Mission 3 - The High Flying Trio (1943-10-04)
Szt Natasha having won the Order of the Red Star on her last sortie, I decided to look it up:
The Order of the Red Star was awarded to [Soviet Army, Navy, KGB, NKVD, border security, MVD, etc etc]:
- for personal courage and bravery in battle, for the excellent organization and leadership in combat that contributed to the success of our troops;
- for successful operations of military units and formations which resulted in the enemy suffering considerable casualties or damage;
- for outstanding service in ensuring public safety and the security of the State Border …
- for courage and valour displayed during the performance of military duties, or, in circumstances involving a risk to life;
- for exemplary performance of special command tasks and other outstanding deeds committed in peacetime;
- for great contribution in maintaining the high combat readiness of troops…
[etc etc etc]- for merit in strengthening the defence capabilities of the socialist community.
So basically, given to everybody for everything. They gave out 3.8 million of these so they weren’t too special. That said, only one other pilot in the regiment has one.
Here’s the board before our next mission. Keeping in mind that every mission we fly after mission 1 counts for 3. Like in Madden or NBA 2k, we have to shorten the game clock to make our score make sense, otherwise we’ll end up with 1000 points.
Intercepting bombers, surely escorted, flying out with the LT alone? Uh, Major… I don’t know about this…
If I get the good future Hero of the Soviet Union comrade Arkady Fedorovich killed in action, I’m liable to create some sort of time paradox. Maybe this is what creates the Wolfenstein universe. I don’t think PWCG makes him invincible like Sgt Johnson in Halo 1.
Then again, this could be a never-again chance to network and try to secure my place in the post-Stalin VVS. (thinking)
You can never have enough climb waypoints, I guess. They have us running intercept while the army pushes into Gzhatsk. No other Red squadrons flying, though. Strange. As usual I expect we won’t get to Patrol Waypoint 2 before we find trouble - in this case, German bombers.
This is where I’m going to do a dirty bit of strategery - I know we need more experienced pilots to accompany us. Who better than the regiment commander, Maj Yurakin? (I’m hoping he gets onto his 5th kill - I hear aces get a burst of confidence a.k.a. upgraded AI competency.) Nobody networks like Natasha.
It’ll be a high stakes mission if one of these two goes down.
We’ve also given word to the mechanics to fit the other two with dual ShVAKs.
A total of 72 aircraft mounted a pair of 20 mm ShVAK cannon… A wide variety of armaments were experimented with by various units at the requests of their pilots or to make up shortages.[wiki]
And here… we… go!
Wait, a night mission!? I didn’t sign up for - hold on I guess it’s dawn. Time for another sketchy takeoff over the trees, this time without being able to see the trees.
Nice chance to show off the instrument lighting.
Wind is vicious up here. I’m on 75% left rudder trim and it’s just about holding it steady, but the nose is going back and forth like crazy. Doesn’t help that we’re climbing at 270kph, not an ideal speed for MiG control stability (even if it is the best climb speed).
I didn’t realize how high this mission was taking us. I’ve never been up past 7k. The wind really settled down up here too - scaling back my rudder trim to keep the little ball in the turn/slip indicator centered.
Worth noting that I think the AI climbs on boost power when they really shouldn’t be - but no matter how much I leaned the mixture, I couldn’t avoid spewing this black smoke out the back. Comes with the height. Nearing 8km…
And there’s 8km. Cruising altitude for this flight was right around 8500 meters, 28000 feet. Notice the contrails being left by my flightmates.
Time to patrol. For bombers.
… Not much up here. Daylight starts coming from the east.
"Did you all hear the one about the Yak pilot who got kicked out of the Monopoly game?
… He kept taking extra turns!" Silence.
Wait a minute, that’s a thing isn’t it? Radio silence? Natasha wonders if this networking event is a bust.
And there’s the sun. Time now 6:45am per the cockpit clock, flight time 30 min. And now the game looks proper beautiful.
I finally realize why I can’t catch up with my flightmates - my wheels. Doy…
And with that taken care of, it’s time to do some proper formation flying. While we wait for those bombers.
I think that one’s the money shot.
Suddenly my homies peel off. Where you going, homies?
Wait, that’s all our patrol waypoints done. Time to RTB. I get a kick out of the Major requesting landing approach and flashing lights from 8km up.
I don’t know how they plan on reducing altitude, but for my part I start making big lazy circles down. Where’s the airfield… oh, right under me.
When you’re 8km high, you’re hard pressed to bleed enough speed to land, but I manage it with just a prop strike. No biggie, the mechanics need something to do.
Well, command says there were bombers, even if we didn’t see them. So there you go. Nothing wrong with a peaceful flight and a safe landing. And a new guy.
Sorry for the image overload yall, I just thought this mission was really pretty. I’ll try to exercise restraint the next time.
I took a lot of pictures to show off how pretty it was, but unfortunately the game’s screenshot button captures BMP which means I had to batch convert to JPG. I had to go to some pains to preserve the deep-blue-black of the sky. Lesson learned.
Next time on MiG3Moscow…
