5% responsible for about 50% of all kills

[Creaghorn 10]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

 

interesting article about the "flow". some experience everybody had in different ways in life.

 

the flow is some kind of experience somebody can have when doing things like in sports, in jobs or hobbies, or also beeing a fighter pilot in a war. the flow is the area in situations between anxiety, worry and arousal and boredom. the margin between those two sides is the flow, which is perfect. i think the margin inbetween differs greatly by every single individual.

 

it was always a phenomenon why in sports some players perform by far better in "clutch" situations (getting into his flow) and some others completely fail, falling to the side of anxiety, worry and arousal, although the game situation is the very same.

 

i think beeing a fighterpilot (or any pilot) in WW1 had the same principle, only that the risk of life and overall thrill was by far greater of course than in any non-war situation in life (making an error with the tying run on 3rd base in the 9th inning, or missing the most important penalty in football is bad, but there's nonetheless never a risk to life).

 

i think the real successfull hunters (MvR, Fonck etc.) got in those moments of danger, where a cool head was important, into their flow-area (they got even calmer and more aware about everything in those moments), while the majority of pilots got scared, anxious and made mistakes which they wouldn't make if not beeing in such an extreme situation. of course in a sim, where such extrem situations don't occure, there are by far many more succesfull pilots, because the flow margin is 1000 times bigger and and side of anxiety etc. is almost not existent at all.

 

i think that are things one can not learn. you are one of those types who get into the very thin margin of the flow, or you are not. those are maybe the differences between e.g. jeters and reggie jacksons compared to most other ballplayers, or the german football national team (who hadn't lost a penalty shootout in over 30 years i think), and other football teams.

 

my suggestion, if one in BHAH wants to experience the most challenging level as real as it's possible for a sim, then start as a two seater pilot and survive about 6 months before beeing allowed to transfer to a fighter squad. then the almost not existing side of anxiety will grow because you invested very much in your pilot and you will appreciate every single kill and every single sortie and you will think twice before running blindly into a dogfight. because when you die, you have to do the same two seater 6 month experience again . when experiencing BHAH like this, than you'll see how great this sim really really can be . at least that's my humble an unimportant opinion.

[Morris 2]

that's great info Creaghorn,

 

6 months and ur not allowed to attack any enemy fighter. Just fly our goals and return.

 

I WILL DIE.......

 

morris

[Olham 164]

Creaghorn: ...and side of anxiety etc. is almost not existent at all.

 

Intersting points in general, Creaghorn.

To speak for myelf, I must say, that I am very anxious to loose my DiD Campaign Pilot, and often

it makes me tense and feel unwell; especially when I have to go into enemy territory like yesterday.

Still though - I can't do it any different - I risk my pilot, when my wingmen are in danger.

 

Don't know how I would fly it, if it could cost my real life. But not to help my wingies out, only because

I would have to start to fly two-seaters again would feel too selfish for me.

 

The "flow" surely has a lot to do with phantasy. How much can and will you imagine the result of your

actions. In the racing movie "Grand Prix", the French driver (Ives Montand) tells a female reporter,

that he doesn't have any phantasy. If a driver has a lot of phantasy, he could imagine all the most

terrible accidents, and then he wouldn't be able to do the job successfully.

Some people do not imagine the results of their actions; they only become more careful or even afraid

of racing or dogfighting, once they had a terrible accident.

 

For me, the tension is big enough as it is - I have, maybe, too much phantasy.

I'm flying it to have some fun with it. Only if I had lots of time to do so, I would create one pilot for this

experiment - but that is, unfortunately - not the case. I can usually only fly one hour per day.

So I'm not simulating the full horror of the Great War - cause I would have never liked to really be there.

Edited March 13, 2010 by Olham

[Creaghorn 10]

Creaghorn: ...and side of anxiety etc. is almost not existent at all.

 

Intersting points in general, Creaghorn.

To speak for myelf, I must say, that I am very anxious to loose my DiD Campaign Pilot, and often

it makes me tense and feel unwell; especially when I have to go into enemy territory like yesterday.

Still though - I can't do it any different - I risk my pilot, when my wingmen are in danger.

 

Don't know how I would fly it, if it could cost my real life. But not to help my wingies out, only because

I would have to start to fly two-seaters again would feel too selfish for me.

 

The "flow" surely has a lot to do with phantasy. How much can and will you imagine the result of your

actions. In the racing movie "Grand Prix", the French driver (Ives Montand) tells a female reporter,

that he doesn't have any phantasy. If a driver has a lot of phantasy, he could imagine all the most

terrible accidents, and then he wouldn't be able to do the job successfully.

