Bomb load on B17 and other bombers...

[pascal]

In the manual it's explained that bomb bay of aircraft are basiccaly "pre-loaded" with "...5 Lb load of bombs..." but that can be modified from FS payload manager menu...

In fact when I look at the initial "payload" of the B17 through the FS payload menu, I can see that 4 stations are loaded each with 105 kg (and 10 others with an individual load of about 80 kg, corresponding to the crew members..?).
So... Where is the mistake ? What about the "...5 Lb..." in the manual (seems to be small warload..?!) ? What do the 4 stations with 105 kg each represent ?
And in fact, how can I modify the warload of my bombers ? Which station should I use in the FS menu and what are the limits in mass (of bombs) for each aircraft ?

Thanks.

Pascal

[Snuffy]

My problems with "war loads" at this time is that regardless of the ability to drop or not drop a load, I do not know that FS9/FSX accounts for the discharged weight for your return trip.

So if you put a "war load" in your bomber for take off ... unless there is some way to change that during flight that I don't know of, ... you'll have to make your landing with the "war load" still in the bay.

Be careful.

[-E]

My problems with "war loads" at this time is that regardless of the ability to drop or not drop a load, I do not know that FS9/FSX accounts for the discharged weight for your return trip.

So if you put a "war load" in your bomber for take off ... unless there is some way to change that during flight that I don't know of, ... you'll have to make your landing with the "war load" still in the bay.

Be careful.

You're right that FS9 doesn't allow dropping weight per se'. Although it is actually do-able... via XML. Essentially, just add a "drop tank" to the aircraft.cfg, then program it via XML to "drop" that invisible tank and it's associated fuel weight when you key in your visual effects of bombs dropping. The only real pain would be to constantly ensure that the engines cannot feed from that "tank" (again, via XML), but can (and will) autofeed from other tanks by default.

I was working up to such a task many many many moons ago, but never got to the weight portion when I stumbled on the non-randomness of a random number generator used to assign flak damage (kept losing the same two engines too often and rarely lost other engines or aircraft systems! ...I eventually got sidetracked and never went back to that Bombing Mission Project. Although the flak "booms" and "tink's" of shrapnel hitting the fuselage still crack me up to this day! LOL.

[Skycat]

War loads? Drop bombs?

Flak generator? Tink tink tink?

What is all this???

[SD_Research]

In FSX this will all be possible.

In FS9, of course, you take off with a full load and once you get to where you would "drop" your bombs, you pull up the payloads menu and delete the weight so your landing weight is appropriate.

No other way to do it. The 5-lb. weight is a placeholder for your main payload or any additional weight you might wish to add to bring the weight up to maximum gross takeoff weight.