Bigfish2

Hi RAF Louvert, that's just wonderful, thankyou. I've read accounts of how difficult night flying was, and I love the way you've got 0 idea (no cheating with radar!) where the bombers are until... the searchlights come on! Isn't London beautiful by the light of the silvery moon, and I bet the stars are in the right places too! Loved the Paris mission, loved the London one. Where are you taking us to save the world next?

Louvert modestly fails to mention that if you d/l his mission and Zeps (from the "3rd party..." section) you can have a bash at them yourself; nor does he mention that on the way up hordes of Albatri have a go at upsetting things. Terrific fun.

Loved it! Especially that very cute intro through the newspaper. When is Hollywood expected to discover you?

PS Did I say "sunrise"?! Must have been all that excitement...

Well I had such fun with this, thanks a million Louvert! This is the first time I've installed an "add-on" "aircraft" (the Zeppelins) and a mission - I googled "Add CFS3 plane" but er, its not hard is it?! There's a real wow factor seeing the sunrise over the Eiffel tower, the two giant Zepps way up there, fighting off attacks on the way up from Albatri, and then when I finally got to altitude I'd forgotten how to fire the rockets, wasted half of them, had to machine gun the second Zepp and man it went down slow and burning, just awesome! I really appreciated your skill and effort in making this for us. Just one thought, might it be worthwhile putting a sticky in explaining how to do aircraft and mission instals? (by some expert not a newbie like me).

I couldn't imagine flying OFF without rudder pedals, anymore than doing without TIR. I use my ancient Thrustmaster Elite pedals together with TM Cougar stick and throttle. You can tune the sensitivity of the pedals so that relatively small pedal movements translate to large rudder deflections, if you want; very useful for flying the Camel in tightly banked turns, when rudder acts as "elevator" - as long as you don't overcook it. Way I see it, if it was any good all real planes would have twisty grip rudder control by now! So if you can, I'd do it.

I think it's absolutely OK, and when it gets hard I just try to get better at it. I also agree with Creaghorn over the AI's super-human ability to spot enemy aircraft, and if it were possible to tune their abilities to be more like human pilots that would be nice, but it's not a show-stopper for me. I just love this sim, thanks for your continuing support.

Well what can I say except what other flight sim can boast a forum with a 3 PAGE discussion on carp fishing?! And even extend my angling knowledge, since never in my wildest and scariest dreams did I imagine a 10 foot alligator gar!! Widowmaker, the most northerly carp angler I ever knew was the lugubrious JJ Pooler, who I recall fished a lake in Bury with possibly one carp in it; most days apparently you couldn't see the opposite bank for the factory smoke. So you get major points just for being a carp angler as far north as you are! BTW the fish in my little picture was caught this year in February, and I've lost count of how many winter days and nights I've been carp fishing now; the weather now is practically tropical. Now I can link this up with OFF (in case anyone suggests we might be slightly OT here!); I had a thought that I could take off on a "free flight" in my Camel from Sutton Farm England (appears to be nearest to London) and check out some of those famous carp lakes near Heathrow like Savay; as I followed the Thames over London with the sun rising behind me, I suddenly realised that they haven't been dug yet!! Lovely views though, and what beautiful work from our development team!

There's no doubt I was unfair to all our friends in the US regarding their attitude to carp, and Rickitycrate's post proves this. A few years ago when I had to work for a living I spent a week in the wonderful city of Boston, first morning I was running by the river at dawn and met an old guy fishing for carp who spoke no English at all, but we nevertheless spent a pleasant hour together, bonded by fishing. OFF has same effect; isn't it marvellous that we can all get together - virtually - from all over the world bonded by our common interest, without a cross word? BTW do we have to stop talking fishing and get back to flying soon?

I got confused between my 'avatar' and my 'personal picture' so maybe this is better. Apologies to our cousins across the pond who I believe spread them on the fields for fertiliser.. Just as well I retired since life is otherwise too short for carp fishing and OFF!

Unbelievable - I thought I was the only one! 'The love that dare not speak its name'. Would have read this sooner, but I've been away carp fishing. UK_Widowmaker, hope that finger is fit for keyboard action again soon!

