Rick Rawlings

They made him touch it up himself!

Karl Spieler Jasta 2 January, 1917 Near Pronville Inclement weather, mechanical failures and skittish enemies have kept us from seeing much action over the last few weeks. It has given me a good chance to fully recover from my last injury and I feel nearly as good as new, although my aversion to bullets in my body has probable grown by some small measure. Yesterday we went up to escort some Rolands over the lines (as if they needed it!) and, as luck would have it, we ran into a small flight of enemy recon craft headed the other day. I was able to follow one down to his crash at the lines and then we proceeded to a rather uneventful mission after that.

Yeah, I have had that for a few days here and there but nothing sustained...

John Rockitt 94th Aero September 1918 Somewhere in France... I am not even sure where we are stationed. I just got back from the hospital again. We tangled with a flight of Fokkers and everything was going fine until I stumbled into the unexpected edge of a cloud. Soon, I had no idea where I was going, but the huns stayed right with me and clipped me as I came out. But I'm back now, and need to have a bite before I figure out where l am...

That's going to leave a mark...

Are you getting text before the mission where it's like "You can take your plane up around the field for testing and blah blah blah" ?

Possibly some, but the detection radius appears to be quite large and many groups are on patrol and will sweep across your flight sooner or later. I often do the same thing you are describing and I have plenty of engagements. I might have my encounters set to high, though...

It's just you...

Not that it helps much, but I didn't do anything special either to get my 16000 running. One thing I have noticed is that sometimes it flips my rudder pedals to control my ailerons and elevators. I haven't quite locked it down, but this seems to be when I have flown MSFS 2020 in the same session. Restarting the computer seems to clear up the confusion and return the world to normal...

John Rockitt 94th Aero August 1918 Near Paris Things continue to be rough, even after transferring to SPADS. We lost four pilots the other day, against two Huns shot down, one of which was mine. We headed up to the front and ended up flying over a large group of Fokkers, and since we were a large group, I thought we would dive and attack. So I started to position myself, only to see no one else make a move. Surprised, I watched as they moved off to attack one lone DVII that had broken off from the main group. While that was wise on their part, I decided against diving into that mess and continued to watch the main group of Germans heading south. Soon I had lost track of everyone but did manage to attract the attention of another group of Fokkers coming in from the north. As one broke off to chase me, I lured him south and then turned to attack:

John Rockitt 94th Aero July 1918 Near Paris We finally switched over completely to SPADs, after us 2nd Leiutenants have been huffing and puffing to keep up with the others in our N28s for the last couple of weeks! I swear this war is trying to kill us!

Karl Spieler Jasta 2 December, 1916 Near Pronville I have been transferred to Jasta 2. The situation was becoming untenable. The anti-aircraft major who didn't like our Rittmeister running around with his girl was friends with a general which brought scrutiny to the whole situation which sent me as the recipient out-of-turn of a Halberstadt DIII off to a new squadron. I made out ok, however, as I am now flying the new Albatros scout. I was shot up pretty bad the other day when I left the Nieuport I was attacking to clear the tail of von Muller from another Nupe. That left the other two to attack me, but I made it out with just a wing shot up...

John Rockitt 94th Aero June 1918 Near Paris They moved the squadron to th northwest, which made it a lot less likely that we would get bombed, but also made the flights to the front much more tiring. We have also been encountering the new Fokker scouts, triplanes and biplanes and getting rekt by them! (which is a word I predict will catch on sometime in the near future) We have lost so many pilots, their names blur in my mind. I fear I must follow soon!

Hang in there! He doesn't know it but the war's winding down!

I know, right! It's the best part!

Karl Spieler Jasta 5 November, 1916 Near Cambrai It's taken me nearly a month to recover from the machine gun wounds that brought me down in my last mission. The men in the squadron have been great to me, even if there is a bit of resentment about me getting the DIII. Today I got to repay their kindness and trust with a mission over the lines, taking the fight to the very heart of the enemy, during which I was able to shoot down a SPAD and a Nieuport within close view of their very aerodrome!

