Hellcats - Over The Pacific
Setup tips
* When playing Hellcats with normal mouse setting, you might get jerky
flight movement. Using a mouse set to tablet speed, from the control
panel, does wonders for flight control.
Flight Tips
* In Bomb Base you get credit for shooting the planes that are on the
ground.
* You can't ditch with your gear down.
* To get a direct hit on a pinpoint target (as in the test target in the
training mission) fly at the point you want to hit low (500 feet or
less) and fast (200 knots IAS as target is likely to be HOT as in
Battleships). Zoom straight down when target goes below your panel
view.
* The Climb and the Flop: When target appears at the edge of your view,
pull up sharply until you are vertical, climb until you are about to
stall and pull over so that as you stall, your plane flips over and
you are pointing straight down at the target.
* Timing the Drop: Watch your shadow on the ground. Give this a couple
of tries on the training mission target to get a feel for how the
shadow indicates your position and the time to drop your ordinance.
* Put the gear in the down position to dramatically decrease your speed.
* How to land on a listing carrier: Land like you usually do, but keep
the Hellcat on a horizontal plane with the listing carrier and use the
rudders to maintain your heading and position relative to the
horizontal plane of the carrier.
* To keep from overshooting your target (aircraft): Reduce speed
quickly, lower the flaps, drop the gear and reduce the thrust. If
necessary, climb. If you get really close, the Zeroes will turn, so
take a guess and turn in that direction. If you guessed wrong, just
complete the circle and pick your victim up again.
* Don't waste ammunition! You only get a certain amount!
- If you see flames, break off the attack and move on to another
target.
- Lots and lots of quick bursts are better than a couple of long ones,
especially at long range.
* Fuel Levels: Most of the Missions (except Divine Wind) are fairly
short in flying time as compared to your fuel capacity. Especially in
the carrier missions you should keep your fuel at half and only make
one pass at the target. Once you have eliminated fighter support, you
can always land, refuel and rearm. This works great with Bomb Base and
The Duel. The difference in performance is amazing.
* Flaps can be used as air-brakes to slow your speed down and to make
tighter turns.
* Dodging AA: Never underestimate the view from behind, from this
vantage point you can see the AAA machine gun fire before it crosses
your plane, and thereby dodge potentially mission ending bullets.
* Desperate Kill: If your engine is out or you are out of fuel after the
first pass of a carrier (with two hits) and you are too low to expect
to go back home (or whatever,) try to crash your plane into the
carrier (and don't forget to jump before and high enough.) That way
you can kill the carrier and you have a reasonable chance of being
rescued (anyway it has worked several times with me.) Anyway, you
won't get a medal for your mission as you lose the aircraft.
Get rid of enemies
* Pulling Out (or Popping your Rivets):
- Better Off Dead Method: After the drop, cut the engine, continue to
fall until you hit 500 feet, put down your flaps and simultaneously
pull back hard. Immediately rethrottle. You'll scrape the ground and
bounce up to around 600 feet again.
- Momma, I Wanna Go Home Method: Hit the flaps the moment you drop the
bombs and pull back to a steep dive. Hold this attitude till you
reach 200 feet and then pull level and retract the flaps. You'll be
out of AAA range quickly.
* Warning! Never attempt this bombing manoeuvre when there are enemy
fighters (smoking or not) around. They will hit you when you slow down
for the stall.
* Getting someone off your tail:
- Start a tight turn, drop the gear, reduce thrust, and kick in the
flaps.
- Build up as much airspeed as you can, go level, kick the flaps in
and pull up into a vertical position.(Plan B may not be a good thing
to try with a sick engine.)
* A technique to use when dogfighting is a skidding turn. (In reality
this is not a good idea but in Hellcats it can work). All you have to
do is keep constant power (around 60-70%) bank in the direction of
your turn and keep constant rudder pressure in the same direction. You
can alter your bank and pitch to keep from stalling, just keep the
rudder pressure! Using this you can out-turn a Zero! Watch for a stall
(too slow) and your altitude. Also watch for cross-controlling, that
is, right rudder-left bank (or vice versa.) If you stall while
cross-controlled you can spin the plane. You can recover from a spin
by pitching down (to increase airflow over the wing) and holding
opposite rudder to the direction of the spin. The Hellcat does not
recover from spins very well and don't try this too close to the
ground.
Terrain hints
* There is a small village in the southeast of Henderson Field (three
houses and a small lake) try these out for target practice.
* South of Henderson Field there is a bridge that can be sunk.
* In the northwest quadrant there are several strange, small islands and
a field right in the middle of the sea.
Hints for Scramble mission
* Engage the enemy bomber in Scramble from above and to the front. You
can usually get him smoking on the head-on run.
* Another approach to the bomber in Scramble is to fly very fast at
about 100 feet until almost (< 1/3 mile) directly under it, then
pull up and roll around. You'll be approaching it from slightly behind
and almost directly below it, giving you about 10 seconds of good shot
time and putting you directly behind it after the manoeuvre.
