Okay - you see some strange sights in wartime...

[Canvas Wings]

My Jasta 2 pilot, flying his first sortie in an Alb D2, Sep/16 happened to bring down Fee that ended up more or less all in one piece in a field next to a farm house and very close to his home field at Bertincourt. Said pilot, being at the end of his sortie, decided to land and pick up a souvenir. On landing, I switched to an external view as I rolled up towards the crate. Suddenly, when he got within 30 meters or so, there was a small flash and thump of an explosion directly in or under his cockpit and the pilot flew straight up into the air. I mean, he must have reached 100 meters faster than the Albatross could have. Touching burial service, tho’.

 

 

Now there was a bit of flak going off at the time (yes, at ground level, thank you very much, boys of Gun Battery B) -so I suppose it could have been that. But Death by Archie has always been a louder, more spectacular affair than this minor explosion, and that doesn’t explain the pilot’s Pop Tart imitation. So I’m thinking either:

 

A) the idiot rolled over a land mine.

 

B) that SOB in the Fee chucked a grenade in his lap, or

 

C) he bumped the James Bond ejector seat button.

 

Whatever, it was quite a sight. Fortunately, being the pilot’s first flight, I was able to laugh my ass off at it.

 

 

Strange sight # 2 does anyone/everyone else have a compass outside the cockpit on the right wing of their EIII’s ?

 

 

[+Stary]

That compass was indeed there mounted on the right wing in Eindeckers, so no worries!

[+Hasse Wind]

The best part of the Eindecker must be that nice little fuel tank sitting right behind the pilot's seat. It gives you the feeling of being well-protected in case of fire.

[Canvas Wings]

That compass was indeed there mounted on the right wing in Eindeckers, so no worries!

 

 

Ah. Well that was my first thought, since it's so obviously there - but I checked a lot of pics on line and couldn't see it, so I thought perhaps it was just a glitch in system. Thanks Stary.

[Rickitycrate]

I've put my crate down on the turf after running out of ammo or being crippled. I like to sit there and enjoy the different views and any action. A few times while leasurely looking about I was almost hit by falling/crashing aircraft at very close range. Very loud when your engine is off, made me jump, and some explosion to see. Great fun.

Edited September 9, 2009 by Rickitycrate

[+Polovski]

Compass is correct, several craft had them mounted away from other large metallic objects :)

 

DFW's is on the port wing too.

[JimAttrill]

I was landing using Target view and as usual I stuffed it up. The left wing hit the ground and about half of it got ground away. I thought 'here we go' but managed to right the plane. Then the wing remade itself. I laughed at this, but was quite happy that the ground crew had flown along with me and managed to fix the problem so quickly