Boy am I ever stupid!

[Buckner 0]

Boy am I ever stupid!!!

 

Changed my graphic settings by bumping them up one tick to see if the old cpu could handle it. Thought I had grabbed

my quick flight pilot, strapped into a DR I, and was off. 3 Dr I's v. 5 SE5a's- no problem as I was mainly interested in

seeing how the cpu handled the dogfight with increased settings.

 

Flying like a crazy man I am diving, climbing, shooting everything then WHAM! Collide with an SE5a. No biggie, this was an unimportant pilot and the CPU seemed to do pretty well UNTIL...

 

I realize that I had made a mistake in selecting my quick flight pilot and had ACTUALLY SELECTED my campaign pilot.

So.... After 10 missions, 12 hours or real time flying, Heinrich Burdee FFA 32 (November 1915) is no more....

 

Boy am I ever stupid!!!

 

Buckner

[gandi 0]

bummer !

[Rickitycrate 10]

I feel for you and have lost many pilots for not good reasons. Just collided my last campaigner with a squad mate. At least I grabbed a pic

Edited March 12, 2009 by Rickitycrate

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

There is a way to resurrect a downed pilot, you know! Just be careful to have plenty of garlic and crosses lying around, just to be on the safe side!

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I feel for you and have lost many pilots for not good reasons. Just collided my last campaigner with a squad mate. At least I grabbed a pic

 

 

Oh Dear Rickitycrate...That looks very nasty!

[Olham 164]

Hey, Rickitycrate

 

Barbequeing is not allowed on board any military planes, by all means!

(Thought, you knew that? - Lol!)

 

And: it happened to me several times. too. Midair collisions. Sideward stalls near ground.

Crash landings, cause I couldn't give up a fight, after being damaged already, and so collected more rounds.

Getting shot up by the twins guns of the observer of a Strutter, although I had sworn, never to attack those again.

And, and, and...

[Buckner 0]

It was a silly mistake.

 

Gandi, great to see you old friend. Hope all is well in England... The calendar says Spring should be

arriving soon in Minnesota, -4 F this morning :).

 

Really enjoying phase 3 campaigns right now. An hour or more per flight seems to fit the schedule

after everyone has gone to bed, the silence seems to make it even more immersive.

 

Miss the online flights Gandi, I think we had some fun in Phase One, never forget our first mission

when we attacked an aerodome. There was alot of anticipation around the first mission- as I recall

a couple of us lost our wings descending to attack with our Nieuports, the rest were shot up by

groundfire. Overall I think we logged about 3 minutes combined actual combat time :)).

 

Good stuff to remember.

 

Again, hope all is well with you sir! As for the rest, enjoyed the comaraderie of biting it in midair

collisions.

 

Take care everyone,

 

Buck.

[gandi 0]

It was a silly mistake.

 

Gandi, great to see you old friend. Hope all is well in England... The calendar says Spring should be

arriving soon in Minnesota, -4 F this morning :).

 

Really enjoying phase 3 campaigns right now. An hour or more per flight seems to fit the schedule

after everyone has gone to bed, the silence seems to make it even more immersive.

 

Miss the online flights Gandi, I think we had some fun in Phase One, never forget our first mission

when we attacked an aerodome. There was alot of anticipation around the first mission- as I recall

a couple of us lost our wings descending to attack with our Nieuports, the rest were shot up by

groundfire. Overall I think we logged about 3 minutes combined actual combat time :)).

 

Good stuff to remember.

 

Again, hope all is well with you sir! As for the rest, enjoyed the comaraderie of biting it in midair

collisions.

 

Take care everyone,

 

Buck.

 

Hey, less of the 'old' lol!

 

aah, the fabled Strike on Pronville airfield mission........I dug out the log file for the flight

 

No. 60 Squadron Aircraft Mission Log

 

 

Pilots Name: Lt Jimmy Standing (Gandi)

 

Aircraft Type:Nieuport 17

 

Date of Mission:29 Feb

Mission type:Strike on Pronville Airfield

Weather Conditions:Clear

 

Time of Mission:

Began: 07:14 zulu Ended: 07:32 zulu

Time Flown: 18 mins

 

Aircraft Shot Down (# and type):0

 

Damage Sustained to your Aircraft:destroyed !

 

Debrief:Mission began well,clear skies and good visibility over the sector. As flight leader for the

strike team for this mission I began at the rear of the formation, throttled forward and took the lead

climbing to 3000ft. A little bit of a delay in getting the flight to form up, hanging back for Yank51 to

catch up, but the flight formed before the first waypoint was reached.

On turning North toward target, butterflies hit the stomach and we dropped down to hit the MG positions.

