Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (Full Version)

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SqzMyLemon -> Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/10/2012 8:43:22 PM)

Does assigning reserve aircraft to a unit have any benefit in terms of maintenance? My Ops losses are thru the roof playing the Japanese and I'm looking at ways to stop the bleeding. Do reserve aircraft just replace losses in an air unit, or are these airframes switched from reserve to operational when damaged crates are withdrawn for maintenance? Will a stressed airframe be removed for maintenance sooner if reserve aircraft are available?

I'm playing a Babes mod, so FLAK is much more effective, but my Ops losses seem excessive. I'm losing an average of 6 aircraft a day to Ops, more if involved in combat. I've reached 28 Jan 42 and I've already lost over 270 aircraft to Ops. Other than assigning a higher percentage of rest, or standing down units on a regular basis, is there a way to lesson the Ops losses? Some things I already do to limit losses:

I try to avoid transferring units in rough weather.

I avoid using smaller airfields whenever possible.

I avoid travelling excessive distances.

I avoid using inexperienced pilots in frontline air units.

Army and Navy search planes are set to 30% rest.

Bomber and fighter units are usually set to 10-20% rest.

I avoid extremely high altitudes.

I avoid using drop tank ranges during combat missions whenever possible.

I set ranges shorter then normal range most times.

Am I just unlucky with Ops? What am I missing?




PaxMondo -> RE: Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/11/2012 5:24:51 AM)

Use the rest function .... you need to have a percentage of your a/c standing down for maintenance.  10 - 40% depending upon the mission profile is typical for me ... you should be able to control your ops losses to whatever is acceptable for you.  I'm kinda picky about these losses and work to keep them absolutely minimal ... other than long range group moves, I rarely lose any.

Anyway, take a look at your planes ... I bet you see about half of them are +25% damaged.  Those are the ones that you are likely to lose on the next mission to ops losses.  crank your rest up and those planes will stand down and get maintenance instead of accumulating more damamge.  A few turns of maintenance and those planes will fine.



LoBaron -> RE: Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/11/2012 6:05:52 AM)

In fact you are doing much already of what I would reccommend. As PaxMondo said, the rest function is a tool to keep the airframes
at better/best condition, as the stood down airframes are more likely to get repaired/put under maintenance.
Reserve a/c can enhance your operational strenght while planes are stood down.

Another important point I have not seen on your quite complete list is aviation support, avoid flying from bases not providing enough of it
is also a way to reduce ops losses.

Also don´t forget that an ops loss can also be a writeoff, which is highly dependent on how worn out the airframe is. The better the airframe
condition, the lower the chance of an ops loss in case of additional damage.


Is a specific aircraft type or mission affected most? That could give more clues as to how reduce the losses.



jmalter -> RE: Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/11/2012 9:48:22 PM)

6 planes per day ops-losses isn't really out-of-the-way, but you must adjust your operational tempo so that it's in line w/ replacement plane production & the ability of sqns to accept them. IMO 10-20% rest for your combat sqns is kinda low, especially if they are running continuous ops at 15k' or above. i believe that pilot fatigue contributes to ops-losses, as well as airframe damage/fatigue, so i try to keep the sqns maxed out w/ pilots. 30-40% rest usually works ok for me, but i'll increase that to 50% for long-range or LRcap missions.

my own ops-loss prob centers on the transports flying the Ledo air-bridge, at 50% rest the C-47s were flying into mountains faster than their build-rate. transport pilot exp gain is glacial, & it don't help that ~20% of my ops-losses also gave me a KIA/WIA pilot. changing to 60% rest has stopped the bleeding & allowed a build-up of airframes in the pools, also i'll pay more attention to plane fatigue - when a sqn has used its reserve aircraft, i'll put it on stand down for awhile.

i run supply-transport ops at 6k', is there a better altitude?



PaxMondo -> RE: Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/12/2012 5:02:06 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: jmalter
... at 50% rest the C-47s were flying into mountains faster than their build-rate .... changing to 60% rest has stopped the bleeding & allowed a build-up of airframes in the pools


I've seen the same thing ... I increase rest in 10% increments and observe the plane stats ... you will suddenly go from not too good to just fine with that last 10% move ... I've only had to go to 50% or more a few times ... as I noted above, generally 10 -40% rest is where I end up.

