JFM

Curses! At first I was fired up that they had released a new upgrade but 1.0.3.2 is from, what, six, seven months ago? Regardless, I agree WoP is fun despite a few frustrating areas (greenish filter, no bomber cockpits). I have read they are revamping everything and releasing a "new" WoP (my "details" on that may be sketchy) before going to the PTO. IMO, that theatre would better serve WoP because their maps are small anyway. With their beautiful scenery imagine Hawaii or Iwo Jima or Guadalcanal, etc? Anyway, WoP is no arcade joke as regards surviving a mission. Its immersion is great too, flying through cloud shadows, roiling smoke, buzzing 109s, etc. The IL2 missions at Stalingrad are great. Although they need to back down their rain visibility--it's hard IFR. Even Doolittle couldn't find his way around in that stuff and there is no ILS.

The SPADs had aux fuel tanks in the wing over the cockpit. Also, the Albatros fuel tanks were in front of the cockpit, and there was no firewall.

As mentioned, the "quadrant" listed above was the Albatros spark control handle only. The Albs had no pilot controlled mixture and the throttle was located on the control column. As it is now in OFF the spark control handle is being used for a throttle but hopefully this will be fixed in P4.

No idea if it can be done with OFF but FE2s going into a defensive circle would be nice to see.

Hi, Olham, All his stuff is years old. I haven't seen anything new in quite some time. Doesn't mean it's not out there, I'm just not aware of it. Some stuff here, in case you haven't seen: http://wwi-cookup.com/albatros/dva/profiles_markmiller_fuselage.html It looks to me as if his Alb wood was used on many OFF Alb skins.

Holler was a professional entertainer before/after the war, with the stage name Niels Sörensen, so his ease before the camera came naturally.

Winston, that's a Mark Miller creation.

That news headline is so typically overblown to augment a minor story's perceived importance. The official end of WW1 was not contingent upon the receipt of all monetary reparations. The ceasefire was on 11 November 1918 and the "official" end was when the Treaty of Versailles was signed 28 June 1919. There were other treaties, the last of which I believe was signed in 1923. Regardless, the official end of WW1 already occurred over nine decades ago, not this sunday. Yeah, "World War One, 1914-2010."

Hello, These aren't the most important questions ever asked but I've been curious for some time, so here goes: 1. What are "spawns"? 2. Why are they always disabled? 3. If they are always disabled--and every time I fly a placard pops up that tells me they are being disabled--why are they there in the first place? 4. Why do I need to be informed that spawns are being disabled? Just wondering. Thank you for any clarification.

Thank you guys for all your explanations! You've helped me be a little less clueless in this area.

Thank you for the explanation. I always thought the mentioned spawns were created by OFF, which then disabled them. Why don't you just get rid of the CFS3 spawning altogether rather than always disabling it? You know, rather than always unscrewing a light bulb before the lamp can turn on, just get rid of the lamp in the first place? Guess it doesn't matter in OFF if the end result is the same.

It's a good idea but IMO place the feet lower on the rudder bar/pedals. As of now the heels are way up on the pedals--it looks as if the pilot is trying to stop a child's wagon with his feet--and as a pilot this position robs you of full range of motion. Using the balls of your feet gives you a much further range of motion and enables much more lateral control. As far as blood, consider that the layers of clothing worn by the pilots would contain most bleeding from "splashing" around the cockpit. Blood often fountains out of a penetrating head wound momentarily and that would be caught by the wind and sprayed around a bit, or perhaps arterial injuries would spurt enough to leak through any bullet shredded clothing. Still, although it wouldn't bother me, I estimate that level of gore would bother most--we can pretend to kill people, just not pretend too much.

I've seen hundreds of photos of Belgian planes and tens of photos of Olieslagers' and Thierry's machines but none that had "Le Demon" on it. Like to see a photo of that machine so I can draw one. Can you post that or link to it, Rabu? For those interested in the Aviation Militaire Belge, here's a new A-to-Z book: http://www.aeronautbooks.com/

