Admiration for Recce pilots and crew

[Baldric 42]

For some added spice I decided to try a DiD-T Schusta pilot/observer. I picked Schusta 2, April 1917, equipped with the lovely Roland CII (love this machine). Lost our escort approaching the front when they engaged enemy Nieuports, so we were given some breathing room. Flew on to the mission point (observation for 18 minutes over enemy lines) where we engaged a flight of Sop.Strutters- by this point I wanted to try the observers seat so punched in Shift F8 + and manned the parabellum. (would it be possible in P4 to apply TrackIR to the observer? please! ta). Dohh, as my AI pilot flew I started gunning, now I must say the AI pilot was awsome- I didn't lose my lunch on him/over the side, but trying to hit even a lumbering moose like the Strutter was a huge challenge (can't even imagine what it would be like with a less qualified pilot). About seven minutes over the lines we got jumped by a full squadron of RFC Nieuport 17s, my parabellum jams, we take hits and we're down faster than a pair of trousers owned by a bootsman on shoreleave in a French brothel.

 

How did these guys do it for real? What drove them? Sense of duty, a brotherly love for each other? Anyway, another amazingly challenging, albeit fun, aspect of the campaign game. Going to re-roll and start again...if a fighter pilot's life expectancy was 17-ish hours, what was the recce crews LE?

 

Salut

[itifonhom 6]

Quite amazing story you got there Baldric!

I can't even imagine what could drive these men, not only those on air but also the other in trenches. In my mind this war makes no sence at all, no matter how I try.

 

itifonhom

[Olham 164]

Yeah, I tried the gunner in a C III, too. I didn't hit anything really.

I wonder, if you can use your hatswitch for looking left and right - I think,

it worked somehow, to get a view separate from moving the gun.

But I don't remember how.

[Baldric 42]

I've yet to complete a mission and have gone through three crews...the last one was the closest, and almost landed except for getting bounced right over the airfield- I was so used to seeing Ack Ack over No-Mans Land that I completely missed the telltale flak bursts over our own field...Nieuport 17 swooping in and all I heard was Takka-Takka-Takka-Takka...cut scene. Hehe.

 

<digs in>

[Rickitycrate 10]

Baldric, I am fond of the CII "Walfisch" myself. I do also enjoy being in the observer position. I find that I can control the machine gun better and more realisticly with a gamepad contoller rather than stick. I just made a post at SimHQ regarding this. Then I flew another mission in a DFW. Many times I do not encounter E/A directly but I watch furballs in the vicinity. I cycle through the aircraft with the Tab key and watch the show while my A/I pilot takes us to the waypoints. I hope you don't mind a few pics. Night camo in broad daylight but it's pretty. I found a different bombview today, check the last pics.

[Baldric 42]

RC those are great pics! Love the bomb view, and really like that skin. I'll try what you suggest- go as observer- I'm assuming the sim will give credit where its due (not that I'll hit anything much to start with, but maybe I can scare off enemies) with regards to mission completion, although I'll count survival as victory. Thanks for the encouragement!!

 

<runs off to enlist under another alias, one of thousands...>

[Rickitycrate 10]

Baldric, survival is the only real victory. Well at least it's immediately gratifying. No waiting for conformation, hehe.

[Waldemar Kurtz 1]

Yeah, I tried the gunner in a C III, too. I didn't hit anything really.

I wonder, if you can use your hatswitch for looking left and right - I think,

it worked somehow, to get a view separate from moving the gun.

But I don't remember how.

 

yes.

 

all of the same keyboard and joystick commands to alter your viewpoint (zoom in or out) work the same for the observer's cockpit as it would in the pilot's seat. I'm always side-shifting the viewpoint over as far as I can-- so that I can get a better look at ground targets (aka, looking over the side of the fuselage). I also use that to look for enemy aircraft-- that way I don't have the gun obstructing part of my field of view.

[Olham 164]

Wow, Rickity, those pictures are great, completed with photo book edges even!

Wonderful! You seem to get mote and moer advanced - your avatar is high tech!

And the skin of the DFW was Bullethead's, I think? It looks great!

[RAF_Louvert 101]

Outstanding pics Rickitycrate! I never thought of using the frame with the photo tabs in it, I have that one in my photo program as well. Nice touch.

 

I have great respect for the recce pilots and crews. They were the true unsung heros of the air war. Their lives had none of the glamour of the scout pilots, and they pulled all the worst assignments. I flew numerous recce missions during my stint in the USAF many years ago, and even in nice, cozy, modern aircraft those very long flights sucked. And then when a hostile intercept aircraft painted you for an A2A, (in my case just to scare the living hell out of you, which it did), well that adds a whole new dimension to the term "sucks". But I can only imagine what it must have been like to sit in an open cockpit for several hours, in all kinds of weather, at low altitude so you could get good photos, and staying nice and level and slow so those photos wouldn't be blurred, (which of course made you one big fat target for every gunner on the ground and every enemy scout in the air). Gutsy.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou