Rick Rawlings

Thanks, Lou! Let's let the pilot list stabilize for a few days and I can get the survey set up and prizes listed so you don't have to do it too much!

Outstanding! I will either put up a prize page eventually or if I ever get to my 250 posts will go back and edit into the main post!

Yes sir! Pilot list: BuckeyeBob TROOPER117 Rick Rawlings Stache MFair HarryH Baldric Catch Louvert rjw

You definitely should! Lou, beautiful work as always! I know you are busy with DiD stuff, but would you be willing to throw in a custom paint job for the winner as you did in days of yore? Pilot list: BuckeyeBob TROOPER117 Rick Rawlings Stache MFair HarryH Baldric Catch Louvert

Indeed! I'm hoping we get some of those "double flights"! Pilot list: BuckeyeBob TROOPER117 Rick Rawlings Stache MFair HarryH Baldric

It's been that way for a long time. It just jumps on the hour, IIRC. It's weird how that makes it a little harder to note shoot down and engagement times!

Thanks, MFair! I haven't forgotten the album I owe you, or rather, I've forgotten and remembered it many times, but I do have it on the keyboard ready to mail, so probably only a few years more till I get my act together! R'oh r'oh! I hope not, for all our sakes! Welcome aboard! Pilot list: BuckeyeBob TROOPER117 Rick Rawlings Stache MFair HarryH

Pilot list: BuckeyeBob TROOPER117 Rick Rawlings Stache I'll get to those 250 posts in no time at this rate!

Heh, thanks! I'll tentatively add you guys in, although upon further inspection, it looks like I am a good hundred and twenty posts away from being able to edit the main post, so this should be...interesting... Pilot list: BuckeyeBob TROOPER117 Rick Rawlings

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

Maybe that's why I'm so bad at it...

Wait, I thought once you got TrackIR, you always look back?!?

Yes, as long as you don't check my trousers, that's exactly what I do...

Still testing things out with 40 Sqn. We were headed off for a line patrol when we ran into a flight of recon craft about halfway there. Usually this ends with us getting shot up quickly and landing, as per my last video. This time however, there were escorts that attacked. Seeing that the rest of the boys seemed to have the matter in hand. I pushed through to follow the recon craft but they were so far ahead that after crossing the lines I was about to give up on them when they suddenly turned and started to land. I attacked one and then tried to make my way home before over-staying my welcome. Just then, an errant flight of Albatros scouts that I had spotted heading away a while earlier decided to head back my way and dove down. On me. Alone. Also, watch the end-of-flight review for that cracker-jack observer/gunner, hitting me at nearly 1400 feet (!!!) out! Sign that guy up for the Olympics!

Yeah, if you are going from no head tracking to TrackIR, that is going to be huge. If you happen to have ARMA 3 kicking around, you should give that a spin with head tracking, it's another whole different experience!

Taking one for the team... Goggles are dropped down to 7 here.

Hey, gaw, glad to see you on board! The replay is a text replay of what hapoend, not a 3d one. It is available at least in the campaign screen, not sure about single missions...

It could just be my rustyness, too! The vibrations of the plane elements really make a big difference as you are subconsciously seeing them as you scan the skies for planes. As primarily a Nieuport driver, the Lewis gun reload is huge! I've waited for years for that. It's almost worth the price of admission for that alone for me. Tracers overall are better and more visible. Now if they can just get those darned dx11 effects in things will really open up. I may drop the visuals on the goggles down a bit as the world is too pretty to constantly view it through all that grime. Plane selection is a nice feature and the map is much improved, no longer just a blurry mess!

Here's a flight with some campaign stuff. Please excuse my out-of-practice fumbling for un-remembered keystroke combinations. Also, my joystick trigger was broken so I was trying to muscle-memory the spacebar on the fly. Those are pretty much my only excuses... Also, Louvert is a moderator over here?!? *bes on best behavior, bes on best behavior*

Mine was quick as well, but I started quite bit while after redwolf. redwolf, did you get it yet?

Yikes! DH5! Always thought about running a challenge in one of those, then someone would whack me in the head with a 2x4 to clear up my thinking. Looks great, though!

Yes! Watch out for the six hundred and twenty other MFairs hiding above you in the clouds out there!

Understood, but I think a fair amount would be cut and paste-able. The main points in the skinning thread for example were merged by me into one post and could be pulled over fairly quickly. A lot of older video links over there don't work since they updated the forums anyway, so it's just as easy to update the links there as here. Wait! Strike that: reverse it! I am a bit unclear about how the image posting works, you have a limited amount of space before you need to host off-site? Here's an old one of mine...man, it's been a while!

It would probably be worth it just to not be over there...A lot of it can probably be reconstituted fairly quickly...