15 minutes is not enough.

[GoNzOTW]

15 minutes for inspecting every part of the first planes engine just isn't enough time.

Sure, it's technically possible to get it done, but only if you do everything perfectly. The mission as it stands is just not fun, kinda ruining any fun I had in the game honestly.

[FalseGiraffe]

I agree with this for the simple reason that you should be allowed to take everything off the plane, given this is your last opportunity to mess with it you should be allowed your time to appreciate how all the parts are put together. If I was in expert mode I would not have been able to complete this unless I knew ahead of time what was wrong. I'm sure taking two of the 'helper' perks at my first level up also helped this. There's a lot of bolts!

I knew where the problems were, was NOT using expert mode and was doing 3 bolts at a time and I still only finished with less than a minute left.

[Dirk]

Mmmmmhh, do you mean that mission on the Tiger Moth when the Air Marshal was visiting the airfield and you have to "... check the whole plane..." ? If so then the time is okay with 15 minutes. Okay, I had to try 3 times to find out that the only damaged parts are hidden in the engine only. After that you can speed up the de-screwing, for example if you unscrew many srews make a rightclick to switch to another screwing job while the previous one is still in action.

[DocRabbit]

Yeah, the wording on that mission needs to be changed too, the first time I did it, Saying he wanted everything pristine threw me off trying to replace parts of the undercarriange that weren't pristine condition. Falling over from Car Mech simulator, that is a thing and I just assumed this was one of those missions.

[JBM]

Originally posted by DocRabbit:

Yeah, the wording on that mission needs to be changed too, the first time I did it, Saying he wanted everything pristine threw me off trying to replace parts of the undercarriange that weren't pristine condition. Falling over from Car Mech simulator, that is a thing and I just assumed this was one of those missions.

Sounds like the devs need to address this. I've just stripped every non-pristine part off my plane, and there was no chance of putting it all back together within 2 minutes!

So the only parts needing to be replaced are the damaged engine parts? Can anyone confirm?

[J.Random]

I think I lost most of the time in that mission on gaskets. Way too small and finicky, worse than piston rings.

[JBM]

I've tried 3 times now and still failed. "Pilot was able to take off but was forced to land again due to major malfunction."

More details would be helpful so I know where I went wrong. The whole engine was stripped right down (cylinder blocks as well) so that ALL damaged parts could be replaced, STILL failed.

[ordaa777]

I remember an episode of the black sheep squadron where the maintenance chief told Major Boyington (leader) that had he not pulled their planes from a mission half of them wouldn't have made it back. In a nutshell their planes needed some advanced work that wasn't possible for them to finish before a mission.

[Dirk]

Yep, wording that "... everything should be pristine..." is just wrong. You only need to find the damaged parts. They are ONLY located in the engine, but spreaded all over the 4 cylinders as far as I remember. So I managed to solve it to disassemble the whole engine, then run to the spare truck and sign for all damaged parts to be replaced, then re-assemble the engine again.
You just need to be quick in "marking" the screws to be unscrewed/screwed. To to this mark a batch of screws, then a right click and mark another batch of another item while the previous one is being unscrewed, that saves some time.

[JBM]

Originally posted by UNA-A1 Dirk Col:

Yep, wording that "... everything should be pristine..." is just wrong. You only need to find the damaged parts. They are ONLY located in the engine, but spreaded all over the 4 cylinders as far as I remember. So I managed to solve it to disassemble the whole engine, then run to the spare truck and sign for all damaged parts to be replaced, then re-assemble the engine again.
You just need to be quick in "marking" the screws to be unscrewed/screwed. To to this mark a batch of screws, then a right click and mark another batch of another item while the previous one is being unscrewed, that saves some time.

Thanks for clarifying this. Pre-marking screws is something I discovered fairly quickly, it saves so much time! I'm gonna try this again now.

[J.Random]

What I did to dismantle cylinder blocks quickly:
1. Remove them all as assemblies. When the last one's being removed, it will also automatically remove ignition wires, exhaust and injection pipe (latter two must be a bug, because it leaves carb hanging, I think the whole intake/exhaust part of the engine should block you from removing the last cylinder assembly).
next on assembly benches:
2. Remove top screw.
3. Click the clip (or whatever it's called) and mark three screws. Immediately right-click and click spark plug facing you. While all this unscrewing, rotate 180.
4. click the rocker and mark three screws, immediately right-click and click second spark plug. Again, 180.
5. Both valves. By the time they're removed, spark plug is finished and you can remove cylinder head.
What's left is cylinder itself and a gasket, you can just inspect them. Remove gasket if needed, but don't touch the cylinder, otherwise the assembly is lost and you'll have to reassemble it inside plane.

Reassemle in reverse order, inserting spark plugs at the same time as installing rocker and clip.


Another thing: during assembly, while you're installing the gear block (don't remember what it's called), you may be tempted to install magnetos and oil pump at the same time. Don't. Either magnetos, OR oil pump. Otherwise they'll show you the screws connecting them to gear block, but miss two screws connecting them together.

