The PBY- America's low-tier monster

How to tame America's low-tier monster and make it deadly with lots of cool explosions in the process.

Author's note:

EDIT 12/6/15: Checked back on this and first off realized that I'm up to 3,000 now 3500 unique views! Have I just found a good topic to post on or something? Anyways, the other thing I realized was that this has certain parts that are either incorrect or mistyped. I'll make sure to redo them.

Please note- I am NOT a professional! I have created this from my experiences from the many hours I have flown this! Some specific parts of this guide might not work for you depending on your playstyle!!

-- btw this plane is still my fav and I'm past tier 3 in both af and gf for Germany and 'Murica, not because its my biggest bomber- but because this thing is more damn reliable than anything else, flies like the sack of potatos I remember it flying as before, and its also really friggin hilarious to troll tier 1 noobs with this.

History/Basic Overview

The Consolidated PBY Catalina, PBY standing for “Patrol Bomber-Y” (Y being the letter given by the navy to all Consolidated aircraft), was first put into production in 1937 and continued until 1945 with just over 3,000 being produced. These planes weren’t phased out of the navy until the 1980’s, and over 100 of them still continue to serve as civilian rescue planes, firefighting planes, and passenger craft to isolated islands. Although slow and relatively hard to fly, Catalina’s distinguished themselves during WWII for their reliability and the variety of roles, many of which were never thought of or intended by its designers, it could fill. The Catalina saw action in every theater, though mostly in the Pacific, as SAR planes, night bombers/attackers, antisub patrols, and maritime patrols.

The basics: flying, climbing, and more

General flying : As you may well know, this thing is as slow as ♥♥♥♥, but don't let that fool you- this thing is quite deadly if used correctly, as I will show in this guide. Its max speed while flying level is usually 120mph, but can get up to 200 mph when doing very risky dives. The PBY is also not that responsive to your controls, so I suggest trying not to do any major dogfighting, diving, aerobatics, or really just anything with this thing. The controls also tend to get more "mushy" and unresponsive after you pass about the 200 mph mark (for arcade). Climbing isn't THAT bad(better than some same-tier american fighters), but requires you to constantly use the arcade afterburner if you don't want to constantly stall at around 85 mph.

Diving, stunts, and turning : I will warn you now: DO NOT ATTEMPT ANY STEEP-ISH DIVES IN REALISTIC OR SIMULATOR BATTLES!!! This thing has a nasty tendency for it's wings to rip off when you try to pull up to fast at around the 275 mph mark, leaving you falling from the sky in just a giant fuselage of hate, pain, sadness, and sorrow. I generally recommend attempting only shallow dives at most(unless you're in arcade battles, where normal physics don't apply). Dive bombing is also generally not recommended(Even though it HAS been done before irl-don't ask), though anyone who feels like they want to watch their precious plane to crash into the ground and burn in a huge fireball is welcome to do so.
As for any "stunts" that are even possible to do in this thing, the most I recommend you try is maybe a simple barrel roll, or even a loop(if you decide to play with fate).
Turning on this can be a slow and painful process, with you having to constantly use the arcade afterburners to keep your speed above stalling. The amount of speed you lose when doing any sort of turn or maneuver is a lot of times great, and I recommend doing only small turns with time in-between to get back up to speed instead of one massive turn.

Enemy fighters and how to keep them at a distance

As some of you may well know, PBY's are a great target for any plane(especially for German fighters with their insane climb rate) that can climb well and has some form of armament to shoot it down. The great thing about the PBY though, like its Japanese counterpart- the H6K, can take an incredible amount of damage and still get back to base in roughly one piece. BUT- do not think of yourself as invincible because of the planes durability, the are still MANY weak spots on this plane!!!!
Typically, most pilots will come up below and behind you, thinking this will be an easy kill. Luckily for you, your 3 back gunners armed with 12.7 mm brownings will usually make them think twice before attacking a PBY again. Another good thing is that most tier-1 planes do not have cannons, which is good for you since they can really ruin your day. I generally think of any plane that's within 1.5 mile(2km) or so to be a threat, and so thus make sure to keep an eye out to be ready if they come close. Most people would attempt to move the aircraft around if they are getting shot at, but don't do that in a PBY, as it can lose precious airspeed and knock off your gunners' aim. Instead, I typically just sit in gunner mode(V) and shoot at the attacker, occasionally making sure I don't plow into a mountainside or something like that.
Gunners, by themselves, can be quite useless and inaccurate if you don't upgrade them or take command of them yourself. It is best to upgrade your gunner's vitality and aim, so they can both live longer and actually hit something that's farther than 5 feet away. One thing to be especially aware of is their dead zones. the 3 major ones are directly above the wings, the underbelly, and behind the tail. Know these spots well and practice with your gunners often in order to achieve best results and minimal dying.

Dealing with damage and landing at your base

As I've said before, PBY's can fly with an insane amount of damage and still get back to base in roughly one piece. Generally, I like to fly high up so that in case something happens, I have time to assess what got shot off and figure out a way to fly on before crashing into the ground.
One thing to know about the damage this thing can take is that the damage indicator is usually WAY off. Wings that are black according to the indicator still give you enough lift to fly on, and flaps that look to be nonfunctional work well enough that you wonder if your just imagining it. BUT the engines on this thing manage to catch fire a lot. If your lucky you will still have the other engine running to give you enough time to destroy your target before becoming a bomb yourself and smashing spectacularly into a squad of tanks or AAA.


