RAF_Louvert

. Yes we do Red-Dog. But none of the other planes the Belgians flew have been painted, so they could stand to be done for those of us who like to fly with the likes of Willy Coppens. .

"A Story for the Season" 1916: Christmas Eve at the Front. The War has dragged itself along on its steely, mud-caked claws for over two years, and the end seems no closer now than when it all began. At an RFC aerodrome not ten miles from the first line trenches, a group of airmen sit through the morning’s briefing, and prepare themselves for the day’s work. They are nearly all young men, at least in years. But with war comes age beyond a calendar’s mark, and one would find that each man is far older than first appearance would tell if a moment were taken to look into his eyes. As the meeting breaks the jovial banter can be heard amongst the group: the good-natured ribbing and warnings, the verbal jousting, the camaraderie and the closeness that bonds souls together in such tenuous and temporary times. Across the mud at a German aerodrome, a similar scene is being played out. The Jagdstaffel pilots there are also preparing themselves for the task at hand. To look at them, you might imagine they were schoolmates of their British counterparts, rather than enemies soon to be locked in mortal combat. For they too laugh and joke, and share that same bond. And they too are of the "old young". The hour is at hand. On each side the signal is given and the small, fast scout planes skim along the cold, icy ground, and one by one lift into a winter sky as grey as the earth below. They form up, and after climbing to their prescribed altitudes, they head towards No Man’s Land and on to do their best; for King and Country; für Kaiser und Vaterland. They meet, and there is the initial gun pass as each sizes up the other. A few moments later and the aerial battle begins in earnest. To those in the fight it is a mind-numbing blur of action that runs in both accelerated and slow motion simultaneously. A split second given to pull the trigger as a plane zips across the sights: an eternity spent to try and twist out of the path of the bullets. An entire lifetime won or lost in less than an eye blink. To those on the ground it appears as a graceful ballet of the sky, the canvas-feathered birds turning and rolling and climbing and diving. But it is a dance to the death more often than not, and it will end when one or more has fallen. And one has fallen. The long, slow, spiraling pirouette as the finale comes to the dance. The others have now tired and as if by mutual agreement or unseen signal the partners separate and turn away. The audience below does not understand how it can be over so quickly. They cannot see the fatigue and exhaustion of those in the air; cannot see their battered ships, or their bruised and aching bodies; or their tired, aging eyes. No, they can see none of these things, any more than the men in the air can see the pain or the agony endured by those who must fight on the ground. Each sees the other from afar, as through a glass darkly. It is an irony of war that in each case, either in the Sky or on the Earth, a man better understands and is more akin to the enemy he fights in his realm than to his own countrymen above or below. Christmas Eve at the Front. Night has fallen and the pilots sit about the dinner table at their respective aerodromes, and talk of flying and fighting, and of family and friends. Wishes of the Season are shared, letters from home are read. Songs of hope are sung and toasts are made to fellow flyers, and to mothers and sweethearts. At one of the tables an empty chair stands in remembrance of the comrade lost that day, and to whom the final toast is made. He will be missed, and to a loved one back home he will forever be a young man with bright, happy eyes; forever a photograph, a memory of a life that could have been. It matters not which side he fought for. He was a man, a part of human kind, and with his passing we are all the lesser for it. . May you have safe and blessed holidays wherever you are, and may we each remember the true message of this season: Peace on earth, good will toward men. Lou .

. Jim, I am running a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro stick with Saitek rudder pedals and I can trim out all the OFF planes to fly quite true and level. .

. Keep the light shining. The spirit of mankind can cross all boundries if we have the courage to set it free. No matter what our differences, somewhere, deep down inside, we are all brothers. .

. Merry Christmas everyone, from my family to yours. May God keep and bless you all. .

. Olham, they are on display at the Stampe and Vertongen Museum in Antwerp. .

. WM, great minds think alike. I am currently working on the Camel of Belgian Ace Jan Olieslagers, which looks like this: I am hoping to have it wrapped up by the week-end. And yes Olham, I belive BH mentioned that in his post. Cheers! Lou .

. Schnitzel von Krummm wrote: Yes, you make a good point SvK. After taking flight and making like a barrel down those steps I ended up feeling like I’d gotten the shaft when my performance wasn’t applauded. Someone could of at least yelled “Bull’s Eye!” (nyuk nyuk nyuk) Dej wrote: It was a sweet pint to be sure Dej, no doubt due to my heightened sense of awareness upon sticking the landing. Herr Prop-Wasche wrote: Well, no Prop. Actually my build would tend to make me more suited for the Russian Circus Bears. Duce wrote: Absolutely! I cannot condone alcohol abuse. Von Paulus wrote: VP, I’ve been a space ranger for a long time now. .

. Brave little Belgium. I have a lot of respect for that small yet fiesty country. And the HD-1 was definitely better than the Nieup, so I have a hunch you are right about how the contract was awarded uncleal. "More grease here. We need more grease!" .

. Happy Birthday OvS! The big four-O, eh? I remember 40 like it was fifteen years ago. It's a good age as I recall. .

