RAF_Louvert

Well now that's neat Creaghorn! Makes me want to create my own bunch of flying misfits. Cheers! Lou

Tried it too, but I've settled on 5-3-4-5-3 as I can see no difference, (as also noted by Royce). With these settings I have no jaggies at all and a solid 50 to 70 fps all the time. Very nice. Cheers! Lou

Well now that's an odd one Red-Dog. I had a similar RL experience, but reveresed in direction. Many years ago in the USAF during one of our electronic intercept missions our RC-135 was flying along a large bank of towering storm clouds when we suddenly lost about 1,000' of alt in about 3 seconds, (apparently the result of vertical wind shear). I remember my stomach suddenly climbing up into my throat as I watched my scratch pad, pencil and coffee mug lift off the top of my work station and hover an inch or so above it before slamming back down. Scared the living be-jeebers out of me and the rest of the crew members as well. Our pilot called back to see if we we're all OK, and then added that he was pretty sure our navigator had wet himself. Good times...good times. Cheers! Lou

Those are incredible MK2, simply incredible. I would love to be able to just see and hold each of those historic bits of paper for a moment to have that connecton to those historic figures. Take good care of them Sir. Cheers! Lou

Seeker, it was a horrific war and we should not forget that. And as Hood says, there are no little wars...they were and are all horrific. Yet we seem to refight the same wars over and over. Here is another poignant piece of Great War related music that brings that message home: "The Green Fields of France", (written by Eric Bogle, 1976) And I too raise my glass with Bullethead and drink to them all. Let us never forget those souls who have suffered and died for "The Cause", regardless of which side or cause. We are all, in the end, children of God. Salute! Lou

We live in hope, catch. But I also have to keep Jane happy as I live with her as well. And, since hope springs eternal and Jane's patience does not...well, you understand. Cheers! Lou

Krasny, the sights will only get you "close". You will have to watch the tracers to really zero in on your target. At least, that is my personal experience with 'em so far. Cheers! Lou

Beanie, from what I have seen so far in the OFF campaigns, I believe you are correct. You and your wingman are supposed to try and work together on the missions and watch each other's back. Although truth be told, my wingman Flt Cmdr. McTavish is useless...utterly useless. Fortunately, I have my observer/gunner Sgt. Kenny Shewtum guarding our tail, and he is a killer! Cheers! Lou

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy this thread? Being a WW1 history buff, this sort of thing is exactly my cuppa'. Thanks shredward for posting and continuing this series. Cheers! Lou

Outstanding video catch, well done Sir! WM, when I use FRAPS to capture videos I convert them afterwards with MovieMaker, which finishes up as a much smaller file. Cheers! Lou

Another very interesting and informative thread, (as are so many around this place). I too run a Logitech stick; the Extreme 3D Pro. I have used Logitech for well over five years now and am very happy with the product. And my TIR 4 Plus works perfectly with it. I will admit that the average lifespan of a JS for me is about 18 months, but then I tend to be rather hard on them. Now on a related note, I am currently fiddling around with a custom control set-up that when finished will have a center-mount WW1 aircraft-style joy stick with trigger switches, and actual rudder pedals. For the electronic controls I am using the inner workings of a Logitech stick and am coupling said workings to the new stick and pedal bar I am building. It will plug into the computer using the same USB cable and operate with the existing Logitech software. I will keep you all posted as to my progress on this little project. However, it will be a bit down the road as I have promised to first finish the new upper cabinets in the kitchen for my better half. Cheers! Lou

godzilla, I think all the others here have pretty well answered your question, but I woud like to add that you can lean back your engine a great deal and it will still run as it should, once you have some alt. On most of the planes I give the mixture about 25 "clicks" to the lean side when I'm above 2,000' with no performance issues and much lower fuel consumption. Also, when I warp, I only do so until I reach the front and then I drop out of warp and fly at normal speed, (or if time is short, bump up the flying speed via "ctrl-shift-E"). I began doing this shortly after starting my recent DiD campaign because I really wanted to appreciate the full affect Archie has while I'm flying. That is something that is missed in warp, and I think it takes far too much away from this sim not to have to fly through it. But then again, I tend to be a glutton for punishment. Now then, would someone please hand me that fresh willow switch so I can flail myself about the back and upper arms. Cheers! Lou

