Training in a nutshell

[undercovergeek]

Train at 100%, range 0, at 10k feet for all restricted air groups in Japan

When pilots look pretty decent, transfer them to reserve and bring in more rookies for training

wash rinse repeat

sound about right? - ive read page after page and im trying to condense it to little snippets of info for my addled brain

[jmalter]

sounds about right!

Set alt to 1k' to train LowG or LowN skill - Of limited use to Japan, which gets no 'Attack Bomber' type aircraft, although IMO Level Bomber types get more hits on shipping using low alt w/ LowN skill than they do at high alt w/ NavB skill, at the price of greatly increased vulnerability to enemy CAP and flak.

Set alt to 100' Sweep mission to train Strafe skill, useful for Fighters as it raises their Defensive skill.

Once trained to your desired level, Fighters can gain add'l Experience if set to Escort & placed on CAP. Search & ASW missions will give pilots a very slow rate of Exp gain.

Rookie pilots train well in groups w/ few aircraft, once their Exp is ~50, I find they train more quickly in a group filled out w/ planes.

[AW1Steve]

And once the pilots "graduate" send them into a relatively "low threat" combat site (like say..China) to "blood them". Then either take a risk and move them to a regular combat zone , or return them to the reserve. There truly is no substitute for combat to season crews and build up experience. BUT , you don't want to send them into the "meat grinder". Choose carefully when you send your young post-graduates. [:-]

[undercovergeek]

thanks chaps

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: AW1Steve

And once the pilots "graduate" send them into a relatively "low threat" combat site (like say..China) to "blood them". Then either take a risk and move them to a regular combat zone , or return them to the reserve. There truly is no substitute for combat to season crews and build up experience. BUT , you don't want to send them into the "meat grinder". Choose carefully when you send your young post-graduates. [:-]

It isn't even a requirement that it's a combat zone. For example, I send all my newly graduated fighter pilots to do a stint in the Kuriles to fly CAP for a month or two to build EXP. If there are empty bases that belong to the other side that haven't been captured by the rowboat corps, they're also good for building EXP on bombers.

[jmalter]

Fighters can gain Exp when set to Escort / CAP anywhere, even at Boise. Bombers need to actually bomb an enemy target, to gain Exp - gains will be small, in both Exp & GrdB skill.

Targetting a bomber group against an empty enemy base could produce small gains over time, but don't do it from a small base, the base size should be at least equal to the # of engines your bombers wear. You can't run bomber attacks from a lvl-1 base!

Bombing missions need add'l supply, too - mebbe you can run Training from a tiny low-supply base, but you can't Attack out of it, nor can you expect quick recovery in the event that the enemy stops by to ruin your airfield.

[Dragoastro]

Altitude doesn't matter, except 1k' as mentioned above for low nav... However, if alt is 100', then primary training is in strafe, regardless of the mission assigned, these planes also appear to gain defense skill at a higher rate. For example, I had several squadrons set to ASW 30%, train 70%, at 100'. These squadrons gained almost no ASW skill. I reset them to 1000' and training proceeded as expected.

You can either train whole squadrons on one skill, then switch the whole squadron to another skill, or have dedicated squadrons for different skills (such as Nav Bomb and Nav Torp).

A good skill level to train to seems to be about 70, as progress slows dramatically after that. Exp can be trained up to about 50, higher exp pilots have less op losses.
Drago

[undercovergeek]

is it better to leave on general training or specify the kind of training?

and does it matter what plane they train in - can i train naval attack in a Nate for instance?

[rustysi]

is it better to leave on general training or specify the kind of training?

I'd mostly stick to specific training, but there are uses for general training at times and with certain types of air units. Transports come to mind.

and does it matter what plane they train in - can i train naval attack in a Nate for instance?

I don't think it matters, but keep in mind that when swapping A/C to other types and by certain methods there may be some experience loss. In my experience its like 2-5 points. There was a thread on this recently.

[wdolson]

You can train a pilot for naval attack in a Nate, but they will be trained as fighter pilots with naval skill (not a bad thing if you want pilots trained to attack PT boats and landing craft, use low naval). When you insert a pilot from the reserve pool into a different plane type than they trained in, they will take an experience hit.

Bill

[geofflambert]

I used to train in nutshells but I found I couldn't find my way out. Those danged nutshells, I'm telling you, don't train in nutshells, do without!