Fighter pilot's question

[McMick]

All of these detailed sims with their different revisions of aircraft lead me to wonder:

In WWII, with the rate at which planes were upgraded, has anyone heard a story about someone being well trained on one particular version of an aircraft, then receiving the upgraded version, then at some point in-flight not being able to find the control they need because it was eliminated, moved, or replaced with something else?

I'm aware that pilots would get time to fly new kites before going into combat with them (usually), but I have to imagine that getting well-trained on one might sometimes cause brain-freeze when flying an aircraft that is basically exactly the same except for this or that small difference. Any stories?

[Ridge]

That is what a kneeboard is for

But seriously, more than likely they spend several hours learning the new layout of the panel. Nowadays to check out in a plane you have to be able to reach every control with your eyes closed...Id imagine a similar practice was in place in the 40s...

[alastairmonk]

Bearing in mind that "full training" was a luxury during the War, I suspect that more than one pilot experienced the same scenario that you proposed.

Normally there would be a transition period with a new Mark of plane, however, at least in the early period, such as during the Battle of Britain, this would have been pretty minimal, and many pilots were sent into battle with far fewer hours "in type" than would be considered adequate in peacetime.

If such an occurrance happened at a critical moment, such as during aerial combat, then quite possibly the pilot would have either been shot down or killed, and there may not have been any reports filed ......

Alastair

[MIKE TULL]

I remember reading in one of the issues of "flight journal" from the F4U-4(?) to the F4U5 a problem was encountered because the F4U-4(?) had manual shift (low to high blower) of the supercharger when your MAP started dropping off. The F4U-5 had only autoshift on the supercharger. At around approximately 17,000 msl the autoshift would kick in. The aneroid switch evidently could not be set to kick-in at the exact same altitude for every aircraft. When approaching 17,000 msl the formation had to spread out because if your S.C. kicked-in before the A/C ahead of you, the power surge could cause a mid-air collision. There was some other issue with the placement and nwe type of switches.