Dej

Very apropos point, Olham. I was just discussing with the other half that one of the tragedies of WW1 was the confrontation of the destructive capability of industrialistation with the socio-economic hierachy that had given it birth (watching Andrew Lloyd-Webber's PRB thing on BBC)....the old 'World Order' was totally overwhelmed. Instantaneous death and destruction on the scale you allude to just had not happened before.

Ritter von Mahlo, holder of the last competition PLM... tirez l'autre, il y a des cloches! You're not fooling me Olham. I'll bet you'll fight this as keenly as you did the last

1) Vfw. Josef Mai 2) Jasta 5, late 1917 3) Albatros DV D.5284/17 according to Albatros Aces of WW1, listed in OFF skin folders under Albatros DV Later and Albatros DVa. Might be an idea to give an indication of how much detail in needed, Lou. Cheers for strating this up, your competitions are great.

Ah, Biggles. Rarely mentioned on these fora but what got me into WW1 aviation in the first place and they contain bloody good advice as well as being great stories. My favourite 'being there' books: 1. No Parachute - Arthur Gould Lee 2. Sagittarius Rising - Cecil Lewis 3. Flying Fury - Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps - James McCudden 4. Ace of the Iron Cross - Ernst Udet 5. Winged Victory - Victor M. Yeates All for different reasons. All offer a good glimpse of 'squadron life' in its varied aspects. I'd rate Lee, Udet and Lewis as the better. Yeates' 'fictional' account is an equal but but with a fictional intensity. Udet's fourth chapter 'Richthofen' has a description of an aerial duel that exactly matches some of my more intense encounters in OFF. Also to be recommended are 'Wind in the Wires'; 'Der Rote Kampfflieger'; 'Fighting the Flying Circus' and 'The Blue Max'. Plus: Nothing in Lou's on-line library will fail you. Derek Robinson's WW1 trilogy - 'War Story'; 'Hornet's Sting'; 'Goshawk Squadron' The fictional stuff is great for getting one 'in character' with one's pilot. The autobiographies... well, those guys were actually there - RESPECT!

There was a long thread about the significant keywords in claims a long while back. The following level of detail has always worked for me and on the rare occasion I've had a claim refused it's been because I mis-identified the EA I reckon: 4000 ft. 2 Miles ESE of Merville, encountered three Hun Albatri. HA had black tails, green and purple wings. Pursued one machine with McAulley. Fired approximately 150 rounds, HA seen to spin and crash. Witnessed by: Ian McAulley Phil Theobald Fred Wilson Status : Confirmed Continued patrol. Encountered four additional HA three miles east of Etrun. Climbed to engage. HA turned and dived. Followed, firing. Expended 200 rounds. HA stalled and crashed. Witnessed by: Ian McAulley Phil Theobald Fred Wilson Status : Confirmed Other HA seemed unaware of previous encounter so crept up on another. Fired 50 rounds causing damage and forcing enemy machine to turn. Followed HA in turn, firing at which point guns jammed. HA dived into ground. Being defenceless, headed for nearest aerodrome at Hesdigneul. Witnessed by: Ian McAulley Phil Theobald Fred Wilson Status : Confirmed 1320 Hours. 1 mile east of La Gorgue. Having descended from briefed altitude to assist friendly squadron - unnecessarily - observed lone Albatros breaking away north east. Pursued and fired approx. 150 rounds. HA entered flat spin and crashed in woods. HA decorated in red and blue, with 'lozenge' wings. Witnessed by: Ian McAulley Phil Theobald Status : Confirmed 5 miles from target, climbing to regain briefed altitude, was attacked by 5 Albatri engaged and damaged several. Placed long burst into one HA, seen to crash in flames south west of front line near Bailleul. Witnessed by: Ian McAulley Phil Theobald Status : Confirmed The above were submitted as five separate claims for each a/c of five downed on the same day, three in one patrol, two in the next. I never claim for more than one a/c per claim but will submit each as a separate entry. I'd hazard my confirmed rate as around 90%. Unfortunately my pilots never live long enough to build big scores... swings and roundabouts.

HITEB arrived today. Was described as 'Very Good' but is in fact in near pristine condition. So I'm even happier. Yay! And a day off tomorrow to indulge in my very own copy. It's definitely one of those 'must haves'.

I'm going in drag... Lady Maud 'Puddytat' Shootershill

In my experience that eBay function tends to be a bit slow so it's worth doing a manual double check on a regular basis.

