Bullethead

We've never had artificial intelligence. Humanity hasn't yet developed genuine intelligence, so how could we possibly have made a copy of the real thing?

As my new hero, Lt. Bandy, said: Three cheers for me . I'd rather be lucky than good.

A pleasure to meet you, sir. The site founder and all. I don't think I've had the priveledge. Thanks for dropping by to bolster morale. Drinks on me

I'm ashamed to say I haven't done any scenarios yet. But this one sounds pissa! When I sober up tomorrow, which is one of my rare days OFF, I'll make sure to try it

Albatri are tough and Nupes and Pups only have 1 gun, so they take a lot of killing from the traditional 6 o'clock position. Also, while you can turn inside them with ease, you can't zoom with them. You'll cut in on an Albatros and just as you're about to fire, he goes up while still turning toward you. So you pull up, too, while still turning hard to maintain proper lead, and next thing you know you've stalled out and the Albatros can still go up a bit more and is perfectly safe. It's a classic rope-a-dope, and you get the feeling the AI's taunting you. Meanwhile, as you're stalled out and hanging, or perhaps spinning a bit while holding more or less in the same place in the air, one of his buddies, whom you were easily evading beforehand, will light you up. There's usually a free Hun or 2 following you, just waiting for such an eventuality, due to them sending whole Jastas when the Entente was sending single flights. So..... All things considered, when flying Nupes and Pups I avoid saddling up on Albatri like the plague. I just take snapshots and try hard to get them at 90^ deflection into the top view of the Albatros, because that's where they're most vulnerable. My accuracy rating sucks but my kills/sortie ratio is close to 2.0. And I'm never a hanging target for the free Huns.

After they buy some for us, of course

I might have to get the bonus point for the description instead of the regular point for the identification...... #15 is the cockpit area of an Ansaldo SVA of some sort. I have to guess at the specific type due to insufficient data, but I'll say it's an SVA.3. They all had pretty much the same airframe, afterall. The .1 was the prototype, the .2 was a floatplane, and all later types had synchronized Vickers MGs. The MG on the upper wing is a Fiat-Revelli 6.5mm. It operated on the delayed-blowback system instead of the recoil system of the Maxim types or the gas of the Lewis. It was the standard Italian ground MG of WW1 and was, as shown here, also used in the air, due to the lack of anything better. It was fed via stacks of rounds similar to rifle strip clips instead of a big magazine or belt (50 rounds to start with, later increased to 100), and the whole mechanism was rather clumsy and prone to jamming, a feature of Italian automatic weapons even to this day. The Ansaldo SVA types were originally designed as fighters but were found to lack the maneuverability for that role, so were mostly used as single-seat recon and light bomber aircraft. They used the Warren truss system of wing struts, a feature maintained by Italian biplane fighers into WW2. You can see the inboard legs of the W interplane struts coming out of the side of the fuselage in this photo.

Wine is fine, beer's my dear, but liquor is quicker . So far, we've listed our favorites straight off the yeast, but what do you like after it's been run through a still? Include what you like to sip and savor along with what you mostly get hammered on. Whether you like whisky, whiskey, tequila, vodka, schnapps, brandy, gin, or absinthe, name your favorite poisons. Being a good Southerner, I was raised on the harsh taste of sour mash corn whiskey in my baby bottle, especially Jack Daniels. I've come to appreciate the smoother, sipping bourbons in my old age, especially the single cask stuff like 124-proof Bookers, which has enough alcohol burn to cover its lack of suphides. Because of this upbrining, when it comes to whisky, the further west the better--LOVE that peat! Of course, only single malt will do, no blends. Laphroaig and especially Lagavulin are my favorites, but I'll take anything made on Islay. I know next to nothing about tequilas, except that every 100% agave tequila I've tried has been WAY better than Cuervo or any other 51% agave horse piss. However, I do know enough to avoid blanchos and jovens. I go for reposadas and anejos. My current favorite is actually a tequila liquere called Agavero. (In case you don't know, you need a minimum of 51% agave to call yourself a tequila, so there are only the 2 extremes: 51% and 100%.) I haven't yet met an absinthe I didn't like. Some have been slightly better than others, but I'm a fool for licorice so they all taste good to me.

