Me 163B-1a

  To install, put the "me_163b" folder in your Aircraft directory, 
and put the "me163.mis" file in your Missions folder.  Start CFS, 
choose Single Missions and then Riding the Rocket and you're all set.

Tips: 

  IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO TRIM THIS AIRCRAFT FOR LEVEL FLIGHT AS 
SOON AS YOU TAKE OFF!!!!  This plane really wants to nose up on you so 
here's what you do...   Start your engine and increase power gradually, 
the plane will lift off pretty quick.  Give it a bit of down elevator 
to keep the nose from ballooning, level out at 1000 to 2000 feet and 
raise your gear (actually it's a landing skid which should be a dolly 
but what the hell).  Hit the "Num Lock" once then tap the "7/Home" key 
on the numeric keypad untill the plane flies level (about 25 times or 
so, I didn't count but it's a lot).  If you overdo it, the "1/End" on 
the numeric keypad will trim up again.  All this should only take about
5 or 6 seconds if you do it right and you'll be doing about 550-650 
mph.

  Don't use the autopilot/waypoint option.  It'll drain all your 
fuel.  Just follow the waypoints, the bombers will be in range quickly.
The fight ends pretty much over your base so finding it again shouldn't
be too hard.  Most of the ground objects have visible labels so you 
should see all the name tags even if it's a couple of miles away.
  
  I usually climb at about a 30-40 degee angle, untill I sight the 
bombers or reach 20000 feet (only takes about 1 minute) whichever comes 
first, then I position myself to attack.  I have three methods that 
I find effective with this aircraft.
- the classic head-on 
- the classic tail end attack (but at much higher speeds and usually 
while diving a bit) 
- the yo-yo.  I read somewhere once that Me163 pilots would go up 
and down through a bomber stream like a yo-yo, blasting as they went.  
Not sure how true that is, and it's hard to do but a lot of fun anyway.
  
  Conserve ammunition!!  This plane has a very low ammo load, and a
slow rate of fire so close in tight to your target before firing.  
Try to close to within 300 meters.  I usually aim for the tail 
structure for a quick kill.  It usually only takes a few hits to knock 
down a plane by hitting it there.

  Conserve fuel!!! I did a lot of reading and found that the fuel 
would last anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes at full throttle, depending on
where you get your information. I set this plane to last about 3.5 
minutes at full power (the only change I made to the ".air" 
file - see below), but that depends a lot on your altitude and how much 
manouvering you're doing too.  Once you reach the bomber's altitude, 
try not to use the throttle too much, use it just for climbing, 
otherwise keep it about 30-40%.  Don't turn too hard either, this 
plane bleeds it's speed really fast and you'll black out too.  When 
you get down to about 10% fuel remaining, you might want to shut the 
engine off and save a bit of fuel for landing.  The real aircraft 
couldn't shut off it's motor but CFS allows it so why not use it.  To 
shut it off, hit "Ctrl", "Shift" and "F1" at the same time.  This is 
usefull if you can't find your airfield when all the air targets are 
destroyed. Restart the engine then hit "X".  If you try to warp with 
no engine or fuel, you only go a short distance (you've probably 
noticed in some other mission somewhere).

  The real tough part to this mission is not in hitting the bombers, 
but getting back alive with all those P51's around.  You have to use 
your head and conserve both fuel and ammunition.  There's a lot of 
friendly Flak guns around, but they may hit you by accident while 
shooting at the enemies so don't rely on them too much.  The 109G's 
are a bit of a help though.

Design Notes:

The Me 163 was usually armed with either two 20mm MG151/20 cannon or 
two 30mm MK108 cannon mounted in the wing roots. Sometimes they also 
could carry 24 rockets.  I left the rockets off this model (should I 
add them?) and gave it the two 30mm cannon.   I couldn't find any 
reference to the ammo load for the MG151/20 option, but I did find the 
loads for the MK108 option, 60 rounds for each gun.

The damage file was originally for the Bf109E.  I removed references 
to the elevator from the boxmap, changed the aileron names to elevons, 
moved the engine to the fuselage and a few other minor changes.  I also
changed the damage points for a few of the systems.
    
  I didn't design this aircraft.  The original was made by Mike Hill 
and was then updated for FS98 by Gregor C. Gebel.  Gregor added the 
vapour trail and repainted the aircraft.  No offense to Gregor's work, 
but I re-painted it again to make it look a bit better.  There's a 
Jpg in the me_163b folder showing what it originally looked like for 
those who are interested.  The original text file is also in the 
me_163b folder.  I editied the .air file in that I changed the amount 
of fuel the original flight model carried as it seemed to last too long.  
It was originally set at 100 gallons for each main tank and 50 for each 
auxillary (don't think auxillory does anything in CFS anyway) and I 
zeroed the auxillories and put the main tanks at 50 gallons each.  If 
someone who knows better thinks the fuel is burning up too fast or too 
slow, let me know.  I want to get this as accurate as possible.  That 
was the only change I made to the air file.  There are special sounds 
for this aircraft, they were made by Gregor Gebel as well and are 
included in the sounds folder.  The panel is set to the Fw190 panel. 
Thanks to both Gergor Gebel and Mike Hill, as nothing I've done would 
be possible without their work.

For those who want to use this plane in their own missions, the AI can 
take off fine with it.  The reason I set your wingmen in the air at 
the beginning of this mission is that they wouldn't climb steep enough.
It took them too long to get up to the bombers.  You can start them on 
the ground, but keep that in mind.  I guess the AI behaviour has 
limitations, kindof like how it can't fly helicopters or make a 
convincing looking torpedo run at ships.  Yeah, I know there are no 
torpedoes, but I'm trying to get a plane to attack as though it had 
one for some missions I have in mind.  Any ideas anyone? 

More to come!

Comments, complaints, suggestions, tips, questions always welcome.


psiico@sprint.ca