Last Rites?

[Todt Von Oben 0]

I was experimenting with QC, pausing the game to get some good screen grabs. Went through a sequence at night where a plane got flamed and the pilot jumped.

 

What he did seemed to be very authentic: he leaped vertically from the plane, tucked up in a ball as he went past his pursuer, and then rolled over onto his belly spread out pretty much like a skydiver in a laid-out "frog" position. I was using a "stop motion" method to screengrab various phases of this action, and I noticed something interesting.

 

Right at the end, as his burning plane fell away and the enemy continued off below him, I saw the hapless pilot bring his right arm in toward his chest, and I believe his hand was closed.

 

Now, if this was CFS3, I'd expect him to be pulling a ripcord; and maybe that action is what I was seeing.

 

But then again, since this guy wasn't wearing a chute, it occurs to me there might be another possibility. So here's one more crazy question.

 

Was that motion a leftover ripcord grab from CFS3; or did you guys configure the jumper so he reaches in and blesses himself by making the sign of the cross over his chest before falling to his death?

 

I think it would be kinda cool if it was the latter, but I have virtually no experience with CFS3 so I'm not sure what the intent here was.

 

What's going on there?

 

Prost!

 

TvO

Edited March 18, 2009 by Todt Von Oben

[OvS 8]

I was experimenting with QC, pausing the game to get some good screen grabs. Went through a sequence at night where a plane got flamed and the pilot jumped.

 

What he did seemed to be very authentic: he leaped vertically from the plane, tucked up in a ball as he went past his pursuer, and then rolled over onto his belly spread out pretty much like a skydiver in a laid-out "frog" position. I was using a "stop motion" method to screengrab various phases of this action, and I noticed something interesting.

 

Right at the end, as his burning plane fell away and the enemy continued off below him, I saw the hapless pilot bring his right arm in toward his chest, and I believe his hand was closed.

 

Now, if this was CFS3, I'd expect him to be pulling a ripcord; and maybe that action is what I was seeing.

 

But then again, since this guy wasn't wearing a chute, it occurs to me there might be another possibility. So here's one more crazy question.

 

Was that motion a leftover ripcord grab from CFS3; or did you guys configure the jumper so he reaches in and blesses himself by making the sign of the cross over his chest before falling to his death?

 

I think it would be kinda cool if it was the latter, but I have virtually no experience with CFS3 so I'm not sure what the intent here was.

 

What's going on there?

 

Prost!

 

TvO

 

TvO,

 

It's just the standard CFS3 bailout animation... but you can stretch the imagination to whatever you want to see. :)

 

OvS

[Todt Von Oben 0]

TvO,

 

It's just the standard CFS3 bailout animation... but you can stretch the imagination to whatever you want to see. :)

 

OvS

 

Yep!

 

BTW: IMOHO it's a GREAT bailout animation.

 

Thanks!

 

TvO

Edited March 18, 2009 by Todt Von Oben

[zoomzoom 2]

Yep!

 

BTW: IMOHO it's a GREAT bailout animation.

 

Thanks!

 

TvO

 

 

This is particularly fascinating, as I just got done reading last night Ernst UDET's account of his first succesful combat patrol. He shot down a Farman out of a pack of about 20 to 30 other aircraft, the others were Caudron's, and he had to dive away to avoid the fire from these after picking of the Farman from thier midst. He describes looking over as he swept downward and away from this attack, seeing the Farman tumbling in flame and falling beside him on his left, and then all-of-a sudden, between himself and this spectacle, and much closer, an object plummets past that looks like, (and this is really his description: "A frog with its arms outstretched")...this was the observer who had jumped free. Amazing your description was almost verbatim the same as his! Another nod to the Dev's.

 

ZZ.

[rabu 9]

I think the guy was looking for his Camels for that last smoke on the way down?

[Todt Von Oben 0]

I think the guy was looking for his Camels for that last smoke on the way down?

 

[Todt Von Oben 0]

This is particularly fascinating, as I just got done reading last night Ernst UDET's account of his first succesful combat patrol. He shot down a Farman out of a pack of about 20 to 30 other aircraft, the others were Caudron's, and he had to dive away to avoid the fire from these after picking of the Farman from thier midst. He describes looking over as he swept downward and away from this attack, seeing the Farman tumbling in flame and falling beside him on his left, and then all-of-a sudden, between himself and this spectacle, and much closer, an object plummets past that looks like, (and this is really his description: "A frog with its arms outstretched")...this was the observer who had jumped free. Amazing your description was almost verbatim the same as his! Another nod to the Dev's.

 

ZZ.

 

Actually, my reference was only common terminology for a skydiving body position back in the 60's and 70's.

 

There was the "Hard Arch" which was a relatively rigid spread eagle position; and the more-relaxed "Frog" position where the arms and legs were loosely bent to trail more naturally in the relative wind of freefall, allowing greater lateral stability and improved control during Relative Work.

 

Back then, some jumpers said the name was attirbutable to the resemblance of the body position to that of a frog; and others said it came about because the body position had been discovered and developed primarily by French skydivers. The French were major innovators during the early years of skydiving; and French people in general have been referred to by the less-than-polite slang term "frog" for quite a long time. No offense intended to anyone here; that's just what people were saying way back then.

 

Interesting correlation with Udet, though. Thanks!

 

Prost!

 

TvO