Dear sir, can you please fly your aircraft at a steady speed?

Is it just me, or does anyone else's flight leader fly like a knucklehead whilst leading a flight? It's Feb. 1916, and we're all flying Bristol Scouts. My flight leader seems to be incapable of maintaining a steady speed. My flight seems to consist of flying at top speed to catch up, or to blip like mad to prevent from crashing into him. I know it's not me, because I can throttle back and forth and match him, and he's going 70 mph for a minute or so, then he's down to 50 mph for no apparent reason.

I don't particularly expect an answer, I was just wondering if anyone else feels my pain. On a more positive note, I shot down two of Immelmann's wingmen during that patrol.

Not just you, Willie. I thought I was seeing the same thing, so I set autopilot. Yep, he's toying with us.

Well-played, vonBaur. Not many people get the joke in my callsign. But anyone who calls me Willie sure does.

Yeah, watching the autopilot fly my plane in a formation (especially with time acceleration on) almost looks like a binary throttle (100% / idle / 100% / idle ...). I don't know if there's anything coming in the next version dealing with an AI pilot leading a flight; but it sure would be nice to see.

You're actually Bill Clinton?!?!

To the subject, I recall having the same problem, and figured it was just my inexperience. Now you more experienced flyers are telling me it wasn't just me being a n00b! Thanks!

Definitely not alone there. Remind me to never enlist as a corporal again 😋. I’d like to see this addressed too.

I've also recently noticed that the escorted flights do the same thing. Makes keeping station with them as flight leader a real pain.

I wonder if the AI flight lead is trying to maintain the schedule, so its projections for the entire leg over compensate for instantaneous things like a wind gust. I would think it would be easier to hold formation position if it prioritized throttle position (say at 80-85% or so, except if climbing or stalling). Anyway, just a suggestion.

As far as I know these older aeroplanes were not so heavy (fabric and wood) and they have had double wings. So I can imagine, that ther were more sensitive to wind, thermal and so on. And so it is more difficult to hold the position / formation. And not to forget the early engines (rotary motor). Perhaps the AI-behaviour simulates all these factors in every flight with every aeroplane, without differences. But it's only a supposition of mine.

Greetings!