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View Full Version : Tips? Blenheim Dive Bombing.



92 Cdt. Kiwikillemoff (QJ-Z)
Dec-15-2013, 22:40
Hey All,

Have had a ball mastering general flight and skip bombing.

Cant seem to find and tips/resources and dive bombing in a Blenie.

Anyone got some tips?

Kiwi

RAF74_Buzzsaw
Dec-15-2013, 23:55
Hey All,

Have had a ball mastering general flight and skip bombing.

Cant seem to find and tips/resources and dive bombing in a Blenie.

Anyone got some tips?

Kiwi

Aircraft was not used as a dive bomber historically and is not recommended for that role as it has a very limited maximum dive speed and poor recovery at higher speeds.

92 Cdt. Kiwikillemoff (QJ-Z)
Dec-16-2013, 03:04
Aircraft was not used as a dive bomber historically and is not recommended for that role as it has a very limited maximum dive speed and poor recovery at higher speeds.


I've seen others dive bomb, with skill.

I hear what you are saying about the Blenies true operational capabilties. :salute:

I'll keep blundering away until I find some sort of sweet spot, for shooting from the hip, as it were.

Kiwi

ChiefRedCloud
Dec-16-2013, 12:47
I've seen others dive bomb, with skill.

I hear what you are saying about the Blenies true operational capabilties. :salute:

I'll keep blundering away until I find some sort of sweet spot, for shooting from the hip, as it were.

Kiwi

Got a video so we can see this "Dive Bombing Blenny?"

DRock
Dec-16-2013, 12:53
Hi Kiwi.

Watch your angle of descent, the bomb has a tendency to bounce if you come in too shallow.

I would strongly urge you to set your fuse delay to 10 seconds while learning. When your accuracy improves, you can drop from higher altitudes and remain at a safe enough distance from the blast.

I also recommend that you request an escort, whenever possible. It's nice to have a Spitty distracting the AAA while you get down to business.

I use the 250s for ships and convoys, the 500s for all other ground targets, including static planes.

For "airfield suppression", use 250s with 1 second delay.

Good luck and give them Hell.

Bear Pilot
Dec-16-2013, 13:27
The closest thing to dive bombing I've ever done in a Blenheim is a kind of booming and zooming of ships.

I would come in somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 feet. I would dive at a 45 degree angle along the length of the ship and drop somewhere between 500 and 750 feet. I'm not exactly sure because it wasn't an exact science, much more of a feel maneuver. I'd then zoom back up to the original altitude and build my speed back up. If there were 3 ships in a row I would hit the first ship, climb over the second, and hit the third. I found that to work best for me but there were times I would attack all three in one run. I usually did that because death from approaching 109's was imminent.

Just as I would begin my dive I set props to fine and cut the throttles to about 20%. I don't use the digital display so it's just a guestimate. The idea is you keep enough fuel to the engines so they don't start coughing and that way when you need to climb they'll respond better. Prop pitch set to fine was to slow me down just a little in the dive and also so I didn't have to think about changing it when I started to climb out. Once I hit about 180-190 mph after coming out of the climb (so back at the top of the wave if you will) I would drop props to coarse again just to get the extra speed but I set it back to fine when I repeated the process.

For aiming, I typically put the gun sight cross hairs on the farthest 1/3rd of the ship initially and adjusted ever so slightly to what felt right as I was in the dive. Again, I found 45 degrees, or somewhere around there, to be ideal. Of course you want to be as close to 90 degrees as you can but as Buzzsaw mentioned, the Blennie was not meant to pull out of dives. In my experience, starting from the relatively low altitude with a relatively shallow dive angle and controlling speed with prop pitch and throttle, I always pulled out of the dive no problems. Unless of course you're elevator is hit by flak, in which case hit the silk fast or take the ship down with you because you're usually too low to pull out with trim alone.

Also I used 250's with the 11 second delay. The delay doesn't really matter as you never really get low enough for the bomb to do any damage, I just didn't want to take any chances with such relatively stressful maneuvering on the airframe.

I had pretty good success with it but couldn't consistently hit 4/4. I averaged a little over 3/4 which is still good but I eventually was good enough skip bombing to hit 4/4 almost all the time. Most importantly though, the boom and zoom up and down motion is exactly what a 109 wants you to do. So if you're all by your lonesome or have some little friends with you I'd say go with personal preference. However, if you're under fire from enemy fighters the Blenheim can easily out turn 109's so skip bombing and turn and burning on the deck would be my recommendation. Of course you won't last forever, but you will last longer than the dive/glide bombing I described above and hopefully take a couple more down with you.