Recently noticed: the Palmer Cord tyres on my Camel have "Palmer Cord" written on them in tiny letters; my rotary engine ... rotates; my bungy-powered half-axle suspension goes wibble-wobble; occasionally I see a minute flash far away as an EA's wings catch the sunlight, just like in the books. What craftsmanship from the chaps who built all this for us! What is "reality" anyway?

Outstanding! Thank you.

My contribution to winning the war in my trusty Camel has ground to a halt. After 5 (or maybe more) years of replugging my TM Cougar gear in order to overcome the dreaded "Device detection error", that doesn't bring it back to life anymore and my Cougar remains undetected. I've re-installed the HOTAS Cougar software (HCO_2004.exe) on my PC, and installed it separately on wife's laptop, all the Human Interface Device stuff appears in "Control Panel/device manager" and Windows says my hardware is working correctly, but still the stick is undetected. As a last resort I have emailed The Master ie James "Nutty" Hallows, and await a reply. My worst fear is that the circuit board has failed, and I have no idea (but fear the worst) about replacement parts. Have any of you guys using Cougars met with this problem and solved it? Or do I have to send my Hall-sensored and U2nxt-modded thing of beauty to the landfill?

In case this is of use to anyone similarly afflicted, since my Cougar went on sick leave a couple of weeks ago, and almccoyjr pointed out that "not all USB hubs are the same", as a temporary fix I shoved all my other USB devices (ie Track IR and mouse) into the front panel USB sockets and plugged only the Cougar, and nothing else, into one of the four back panel sockets leaving the rest empty. Front and back are connected to separate headers on the mobo. This seems (touch wood) to have fixed it without having to fork out for a powered USB hub. Incidentally (or possibly coincidentally, hard to know) this also seems to have fixed an intermittent issue in quick combat when there'd be no sound and limited control, suggesting some form of sound card conflict. If the problem recurs I'll have to lay out 14 quid on a powered hub. So thanks again chaps for your support and inspiration.

Congratulations, you will wonder how you ever flew without it once you've got it set up and working. Good guy called SeaVee in the Battle of Britain 2 forums posted a tutorial on using TIR which helped me a great deal - it's a bit Bob2 specific but you may find it worth a look, and you could do worse than download SeaVee's TIR profile as a starting point, as it's optimised for looking desperately over your shoulder as well as for shooting. It's here

Fortiesboy, I'll check that out, many thanks. How many happy hours have I spent reading that unsung work of literary genius, the Foxy Manual.

Hi Fortiesboy, yes I live in Nottingham England. In fact the last flight sim gathering I attended was in Birmingham at the motorcycle museum - before it burned down - when it was my great privilege to meet up with James "The Master" Hallows, who I'd been emailing for some time, and acquire my Cougar, with his Hall sensor mod. I recall Oleg was there and at that time IL2 was of course the best thing since sliced bread. That has got to be over 5 years ago (time flies, maybe more), so I guess its about time I attended another! How would I find out? Btw I suspect FreeFalcon5 is probably awesome. One day I hope to be able to afford to print the manual out! In a former life when I was a university administrator I used to have it downloaded to my PDA so at least I could read something improving in meetings!

Regarding "rudder pedals or not", I would urge you to give them another go. The magnificent FM for the Camel (and probably others nut have 0 experience of them yet) means you can really exploit massive amounts of rudder deflection, just like the first-hand accounts say. I've had to re-vaseline the pedal bearings its getting such a hammering! I use a Cougar set-up, modded over the years with Hall sensors and replacement u2nxt gimbals. It's cost me a small fortune, weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth over the years. Not sure I could/dare recommend it without a prospective buyer being prepared for counselling beforehand. However when recently I thought it had finally broke irretrievably I realised how much I loved it, and I was so relieved when almccoyjr rode to the rescue with advice on how to fix it. It's fixed (see "My Cougar is unwell" in "General Help"). But Fortiesboy just replied on that post, to tell us about his ultimate Cougar conversion which has replaced the F16-type stick with a proper spade-handle centre-stick job. Drool.

