Olham

Okay, I found it in GB and ordered it - thank you!

Isn't she beautiful? (My way to make the devs keep an eye on her - hint, hint!!) Just found this website again, of Thomas Genth, with more detailed pictures of the Roland D.VI (There are many other aircraft shown there too - see sidebar left). http://www.thomasgenth.de/html/lfg_roland_d_vi.html

Never heard of it. Please report, how it is.

Thanks for the good photograph, Carrick! When I see pics like this one of a crashed WW1 fighter, my mind creates the nastiest pictures of the pilot's face slamming into the windshield or - like in MvR's case - into the machine guns. Makes you shudder...

Well, that would be "Bring' sie heil zurück" von Baur (were "heil", from "heile", means something like "in one piece" or "unhurt"). Very heart-felt congratulations, von Baur!!! The mills of German burocracy may be slow, but they don't ever forget anyone. Man, when you wrote here you wanted fly that crate in Campaign, I thought: "Huh, another such announcement, that will soon be forgotten, due to the difficulty." But you made it so far - great! Now, don't become careless or a hotspur, don't feel too routined. The war will be so much longer... I have only recently started a pilot in MFJ-1 with the eindecker. I could now fly it - after one year with OFF P3.

PS: ...and each engine type has it's own distinctive sound. Here is the Daimler Benz DB 605 sound from the Bf 109 G.

Yes, the engine sounds of real aircraft are better than music, although some gentle flying, like of the Nieuport 11 I posted recently, with a suitable music can be nice. And the sound of an R/C aircraft may not be so great? But here's for engine sounds for you - posted it already before, but it's worth to see. This is all computer generated aircraft, but the Rolls Royce engine sound must be real. And this one is real - the Spitfire has a Rolls Royce Griffon engine.

It's a known thing, SirMike - but honestly: do you find time to look at a flight map in a scramble???

Touching reports, OvS, CaptSopwith and nbryant. Yes, music you heard then, will remain tied to the event. In Germany, they often played Enya's "Only Time". When I hear that song, I see the falling towers with my inner eyes - always. CaptSopwith, you mention "Band of Brothers". A friend of mine, who lives here since long, but is from America, introduced me to this series, and I watched all his DVDs and liked it - it was made very realistic and personal. I had wondered already, if your avatar is Captain Winters from that series? I liked this man - I think I would wish to have a commander like him, if I had to fight.

Me too, nbryant, me too. That's why I started watching it and thinking about it. I can't promise you, that you will never have to make resets again. But it should make the resets far less.

Since the decision, that the devs won't show any developments for P4, so that they can't be copied by other sims, it has become rather quiet around here. In PM's with good members, I also noticed that they miss some info from the devs. Now, I have been thinking about ways to change that a little bit, perhaps. Here is my thought: The other most competitive sim(s) must also have their forums, where they (perhaps) show their latest ideas and developments. Now, would it be possible, that you (OFF devs) do at least show stuff, that the others have already presented; stuff they are definitely working on already (so it couldn't be a copy of OFF anymore)? I wrote this, because I'm sure it would be some important spice to our forum - if you say, it can't be done, that's okay; but I wanted to suggest it.

Welcome back, 12oclockhigh! Absolutely, nbryant! I'm also only now becoming a good enough fighter pilot. I can easily spend another 2 years in P3 without getting tired of it. Yes, let them take their time, defintely.

Olham's 7000. Post - Cheers to all! My 7.000st post - indeed! Thanks for the reminder, Scousair68 - I would have missed it! nbryant, the "plum effect" may be from the matt finish appearance of the colour. I couldn't find out yet, how to get it more semi-gloss. But I'll work on that. SirMike - Battle of Verdun - that's a very serious phase you are flying in, I think. What German aircraft do you encounter there?

Jasta 1, Bertincourt, 23. August 1916 Uffz. Mahlo Yesterday afternoon, we painted the replacement Halberstadt Burgundy red - it looks wonderful! I took it out for an escort of three Roland "Walfisch" today. Over the lines we got under attack by four or five Sopwith scouts. They had an advantage of height, but they must have been crazy to attack ten of us. We made short washing up with them, without any losses. The rest of the escort went peacefully, and all returned to base safely.

I'm running Vista, and I have been there to check some planes today, before I wrote it. But maybe Vista isn't the same everywhere - might depend on your setups.

Thank you for the tip, Wayfarer; I'll check, if I can get it cheap somewhere. For all who want to know some basic characteristics of the OFF aircraft without buying a book: You can get this info inside OFF. You go to "Workshop", there click on "CFS3 QC" at the bottom. You now get a window for a QC setup. You can choose an aircraft for your mission, but instead of flying it, you click on "Aircraft stats" at the bottom. Now you get the specifics for the chosen craft. Change to all the craft you want to check.

Jasta 1, Bertincourt, 22. August 1916 Uffz. Mahlo Patrolling east of Arras, we sighted several FE2b and BE2 two-seaters. We engaged, and soon I had hit one FE2 pusher hard; it caught fire and fell to earth at 09:03 h. I followed them SW with Fw. Ehms, and I could shoot down a BE2 very easily, cause it did not have any rearward defense. Nothing heroic really, but it had carried bombs, which now did not hit any of our ground troops.