Landing: For those with only PBY-5's Most of you might say "what the hell do you mean landing??? this thing has no wheels!" And I agree with you, it is very hard to land successfully at a friendly base. If you're playing a map wit ha base thats right up on the water, I suggest just landing on the water and then beaching it on the sand next to the runway. The secret to landing on land though in order to get repaired or rearmed is to go SLOWLY. Don't try to come in quick and at a steep angle and expect to make it. You must come in slowly, lower your landing gear (yes you do have landing gear- just pontoons though), and hit the tarmac or dirt lightly, in order to decrease your chances of critically damaging your aircraft. You should come to a complete stop rather quickly, since you have no wheels and thus more friction between the fuselage and the ground. As for people flying PBY-5a's, it is fairly obvious what you do here....

Your aircraft's armament and optional payloads

Default weapons
turret 7.62 mm x1- fairly useless unless you encounter a head-on, located in front of the cockpit
turret 12.7 mm x3- these are the main guns on the aircraft, giving you the most vital protection, located in the tail section
Bomb 100 lbs x16- The default payload, these are useful for taking out enemy tank columns or destroying a bases. When dropped on airfields, soldiers just assume these to be propoganda leaflets beacuse they are so small and literally harmless to airfields (unless your in AB, then you just circle over and spam them as much as you want).
Optional Payloads
Bomb 500 lbs x4- useful for cracking open heavily armored pilboxes or ships.
Bomb 1000 lbs x4- Can usually destroy a base(not an airfield) in one bombing run.
Torpedo 1005 kg x2 Pretty much one-hit kills any ship besides carriers and battleships.
Torpedo 1005 kg x2 (Improved) Better version than the one above, allows you to drop it at faster speeds from a higher altitude.

Racking up kills

You have two options for this, one is to do it the normal way and blow up all of the ground vehicles like a sane person, or attempt to dogfight with this, fail miserably, and have everyone laugh at you for being dumb. I will teach you the sane way, since you get more rp and don't get laughed at as much.

Moving targets
If you have ever used bombs on a moving target before, you know how you must drop your bombs in front of the moving target in order to hit it. For those who DO NOT know what I mean, go fly a peashooter. I usually like to use the 100 lb bombs over the 500 lb bombs for destroying small moving tank collumns, since they still get the job done and you have more of them. The 500 lb bombs do however have a larger blast radius, thus giving you more of a chance to hit something if you are a bad pilot/ bombadier...

Stationary targets
AAA are by far the easiest to kill, these usually only require a 100 lb bomb to hit them within 75 feet(35m), or if you feel lazy, just a couple of shots from your rear gunners will kill them as you fly over the target. If you're facing any pillboxes, 1-3 100lb. bombs or 1 500lb. bomb will do the trick.

Bases and airfields
The choice of payload for these targets usually doesn't matter, as long as they hit the target(which is pretty hard NOT to do).

Ships
Use the improved torpedo whenever possible on larger ships, and don't use torpedoes on small landing craft or patrol boats, as they are very fast and hard to hit. Since torpedoes are 1-hit kills for almost any ship besides battleships and carriers, you needn't waste both on one ship. Using improved torpedoes is recommended, since you can drop them at a higher altitude and at a faster speed than their counterparts. Using bombs is fine, but they can be inaccurate, leading to a waste of time and cool explosions.

Other planes
This hardly ever works, and is very hard to actually hit them in midair or even on the ground.

Final notes

Thanks for reading this!! Remember, This is just coming from MY experiences with this plane, so some things may be a bit off. Hope you enjoyed this, and fly well my brethren!! :D

Pros/Cons

Because I know that some of you are impatient.


Pros:
-good defensive armament for its tier
-a single payload can turn the tides of a battle
-tough and durable

Cons:
-notoriously slow
-has no wheels for landing, though you CAN land at airstrips if you’re careful
-very bad climb rate
-hard to control

[TheGibster]

@Darkwizard This guide is all from MY experiences from flying this, it is only natural that some sections of this wouldn't be true for some people because they dont fly/use the plane the same as I do.

[Kuro]

Bomb 100 lbs x16- The default payload, these are useful for taking out enemy tank columns or destroying an airfield. IT WOULD TAKE ABOUT 6 HOURS TO DESTROY AN AIRFIELD. Also you can only kill light tanks in a direct hit. Your calculations are completely off..

[Fishy Business]

Thx for the guide

[marvin]

when a fighter gets behind slam the rudder to let the side 50 cal. have a shot always works for me

[Nazrovian]

You can also land in water and the only way to kill you is pilot kills, I've done this in RB and got 5 kills

[Enodoro]

What are the controls I can't get it to move?

[Not F-Kenworth It]

Do do dodo the floating bus! It has been a ong time since this was my b17 but now well.. I actually have a b17

[boohoohaha]

succesfully lands a h6k with one enginer left.....spirals whole game on the ocean gunner kills something and i get a trophy the end

[Kocyra]

PBY is like the B17, but at low tier

[SuperFreeek]

Somehow I always get Terror of the Sky in this thing.