JFM

Hello, If you aren't going to correct the art you did so that it matches your caption that describes the scene--fair enough--you should correct the caption. Now you do have an idea--i.e., know--that LvR's 30th victory looked nothing like that. Again, I'm not an artist, but from a visual sense I think your rendering looks fantastic, I really do. I hope to see more of your work. Constructively, for future projects, perhaps keep in mind that even some rudimentary research goes a long way. Although, in your last post you stated that you "don't care much about historical mistakes"--although that belies your caption's attempt at historical accuracy--but, again, fair enough. Maybe next time put LvR in an Me-262; that'll really liven things up!

Worst skin I've ever seen was a Pepto-Bismol-pink Bf-109 with kitty cats all over it. 'twas funny, though.

Olham, that's how I take it, too. 200 victories, with 121 planes landed/crash-landed--i.e., not smashed to pieces, burned up, fell in the lines, etc. This doesn't mean all 121 were repaired and reflown by the Germans. There were isolated cases of that here and there--all of them painted with German identification markings, although I have memory of a sortie flown without them--but most of them wound up on the scrap heap. Some wound up as Staffel "hacks," like Jasta 5's captured Biff. Certainly by the time Jasta 11 was formed (28 September 1916, outfitted initially with Halberstadt D.Vs [and a few Halb D.IIs and D.IIIs], and then Albatros D.IIIs and D.Vs) the Germans had the upper hand on fighter technology and weren't interested in flying captured planes, beyond the novelty of doing so and studying their strengths/weaknesses.

Hopefully the forecast will be as poor up there as it was here. Isaac was supposed to be Cat 1 - 2 when it came here but it was still only a tropical storm. *yawn* Best of luck up there.

"Historical accuracy be damned"? I think not. Artistic license is one thing; historical license is another. That picture is a great artistic piece in a fantasy sense but it should not be presented as fact--as it still is in the first post. A mistake is forgiveable; not correcting it once it is known is not. Things like this form the headwaters of myth from which people "learn" on the internet, and it takes so long to correct. History and the men who made it deserve better. Since the entire scene is admittedly invented anyway, why not change the Camel to a Bristol F2b? LvR fought several of them in a Dr.I. Although, I don't know if any of them went down in flames.

'tis a fine picture, no doubt! Very nice and great sense of altitude. However, LvR was flying a Fokker DVII for his 30th victory, not a Dr.I.

No way in hell I'd even get on a horse--no matter what its size--let alone to joust! My hat's off to Matt.

Still, the "reinforcing bracket" never entirely goes away. You still see them rather deep into the final D.Va production batch, D.7000-7549/17. E.g., D.Va 7327/17, 7416/17, 7435/17, etc. Also visible on several D.Va (OAW)s. Well, posted that and then saw Elephant had crossed the finish line well before I! Good show.

All the flying car ideas have failed gloriously for decades--and thank God. I hope they never succeed. The thought of Joe Blow wheeling around in the sky is horrifying. I say this not from any sort of terrorist standpoint, but an aviating one: the overwhelming majority of people I've ever known (if you want a figure, I'll say 99%) don't have the aviating mindset it takes to competently and safely fly. It's not something I worry about, though, because I expect every future "flying car" proposal to fail as gloriously as those previous.

There's a photo of this plane in Datafile #42, from 1993. "[This was a] BE2c or 2d that was rigged with marked negative stagger, probably in 1918. It appeared as the BE2xyz in the RAF pageant of 1921, with a paint scheme that later generations might have called psychedelic, and with sundry additional accesories."

BH, what version/year published is your copy of Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One?

Yes, Olham. This is a Fokker DVII, but remember you aren't starting a plane, you are starting an engine. The engine doesn't know what plane it's in.

Very nice! One constructive criticsm, since I am a "rivet counter": Voss flew the pre-production Fokker F.I. These did not have wingtip skids.

Hauksbee, in those great posts above, I didn't see a response to your comment about starting, so I'll chime in. All Albs had a starting magneto. From the pending Osprey Air Vanguard book Albatros D I -- D II : "Although the Albatros D I and D II required ground assistance for engine starts, they did not employ personnel to ‘swing’ the propeller as did aeroplanes with rotary engines. Instead, ground crew filled the cylinder petcocks with a mixture of oil and benzene, slowly pulled the propeller through several complete revolutions to draw the priming fuel into the cylinders, and then the pilot positioned the magneto switch key to M1 and rapidly hand-cranked the starting magneto. This created a continuous spark discharge in the cylinder at or past top dead center, igniting the fuel/air mixture and driving the piston downward. This action caused the engine driven magnetos to fire the spark plugs in the other cylinders, starting the engine and engaging the engine-driven air pump that continuously pressurized the fuel tank to send fuel to the carburetor, thereby completing the self-sustaining cycle." This is how it was with Pfalz, Fokker, etc., also.

