Ai pilots return to base after take off

[Gridset]

Hi

I was playing the scripted campaign battle of hurtgen forest, and my wingmen just return to base right after take off. They begun to do this at mission 3, if i remember correct. They just take off and then return to base. Is there something i do/dont do that could cause this problem, or is it a bug?

Im really enjoying this campaign, so help is greatly appreciated!

[sandmarken]

7 hours ago, Gridset said:

Hi

I was playing the scripted campaign battle of hurtgen forest, and my wingmen just return to base right after take off. They begun to do this at mission 3, if i remember correct. They just take off and then return to base. Is there something i do/dont do that could cause this problem, or is it a bug?

Im really enjoying this campaign, so help is greatly appreciated!

Did you use any mods? Try using the autopilot for takeoff. If you let the autopilot do the job and the problem is still there, it's probably a bug with the logic. (It's weird, I can't remember any logic-breaking updates lately.)

[Gridset]

36 minutes ago, sandmarken said:

Did you use any mods? Try using the autopilot for takeoff. If you let the autopilot do the job and the problem is still there, it's probably a bug with the logic. (It's weird, I can't remember any logic-breaking updates lately.)

Thank you for the quick reply! I will try autopilot next time! I have never installed any mods, but I can check that the "enable mods" setting is off, if that may create problems. 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

8 hours ago, Gridset said:

Hi

I was playing the scripted campaign battle of hurtgen forest, and my wingmen just return to base right after take off. They begun to do this at mission 3, if i remember correct. They just take off and then return to base. Is there something i do/dont do that could cause this problem, or is it a bug?

Im really enjoying this campaign, so help is greatly appreciated!

Strange, they're not supposed to do that.

Is there anything else happening; e.g. some of the AI planes getting damaged? Other than that, I agree with Sandmarken's recommendation to try it on autopilot.

[Gridset]

i tried it on autopilot just now. I let the autopilot take off and fly for about 5min. The second i turned off the autopilot, my wingmen broke formation and headed back. Some minutes later i could hear them request landing clearance over the radio.

very strange..

[Jaegermeister]

5 hours ago, Gridset said:

i tried it on autopilot just now. I let the autopilot take off and fly for about 5min. The second i turned off the autopilot, my wingmen broke formation and headed back. Some minutes later i could hear them request landing clearance over the radio.

very strange..

It sounds like you have a control assignment mapped which is triggering the return to base command. Look in your key assignments and try deleting the wingmen command for the return to base.  

[kraut1]

16 hours ago, Gridset said:

i tried it on autopilot just now. I let the autopilot take off and fly for about 5min. The second i turned off the autopilot, my wingmen broke formation and headed back. Some minutes later i could hear them request landing clearance over the radio.

very strange..

 

10 hours ago, Jaegermeister said:

It sounds like you have a control assignment mapped which is triggering the return to base command. Look in your key assignments and try deleting the wingmen command for the return to base.  

Short question: in the moment or few seconds later when they break formation: Do you hear the same radio message that you normally hear when you command them to fly back?

[Gridset]

I dont have any keybinds for commands to my wingmen. They break off within a couple of seconds, no radio message from me or them. The only thing i hear from them is some minutes later when they ask ground controller for landing permission. 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

On 1/23/2026 at 9:04 PM, Gridset said:

i tried it on autopilot just now. I let the autopilot take off and fly for about 5min. The second i turned off the autopilot, my wingmen broke formation and headed back. Some minutes later i could hear them request landing clearance over the radio.

very strange..

Well, the mission logic certainly doesn't know whether you fly on autopilot or not. Which makes me think it must be something you accidentally do that triggers the RTB.

One thing that triggers an RTB is when the player aircraft receives severe damage. Is there any chance that you unwittingly damage your aircraft, for instance by overspeeding the engine or deploying flaps when going too fast?

[Czech693]

Try giving them a command as soon as you take off, or even before.  Like "do like me" or "cover me", and see if they follow.

[AndreiTomescu]

Dunno if this is the case here, but something like  this happen to me , and in all missions that I've tried. I have a warthog throttle,  and that has some metal switches, like up on, down off. One up switch,  assigned for gear up, remained up by mistake and when I set up other commands this "button", switch , was taken by default. So as soon as I raised the wheels, I gave the RTB order, that I knew I've assigned to an external keypad zero. Took me a hole day to figure it out.

This may not be the case, but since on autopilot they don't get the RTB command, and since on autopilot all imputs from you are ignored, and once you turn autopilot off it triggers the event, it might be something that remained switched on and assigned to RTB command.

Just a guess.

[Jaegermeister]

It's not in the mission logic, so it is most likely one of the 2 scenarios you guys listed above. Critical damage to the player aircraft will not cause the rest of the flight to go home as a group, so it is almost surely a controller issue

[AEthelraedUnraed]

9 hours ago, Jaegermeister said:

Critical damage to the player aircraft will not cause the rest of the flight to go home as a group, so it is almost surely a controller issue

Actually, IIRC, I did use critical player damage as one of the triggers for the RTB command.

[Jaegermeister]

1 hour ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Actually, IIRC, I did use critical player damage as one of the triggers for the RTB command.

Well that might do it then. It’s hard to tell what the program calls critical damage, but maybe engine overheating from not keeping it in operating parameters would do it. You can’t just put all the levers to the wall and let it run in the P-47.

[sandmarken]

6 minutes ago, Jaegermeister said:

Well that might do it then. It’s hard to tell what the program calls critical damage, but maybe engine overheating from not keeping it in operating parameters would do it. You can’t just put all the levers to the wall and let it run in the P-47.

But that would not explain why the AI returns immediately after turning off autopilot. It would take at least a minute to get engine damage from overstress. And he did say he played missions 1 and 2 with no issue, so I guess he knows how to manage the engine.

[kraut1]

I have started the 3rd mission ca. 4 or 5 times and was able to fly ca. to Aachen with all wingmen.
During the last flight I observed a from my point of view general general issue that happens sometims if the player is the leader:

The wingmen do not retrack the flaps completely after take off and so they are not able to follow the leader.
I have to admit that I don't know the reason for this and what I am doing wrong.
But the simple solution if this happens is is just to activate the autopilot for ca. 10seconds. When AI of leader's plane is active they will retrack their flaps and will be able to fly faster. This occured  during my last test with throttle 100% power.

But when taking of climbing settings for max. continous power not issues. And when flying with autopilot the same, more or less the max. continous power settings too...

[Vendigo]

Not directly related to the subject, but I want to say that I have noticed some funny AI behaviour more than once. For example, if you set up a flight of several AI's (IL-2's) taxi to the runway, and 109's are strafing them and one of the Il-2's is destroyed or critically damaged on the ground (unable to take off) -  the remaining IL-2's will take off but they won't fly to the first waypoint as assigned, they will keep circling over the airfield.          

Another example - mission start on the runway with engines running, the Player is one MC202 and behind him two AI 109's. The Player is fiirst to take off and when the 109's take off they are given Cover command, but only one 109 actually follows the mission, the other AI 109 almost immediately goes to landing, without any apparent damage..     

 

Edited February 3 by Vendigo

[IckyAtlas]

I suppose that there will be no improved AI behavior on Il2 GB anymore.

We are stuck with whatever we have.

[gdx65]

IL2 BoS: Is there a proper description for the Autopilot an and the AI Autopilot ? In key mapping I have tried both and nothing happens (single player).