I was messing around with max altitudes the other day (after reading that Rumplers go above 20,000 ft) and noticed most of these aircraft don't go above 16-17,000 ft. Is this preprogrammed or is there a way around going higher? Each aircraft has a description that says it goes higher than this so I was confused as to why I couldn't push the craft to that said height.

Oh dear sir! I'd be surprised if it didn't take you most of the morning to get there! And then floating along at that altitude - I'll bet it'd look like you're all but stopped! And finally, you'd better have a bottle of oxygen with you - that's hypoxia heaven, and maybe hypothermia heaven, too! I can't imagine being in one of these crates at that altitude. Thank God you're sitting at a comfy desk looking at a monitor!

Unfortunately I have no answer for your question, but seeing that you attempted to fly up there, I had to wonder how long it took. And then I got to thinking of the actual experience. Yow! So here's a bump for you, maybe someone else knows.

I appreciate the bump, but I realized a while ago that I am the only one who flies at ridiculous heights for advantage. I know I'm the only one who does this so asking the question was kind pointless.

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perhaps with manual fuel mixture you could get there. Still it would take so much time in the sim that I think the enemy AI would of all landed by the time you head for the front.
Fact is though, those 2 seater Huns that could fly high did so, as they rarely had escorts, and they had the fuel to do so too.

In my old DID career I liked taking the rumpler up to 5-6000m just to give me time to escape when Spads showed up.

A couple of suggestions if you want to avoid the long climb to high altitude:

1. Fly a QC mission and set starting mission height (on the left side of the screen, below the picture of your aircraft) to 18,000 ft.

2. Use JJJ's campaign editor and edit the first or second waypoint after takeoff so that the altitude is very high (above 5000 meters). Start the mission, use autopilot, accelerate time, and wait until your aircraft reaches the desired height where you can then begin testing.

3. Cackle at the silly little buggers on the ground below.

I tried the Rumpler in QC at 20,000 and always started at (and couldn't go higher) 16,500.

That's high enough. The fact me asking about going higher kind of irritates me, so I can only imagine devs and others seeing it.

Or you could take it one step further with JJJ65's tremendous mission editor. The first two waypoints are: 1-takeoff and 2-altitude. Edit the altitude of the second waypoint by changing it to 5,000 meters. Then delete the first waypoint. The mission will then start at 5,000 meters.

Deleting the first waypoint is similar to the "air start" option within the game. However, using "air start" will generally result in starting your mission right at the front, and often with enemy planes very nearby. But when using the mission editor to delete the first waypoint your mission will start way back at the beginning of the second leg.