GREAT! Both Fawlty and Hellman are now OFFicially on board, so can start buying their drinks :drinks_drunk:

I hope the forum's down for maintenance tomorrow, because I have to work

If it's still available, I'll try for the 2nd point on #10. The Dolphin was Sopwith's 1st inline-engined fighter, using the same 200+hp Hisso as the SPAD XIII. It had back-staggered wings with the interesting feature of the pilot's head sticking up above the upper wing. This offered excellent forward and upward view, but at the risk of smashing the pilot's skull in a nose-over on landing. Note that there was no crash pylon to take the impact, as there was on the Roland. Squadrons in the field typically fitted these themselves in a field expedient manner. The most interesting thing about the Dolphin, however, was its factory armament of 4 MGs: the 2 Vickers through the prop and 2 Lewis guns firing up at an angle. This made it the 1st 4-gun fighter in service. However, in the field, many units removed the Lewis guns because they also tended to kill pilots in nose-over landings. However, 85 Squadron instead mounted the Lewis guns in the lower wing fixed firing ahead, making this truly a 4-gun fighter.

Wow! Lots of pretty SPADs

OK, I'll take the easy one :). Photo #3 is a Fokker Dr.I. Specifically, it's a replica of the one flown by MvR when he was shot down, serial number 425/17, but of course the red paint is a big clue there. The significant thing about this photo, however, is the lack of bracing wires between the wings. This was a feature of Fokker's designs, indicating the greater structural strength of the wings than was the norm at the time. They were the 1st steps toward cantilever wings of later days. However, the Dr.I had a history of wing failures anyway. Most of the early ones were caused by poor quality control at the factory, which let moisture get into the wing where it rotted the structure and dissolved the glue, and not to bad design of the structure. However, under high-speed conditions, the upper wing also generated more lift than its structure and its supports could stand, which caused a number of other accidents even after the quality control problems were ironed out. This caused the upper wing to fold up or break away entirely.

I forgot to mention rum. I like the old, dark type. The Old Black Rum from the Bahamas is probably my favorite, but it's hard to find so mostly I get Meyer's Dark Rum.

Everything in moderation, INCLUDING moderation

:drinks_drunk: Seems to be several FNGs already in this thread. Damn, we can all get TOASTED! TO THE BAR!!!

Sounds like fun, although I doubt I can recognize anything on the scale you're asking

For me, it's the vulnerability of it all. The machine itself is suspect in the best of times and flimsy under duress. There's no armor, no self-sealing fuel tanks, and nothing but a few matchsticks bearing your weight in high-G maneuvers. You have laughable firepower in absolute terms, but it's quite capable of wreaking havoc on contemporary targets. Plus, I like the lack of O2 and heat at high altitude, with only the sting of the rain and the rush of the wind keeping me half-way conscious.

Ohlam, my ONLY serious bomber career EVER is my current one with Schusta 6. I've tried a couple of missions in all the bombers, but I've found it extremely boring and/or frustrating (and quite nauseating in the Roland). Thus, I've quickly junked those pilots who have survived even a few missions and gone back to fighters. The Fee is a FIGHTER, dammit! I only fly it in fighter squadrons in Bloody friggin' April, and I go looking for trouble with MvR and his whole damn posse, plus any pretenders who dare cross my path. I've got the scars to prove it, but you should see the other guy . It is written, "The path of the Wicked must be the hardest, so that the Wicked may become the Hardest!" My motto is that of one of the Gothas bombing London: "Eisern und Irre!" Or, as Murat had enscribed on his saber, "La gloire et les femmes!" :yes: And gentlemen in England now abed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here And hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks Who fought with us upon St. Crispin's Day! -Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV, Scene III

