Olham

That is a typical example of an event, that first looks simple and everyday-like; and we judge the situation and act - and in the next few seconds, it can turn towards catastrophy. I often think about that, when I think about the boy-young WW1 flyers. How often may they have been in such situations? And then it may often turn out for good after all - and then for some others not. Arthur Gould Lee crash-landed a Camel amidst the fighting area of Cambrai. His tank was pierced and he pulled the white trail of vapourised petrol. He had seen that many times, short before it would ignite and the craft and it's pilot would go down in flames. Hanging in his belts after crash-landing, he got soaked with the fuel. Still he got away from the craft. When someone offered him a cigarette - imagine that moment! - he gently refused it and asked the guy to stay clear from him. Manfred von Richthofen had a similar landing. These two pilots had an extreme chain of luck after all.

Yep, correct.It can have two meanings actually, but close ones. It can also mean: Battle for the Emperor.

Yeah, sometimes you'd like to thank someone, whom you don't know, and therefor can't reach. But I bet, they must have realised, that they may have saved you from an accident. Send out some good vibrations for him or her - I believe in such things to work.

Gary, don't be sad - there are many missions for BHaH here, too. Just look into the download section here: http://combatace.com...mitted__num__10 Look for those files with the end ...mission. Like: "Olham's Gotha Escort Mission" which wasn't made by, but for me, by RAF_Louvert - but not solely for me. Try it - it's great! .

That's right - I feel a similar excitement every time. Some airfields are situated nicer than others. My last great discovery: Marchais, Marne region (Jasta 14). My long-living pilot now even comes to the nasty part of the north European year: November - February. Arrrgh!

Seems you are flying from Clairmarais? Perhaps you should avoid the area southeast of your base. Jasta 2 with their Albatros D.II are based northwest of Cambrai.

I'm not the real expert here, Gary, but I guess it won't work. "Over Flanders Fields" has folders on the C:bootdrive, and even if you could install a second version of the sim on another drive, I guess it would still want to use the same folders on the C:drive. But hopefully I'm wrong.

Yes, I guess he catches carp like a ninja - waiting for the absolute perfect moment - and then no hasty movements! Mmuahahahahahahahahaaaaaa!!!! Secretly? Why "secretly"???

When does he fly, Hasse Wind, and which Squadron? Did the Albatros D.II just appear at the front?

You can change the numbers of all pilot photos, BurningBeard. You can have any photo you like, if you simply give it the number which you see under the photo in the pilot log.

Yeah, sometimes it looks as if the poles were melting directly onto your front yard, doesn't it?

When I wrote it up for you, I realised, that it still raises my pulse and makes me wonder, what would have happened, if the car would have landed on the water headover? Our seat belts were fastened. Could we have released them? Would we have got the door open? Still makes me shudder. Good you made it back, Widowmaker - would have missed your occasional "Woof, woof!" (and so much more, mate).

Damn, Widowmaker, that was a close shave! I'm very glad you and your loved ones made it. Back in 1979, my girl and I were not as lucky as you now, but still: we are alive. We drove back from Firesdal in southern Norway, to the ferry at Oslo. It was snowing awfully early (in October!), and it was dark already. The country road was quiet. No other cars. Until we came round a left bend, hidden by a rock left of the road. There came the strong headlights of a gigantic Scania truck, and he was driving half on our side! To our right: an icecold Norwgian lake, 10 - 15 yards below. I shouted "pass him as close as you can, and if we loose a mirror!", but there wasn't enough space - we slithered over the edge (there were no guardrails), the car spinned over twice, and we were in the water. It came in from the front; the car sank forward, very fast. Despite all other advice for such situations, I pushed I told her to open her door. It was stuck. Now I pushed both boots into my door and opened - it was hard after getting dented by the rolling over the rocks, but I got it done. The water came in like a landslide. When she came out on my side, the car was already under water. I pulled her with one arm, while I held on to the car with the left hand in the frame of the broken rear window. Later I saw my left hand was all cut and bleeding. I had got only a very small amount of water into my throat, but it was so cold, that I had to caugh, before I could swim the 10 yards to the bank. Although the driver had made a terrible mistake, he was at least decent enough to stop and to help us out. He made a call over his radio, and some minutes later, a Landrover with three overland electric line workers stopped. They took us to the next town, where they had their base. They had a huge tumble-dryer, and while our stuff was getting dry, we went to the Café to get hot chocolate. Everyone gave us curious looks - on our overalls stood something like "Demolition Team" in Norwegian. So I think I can feel and evaluate quite well, how much that evading driver has done for you. You should include him in your evening prayer.

PS: sorry, I forgot the FOV, LIMA. Your monitor is clearly a 16 : 9; so you should select "16:10" in "Workshops" at the left side. Now, here are some FOV settings. The smaller the numbers, to more you are zoomed in. 21 : 12 23 : 13 25 : 14 27 : 15 If even 21:12 should not bring distant aircraft closer, it must be because of the external view. In cockpit view, they would appear much zoomed in then. You could check it by pausing the sim, when you see Bogie Labels, switch Labels off and change to cockpit view.

