Dej

Looking good, Lothar. I shall have to give it a try when I can get back to flying OFF. I'd downloaded and installed it but then RL got in the way. One point though. In your first batch of screenies Luther seems to have become somewhat lost leaving the Adjutant's Office as he ends up in Jasta 1 Mess Hall! I think you used the wrong image!

Welcome Redmonkey. If you're an immersion-junkie then OFF is the high of choice... there is no more immersive WW1 flight sim available for today's PC. Some immersive bullets to help you choose: RFC pilots were poorly trained in the early war, both B/R and scout. In sim-speak meaning you ought not practice much in Quick Combat to know your machine; No. 24 Squadron were the first British dedicated scout unit of the early war and are a good unit to join but, they fly the DH2, which a lot of people have trouble with; No. 56 Squadron, by contrast, were very well experienced in the SE5 before they went to France in early April '17. If you join them prior to that date you'll have some time to work the machine up over Blighty; Overall, RNAS Squadrons were better trained. The RNAS receives the better machines, and sooner than the RFC. For example, joining Naval 10 in early '17 will gift you the Sopwith Triplane which is a delight to fly and more than a match for your Hun counterparts... plus, just as they start getting the edge again, technology-wise, you'll move up to the Camel and have 'em beat once more - one of my favourite campaigns to fly. Germans scout pilots nearly all cut their teeth in two-seaters first, certainly the majority of the great German aces did; As an early war German scout pilot the mid part of the Western Front offers better sport. To the North are the RNAS with the Pup and the Tripe, both can outfly if not outgun the Albatros. To the South the wily French with their nimble Nieuports. That's generalising a bit but broadly true; It does no harm to follow Manfred. Otherwise, the advice from others above is all sound. I'm joining in with Lou, just stick a bottle between us. I'll give him his watch back while we're at it.

I, personally shall be very watching carefully for bad grammar. Anyone what don't write things proper, well, that is what they is to likely get banned for. Repeat after I... And that is my favourite LoB clip Widow.

I don't much visit the other parts of CombatAce 'cept the FE downloads, so I don't know how things go elsewhere but I have to say that the administration of the OFF fora here was top notch... no personality clashes or ego stroking, even when some of us got a bit heated... but we are a well-behaved bunch, of course.. There was the UncleAl incident granted. but he's now welcomed back so... whilst I'll visit the other place I'm here by preference.

Ah... back to being me... Avatars, graphics in my sig and no poncey 'zh' endings!

I recall reading in one WWII pilot's autobiography (or it might have been Shaw's introduction in 'Fighter Combat Tactics and Manoeuvering') that on paper or in a planned attack your high G and low G yo-yos; climbing scissors; lag pursuit; split esses etc. are all very well... but when bullets are smacking into the fuselage behind you most average pilots are lucky if they can remember a break turn!

The Camel and the Dr.1 were both rotaries and not dissimilar in speed. Now, JFM can correct any of this, if he's around but, from memory... 'Wop' May was on his way out of the fight when MvR spotted him so MvR had a height advantage for initial additional speed. I think the fact that MvR was able to keep on May's tail for several miles is primarily down to combat experience, rather than aircraft mastery. May admitted that he was turning this way and that, losing speed, whereas Richthofen had the experience not to react to every move of May's but to anticipate and therefore NOT lose speed in turns. Remember also, that Brown caught up with them both, just SE of Vaux-sur-Somme, I think, but - the Camel having little or no speed advantage than the Dr.1 - it was only after diving at such great speed that (I think I read somewhere) he damaged his Camel's airframe.

One reason for the Sopwith Triplane's obscurity of course is the fact that it saw service for a brief period before it was supplanted by the Camel, and then only with the RNAS. Nevertheless, in that brief period (April to July '17), Little, for example scored 24 victories. Nor was he the only high scorer on the type. As you say, Flyby, the Tripe rewarded certain tactics. Little was renowned as a close-in fighter and superlative shot, he was nicknamed 'Rikki' by his squadron after the mongoose in Kipling's story. Some of Hellshade's Triplane videos make me think very much of Little.

Well, perhaps 'exemplar' is a less than appropriate word, then. One rarely hears about the Sopwith Triplane anyway, MvR and Voss among others having secured that historic aviation connection for the Fokker variant... but even among WW1 aviation enthusiasts, when one talks of the Triplne in action I can count the times Little's engagement is mentioned on the fingers of one foot! Incidently, I've not managed to meet Little's example in OFF. Four D.IIIs is the most I've downed in one engagement in Campaign and a full batch of aces in QC. Not that this is representative of course. As is oft pointed out, we WW1 aviation simmers have far more virtual experience than the real experience of those whose memory we attempt to honour.

