[Russ_Ace]

Ahh Triad, AWESOME mission.

And Russ_Ace beat me to it, I was going to say that the Kong Jiang-1 would be good for this mission

I did a couple of modifications though, I changed the weather to "Hazy" because my cpu was taking a bit of a hit and when you combine that with Freddys F-86 cockpit, it had some lag. Not much, but then combine that with the way the F-86 likes to "nose jump" on take off and I literally got off the ground 3 out of 6 or 7 tries, and I stalled and crashed on the 3 succesful ones :mrgreen:

The second thing I did was add a wingman just for the sake of atmosphere. He served absolutely no purpose, but it was cool to see him in formation with me (I gave him the same skin too).



Now, for the debriefing (humor me lol):
[I had everything set to full-real except for external views, so the map was useless]

I took off about 5 minutes after 5:00 AM in hazy weather, cloud bottoms at about 500 meters. I immediately turned to heading 180 and continued my climb at about 1500 to 2000 fpm at 70-80% throttle to allow my wingman to close the distance and form up, which he did on my starboard side and slightly aft.

At this point I asked Ground Control to give me a vector to the target,to which was responded with a heading of "175". We then turned to (approximately) heading 175 and continued our climb for the next 10-15 minutes.

We then maintained a heading of (approximately) 175 and an altitude that ranged between 23,000-26,000 feet for the next 10 minutes, periodically asking Ground Control for the nearest vector to target. After about 5-10 minutes of this, periodically asking for vectors, I was told to turn to (approximately) heading 327.

I was shocked, I hadn't seen a thing, but I followed through and turned to heading 327. I (we) followed this course for around 30-60 seconds when I asked Ground Control for another vector to target, which I was then told to turn to heading of which I do not exactly remember, although it was in almost the complete opposite direction of my current heading (327).

This cycle continued for nearly 10 minutes; me flying the designated heading, calling in for the next vector, then given a heading that was almost entirely opposite of the previous heading. I could not get a visual, although I had dropped in altitude from above 20,000 to somewhere near 10,000 feet.


{{Ok this is where I cheated lol. I couldnt see this guy at all, but I had a feeling he was close due to the designated vectors being almost completely opposite even though they were only a few seconds apart. So I Ctrl-F2'd to the B-29 while the game was paused and tried to match the cloud positions from his view with the cloud positions from my view. It helped a bit but the clouds that were just off of the horizon that I could only see the edge of made it difficult to determine positions, so I climbed back up to above 20,000 feet and continued the search visually.}}


After doing this for nearly another 10 minutes, I was in a wide right turn at somewhere near 20,000 feet, when at a heading of (approximately) 243 I looked North-North West and I made visual contact.

I (we) turned to follow the aircraft and closed on his starboard side, which I then identified as a TU-4 "Bull". I had to slow down considerably to maintain his speed (which was slightly below 200 Knots indicated). At this point I was having trouble with stability issues. I did not realize that my external tanks were empty though, which were the main cause of the low stability. My wingman, who I assume could not deccelerate in time, shot past and underneath me (he had jettisoned his externals at what I'm guesing was a few seconds before this).

I was moving further to the right of the aircraft and slightly ahead when I activated my Navigation Lights and also my Landing Lights. It was also at this time that my wingman (who was about 700-1000 meters ahead) went inverted and pulled into a steep dive and I did not see him again for the next few minutes. I continued ahead and about 200 meters above the "Bull", dropped my externals, and cut south across his flight path; he was heading almost dead west.

I circled around and pulled in behind the TU-4 and relatively maintained this position for a few minutes, moving back and forth (right to left, south to north) slightly aft and under his aircraft. Sometime during the next 30-60 seconds (approximately) my wingman had arrived back on my starboard side.I also noticed the belly gunner of the TU-4 traversing left and right, following my wingman, BUT HE DID NOT OPEN FIRE.

I then pulled to the TU-4's starboard side, pulled ahead, and crossed in front of his flight path to the left (north) then back to the right (south) one last time. All the while since I had made visual contact he had not responded to anything I had done. I did not want to shoot him down, he seemed to pose no threat, being nearly 100 kilometers south of Kiska AFB.

I then turned in the opposite direction (east) and then swung back around, gaining speed and closing in fast aft and starboard of the TU-4, changing my gunsight settings to "Gyro Only". I closed to within approximately 300 meters and opened fire with a 1-3 second burst, observing multiple hits on the tail gunners position, fuselage, and the right wing. I then shot another short burst, strafing a large section of the right wing. I saw the inner-most engine on the right wing seize and begin to pour black smoke.

I continued past him on his starboard side and climbed sharply, then descending into a wide sweeping turn and pulling up behind him at about 3000 to 3500 meters. I observed that he did not try to descend, or change course. At this point I fired a single AIM-9B from that range (3000-3500) meters. It struck him in the left elevetor and the entire aircraft exploded into multiple pieces.

I then turned north and asked Ground Control for a vector to the "nearest friendly airbase",to which I was given a heading of (exactly) 31. I continued on this course, descending to about 10,000 feet. shortly after I made visual contact with Amchitka Island and asked for permission to land, which was granted and I brought her down safely.

I had lost contact with my wingman just after the destruction of the TU-4, but after I had taxied to a stop off the south side of the runway near the Control Tower, he did a low level flyby over the runway. He then landed, taxied in, and parked about 30 meters from my aircraft.

Well thats kind of long, but I made it as realistic and accurately as I could (I saved the replay).

Once again, VERY GOOD JOB TRIAD!

~S~

I got lucky because he was above me in the moon light, i locked on and hit the cockpit, blew it in half.