Jimko

Hi Pol...roger that as in my last post. I'll check out the TAC carefully. The compass in the cockpit works well and is not a problem; I'm used to them from the past CFS2 life. Re F5 though...I've discovered that it doesn't work in OFF P3 although it does work in CFS3. I've tested it both ways and under different conditions. Not a big deal, but...?? I reloaded OFF yesterday due to some sound corruption, but the sound stutter still happens and F5 still doesn't work. I'm still mulling over the sound issue and the occasional freeze-up or crash and reboot.

Thanks for the comments...good stuff! You just got your post in ahead of my last one, so you've cleared up a couple of things for me. I better go and take a better look at the TAC, since I don't think that I've seen the blue line or the waypoints on it. I guess I'm not familiar with CFS3 and that could be part of the problem, as it is different. I better go and have a good look at CFS3 instructions as well. I thought I saw a post once where someone talked about dragging...it sounded like he was rearranging members of his flight, perhaps. I just read it quickly while I was hunting for something else. But, not a problem as I was just curious about it and I used it as an example of new things I haven't yet discovered in this sim... Thanks again, Bullethead!

Nah...it's not a big deal, believe me. But, I tried a mission to find out that no compass bearings are given...unlike CFS2 which I was used to. I then discovered that apparently you have to pull up the map to see where you are heading and from that you can get a compass reading...I guess! Before I found the target (railway yard), archie blew my controls to pieces and that was the end of that. I can see that finding ground targets is going to be a tricky endeavor! After this, I started to wonder what other tools, practices and procedures I'm unaware of in flying campaigns, that's all. Are we supposed to rely on a lot of ground object identification for bearings as they did in WW1? If so, it begs the question...is the modeling of terrain, buildings and other objects exact enough for that in this sim? Perhaps it is So, I will muddle on since perhaps I've discovered all there is...to discover!

Just got back home from a few days away and installed the 1.26 patch and hotpatch. After flying some QC and not much else, I LOVE it! Great changes to FM and DM as far as I can tell. Better AI behaviour in maintaining altitude during a fight. Although a relative newcomer to OFF, I did fly a lot in CFS 2 so I hope that I've still got some sense of FM behaviour. The Camel, which admittedly is my favourite, now has the kind of FM characteristics that I think is as close to realistic as is practical in a sim. Just for interest sake, following is an excerpt from my own earlier post in the 'old' forum about the flight characteristics of the Camel. Well done OFF dev team! ...and many thanks! Quoting myself: Victor Yeates, the author of "Winged Victory" gave some good impressions of what flying the Camel was like. It is generally accepted that although his book is fiction, not only did he choose to write a fictionalized account of WW1 flying experience rather than a biography but he also drew heavily upon his personal experiences as a Camel pilot. So I take what he has said about flying it to be a valid, honest description. Many of us have read his book, but I'll quote a few of his comments here about flying the Camel: Re training: "Camels were wonderful fliers when you had got used to them, which took about three months of hard flying. At the end of that time you were either dead, a nervous wreck, or the hell of a pilot and a terror to Huns…" Re turns: "And in the more legitimate matter of vertical turns, nothing in the skies could follow in so tight a circle..." Re the half-roll (Split S): "The same with the half-roll. Nothing would half-roll like a Camel. A twitch of the stick and flick of the rudder and you were on your back. The nose dropped at once and you pulled out having made a complete reversal of direction in the least possible time. Thomson, the squadron stunt expert told him that it (half-roll) was just the first half of a roll followed by the second half of a loop; the only stunt useful in fighting. If you were going the wrong way, it was the quickest known method of returning in your slipstream." Re the loop (he didn't like looping a Camel) "But a Camel had to be flown carefully round with exactly the right amount of left rudder, or else it would rear and buck and hang upside down and flop and spin." Re general flight: "…a Camel had to be held in flying position all the time, and was out of it in a flash. It was nose light, having a rotary engine weighing next to nothing per horse power, and was rigged tail heavy so that you had to be holding her down all the time. Take your hand off the stick and it would rear right up with a terrific jerk and stand on its tail." Re ground strafing (which he hated due to ground anti-ac machine gun fire): "Unfortunately, they were good machines for ground-strafing. They could dive straight down on anything, and when a few feet off the ground, go straight up again." Re speed: "…a Camel was a wonderful machine in a scrap. If only it had been fifty per cent faster! There was the rub. A Camel could neither catch anything except by surprise, nor hurry away from an awkward situation, and seldom had the option of accepting or declining combat…You couldn't have everything."

Thank you, Commander! And, thanks for the forum!

You're welcome...my pleasure! Sorry I didn't take the time to paint out the words "spot view".

Dawn Patrol

Test failed

I finally found you bunch! I left this morning with the dawn patrol and when I got back, everyone had gone... Was it something I said? What is the "Warn: (0%) under my avatar and info? Maybe it WAS something I said!