Sabre vs. MiG

MiGMan’s Combat Diary: Korean Peninsula 1952

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USAF Mission 01 Mission overview

You are Lt. Col. Bruce H. Hinton, of the 4th Fighter Intercept Group, heading up to escort a flight of B-29's over North Korea. The '84's who have come over this way have been very badly surprised by the new Communist jets. Let's see if your new Sabre can help to even the score. "

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My diary

The first thing I noticed after takeoff was the distance to the first waypoint - over 100 miles! The manual says that "warping" to the next action point was disabled because of problems the Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2game engine has with faster aircraft. There is a workaround to re-enable warping but for this mission I decided to stick it out.

Anyway the Sabre zooms along nicely at around 500 knots and the climb to altitude gave me time to admire the clouds and fiddle with the graphic settings. That's the only drawback of having settings so easily accessible in the Microsoft sims - you're tempted to fiddle fiddle fiddle!

I was pleased to see the wingmen hanging in there. Yay! In Korean Combat Pilot (2001) they had rarely made it to the mission area. Whatever the problem was, it's been fixed, as they hung in there doggedly all the way to our first encounter, which was not with MiG's but a gaggle of B-29 Superfortresses. I say a gaggle rather than a formation because - as you can see at right - they showed formation skills only marginally worse than my own!

The B-29's turned up near the first waypoint.

I was now faced with a dilemma. Should I turn back a few miles and chase the waypoint or stick with the big birds? The trouble with Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2 is the lack of a "skip waypoint" command. My procrastination was interrupted my a "bandits bandits" call from my wingmen.

Problem solved!

Sure enough a group of MiG's was approaching so into the fray I went. Once again the AI or something has been improved because not only did the MiG's not fly immediately into the ground but they gave me a good run for my money with a long and exhausting dogfight.

After I had managed to clip a couple (smoke but no crashes) the MiG's slipped away and the wingman sound the "all clear". The next waypoint popped up and off we went. At this point I got a little confused. Perhaps it was because I hadn't passed the first waypoint within the hair's breadth that Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2 requires.... but whatever the reason I ended up twice back at the same bridges, in the same Flak barrage and battling more MiGs... or perhaps the same MiGs?

Fuel was getting low but more importantly I was getting tired after the frenzied dogfights. Not to worry - End Mission - I'll be back for more!

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