RAF_Louvert

. Olham, that is an outstanding website and I have visited it many times in the past. Beautiful stuff! Good idea to share the link here Sir. .

. Olham, it may be that this is a photo of a captured Alb sitting at Claye-Souilly northeast of Paris. The Bessonneau tent hanger looks like standard Allied issue to me. .

. Olham, here is a photo of the same plane sitting at the aerodrome near Souilly, France, 2 January 1918, (photo courtesy of Heritage Prints): Perhaps one of our Alb experts can supply more information on whose plane this was and which jasta it belonged to. .

. Olham, that appears to be a photo from many, many years after WWI, if the uniforms worn by the men in the picture are any indication. Truth be told, they look like 1960's - 1970's US Air Force uniforms, so I am wondering if this plane wasn't part of a collection at an American base somewhere. I'll have to do some investigating. .

. Oh, I do agree Olham, and it's not only Hauksbee's above comment that points to his OFF/WWI barmyness, but even more so his website and blog. Here are two examples of his work that clearly illustrate just how hopelessly gone he is: Welcome to the BOC Hauksbee! BTW, membership in this most dubious organization should definitely be added to your resume. .

. I am very sorry for your loss Olham. My thoughts and prayers go out to you Sir, and to the family of your departed friend. .

. I'd would have to agree that anyone who is so deeply into OFF and the whole WWI experience that he inadvertently notes the year in a correspondence as '1917' is most assuredly barmy enough for the club. Welcome aboard Wayfarer! And Shiloh, remember our official club motto: "Per Dementia Ad Astra". Oh, and a big "Welcome Back!" to you Olham. .

. Best of luck Widowmaker, though I am sure you won't be needing it Sir. You'll do just fine. Here's to hoping that you thoroughly enjoy the excitement of the new venture. .

. vonOben, the works noted by 33LIMA are all very good, and I will add a few other personal narratives by German flyers that have been published in English. “An Airman Remembers”, by Hans Schröder and translated by Claude Sykes, (NOTE: this volume was recently reissued as “A German Airman Remembers). Also, the works of Haupt Heydemarck, to include “Double-Decker 666”, “War Flying in Macedonia”, and “Flying Section 17”. These were also translated into English by Mr. Sykes. I can recommend them all as excellent reads. .

. That is really quite amazing Shiloh. Very, very well done Sir. And I can't get over the sim graphics in that...wowzers. .

. Yes indeed, that is an excellent one and I've seen it several times over the years. Let me add my thanks for the reminder of this classic as well, Shiloh. .

. o yes stumpjumper YUOve dfinetly leFT ANIMppresoin sir .

. Don, do you also OC your graphics card? That can have a very large impact on how well OFF runs for you. I have found that pushing up the memory clock speed on the card can show the biggest gain in this sim in terms of smooth performance when the sliders are up in the 4 and 5 range, (remember to keep your terrain and scenery sliders at 4 or below, never put them at 5). .

. The Jasta 11 website is a great place to visit, and I've been there many times looking through its resources. Thanks for the reminder Olham. And thanks for the shared pictures everyone. . Also, I'm not so sure about that dogfight being for real, but it is still neat to see. .

. Olham, have a fantastic time mein Freund! We'll hold the fort down for you whilest your away. Javito, I think going to Minnesota has a very nice ring to it, but then I may be a bit partial. And what's all this tripe about wishing you were able to travel a short ways and be in a whole different country with a different language and culture? You're only three hours from Chicago. .