I know I'm drifting OT from the OP, as it were, but the mention of Voss' iconic battle against the SE5s of No. 56 Squadron, prompts me to wonder again why that incident is always held up as the exemplar of a Triplane's manoeuvrability. On 7th April 1917 the Australian ace, Robert Little, in Sopwith Triplane N5493, flew into a flight of 11 enemy scouts over Arras and outflew them single handedly for half an hour. Legend has it that these aircraft were from Jasta 11 and that Richthofen saw the fight from the ground and reported to Anthony Fokker as to the Triplanes abilities. Geoffrey Bromet, later an Air-Vice Marshall, also saw the engagement from the ground and reported, "At 6.45 on April 7th,1917, a Sopwith Triplane, working alone, attacked eleven hostile machines, almost all Albatros scouts, North East of Arras. He completely outclassed the whole patrol...diving through them and climbing above them." Of the same battle a 3rd Army AA officer witnessed the dogfight as well and recorded, "At 6.45 on April 7th 1917 ....drawing them all the time towards the AA guns .... the AA opened fire on the patrol which turned eastwards ... the manoeuvring of the triplane completely outclassed that of the Albatros scout." Not in any way detracting from Voss' bravery but he wasn't the first Triplane jockey to completely outfight a much more numerous foe.

The Friedrichshafen has the looks of a fighter certainly. Any more detailed performance stats available?

A bit fomulaic, agreed. But it did highlight a rather shameful episode of 'turning a blind eye' on the part of the UK. Those foreign nationals who fought so valiantly for our country in the BoB and subsequently earned automtic British citizenship in my mind. And they should have been defended and protected as British citizens even if they returned to their native country. Not be allowed to be starved and murdered by a invasive foreign regime.

Overly intrusive Dr.1's though, certainly.

I think you should be able to get it here on Games for Windows Live, Tamper. Check the link out and see. But it still has restrictions in effect in that you must have a Windows Live account at least.

Minces = mince pies = eyes Cock-er-nee rhyming slang.

Thanks to those who've pointed it out... looks like my email's been hacked. I suggest deleting any emails you may receive from me - without opening 'em, until further notice.

Thanks Olham. If it's spoffing I don't know what I can do about it. Meanwhile should I need to send anyone on these fora a genuine email I'll prefix the subject line with one of two sets of three letters. Those here can work out what those might be, I'm sure, given my sig and what thes fora are about.

Nice screenie indeed, Olham. Highly portentous (in two of the three senses of the word). I do wish one's flight would close up more though. Even the close setting seems too widely-spaced. Bit more formation variation wouldn't hurt, either. Wonder if that's changed in OFF2.

Thanks for the helpful advice folks. I think you're correct, Parky. Whilst I've changed my password in any case I do now suspect it's spoofing rather than a genuine hack.

Handled sympathetically the DH2 can defeat both the Halb D.II and Alb D.II, you have, as with all machines,to play to her strengths and compensate for her weaknesses. Her critical need is airspeed if she is to turn well and she wallows at much above 8 degrees climb so you absolutely must stay above the HA. Let him do the yo-yo thing and then sideslip to pick him off when he loses energy at the top of a zoom. You’ve unparalleled visibility and a large rudder, deft use of which will allow you to act like the turret of a tank and bring your gun to bear with precision. That said, in a dive she is very responsive indeed, more than a match for those beefy Hun crates, so if you’ve just one HA left go for him... just for the love of God don’t overshoot! Oh and don't run at full throttle all the time... keep a bit of power in reserve just in case of the need to hold a nose up attitude for that critical second longer Dogfights in a DH2 tend to last a long time, but Patience brings its rewards. Read the ‘Flying and Air Fighting Guide’. There’s good advice in there from myself (ahem!) and Lou. Both of us used to fly the DH2 regularly. Me, being a Hawker fanboi, what else would I

D/Ling now! Cheers VP.

I bought the above at a secondhand bookshop, primarily impressed by the photographs of various CWGC cemetaries around the world and many in Flanders of course. But it's also an inspring read about the foundation of and the continuing work of the CWGC. If you find a copy at a price you find affordable I woud recommend you buy it... it's a truly moving book with some beautiful and very poignant photography. Mind you, I defy anyone to read it without a tear in their eye. Amazon UK Link

Interessant. Gibt es einen neuen Piloten in der Staffel auch? Bobbi Juing, vielleicht?

And of course, the serendipitous double-entendre of 'barmy' is 'Bar... me!' STE-WARD! SET 'EM UP MY GOOD MAN!

Remember the map in OFF2 will be much improved, I believe, so rather than 'paper' maps I'll use the in-sim one (shame to waste all that hard work). I'll probably do a number of free flight QCs to get the feel of the machine I'm planning to fly in campaign and probably an earlier model, e.g. BE2 - a real WW1 pilot would have had that at least. If I fly a German campaign I'll definitely start in a two-seater and, depending when my campaign pilot joins up, possibly the same for British/French. For example, if I started a British campaign with No. 46 Sqn. I'll start maybe with a BE2 then move on to a Pup... sim-God Willing! Otherwise, just as Hellshade described... until the frustration of losing my 100th pilot on my 120th mission (overall!) makes me fly a QC combat just for kicks.