Nobody seems to talk much about flying the Pup and I'd like to change that. So here's what I've got to get the ball rolling. Strengths No vices whatsoever Practically impossible to stall, doesn't spin unless forced, recovers from stalls very easily Very good forward-up visibility due to "tinted sun roof" in upper wing Can turn on a dime without losing that much altitude Excellent control authority even at very low speeds Weaknesses Can't take much damage Only 1 gun Slow Loses speed rapidly in zooms Low rate of climb Poor downwards visibility General Flying Characteristics For ease of use, it's hard to beat the Pup. It rolls nearly straight down the runway, with only a slight tendency to pull a little left. It comes off the ground by itself and keeps its wings level pretty much automatically. IOW, getting the thing trimmed out is very easy. The sustained climb, however, isn't very good. Right off the runway, the ROC is close to 1000fpm, but it quickly decreases with altitude, so that by about 5000 feet you'll be down to about 500fpm. From here on up, however, the ROC decreases much less rapidly, so you can eventually reach about 15-16000 feet if you have the patience and opportunity. But for the most part, the Pup's sustained ROC isn't much better than a Fee's; it just takes longer to completely disappear. OTOH, because the Pup can still fly and maneuver quite well at extremely low speeds, you can "climb the stairs" by doing a series of zooms separated by stretches of level flight. You can go up right to a stall and level off without losing much, if any, of the altitude you just gained, and can repeat it quickly because it doesn't take long to get back up to about 70 knots. The Pup can never quite make 100 knots on the level even at low altitude. As with ROC, level speed also decreases with altitude in pretty much the same manner. That is, from 90 knots or so near the ground, you're stuck with about 75 above about 5000 feet, but it doesn't decrease much below that the rest of the way up. In general, therefore, the Pup is unlikely to catch any undamaged enemy plane, not even a 2-seater, unless it can dive on it from a fairly high initial altitude advantage. Diving isn't the Pup's strong point. It's too light to accelerate quickly and too flimsy to survive much speed. You can hear the airframe starting to creak at about 110 knots. It also creaks if you do a hard turn at 100 knots or so. I take this as a warning and don't push the thing any harder than that, and haven't yet had a wing come off. However, I have damaged the plane from overstress that didn't result in total structural failure. IIRC, this happened pulling hard out of a steep dive at about 120 knots. This is why it's hard to catch anything even if you're diving toward it; you really can't achieve a very high speed. So, either dive with power on at a shallow angle, or dive steeply with the power off. The Pup's wings-level stall speed is somewhere down about 40 knots, perhaps even less. The accelerated stall speed in even a hard turn is also quite low, about 50 knots. It's therefore possible to wring the Pup out, rapidly changing directions with radical turns, without any real fears about stalling. You can also hang on your prop fairly well. I have never had an undamaged Pup go into a spin. All that happens in a stall, even while turning hard, is that the nose drops. Once that happens, you're immediately above stall speed and away you go again. Landing the Pup is about as easy as it gets. Just throttle back and float on it. Because the controls still retain most of their authority right down to stall speed, you can really make precision landings. Plus, the roll-out after touchdown is very short. This is quite handy when you have to force-land in tiny fields studded with obstructions. Combat I suppose in that 1916, the Pup would be quite formidable against Eindeckers and Halberstadts. I've never flown it then, however, only from Bloody April on. Thus, I only meet Albatros D.IIIs with a few D.IIs thrown in, both of which have the Pup outclassed in all areas except low-speed turning, and usually have numbers on their side, too. So all that follows assumes the enemy is the Albatros D.III, my most common foe. Due to the low rate of climb, enemies will start out above you nearly all the time. There's no point in trying to climb to them, because long before you can do that, they will either have swooped you or run away. Pup combat therefore almost always goes in 3 phases. First, you're totally on the defensive playing dodgeball with much faster enemies. Then, once the enemy bleeds down closer to co-E with you, you can start fighting on more or less even terms. Finally, if the enemy completely blows his energy, you can have your way with him. Due to the Pup's extremely good turning qualities, it's pretty easy to avoid getting hit in the 1st "dodgeball" phase. The Albatros, when fresh from a good dive, is well above its corner speed so the agile Pup can sidestep its charges quite easily. I