Olham

Short after takeoff we got attacked by many Sopwith Pup - they seemed to rain from a cloud. I shot down two of them, which I saw crashing, before it was my turn to get burnt - literally. I was lucky it happened at lowest altitude - I cut the engine, touched down hard and ran from the crate. With burns, but alive...

Sometimes items like this seem to find their right owner - congratulations, Lou! And even with a signature - you lucky man! I have got a book about Eduard Ritter von Schleich recently, but it is not written by himself.

Yes, I think, the majority of OFF simmers really wants next, what makes most sense / what's missing badly. If early war planes would be more, we would fly more in 1915 and 1916. If missing planes would come, which were used by several squadrons or Jasta for some noticable time, some squadrons, Escadrilles or Jasta could get equipped and would be "flyable", which right now don't have the aircraft and are therefor missing. So I assume or hope, that we will have an even wider choice in P4, than we do already have now. That will make this sim even so much more attractive, and give the simmer an even bigger choice, where to join next. A dream, that might come true...

This is so great about OFF - that you never know what comes next! My last sortie with Jasta 11 was so special, that I want to share it here with you. Jasta 11, Marckebeeke, 19. August 1917 Lt. Mahlo I had climbed my crate, to fly with Manfred von Richthofen, Eberhard Mohnicke, Hans-Joachim Wolf, Karl-August Schönebeck and Gisbert-Wilhelm Groos. We took off and circled our field, climbing. Our mission task was to fly a defensive patrol over Halluin Rekkem airfield. The weather was nasty; slate grey rain clouds all around almost hid the Flak bursts. I was highest of all and noticed them, but before I could warn every- body, 6 - 8 silver British Nieuport 24 with Lewis guns came down on our Staffel. A big turmoil began, and it so dense that it was dangerous to go down to help. But then I saw von Richthofen in serious trouble. He had not gained much altitude yet, and got under attack by two enemy fighters. His wingman Wolf was in trouble himself and could not help. I went down and could chase a craft with a striped cowling off von Richthofen's tail. But I realised, that his craft was already hit and damaged. Shielded by Horstmann, I chased the Tommy around. He was squirming like an eel, but I got a good burst into his craft at last, and he performed a crash landing. Von Richthofen could not follow us, and one of my wingmen, Hugo Bucher, had landed a kilometer north of our field with engine damage. But Mohnicke took over and we continued our patrol. We shouldn't have after that incident. We had not gone very far and were at an altitude of 2.000 m, when suddenly the last craft of 1. Kette, which flew forward higher, turned around in a strange way. First I thought, he wanted to turn towards an unexpected enemy, and checked all around, but found nothing. The craft came down in a wide shallow spiral. It was the Albatros of Gisbert Groos. When he passed me, I saw that his lower right wing had broken away right at the V-strut. I followed him down with desperate thoughts, how to help him, but I could not do the least. Helpless, I had to watch him circling close over the meadows and trees, until he crashed. I fired a flare to signal to 1. Kette, that we would break off the patrol. Flying on with these craft, that had been in combat short before, was just too risky - Groos had probably not noticed a hit in his wing. My victim was Tom Falcon Hazell from RFC-1, as I found out by switching the Labels on. there were more aces fighting us. This event could be a good solution for the unrealistic "Scrambles", which no-one would have done really. Instead of announcing it as a scramble, you devs could send us out for any other mission, but then drop enemy planes on us short after take-off.

Oh yeah - Viktor Borge, one the Grandmasters of stage humour.

Thank you, Lou! The DH-2 is by vyrago, as you may have seen; I only "enhanced" it - not sure, which one looks better though.

Raaaahhhh - from 1 September to sex with commas in 24 posts! Raaaaahhhhh!!!!!!

We even have Snipers in OFF? Good to know - I will escape on 19 September - I will sneak out more careful now! Who sais there was no detail in there...

I don't know much about MP, but I once had a conversation with Madmatt (who has uploaded the "Essential Multiplayer Files for OFF"), and he said, all graphic settings should be the same on each MP system of the players. So I think, if you want to use the new tracers, you should all use them, to avoid complications.

Oh dear! Maybe really the best to change your Anti-Virus program; there are cheap ones and even free ones. I wish for you, that you can fly again soon, and hope for some French reports - we have far too few here.

