Olham

Sturdiest one, and great in it's time! Lesser downward vision though. But I love the D.I and D.II. Must be great, when the own father can tell from own experience of such details! I guess the lower wing, wig-rib only fixed at one point, began to flutter in steeper dives - maybe like this:

If you need a tester for THAT department, I'd be the right man, Eric! In my early school days I had to solve a mathematic text question: "If 3 workers dig a ditch with a length of 8 meters, a width of 2 meters and a depth of 3 meters in 4 hours - how long would 8 workers need for a ditch with a length of 10 meters, a width of 3 meters and a depth of 4 meters?" My reply was: "This cannot be answered in any mathematical correct way, if you ever watched how often workers are standing leaning on their shovels, chatting; how often they drink a beer inbetween two shoveling phases, and then they will maybe eat their breakfast bread at some point."

Wow, Eric! Even I had forgotten that I ever knew - and even posted - this! Thank you - what a great service, Sir!

Sure, my friend! The best time for the Albatros was probably the beginning, when the D.I and D.II arrived at the front. At this time, the Albatros was a most effective war plane, which the Entente was not at all prepared for. The twin Spandaus, both firing through the propeller circle, and the Albatros' ruggedness made it a great fighter of it's time. The Pup was a nicer aircraft to fly I think after reading a lot, but with it's slow-firing single gun it could hardly kill an Albatros (this is pretty much distorted though in WOFF, where the Pup is too good as a weapon). DH-2 and Nieuport 17 also had only one gun, and even the great SPAD VII. Second best was the Albatros D.III, which was still a very good fighter in it's earlier time. Its lower sequiplane wing (copied from Nieuport) was both, an advantage and a curse though. An advantage for the much better downward vision, and a curse because of a construction weakness - due to the one-point fixation to the V-strut it allowed fluttering in steeper dives, and the advice from the constructors was, not to perform steeper dives for more than 1000 meters. An additional iron rod supplied the craft with better stability after early accidents, but I do not know, how effective this was. Since the concept was kept for the D.V and D.Va, I can only assume, that it must have had some reasonable effectivity. The D.V was still feared by Sopwith Triplane pilots from RNAS, as stated in Arthur G. Lee's "No Parachute!" But von Richthofen was disappointed by too little overall improvement. The D.V could easily be outclimbed by the strong S.E.5a and SPAD VII 180hp and the SPAD XIII in combat, and therefor could not force those aircraft to fight - the Entente pilots could break off and climb away at almost any point in a fight. The Sopwith Pup could fly stable at much higher altitude, where the Albatros already lost it's lift. In the hands of good pilots though, it was still a dangerous fighter - von Richthofen made 8 victories on the Albatros D.V. (source: James F. Miller: ACE PROFILES III "Manfred von Richthofen") The D.Va, as an "improved" D.V, was then actually outdated meanwhile, by the S.E.5a Viper, the much more agile twin-gun Camel, the SPAD XIII and others. The craft was mostly sent to less stressed Jasta, while the elite units used the Fokker Dr.I and D.VII. But I guess it was a trick-question to tickle me awake, Jim - as an "old aircraft mechanic" you must have known all this. PS: WOFF is distorting the historical truth in some parts; and so flying the Albatros is never as safe and superior in the sim, as it must have been at some (early) points in history. (Too effective Pups, too early Sopwith Triplanes, too many of the other more dangerous aircraft at a too early stage.)

Sounds like a lot of work ahead, Erik! I have no idea what you'd need for the new layout - maybe Hauksbee will come up with something - he is more into web stuff I believe. Blind Mr. Mole says Thank You for the tip about the Emoticons! I'm most happy that I must not miss my favourite one...

You are faster than I can get awake, Eric! (More coffee...!!!) PS: Is this new layout temporary or hardnailed now? And will we get all those wonderful Smileys back?

It is really hard to survive in WOFF, and I used to fly more and more defensive, to achieve that. Try the Pup and fly as high as you can - the Albatros cannot follow you there! Good luck!

I don't fly at all since months - I am sailing frigates in NAVAL ACTION. Never "gave up" on WOFF though - I'm sure I'll fly it again, when the "wing virus" infects me once again.

Time to present this one again - a funny film...

Wow! Well made, and touching...

Well, a help for beginners, surely. To learn to identify other aircraft. But when I came to be a more "advanced veteran", the choice was: LABELS OFF.

They are streaming that, with LABELS floating over each aircraft? Tch! The real online flying without LABELS - that's more of a challenge! Maybe you will like to watch this video - a combat analysis I once made for my friend Landsberg and me. Who said the Albatros was obsolete! Milan-6 is my friend Landsberg; Milan-7 is me (showing both cockpit view and later outside view). That great about RoF - that you can record TRACKS, which you can edit like this later. Make sure you watch on full HD.