[yomi]

What is second bomber pilot supposed to do? I mean never really thought about it, but since i started to use mediaVPS with cockpits, that thing is really disturbing me. Player handles everything anyway, and there is not much more tasks to do for bomber than for fighter. So any of you have actually any idea what second pilot might be doing there? Or how could he "help" player during missions (for example by events)?

[Nyctaeus]

Turret controler?

[-Norbert-]

Turret controll, navigator, communications.
Or you could argue that, when you push a button, your only giving the order to your 2nd to do the actual button pushing

[yomi]

haha, that sounds more like nuisance than help 
but i guess it could be funny part of plot 

[Legate Damar]

He takes over if you die

[headdie]

could act as a weapons officer as suggested so handles on board turret, manages the auto loaders on the torp bays, counter ECM to help the targeting systems, energy management

[Vip]

Usually, the pilot would take care of, well, actual piloting, and the co-pilot would operate weapons, defence systems and comms.

Edit: Ninja'd by headdie

[Dragon]

It does look a bit strange when you have a co-pilot on a turretless bomber though. FS flying is so easy one pilot can do everything, and there's not much that a second pilot could do. On real strike fighters and small to medium bombers, the "guy (or girl) in the back" is the WSO, Weapon System Officer who, besides weapons, also handles comms. This allows the pilot to concentrate on flying and avoiding fire, which isn't easy on strike missions. Ground fire blazing around, the ground itself uncomfortably close, RWR wailing about all the radars locking onto you and enemy fighters scrambling to intercept you can be distracting, and operating off-boresight weapons requires the operator to look in different direction than the plane is flying. All that would be a bit much for most pilots (though most won't admit it ), so a WSO is necessary.

[qwadtep]

All that would be a bit much for most pilots (though most won't admit it ), so a WSO is necessary.

More like nobody sane enough to admit it would put themselves in the cockpit of a strike fighter in the first place 

[Dragon]

We're talking fighter pilots and you mention sanity? This will cure you of your delusions: http://www.afblues.com/wordpress/2007/07/01/07012007/
I guess that goes double for both strike pilots and their WSOs (though they got nothing on Weasel pilots and their EWOs...).

[headdie]

We're talking fighter pilots and you mention sanity? This will cure you of your delusions: http://www.afblues.com/wordpress/2007/07/01/07012007/
I guess that goes double for both strike pilots and their WSOs (though they got nothing on Weasel pilots and their EWOs...).

Weasel is a special kind of crazy, attacking anti-air positions from the air?

[Dragon]

Exactly. SEAD & DEAD guys. In Jack Donovan's words, "YGBSM".

[bigchunk1]

What does the co-pilot do on a commercial fighter?

Also, large bombers throughout history have had a bombadeer who takes care of all the technicalities of unloading the ordinance on the target. Tracking the target coordinates, fine tuning the bomber on an attack run, opening the bomb bay doors, releasing the payload at the right moment. All that is the bombadeer.

In freespace since you do that manually (or with computers), well I dunno. Fall back to question #1.  Also having a co-pilot is a cool thing anyways.

[rscaper1070]

What does the co-pilot do on a commercial fighter?

Yikes! I don't think the free market has gone that far yet. 

[jr2]

Honestly I kinda wonder why they don't have co-pilots on buses and trains.  Imagine what a runaway craft of whatever type you want to pick would do if no one realized the pilot was dead or incapacitated when it plowed into ... well use your imagination.  Another craft, dock, city, gas refinery, for buses, a crowded intersection going 60... plain sedans are 2-ton death machines in the right circumstances.  Ever watch those recordings of some disgruntled worker making mayhem in a city with a bus or large semi-trailer or truck?

However, I guess the incident rate for pilots dying or being incapacitated is very very low.  So, yeah... it's just the potential for devastation if they dozed off kicked the bucket at the wrong time is huge.  Just very unlikely.

[Polpolion]

AFAIK multi-pilot bombers aren't canon. You can make a strong argument for the Apollo being a two-seater from the FS1 intro (even then, the FS2 intro isn't exactly perfect canon), but the best we can do is probably technobable stuff in. I'd say we can just guess there's a lot more than meets the eye to arming and managing your warload and sensor management.

[bigchunk1]

Whoa did I say fighter? I meant to say Commercial Airliner! ...wow 

[el_magnifico]

You see, in the future they have this overcrowding problem...

[Alex Heartnet]

You see, in the future they have this overcrowding problem...

Which also explains why warships have crew numbers in the thousands?

If you want to send people off to die, a warship might be more economical for that then a fighter.

[z64555]

Whoa did I say fighter? I meant to say Commercial Airliner! ...wow

Commercial Airliners, as with the bigger military counterparts such as the C-130, have a Co-pilot to help reduce the overall fatigue of piloting such a large aircraft. I think the general MO is that, should a situation arise, the Pilot/Captain of the craft defers piloting the aircraft to the Co-Pilot, while the Captain deals with the situation.

Also, if you look on Wikipedia about Flight Engineers, it helps explain the various roles of the major crewman.