tyree wrote:
Personally, I like the fuel rules the way they are. It is another level of " realism" added to the simulation that adds a dimension to the choices. I fly different when I am down to 10 fuel points. I believe it is folly not to. I have noticed that in big games that will go on for a long time, the Fokker D.VII seems to be available more often than in other scenarios. This might be a coincidence, but I don't think so.
The trouble is that fuel does not really add a level of realism to the game.
The key to victory in WWI dogfight was not fuel management, but energy management. Energy of course comes in two forms: potential (altitude) and kinetic (speed). Manoeuvring bleeds energy while the engine (consuming fuel) replenishes it, the higher the speed the more a manoeuvre reduces your energy. You can trade kinetic for potential by climbing and vice versa by diving.
The point is that in WWI engines weren't powerful enough to keep up with the energy lost in manoeuvring. That meant that the altitude of the fighting planes dropped constantly in order to keep speed up and be able to manoeuvre.
Engagement was broken when energy was completely bled at treetop level, not necessarily successfully for the defender.
Moreover, fuel consumption on a plane is not really related to the speed at which it is flying, but to the power (if propeller driven) or to the thrust (if jet driven) applied by the engine to keep the contraption aloft. Typically, engines stay at full power during a dogfight in order to gain an energy edge.
Also, rotary engines, due to their design, had no throttle and thus always worked at full power (and full fuel consumption). Actually, flying slowly can be _more_ expensive than flying fast, in most conditions. Nowadays, since engines give a much higher thrust to weight ratio, fighters do break off due to low fuel, since it has become a more poignant issue than altitude in energy management.
This said, unless altitude rules (which were kinda rough in the paper edition of BM) are applied, either another limiting factor is introduced (maximum number of turns per game) or we shall keep fuel as a game limiter, though, as I said before, it does not make any sense to relate fuel consumption to aircraft speed.
See you in the air.
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