Spandaus, Vickers, Lewis and Ejection of Cartridges

[+VonS]

For FE/FE2 Flyers interested in little oddities of WW1 flight,

Thought I'd open a small mini-post with some interesting info. on cartridge ejection on WW1 machine guns, as related to my tweaked data inis. I usually like to keep the ejection-of-cartridges call set to True on single-seaters, including top-wing mounted Lewis guns, or Vickers or Spandaus that are in front of the cockpit. Toggle that setting under the Internal Gun section of your data inis to preference, either to True or False, if you're distracted by empty flying cartridges while flying.

On two-seater and multi-seater types, especially for observers/gunners, I usually have that setting at False, since many observers had setups with cloth or leather bags attached to the guns to catch spent cartridges. One exception to the rule is of course the one-seater pusher type, such as the DH.2 - you don't want spent cartridges from those flying back into the engine or propeller (as historical).

A good post on the topic is here:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/150528.aspx?page=1

Also good is the opening, lengthy post on that forum.

Happy flying,

Von S