I belive that what is said (if you reffer to Aldaberts guide) that you should class your
pilots to fighter, but not to Ace of SQ ftr. As when they are very high lvl (110+ or
something) the extra crew will help more than the extra ftr ability, and they get higher
bomber stat. They will suffer the way up though, as they will have lower ability.

I was reading in another post in the tips section that it is ok to avoid classing pilots
as rookies and leve them as special forces until they are ready to become
fighters/bombers. Or will the crew reduction come back to hurt later.

Is this a good idea?

Pilots hit a cap, yes. But they hit it very late. At low levels BVE'ing your pilots dont
matter that much (you should still have a decent amount of experts and vets on them) as
they will get eaten my high lvl ftrs (unless you use local ftrs, but as you cant scout
with them youre not helping your team as uch as you can).

In my malta im running 4 ftrs, 4 tbs, 1 seaman, 1 medic. I believe that is a good setup,
as it allows you to keep a steady stream of ftrs or tbs, depending on the situation. It
seems that medics work (this might just me luck when i have tested a bit), but dont know
about the seaman.

When you go UK, sont class your bombers to dive bombers. Yes, in the start it will be a
pain using torp bombing, and its easier getting attack using dbs at early lvls, but when
your uk tbs reach lvl 77 they are extremely good.

Medic should be high pot, seaman should be high bomb/ftr, All sailors contribute to
AAW/Repair/Restore. For a BO you dont need high pot, better with high rep/rest, as you
dont need long guidelines

So I am slowly leveling my crew (along with a second set of bb supports).

I know gunners reach thier caps relatively early, and therefore it id not worth
boosting, whereas it seems to be forrepair/eng--when(if) do pilots hit a cap? Is it
worth buying the boosts for them?

Actually Pot isn't that important for a BB BO, even with a modest amount of (b)/v/e
eventually any BO will see ALL shells and guidelines will be too long. As a BB BO get
high repair as first priority, only get decent/good pot if you can't stand not spotting
rounds and aren't planning to bve the BO.
Use 15 pot sailors for medics ( or sonar/planesman if you're a sub wimp).

Ideally you're looking for 5/6 fighter pilots and 3/4 tb pilots. You will probably have to
come around a second time to level the necessary amount of crew for the CV4s/5s/6s. UK
CV/planes get quite good over level 110 so it's be a shame to waste those bomber pilots as
DB pilots. 11 bomber for DBing isnt that spectacular anyway :)

For the medic, you will need to go through US line, but save the +15 pot neut for your UK
BB BO, being able to mark shells at max range is of the utmost importance for BB gameplay.
As mentioned above, don't factor in AAW into your decision, the difference is barely
noticeable.

Rerolling and relevelling new fighters will be painful. But it will be even more painful
if you leave it until you're level 80 and then realise you've committed a gross sailor error.

Honestly, if I were starting my CV crew again I'd buy some elite fighters.

Thanks for the advice--now for the stupid followup questions:

To Get a medic--Do I need to calss the medic as a USN sailor--from the tree it
doesn't look like I can get a RN medic?

Secondly--do you recomend using a seaman?

.. u got it wrong

4 to 6 Ftrs
1 to 4 bombers
( i personally use 4 ftrs 3 tbs)

Use a medic, for me, it work wonders, Pot +15 for it
If ur gona make a seaman, look for a 10+ bomber, 10+ repair and 10+ ftr

For the bb line.. i'd use the 15 pot, AAW is useless and +1 repair doesnt matter in UK line if u get
~4 repairs

You will need more then 3 fighters if u want to keep up continous fighter cover on 1 side
of the map. Minimal would be 4 , while going with 5 is playing it safe. With bombers, u
want to class them all the same. Mixing classes takes away from the amount of planes u can
mount, Uk tbs also own, while our dbs suc. The dbs are usable but their the weakest in the
game