The Short, Multi-Player, and General OFF Excitement

[RAF_Louvert 101]

Good Morning All,

 

This sim just keeps getting better and better! At sitting duck's suggestion over in the "First Time PHOTO" post, I signed up as a member of the "Doves and Hawks" website yesterday and studied a bit more on the MP side of OFF. With the exception of some final adjustments to the TS set-up in my 64-bit XP Pro OS, I should be good to go for some online flying. I then downloaded the Short Folder torpedo bomber originally created by Nod, (with FM work by Pol), that stumpjumper has available in his downloads section, and set up a quick test mission to see just how it really handles. I have to say that for this early-war B/R flyer it was like being a kid at Christmas all over again.

 

"And what do you want for Christmas Louie?"

 

"I want an official Stumpjumper carbine action two-hundred shot OFF model Short Folder sea plane with a 254mm Mark 14 torpedo and a compass in the dash and this thing that tells time!"

 

I know that for you OFF veterans the Short is old news, but it is an excellent plane to have at our disposal for those of us who wish to fly the very early period of the War. If it hasn't already been built back in Phase 2, I would like to put together an MP/SP mission pack for the Gallipoli campaign in the Dardanelles where, on the 12^th of August 1915, Flt Cmdr C.H.K. Edmonds made history in his Short Folder #842 by being the first to sink a ship by aeroplane torpedo attack. He then went on to sink a second supply ship on August 17^th, again by torpedo attack. BTW, does anyone happen to know if the map in OFF covers that area of the globe, and if not is there a way to add that area as a download in a mission pack?

 

Here are a few screenshots of Nod's outstanding model of the Short in all it's lumbering, wallowing, slow-flying glory. And despite it's flight characteristics, (which uncleal quite accurately describes as "a concrete block with a propeller and wings"), it is a rush utilizing it to navigate out over open sea, locate an enemy vessel, and successfully send it down to Davy Jones' Locker! I discovered too that landing the Short on the water takes a fair amount of finesse if you don't wish to join the ship you just sank.

 

 

The front office of the Short

 

 

A fly-by view

 

 

Fish on its way to the target

 

 

A very satisfying explosion

 

 

 

Gawd, I love this sim! Many thanks again to all who have worked so hard to create such outstanding aircraft and features as these that we all get to enjoy.

 

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

 

.

Edited July 15, 2009 by RAF_Louvert

[Hauksbee 103]

Is that a huge radiator I see directly in front of the pilot? Is the view forward as bad as it appers?

[Vasco 3]

Hell yes!

 

Thank God for TrackIR!

 

Vasco

[RAF_Louvert 101]

That's a big "Yes" to both questions Hauksbee. Welcome to the life of a 1915 B/R pilot.

 

You can peer around it and/or under it a bit, or do the old side-slip trick to open up your forward field of vision.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

[Hauksbee 103]

Hell yes! Thank God for TrackIR!

That bad, eh? (&BTW, where did you find that wonderful avatar?)

[+Polovski 456]

Just one thing, I think credit should go to Nod as the model maker actually - he made the original Shorts we released (2 variants) in previous Phase complete with torpedoes. I redid the FM at the time based on Nods FM.

 

Tis fun to fly.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

Thank you very much for that information and correction Pol, I will make the changes in my post to give credit where credit is surely due. I am still a noob in the history of OFF.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

[Vasco 3]

That bad, eh? (&BTW, where did you find that wonderful avatar?)

 

Hauksbee,

 

It's a picture of an old model kit made by Revell Called 'The Red Baron and his Funfdekker Fokker'. I was actually looking for a picture of another one they did in the range called 'Lucky Pierre (as he's flying a Nieuport 17 Lewis - my favorite mid-war ride) but no luck.

 

Regards,

 

Vasco

[Dej 17]

Not quite the same format as your avatar Vasco, but I thought Hauksbee'd like a look.

 

[EDIT] Apologies for the temporary hijack, Louvert. [/EDIT]

 

Edited July 15, 2009 by Dej

[Hauksbee 103]

Worse, but you must remember, the way that bird Flys ( SLLOOWLY ). The only thing you need to miss is mountains

When you fly a torpedo mission, the ocean is flat.

Better you don't see the AA gunner on the ship, you can't take evasive action, till you drop that Fish anyway.

Plus when you do take evasive action, you'll be the last to know

Al, you silver-tongued devil, you make it sound almost appealing. But I figure, if I got an E.III to behave for me, [not that I could ever take it into a fight] mayhap I could get a Short pointed at the target. Battleships don't jink around too much, and hitting one from a string-bag like the Short must be very satisfying.

 

Dej: Thanks for the drawings. That Triplane+ is definitely a cousin to Vasco's.

Edited July 15, 2009 by Hauksbee

[sitting_duck 3]

First of all..welcome to doves and hawks.....

 

Stump is full of surprises, and he ususally puts his toys up there.

 

when you are finished playing with the short, get the 2 files in "global layer for mp only"

 

These are stumps terrain for austria, switzerland and italy......

 

Flying the alps is great....ive spent hours just sightseeing..

 

If you need assistance figuring out what you have to do with the files...someone from d&h who has used them will be glad to help..

[RAF_Louvert 101]

Thanks for the offer of assistance sitting_duck, I am sure I will be taking you up on it. I will also grab those files for my MP install. BTW, will you folks be hosting a server this weekend?

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

[JimAttrill 24]

I've read before about the exploits of those Shorts. The engines were dreadfully unreliable, just what you want when flying over the sea! The exhaust valves were made out of mild steel or something like that and had to be changed after every flight: they would bend and/or stretch and had to be thrown away. I think the engine was made by Sunbeam and seems to have been a bit behind the times as far as the metals used were concerned. Most of the advances in metallurgy happened after the war anyway, and even the petrol they used was of extremely low octane (not that octane ratings had been invented either).

 

My father used to tell me of those early days when he would regrind a RR Eagle crankshaft using grinding paste, a block of lead, two nuts and bolts and a couple of bits of wood. Aircraft technicians nowadays don't fix anything, they just change components. It was a different world then. We were both of the same service, the same trade even, but had little in common technically. He was born the same year the Wright brothers flew and I was born the year after the Bell X-1 broke the sound barrier.

[JimAttrill 24]

I am enjoying the on-line book about 100 Squadron RAF. I note that on page ten the squadron was held up as Fismes, en route to another aerodrome. My wife's Uncle and Aunt and cousins various all farm there. A nice little town, I was there when the French won the footy world cup back in 1998 and we drove into Rheims for the celebrations there. That was a night to remember!

[RAF_Louvert 101]

My Uncle was an auto mechanic, back in the 20's.

 

uncleal, my father and grandfather ran a repair garage back in the 20's and 30's as well. And you are so right, it was a whole lot different back then. If an engine went 30,000 miles before needing valve work it was the talk of town. Heck, I lapped valves in by hand myself on a flathead six in a 1940 Plymouth I had back in high school, with my dad watching over my shoulder telling me exactly how I was doing it all wrong.

 

 

Cheers!

 

Lou