. After dinner this evening I started up my flying computer and sat down to a recce of the Hun positions up near Ostende. It was 14:32, St. Omer time, when the Quirk coughed to life, and as it warmed I made my usual check of the controls. A short two minutes later and we were rising slowly into the cold gray February sky of 1915. My observer sat ahead of me and turned his head ever so slightly each time we banked. I came around to the east-northeast and put our bus into the long slow climb towards the Belgian coast. Wintry clouds hung silently in the air as the 90hp RAF engine in front of us droned a steady tune, pulling us ever higher, ever higher. I leveled out at 8,000 feet and watched as the woods and rivers crept below us at an almost imperceptible rate. No Man’s Land came into view and we inched our way towards it, and watched the flashes of the shells from the big guns as they found their targets along the trench lines. The PBI was catching hell down there. When our mount finally slipped across to the Boche side of the mud Archie came calling. The first few ugly black puffs were well below us, so far in fact you could hardly hear them. But they worked their way closer and soon had our height. I began a lazy bob-and-weave pattern that seemed to sufficiently throw off their aim and we continued on with no more thought to the gunners’ efforts below. Time seemed to stand still as we made our rounds above the enemy positions near the coast. The dusty blue sea was quiet and looked as if it could stretch on forever. For a moment I considered bringing our bus around and setting a course for England, but only for a moment. And anyway, it was time to make our way back to the aerodrome and report in with our intel. HQ would be needing it for their planning of the next push, whenever that might be. The sky was darkening; night was coming on. The sun was beginning to slide below the western horizon and was now little more than a cold dingy orb glowing through the winter haze. St. Omer came once more into our view and I throttled down, and dropped into a long slow glide towards the field. The wheels settled lightly onto the frigid, dead grass and I guided our bus back to the shed, shutting of the mags and cutting the fuel at just the right moment so that we coasted gently to a stop not twenty feet from the hanger doors. Now all was quiet, save for the occasional barking of the camp dog. I looked at my watch. It had been two hours and forty-seven minutes. Two hours and forty-seven minutes in the virtual skies of this amazing sim. Two hours and forty-seven minutes wandering above the Western Front, in the visage of a machine that existed nearly a century ago. Two hours and forty-seven minutes. I never would have guessed it; it seemed timeless. .

. Well Helloooooo Stump! Nice to see you dropping in Sir. I'd offer to buy you a drink but from the looks of your last post you may already have had several presented to you by your fellow OFFers. But what's one more, eh? Cheers Mate! .

. BALLOON BUSTING (hopefully staying alive in the process) Any Discussion about the proper method for destroying a balloon, should include how it was actually done. Let's get one thing straight; a balloon is a PRIME Target. You know it, I know it, and the enemy defenders know it, so to say it will be rather heavily defended is an understatement. What is a balloon but a bag of gas, which when mixed with air is extremely flammable. Your attack plans must differ throughout the war. Early on the incendiary ammunition was highly unreliable. It was known to ‘light off’ from engine heat alone. The great Willie Coppens, Balloon Ace Extraordinaire, would purposely kill his engine at high altitude directly over the balloon, as noise abatement, as he did a full dive on the balloon. When within gun range he would restart his own engine, the gunners couldn't hit him because the balloon was in the way. So he'd destroy the gasbag, only to fly away at full speed. He did this 16 times. It worked, but the method was never copied The more accepted method, is to ventilate the gas bag real well with your machine gun, so that the area near the balloon is saturated with a mixture of air & gas, which only needs to be exposed to flame to destroy the balloon. Enter the Le Prieur rocket, which was little more than an overgrown firework. Your aircraft carries 8 of these rockets, fired electrically, and they're none too accurate. So get close, fire your rockets, and hopefully set off the escaping balloon gas thus destroying the balloon. By the way, as soon as the incendiary ammunition became more reliable, the La Prieur rocket disappeared at the front. The rockets in OFF belong on a P47 in terms of range, accuracy, and destructive power. However, this is hard-coded into CFS3, so if you want rockets, use these, or none at all. Just how close you wanna get before opening fire is up to you, but there's no hiding why you're in the area. The diving attack has some merit, as the defending machine guns can't hit you until you’re at about 2000 feet. But the AA fire has no such limitation, plus you can't bob and weave on the way down. Once you open fire you're committed, and they know it! Balloon busting is no easy job, unless you're talking about the one every airfield features, and you can destroy those just testing your guns. You could of course make a show out of the balloon mission and order your wingmen to attack while you just stay back and watch. However you can't claim the balloon if they shot it down. If you're the guy who destroyed the balloon, you should go straight home, (no dogfights along the way). You must survive and your wingman has to as well, he's your witness. If he dies, kiss that balloon goodbye. PS: Those rockets are great for bridges and locomotives THE OLHAM METHOD OF BALLOON ATTACK For balloon attack, I approach the balloon at 2.000 - 3.000 feet, zigzagging first, and find out how he is lined up because I always attack them along their full length axis, and if possible from the sun side. From the right position, I dive on it in a 30° - 40° dive, stabilise my aim, and fire bursts at it when it appears big enough. I mostly destroy it in the first approach. If that fails, I go back to 2.000 feet zigzagging, and then dive down on it much steeper (45 - 50 °), blow it up, and then pull out and away zigzagging, not climbing too hard, as that would reduce my escape speed, (I stop firing at the balloon at about 400 feet distance, and pull out). When out of reach of the balloon's flak, I climb higher for crossing back over the lines. NOTE: German aircraft cannot carry rockets of any kind, ever. NEW PILOT'S METHOD, AND IT WORKED Long story: I went around the front and circled around from the east. The balloon was high in the sky by the time I found it. Wingmen went down to the deck and started suppressing the German defences; I bored straight in on that sausage. Took a hit from something, (no idea what), that knocked the Nieuport around like a kite. I had a look and my left bottom wing tip looked as though Superman had grabbed it and bent it upwards. It wasn't sheared off it was just bent upwards. Very bad for the controls, I was side slipping all over the sky with flak/mg fire all around. HOWEVER, I was still able to flame the balloon and because I was already aiming west I was able to kind of make my plane coast towards friendly lines. The landing didn't go so well. I landed among the British troops in No Man's Land. "Landed" is overstating it since the plane crashed and sent me to the infirmary for two weeks. PS: Seeing as how it's Bloody April, missing two weeks of it may not be a bad thing. .

