My bombs fall to the ground and lay there

fuse?

forgotten to arm the bombs?

There's 2 parts to this, one is making sure you have armed the bombs. Bombs are not "active" to explode by default, otherwise storage and movement on the ground at your home airfield would be excessively dangerous. Make sure you have toggled your bombs armed before you drop them.

Secondly, you have different fuses you can attach to the bomb. This is done pre-flight (can't change the fuse type in the air!) via the loadout screen. Check the bomb type you intend to carry, and match the fuse option with what you intend to do. I.e. I'm flying a 109E-3b with a SC250. I need to go to the Bombs section of the loadout menu, press Next Bomb until I'm on the SC250, then select fuse type (Dive bomb, Low Level, Hi Alt). If I choose High Alt (which typically is the default) it will show a ">1km" in the fuse selection. This means you have to be higher than 1000m when you release the bomb, to give it time to arm itself (after you've toggled the bombs armed on). Low level bombs have much lower requirements, but generally have much longer fuses. (High Alt explodes on contact, where low level ones might have a 8 second or 14 second delay). Pick the right bomb type for the job, or you risk unexploded ordinance, or still being in the blast radius when the bomb goes off.

Also if you are flying the Blenheim, the 88 or heinkel make sure you set a key for open bomb doors and one for close doors Once you arm the bomb you will see a light on the bomb panel of most planes light up. I have not fully worked out the salvo rate yet but i noticed in the 110 that when you arm ,you only arm one bomb at a time.So it is arm then drop, arm next bomb then drop.

Okay thanks I've figured out to arm the bombs and have played with the fuses, must be doing something wrong here though, might be using the wrong fuse for a given bomb(?), but I will follow your directions cheesehawk. Thanks guys

Okay thanks Ajay

Which plane are you learning on? We could give more specific directions with that bit of information. It's quite amazing the amount of detail that goes into each different system on all the different planes. While I'm pretty good at bombing in a 109 and 110s, and I can place bombs on target in a Stuka, I couldn't figure out how to change the delivery package in the Stuka until yesterday. The Ju-88s and He-111s are different beasts altogether, and lord knows I'm helplessly lost in the Blennie.

Yes the differing systems per plane is impressive.

I'm currently focusing on the 109 and 110

Okay, I seem to have figured it out at least in the FMB my bombs go boom. However when I went online (ATAG) it appears my bombs did not go off. I might just need to fiddle a bit more.

Of course on the ATAG server I have no way of knowing if my aircraft is even armed with bombs as there are no external views. I've been hoping to get close enough to someone and ask 'So am I well hung?'.

Is there any indicators in the cockpit that would tell me I have a bomb attached to my underbelly?

Bisher! You were flying a 110 last night when I signed on. It was a quiet period with about 6 or 7 flying on each side. I told my wingmates on Teamspeak that "An ol' SimHQ buddy of mine named Bisher is flying a 110......let's hunt him down!" We spread out and patrolled the English coast from Manston to south of the English point expressly searching for a low-flying 110. Suddenly you logged off, so we had to content ourselves with yellow-noses.

Good to see you online, Bish. For 15 minutes you were famous! LOL

lol Snapper, too bad, I would have enjoyed meeting up with you guys over they skies of england, though it would have been a short enccounter for sure. That 110 is a handful.

I did not even have my chat window open.

I broke some ribs over the holiday break so I'm only good for short hops before my back gets sore.

I will be back Snapper and look forward to meeting up with you guys.

Not sure why I'm flyiing axis for the most, might be a blast to fly on your side at some time.

Hint: I'm generally heading for G7 so you might find me there

There's no indicators that show you if you have a bomb, however, the bomb arm panel will light up in all German aircraft when the fuse is lit. You could test it while still on the tarmac, toggle bomb armed, if it lights, you have one. I'd disarm it again before attempting a take off though, not sure how high explosives underneath the fuselage react on the occasional nose-over!

At least, you'd save the time en route to target if you suddenly find you forgot to add the bombs under the loadout options.

Okay cheesehawk, thanks I'll take note next time, do a little test fuse next time.

Yes take offs are a bit hairy and nosing over is always on a possibility.

It's the only time I use flaps for takeoff, when I've got a heavy bomb load and a good bit of fuel. Dropping the 109's flaps down about 20degrees, and she takes off gentle as anything!

I found this last night with 109, twice i dropped on the radars at I12 , then circled around waiting, waiting... but no boom.Checked offline with the same custom loadout - sc250 and high alt fuse, all good dropping from about 2500-3000 feet in a slow dive.Would not blow online though ?

1000m = 3000ft, if you were even 100ft below that, it didn't have time to arm. Plus, if you have downward trajectory, you're cutting the time in air down again. If you want to use that fuse, I'd advise dropping around 1500m or roughly 5000ft.

Its ok , with some help from madman online it worked out i that didnt have the bombrack with the 250 selected..just the bombrack..doh! I was selecting my loadout the bomb screen but not in the weapons screen. I normally start mt run in the 109 at about 3500 and drop at 2 ish. Cheers Cheese

Pull up your socks Russell. I'll only say that once

Heh, you forgot to double check the Bomb Armed light didn't you? I always check that, because there are way too many times I think I've loaded something and forgot to!

The light never lies!

i cannae pool me socks eny haigher luddie !! There the ankle sock type, the ones i swore i would never wear back in the 90'S

Thats what i was doing Cheese, everytime i jumped in the pit and armed i would have no light, jg53madman told me to double check the weapons screen and voila!All i had on was the rack..no bomb. What a noob, i flew all the way to g10 and did a bomb run, without a bomb.Gak.Goerings insults must be getting to me.

Yes that was good piece of advise by cheesehawk, do a test arm before takeoff

All advice given is from my extensive experience making mistakes! Lol
I have an aversion to reading manuals, so lots of painful trial-and-error. On the plus side, I can generally remember most of the common mistakes I've made, so there's a wealth of knowledge on what the issues people run across online and offline are going to be!