Hello,

First of all I want to say thanks to WOFF support for getting me up and running again

Now, I am having trouble keeping up with the other planes in my formation, is there some magic trick to this? Or do most people simply lead their formations? I have searched around quite a bit but haven't found any answers to this kind of question.

-Jake

What is your "Auto mixture" set at (On, or Off) in the WorkShop screen ??? The AI uses Auto Mixture ON and unless you are as good as the AI in using your air/fuel Mixture control, it will be very hard to keep up with them.

Thanks for the quick response. I did have it set to off because I was adjusting for optimal RPM myself, but apparently I must not be as good!

jxeboy;

make sure you have "auto mixture" on in the workshop. Unless you are experienced with adjusting mixture manually you can experience the problem you speak of. The other factor is that if the plane you are flying is not the same model as your flight members, you can fall behind. This usually happens if you have been allocated an older plane model. You haven't indicated the plane mix so I really am not sure at this point.

Indeed Robert.
If you have a older model aircraft then your flight leader he will leave you behind between certain waypoints but, and I have seen this work out a couple of different ways, you will catch up as they wait for you - usually at the waypoint where the mission really starts.

Another trick might be "fuel adjustment.
select 2x or 2 1/2 x the amount of fuel you need for the tour,
and then reduce the filling for your own craft by 10 or 20 litres.
That might slow them down a bit.

I do that too. I'll often take 50% and leave everyone else at 100% if I have troubles keeping up and am not flight leader.

I find I only get behind during the 'circling up' phase after takeoff. It is fairly easy to make up lost distance by 'cutting short' across the wide circle that the flight is following. Making up for any lost height is the hard part.

It can sometimes be a problem of trying to climb too steeply. Sometimes my formation is getting above me, so I keep pulling the nose higher and higher to try and stay with them, but all that does is make me go slower and slower. Soon I am in the edge of a stall, barely making headway and not gaining any altitude (impossible to keep up at that point). The trick in that case is to drop the nose so you get up a good rate of speed and then climb only as steeply as you can without bleeding that speed.

Once we are on our way to the target, I find the formation usually travels slower than top speed and it is easy to stay caught up.

I was actually flying with J11 in, I believe March 1917 with MvR in a Alb DIII (early) and me and another non-HA in Halbs - the DII if memory serves.
Anyway during the form-up and climb to altitude things wern't too bad but during the trip to the first waypoint he was quickly out of sight for long minutes. However at the waypoint for the start of the mission (waypoint near the frontline for a line patrol IIRC) "he" was actually there circling and waiting for us. We formed up and there were no more problems on this mission.
WOFF is always interesting.

Thanks everyone for the tips

It's too bad we can't slow them down. I can't imagine that a squadron would leave someone behind. I also think they wouldn't run at full throttle all the time, that seems like it would be too tough on the equipment.

Yes you are correct.
In "real life" in a patrol of mixed aircraft types (which seems to be a German thing mid-1916+) I cannot believe a member of the patrol would be left behind because he was in a slower aircraft for obvious reasons.
The Dev's are aware though and hopefully will fix it sometime.

One more tip: keep forward speed before climb, for catching up.
That means, you remain closer to them vertically, but not in height.
You can always catch up with altitude bit by bit later, when the others
have reached their service ceiling; but you won't loose touch completely
with that in mind.

Hi jxeboy,

I very rarely lead a flight and do sometimes get a bit left behind.
Unlike OFF however, in WOFF it is quite easy to catch-up.

But I would say that rotary engined a/c are more difficult,
and this is because your AI colleagues can throttle their engines
and never blip, whereas you, of course, rely on blipping only (depending on the engine).
A spell of auto-pilot showed me this along with the lack of those little puffs of smoke/vapour
that indicate the blip.
At least, that's my theory.

All the best
RS

It's not so easy unfortunately as some craft have stall speeds higher than others, and other quirks that makes handling difficult for an AI pilot especially in a wind so it is what it is for the moment. It's possible some pilots would prefer to keep speed higher and not want to "slow down" for the new guy in a combat area (given many would know he will likely be shot down in a week or two anyway).

It's much much better than in most sims (and very few have mixed flights).