Did me some testing, regarding the 109's that fly around without their cockpit hoods. I've seen them open the hood at take off, so that's where they fall off.
It's a bug in the 'Taxi To Take Off' code, combined with the extra opening hoods we get with Expert Mode.
Built a rather simple mission on the Ardennes map. 4 109's take off, player in #4 plane. Mission file itself is also attached.
Here's what I did, mission loaded in FMB, and choosing File, Play to launch it.
1. 4.12.2m, (no Mods, so History Off, Expert Off:)
Taxi to Take Off works fine, no opening hoods all the way.
2. History Mod:
Same as 1.
3. History Mod and Expert:
a. Player on Autopilot opens the hood during Taxi to Take Off.
b. AI do a flip Open Hood/Close hood, the moment they arrive at the Take Off point
4. History Mod, Expert and Lancaster:
Same as 1. and 2.
5. History and Lancaster:
Same as 1, 2 and 4.
(Same results when adding a Home Base and running it as a dogfight map...)
When running it in 4.13.1m, using A6M5 instead of 109-G10, AI open the hood during Taxi To Take Off.
Now as this is not the real issue we've seen (No hoods on flying 109's), it ís related, as I have watched 109's open their hood later than the Take Off point, namely when at a speed where an open hood will depart from the airframe.
Still, concluding, the error is in the combination of 4.12's Taxi To Take Off and Expert mode.
And somehow, the Lancaster mod fixes that, as in AI do no longer try and open their hood.
All very weird.
Next, we still have smokin' 109's for some, and F6F flying around with their wings folded.
So, from now on, I will host with Expert Mode OFF, and with difficulty 'Bomb Fuzes' set to Off, as Alpha did some testing on the bomb-drop-no-explosion issue for IL2's and PE-2's (and who knows what other aircraft) and with the old fuzes, the issue did not occur. Aint that cool?
What a mess... what a pile of sheep...
TestTaxiToTakeOff.mis