[WaySeeker]

Mission 02550 inspect whole plane before Air Marshall to get to painters. 15 minutes is not nearly enough time. 30 minutes would not be nearly enough time. It just takes too long unscrewing everything to get to all the parts of the plane. It takes forever to get a piston rod off! This mission is not on expert and I have only 1 chance to get perks and I put them in other areas and my CHOICES should not be used against me in timing missions! Even if all I had to do was inspect all parts, that is 20-25-30 minutes needed. Even if I need to fix or replace parts that is 30 minutes needed. But on top of all that I also need to put everything back! And i have finicky pieces like piston rings and head gaskets to deal with, let alone all the bolts to screw back in! Thank you...

[DeviousDave]

Originally posted by WaySeeker:

Mission 02550 inspect whole plane before Air Marshall to get to painters. 15 minutes is not nearly enough time. 30 minutes would not be nearly enough time. It just takes too long unscrewing everything to get to all the parts of the plane. It takes forever to get a piston rod off! This mission is not on expert and I have only 1 chance to get perks and I put them in other areas and my CHOICES should not be used against me in timing missions! Even if all I had to do was inspect all parts, that is 20-25-30 minutes needed. Even if I need to fix or replace parts that is 30 minutes needed. But on top of all that I also need to put everything back! And i have finicky pieces like piston rings and head gaskets to deal with, let alone all the bolts to screw back in! Thank you...

+1

The game makes a huge whoha over 'try to fix items rather than replace' during the tutorial which lead to me taking the 'improved maintenance skills' to help restore items easier....

and then gives you VERY few items that you can actually repair :(

Then this mission comes along and slaps you in the face for not getting the improved timing perks or more assistants.

[JBM]

Originally posted by WaySeeker:

Mission 02550 inspect whole plane before Air Marshall to get to painters. 15 minutes is not nearly enough time. 30 minutes would not be nearly enough time. It just takes too long unscrewing everything to get to all the parts of the plane. It takes forever to get a piston rod off! This mission is not on expert and I have only 1 chance to get perks and I put them in other areas and my CHOICES should not be used against me in timing missions! Even if all I had to do was inspect all parts, that is 20-25-30 minutes needed. Even if I need to fix or replace parts that is 30 minutes needed. But on top of all that I also need to put everything back! And i have finicky pieces like piston rings and head gaskets to deal with, let alone all the bolts to screw back in! Thank you...

I found out after failing to reach "perfect job" status with this mission that only engine parts need to be replaced for this job. I was trying to replace wheels and legs as well. The job description needs to be updated to reflect this.

[Metallos]

I managed this job on 2nd try (I had two perks for more screws and one perk for the repairing bench so no time bonus) after I knew from the 1st try (I restarted job before time went up) which parts had to be changed and had 3 or 4 minutes left.

One faulty thing are the screws on the top cover of the engine, the screws have to be unscrewed and there are only "straight bores" (without threads because you've nuts).

[Peregrine]

Originally posted by WaySeeker:

Mission 02550 inspect whole plane before Air Marshall to get to painters. 15 minutes is not nearly enough time. 30 minutes would not be nearly enough time. It just takes too long unscrewing everything to get to all the parts of the plane. It takes forever to get a piston rod off! This mission is not on expert and I have only 1 chance to get perks and I put them in other areas and my CHOICES should not be used against me in timing missions! Even if all I had to do was inspect all parts, that is 20-25-30 minutes needed. Even if I need to fix or replace parts that is 30 minutes needed. But on top of all that I also need to put everything back! And i have finicky pieces like piston rings and head gaskets to deal with, let alone all the bolts to screw back in! Thank you...

I did it first time, without any extra time perks, and without knowing what was wrong. It's possible, you must have good time management, sure, but it's doable.

Get a good system going and even the TIGHT timetable Spitfire Missions are doable fairly easily.

I can refuel and rearm the spit (and add coolant) in less than 5 minutes. I think my best time for rearm only is JUST under 4, but then I realized that we only need to open 6 of the lower gun doors, not all 8, so I probably can do it faster.

I've had to take the spit's entire engine apart to look for ONE PISTON RING (It's on the Starboard side) and 1 Piston (Portside, all 3 rings plus 2 more rings) and rearm, refuel, coolant, reassemble the Merlin III, patch some holes, fix a part, (Because I'll be damned if I won't try to fix it before replacing it) and throw the whole damn bird back together, and I still had well over 5 minutes (I think it was 8, but not sure) when I signed off on the mission.

I'm not trying to brag here, I'm simply saying that every mission is POSSIBLE first go, if you have a good workflow and are quick and efficient.

My perks, as it stands now, I'm rank Cpl, I have 2 assistants, extra 5 minutes, expert repairman, and now all of the system perks we can get. I just barely got the assistant No. 2, and two of the Eng perks.

Let me tell you, assistants do speed up some of the work, but having (Spark Plugs, Valves and Pistons) pre inspected on the Spit is really valuable, more than having 2 assistants, I feel.