When playing Squadron Campaign, if a bomber is sufficiently damaged so as to drop out of formation (either by AI decision or manually dropped) it's as good as dead. It'll keep flying for a while, with the navigator continually updating the course headings to return to base. Alas, the %@#*& pilots just keep tooling along their merry way, usually (but not always) taking a slow circular path.

Even if I manually take control and adjust the flight path to the correct course, and hold that course for a while, the moment I return it to computer control off it goes again, totally ignoring the set course.

If more than one bomber has dropped out of formation the rest are screwed, as I can only control one of them at a time. And it's *ever* so much fun taking 3 real-time hours manually guiding a damaged bomber back to base, only to have 2 engines die just as I reach the English Coast (and thus requiring bailing out) and, after having bailed out, returning to the other bombers only to discover they've suicide-landed and are all merrily burning up in a single heap. :(

is anyone else experiencing this and, if so, are there any fixes/cures/workarounds?

Unfortunatly this is a critial bug in the game, the only decent workaround is to disable the navigator error completely via the options menu to "flawless" I didnt like doing this at first as i strive for realism, but youll find the results to be far more realistic in the long run. This was the only option i had to set to flawless to make the game more relistic.

That's exactly what I did a long while ago, setting the Navigator to flawless. Like you I didn't like doing it but I found that the navigation part of the game to be excessively oversimplified to the point that it was uninteresting and just plain tedious. I was also frustrated by the AI continually restting the drift meter to an incorrect setting after I had just corrected it.

Having set the navigator to flawless, I wasn't experiencing the same navigation issues that Masterius2017 was experiencing and so couldn't comment before. It's nice to know though that setting Navigation to flawless in the game is unfortunately essential in the campaign games.

I'm lucky to have decided to save an entire thread off Bombs-Away.net one of the times I was playing that dealt with this.

Back in 2001, Hylander (a mod author and leading figure at B-A) posted the 'Hylander Maneuver' as a partial fix to this problem: And later in the same thread: It was received with quite a bit of appreciation and confirmations of success at the time. Multiple people in the thread reported multiple successes getting bombers back who had dropped out of formation.

Yep, the "Hylander Maneuver" is a real salvation over a long mission. Here's a few hints to help with executing it:

1) You must be able to control the aicraft enough to get it going in a (relatively) straight course. You can help the AI pilot by liberally adding trim to get the aircraft stabilized
2) Use the pause key when switching between stations try to keep on pause to save your precious altitude as much as the game will allow. You can usually shift between stations, select auto control or manual, adjust aircraft position on the map (I.e. get a fix) all while paused
3) The Navigator must not be "lost". If he is, pilot will just fly in circles. So, go to Nav Map and get a "close-enough" fix.
4) If it's the lead bomber that's in trouble, you may need to coax it back into formation or, you may need to go to Radio and have the Radio Operator transmit a "Leave Formation" order. You can tell from the Nav Map if your bomber has "left formation" on its own if the course shown on the map no longer follows the formation's pre-planned waypoints and instead heads straight to your home airfield.
Once you meet the parameters (not lost, acft on a steady course, acft has left formation), pause the game and jump to Navigator Map station. While paused slew the map back to your home airstrip. Rotate the view of the map so that the waypoint is up (pointing at the top of the screen. Place the Navigator in "Manual" mode (I.e., player controlled, indicated by the small "hand" icon on lower right of the screen)
5) Unpause the game and, using your mouse, drag the home airstrip waypoint straight up thru the top of the map screen. You should hear "Orbit for spacing" from ground control. Do a couple of "mini" timeskips and voila! Aircraft safely on the ground, where it will wait for everyone else to return.
6) If you can't timeskip (because of fighters, flak etc), this maneuver usually won't work. Keep trying until you either get her home or run out of air-to-ground separation or hit the bail-out bell.

Hope this helps.
R/
TC2