Mike Dora

Looks great WK, will try it out tonight. Thanks Mike

Hi All I have become very much a fan of Stephen18's recent add-on ac, especially his recent DH series. I do have one wish, though. Both of the British DH4 models have twin Vickers and Lewises, and I would like to "de"-mod them to have only single Vickers & Lewis guns. This was the most common configuration for the DH4 through most of the War, as far as I can determine only a few RNAS Fours had twin Vickers, and the twin Lewises only came in relatively late. Now I know that there is a technique for removing things using the "dummy drop tank" method, as used to delete the Biff's upperwing Lewis, as follows (in the appropriate *DATA.INI file): [TopWingLeft] . . SystemName[001]=Mydummyweaponstation1 . // Weapon Stations -------------- . . [Mydummyweaponstation1] SystemType=WEAPON_STATION StationID=7 StationGroupID=1 StationType=EXTERNAL AttachmentPosition=0.00,0.00,0.00 AttachmentAngles=0.00,0.00,0.00 LoadLimit=1 AllowedWeaponClass=FT AttachmentType=NATO,WP NumWeapons=1 ModelNodeName=GunMount PylonMass=0.0001 PylonDragArea=0 FuelTankName= So my question is, how can I delete from the British DH4 models the (right-hand) Vickers and one of the two Lewises, using this or some other technique? I have a feeling that all one really needs to know, are the appropriate ModelNodeNames..? Thanks Mike

OK WK, Tried for a couple of hours last night, but still no joy. It would be very good of you to try this mod. Thanks Mike

Thanks Stephen Just tried removing the starboard Vickers gun, using stuff like: [Fuselage] . . SystemName[006]=Tailgun1 SystemName[007]=Tailgun2 SystemName[008]=Mydummyweaponstation1 SystemName[009]=InternalGun2 . // Weapon Stations . . [Mydummyweaponstation1] SystemType=WEAPON_STATION StationID=15 StationGroupID=2 StationType=EXTERNAL AttachmentPosition=0.00,0.00,0.00 AttachmentAngles=0.00,0.00,0.00 LoadLimit=1 AllowedWeaponClass=FT AttachmentType=NATO,WP NumWeapons=1 ModelNodeName=VickersBody01 PylonMass=0.0001 PylonDragArea=0 FuelTankName= . ..but it just won't play, the second gun remains obstinately there on the forward decking. Unless anyone has any other ideas (do I have the L & R Vickers the right way round BTW?), I guess I'll stick with the double-gunned Fours. Mike

Morning All, I had the great good fortune to be on board the old Ark for a couple of weeks in April 1978 (yikes - 34 years ago!), as an RAF type on loan to the Navy for a job related to the ship's impending retirement. I recently found and digitised a set of 35mm colour slides I took at the time. Attached are some shots of flight deck activity, taken from "Goofers" on the inboard side of the island as we approached our destination at Roosevelt Roads naval base in Puerto Rico. Hope they may be of interest? Mike

This may be an old question (if so please forgive me for not searching through the current 203 pages in this forum), but how can I change the pilot pic when creating a pilot dossier? I always seem to get the same "default" pics, for example every time I create a British persona, I get the picture of a chap from a Scottish regiment wearing a Glengarry. As it happens I am a Scot, so perhaps OFF is even smarter than we give it credit for - but this kind of jars when my character is supposed to be in an RNAS sqn! Thanks Mike

This is excellent news Stephen! I had tried to set up an Eastern Front version of FE1 for all the fine Russian & Austro-Hungarian ac you & others have been doing, using the WW2 Russia terrain from SFP. The massive concrete airbases were a bit of a reality-buster for WW1 though, and I didn't have the time or skill to amend these. Now I have something new to look forward to when I get back (am away on TDY just now). WW1 simmers really have never had it so good. The increasingly polished OFF and the developing ROF give us the Western Front with great realism, and thanks to people like you, FE now gives us _all_ aviation fronts from WW1 (except perhaps Port Arthur 1914? :-)) Mike

Absolutely gorgeous, and so much better than the CGI in some recent Hollywood-type movies! I can hardly wait.. Just one question though, what's with all the smoke being chuffed out of all the ac exhausts? If one looks at in-flight pics of WW1 ac, both period pics and those of contemporary restorations/reconstructions, there is little or no such smoke. I hope there'll be an option to switch it off? But that is only a minor minor point, it in no way detracts from the very impressive acheivement of the OFF team! Mike

