Life with Roland C.II's...

[Hauksbee]

In its day, the Roland C.II was known for being a difficult airplane to fly and damned near impossioble to land. In WOFF, I find it impossible to fly. As soon as the wheels leave the grass, the C.II wants to slew sideways, left and/or right and live on the edge of stall always. I managed to get one flying in ROF, but, as in real life, they are difficult-to-impossible to land because the pilot sits so high up. The designers put in a window as an aid, but the rutted cow pastures of France were a far cry from the smooth meadows outside Berlin were the Roland was tested. Pictures of C.II's tipped up on their noses were common. Landing on a flat 2D video screen with no real depth of field is worse. My landings were always of the 'totally trashed' variety. Anyone here have any real affection for the C.II?

Edited December 6, 2014 by Hauksbee

[Wayfarer]

... the C.II wants to slew sideways ...

 

Ah ... so it wasn't just me then.

[Olham]

I  don't know what you guys are doing - I flew it twice in the "DiD Campaign", and I must say

it flies fine, and isn'rt too hard to land. Maybe you should work on your piloting skills?

 

I had a dogfight against a single Sopwith Triplane - and won. Take that, ha!

[Hauksbee]

Maybe you should work on your piloting skills?

No doubt I should...if I had a clue as to what was going wrong. I had the same problem with the DFW two-seater. I could barely get it off the ground, let alone fly it competently. Same problem with the Hansa-Brandenberg W-12 in ROF. (and much agreement on that over at ROF) Perhaps I would have been one of the hapless student pilots that never made it through flight school.

[Wayfarer]

As someone who crashed a BE2 twice ... during training ... I am also ready to consider I may lack a certain finesse at the controls!

 

It was actually in OFF that I tried out the CII on a whim, and was positively flying sideways for a few moments - I was quite mesmerised.

[Olham]

The trick might be: do less. You don't have to do anything much.

 

You push te throttle forward; the C.II will roll and gain speed until it will lift off.

You don't pull the stick more than just a little bit to make it happen.

Only begin to pull, when you feel she wants to lift.

 

Once the craft is airborne, you can try and pull the stick more to make more climb.

But always be aware: these aircraft were all underpowered compared to WW2 craft.

So do not force anything per stick onto them, which they don't have the power for.

 

For any tighter or vertical combat manoeuvers, the main trick is always to gain more energy

than the engine supplies. That can only be done by dives. From shallow, flat-angled dives

to rather steep ones, there is a wide range of how to gain energy.

 

For steeper dives you will have to reduce throttle by a quarter or half, to not break the engine.

The Roland, by the way, can dive with throttle almost fully on; it will gain a speed of ca. 200 km/h.

This should get you away from all Nieuports and Sopwiths - only the SPAD and S.E.5a can follow.

 

Once the additional energy is gained, you can now perform a tight turn, even in a climb.

You will feel, how the energy bleeds off quickly, and then you better finish your manoeuver.

For more such moves, you need then to gain forward speed=energy again.

 

If you watch Roland C.II or the Airco DH.2 fighting, you will see how agile these craft CAN be,

even in incredible vertical manoeuvres! I always learn something more when I watch that.

 

Don't you think now, that I can already perfrom all that - I am still constantly watching and

learning more, and pilots like Lanoe Hawker can give me incredible fights.

Edited December 7, 2014 by Olham

[Hauksbee]

^{Thanks for the lesson, Olham. I'll print this out and keep it handy. I really like the Roland and would be happy to master it.}

Edited December 8, 2014 by Hauksbee

[JimAttrill]

Hasse is flying a Roland and seems to be doing ok in WOFF.   I haven't tried it but might when I give up on the Gotha IV which is easy to fly but suicidal if there are fighters around. 

[JFM]

I love the Walfisch. I'd fly it more but for some reason--unless they changed it in a recent patch and I've missed it--the WOFF version doesn't carry bombs. Enable it to carry bombs and I'd be starting a new campaign with it in two minutes.

[Hauksbee]

Does not carry bombs? How could the Blessed Devs stumble so badly? It was designed as a bomber!

[Olham]

^{Thanks for the lesson, Olham. I'll print this out and keep it handy.}

 

My pleasure, Hauksbee - good luck; Hals- und Beinbruch, as we say in Germany!

[Hauksbee]

My pleasure, Hauksbee - good luck; Hals- und Beinbruch, as we say in Germany!

When I was doing my 'light-and-cloud' experiment, I picked a C.II on one occasion  and jumped in at 16,000'. It flew pretty well, didn't  stall a lot and responded to the controls. Apparently, it's a matter of getting it off the ground...a small, tricky detail.

 

I know that 'Beinbruch' means 'broken leg'...but what does the 'Hals' mean

[Olham]

When I was doing my 'light-and-cloud' experiment, I picked a C.II on one occasion  and jumped in at 16,000'. It flew pretty well, didn't  stall a lot and responded to the controls. Apparently, it's a matter of getting it off the ground...a small, tricky detail.

 

I know that 'Beinbruch' means 'broken leg'...but what does the 'Hals' mean

 

It means: "Break your neck and leg"