Recon Missions

[VFC_Baxter 19]

I did a recon last night and I was thinking that my altitude was probably far too low at about 400 metres. What altitude did they really fly in most of those missions?

[+quack74 329]

By mid war, recon altitude was around 4,000ft to 5000ft. Not a very safe altitude for taking pics. But by late war the Germans were reconnoitering at 10,000ft. The game does have us a bit low.

[33LIMA 972]

Height? Depends. Photo recconaisance might be quite low-ish if they wanted oblique photos. If not, as high as you can get and still see the target - it was high-flying Rumplers that McCudden often coaxed his finely-tuned SE5a up to intercept, and this was at about 18-20,000 feet in 1917-18 (and likewise Biggles his modified camel, in 'The Camera :) ). McCudden recorded that '...the Rumplers at 20,000 feet are extremely efficient...'

 

An 8 Sqdn pilot flying BE2c's in 1916 records that 'the best height to take them [photos] was 6000 feet' and described between 8-6000 feet as 'a reasonable height' with the cameras then in service.

 

In the early years, 1914-15, where visual recconnaisance with a notebook and pencil rather than a camera was common, a little lower maybe, lower again perhaps if there was cloud cover, but high enough to minimise the risk from small arms fire.

 

Depends also what you mean by 'recce'. If not photo or visual recce, then you might consider what the RFC called a Contact Patrol a recce of sorts, ie monitoring the progress of troops, but while often at dangerously low level this would be a 2-seater task.

 

Artillery Observation is another mission that might be considered a recce, in FE mission terms. Tho I doubt there is any facility to get planes so detailed to fly figure eight circuits between battery and target at maybe 5000 feet! But again, 'art obs' would be strictly a 2-seater mission.

 

Really, you should NOT get a recce mission in a scout - especially not a German one. I am quite sure I recall an RFC Nieuport scout squadron putting a camera in a plane on a few missions, giving the aircraft an escort from their squadron-mates and sent over the lines. But that seems to have been rare indeed, unheard of for a German scout I suspect, with or without a camera. Scouts are just not good recce platforms. In FE campaign data files, from a quick glance, scout squadrons are rightly assigned a zero percent chance of getting a recce mission so maybe you were flying a single mission in that Halberstadt and chose a recce. for that mission. Methinks for such a task, you should pick one of these:

Edited April 15, 2013 by 33LIMA

[+whiteknight06604 934]

I did a recon last night and I was thinking that my altitude was probably far too low at about 400 metres. What altitude did they really fly in most of those missions?

VFC_Baxter there is an updated model of the Halberstadt at the A team site in this post. http://cplengineerin...7271e0e332750cc it fixes the rudder .

Edited April 16, 2013 by whiteknight06604

[VFC_Baxter 19]

Thanks for that Whitenight. I have access to the forums but not the files area. Will have to do some digging.

[VFC_Baxter 19]

Height? Depends. Photo recconaisance might be quite low-ish if they wanted oblique photos. If not, as high as you can get and still see the target - it was high-flying Rumplers that McCudden often coaxed his finely-tuned SE5a up to intercept, and this was at about 18-20,000 feet in 1917-18 (and likewise Biggles his modified camel, in 'The Camera :) ). McCudden recorded that '...the Rumplers at 20,000 feet are extremely efficient...'

 

An 8 Sqdn pilot flying BE2c's in 1916 records that 'the best height to take them [photos] was 6000 feet' and described between 8-6000 feet as 'a reasonable height' with the cameras then in service.

 

In the early years, 1914-15, where visual recconnaisance with a notebook and pencil rather than a camera was common, a little lower maybe, lower again perhaps if there was cloud cover, but high enough to minimise the risk from small arms fire.

 

Depends also what you mean by 'recce'. If not photo or visual recce, then you might consider what the RFC called a Contact Patrol a recce of sorts, ie monitoring the progress of troops, but while often at dangerously low level this would be a 2-seater task.

 

Artillery Observation is another mission that might be considered a recce, in FE mission terms. Tho I doubt there is any facility to get planes so detailed to fly figure eight circuits between battery and target at maybe 5000 feet! But again, 'art obs' would be strictly a 2-seater mission.

 

Really, you should NOT get a recce mission in a scout - especially not a German one. I am quite sure I recall an RFC Nieuport scout squadron putting a camera in a plane on a few missions, giving the aircraft an escort from their squadron-mates and sent over the lines. But that seems to have been rare indeed, unheard of for a German scout I suspect, with or without a camera. Scouts are just not good recce platforms. In FE campaign data files, from a quick glance, scout squadrons are rightly assigned a zero percent chance of getting a recce mission so maybe you were flying a single mission in that Halberstadt and chose a recce. for that mission. Methinks for such a task, you should pick one of these:

 

Nice answer. I will definitely go for one of those next time.

[33LIMA 972]

VFC_Baxter there is an updated model of the Halberstadt at the A team site in this post. http://cplengineerin...7271e0e332750cc it fixes the rudder .

 

The difference is fairly subtle, with the rudder moved forward to the correct position, but well worth having.

 

From the appearance of the Halb in your nice screenie, where I don't see shadows on the plane, you might also want to edit the HalberstadtDIII.ini file to set CastShadow=TRUE. Even if you have the in-cockpit self-shadowing disabled (by setting shadows to 'medium' in the Options menu) I find the appearance of dynamic external self-shadowing adds a lot to the appearance of planes in FE2. Since I replaced my budget graphics card with an aged but effective 8800GT, I have checked all my planes and made sure the above edit has been made so I get external shadows and I don't get a serious FPS hit, even with the more complex planes.

Edited April 17, 2013 by 33LIMA