Anyway, that's how I did it. Hope that gets you started.

RAF74_Buzzsaw
Dec-16-2013, 16:24
The closest thing to dive bombing I've ever done in a Blenheim is a kind of booming and zooming of ships.

I would come in somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 feet. I would dive at a 45 degree angle along the length of the ship and drop somewhere between 500 and 750 feet.

This sounds like a normal low alt glide bomb attack, not what I would define as dive bombing, which in the case of true dive bombers, happens from heights around 10,000-15,000 ft/3000-4500 meters and has the aircraft putting the nose down vertical or almost vertical. If you try that in the Blenheim, you are likely going to have issues with recovery.

Bear Pilot
Dec-16-2013, 19:35
The closest thing to dive bombing I've ever done in a Blenheim

Emphasis on 'closest'

Also, in practice, dives ended up pushing 55-65 degrees, especially after repeated dives.

92 Cdt. Kiwikillemoff (QJ-Z)
Dec-16-2013, 19:36
Got a video so we can see this "Dive Bombing Blenny?"

ummm nooo:no:

Im guessing my description of a dive bombing run is not really a dive bombing run.

Kiwi

92 Cdt. Kiwikillemoff (QJ-Z)
Dec-16-2013, 19:38
The closest thing to dive bombing I've ever done in a Blenheim is a kind of booming and zooming of ships.

I would come in somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 feet. I would dive at a 45 degree angle along the length of the ship and drop somewhere between 500 and 750 feet. I'm not exactly sure because it wasn't an exact science, much more of a feel maneuver. I'd then zoom back up to the original altitude and build my speed back up. If there were 3 ships in a row I would hit the first ship, climb over the second, and hit the third. I found that to work best for me but there were times I would attack all three in one run. I usually did that because death from approaching 109's was imminent.

Just as I would begin my dive I set props to fine and cut the throttles to about 20%. I don't use the digital display so it's just a guestimate. The idea is you keep enough fuel to the engines so they don't start coughing and that way when you need to climb they'll respond better. Prop pitch set to fine was to slow me down just a little in the dive and also so I didn't have to think about changing it when I started to climb out. Once I hit about 180-190 mph after coming out of the climb (so back at the top of the wave if you will) I would drop props to coarse again just to get the extra speed but I set it back to fine when I repeated the process.

For aiming, I typically put the gun sight cross hairs on the farthest 1/3rd of the ship initially and adjusted ever so slightly to what felt right as I was in the dive. Again, I found 45 degrees, or somewhere around there, to be ideal. Of course you want to be as close to 90 degrees as you can but as Buzzsaw mentioned, the Blennie was not meant to pull out of dives. In my experience, starting from the relatively low altitude with a relatively shallow dive angle and controlling speed with prop pitch and throttle, I always pulled out of the dive no problems. Unless of course you're elevator is hit by flak, in which case hit the silk fast or take the ship down with you because you're usually too low to pull out with trim alone.

Also I used 250's with the 11 second delay. The delay doesn't really matter as you never really get low enough for the bomb to do any damage, I just didn't want to take any chances with such relatively stressful maneuvering on the airframe.

I had pretty good success with it but couldn't consistently hit 4/4. I averaged a little over 3/4 which is still good but I eventually was good enough skip bombing to hit 4/4 almost all the time. Most importantly though, the boom and zoom up and down motion is exactly what a 109 wants you to do. So if you're all by your lonesome or have some little friends with you I'd say go with personal preference. However, if you're under fire from enemy fighters the Blenheim can easily out turn 109's so skip bombing and turn and burning on the deck would be my recommendation. Of course you won't last forever, but you will last longer than the dive/glide bombing I described above and hopefully take a couple more down with you.

Anyway, that's how I did it. Hope that gets you started.

Thanking you very much Bear old chap! I will use this as a guide. For "shallow Bombing" and forget I ever mentioned Dive Bombing.

Will get practicing after work tonight

Kiwi:salute:

RAF74_Buzzsaw
Dec-16-2013, 19:50
Here's a suggestion for those trying these type of low alt Glide bomb attacks.

This works to reduce (not eliminate) the chances of being hit by flak.

Start with your nose pointed away from the target at approx. 4000 ft altitude and the target approx 6000 ft away. Your left or right wing should be pointed directly at the target.

Begin a gentle diving left or right hand turn, (depending which wing was pointed at the target) which ends with you lining up the target at the last moment, and then releasing your bombs.

The fact you are turning and diving at the same time will reduce the chances of a flak hit, flak has more of a problem tracking targets which are making changes in two dimensions simultaneously.