Some people do not imagine the results of their actions; they only become more careful or even afraid

of racing or dogfighting, once they had a terrible accident.

 

For me, the tension is big enough as it is - I have, maybe, too much phantasy.

I'm flying it to have some fun with it. Only if I had lots of time to do so, I would create one pilot for this

experiment - but that is, unfortunately - not the case. I can usually only fly one hour per day.

So I'm not simulating the full horror of the Great War - cause I would have never liked to really be there.

 

the point is not letting your wingies die of course. if a wingman is in immediate danger of course he needs help and vice versa (thank god) . that's also a possible part of the "flow". but there is also a difference in helping a wingmen out and distract and chasing the enemy off your wingie so both of you can escape, or helping him out and getting fixated to shoot this perticular enemy down. the first version is the in real life more common one where both of you survive, the second version is the here more common one where it works out 2-3 times and then you get shot down in false heroism and lack of anxiety. with a big grown anxiety one would automatically chose the first scenario without to think, and additionally the wingman is safe. also the enemy would probably get anxious and fly away when he sees somebody rushing in.

 

it's true with the phantasy. that's why in the action one often isn't fully aware about the amount of danger he is really in, at that moment. the awareness of that comes often after that. that's why veterans often break down days or even years after combat-experiences when thinking about the past.

and that's also why for me formula one drivers of today were the same type of guys as the WW1 pilots 90 years ago. only with the difference that in racing nowadays only the 20-30 best are there and in WW1 have been the very best, but also hundreds of poor pilots.

 

you're absolutely right olham. main thing of course for everybody is to get out the most "fun" of the sim.

i only wanted to show the maybe psychological difference between real and sim, and more than that the difference between a type like MvR and a normal WW1 pilot

Edited March 13, 2010 by Creaghorn

[Olham 164]

with a big grown anxiety one would automatically chose the first scenario without to think, and additionally

the wingman is safe. also the enemy would probably get anxious and fly away when he sees somebody rushing in.

 

That would be great, but isn't yet simulated. Usually, enemy fighters I have fired some rounds at, follow me all the way home,

if I don't shoot them down. I can't even warp away, because I get the message "you may not warp - enemies near".

 

it's true with the phantasy. that's why in the action one often isn't fully aware about the amount of danger he is really in,

at that moment. the awareness of that comes often after that. that's why veterans often break down days or even years

after combat-experiences when thinking about the past.

 

I am just reading the great book "Der Sturm" ("The Perfect Storm") by Sebastian Junger; about the last sortie and the sinking

of the Atlantic fisherboat "Andrea Gail".

As for the facts, forget the movie. I liked it, but it is Hollywood compared to the naked truth.

I highly recommend that book - Junger has an incredible way of telling the story without inventing anything he hasn't seen.

It's documentary; when it comes to the point, were the ship must have sunk, he doesn't paint a picture from phantasy.

He researched and tells you, what other people have reported, who survived such situations; he lets them neatly describe, how

drowning felt until loosing their consciousness (before they got rescued). He tells you the biological research results about it.

 

Now, in this book there are descriptions, reports, that told me, how different you feel and act and react, under extreme situations

that are most likely to cost your life. It is obvious, that our brain works different under such conditions, and that we could not be

like that every "normal" day.

 

Having an accident (I had two heavy car accidents, which could have cost my life easily), my brain seemed to be running high speed

like a camera. The higher the speed of a camera, the more single pictures it takes, and the longer and slower could you watch a

slow motion replay of the recording. That must cost an enormous energy, and be very hard to "digest" by our consciousness; so our

brain isn't doing it very often. It is also very hard, if not impossible, to simulate.

This "mode" is only switched on in the real danger. Otherwise we would live a very different life.

Edited March 13, 2010 by Olham

[carrick58 23]

The wingmates would have to fend for themselves.

[ConradB 0]

From flying the big furballs in BoBII, I learned and it has become habit to not get fixated on a target. I usually spend my time in combat rescueing wingmen or 2 seaters from enemy attacks. The 2 seaters are usually pretty good. If I can make an E/A veer off, the gunner usually gets them. When attacked, or if I spot an adversary making an aggressive, I calmly turn towards him, and try to make a headon pass. Even if he has a height advantage. I can pull up, and pop a few into the engine, and that usually gets them off me.

 

Once the battle starts to wind down, and there are a few stragglers, I may use my remaining ammo to knock an enemy down just to log a claim, but most of my kills, are usually unintentional, as I seem to spend most of my time putting out "fires" so to speak.