To be pilot-accessible. With the tubes, the barrels ended inside the engine compartment so they were connected to a tube that ran through the compartment and protruded from the nose. This prevented muzzle flash from igniting any accumlated gasses in the compartment; can't say why they remained when moved atop the exhaust manifold. The top photo that BH posted is 153.181. To add to what BH wrote, according to the book Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One, by Peter Grosz, George Haddow and Peter Schiemer, page 257, "[it was recommended] returning the raised machine guns to the buried position (as in the earlier series) because blowing gases and oil interfered with aiming. In this connection, Flik 61/J reported that pilots flying machines with raised guns were forced to sit on two cushions to use the sights properly. At least up to aircraft 253.116, series 253 fighters left the factory armed either with buried or raised guns, apparaently at random. Whether raised armament was was planned as standard equipment on later production aircraft is not known."

Can't believe that is applicable for all sims. Don't believe it, actually. But for WOFF, certainly plausible. Have to draw the line somewhere.

You know, Lou, you've touched something there. On many planes in flight sims, the engine should shut off when holed, if the tank is pressurized. As we know, most if not all WW1 sims available don't feature this. Maybe they'll have that in WOFF? Anyway, the way sims do it now is the engine keeps running until the fuel drains out and then shuts off. But, why? Fuel tanks weren't always shot at the very bottom, where all the fuel would drain away. I'd like to see them shot three-quarters of the way up, for example, so only some fuel drains away. Make the damage more random, as it was. This for gravity tanks if fuel pressurization is modeled, or all tanks, if not.

Hey, Gents, Top cockpit is a D.Va. Bottom cockpit is a D.V. I know the spark control handle as the spark retarding lever. Same difference. This lever allowed the pilot to delay the timing of when the spark plugs fired, compensating for slower piston travel at idling or low engine speeds as compared to piston speeds at cruise or full power settings. Fuel pressure gauge valve control allowed the pilot to turn off the fuel pressure gauge if said gauge was causing an air pressure leak. FYI, some of those instruments above where either not standard (e.g., altimeters) or actually RFC-captured (e.g., whiskey compass in D.V cockpit).

I delete the pilot and create a new one.

In haste I typed "Eastern" but I really meant "Italian"--although I'll take any front. Especially WOFF's Western Front. Yes, Panama, I have the Italian Front mod for FE2. That was right when CA went down and the official WOFF forum was switched to SimHQ. Awful lot of downloading, etc., but I got it going. I made a few new menu screens for it, as well. It's been fun, and lovely terrain to fly over.

Koloman told me the German designers looked down their noses a bit at the Austrians. BTW, in future, Eastern Front Expansion for WOFF?

I can't state definitively but I've read "flak" (yes, even in WW1) and "shrapnel clouds." Edit: Olham pre-posted but I'll leave this here for the second half.

What was politically important yesterday--and wars are mostly the result of either politics or religion--likely won't be hundred years later. I doubt you'll find many who even familiar with Gavrilo Princip, let alone a Belgian medal. Life moves forward; it's natural. Very cool medal.

Good points, BH. I agree, the "17 hour" thing is exaggerated. It's fun and challenging for flight sims, and I've done it once ( ) but one needs only look at the casualty figures to see the inflation. For illustration's sake, say a sortie was two hours. Takes 8.5 sorties to reach 17 hours. At two sorties per day, takes just five days to reach 17 hours. To account for poor weather, etc., let's double that to ten days. So everybody in a Staffel or Squadron died every ten days? Jasta 11, for instance, only lost 17 KiA in all of its two years of war(28 Sept 1916 to 11 Nov 1918). Still, what to do? People want a simulation--but only to a point. If the simulation is too realistic, they'll not like it or get bored (most of actual combat flying involves a lot of flying and little if any combat), so you need the gaming element. That's right, everybody, I said it: gaming. Embrace it! It's not an evil word or concept. You've been doing it for years with OFF, anyway. If you use TAC, or start an engine with a single keystroke, or use external views, or select FM variations, or issue wingman commands for help/formations/who or what to attack, or don't do a runup before takeoff, or use personalized skins, or use icons, etc., you're gaming. It's okay! Accept it. It's the part that makes simulation fun/more fun; the seasoning that turns a bland dish into an extraordinary one, if you will. I'm confident most people wouldn't want to fly ten sorties without ever seeing an enemy plane, or shoot one down (or at least have the chance to), or spend 20 minutes trying to start an engine that never does, etc. Circling Fees would be great to see! And initiate, when flying Fees.

1917 wasn't a leap year, so not February. Also, keep in mind that just because D.IIIs arrived, that didn't mean D.IIs disappeared instantly. I'd say probably not January, because the D.IIIs were grounded during Jan 28/29 and wouldn't be available to fly. IMO, earliest would be March. Kögler was "severely wounded" in the foot 12 May, but I don't know any details about his recovery. During summer J19 had DVs in the Staffel, as well as DIII(OAW)s. Perhaps between March-May, March-June. I'll run it past GvW and see if he can add some info.