usually go 5 or 6 sorties without taking a bullet from an enemy scout in this phase. However, when they do hit me, it's usually a fight-ending thing, because the Pup has a glass jaw when exposed to twin MGs. Either I'm shot down directly or so crippled I have to disengage (if over friendly territory) or have to fight on hopelessly to the bitter end (if over enemy territory--They'll never take me alive! ). In the 2nd phase, things are rather more challenging. By this point, the Albatros is at its corner speed so is turning at its best, which is pretty damn good. OTOH, if the Pup has any offensive desires at all, it has to be going fast enough to stay within or close to guns range, which puts it above its own corner speed where it can't turn at its best. As a result, turning in this phase is approximately even, although the Pup has a slight edge. This edge is enough to gain angles on the attack, but not enough to avoid a 2-gun broadside if you lose SA enough to get an Albatros on your 6, so do NOT get fixated on your target and check the booty frequently :yes: . Meanwhile, however, the Albatros is still somewhat faster than the Pup, and zooms better for a given speed anyway. Thus, the Albatros will still be doing wingover turns and low high yoyos which the Pup can't quite follow. When your target starts up, you have to know when to break off and follow below him more or less on the level, waiting for him to come back down to you. If you try to follow him up, you usually won't get a shot at him before you stall, you hang there as a perfect target for one of his buddies, and you slow down so much that he gains enough separate to reverse and thus take away most or all of the angles you've gained on him so far. All that said, however, this is when I get most of my kills. Most Bloody April Albatros pilots are smart enough not to blow their E any more than this before extending to catch their breath. I tend to get them with short bursts into the cockpit at 90^ deflection at VERY short range, about as close to colliding as you can get. Either that or I hit their radiator and slow them down a lot, after which I can mop them up with relative ease. The 3rd phase is thus more about bayonetting the wounded than it is true ACM. You've got Albatri who can't do more than about 60 knots due to damage. They can't zoom to speak of, they can't turn worth a damn, and they can't outrun the Pup. At this point, the Pup is close to its corner speed, turning at its best, and is capable of following the lamed Albatri through any zoom they try. If you've survived to this point, you can throttle back, saddle up, and dispatch them without fear of being shot in the back, unless you forget to tell your wingmen to quit shooting. The biggest challenges in combat, therefore, are hitting the target, and getting enough lead into him to bring him down. Despite, or perhaps because of, the Pup's admirable handling qualities, it does have 1 problem when it comes to hitting a target: it's VERY sensitive to rudder inputs. This means using rudder to bring the sights on isn't as useful as it is on other planes. Quite often, you'll overshoot your mark significantly. It's very easy to completely waste otherwise good firing opportunities sawing back and forth rapidly across the target without ever getting the sights to settle where you want them. Therefore, you should do all you can do get on target with aileron and elevator. However, the Pup's roll rate, while pretty good, isn't enough to make make quick, small corrections to aim, so you need to know how to get right on the 1st time. On top of this, the Pup only has 1 gun, and this single gun seems to have a very low ROF. This seems quite realistic, given the memoirs of Pup pilots complaining about this very thing. Short bursts usually number less than 10 bullets in total. Albatri are rather tough targets apart from their vulnerable radiators, so putting only a couple of bullets into them per burst usually isn't going to do much to them. You have to really drill them with long bursts, but as mentioned above, this is difficult to do unless you find yourself righ ton target without needing the rudder. As a result, I often find it easier to maim Albatri with high-deflection snapshots into their plan views than I do trying to saddle up on them when they can still fly well. If you can only fire a few bullets at a time, it's best to put them where they do the most good, and the top view exposes most of the vitals: engine, radiator, and cockpit. Besides, doing things this keeps you and your wingmen safer. You're not fixated on 1 target so can check your own 6 and keep an eye on your wingmen in case they get in trouble. You should expect wingman casualties, however. Quite frequently, 1 of your guys will hold still just a second too long, and that's all it takes from twin Spandaus. Conclusion The Pup is very forgiving and easy to fly. Fighting in it is challenging in some ways but easy in others, and overall quite fun. I recommend it.