Actually the British did begin investing in such improved training, at just about the same time as the French. Smith-Barry founded the Gosport School of Special Flying in August 1917, and at about the same time the School of Aerial Fighting and Gunnery was opened at Turnberry in SW Scotland. A lot of the accounts of the surviving British & Empire airmen speak of their time at one or both of these establishments. It could be argued that the final Allied air supremacy in 1918 was largely due to these, and the corresponding French measures. It certainly wasn't their aircraft, they were still using 1916/17 fighter designs (Camel, SE5, SPAD XIII) to the end of the War, in the face of more modern machines like the Fokker DVII. Sadly though these measures came too late for all the Allied airmen who fought and died before late 1917.. Mike

The German 2-seater crash sequence is amazing. Had to smile though at seeing a Poilu strolling unconcernedly past the smashed-up wreck with a cigarette in his mouth!

Wow. Archibald - certainly did!

Hi WM, Where would this mod be found please? As a closet Jacobite - like many Scots - I'd love to give a try, to at least get past Derby.. Mike

Hi Patrick I've downloaded your ROF campaign generator, but I'm not clear on how to install it and how to run it. What am I missing? Thanks Mike

Stephen I'm (back)staggered, it's beautiful - and will fill one of the remaining FE gaps! Mike

Flyboy I don't have the references or data to hand right now, but I do remember reading somewhere that the vast majority of Canadian aircrew serving with the British air services during 14-18, served during the _last_ year of the war. I recall something to the effect that Canadians made up some 30% of RFC/RNAS-RAF aircrew in 1918. The inference is by that time Britain herself was running out of suitably-qualified young men. Mike

I think it's the SSW R.VII (serial 7/15), the 5-bay wing is what distinguishes it from the other SSW R-tyoes. It first flew in January 1917, joining Rfa 501 at Vilna on the Eastern Front the following month. The R.VII flew its first combat mission on 15 March 1917 and continued in operational use until Rfa 501 was transferred to the Western Front in the summer. The R.VII remained at Vilna, transferred to the Riesenflugzeug Schulabteilung ("giant aircraft training unit"), with which it was still in service in early 1918.

Piece of Service admin trivia: the aircrew based on the M2 were unique for drawing RAF Flying Pay and RN Submarine Pay at the same time..

What an awful, awful movie. Thanks for the synopsis Capt S, you've saved me from the pain. BTW it's a bit off-topic but now you know why so many Scots hated "Braveheart" - again the true story would actually have made a far, far better movie - plus they were messing with not one, but two of our greatest national heroes! Mike

I work in NYC but live just across the Hudson in Hoboken, NJ. Temp here right now is 104F, precisely (well you know what I mean) twice the temp at my daughter's home in West Yorkshire, she's got 52F. When I was growing up in NE Scotland, 60+ was warm, 70+ was hot and 80+ was something we heard they sometimes got in London.

Sorry to go off at a bit of a tangent here chaps, but can you confirm that HPW's excellent new flight models somehow block the ace skins? I hadn't heard of that issue, is there a workaround for it? It'd be a great shame to gain the improved flight models but lose the atmosphere-enhancing presence of the aces. Mike

Just ran into an odd problem with the OFF Quick Mission facility. I decided I needed some practice, so have been running Quick Missions for a couple of days. Although my persona is an April 1917 46 Sqn Pup pilot, I've been flying the Quick Missions with a (single-gun) Tripehound. No problem doing that. But when I switched to an SE5a, after pressing "Go to Field", and after the "contact, clear" call, I was dropped back to the Quick Mission screen. Same thing happening when I try the Pup, Camel, and back to the Tripe again. Most frustrating, after working fine for days the option has stopped working. The only system changes I have made have been to change the Scenery Detail slider up to 4 then back to 3, and the Terrain Detail slider down to 3 then back to 4 (been experimenting to minimise blue jaggies with TrackIR rapid head movements). Any suggestions on how to fix this please? Thanks Mike

Oh well. That's quite different from SF1, so I guess it means the national speech mod won't work there. Bother. Mike

OK Reg, Thanks for that, let me ask a different angle. Where is the USAFSpeech.cat file normally found? I ask because I can't find it in SF1, all I can see is the regular ../Speech folder, full of American-accented wingman calls. Mike