What caused my level bombing accuracy in HE-111 very poor?

[Lymark]

I was heading to Hawkinge for a bombing raid coming from the South-East. Airspeed and altitude(3000m) were properly calibrated, level flight and ball in the center(no side slip). I aimed for one of the hangers north of the airfield. However, my bombs landed approximately 50m East and a little before of my aiming point.So, it exploded almost by the end of the eastern runway.

I'm not sure what have I done wrong here.:doh:

[trademe900]

The Heinkel's Lotfe does not work properly like the Ju88. Please see my thread on this issue here for the discussion and methods to work around the issue. http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8590&highlight=lotfe+wacked

If you want your 250kg bombs to land on the cross hair with the Lotfe automation tracking the target, you need a 16m delay setting, otherwise they will fall short just as you experienced. For the 50kg bombs 8m delay works well.

The deviation to the east was probably caused by you correcting the plane's course not far enough in advance.

[Torric270]

I was heading to Hawkinge for a bombing raid coming from the South-East. Airspeed and altitude(3000m) were properly calibrated, level flight and ball in the center(no side slip). I aimed for one of the hangers north of the airfield. However, my bombs landed approximately 50m East and a little before of my aiming point.So, it exploded almost by the end of the eastern runway.

I'm not sure what have I done wrong here.:doh:

Which bombs, 50s or 250s?

What meter spread did you have set? That low of an alt with 250s you probably need a spread of 40 m to overcome slight bug in the sight, it is more accurate at 5 and 6k. The cross hairs will be where the last bomb will drop with the 250s.

There is wind I believe out of the west or sw, which blew your bombs to the east. Which mission was it? The wind is in the briefing.

Also any last second adjustments can throw off the aim.

Ninja'd!

[Lymark]

Thanks for the explanation:salute:

I will try to set the bomb delay and see how it goes!

By the way, what If I just aim slightly behind the target with 0m delay to overcome the drop short bug?? Wouldn't it work as well??

Speaking of 50kg bombs, what are some situation to better use 50kg instead of 250kg? Why would I want to use a smaller bombs when I could carry a better one?

[Torric270]

Thanks for the explanation:salute:

I will try to set the bomb delay and see how it goes!

By the way, what If I just aim slightly behind the target with 0m delay to overcome the drop short bug?? Wouldn't it work as well??

Speaking of 50kg bombs, what are some situation to better use 50kg instead of 250kg? Why would I want to use a smaller bombs when I could carry a better one?

50 kg bombs are good for convoys and ships. For convoys you could have 4 drops of 8 bombs and for ships 16 drops of 2 for example. It just comes down to what your target is and how you want to hit it.

[trademe900]

Which bombs, 50s or 250s?

What meter spread did you have set? That low of an alt with 250s you probably need a spread of 40 m to overcome slight bug in the sight, it is more accurate at 5 and 6k. The cross hairs will be where the last bomb will drop with the 250s.

There is wind I believe out of the west or sw, which blew your bombs to the east. Which mission was it? The wind is in the briefing.

Also any last second adjustments can throw off the aim.

Ninja'd!

You can do that but it's not going to be precise of course. If you want to hit anything other than an airfield I think the crosshair is necessary.

[Lymark]

Just tried another raid with a 16m delay and it worked perfectly:)

An off topic question: On the sortie I flow just now,my left engine somehow shut off during an 150km flight. I looked up on my gauges and noticed that all fuel from the left engine were transferred to my right engine. I'm not sure what I've pressed. How do I fix this?

11340
11341
I was only carrying 30% fuel in total. , fuel on the left engine were gone and I somehow had a full tank of fuel on the right after a 20~30mins of flight. So, I'm pretty it got transferred.

[Torric270]

Just tried another raid with a 16m delay and it worked perfectly:)

An off topic question: On the sortie I flow just now,my left engine somehow shut off during an 150km flight. I looked up on my gauges and noticed that all fuel from the left engine were transferred to my right engine. I'm not sure what I've pressed. How do I fix this?

11340
11341
I was only carrying 30% fuel in total. , fuel on the left engine were gone and I somehow had a full tank of fuel on the right after a 20~30mins of flight. So, I'm pretty it got transferred.

You must have a key binding for it and accidently hit it, check and see if you have keys for fuel cocks 3 and 4; or you did the same with your mouse and pulled one of the levers to the right of the pilot seat: taken from the TF wiki.

The HEIII has a total of four fuel tanks 2 in each wing. These tanks are referred to as Inner and Outer tanks. Fuel Quantity indicators for both Port and Starboard tanks are located in the ceiling outboard of the pilots right shoulder. Individual selector switches are provided to allow each tank to be selected to read its respective quantity. There are a total of 4 Fuel Cocks. Two are on the Left hand sill panel (Fuel Cocks 1 &2) and two levers are located to the right of the pilots seat (Fuel Cocks 3&4). These cocks allow for tank isolation and the control of fuel transfer between tanks. Cocks 3 and 4 are used to select the Source tank and destination tank for Fuel transfers. The Long lever selects the source tank and the short lever selects the destination tank.

http://www.theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/wiki/doku.php?id=he111h2p2

If you have a fuel load above 50% you will have to transfer fuel into the inner wing tanks. This also helps when you have fuel leaks.