[StargazerWoods]

Hiya,

This has been something that has bugged me ever sinceI got my first copy of IL2 all those many years ago, and all of sudden I need to sound off about it and hopefully get some perspective at the same time. You probably already know whats coming next...

You and half a dozen other aircraft are all arriving back at the airfield and all the requests for landing start going to the tower, The tower clears someone for landing and you go around. The others keep trying and by the time you're lined up again, you do the Tab>8>4 to request clearance.

"Red leader, alright. You're cleared for landing" comes the reluctant voice of the controller. My flaps are down, gear is down and the speed is dropping off fast. I'm balancing the throttle and I'm down to just 70 or 80 feet from touchdown when I see the back end of a plane right in my face and I gear-up, flaps-up and throttle up to avoid a hideous and career stunting crash!

Just recently in the excellent FEAF campaign, I landed a P40 at the airfield and hadn;t yet had time to switch to the cinematic camera to assist with taxiing to the correct part of the runway and off to a safe area. I had full clearance to land and just as my wheel brakes were starting to bite, the nosecone of a massive B17 reared up above me and I swear I saw small print of the bombadiers handbook before both it and I transformed from warbirds to smouldering crater.

How does the clearance thing work? Since we are unable to address specific towers, does IL2 radio the closest one from where you are or does it put a call out to all towers and it just replies okay because somewhere there is an empty runway you can use. Or is it that it has no awareness of you in proximity to the AI?

I find that last option, although not totally unbelievable, slightly unlikely since the AI have enough awareness of me to fill me with bullets all the time and make my statistics in the offline campaigns an embarrassment.

Any input is appreciated on this one.

Thanks in advance,

Rob.

[shakthamac]

heres how it works. theres 2 ends to each runway, right? the AI are all programmed to land at one end or the other depending on how the mission is set up. Ive done missions where the AI land at both ends of the runway and will taxi into each other. Its a flaw in the game.

Thats one reason it may have happened.

The other reason it could've happened is that you were landing on a dual (side-by-side) runway airport and picked the one the AI was using at the time.

Also, the "tower" will usually give the player preference to land vs AI and I've witnessed on a number of occasions where the tower has cleared the AI to land and me at the same time. I guess it depends on where you are in the pattern.

[Pirate]

The ai don't take any other aircraft into account once they are in the landing pattern, not yours or AI - thats as far as I can tell. They won't even react when under attack from enemy aircraft. I usually take the responsibility as to when it is safe to land, its not worth letting the AI decide for you. It would be good if the ground control was more complex and realistic, but as it isn't, I don't treat it as if it is.

[stansdds]

Safest way to handle landing clearance in Il2 is to be in one of the following categories.

1. You are the first to return and there are no AI in a position to enter the pattern.

2. All of the AI are dead.

3. All of the AI have already landed.

Getting into the pattern with the AI aircraft is almost as much fun as playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded revolver.

AI wing men can also be a tremendous hazard when landing. I've been taken out by them and I've seen other players taken out by them as they want to fly a tight formation while you are trying to land. The result is usually the wing man impacting the ground and the explosion destroys you. Always order your wing man to land (and make sure he lands) before you attempt to land.

[StargazerWoods]

Hmmm... Thank for the replies chaps.

I guess I'll just have to get used to flying home, 'balls to the walls' style. At least that way I beat the other guys by a few miles.

Issuing a return to base order on approach to the field often makes the AI wingmen do a lap of the place first thus stopping me getting kamikaze'd while I'm taxiing or ram-raided while slowing and trying to stay lined up.

I've coped this long... I'm sure I'll continue to do so for a bit longer.

[SovietCommissar]

An interesting problem I've noticed with the AI and landing is that sometimes, if you land, some or all of the aircraft in your flight will try to follow you, even if you're cleared for landing and they're not - problem with this being that more often than not, the AI flight members will spread themselves all over the field just short of the runway. It's a lot rarer for this to happen once you've entered a landing pattern, though.

However, beware of splattering AI wingmen if you try to emergency-land at a field, whether it has a plate to come down on or not.

[luther01]

if you forget to give the order for your flight to return to base, even when you are landing they try to follow you which can lead to them hitting the ground when they try to fly as slow as you

[caldrail]

The procedure is fly to an airfield. tell your flight to go home at the lastg minute - that will prevent many crashes - and then call the tower. Doesn't matter which one, it just registers your intention to land with the program and stops the AI thinking you're flying at 0 mph at 0 ft later on and thus blocking the runway.