I divided the flight with Yank51 and Pilotsden sent to the Eastern MG positions, the rest of us

taking the Southern group. MobyGrape struck first, hitting hangar tents with his rockets. I launched

4 rockets at the first MG, missing with all of them, 2 rockets at the 2nd again missiong, but all close

enough to keep them quiet as i flew over. Last 2 rockets were fired at a hangar which went up in flames

as i pulled up over the target, firing 50-80 rounds into another and some crates. Turned round to come at

the target again, but was too close to the MG positions which opened up and turned me and the crate

into swiss cheese- damn the hun gunners and our poor aim!!

 

We were rubbish lol! Hard to believe that it was Feb' 2006 !!!!

 

Still we did manage to get better (honestly!) Great times indeed.

 

What stuns me the most, looking at my screen shots and notes is the changes from P1 to P3.....we thought P1 was fantastic, but compared to P3......phew, it truly is testament to the work that all the OBD guys have put into the game. The one consistent thing though is the immersion.....It's always been there and now we have it in spades!

 

Take care.

 

G

[Buckner 0]

WOW!!!!

 

It is really cool that you kept that, very fun to read.

 

I remember one mission where we were going to patrol the lines, my Dad had come over to

get something and was listening to our team speak chatter. The best part was that we had

formed up brilliantly and crossed the lines to patrol. We may have been at 6-7000' and had

noticed a gaggle of DIII's below us. One of the flight leads gave the order to attack and we

descended. In rapid fire order the calls came in---- I just lost my wings, Yank in- i lost em to,

etc...

 

Half of us descended to fast causing our Nieports to break apart, I think flak got the rest of us.

 

My dad just about wet himself he was laughing so hard. The next time we got together, Hossman

taught us how to "sidestep, or slidestep??". Anyhow how to lose altitude rapidly but at a very

slow speed.

 

Oh what fun times. At our height, I think we had 15 to 20 guys who flew with us at one time or

another.

 

 

Yeah back then, phase one seemed the cats meow. I think we were all pretty happy with it

as it was, sure am glad the OBD team decided to keep working at it.

 

 

Thank you for sharing that Gandi, it was great.

 

Buck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, less of the 'old' lol!

 

aah, the fabled Strike on Pronville airfield mission........I dug out the log file for the flight

 

No. 60 Squadron Aircraft Mission Log

 

 

Pilots Name: Lt Jimmy Standing (Gandi)

 

Aircraft Type:Nieuport 17

 

Date of Mission:29 Feb

Mission type:Strike on Pronville Airfield

Weather Conditions:Clear

 

Time of Mission:

Began: 07:14 zulu Ended: 07:32 zulu

Time Flown: 18 mins

 

Aircraft Shot Down (# and type):0

 

Damage Sustained to your Aircraft:destroyed !

 

Debrief:Mission began well,clear skies and good visibility over the sector. As flight leader for the

strike team for this mission I began at the rear of the formation, throttled forward and took the lead

climbing to 3000ft. A little bit of a delay in getting the flight to form up, hanging back for Yank51 to

catch up, but the flight formed before the first waypoint was reached.

On turning North toward target, butterflies hit the stomach and we dropped down to hit the MG positions.

I divided the flight with Yank51 and Pilotsden sent to the Eastern MG positions, the rest of us

taking the Southern group. MobyGrape struck first, hitting hangar tents with his rockets. I launched

4 rockets at the first MG, missing with all of them, 2 rockets at the 2nd again missiong, but all close

enough to keep them quiet as i flew over. Last 2 rockets were fired at a hangar which went up in flames

as i pulled up over the target, firing 50-80 rounds into another and some crates. Turned round to come at

the target again, but was too close to the MG positions which opened up and turned me and the crate

into swiss cheese- damn the hun gunners and our poor aim!!

 

We were rubbish lol! Hard to believe that it was Feb' 2006 !!!!

 

Still we did manage to get better (honestly!) Great times indeed.

 

What stuns me the most, looking at my screen shots and notes is the changes from P1 to P3.....we thought P1 was fantastic, but compared to P3......phew, it truly is testament to the work that all the OBD guys have put into the game. The one consistent thing though is the immersion.....It's always been there and now we have it in spades!

 

Take care.

 

G

[gandi 0]

As it turned out I kept all the logs from our flights....inveterate hoarder (so the Missus tells me lol!)

 

Having read through them all I thought I'd post 2 more......for old times sake and 'cause they illustrate 2 of the 'problems' we had to cope with on a regular basis.