The other thing is in high combat areas, I have plenty of spare groups to rotate in and out. I also agree that pilot fatigue will also contribute to Ops losses.



jmalter -> RE: Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/12/2012 5:21:35 AM)

hi Pax - the change in transport losses was v. marked when i bumped from 50% rest to 60% - wish i'd thought to do it earlier, rather than let things get to a crisis-point.



witpqs -> RE: Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/12/2012 5:48:29 AM)

Didn't see it in the above posts so I might have missed it - having extra pilots helps. The more extra pilots you have, the less fatigue the pilots will have because some always get to rest. Obviously the suggestions about using the Rest percentage addresses this, and having extra pilots takes that further. "Extra" simply means more pilots than planes. If the squadron is full then you can get (I think it is) about 1/3 extra pilots. If the squadron is not full then just get as many pilots as you can.

Obviously there have to be enough appropriately skilled pilots available so this tactic is not always available. Just one more tool for your bag of tricks.



fcharton -> RE: Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/12/2012 8:28:18 AM)

There is also something with the fatigue/morale level of your air support units. If you have as many or more planes than service teams, and fly many missions (esp those missions which take place several times a day), their disruption and fatigue will go up very fast, morale will drop, and ops losses will result. I once had an Air HQ with 90% fatigue this way. Flying from a larger base, having AF battalion or base force leaders with decent admin ratings, and not having everybody on mission every day helps, and unit fatigue is easy to track, in the game interface or via tracker.

One good thing is that air support units seem to recover faster than other LCU.

Francois



GreyJoy -> RE: Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/12/2012 11:31:49 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: fcharton

There is also something with the fatigue/morale level of your air support units. If you have as many or more planes than service teams, and fly many missions (esp those missions which take place several times a day), their disruption and fatigue will go up very fast, morale will drop, and ops losses will result. I once had an Air HQ with 90% fatigue this way. Flying from a larger base, having AF battalion or base force leaders with decent admin ratings, and not having everybody on mission every day helps, and unit fatigue is easy to track, in the game interface or via tracker.

One good thing is that air support units seem to recover faster than other LCU.

Francois


I've noticed the fatigue level when you overstress the base forces... but i wonder, a part from the Op losses you mentioned, how the fatigue levels of base forces affect the combat results. Will less planes take off? Will more planes remain damaged?

The world wonders



fcharton -> RE: Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/12/2012 11:57:24 AM)

Hi Greyjoy,

I had a look at this a year ago (starting with this post in my old AAR http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2669708&mpage=6&key= post #168 seq.)

The one thing I had noticed was the number of "damaged on landing" messages. Those directly affect the number of planes under maintenance, and therefore those that can fly.
Another thing I thought I had observed back then was that pilot fatigue recovery was correlated with base force morale.

The way I suspect it goes (but I'll check and comment on my AAR, I have the same ops loss problem as Lemon), is that overworked base forces accumulate fatigue, lose morale, which has a direct effect on frame (and runway?) maintenance, meaning more ops losses, and a lower "net service rating". But I suspect it also causes pilots to have higher fatigue (or recover it more slowly), thus causing them to fly less.

So it would be more damaged planes, less take offs, in this order.

Francois



Gräfin Zeppelin -> RE: Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/12/2012 1:12:19 PM)

I just wanted to add.

If the baseforce has high disruption/fatigue it also influences air ops negatively which leads to more ops loses.



SqzMyLemon -> RE: Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/12/2012 4:27:50 PM)

Wow, great information everyone. I had no clue on the effects morale has on the air support units which contributes to Ops losses.

To provide further information to address some points raised. All my air units have full pilot complements, so there are pilots available to be rotated as fatigue increases. I keep an eye on fatigue and morale levels on all my air units and rest those with high percentages of either. I almost never have less air support than what is required to support the number of aircraft at a base.

I will definitely start increasing rest % and stand down units on a more regular basis to see the effects.

Thanks! [8D]



PaxMondo -> RE: Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/13/2012 2:42:05 PM)

My last thought to share on this is that some players might get frustrated with their inability to fly every day.  However, I think the devs got this correct (at least directionally).  Players fly far more missions than were attempted IRL.  Units were stood down frequently due to weather.  Players rarely do that.

Again, kudos to the dev's for a great job!



Dan Nichols -> RE: Assigning reserve aircraft, do they reduce Ops losses? (10/13/2012 5:19:54 PM)

I usually fly most of my bombers with settings of 60% attack, 20% rest, 20% training. It seems to work well, with 133% pilots assigned.



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