That's a even nicer price, good luck with that Javito. I hope you get it.

Me neither. A very immersive description, Lou. I'd rather you revisit the moment, not with a camera but with a microphone. It's the sounds you evoke that make it work for me.

With the statue hanging off? Daft question. Of course it will be. You guys would settle for nothing less. There simply is NO finer simulation of WW1 in the air, period.

I'm happy for Lewie to pose all the questions. I only sought to advance the game.

It's Albert, not Ypres. Sorry Lewie. This famous image gives it away Albert Cathedral

Roger that, although after the embarassing incident with the advertising blimp over Halfords I'm cautious about letting my mind drift into OFF mode when the wife's in the car. But, dangerously, I've downsized to a Honda Civic... and it has a Blip Switch (well, almost)!

Everything they said and more! That third image in, so simple as it is, is just perfection. The War can wait, I know I'll be spending a fair bit of time treating P4 as FS, not CFS!

Not old ground, Jarhead. I've been aware for a while and some people have done some incredible things with Fiddler's Green models. They are very good. If you register you can get three free models, a Camel, a D.VII and a D.III I think. The great thing is that, with a colour photocopier handy, they can be scaled up or down several notches.

Cheers, TaillyHo. Yes, I had seen that and regrettably that's about as comprehesive as it gets. And even though there are a few commemorative bits now he's still obscure. One of my best friends is from Melbourne and he'd never heard of Little before I mentioned him!

Alas, there's very little on Little ('scuse the pun). Steve Drew (CheckSix on these fora) has been compiling what there is for years hoping to write a biography on a par with Adrian Hellwig's 'Australian Hawk over the Western Front' biography of Roderick Dallas (well worth the read, btw). Little's family are very private and won't allow access to family files - or so I believe. It's a great shame, because few Australians even know about him, yet he's the highest scoring Aussie ace, ever. Steve's the best person to ask.

Ball certainly had a more generous crop than most. Collisions eh, that's the way they all go... most of mine anyhow. My commiserations, Creaghorn and you must have lost a few good wingmen over those many years too. May I suggest a dedicated 'full realism (as far as)' flyer such as yourself would find a challenging home in No. 24 Squadron, RFC. Especially with the new mods, and especially if you turn on 'Lead By Rank'... No. 24 are quite aggressive, they 'attack everything' I think the OFF/CA Team ought to acknowledge Cvjetanovic with some recognition of being the longest serving DiD pilot to date, maybe your own special group 'The 600 Plus'

Oh yes, served with Jastas 37 and 65, 3 victories with the former. There's a rather splendid photo of him on page 48 of Albatros Aces of WW1 Volume 2.

How I wish 'Bob' Little had survived and written an autobiography. 23 Triplane victories and mentioned on report as outflying hugely outnumbering opponents... he must have known the Triplane inside out.

If you're reading 'No Parachute' for the first time I rather envy you the pleasure. It remains my favourite and I read it at least once a year.

According to Cecil Lewis, of "all machines, the Triplane remains in my memory as the best . . . Other machines were faster, stronger, had better climb or vision; but none was so friendly as the Tripe. . . It was so well balanced that it would fly hands off on the tail-trimmer, which other aircraft boasted they could do, but didn't. It could do more than this: set the engine at three-quarter throttle and wind the tail well back and the Tripe would loop indefinitely. I once did 21 loops in a row!" Maintenance in the field was an issue because the oil and fuel tanks were difficult to access without dismantling the wings to a large degree and, probably reflecting the 'upper class' build (I like that phrase), even relatively minor repairs had to be done in the rear, i.e. back of the front line. To maintain air superiority at the front, one has to be able maintain one's aircraft at the front, hence her realtively short service life.

Ah, but ain't the Tripes beauties? Looks like a flying Venetian blind but it's absolutely the best machine to fly in OFF, IMHO. Less docile than the Pup but still as forgiving; as agile as the Camel but less vicious. 'Course, in OFF we don't have to contend with the Tripe's maintenance problems 'in the field' but nevertheless she was withdrawn before she was outclassed. I happily spend ALL my OFF time in the RNAS during those few glorious months. Three cheers for the Sopwith Triplane!

Yep, get some four-legged tottie in there, Devs. That'll sort the men from the boys, or the Kiwis from the Aussies, and the Welsh from the English... allegedly. I just love the subdued tone of the trees and landscape. So much more realistic than the 'Hollywood' foliage in other sims. And turnbuckles... awesome.