Olham

Well, I guess 25 palms then? 1 silver palm equals 5 bronze palms - so if he had 5 silver ones, that would equal 25 bronze palms. Sorry, guys, I have been hindered through various reasons, to take part so far. But now I hope I'm back.

Besides my flying "Full DiD" in our "Krauts vs Crumpets" Campaign, I often fly other pilots, who use Labels or TAC sometimes. I just had a long and confusing fight between my Staffel - Jasta 77b - and many British SPAD XIII. First I was flying without Labels and TAC, but when I spotted an explosion forward right of me, I wanted to know what happened around me and switched the aids on. I was surprised to find, that some Albatros from Jasta 37 had joined our fighting. One of them got hit by a SPAD, and the engine exploded out of the craft. I might have missed the fact, that we had got company in our fight. Although I think, that flying "Full DiD" is the ultimate top of our development as pilots here, I want to recommend the use of Labels and maybe TAC to all, who are still early on their ways to reach that top. When you are still getting overstrained by the confusion around you plus the handling of your crate, then the aids might be usefull for your help, until you can drop them one day.

Duke, what do you need the TAC more for - spotting enemy aircraft, or to follow the flight path? Cause, I fly mostly without any TAC and Labels, and always found two things surprising: - the enemy doesn't seem to spot me any better than I see them; I even see them passing us sometimes, with no reaction - when I spot them higher, and I realise they attack: well, then that's how it was for the RL pilots; then it's "run, rabbit, run" or "stand up and fight" - as for the route: I find it enough to either switch on the ingame map to check and make corrections; - or I fly after real paper maps, printed out. They are in a thick clear plastic sleeve, which I draw my course onto with a red marker The aids do rather spoil the thrill of any RL feeling / immersion. You only notice that, after you made two or three flights without them. It feels totally different; the fun of fights will get replaced by the sheer fun of being up there, plus the thrill of expecting to find some enemy flights, before they find me.

I hope they didn't also study the video of self-defense against fruit!

You could see another craft in good weather at a range of ca. 2 miles, as I experienced on a sunny day, co-piloting a sail plane at 4.000 meters. But we could only guess the distance, of course. Here is the answer of a professional airliner pilot, that may help you: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=267988

I also LOVE that headquarter office sketch after the pilot banter. The enemy not taking the war seriously, wearing little silver halos and fairy wands with big stars on, and spiders in matchboxes; dropping cabbage instead of bombs - each time I see that bit, it makes me laugh tears. Brilliant!!!

My favourite (translated) German book beside Udet's is Julius Buckler's "Malaula! The Battlecry of Jasta 17". Edited by Norman Franks. A good read. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Malaula-Battle-Cry-Jasta-17/dp/1904943802/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304461360&sr=1-1

Great! Welcome, Shiloh! Lewie, with HitR came the Nieuport 28 and the DH-5. All other skins should be there for you. Come on, give it a try!

Had another sortie with my pilot in 46 Sqdn, RFC - and the Pup was a joyride again! First we clashed with Jasta 27's black Albatros D.III and we had a hell of a fight. In the end, we beat them. Then I wanted to return to base with half the ammo fired at least, but we ran into Jasta 22 Albatros D.II, attacking one of our spotters. So we engaged, and I managed to shoot down my first D.II !

Indeed, come on, guys! To check the skins easily, I recommend "IRFANVIEW", a free download. To check the pilots, you can go to "The Aerodrome - Aces" here: http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/index.php Are there only more and more lurkers? So little activity here recently, it's a shame.

Believe it or not, but I haven't seen both of them, Von Paulus. Shame on me. With all the repetitions on TV, I wonder why I have never seen these in the program since a long time. Thanks for the tips!

May I recommend the film "Das weisse Band" (The white ribbon) to you? It plays right before the beginning of WW1. It is not a historical film from a historian's point of view, but still tells you a lot about how life, how people were, only one hundred years ago. I saw it recently, and I was shocked about the general austerity, and the little chances one had to rule or even to change one's own life. The inner darkness of most figures was frightening. Congratulations, Captain! You are the third one here now, who met such a girl. I wonder if I may have to advertise to meet one like that???

ARTE is one of the two best TV programs here. They announce every coming event in French and in German, and even these "advertisings" for films or documentaries are little works of art. The Jews can laugh quite well about themselves, which the Germans still find a bit hard to do. One reason maybe the younger history? But hey, we are learning.

Beanie, old chap! I knew you were there in the clouds, and it's good to see you in the mess again! I hope your break will be as long as any possible, and I wish you much fun. Sounds like it might be hard to decide, what to start with first? Skinning? Flying?

