Dej

There's a caption in that video, Lou (as you know of course ) says 'YOU ARE QUITE MAD'... a barmy premonition, clearly Contact! (tink... tink... tink...) Clear!

The Cross & Cockade photo index refers to a Albatros DVa (OAW), pale finish overall with a Skull & Crossbones, in French Hands and bearing French roundels. If I read the reference aright there may be a photo and more detail in Over The Front 10/2 Page 176... I'm afraid I don't have a copy but one of our American cognoscenti may.

A fine find indeed, I give you joy of your purchase, Lou.

P4 Scenary DESIRED... new rig REQUIRED! Note the FPS drop over the village. Has to be done though, it'd be an idiot that missed out on stunning vistas of that ilk! A village idiot, perhaps.

Three of Heydemarck's works are available at the Cross and Cockade online shop, starting here

Apologies Simon, overlooked this thread. May I belatedly add my sincerest wishes for a successful new career... starting Monday. Best of luck, chum.

I enjoy Derek Robinson's books. I find his characters to be humanly complex and well fleshed out given the limit of the pages he may devote to them. I do think though that he has rather too much of a 'bee in his his bonnet' with regard to exposing the sordidness of war. Granted, there is absolutely nothing noble in killing a fellow man, but nevertheless war has been known to bring out the best in some people, just as it may bring out the worst. War is a terrible thing but not every aspect is so morally filthy as Robinson tends toward protraying. For me, his books have too little of the genuine humour (albeit sometimes black), love and cameraderie that one reads in the autobiogrphies of those who were there. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times' is the phrase that springs to mind and Robinson, I feel, has too much of the latter, unleavened by enough of the former.

Actually Hawker's VC could have turned up, of course, having been looted from the Hawker family's French domicile after they abandoned it following the fall of France in 1940. For true provenance though Lou, you'd have to re-create the tatty cardboard box that Hawker kept it in. My proud possession is the cowling from Voss' Triplane - so I know for a fact what colour it is

Some of yez will have seen this before, sans doute, but if I had, I've forgotten and it made me laugh, so... Just in case you need a laugh: Remember it takes a college degree to fly a plane, but only a high school diploma to fix one; that's reassurance to those of us who fly routinely After every flight, UPS pilots fill out a form, called a 'gripe sheet,' which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humour. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by UPS pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers. By the way, UPS is the only major airline that has never, ever, had an accident... P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement. S: Almost replaced left inside main tire. P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough. S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft. P: Something loose in cockpit S: Something tightened in cockpit P: Dead bugs on windshield. S: Live bugs on back-order. P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground. P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear. S: Evidence removed. P: DME volume unbelievably loud. S: DME volume set to more believable level. P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick. S: That's what friction locks are for. P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode. S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode. P: Suspected crack in windshield. S: Suspect you're right. P: Number 3 engine missing. S: Engine found on right wing after brief search P: Aircraft handles funny. (I love this one!) S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right and be serious. P: Target radar hums. S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics. P: Mouse in cockpit. S: Cat installed. And the best one for last (not from my POV, see above) P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer. S: Took hammer away from the midget

Hi Javito, Read 'Brief Glory' a biography of Arthur Rhys Davids by Alex Revell. Arthur's story is told primarily via letters between Arthur and his mother and sisters (with a very touching exception of a letter to his father). An enlightening and very poignant read if your view of APFRD is centered around the dogfight with Voss, as I admit mine had been. Oh, one other note: 'solemn duty if ever there were one'. I didn't mention it before but having contemplated it later I think that a priest, having studied Latin by necessity would be well aware of the subjunctive mood in other languages. Plus, I believe, those who spoke English as a foreign language in that time, and spoke it well, are typified as having a more formal grammatic usage, e.g. Ralph Fiennes' character in 'The English Patient' - true or no, it set the character.

Excellent work Javito, very convincing and captures well the tone that one feels must have have been present in so many of such letters written by grieving parents and spouses after the War. It certainly echoes some of the letters written by Caroline Rhys Davids as she sought for news of Arthur Rhys Davids following his being posted missing. May I offer some suggestions, though. I feel that an educated French (I presume) priest in 1932, with such a good command of English, would have written 'It is hard for me properly to convey' rather than spliting the infinitive. Also I suspect he would have used 'can not', 'was not' and 'it is'. Lastly, would he have known the aircraft were 'fighters' and would he have used that word rather than 'avions de chasse' or even simply 'machines'. All in all though, very good indeed... more please.

