First of all, I installed both 'flyable' and 'AI' versions of the TBD-1 in IL-2, version 4.10, DBW 1.7. I built a mission where a flight of F4F-3s escort a flight of TBD-1 to a target and back. Note that the TBD-1s were fitted with two 500 lbs bombs. All four TBD-1s took off from Asheshouse's Lexington 42, at 50 km/hr, without any problems.
En route to the target, Nos, 2, 3 and 4 in the TBD-1 flight are told to return to base immediately. The engines of these three planes sound like there may have been a very slight drop in RPM, but they keep on flying to the target. At the target, No. 1 TBD-1 blows the enemy's fuel dump to pieces, strafes other targets in the area and then continues on to the next waypoint. Unlike No. 1, the other three TBD-1, fail to drop their bombs and reverse course to the previous waypoint. Shortly after the course reversal, those three planes crash into the ocean. As for TBD-1 No. 1, it continued on and trapped a wire at the Lex.
Prior to building that mission, I only had the 'flyable' version installed. On the same mission, without an escort, I flew the No. 1 TBD-1. I treated it like a dive bomber and found that was a big mistake, especially when diving from 8,000-feet. By the time I got to around 5,000-feet, my engine overheated, even though I idled the throttle before beginning the dive. The engine then froze up shortly after I got the overheating warning. As for the other three planes, they held on to their bombs, began descending on the way back to the task force and settled into the water long before the carrier was insight.
Has anyone else experienced anything like this?
Also, why does this plane need a separate install for 'AI' aircraft?
Cheers,
Riptide
Author
Topic: TBD-1 'Devastator' - v1.02 & v2 (Read 83750 times)
