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I think we may be of a similar vintage epower although at opposite ends of the world. I burst into my teens pretty much at the beginning of the '70's and it was around this time that a tv station began broadcasting all of Chaplin's Mutual films from 1916/17 including "The Rink" of course. They blew me away and the guys genius in understanding the human condition has stayed with me ever since where you can laugh and cry at the same time. Some people hate him which I can't quite understand. I also love Buster Keaton. He was pretty amazing too. It's also very interesting to see LA as it was back then in the outdoor scenes. Fashions, cars, landscape etc.

I have a shameful secret. I am a Quirk fan. Just look at them pipes. She is beautiful. Edwardian class (no, not the tarts or the lower classes - yuk). She is steam-punk personified. William Heath Robinson inspired. She would share my bed if it were big enough. I will love her 'til the day I die. Anyone who says otherwise will be challenged to a duel with single shot flintlock pistols.

CHARLIE CHAPLIN | Skating Scene - YouTube

I did note the bourbon tumbler was empty. Stout fellow. That is the best way, in my experience, to avoid inconvenient spills and the expense of a holder. As for the 'pit, it is one of the cleanest and uncluttered I have ever seen ! Obviously shows a tidy and refined chap. Top hole. Now, Roger is good. But Charles Chaplin is better. Particularly his Mutual and Essanay 2 reelers made during the Great War and much beloved by the troops. I'm a bit of a fan of the man. I make no apologies for that.

15 years or so for me. On 'n' Off. The duck died long ago.

Indeed. What an amazing and full life too. A highly intelligent man. I wish I was that guy. Your list is amazing Lou. All those first editions. Worth a ruddy fortune. I would require many cups of tea and cucumber sandwiches to get through that lot. I sincerely hope they are preserved well into the future.

That's a comprehensive list Pips. I expect Lou to come along at some point with his vast knowledge of all things WW1. I prefer first hand accounts and I'd add to Adgers excellent list "Into the Blue"/Norman Macmillan and "Sopwith Scout 7309"/Gordon Taylor. Otherwise "Bloody April" by Peter Hart is a very well documented piece using Pilots' diaries and historical documents. A word of caution .... do not buy "The Canvas Falcons" illustrated below. It is full of unbelievable inaccuracies. The author must have been 'avin' a larf or his proofreader was incompetent or on acid or something ....

As a long term trackir and MSFFB2 (8 buttons only) user (with no separate throttle thingy), I have to agree. I'm a simple guy and a casual flyer (basically WW1 exclusively) and take to the skies only when it is convenient or I'm in the mood. So spending gazillions on an expensive high powered rig just to run VR, let alone the expense of the VR headsets doesn't cut it. Or wearing that thing on your head. I like the freedom and lightness of trackir. What's not to love about that.

Some imaginative thinking there epower .... OR SHOULD I SAY, ROGER LIVESEY, UNDERRATED AND LARGELY FORGOTTEN THESPIAN ! In any case, I should be very cautious implementing your ideas for fear of spilling my single malt. A matter of such gravity, I may be brought to tears. I guess I'll just push buttons. Roger, Hmmm. Do you think a new thread here or the wishlist [tl;dr] ?

What happens at Madame Fifi's is none of my business. The CO calls it "letting off steam" for want of a better expression. But as a pilot, one learns to duck and pray to God the blighter doesn't shoot the ruddy tail off !

So it's 29th June 1915 and, for King and country, I've been diligently performing recon and arty spotting in my Be2c (early) for months with that chap in the front holding a .303. He looks remarkably like Cpt. Triggers but I have a thing about that see. Anyway, I land at Merville after another heroic sortie and head straight to the mess bar. Sholto Douglas informs me we are moving 9 miles SE to Hesdigneul ! Closer to the front he says. We can really get stuck in now he says. But sir, I say, I've only got that fellow with a .303 and he looks a lot like Tr- ... don't worry about that he says. We have a surprise. Stout chap old Sholty. With some excitement, the RFC 2 squadron assembles on the airfield and off we go to Hesdigneul. My batman packs my personal belongings and sets off in a Crossley by road. My collection of French postcards I stash in the Bee. On arrival we are told we have been upgraded to Be2c's fitted with a Lewis machine gun in the for'ard cockpit ! By way of a Strange mount ! I am overjoyed, and almost overcome, having never experienced a strange mount before. By jove, the jolly old hun will be for it I exclaim. Sholty beams with pride as his hard fought requisitions are inspected and operated by the pilots and gunners with lots of jovial takatakataka sounding out across the airfield. Back at the bar, Sholty, wearing his serious face, raises his open hand solemnly and taps his swagger stick on the cast iron stove. The last laugh dies down and all eyes are upon him. Chaps, he says, our intelligence operatives have determined that there is some kind of secret weapon being developed by the hun. A battle plane with six machine guns and 37mm cannons powered by five powerful engines and manned by 10 personnel. Or they have a mechanism with which they can fire bullets through the rotating propeller without damage. Development is almost complete and we expect these machines to be available at the front within months. So be careful out there. It's alright sir, I say, we have the strange mount now. What could go wrong. To shouts of "hear hear" the drinks flow well into the night.

Ok this is [sorry Rick] but I did learn a lot about correct Latin grammar in the Python's "Life of Brian". In translating "Romans go home", Brian incorrectly daubs the wall with Romanes eunt domus which actually means "People called 'Romanes' they go the house". He is rightly corrected by a patrolling Centurian that the Latin phrase for "Romans go home" is actually Romani ite domum. It's a common mistake even amongst learned scholars, let alone Brian. But then we're all individuals I guess.

