What a crazy scramble

[Olham 164]

You may say about the Fokker Dr.1, what you like; but I found out for myself,

that she was an extremely good fighter in it's time, when you handled her right.

First I didn't like her, because the reaction on any stick movement is immediate,

that aiming and shooting are very difficult.

Also, she is really an "instable plane" - she behaves, as if the centerpoint, around

which she moves extremely agile, is the joint of the stick.

Very tricky, cause she moves in any direction you want!

But she made my day, on an absolute mad scramble. Never before have I managed

to shoot down 6 fighters in a single scramble. And all six of them were Camels!

 

I had flown out of our field to the right, and climbed, before I returned to take on the fight.

The first close Camel just shot down our one and only loss - the Dr.1 fell in between trees

like a dead pigeon. Seconds later, the killer joined him - I literally shot him into the ground [15h51].

Pulling up, I saw the next one hunting my direct wingman. Von Hertzen performed half a roll and

a headover dive. The Camel tried to do a very tight turn - right into my gunsights. She got so

badly plastered, that I could let her go, and attack a third craft. To my left, she crashed [15h52]

on our field. The next one just tried to climb out of an attack. Full throttle back gave me one

deadly second - puffs of white smoke all over her. She turned half headover and fell away; craft

crashed hard [15h53].

The fourth did a wide right climbing turn. When I hit her, she tightened the turn and lowered the nose.

For seconds, my Dr.1 began to tumble uncontrolled. By catching up, I understood, that this strange

behaviour could be used in a tight turn fight.

I performed similar, but more controlled moves, to cut right into the Camel's tight turn, and it

worked! I came out so hard on her bum, that I shot the pilot from less than 20 feet, I'd say.

I heard him scream loud, before he crashed [15h53:46].

The last two Camels hadn't come down with the others. Now, they seemed to fly away.

But von Hertzen and I climbed after them as fast as possible. Had they continued their escape,

they could have made it. But they were British pilots, and so the first turned round, and came

down on von Hertzen. Easily, I got behind him and gave him a good burst, when I collected hits suddenly.

His mate had obviously joined in. But some of these aerobatic Dr.1 moves, and he zoomed past me.

I was behind him and hit him so terribly, he couldn't pull up again, and crashed [16h01].

 

The last, damaged Camel tried to escape. Von Hertzen and I chased after her, but then, suddenly,

she fell from the sky and exploded on the ground [16h02].

 

Included the landing, flying time was 20 minutes. I landed with 284 rounds unused.

This surely was the maddest scramble I ever had.

To be honest, I want to say, that I used TAC and targeting cone on this, cause otherwise,

scrambles would be really mad, and I think, wouldn't have been made in a situation like this.

But the Fokker Dr.1 has found a new friend in me - what a bizzare craft!

[Red-Dog 3]

Targeting cone olham? you must be losing your edge

Mind you i did a scramble a couple of missions ago and got shot down before i made 500ft,so i know what you mean.

[Dej 17]

I hated scramble missions in the SE5a. Either I was left alone long enough to extend and get some height, at which point I could pick my target and close back in or I'd be shot up before I had much of a chance. In the former situation I gained two kills, in the latter I spent the best part of two months in hospital!

Edited April 8, 2009 by Dej

[Olham 164]

I'd go so far to say, that the Dr.1 is the best choice in here for scrambles.

She takes off like a helicopter!

In an earlier QC fight, when attacked by incoming Camels, flying at about 500 feet,

i quickly was above them!