It's been seen before Mac, it's due to that batch of odd tobacco that some of the chaps brought back from Gallipoli. See this thread

1) Operation Tidal Wave, 1st August 1943, 'Black Sunday' - Give the B-24 some love too... it wasn't only the B-17. 2) 'Bloody April' - Yes if done proper - Show the two seaters some respect for the hellish job they did. 3) McCudden - there's a career worth a camera.

Hi CS, welcome back. Hope all in going well in your new abode (have you updated Olham for his world maps yet?) All the reasons you give above are those which cause me to declare RB worse than Flyboys... in fact it's one of the worst 'air warfare' movies ever, IMHO. If you've a soft spot for Hawker, as have I, then you may be interested in this link

Jem Spilsby and Drew Palmer, two of the greatest guys that ever didn't exist. My first campaign in OFF P3, I flew with No. 56 Sqn. like Javito, and Jem and Drew were my flight mates, Jem my wing. Throughout April and May those guys kept knocking Huns off my tail or helped me gain a score by beating up on a Hun and then leaving the 'coup de grace' to me. Posted to Walmer in June, they both died in a mid-air collision in a storm that we should never have been sent up in - OFF Manager, how could you? - I was gutted... and so angry at the futility of it I didn't fly for weeks! That was nigh on two years ago and I still remember. Yes. It is immersive.

Ausgezeichnet, Olham.

I used to play this quite a bit. It's good, insofar as the BF1942 engine allows. The odd bug here and there but otherwise accomplished. Better in MP than SP natch but the SP is playable. I'd like to know what the other one was though.

Well done, Simon. Hope it is everything you hope for.

This poem was referred to in 'Brief Glory' Alex Revell's biography of Arthur Rhys Davids. It was seemingly one of Arthur's favourites and an inspiration to him... quite poignant in the circumstances: What Is to Come WHAT is to come we know not. But we know That what has been was good--was good to show, Better to hide, and best of all to bear. We are the masters of the days that were; We have lived, we have loved, we have suffered...even so. Shall we not take the ebb who had the flow? Life was our friend? Now, if it be our foe-- Dear, though it spoil and break us! --need we care What is to come? Let the great winds their worst and wildest blow, Or the gold weather round us mellow slow; We have fulfilled ourselves, and we can dare And we can conquer, though we may not share In the rich quiet of the afterglow What is to come. William Ernest Henley

I'm very sorry for your loss, Lou. Our longest-survivng virtual selves in this sim brcome like frinds of long-standing and their demise is not lightly felt.

I think the truth of the matter is that, early on, in the RFC at least, it very much varied according to the particular commander and the morale of the squadron. As hard as it may be for the modern mind to credit, the life of a pilot was considered cheap: Arthur Gould Lee joined No. 54 at a low ebb and the 'advice' he received was of like kind; Lanoe Hawker blew away the myth of the DH2 as the 'spinning incinerator' by detailing to his pilots how to get the machine out of a spin. But whilst he had a great record of improving flying ability and comfort, his view of tactics was the aerial equivalent of the Nelsonian 'never mind the manoeuvers, just go striaght at 'em'; Duncan Grinnell-Milne's experience in Dowding's squadron was miserable, almost to the point, I feel, of his fellow pilots seeing him as someone who might be killed instead of them; One also has to bear in mind that RFC pilot training was killing cadets at the rate of up to 7 a day... not a situation from which one would infer that lessons learnt were being properly communicated. After Smith-Barry's revolution of pilot training things improved across the board and if you were lucky enough to end up with a McCudden or a Mannock you would have received great advice. If the AI were to start with little in the way of mutual support and then adopt progressivly more co-operative tactics as the war progressed one might improve the immersion and the contrast, should one survive long enough, cause you to forgive them not being human. The Germans of course did things much better from the get go.

This is my favourite of Al Forbes, as I think I've mentioned before: I also like Jerry Boucher's work although it's slightly too clean for my ideal tastes:

Excellent ride

You forgot the senior version of LOL... Laughed... Oops! Leaked.

Mmm... Cream Teas... and oodles of Ginger Beer. The Devon way of eating them is the best, IMHO. Another cracking edition, Lou. Contact (tink... tink... tink...) Clear!