Yep, I only made screenshots on the last Tripe we chased - I was totally captured by the surprise attack and the fight we had to take on under such disadvantaged conditions. That's why I presented one "freeze frame" situation from various angles (I didn't even want to press "Pause" before - it was all feeling so real and so very immersive. So you only see the last two Tripes here - the smoking one, which is also in the bottom right corner when it crashes; and the "wing saw" Tripe. The wing was "sawed off" by Otto Hunzinger, as you can see in the bottom left pic. I had made my firing pass already and was pulling up. It was a great show to fly with the 5 Jasta 2 aces Fritz Otto Bernert, Hermann Frommherz, Otto Hunzinger, Gerhard Bassenge and Friedrich Paul Kempf; and I wished I had shown all of their interesting skins.

Although these are photographies of today, you may sense the ghost of the Great War in them. http://www.landscape...schendaele.html http://www.landscapephotographycourses.com/2006/04/verdun.html

The northern marshlands of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany are mostly flat as a plate, Duke.

Every now and then I get into one of the "Epic Battles" that make OFF so special to me. They begin unexpected, they have a special athmosphere. Today, when I took off with Jasta 2, we got attacked by several Tripes from RNAS. But it was not a scramble - we were supposed to fly a patrol around the airfield at Roucourt. I had all aids switched off, and I circled the field and climbed for altitude around our airfield at Proville. As I had to wait for my comrades to join up with me, I flew over to the airfield at Awoingt, next to ours. I enjoyed the interesting light - it was looking like a thunderstorm was about to come during the next hour. I saw my wingmen coming up, and dived on Awoingt to see the aircraft at the ground there. And then I saw a shadow with three wings! Three wings? Sopwith Triplanes?! Looking up and around, I found all men of my flight turning with red-brown Tripes. There were several aces from RNAS near, and I fought three craft during 12 - 15 minutes. I hit all three very hard, and they tried to remain aloft with smoking engines. They got shot down by other pilots from Jasta 2. Bernert got one; I saw Frommherz victorious; Bassenge had a flamer; Kempf shot one up. I for myself didn't get a claim form - I had done the preparations, but had no own victory. But what the heck - I wasn't hit; I turned with RNAS aces, and I took part in this "epic battle". Here are my pics; all from the end of it, when I relaxed enough to make them - enjoy them as I did enjoy this fight!

Okay then, here they are: 1. Who was the pilot that flew this paint scheme? Canadian Wilfred R 'Wop' May 2. Which squadron did he fly for in this paint scheme and during what time period? RNAS-9 (Early 1918) 3. What is historically significant about this pilot, and how did he come by his nickname? "Wop" got his nickname in 1903 when a young cousin had difficulty pronouncing his given name. "On 21 April 1918, May could have almost become the 81st victim of Manfred von Richthofen. The Red Baron pursued May's Sopwith Camel along the Somme Canal through an undefended section of no-man's-land. As they passed over the village of Vaux-sur-Somme, Roy Brown intervened with a burst of Vickers machine gun fire. Seeing Richthofen's triplane make a sharp downward turn to the right and confident that May was now out of danger, Brown flew to the aid of Lt. Francis Mellersh who was under attack by two Fokker triplanes. About a minute later the Red Baron's Fokker DR.I crashed to the ground as Mellersh, now safe and followed by Brown, flew by on his way home." (source: The Aerodrome)

Did anyone see a video, that Bin Laden is dead?

Lou, I posted you the answers, but want to give Dej and others the chance, too. As they couldn't know, you'd post them today. So, this one may end in a tie?

Lou, I suppose, from the European point of view, you started one day too early. My time of your announcement for the first question reads: Posted today 02:18:16 AM So Dej will possibly only expect it tomorrow at 11:00 h ?

Glad I could help, TSmoke. Will you show a picture, when you are ready?

Don't get me wrong, Lou - I didn't say I wasn't playing! I don't have the book! I only wished, that at least all other skinners here would join the party - BurningBeard, Widowmaker, Bullethead, Gous and Beanie (long time not seen), Pawgy and others Come out of your winter sleep, guys.

The 'world order' (as made by humans) keeps changing again and again, as we can see in history. The ancient Rome lasted really long as a Super-Power, but in the end it fell, due to many reasons, which lay more within Rome than outside; and which we can still find in every modern system. The effectiveness of mass destruction had reached another industrial level - and not the highest one, as we later saw in Hiroshima. In this context, I really like the signature of one of our forum members; a sentence said by a Roman high ranking military chief for development of new weapons - he did not believe, that there was any more progress possible. Would make me smile, if it wasn't so sad.