When it was brand new, the Pup was the alpha dog. But the Albatros D.II is its match. Each is superior to the other in some areas and inferior in others, so at the bottom line it comes down to pilot skill. In equally competent hands, which only an MP deuling tourney (hint, hint) can provide, I strongly suspect the honors to be about even. It all comes down to who makes the mistake of trying to beat the other at his own game. If the D.II keeps its minimum vertical maneuvering speed, and the Pup keeps at its corner speed, then things are likely to be decided by lucky, crippliing hits in snapshots. But if the D.II tries to turn with the Pup, or the Pup tries to zoom with the D.II, then sic transit gloria. The D.III is the Pup's superior in every respect except low-speed turning. A good human in a Pup can beat an ace AI D.III pilot, but in MP I'd put my money on the D.III, at least in the final rounds of a tourney after the greedy and impatient had been eliminated. By April 1917, when the Pup is facing mostly D.IIIs, it's definitely the inferior ride.

Yup. The biplane tail was to give the observer a better field of fire while still providing the same control authority and stabilization of a conventional tail, or so the story goes. But in all actuality, the only thing the Hannover has better than the Fee is an ROC that lasts longer than 10,000 feet. Speed's about equal. The Hannover has a gun for the pilot but inferior roll rate, inferior turn rate, inferior acceleration, and inferior bomb load. OTOH, the Fee is a fighter, after all

I've never seen a dry county that wasn't dominated by devout Baptists, or was an Indian reservation. I personally like the fact that local jurisdictions get to make their own rules. The Feds have zero business telling the locals what they can and can't do on matters such as this.

I have a pilot in Schusta 6 at that time, and his life is pretty boring. He got shot down once by AAMGs on a bombing mission but was able to get home in 2 days. And that was the only bombing mission I've done so far (I'm like 6 missions into it now). All the rest have been recons and arty spots, where I've just run from the enemy most of the time. I tried to catch some Strutters once and got shot up for my trouble, and I tried to fight some Camels once but my escorts killed them before I could really get into the fight. I really wish there were dedicated bomber squadrons that did nothing else, leaving the boring recon and arty spotting missions to dedicated observation squadrons.

Heheh, there's way more than hope! I just spent 10 minutes stall-fighting a pack of D.VIIs on the deck at speeds between 50 and 80 knots. I found I could out-turn them easily without spins, but they had me on roll rate and being able to zoom much higher at these low speeds. When I'd get a D.VII in my sights, he'd go up like an elevator and I'd have to let him go. Conversely, when a D.VII got on me, I'd turn hard enough to hear the wings creak (SPAD wings creaking in a slow, hard TURN ) and get out of his way and onto his tail. It was like Pups vs. Albatros D.IIIs with both mainlining horse testosterone. So for 10 minutes, 13 planes swirled around just above the treetops, getting in a snapshot here and a snapshot there. I put a very few holes in several different D.VIIs and wasn't hit myself. Looking around when the opportunity arose, I saw lot of maneuvering and very little shooting. Nobody died or appeared hurt bad, and it appeared this might go on indefinitely. And then I collided with somebody . I hope it was one of them :yes: . WHEW!!!! I'm still dripping sweat from that .