Oh my. Spot of bad luck what. Damn shame. Deary, deary me. RIP Triggers. This should be a feature ....

Really? I have superfast speeds 35 down, 7 up ! But my ping is even stupendously higher than that to US/Euro servers (where the action is) and is a stunning 250+ mbps at worst and an amazing 400+ mbps at best if I'm really lucky ! Thank you Australia. Copper rules. Still. Unless you can afford $20K to have fibre to the home from some node miles away. But enough venting .... I love this sim because it's SP and it's really good, much more gooder than others, with lotsa cool stuff. You can quote me on that. I have no objection.

Lovely stuff Trooper and Eagle. It's amazing how a bit of modern tech colourisation and manipulation of old films/photographs can bring events of the past to life. I recently and accidentally stumbled upon Peter Jackson's doco "They Shall Not Grow Old" on the telly. What a mind blower that was. It's like what unfolded happened yesterday. You see these guys in this horrific war larking about much like we all do here. They are guys just like us but thrust into an extraordinary conflict and making the best of it. Mostly. Fascinating stuff.

Well no-one said it would be easy. However, changing Lewis drums in flight was arguably harder (Cecil Lewis has told of the difficulties and I think tried to avoid it if he could). The modelling in-game is just pushing a button with no wind resistance, slipstream forces, hands off control management (knee trembler), fumbling hands, gloves off or on?, swearing and shouting, drums smacking you in the face etc so it's hardly realistic. It's a game after all. So if we have changing drums modelled this simply why not firing upwards ? Both are historically accurate as difficult as they were. There may be some programing reason why it is not possible but if so the devs haven't piped up so who knows?

What? Nervous, strung out, paranoid and inept. I may get out of this damn war yet.

Ah yes, the good old BBC don't make 'em like that anymore. It would cost too much. And not a [cringe] CGI in sight. I remember watching this series back in the 70's and looking forward immensely to each weekly episode (Sunday night I think?). These were the days of course before instant gratification and bingeing. A simpler time, but alas, no combat flight simulators.

Excellent work Rick. I shall have a fiddle. Now all we need is to have the Lewis fire upwards in any of the various tilt down positions. Without wasting ammo on the Vickers.

GAH ! Please, I was just getting over the experience. The man is a psychopath !

Right. Thanks for clearing that up RR. I guess Pol will come back with some answers in the fullness of time. I am however reluctant to pester him ceaselessly because he has patches and stuff to work on.

Albert Ball for one. Used this method in the Nieuport 17 and I think he was instrumental in having the SE designers implement a similar configuration. He was a man of some influence at the time. I would have preferred the SE had twin Vickers though.

Where are these guns 1 and 2 RR ? Couldn't find them. @Polovski Is it not possible down the track to enable the Se5a to fire the Lewis when tilted down ? And to fire the Lewis and Vickers individually ?

I am bereft of any talent whatsoever Erik so that includes me out. Not to mention lazy. But the logo could do with a makeover. My suggestion would be something based on the box art on OBD's site? Looks good to me. I miss the days of boxed products.

Meet Squizzy Taylor. Born and raised in the slums of Melbourne, Australia, his early life was not easy. At the tender age of 7 years, his mother (Lily) drifted into prostitution after his father (George) was killed during a disagreement at the local pub. Members of the "Razor Gang" were suspected but never charged. Times became tougher for young Squizzy when Lily was forcibly removed to a sanitorium for the mentally feeble after suffering mercury poisoning from a social disease cure. Mother and son were never to meet again. Lily died of complications in 1900. Now orphaned, the authorities sent the child to the "SunnySide" Orphanage, a state run facility for homeless and disenfranchised boys. It was not a happy time where beatings, kerosene baths, poor nutrition and 14 hour work days combined to make life intolerable and hopeless. It was under these conditions that a benefactor entered Squizzy's life, a certain Leonard "Toe Cutter" Thompson. Leonard, posing as a benevolent philanthropist, was on the look out for young, cheap and suitable workers to man his "operation". It was during his employ with Toe Cutter that young Squizzy was taught the finer points of SP bookmaking, extortion, pickpocketing, blackmail, bribes, pimping and sly grog shops. In order to fulfill his duties, he became familiar with, and to depend upon, his weapon of choice. The cut throat razor. He blossomed as a petty criminal and flush with money and dames, he became a man of sartorial elegance. What one would call a flashy dresser. His nickname, Spiv, was bestowed upon him at this time. Life was good but becoming increasingly complicated. After political grumbling about rampant crime, the Police were no longer (officially) taking bribes and the politicians wanted action. The net was closing in on Toe Cutters operation. It was time to vamoose. At the age of 21, Squizzy set sail for England to escape the heat. War was declared not long after his arrival. This presented the young gangster with excellent opportunities to scam the military and make some real money. To become a vital cog in the war effort. Supply and demand. To join up was for naive suckers. And so he began supplying dodgy low grade linen and cheap, untreated wood to the Aeroplane manufacturers. Always with a complicated method of delivery so as to make it almost impossible to track the origins should worst come to worst. Which it never did. Mixing now with the upper class, Squizzy was living the high life. At one particular manufacturing convention a visiting aviator by the name of Ridley-Smythe suggested he learn to fly. Squizzy was interested but when told the cost of private tuition, immediately baulked. Despite his wealth, the poverty of his youth never left him. And so, figuring the war couldn't last much longer and dissent becoming stronger to end it, Squizzy signed up with the RFC for free pilot training. And I get paid! Anyway, it'll all be over before I even get to the front, he thought. And so, on the 11th November 1917, Squizzy was shipped to the front as a 2nd Lieutenant in No. 40 squadron, RFC. And then the story really begins ....