Personally, I still just aim for the cockpit and engine and blast away until parts start flying or I hear a scream, or both. Seems to the trick as well as any. Cheers! Lou

Ah yes, Willy Coppens. One of the great balloon busters. I just purchased a 1st edition of the english translation of his book, "Days on the Wing", and I look forward with much anticipation to reading it when it arrives. Cheers! Lou

Wels, those are some fun scenes to watch. Thanks for posting them. And Krasny: I just laughed so hard reading that that I ended up spritzing my monitor with the iced tea I was attempting to drink. Cheers! Lou

I do know that money is tight, in particular right now, but I must agree with Red-Dog. I purchased BHaH about two months ago myself and it is the best gaming investment I've made since...well, since my first copy of Red Baron a decade ago. BTW, greetings Krasny. Cheers! Lou

Or to shorten that: What seeker said. Cheers! Lou

Greetings Red-Dog, I assume you are not using the Le Prieur rockets as they are just slightly above useless. My best success in practice missions has been to emulate our WW1 counterparts: Come in from above with lots of speed and start blasting away from a couple hundred yards out, then pull up, fly away and hope for the best. I have roasted about six Hun gas bags with two plane losses, and walked away from one of the related crashes. You are playing short odds no matter how you try this mission Sir. Cheers! Lou

20 July 1916 Oscar, I find myself with a free hour this evening and decided to take the opportunity to write. I hope this letter finds you safe and well. I know you lads in the Fusiliers have been having a time of it at La Boisselle, but from what I've read it looks like you gave the Hun a real trouncing, so no doubt you'll be coming home with all sorts of souvenirs from that outing. Wouldn't Far be thrilled to have one of those picklehaubes as a paperweight on his desk! I imagine by now the folks have caught you up about my being promoted to Squadron Commander of No. 5. Now isn't that a fine state of affairs. Headmaster Evans wouldn't have trusted me as class monitor, yet here I am in charge of a naval air wing! And Mor told me in her last letter that you are also sporting some new uniform trim, as a Captain in the 13th. Well done Ossie! Fate is a strange and funny bird, isn't she? Let me tell you of our mission this morning, (though I know the censors will have field day with this when I send it, so I'm not sure how much of the story you'll get). HQ had handed down orders for an attack on the main rail yards at Cambrai, and as this was one of those missions that could well have proven to be an ender, I chose to take it upon myself to lead the flight. As the mechanicians prepared our planes, I briefed the lads on the target and route. We were lucky in that HQ allocated a group of Fee's from No. 22 RFC to provide us escort; a most welcome addition I must say. We have flown more than our share of unattended jaunts over the mud so I am always grateful for the extra help. Not that my boys can't hold their own and then some in the Strutters mind you, but the more guns the better when going up against a flock of Einies. The day proved to be ideal in terms of weather. High thin clouds, warm, sunny, and only the slightest breeze blowing easterly. Ossie, you cannot imagine how strong the upper winds can blow, and always towards Hunland it seems. It makes for wonderful speed to the targets, but is the very devil to fly against when going back home. Add to that all the hate the enemy throws at you from the ground and the odd lot of hositle scouts that might cross your path and it makes for an exciting time. But today, we at least did not have to worry about the wind. We rolled from our aerodrome and proceeded southeasterly to join up with the RFC, who were spot on time at the designated rendezvous. As we climbed up through the wispy layers of white the whole of Flanders and beyond spread out before us and I could see all the way from Calais to Valenciennes. As we approached the front lines Archie got busy and began dotting the air with his spiteful puffs of smoke and shrapnel. They look harmless enough from a distance, but I can assure such is not the case when one comes calling near your bus. They will knock you about plenty, and punch some unwelcomed holes through your wings and tail feathers. But to be honest, that's about the best they ever do. Nearing Cambrai, the Kaiser's ground crews stepped it up further and the sky was thick with AA bursts. Suddenly my observer tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to some specks above and off our starboard wing. They turned out to be enemy monoplanes, which the RFC boys quickly tore into, allowing us to continue on to the target. I lead my trio of B/R's on through the barrage and towards the rail yards, and we all leveled of at 7,000' to prepare for our run. Kenny, (that's my observer, Sgt. Kenneth Shewtum; outstanding lad to have guarding my six I might add, and I've put him up for the MM), readied the bombs whilst I made a final minor course adjustment, after which we let go all our eggs. It's a funny thing; even though it take but a few seconds for the bombs to reach the earth, it seems like an eternity as you hover above waiting to see the end results of your best attempts. Today we were not disappointed. I watched as the first pair of eggs bracketed the depot and it burst into flames. Immediately thereafter the next lot landed in the midst of the rolling stock, blowing several cars to bit. My wingmen had equally good success and we left the Hun below in a much sorrier state than we'd found them. I turned back towards the west and we headed post hast to the nearest section of the lines, dodging and dipping and rising to throw off the AA. That is the disconcerting part about a bomb run. You have to fly level and true long enough to get a good line on the target and Archie knows this, so he takes full advantage of that time to get a good line on you. Even though I despise them I do have to give them full marks on occasion for their accuracy, especially that crew around Cambrai. We crossed back over into friendly territory without anything more to show for it than a few vents in our lower wing and a small chunk of shell casing that had jammed itself into my map case. The RFC had mixed it up with the Hun scouts nicely, sending a brace of them down out of control and the rest packing for home. I gave a wing waggle to the Fee's when they turned off for their own aerodrome near Armentieres, and my flight and I continued northward towards our own digs. Landed, and was back in time for a late lunch. A good morning's work for my boys and I. Well, it is now nearly eight bells, so I best end this vignette and get some kip. Tomorrow morning will be coming early as we have a dawn appointment with another bit of Boche property. Take care of yourself Ossie, and write me when you can. Your big brother, Nels .