LIMA, you have every right to fly a sim as you like, Sir. I used to fly "Aces over Europe" that way, back in the nineties. It seemed to give me more control over the situation, and it probably did. I can also hardly imagine to be inside a submarine (claustrophobia my end), and might prefer to see it from outside. But this is the perspective we had, when we drove our tractor - we were high above, and could see everything like from a god-like perspective; we could at the same time drive the big machine, and marvel about it's look, when the profiled big tires made their marks in the mud. I don't know, when it was, that I changed into the cockpit of the craft. It was for the reason, that I wanted to have everything as much as possible, like the real life pilots had it. No advantages. No god perspective. Just me little blighter in the damn machine, without a perfect overview, with the same stress caused through that reason; with the same chances - however small they might be. In the beginning, it felt very, very uncomfortable, and it was. When I came to OFF, I had that again to happen. The crates were rather different from the WW2 craft; they had much less power and were therefor hard to keep doing, what I wanted them to do. And all that, while there might already be enemies sneaking up on me. It took me about a year to come to grips with various craft, so that I could concentrate on the fighting. Then I bought TrackIR. I knew it would be the perfect thing to REALLY place me in the cockpit. But the first weeks, I felt often kind of seasick. It gave me the ability to check around me, but it was also confusing, cause now I had to develop a feeling for how the aircraft was situated in midair, whilst I was looking towards my 8 o'clock. It took some good time, until I was, where I am now - that I can consider myself as an average veteran pilot - on the Albatros at least. I'm still far from being able to simultaneously remember all the right manoeuvres to use in a fight, to make me the victor. I can fight and win against the AI. But in my Albatros against RAF_Louvert in a Sopwith Camel, I would surely be lost, and my best movement would probably be to try to run from him. What I want to illustrate to you with all this is: it was for me very rewarding, to change the well contollable outside view for the more real life, more difficult and often unpleasant and stressful one. Now I feel like I have got much closer to the fellers, who were flying these kites of wood and canvas in often nasty weather conditions and biting cold; with all the mechanical failures and impact damages from rounds and shrapnell. I'm still so much better off - I can sit in a warm room, with a coffee waiting next to me. I can die, and create another "me" - I'm still much in the god-like position in the sim. I just wanted to give you here some help for a possible move towards a new eyperience, by telling you from my own ones. But as I said in the beginning: you have every right to fly it like you prefer, and I won't look down on you, however you do it.

Wayfarer, I guess that we'd only make some promotion by posting those pics. And they are not high-res enough to make prints of them. My purpose is uncommercial; I just want the art work to be noticed by others. Thank you for the link, RAFPuff, I'll explore them!

What the heck is "the GAvA"???

That's true, LIMA. Maybe you need to zoom your view in one or two notches. I don't know the default command key for that, see in the "Controls". I'm flying in the cockpit all the time (as it was in RL ), but I guess, your whole view may be "too zoomed out". We have a "Field of View" setting in OFF "Workshops", which can be set up too remote. If you send me your monitor resolution, I can propose 3 possible FOV settings. That doesn't sound normal to me. Okay, will do. You are flying very differently - IMHO the best thing for flying is TrackIR - free allround view from your cockpit.

Photos, photos!!! Sounds like France on it's best. Do you speak any French, or did they speak English - or did you just point at the bottles?

Even worse: when it turns out to be a spec of dust on your screen! Yes, Archie / Flak is a very good guide, as long as you are flying over own terrain. Especially the black German puffs are very well visible. And as the German fighters rarely crossed the lines much, it is the perfect side for learning to fly without aides. The absolutely toughest jobs are British ones: they used to intrude deep into enemy heartland, and there they had absolutely no warning - they had to rely on their eyesight and reflexes, and they had constantly to fear a damaged engine resulting in an emergency landing.

Here's another James Dietz I had never noticed before. Are they RNAS flyers?

LIMA, I have tried to change TAC and Labels, but couldn't get as far as I would have liked. Then I went for an even so much better immersion: I left TAC and Labels out. Believe it or not; although I have to wear stronger reading glasses (0.35 dioptrin), I can always see the specs of aircraft BEFORE a bogey Label would appear. I tried that out several times. I saw a spec, and turned Labels - nothing. Only when it came closer, the white Label appeared. So, now I never use Labels except for identifying an ace craft. It is now so much more realistic looking and feeling, and my poise has grown that I can see them, as soon as they ARE visible - like in RL - and not when the Labels appear. I also left out the TAC then. You can control and correct your flight path via inflight map. You could even fly after real paper maps, like RAF_Louvert and I often do. And if it comes to attacking ground targets, you could switch it on for only that purpose, to mark the target for your wingmen. But I think they even attack without that, if you order "Attack". I feel you are going in that direction anyway, so why not try it out? It's very rewarding.

Just found this over at THE AERODROME - I like the look of that craft. And with the two guns, it looks as impressive as an FE2b to me.

"Von Richthofen and Brown" was my first film I ever saw about WW1 flying, and I was only 15 0r 16 then, so I admit I was impressed and wanted to know more. Nowadays we all know how far away from the real story the movie was, but hey - back then it worked. We have only become experts (some more, some less) later, and now we don't like most WW1 movies. I actually liked "Hells Angels" better. "The Blue Max" is also better than all the other stuff, except "Aces High", which is also quite okay.

Thanks, JFM - you got the correct picture indeed.Seems even to be the very plane Boucher painted?