. More great screenshots there RC. And I'm glad yet another flyer has experienced the "reload". Folks, our numbers are growing, and you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may find yourself in a similar situation, and if you're in a situation like this there's only one thing you can do and that's to post here that you had it happen to you, wherever you are, just get online and say, "You can get all the ammo you want, at HITR's Restaurant." And walk out. You know, if just one person does it they may think he's sick and they won't believe him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both odd and they won't listen to either of them. And if three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people logging in and singing a bar of "HITR's Restaurant" and logging out. They may think it's an organization. And can you imagine fifty people, I said fifty people logging in and singing a bar of "HITR's Restaurant" and logging out. Why friends, they will think it's a movement! And that's what it is , the "HITR's Restaurant Ammo Reload Movement", and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come's around on the guitar... hee hee .

. Outstanding Olham! Thanks for posting this link Sir. .

. I went arse over tea kettle down a flight of stairs in a pub one night, holding a full pint glass of ale. Landed on my feet at the bottom and never spilled a drop, (centrifugal force no doubt playing it's part). It was witnessed by my entire dart team. I was not interviewed on TV however. .

. Welcome back Duce! Just in time for Christmas. And yes, I have torn off the top starboard wing on my N28 in a very hard pull out from a long dive. .

. I am quite pleased with the current DM. Flying full DID with guns set to a normal spread and the AI tail gunner set to "less accurate" seems to offer the best of all options to me. Dogfights tend to last a good long time unless I can get up close on an enemy's six and get solid hits into his cockpit and engine. Most of the time I do not lose large amounts of control or power when taking initial hits from an attacker. I have seen many variations of my kills going down, from the long slow glide into the ground, to the violent death spin, to wings shedding, to engines parting company with the airframe, and others. I find the current DM to be excellent, at least for how I am working this sim. Cheers! Lou .

. Thanks Olham, now I'll know who's shredding my tail feathers next time. .

. I was wondering that too Olham. I got into a scrap the other day with that bloke myself. Nice shots RC and congrats on claiming a DR1. .

. Can't wait to see it BH. I am growing quite fond of the DH5 myself. .

. A very Merry Christmas to you and yours Widowmaker. May Santa bring you a Snipe. .

. JimAtrill wrote: Jim, I can tell you that the Camel carried 26 Imp gallons of fuel and 5.7 Imp gallons of oil which gave it about 2 1/2 hours of flying time. If you use the average density for an Imperial gallon of petrol as 7.39 pounds and of castor oil as 9.7 lbs at 72 degrees F, (because it changes with temperature), that would mean the Camel carried about 192 pounds of fuel and 55 pounds of oil when topped up. That is a significant portion of its usable payload as the kite weighed only 957 pounds empty and 1455 pounds fully loaded. I have no doubt that fuel loads were played about with in efforts to improve performance of these aircraft during the Great War. Hope this info was what you were looking for Jim. Cheers! Lou .

. Since Ricnunes brought it up in his N24 post, is there a way we can add our own gunsights to the OFF planes? It was not at all unusual for our Great War counterparts to fashion their own sights on their aeroplanes, (or tweak existing ones), as a means to improve their aim. I imagine this has been discussed before around here, and I am curious what was determined during those talks. Cheers! Lou .

. Absolutely correct BH. Two other factors that made a huge difference in aircraft performance were the engines and the rigging. Engines varied even more than airframes did in terms of quality and performance. And a rigging crew could make a poorly built plane fly very well, or a well-built plane fly like a very large piece of crap, depending on how well they did their job. And their job must have been 24/7, and as proof of that I offer once again the following rigging charts for the SE5a: A whole lot of factors affecting the performance of a single aeroplane. No wonder one could fly so much better than the exact same type sitting next to it. You can imagine how attached a pilot must have gotten to his kite after it had proven itself in combat. Cheers! Lou .

. BuB, I'm all about the realism and immersion, as much as that is possible with a sim, (and this one gets as close as it can to the WWI aerial combat experience, IMHO). And I do fly with whatever fuel load I was, and am now, given. It's just that now its always 100% whether the mission calls for it or not. Heck, I don't even use the in-sim map anymore but navigate strictly by vintage map, compass, and EB 20-20. .

. foreigndevil, I am all too familiar with RL work getting in the way of flying. I feel for ya' Sir. Windchill, nice pics Sir. But what are those strange round objects at the bottom of the shot and all that odd cryptic writing? You might want to check your screen capture program for a virus or setting issues. ...hee hee hee...JK .

. Broadside uda Barn wrote: BuB, I believe that is what we are talking about here. If you were only patrolling a ten mile stretch of mud for an hour and a half you would load fuel for that much flight time. If you had to run the long recon you would pack every ounce you could to get you there and back. The fact as it stands now is you will always be starting out with full petrol tanks no matter how long you are scheduled to be aloft, and that is not historically realistic, especially at various times of the War when there were massive fuel shortages. Before HITR your fuel load was set based on the flight time of the mission, now it is a static "always full" amount. It does affect the performance of these planes in a very realistic way, which is why it was a very real consideration for our Great War counterparts. .