Thanks Dej, I enjoyed writing it. And I love when all the tiny bits fly in the air and can't be put back together again. So satisfying...so very, very satisfying. Cheers! Lou

Glad you Gents liked it. And thanks for the suggestion griphos, consider it done...in fact, it is. :yes: Cheers! Lou

theseeker, here are my settings, (though I am running a single 9800GTX+): Nvidia settings: Anisotropic Filtering 8x Antialiasing On Antialiasing Mode Override Antialiasing-Setting 8x Antialiasing-Transparency Multisampling Conformant Texture Clamp Use Open GL Spec Error Reporting Off Extention Limits Off Force Mipmaps Bilinear Max Pre-rendered Frames 8 Multi-display/Mixed GPU Acceleration Mutilple Display Mode Texture Filtering -Anisotropic Sample Opitmizaion On Texture Filtering-NEG LOD bias Clamp Texture Filtering Quality- High Performance Texture Filtering-Trilinear OPtimization On Threaded Optimization On Vertical Sync Force On CFS3 Workshop Settings: Sliders currently at 5-3-4-5-3 In Overrides I have the following boxes checked: Disable Warning Boxes, Disable Intro Movie, Disable UI Animations, High Resolution Z-buffer, Terrain Detail Texture, Disable Validate Device, Disable Write-only Vertex Buffers, Disable Wirte-only Index Buffers, Disable Labels, Disable Target Cone, Disable Chat, Disable Advisor Messages, Disable Simulation Warnings, Disable Time Compression, Disable Water Animation. In Texture Info; make sure the following boxes are checked: Composite Terrain Texture Pool - D3DPool_Managed, Composite Terrain Texture Usage - D3DUsage_RenderTarget, Composite Aircraft Texture Pool - D3DPool_Managed, Composite Aircraft Texture Usage - D3DUsage_RenderTarget, Vertex Buffer Pool - D3DPool_Default, Index Buffer Pool - D3DPool_Default, Full Screen Swap Effect - D3DSwapEffect_Discard. Every other setting I have left at the factory defaults. Hope this helps, seeker. Cheers! Lou

Nice plane. Olham's that is, not that magenta bird. And a good read as well. Please keep putting pen to paper Olham, (and the rest of you lot too), and post those bits of creative writing. I love 'em. Cheers! Lou

Dej! I thought I was the only one around these parts who referred to him as Shaky Bill. Another fan of the old bard I see. Cheers! Lou

ROTFLMAO! Good one Lucky. Cheers! Lou