This day's pictures will never fade in my memory. I was just about to go to work on the signwriting of a truck tarpaulin, when a friend called me up. His voice sounded strange, when he told me to switch the telly on, and he said something like: "The third world war has begun..." When I saw the live pictures, they were uncommented by anyone. They showed one of the WTC towers burning. In the background, I heard someone say something like "...it was a plane flying into the tower..." Other voices could be heard, but they seemed to be people near the video cam operator. No comment, as we are used to in the news. No explanation. My employee stood next to me, and I heard him say "Oh Gott, mein Gott!" several times. I felt totally numb and distant, like I was a camera with no understanding. It was a terrible shock. And the shock grew much bigger, when I saw a sudden move of the cam, and there was a large passenger aircraft moving towards the left tower with full speed! Slamming in to it! My employee had to sit down; he was shivering and asked for a whisky, which I couldn't offer. But it still got worse. Only minutes later (or so it felt), the right tower's antenna on the roof bent slightly to the right. Then, the whole of the upper ten stores or so, went down, crashing all the lower stores, one by one, until the whole tall tower had collapsed, leaving only a huge grey cloud. Still, no one explained, what we witnessed. We only heard people screaming in terror. I know, that you have all seen those pictures. But maybe with a comment? Not sure, how many of you saw it like that - a life picture, uncommented - it made the terrible sight almost unbearable. I will never forget this.

Here is a bit from Dan San-Abbott over at the "Aerodrome" website. Dan-San's job was to develop parachutes. Quote Dan San-Abbott: The Luftstreitkräfte delivered with fighter aircraft as goverment furnished equipment a Heinecke Fallschirm (Parachute). The Luftstreitkrfte began to issue the Heinecke Fallschirm in early 1918 (February ?) The Heinecke Fallschirm was designed by Uffz. Heinecke a member of Feldluftschiffer Abteilung 23 in an effort to improve upon the Paulus Fallschirm used by the Kite balloon units. The Heinecke was small in comparison the present day parachutes, it was 21' in diameter, conical in form.Was made of silk. It was static-line operated. Uffz heinecke arranged with Schroeder & Co.G./m.b.H to manufacture the Heinecke Parachute. Dummy and live drop tests were made from aircraft to prove it's strength. It can best be described as "just adequate". The design was marginal at best. Vzfw Weimar of Jasta 56 was the first to use the Heinecke Fallschirm on 1 april 1918 when he jumped from his burning Alb.D.Va. Many other German pilots would use the Heinecke Fallschirm in the remaining months of WW1, most notably Ltn.Ernst Udet. Blue Skies, Dan-San P.S. I earned my living designing parachutes. From what I've read about the British, the RFC did not consider to give the pilots parachutes, because they thought it would make the pilots jump too early, instead of fighting. For the Germans, the parachutes came perhaps only, because towards the end of the war, pilots were more valuable than aircraft. The cynism of war...

Oh - you really mean to make one for me? Well, what would I like - let me see... I don't know the Gothas and their times. My wishlist (if possible) My craft: Albatros D.II (or any other Albatros) Escorted craft: Gothas (or other big ones) Enemy interceptor: your decision Mission target: a target, that would be of such importance, that they'd send the big ones plus escort Mission distance: not further than it would make sense for Albatros escorts, including combat time So there are many free variables for you to make it fun, I hope?

Wasn't meant to sound offensive, Lou - I should have added a Smiley perhaps. How do you get those biggies into the sim? Do you write missions? And if so: could you make me one for Albatros escorting such bombers, without too much time investment?

...wondered if, in OFF, any German pilots ever get parachutes in 1918. Something for our P4 wishlist! If Ernst Udet hadn't had a parachute, he wouldn't have survived the war.

More and more often do I get the same UPSETTING and STUPID message from YouTube: Now, what I'd like to know: why the heck is it possible to watch it EVERYWHERE else, but not in Germany?!?!?!? Because we lost the war? Or is it rather so, that we are the only ones where they still can make money with their music? Or because we are mostly following rules so neatly, that we are easiest to rule?!?!? I fully understand, that the music is underlying copyright protection. But if they can't protect it everywhere else - well, then they could drop the idea in Germany as well, right? Bollocks!!! PS/Edit: sorry, Carrick, as you may have noticed, I can't watch it. But thanks for the good intention anyway. I'm lucky, I could watch it some time ago, before the solicitors had found it's music. Thank you anyway.

Your single Nieuport is looking so lonely and fragile over the barren winter landscape, SirMike - good one. Lou, you praise the devs, but show aircraft we don't have in the sim (yet) - is that diplomacy: to say one thing and mean another; maybe to get those big bombers? Anyway: your sunset pics are very beautiful and calm.

OT, cause not made of barley: I'm with you about swearing off, Cameljockey, but I don't drink Coke or Pepsi. I recently discovered Ayran, a Turkish yoghurt drink made of just 60% yoghurt, water and salt. Very good especially on hot summer days.