. Becoming the Ultimate 'Tourist' in OFF In CFS3 QC choose the following: Any of the British Fields in England / Free Flight / Runway. I prefer Sutton’s Farm in a Sopwith Pup with rocket load out, (Yanks only). Take off and fly NW, in about 6 minutes you'll reach the Thames, hang a right and you'll be travelling west. The first stream on your right features roughly four bridges, very satisfying to hit them with rockets. Turn your labels ‘On’ as some of the sights further along the Thames will simply amaze, such as Tower Bridge (flying under the roadway), Big Ben, and Battersea Power Station. .

. A Trick For Those Not Utilizing Pedals Yet The human body was never designed with the ‘Twisty Stick’ in mind, at least not when it comes to WWI flight sims anyway. In the WWII prop-driven aircraft there was some use of rudder, but not much, (except for runway activity). In the jets even less. However in 1917 we're dealing with full travel use of the rudder in gunnery, and that violent momentary course correction just prior to shooting. I won't say it’s impossible, but it's very difficult to hold a totally flat pivoting action as you twist the joystick, while squeezing the trigger to shoot at the same time. Unless you're very careful you're always going to have a slight aileron movement, usually just enough to bank off your target. I haven't met the pilot who can hold a turn that flat, without pedals, in a dogfight. I'm sure they exist, but I ain't one. SOLUTION: Don't use the trigger; use the ‘Spacebar’. Your machine gun will still fire, plus your hit percentage will be noticeably higher. Try it and see, because what is your other hand doing then anyway, playing pocket pool? NOTE: How to find your hit percentage in OFF, set ‘Player Stats’ in Workshop to ‘On’. .

. Operation of Your Secondary Weapon is a Two-key Operation (unless you're flying a scout for the Dark Side because German aircraft don't have rockets or bombs, excepting of course the bombers) Seeing as OFF was a patch of CFS3, firing rockets or dropping bombs is a two-step operation. You must first ‘Select Weapon’ by hitting ‘Backspace’; this is pure CFS3 as the pilot could select if he wanted to fire rockets or drop bombs on the target. We don't have that dilemma in 1917, as it's one or the other…period. I like to think of it as the ‘Arm’ command since it only needs to be pressed once at the beginning of your mission. After that you just deal with the ‘Fire’command, which is the ‘Enter’ button. What I'm saying is that only one button need be programmed to your joystick. If you're running an X-52, no sweat. But most other sticks, (especially those with Force Feedback), the buttons you can hit with your right hand fingers without taking your hand off the joystick are at a premium. For those of us who see reaching across our bodies as an unnatural movement: Enter the Saitek Throttle Quadrant and its six programmable buttons. .