John Rockitt 94th Aero June 1918 Near Toul We were bombed today as payback for our aerodrome attack. We had a few minutes warning and were able to get up and start our climb to attack. I got to the flight first and tried to take on the lowest one, but he was tough! The good news is, I stalled them long enough for the rest of the flight to arrive and they shot my guy down. Plus, I returned with no holes in me which was nice!

Karl Spieler Jasta 5 November, 1916 Near Cambrai I have to say that I do enjoy the new DIII Halberstadt bus I have been given. The offset exhaust makes it much easier to see where your rounds are goi...OUCH!!!

I was unaware of that! I'm relieved to hear it as I was a little worried in the present environment...

Welcome to the Wings Over Flanders Fields 2021 Edition Final, Final Challenge! The assistance and camaraderie that you get from something like this or the other challenges and persistent careers offered will help increase your enjoyment of the sim and make you a better pilot as well. We've Actually done this before... a lot... Eindecker Challenge Yes, this was a thing... Revenge of Der Flieger Bloody April SPAD Challenge Circus Challenge Where we all learned to skin... Brisfit Challenge Final Challenge *cough* Anniversary Challenge Albatros Dos Sopwith Challenge Lafayette Escadrille Challenge For this challenge, you will be flying for Britain in 40sqn. with the SE5a! (What can I say, I like to reload my Lewis gun!) In order to participate in this challenge you must: 1. Declare your interest and intent in this thread on or before Wednesday, May 26, 2021. 2. Create a pilot using the manual squad creation option with a start date of Nov. 11, 1917, flying for Britain in 40 squadron as a 2nd Lieutenant. (We must preserve some dignity…) 3. Commit to flying 3-7 missions per week with this pilot, but no more than one per campaign day. 4. Report at least every weekend in this topic thread with his current successes or failures. 5. Faithfully communicate to your brethren the falling of your avatar when and if such event actually transpires. 6. Having a nice custom paint job is always a plus! Please enter your pilot at this link: Final, Final Challenge Form Please update this survey after every few missions, or at least once a week! This is kind of a "Who's Line Is It Anyway" sort of affair where we try to have fun with good people. Reporting can be by any of the following methods: -Text is good -Pictures are better -Videos are what this sim is made for! This is single elimination, so one death and you are out. Keep in mind that even if you are not playing "dead is dead" in the workshop, at the end of each mission it will still tell you that "Sadly, your pilot has died" if his injuries were fatal so you don't need to switch your settings for this. If you land behind enemy lines with less than DID workshop settings, use these guidelines: in or on the edge of No Man’s Land, you escape. Within 5 miles of the front, 50-50 (flip a coin). More than 5 miles behind the lines, you are captured, war over! When you set up your pilot, click on "Manual Squad Deployment" in the lower right hand corner of the enlistment page. Set up the following screen so it looks like this: Scoring (I’ll handle this but here’s what’s going on under the hood): Missions: +2 point each Time survived: +2 points each week Confirmed kill: +3 points each Becoming an ace: +5 points (only once) Promotion: +5 points each promotion Medals: +3 points each Survive to end of Challenge: +10 points Wounding: -8 points each occurrence This challenge will have a have a hard end date of Sunday, June 20. That gives us three weeks and a day. You can have a maximum of 22 missions total (One for Sunday!) Then we can tally the points and declare a winner. You are certainly free to continue to fly your pilot after that if still alive, but for point determination, we need a cut-off date. The Fine Print: (Rules) You may use whatever aids you are used to using. Wind should be set to “On”. Please set your weather to “Historical Weather.” Flight model should be realistic and you should have weapons jams and limited ammo and all that jazz... One other point: I think we can all agree that balloons are too easy to take down as it stands, so on your Gentleman’s Honour, you may only claim a balloon if you are on a balloon busting mission and only the one that is the mission target. Feel free to lead your flights if you want! Please set kill claims to “Easy”. That way you still have to enter something but folks will be less reliant on luck for credit where credit is due! The point is to have fun and we had outstanding support and sportsmanship from all fliers last time and we would love to see some new faces! As far as time advancement, please follow these guidelines: Allow time to advance as normal except fly no more than one mission per campaign day (time advance manually as necessary) For every month of campaign time, you can advance two days on the calendar. (48hr pass to visit mum) For every promotion, advance five campaign days. For every five kills, advance 3 campaign days. For becoming an ace, advance 3 campaign days (cumulative with 5 kills above) *After each mission, please advance forward 2 days. (so you would fly on the third day) This will allow for moving forward in time a little bit further and spread out our collective awesomeness to a more believable level. These missed days will represent non-contact patrols, milk runs to pick up new planes, washouts, etc. Follow all other time advancements as above. Don't get super hung up on the time advancement, the main thing is that we want to cover a little ground in the war and space out the kill claims to something a little more in line with reality. At the end of the challenge, I will tabulate the winning pilot overall and declare him king of all things WOFF! For prizes, Louvert has generously offered up a free custom paintjob to the winner, which has always been a big hit in the past as his skills are considerable. I have decided to award either this very mug: or one of it's brethren, for nothing says a WOFF challenge quite like a fresh beverage contained in a vessel emblazoned with a subtle reminder that yes, you are better than everyone else! Remember though, your first job is to stay alive! You can’t win if you are dead! I have, in fact, died in most of my own challenges! Here's a link to Skinning Tutorial if you need it! Official challenge start time is Saturday, May 29th, whenever that starts local to you, grab some QC time in your birds and we’ll be (W)OFF! I will update this area with pilots and scores as the challenge progresses, so you can always check here for the latest info List of Pilots: BuckeyeBob TROOPER117 Rick Rawlings Stache MFair HarryH Baldric Catch Louvert rjw lofty_c carrick58 trustworthykebab mandrews_2 CastelEtzwane Strikethrough indicates a pilot's demise, d.n.p. = did not participate, number to the right of the pilot is the final score