Hi Fortiesboy, thanks for that very interesting post. I have for some time (ie about the time Falcon 4.0 became so faithfully accurate that 5 years of full-time pilot training was also necessary, but I still d/l FreeFalcon 5 and one day...) thought that actually an F16 replica side-stick isn't exactly ideal for flying Spits (Bob2) and now Camels. In fact now I've started flying campaign missions I find that my arm aches something terrible holding the sidestick for an hour or so, and I was contemplating just moving it into the middle on a sort of pedestal. However the best solution would obviously be to rip out all the buttons, and bung the Hall sensors down the pivot points of a proper length centre stick, which is I guess what you've done, and I congratulate you. I'm going to look into your link when I have a moment - btw I retired 2 years ago at the age of 55 but I just don't seem to have enough spare time now I don't have work distracting me! I notice there's another thread running in"General Discussion" on "Joystick recommendations", and so far no-one seems to have recommended a Cougar. Not sure I could in all honesty, given the time and cash I've spent on it over the years, and its magnificent idiosyncracies (and why does the blessed thing lose its flash every so often, never mind its USB connection!?!). But how could I go back to a stick which you can't program to do anything you like? Some opinion in this thread seems to be against even using rudder pedals, which makes me wonder why Mr Sopwith hadn't the imagination to fit a twist grip to the Camel! One of the many nice things about OFF is that the FM seems very faithful to the literature in warranting hefty dollops of rudder, especially in the Camel, so at last my trusty old TM Elite pedals are getting a workout.

Many thanks for that info, I'll certainly instal one. No, not the same gimbals!! I originally acquired the Cougar from James "Nutty" Hallows himself (aka The Master) who had already fitted Hall sensors to the stick. 5 years ago might be an underestimate - I got it just about as soon as they became available in the UK. I fitted a Hall sensor to the throttle a couple of years later (Cubby's kit) and then the U2nxt conversion a couple of years ago. I only realised how much I loved it when I thought it had died permanently! I notice Cubby is now doing a Hall kit for the pedals; so far my TM Elites seem to work fine although OFF is the first sim where they actually get a thrashing, so may be worth thinking about. BTW I discovered a use for the exotic HOLDTRIM function in OFF - you can use it to trim out the tail-heavy Camel; I realise the Camel didn't have a trim control, so I rationalise it by supposing it simulates the mechanic shoving a few house-bricks up the front end.. The Cougar programmability is also extremely useful for mucking about with the stick sensitivity and response curve, and I've mapped "TIR recentre" to a throttle button so that just before letting rip with the gun I can take out any mis-aiming due to inadvertent head movement. Since I got my optician to make me a special pair of "OFF specs" I can now see "sideways" ie Red Baron on my six is no longer a blur! I guess they don't have any of this fun with an X-box!

Thanks almccoyjr, that's really useful - I'll try your suggestion of a powered USB hub. Can I ask what model you use, or are they all the same?

Well this is kind of embarassing; 5 minutes after I posted, I plugged the Cougar in to the laptop "just to see" and got the "detected you have no flash" message ie the wretched thing was recognised after 3 days of being dead. So I reflashed it, moved it back to my PC, recalibrated it and everything is just fine. I think I'll just give it a smack to teach it a lesson. It's so idiosyncratic - if you've got one you'll know what I mean - it sometimes feels like it was built in 1917. End of this thread then?!

Well I just wanted to er confess being a timid sort of a chap that this was the first thread I ever started, so thanks to everyone who responded with such interesting and positive comments. What a bunch of gentlemen you all are!

Missed this as I've been away fishing. As this interesting thread has now become in part "How to wear spectacles in OFF and survive" I can also confirm that if you set TIR up properly spurious reflections are not a problem at all, and frankly I can't imagine flying OFF without TIR. Just save up and buy it! However you do have to be able to look "sideways" at the screen as you turn your head, and I found that my varifocals were pretty crap in this regard - I could barely see an EA sneaking up on my six. Since I find it much more fun/immersive to fly without labels on, spotting where the EA are is vital, as is being able to keep them in sight as you manouevre. Blurry varifocals lead to early death. So I persuaded my optician to make me a pair of wrap-round frames with lenses which are tuned to stay in focus as I turn my head. Awesome, and no doubt the bill will be too when it arrives. I think they had to be made in the States. If anyone's interested I'll ask him for the technical details.