Pilot

Pilot (highlighted) in the cockpit.

The **pilot** is an essential member of any bomber crew. They are primarily responsible for flying the aircraft, ensuring that it remains on course and does not crash into the ground during flight.

The pilot will fly directly to waypoints determined by the navigator and will complain if the aircraft has been flying for an extended period of time without a new waypoint.

The pilot is also responsible for landing the aircraft at the end of every mission. In the event of an emergency, the pilot is also able to make an Emergency Landing, although survival in this case is not guaranteed for all crew members.

As with all crew members, the pilot can move to another station and have another crew member fill their place if necessary, although this is not recommended.

## Operation

As mentioned above, the pilot will fly to waypoints determined by the crew's navigator. Each time a new waypoint is set, a bubble with a map icon will appear in the direction of where the new waypoint is relative to the aircraft; the player must tag it to instruct the pilot to turn to fly towards that waypoint.

### Abilities

As with all crew members, the pilot has a set of special abilities activated by buttons on the player's screen. These abilities serve to provide extra tools for the player to maneuver the aircraft in otherwise abnormal and/or special ways should some circumstance require it. They are:

* **Emergency Landing** ("EMG. LAND" in-game): Instructs the pilot to make an emergency landing immediately; this can be used either over land or over water, but land is preferable, as a water landing always ends with a crash. It should be noted that an emergency landing must only be attempted when at least one engine is operational; telling the pilot to perform an emergency landing with all four engines inoperative will cause the pilot to dip the aircraft's nose 90 degrees downwards towards the ground (It is unclear whether this is intentional or a developer oversight).
* **Bail Out!**: Instructs every crew member *except the pilot* to grab the nearest parachute, climb out of the fuselage through the hatch towards the center of the plane, and jump off. Crew members who jump with a parachute will always survive the jump but are still at risk of being lost afterward. If there are an insufficient number of parachutes on board, not all crew members will respond to a "Bail Out!" order. Even with a sufficient number of parachutes, the pilot will never jump (it is dangerous to do so, as an unmanned cockpit causes the aircraft to steadily dip downwards) unless manually commanded to by the player.
* **Emergency Dive** ("EMG. DIVE" in-game): Instructs the pilot to make the aircraft do a quick dive. Useful for extinguishing engine and fuselage fires, evading flak bursts, and/or for briefly throwing off enemy fighters (although it isn't very effective for the latter). The pilot will always dive a certain distance every time unless the aircraft becomes too low; once the aircraft drops too low altitude (see below), the pilot will end the dive. If the pilot is already at low altitude, the emergency dive option will be unavailable. After every dive, the pilot will maneuver the plane to climb or descend to the commanded altitude.
* **Corkscrew**: Instructs the pilot to fly in a corkscrew pattern, involving a few turns followed by a quick dive similar to the emergency dive, but shorter in length. Useful for evading enemy fighters and to lose a little extra altitude quickly if an emergency dive was already used. However, unlike the emergency dive, the corkscrew maneuver cannot extinguish fires.
* **Evade Flak**: Instructs the pilot to maneuver around enemy flak. Useful when flying through airspace with flak bubbles or flak in general. The pilot will begin making turns to avoid flak, and if already flying through flak, this ability reduces the odds of flak successfully hitting the aircraft. Once the pilot completes the maneuver after a short period of time, they will automatically turn back on course (which may be problematic if this involves flying through more flak).

### Altitude

The player can instruct the pilot to fly at three different altitudes: low, medium, and high.

* **Low altitude** is good for short missions, missions in cloudy or otherwise poor weather, and bombing runs. The clouds will always be above the aircraft at this altitude, making it perfect for navigation and taking recon photos. Low altitude also means normal temperatures and oxygen concentration, meaning there is no need for special gear to fly at this altitude. However, all fighters and ground-based anti-air can hit the aircraft, leaving it vulnerable in enemy territory.
* **Medium altitude** is good for short and medium-length missions. With a skilled bomb aimer, a skilled navigator, and a player with good timing skills, bombing runs, and recon photos are viable at medium altitude, protecting the aircraft from all anti-air guns and some amounts of flak, but not enemy fighters. Temperatures will be lower than usual, but it does not cause for concern unless your crew has zero or near-zero cold temperature tolerance. Oxygen concentration is at normal levels, so no gear is necessary for that.
* **High altitude** is good for long missions, and sometimes medium-length missions in some circumstances. In late-game bombing runs involving the Grand Slam bomb, high altitude is required before dropping the bomb. A player with exceptional timing skills can also drop normal bombs from high altitude, although this may not be worth doing as it can cause more of a hassle. However, it is extremely recommended that the player *avoid* high altitude flight until the crew is prepared, as the temperature will be extremely low, oxygen tanks will be required to move from a station, and navigation is impossible without a highly-skilled navigator. With that being said, it can be useful if the player's crew is ready, as all ground-based anti-air will be unable to reach the aircraft, and all enemy fighters, with the exception of late-game fighter jets and those flown by fighter aces, cannot fly high enough to engage the aircraft (although there are rare occasions where the enemy AI is smart enough to dive then climb back up and shoot at the bomber while climbing, using its climb angle to aim upwards).

### Other Tasks

The pilot also provides three additional features for the player every time they are selected:

* **Landing Gear** can be raised and lowered during flight; it is recommended that they are raised right after take-off (to reduce drag and therefore fuel usage) and lowered right before landing (for obvious reasons). The landing gear relies on hydraulics to be extended or retracted.
* The **altimeter** gives the player an exact measurement of the aircraft's current altitude, although the dial is unmarked. An arrow is displayed on the altimeter showing the altitude the player commanded the pilot to fly.
* Missions can be **aborted** through the pilot's menu by pressing "Abort". This sets the next mission objective to return to base, causing the navigator to begin setting a course back home. This should be used in emergencies when the aircraft is about to be or currently is being overwhelmed by enemy defenses or is otherwise unwise to continue the mission for safety concerns. If the aircraft returns safely to the base, the mission will end as usual. There is no penalty for aborting a mission and returning to the base, but the player will not be paid for the mission (although, you still get paid for recon photos) and any mission benefits (e.g. reduced flak or reduced enemy armor) will still be used.

## Strategy

* The pilot is rarely going to be leaving their seat; thus, it's a very good idea to outfit them with the heaviest armor and equipment possible.
* In a pinch, the pilot can act as an emergency front gunner, as he/she is the closest crew member to the front turret other than the bomb aimer. Another crew member, such as the flight engineer or navigator, can take control in the cockpit in the event this happens.
* The bomber should be outfitted with six parachutes instead of seven, since the pilot never goes for a parachute when a "Bail Out!" order is given, and any time the pilot does try to make a run for it, it usually takes too long and the pilot ends up unable to walk once the aircraft pitches downwards too much.
* If short on cash for new gear, the pilot should be given the newest, most advantageous gear first or second, along with the navigator. In the event that most crew members are killed, the pilot and navigator need to survive in order for the aircraft to have the best chances of returning in one piece.
* As mentioned above, the pilot won't be leaving their seat too much. Although having First Aid as their secondary skill will be of use when the situation is too dire.