US Float Plane Repair

[LadyLex]

Hello everyone. I just picked up the game a little while ago and have been playing through the pacific campaign. My grandfather served aboard the USS Lexington, CV2 until she was lost at Coral Sea and then the USS Lexington, CV16 through the end of the war. There is just something very satisfying about keeping the CV2 a float and sinking all of the IJN carriers in the game. His advice to me when I joined the Navy was "don't be on a carrier. Every one shoots at the carrier". So I joined submarines!

But to my question. I've been using the Navy's Cats (PBY's) for recon as I've always liked them. It appears the Kingfishers can be repaired at carriers, cruisers and battleships. Does this also apply to the Cats?

I've never tried in game so I'm not sure. The one scenario where I had Kingfishers it was nice to be able to repair them when they were damaged.

Thanks.

[kondi754]

Hello everyone. I just picked up the game a little while ago and have been playing through the pacific campaign. My grandfather served aboard the USS Lexington, CV2 until she was lost at Coral Sea and then the USS Lexington, CV16 through the end of the war. There is just something very satisfying about keeping the CV2 a float and sinking all of the IJN carriers in the game. His advice to me when I joined the Navy was "don't be on a carrier. Every one shoots at the carrier". So I joined submarines!

But to my question. I've been using the Navy's Cats (PBY's) for recon as I've always liked them. It appears the Kingfishers can be repaired at carriers, cruisers and battleships. Does this also apply to the Cats?

I've never tried in game so I'm not sure. The one scenario where I had Kingfishers it was nice to be able to repair them when they were damaged.

Thanks.

It seems to me that Catalina couldn't be repaired on the cruisers and battleships because doesn't have the ability "catapult launcher" but maybe I'm wrong.

[LadyLex]

The Cats were certainly too big for catapult launch from either a cruiser or battleship. Neither type of ship had a davit rated to lift them either. I've never really given it much thought nor looked into repair / refit from a tender. Perhaps in calm waters of some island atoll lagoon but open ocean might be pretty risky.

Thanks for the info. I thought I had seen in the description for the Cats in the game they could be repaired, but maybe it was the Kingfisher. I'll have to check closer next time I'm in game.

[kondi754]

The Cats were certainly too big for catapult launch from either a cruiser or battleship. Neither type of ship had a davit rated to lift them either. I've never really given it much thought nor looked into repair / refit from a tender. Perhaps in calm waters of some island atoll lagoon but open ocean might be pretty risky.

Thanks for the info. I thought I had seen in the description for the Cats in the game they could be repaired, but maybe it was the Kingfisher. I'll have to check closer next time I'm in game.

Perhaps it is repaired at the ports.

[LadyLex]

Perhaps it is repaired at the ports.

That would be an alternative I could work with, however I'm not sure it'll work. The manual says that naval units can be repaired in a friendly port, but the cats are listed as an air unit. Air units can be repaired at an airfield so I wonder.....

[kondi754]

Perhaps it is repaired at the ports.

That would be an alternative I could work with, however I'm not sure it'll work. The manual says that naval units can be repaired in a friendly port, but the cats are listed as an air unit. Air units can be repaired at an airfield so I wonder.....

There are seaplane bases in certain scenarios, for example Tulagi (1st scn from "Marines" DLC). Seaplane bases look like ordinary harbors or ports.

[LadyLex]

Did some experimenting in game. Kingfishers can "land on" and be repaired / upgraded at carriers, cruisers, and battleships. Historically these aircraft operated from cruisers and battleships. I've not ever seen an instance where they operated from carriers. Not many carriers had a davit (i.e. crane) which could pick them out of the water. Additionally they would take much too much room on the hanger deck if they would fit due to their height.

The Cats can land at and be repaired / upgraded at airfields. I did try ports also, but no luck. Landing action button just gives the message "Land based aircraft must be near an airfield to land".

The in-game text pointing to seaplane repair at cruisers is actually a "Loading Tip", which shows a picture Japanese float planes. It is fairly generic hence my confusion when I couldn't repair my Cats at a cruiser.

Historically Cats also operated from seaplane tenders, typically in sheltered harbors. Open ocean repairs / resupply at a tender could get "interesting". I have seen some reports of Cats meeting up with submarines to transfer personnel, but don't recall submarines being used for resupply of Cats or seaplanes in general in the US Navy (the Japanese did on occasion).

It looks like I'll either need to just land my Cats at a friendly airfield (not available in all scenarios) or potentially create a new seaplane tender unit. Alternatively I suppose I could just modify the Cat to "land" on a Support Ship, which appear to have many attributes in common with a seaplane tender. Keeping them out of range of anti-air assets and fighters would also work.

Thank you Kondi754 for bouncing some ideas around with me. It gave me more things to try.

[kondi754]

Did some experimenting in game. Kingfishers can "land on" and be repaired / upgraded at carriers, cruisers, and battleships. Historically these aircraft operated from cruisers and battleships. I've not ever seen an instance where they operated from carriers. Not many carriers had a davit (i.e. crane) which could pick them out of the water. Additionally they would take much too much room on the hanger deck if they would fit due to their height.

The Cats can land at and be repaired / upgraded at airfields. I did try ports also, but no luck. Landing action button just gives the message "Land based aircraft must be near an airfield to land".

The in-game text pointing to seaplane repair at cruisers is actually a "Loading Tip", which shows a picture Japanese float planes. It is fairly generic hence my confusion when I couldn't repair my Cats at a cruiser.

Historically Cats also operated from seaplane tenders, typically in sheltered harbors. Open ocean repairs / resupply at a tender could get "interesting". I have seen some reports of Cats meeting up with submarines to transfer personnel, but don't recall submarines being used for resupply of Cats or seaplanes in general in the US Navy (the Japanese did on occasion).

It looks like I'll either need to just land my Cats at a friendly airfield (not available in all scenarios) or potentially create a new seaplane tender unit. Alternatively I suppose I could just modify the Cat to "land" on a Support Ship, which appear to have many attributes in common with a seaplane tender. Keeping them out of range of anti-air assets and fighters would also work.

Thank you Kondi754 for bouncing some ideas around with me. It gave me more things to try.

Thanks for the valuable information, never tried to fix Catalina but now I know how to do it.