Rick Rawlings

Man, that guy was not checking his six!

Hmm. It's a very specific maneuver that will rarely get you out of trouble. In the early war planes it's hard to do cleanly, you are very vulnerable at the top and the enemy will rarely cooperate by being where you want them to be when you are done. I also try pretty hard to be following the enemy rather than the other way round whenever possible, so if they are not doing one, I am not doing one. It just seems that Immelmans, wing-overs, yoyos, split-ses and Chandelles will get you most of what you would be trying to do with a loop, without doing a loop!

2nd Lt. John Rockitt 94th Aero Sqn. April, 1918 Went up on a behind-our-own lines patrol today as there are a few of us new pilots that need to get used to the area. It was supposed to be a safe flight, but we were attacked by Pfalz scouts which were a few thousand feet above us. We had to climb and the fight took on a strange dynamic as a few came down to us at a time: I put many rounds into one, but he was awarded to the other guy that collided with him. Since they both fell to their deaths, I didn't feel too bad about this. But then our guy recovered and I began to think that maybe I should get some credit? I mean, I managed to not collide with the enemy! Shouldn't that count more? Anyway, the other new pilot, Little, was also killed. He did not get better...

...and they have been kind of hard to come by lately. I have pretty much committed to getting one eventually, just have to give up on the whole fly with the left hand, click cockpit buttons with the mouse in the right hand good thing I have going... (Falcon BMS clicking buttons, not WOFF, of course!)(I also acknowledge that many of those clickable buttons could be sent to the throttle quadrant thus ameliorating the problem to a large degree...)

Nicely done! Was that observer still shooting at you as his plane spiralled down with no wing? What a beast! Here we are back to Rother Nought, RNAS No. 3, August 1916: After having been given one of the N11s replace his old 10, Rother makes ace against a pack of Einies! Oddly enough, Amazon delivered a nice shiny package of Sopwith Pups to the front door of the squadron the other day, but no one seems interested in using them yet...some assembly required, I suppose!

It has a short throw (travel distance). Works great for what you are looking for, I did struggle a bit with really fine-tuning my speed in Falcon BMS for refueling, but works fine for everything else. My buddy has the throttle quadrant and I have no problem rolling with him. I used it for all twelve of my challenge missions in the SE5a and never felt like I needed something more. It handled subtle changes fine. I will probably get the throttle quadrant eventually, but as a lefty, I have been slow to adopt... Overall, I found the spring tension to be much better than the old AV8R Saitek stick I had before. Don't forget to disable the rudder twist in WOFFkeys though or you may be in for an unpleasant surprise!

Yikes! I thought the DVII was supposed to be tough! Good job on the latest 2-fer, btw!

Nice work, CastelEtzwane! Especially finishing off your man with those tracers going right by your head! Other than a couple of quick missions, I haven't really flown the DVII, looks like fun!

Here is Lewis talking about the...well...Lewis gun (no relation) towards the end of the video...

jerhear: very nice! I started an American career and made it about 3 missions before a two-seater murdered me in about 4 seconds... CastelEtzwane: That was a great video, very exciting! Not so great for that SPAD, though! *edit, jamming guns is still a thing, though!

Well...this thread took off! Back in the game now that the rudder pedals are fixed: So back into it with a little Karl Spieler: Being alone and low over the lines, I decided not to give pursuit. If you watch at high resolution in the 4:00-4:00 area, you can see the puffs of exhaust as he blips on the way down, very cool!

As an aside to kill time until I get my rudder pedals back up, back in the day, this was the bomb!I Fly the full war from both sides. Paint your plane one of four exciting colors! We didn't need no HOTAS setup, we had the arrow keys! How do you know with those graphics how close to the ground you are? Well, if you see black dots everywhere, you are pretty close! Flying the Camel almost upside-down in a left-handed turn? That's just what you had to do when using the keyboard for a rudder! And Zeppelins! Zeppelins!!! Truly amazing and really nothing could fully replace it until WOFF came along!

what?...WHAT?!?

Good point, but I feel like I was hearing them earlier in the patch history?

Good question. I have also noticed, while we are noticing things, that I sometimes seem to get shot at by my own troops and Archie, or at least I seem to be leaning way on my side of the lines when being shot at. Sometimes...

...yes, although I keep forgetting about it...

Heh, yeah! I'm on hiatus as I wait for a part to fix the toe break on my rudder pedals, so they are all pulled apart. I was hoping someone would jump on my campaigns/missions thread but...not...yet...

Alright, Ladies (???) and Gentlemen, After consulting the data, it has come to my attention that I must hereby certify that: Baldric is the winner! In a surprisingly lethal affair, 2nd Lt. Archibald Turner managed to win by one point! In fact, the upper echelons of the scoring bracket were very close, as you can see above, with the top three finishers being separated by only four points! Interestingly, 22 missions is apparently not enough for anyone to be promoted under the new version, so that may have to be changed going forward for any other challenges. I would also like to say that aside from eating it (yet again), I was thrilled at the turnout and quality of reporting as we celebrate the newest version of this storied flight simulator! So let's hear it for Baldric! I will be contacting you through pm about your prize and I will leave it to you and Louvert to discuss your custom paint job. " And for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper Archibald Turner became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen." Thank you to all participants, I hope you had as much fun as I did and see you in the skies! (Or stuck in a tree as the case may be!) RR

Nice, jerhear! I actually just started my first American career in a couple of actual years! Unfortunately, the video is going to go in a different thread as you will see when I get a chance to post it...

Excellent work, HarryH! Alright, everyone: please fill out the Challenge Form one more time and I will look at it tomorrow evening to determine the final scores. Remember, you must be present to win, all sales are final, no purchase necessary, enter as often as you like!

1. Yes, but only because two of them has the courtesy to collide with each other! 2. Yes! There is a thread like this on the other board, I thought it would be nice to start one here, so please like and support this thread!

Thought this was going to be one of the shortest careers ever! Rother Nought C Sqn 1 Wing RNAS B flight July 07, 1916 Sent up alone (!!!) to guide the two strutters, who immediately left me behind. I spotted a flight of four unknows out over the lines so I swung back around to observe them from relative safety. That was when four huns that had been patrolling up north on our side of the lines decided to dive down and attack me: As I was headed home after the fight with no ammo left, you can see the two strutters come over at the end there; "Oh sorry, did you need any help?"

That is a lot to expect from the dead!