Phantom Leader PBF

At work from 0700 to 1900 today. Just home. Give a moment to stuff my face and I'll update the pilot choice in a minute.

I needed to reconfirm the nagging in the back of my head about Buick. It's now confirmed--he ain't worth a shit shaken until he's promoted and he's one bumpy flight away from that status.

Poco, on the other hand, can still at least fly and shoot after a bad day. I'd vote for taking Poco with a rangy AtA loadout, though I suspect may have to sit the next one out.

Doesn't Buick need 9 experience points to get promoted?

According to my calculations Gringo carrying 4 Mk. 84 bombs has a 80.56% chance of scoring 6 or more hits on the target; 88.56% for 5 or more and 94.72% for 4 or more hits. So we might want to take along another one or two Mk. 84s.

Schweig! wrote:

Doesn't Buick need 9 experience points to get promoted?

According to my calculations Gringo carrying 4 Mk. 84 bombs has a 80.56% chance of scoring 6 or more hits on the target; 88.56% for 5 or more and 94.72% for 4 or more hits. So we might want to take along another one or two Mk. 84s.

I meant that Buick is 1 bumpy flight away from being Shaken, not promoted. With 9 xps needed, he's destined to be Jr. Wingman for life--or until 1968, whichever ends first

Wish we had running log of suggested loadouts somewhere in the thread that can be quickly quoted and updated for suggested changes. I haven't sifted through all the stuff yet to see. Are you suggesting Poco sit out or that he take a some Mk84 in his loadout...

Nah I was just wondering whether somebody can still carry a few bombs. I can load two or three Mk. 82s onto Easy Money's plane, too, which should yield a pretty much guaranteed hit.

If Poco's coming along, then he and Showtime can handle AtA duties and Barbarian can shift to AtG. Since Easy Money's fast, he should stick to handling the sites, especially if we're coming in from the east.

Don't forget that AtA pilots can carry 2WP worth of AtG bombs without penalty. Since we're at no weight penalty on this mission that leaves space for the eight AtA slots I reckon we'd need.

Anyway - final decision on what to take is down to individuals. I've loaded up Barbarian with 2 rockets, 2 Mk 82 and a Mk 84 - fill out your payloads and we'll start the mission.

Final decision on what approach to use is down to the Moose. I don't believe we've reached a consensus yet?

Okay, I'm going to vote for the west. It's just less risky, and doesn't really change EM's loadout. If he drops a couple CBUs on the Zu in the west, maybe 1 CBU for suppression/destruction of the infantry in the center, and 2 rockets to suppress the M1939 when over target, that's more or less the same loadout but less risk to our planes, because the rockets get the suppression bonus.

Showtime will take 2 AIM-7s and 6 AIM-9s. I'll update the spreadsheet.

EDIT: I added a line to allow for 8 weapons. I've also put the links to the current target image and spreadsheet in my sig so I don't have to keep swapping pages to find the links.

Bullwinkle wrote:

EDIT: I added a line to allow for 8 weapons. I've also put the links to the current target image and spreadsheet in my sig so I don't have to keep swapping pages to find the links.

Great idea on the sigs, but how can Showtime carry 8 weapons with a weight limit on the plane of 6

MattDP wrote:

Bullwinkle wrote:

Great idea on the sigs, but how can Showtime carry 8 weapons with a weight limit on the plane of 6

...

I was thinking of Hornets, not Phantoms. Well, we need 8 lines for the A-6s anyway. I'll change Showtime's loadout.

I've loaded Poco up for AtA...

Ready for take-off.

By the way, I won't be online from tomorrow (Thursday) morning until Sunday evening. Sorry about that. Feel free to fly my planes though.

OK then, here we go. Take-off and target bound.

F:AT wing, we've got some good news for you. An AC-47 Squadron has just signalled itself in the area of your target and with mission time and ammo spare. Just say where you want the fire - should ease your trip in.

Your target inbound event is AC-47 Spooky. We get to destroy one site. Either the ZSU in the West approach or that M1939 I would think. We could do the latter and come in from the east but we have to deal with a ZSU in either direction, so it's kind of a moot point.

I'm for striking the M1939 as it has the highest potential to cause damage. Thoughts?

I'm also for attacking the M1939. If this succeeds we should then come in from the East where I will try to take out the Zu-23-2 with Easy Money's rockets. Should that attack fail I can still drop CBUs on it in turn 2.

Schweig! wrote:

I'm also for attacking the M1939. If this succeeds we should then come in from the East where I will try to take out the Zu-23-2 with Easy Money's rockets. Should that attack fail I can still drop CBUs on it in turn 2.

It's not an attack - it's a guaranteed removal. The M1939 is toast.

I'm going to presume we go with this plan since it seems the most obvious. Easy Money is going to roll against the ZSU - if this succeeds this mission should be a cakewalk.

Drawing bandits now. Will remove anything dangerous in center area automatically.