Hey, vyrago, that's a very nice picture of the DH-2's victory. I couldn't resist to work on it in Photoshop - perhaps a desktop?

Trust him to undertake any possible or impossible action to get his Snipe! What he doesn't know: I've offered Winder 1.000 bucks, if he creates Snipes for me - the birds though! And they'll fly around on Widowmaker's airfield and disturb the flying business there. Mmuahahahahahahahaaaaa!!!!!!!

Hey, Widowmaker - what did you pay the other 8 guys for their vote on the Snipe?

This was posted over at "The Aerodrome". Does anyone know this book? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sky-Their-Battlefield-Complete-Casualties/dp/1898697302 "The Sky Their Battlefield" gives a Western Front loss of 5,364 (Appendix I) or 5,352 (Appendix II) aircraft. Using a search based on the pilot being killed or taken prisoner the database has coughed up the following losses for each type: 1. Camel (656) 2. SE5a (308) 3. RE8 (258) 4. DH4 (234) 5. DH9 (215) 6. F2B (213) 7. FE2b (169) 8. Strutter (100) 9. BE2c (94) 10.Nieuport 17 (88) 11. Pup (74) 12. Spad 7 (73) 13. FE2d (60) 14. AW FK8 (56) 15. Dolphin (50) 16. BE2e (48) 17. Triplane (48) 18. Nieuport 23 (39) 19. DH2 (38) 20. DH5 (34) 21. BE2d (32) 22. SE5 (26)

Mmuahahahahahahahaaaaa!!!!!!

I've seen aircraft attacking the grass in the center of an airfield. Or maybe there was a mole? If you want to determin your target for sure, you could use TAC. Switch it to "ground objects" or "vehicles" by pressing "T". There should be a red target the end of the blue way line. You can mark it (press pause first) by switching through the targets with the "target marker", until you get a yellow sign. Outside, on the ground, you should see a yellow circle now. This is not so very good looking, but it's the only way, I think, how you can assign the target to your wingmen with the "Attack" command.

Update September 2, 2010; 20:18 h Berlin summertime (= GMT + 2) Jacques-Charles, France, added. All the maps are in post 1 of this thread

What happens, if they send him Nurse Gladys?

Piefke comes from old Slavonian and Polonian "piwo" (beer); old Polonian forms were Piwka and Piwke for families, who had something to do with beer. According to German Wikipedia, it seems really to come from the composer Johann Gottfried Piefke, who composed the "Königgrätzer Marsch" for the celebration of the Prussian victory over Austria 1866. The composer was present at the vicory parade and conducted the music himself. He and his tall brother were marching at the head of the parade, and the Austrians shouted "The Piefkes are coming!" Among Piefke's works are „Preußens Gloria“, „Düppeler Schanzen-Marsch“ and the „Königgrätzer Marsch“. The "Revue-Marsch" was composed by August Reckling. Here is a big German Wikipedia list of marches, which you may not get in English: http://de.wikipedia....emarschsammlung

I believe to have read something like that before, and if I remember right, it was no virus, but something that was only identified as one. Best would be to ask someone with good knowledge with computers, like von Paulus, Parky or Widowmaker. You should write a PM to them, otherwise they may not find this. Oh, and I haven't got you in the OFF Pilots Map yet. Would you send me a PM with your town and country? I'll add you there then. And perhaps you could change your headline to "My OFF Manager got quarantined - Help!" to draw attention to the problem more?

Yes, indeed! I tried both craft, and must say that the S.E.5a is handling much easier, flies with similar speed as a SPAD XIII, but turns better. The S.E.5a is a very good energy fighter you may even turn with - as an Albatros man, I would prefer it to the Camel.

I'm using this DM since some time now, and it works fine. I thank you very much for all this labour, Herr Prop-Wasche - especially that my Albatros won't shed it's wings in tight turns so easily anymore is a great help.

in bavaria and frankonia nobody says berliner. and if so, he would earn a strange look. here it's called "krapfen" There you see, Lou - it's even more complicated !

And until then, I will use your tracers as something that helps to make kills harder. They are really good!

Yeah, it's hard to be like us "Korinthenkacker". A German word for someone who always wants to get everything painstakingly exact. You would say "nitpicker". Directly translated, it would mean "currant pooper". Don't take it as an insult, please. I am much the same very often.