunsight through the windscreen with your forehead)

Though it isn't easy with the D3A...fixed gear keeps hitting the water and flipping over. Anyway, that is a great tip.

 

[GrauGeist]

Ohhh...right, the Val would be a little bit trickier to ditch!

 

[Pong]

And possibly the Ju-87.

Though I do like that the Val can maintain lift at slow speeds, makes carrier landings a whole lot easier.

 

[GrauGeist]

There was a Ju87C that was intended to be a dive bomber for the Kreigsmarine. The tailhook was positioned just ahead of the modified tailwheel and they were to be attached to the DKM Graf Zepplin. Work on the carrier was halted and the C versions that were built, were converted to a B model and used in the land based role.

When they considered finishing the Graf Zepplin, the Ju87D was considered for naval mods, but none were ever built, since the Graf Zepplin was never completed.

The Stuka does have a nice, low stall speed, and is actually great to fly. I think it would one of the easier aircraft to try and put down on a carrier...

 

[beaupower32]

I have never had a Landing gear damaged. I have all my settings on difficult, but no damaged gear. Hmmm, maybe one day.

 

[GrauGeist]

Oh man...I sure have...

I've had both gear knocked off my Ju87G a few times, more often, one or the other. I've had the landing skid fall off my Me163 when I went to lower it.

I've never lost gear on my Fw190 but my Bf109G2 has had it's gear blown completely out of it's wings and there's been a few times that one of the gear wouldn't come down. And one time during a multiplayer mission, I was on final and let the gear down and Lawndart started laughing like crazy...I asked what the heck was so funny, and he said "dude...you're left gear started to come down...and kept going!" It had fallen completely away from the aircraft.

Yep..that was awkward...

 

[Pong]

Always handy to have another set of eyes watching your gear come down. One time I lost my gear when I was on final approach on a carrier. At first the gear went down and the landing light went green, but my lil' sis distracted me and I didn't see the message Gear: Damaged. I dropped my hook and then I crash landed on the deck. I didn't realize the gear had flown off.

 

[II./JG1_Geisshardt]

I was previously a member of the USN squad. Needless to say we did a LOT of carrier ops. If our gear was damaged or wouldnt come down at all... we just ditched it in the ocean. Just MAKE sure you do it OUT of the way of a moving carrier, or BOOM!

I remember several times when I came in with perfectly good landing gear and ended up with none