I'm not sure how the claims rules work for AI? That's an interesting point. I couldn't do what you are doing as I only fly every third day or so, and wingman fall on the mission I am not "on"... John Rockitt 94th Aero June 1918 Near Toul There is a big old Dragon that sits directly to the north of our aerodrome, watching every move we make. No one dares take it down because it is a fire-breathing Dragon! But three of us had an idea: two would come around high and noisy to the north drawing the attention of the Dragon and it's fire-breath, while I would swoop in on idle power from the south and swat it down! And that's exactly what happened! Except that with these dumb Nieuports, even a gentle swoop down results in wings half torn off!

Karl Spieler Jasta 5 October, 1916 Near Cambrai I fired on two enemy recon craft the other day as we dove on their formation. Both were seen to go down, one in flames, but my claims were not confirmed... It seems our Rittmeister was caught out with the Anti-aircraft major's girlfriend, so to smooth things over, the kills were credited to ground fire from that unit. To make it up to me, the Rittmeister said he would let me fly one of the newer DIII Halberstadts from now on...

Um, so does anyone know Baldric? He won the challenge and then kind of vanished off the face of the Earth?

I know, right? At least one for sure went down. Mission details said the other one crashed out of sight, which was comforting even if I didn't claim it...

John Rockitt 94th Aero May, 1918 Near Toul Well, it seems I was a bit premature in my concerns about being shot down by Richthofen. I heard he was killed while I was a prisoner, being himself shot down by a man named Brown, flying a Sop-with Camel. I told the Major that they could give me a Sop-without Camel if it would get me out of my Nieuport...he failed to see the humor of it... Anyway, I must be getting better as I brought down a Pfalz the other day, and sent another one running. Maybe some of those German pilots have it worse than me. And the Sopwith Strutters I landed next to yesterday? They didn't want to hear any of my complaints about the ol' N28...