I was flying that morning, flight instructing, polishing up a guy’s landings prior to his first solo. As we preflighted at 0800 (central time, I was in Chicago) I overhead the guys at the plane next to ours talking about how a “737 (sic) accidentally hit the World Trade Center.” That was the first inkling I had of the event. After I finished rolling my eyes I gave my student a lecture about not believing that sort of bunk because on a day as beautiful as Sept 11—and after checking the weather conditions that morning I knew it was beautiful all the way to the Atlantic—there was no earthly way a 737 or any other jetliner could be “accidentally flown” into the WTC. It never even dawned on me that it wasn’t an accident. I just thought it was a tall tale born from moronic news reporting. So, we’re up flying around, staying in the pattern, oblivious to what was happening. We did not know the national airspace had been shut down and all planes ordered to land. Our plane had a crappy radio and being in Class G airspace under the O'Hare Class A shelf we didn’t need to talk with anyone, although I’d monitor the flight school frequency, so I had no idea about the airspace closing. But back then, who the hell would have thought that was ever going to happen? Meanwhile, O’Hare approach had us on radar still in the air and called the flight school to have us land but the flight school couldn’t raise our plane because of our dodgy radio. O’Hare called back again a short while later and threatened an F-16 interception unless they got us down immediately. That scrambled the flight school jeep that roared off behind us after our next landing, as we were taxiing back to take off again (insurance forbade us to do touch-and-goes so we did full-stop taxi-backs). As we were taking the runway the jeep zoomed right up to us which, of course, got my attention because it was highly unusual. They had a hand-held transmitter which our radio could pick up and quickly I was informed all airspace had been shut down and we were forbidden to take off. Of course, I was incredulously skeptical but I knew the man talking to me and he wouldn’t be out there pulling a stunt like that which, if not true, would cost him his job. So I replied “understand airspace is closed, taxiing to park” and off we taxied to the ramp; my logbook says we shut down at 0910. I talked with a guy at the fuel pumps and in thirty seconds he gave the rundown on what was happening, to which I responded “I don’t think you are lying but I am having a hard time believing all this.” From there I walked toward the FBO and as I approached I could see through the window that everybody inside the building was gathered around the single television and my heart and stomach sank—that exact feeling you get when you first find out somebody you love has died—because I knew it must be true. Once I got inside and could see the TV, within about 60 seconds I saw video replays of the planes hitting, the fires, then both towers coming down. Seeing it all so quickly and out of the blue like that was information overload and I wandered out of there like a zombie, trying to absorb it all, anger rising into rage because I couldn’t shoot back at the sonsabitches and I was too old to enlist for the war I knew was coming. (That rage is still there today, as it has been since my first introduction in 1979—I’m not as PC about the subject as are others so I won’t get started.) Then I climbed a nearby mound of construction dirt that let me see the Sears Tower in the distance and I and a couple other pilots waited for more planes to come in. Thankfully it was all over and that never happened.

Hi, PD, Not doubtful at all. Their website featured beacoup screenshots of their airplanes in various stages of construction, from early shapes without textures to what they said were finished planes. This is how I saw the carburetor air intake "exhaust stains" I referenced earlier.

Hi, Parky, I feel the way I stated because, respectfully, I was unimpressed with CK as it had been presented. I found the models visually South Park-ish and containing several errors. For instance, on many different airplanes I noticed what appeared to be exhaust stains coming from rotary engine carburetor air intakes. When I asked what they were the devs explained they were exhaust stains because the rotary engines burned a lot of oil. It took them a while to believe me that rotary exhaust vented straight out of the cylinders and not through a carburetor air intake. I know everybody can't know everything--I'm daily proof of this--but that's pretty basic stuff to know for folks making/skinning airplanes for a flight sim. So, there's one particular reason for you; I'll save the rest because I don't want to rag CK. I'll just state again that I'm glad CK and OFF will remain separate. Regarding your what-if scenario, I wouldn't mind it at all. I like many aspects of both sims.

Thank God it's not true.

Not so much the wind but the crosswind. For the most part in WW1 you weren't slaved to a runway. You pointed the machine into the wind and took off with little-to-no crosswind at all.

I've had this happen to me many times. I and others noticed it when logging the 17 hours in two seaters in the Krauts and Krumpets DiD campaign. From what we could determine it appeared to be caused by pausing the sim, even for just a couple seconds. If you pause, try a few missions without pausing and see if that has improves the accuracy of the time logging.

As many as possible historically accurate airfields. Take off from Roucourt and it looks like Roucourt; take off from Bertangles and it looks like Bertangles, etc. Clouds that move with wind. As far as the weather report, omit the "be careful out there" part. No s**t. It's like when the Weather Channel talks about rain in the morning and says to make sure to take an umbrella and allow yourself extra driving time. Next they'll ask if my shoes are tied and I have my milk money. A claim form available after every sortie, not just after you shoot down a plane.

If my definition of "deep development" is the same as theirs, I wouldn't--and don't--expect P4 this year. Mind you, this is my opinion only and based on nothing official.

Emailed it over, CH.

Just as an FYI, I was reading yesterday an account (from either LvR or Göring, forget which at the moment) that described bullet smoke trails during a fight. Also, there is a photo of Berthold sighting his Alb D.III's guns (for an example, look on page 32 of Greg VanWyngarden's Albatros Aces of World War 2, Part 2) and white smoke trails are very large and very discernible.

"Small stuff... but true." Agreed, and applicable elsewhere.

For those who think soccer/football will catch on in the states, it's not going to happen. It's a kid's sport over here, primarily. That's not meant to be disrepectful, just a direct assessment. Sure, there are some professional teams but I dare say the vast majority of Americans just aren't interested in soccer/football on a professional level that can compete with baseball or College/NFL Football or even racing. Nor do we care--at all--that soccer is known as football elsewhere in the world. That kids play it today is nothing new; all us kids had to play it in the early 70s and there were soccer fields at all the schools, and back then everyone heard of "Pele". Nearly 40 years later it's still mostly a kids game, although today I can't name any soccer/football players, beyond my two boys and their friends. Well, not true; I've still heard of Pele. It's like the metric system. Now and then they try to force it on us and every time it's shot down in flames. It's always "the rest of the world uses it." Well, the rest of the world lives in the rest of the world. What, I should move from the USA based on that, then? Meh. But, sincerely, enjoy your football! I recognize the enthusiasm and it's fun to read the banter about this World Cup deal.