Today we got the task of providing a little lunch time interuption for one of the German units still trapped at the Stalingrad main trainstation. Ordnance for today are rockets and the weather is overcast with a slight wind from the south east. The cloud cover over the target is broken so there should be clear patches to dive through.
Lights on, flaps to 30 degrees, radiators open, a burst of power and down the taxiway we go. Coming up is the scariest moment for the Pe-2 pilot, the gentle ground turn. Easy on the rudder, give the brake lever a few light presses and wait for the turn to start. Just as the turn starts, turn back a little and give the brakes a few more presses. It's like steering a ship.
Turning onto the runway. Takes some practice to get good at the 90 degree turn. It's easy when you are alone, but with a four ship, you don't want to be swinging around too much.
Full power and as the speed builds, get the tail up a little and then the Pe-2 will lift by itself. Plenty of lift in that wing and only a moderate amount of flaps needed. Gear is up, and we are climbing and building up speed.
The overcast is not complete so the sun is shining through here and there. Flaps are fully up and sunglasses are on.
Speed is now good so I dial back the power a little and settle into a gentle climb and turn. Clouds whisks past the canopy and with half the instruments not working I'll have to monitor climb, speed and the shadows to make sure I'm going up.
Quick look up and I see blue sky, that is a good sign.
After a minute or so we finally break through the clouds and warm sunshine fills the cockpit.
Looking at the pretty clouds makes me forget the instruments and a shudder from the stick brings me back to reality. There was a little hill of clouds in front of us and I have been increasing my climbrate and now we are almost stalling. All levers to full, max RPM, mixture and power and level off a little. The stick vibration stops and the speed increases. Temps look good of so I decide to build up some proper speed before backing off the power again.
Finally we have some good altitude and we can go back to enjoying the view.
In the back our radio operator starts giving reports on visibility through the cloud cover. We'd rather not dive blindly through the clouds over Stalingrad.
The view from the bombardier. Plenty of FOV when running 3600x1920 resolution.
Stalingrad is visible through the clouds and we start the turn.
Diving through the clouds trying to spot the train station.
After this I forgot that the level autopilot does not control the power so while gunning from the back we stalled and hit the ground in a massive fireball. Still a good day out with the new build. Improved clouds, improved interior texturing of the Pe-2 and some other fixes makes this release a good improvement.
-C-