. You need to keep an open mind. After Phase 1, 2, and now 3, the best I could do with my below average machine was with sliders set at 4/3/3/4/1, getting 30 FPS and staying smooth. But now, after some of the tweaks, (always lots of computer gurus here), one of which is to ‘Disable Shadows’ in the Config overrides, we're running 5/3/3/5/1 at mid 40 FPS and still smooth. It's not only your aircraft's shadows, but all those trees too. Because of this I suddenly no longer need to replace my rig, (couldn't afford it anyway). “Your mileage may vary”. PS: Clouds only hide your whereabouts from AI eyes when they are set to 5. On 4 or below, it's ring the dinner bell. My old eyes can't see the difference between 1 and 4. .

. Why You Should Fly as Flight Leader Sometimes the newbie will figure, “If I fly as second fiddle, I'll see how it's done and learn how to handle a WWI aircraft at the same time”. WRONG. Quick Combat is there just so the newbie can learn how the aircraft will react to your input, and you control all the variables. However, if you wish to jump into Campaign and kill a bunch of pilots, be my guest. It's your funeral after all. For my money, I'd select ‘Player Always Leads’, enlisting my pilot in one of the top 2 ranks possible for that nationality, (i.e. no Sergeants). And if you leave the TAC up you can't get lost…period. Plus there's the little matter of wingmen. Only the mission leader can command his wingmen. And without commands they do anything they damn well please, which can include them just watching as you get killed facing five enemy aircraft alone. In case anybody is wondering why your Flight Leader doesn't announce his moves before he does them: He can't. It's 1917 and there are no radios in these tiny aircraft. If you decide the hell with the mission, I'll just go looking for trouble, you'll go solo. If you can keep up with your mission leader you're good. He's on your side but he's AI, which means he can climb without slowing down, his mixture is always perfect, he's unaffected by any kind of wind. More importantly, he can fly through a cloud with NO effect, and when you try to follow you can get your wings ripped out…or not. Feeling lucky today? So, as the leader, you circle the field once to get all your ducklings in a row. Then warp to mission altitude in six seconds flat. Plus, with your TAC screen up, you can follow the blue neon line from waypoint to waypoint so you can't get lost. .

. Gunnery in WW1 You don't actually aim, you try to ram him, and just before you hit him you open fire. You'll only have time for a short burst or you WILL hit him. Your guns are solidly mounted to the aircraft, so if you tried to aim “Presto!” you're on a collision course. Besides, who is busy doing all that aiming if you're busy flying the plane? In order to truly aim you would need a front and rear sight, (most aircraft have one or the other but not both). The Nieuport 11 doesn't have any, as the gun is on the upper wing. If you only have a front sight you'll try to get closer so you can't miss. NOTE: The twin gun German aircraft don't use a front sight at all. They pick an imaginary point between the two guns, such as the top edge of the windscreen on the Alb DIII, or just above the gauge on the Fokker DR1. There are long distance shots to be taken, but they’re only done by experienced pilots. MEAT or METAL: If you fail to hit the pilot, the engine, or the fuel tank, it could be a long day. Just getting behind somebody and opening fire, unless by luck you hit the pilot in the back of the head, you can shoot all your bullets without doing anything. All the goodies are in the front third of the fuselage, (no one ever said this schitt was easy). If you dive on somebody without him seeing you and you shoot him in the wing, you haven't accomplished anything except announce your presence. And if he's a better pilot than you, you die. There is no blood in OFF. If you're close enough, you'll hear him scream as your bullets turn him into hamburger. .

. The ‘Reset’ Buttons in the Workshop There are two, and by pressing either you ARE going to lose all your pilots. But if you’re having OFF issues it sure is the lesser evil, (if it works), than doing a complete reinstall. The one I would try first is the ‘Reset/Install’ of OFF. It's a white rectangle on the right border. Four buttons to the left is ‘Reset CFS3’: same story. Both these buttons are the last thing to try. If that doesn't help you will likely need to do a complete reinstall, and that is much work because there's no ‘Uninstall’ button. You need to manually delete all the files, stay away from the Control Panel or you'll screw-up the registry. .