 

Debrief:

The mission began well, with all pilots making it to their 'planes (although Lt Pilotsden was a little late

to the party :))

The squadron was split into 2 flights, one led by Major Buckner flying high cover, the other led by myself

and it is that which this report will deal with. The mission started with my flight making an anti-clockwise

circuit of the airfield rising to our designated altitude of 4000ft. Whe then headed towards the front line in

good formation covered by Major Buckners flight some 3000ft above us.

We crossed the front with no problems, noticing that there was very little ground activity in the sector today.

Within 5 minutes, 2 groups of bandits had been spotted at 3 and 12 o'clock. I determined that the group at

3 o'clock was too far away and we left them alone, heading onwards into enemy territory. The bandit group

in front of us proved to be a number of AlbIII's split into 2 groups. I attempted to chase the left hand

group with Lt Driver,signalling the rest of the flight to engage. It transpired that the group i was chasing

was too far away and too fast to catch, so we turned back to engage the targets with the rest of the flight.

By the time i arrived at the party, Maj Buckner had send several of his flight down to bounce the Hun by surprise

and quite a fight was taking place. I latched on to an Ald DIII being pursued by Lt Yank51 and poured on

the lead, seemingly to no avail.Several times rounds could be seen to hit the enemy, but with little result.

I followed him in a tight spiral down to the deck, which he promptly flew through for several yards, emerging

unscathed a few seconds later!!! Leaving him as a lost cause, i pulled up and found myself placed directly behind

another DIII. I fired all my remaining rounds into him, producing only smoke, I can only imagine that the swine

had lit up a huge cigar in celebration of my poor shooting! I again followed this 'plane in a tight spiral into

the deck and once again he flew into and through the ground for several yards (perhaps it wasn't a cigar he lit

up and maybe I inhaled too much?).

 

At this point I headed for home, directing any of my flight with no ammo left to do likewise. Plotted a course

come and climbed to 3000 to clear the front line, then had an uneventful flight back to base. I took one circuit

of the field to orientate myself then landed reasonably smoothly, taxiing up close to Lt Driver who had returned

before me.

On checking official stats, i can claim 1 kill and will chalk up the other to experience.

 

oh those 'moling' hun eh!!

 

And.......

 

 

Debrief:Returning to the squadron after 2 weeks leave, I was once again given command of 1 flight whose job was

to fly top level cover for the second flight commanded by Lt Yank51. My flight consisting of Lt's Pilotsden,

Firestorm II, Cpt Winters and Thumper42 took off and headed for the frontlines, climbing steadily to an altitude of

6000ft. We crossed the lines with no opposition and even the other flight some 2000ft below us had little or no

problems. Not long after crossing over we saw a lone Hun craft heading towards the front, but he was many thousands

of feet above us so we let him pass.

 

Soon after this and when well into enemy territory, Lt Yank's flight began to engage a flight of enemy planes and

we continued our high level cover. Itwas not long though before we were engaged by a flight of the Hun ourselves.

At least 4 Albatross steamed towards us,passing just to my lower right and being attacked by Lt's Pilot, Firestorm

and Thumper; who was shot down very quickly.I had already indicated that i would take the last enemy in the formation

and Cpt Winters assisted by covering me from attack.

 

Unfortunately i misjudged my attack and put the crate into a violent spin like some rookie; headed right for the deck

i struggled with the stick until i finally gained control again. I attempted to gain some altitude again to enable

myself to asses my situation and climbed back to around 4500 ft. A brief look around and a struggle with my map

showed that i was about 12 miles or so into enemy territory with only the Hun for company, 4 Albies to be exact!

During my spin, the rest of the squadron must have continued to engage the German planes we came across, chasing

them over the lines and towards our own archie gunners. I struggled with the 4 enemy until all my ammunition was

spent- all to no avail; when i headed for the deck and the frontlines in an attempt to shake them off.

 

As i crossed over the lines i encountered the German archie and threw the kite about the skies in an effort to

stay alive. It was at this point i saw one of our boys headed back over the lines towards the swine that were chasing

me, God only knows what happened to him!

 

After shaking off the Hun and their archie i steered a course for home, the mess and a well deserved pint. Unfortunately

as i landed i thought that it would help the groundcrew if i put the old crate straight into one of the hangars.

This it turned out was a damned fool move and i entered the hangar at too high a speed. Fortunaely i jumped clear

just as the old girl stoved straight into the back of the hangar, causing massive damage to both the hangar and

my plane- still on the up side at least Lt Pilotsden could see the smoke and be sure that he was headed for the

right field!

 

Somehow i think i'll be doing jankers for a week for that little incedent!

 

God bless him, PD never could find the way back to the home field lol! I'd forgotten how difficult it was to give directions to someone using the in flight map.