Olham

Thank you all for your own "youth & model" stories! Hauksbee, there must have been many of those black rubber models - I wonder how they were exactly called - maybe you could search for them in the web? There must still be some of them "alive"?

Well, I guess itis very hard to find VTOL aircraft in a highly industrialised, dense-built landscape. While the other jets needed a kind of runway, the Harriers could be hidden almost EVERYwhere. Even your radar wouldn't help you much. I read, that the Israeli pilots sorted out the real Aegyptian jets from the fake dummies by simply using radar vision. But when you have cars, trucks, oil-tanks, power-masts and god-knows-what spread out quite closely over a landscape, I guess it wouldn't help you much at all.

AFAIK there wasn't. But yellow was a general marking colour for German aircraft. I guess they had the same meaning as the b/w wing stripes on Allied craft at D-Day: to tell friend from foe. Well, the trees produce the oxygen we breathe. And we wouldn't cut our lungs, would we? Maybe for a Canadian, some trees wouldn't mean so much - they have plenty of trees on plenty of space. Germany is very small compared to that - we must be more careful with ours. Funny - guy fighter guys found the same space suiting, that the WW2 generation had already chosen before. Gee, I would have liked to watch your takeoffs and landings! I never knew such manoeuvres happened in Germany. They are usually very strict and specific about what's allowed for air traffic and aircraft. Did the civil aviation control ever know, that you guys were there?

What a sim this is! Holy Moly! We were on our way to attack a French balloon west of Reims, and we were flying among thick thunderheads, when I noticed, that the leaders of both A and B flight left our course. Usually a sign of enemies near. I looked around but saw nothing. So I switched my Labels on - still nothing except our own Albatros D.V. I had not paused, and suddenly I heard the impacts of machine gun rounds, ripping the canvas of my left wing! I rolled left and went half headover, downwards and pulled up again. Still couldn'T see what happened! Only after another round, I found the French Nieuport appearing right behind my six - firing after me again! Geeze, even Labels hadn't helped me - my craft was beaten up, and I found it safer to return to base. Fortunately Wilhelm Leusch shot that Nupe off my tail - thanks, Wilhelm! - so I could push stick and dive to the Aisne river, which I only had to follow east, to get to St.Loup-en-Champagne. Have you ever seen a sim like that? Must I pause next time? No, I won't - that would be too much of a cheat. I won't even use Labels again, but rather try to evade towards other Albatros, so we can cover each other. Damn, I'll have to digest that! My bigmouth is shrinking smaller more and more...

Leaf85 - Alberta, Canada added The maps are in post 1 of this thread

After all, the Sopwith Tripe impressed MvR so much, that he wanted one too.

Uuuhhh!!! Yeah, those would have been keepers! But that's life - we make decisions, and later we regret some of them. Today I would treat those two models better; they'd have a good place near my "cockpit". My comics survived everything so far, although my very first "Tim & Struppi" book [Tintin & Snowy] is falling apart now. Bought it second-hand in my childhood days - "Explorers on the Moon" was the title. Not long after getting it, mankind really made that 'giant leap'.

The dots instead of Labels is something I have yet to check out. Also the wingman commands - I am still only beginning to get to grips with everything. (Yeah, I know, I'm a slowhand... )

Robert, I was only joking - you guys all contribute a lot of good knowledge and background detail. Only the coffee was meant serious - tomorrow morning I'll have it ready, before I come in here.

Geeze, one day away, and I feel like a lecturer in a big edition - catching up needs half an hour! Next time I'll brew a fresh coffee before!

Thank you guys! Robert, no, I'm afraid the models "went the path of all that's earthly" (as we say in German). We moved twice within 4 years back in those days, the models got damaged in all the commotion, and then came my apprenticeship, then my army time, and finally I went to study in Berlin. I don't really know what became of them - I guess my mum threw a lot away from childhood days.

Al Lowe - Michigan, USA added The maps are in post 1 of this thread

Learning something with each new question - great stuff, folks!

Thank you for sharing your story about how it all got started by this picture, Wayfarer! As a graphic designer, I can see it's intriguing qualities; and as a WW1 air combat sim fan, I can understand why it impressed you so much. But there is more to your story; that first touch with something new and fascinating, which we only have "early on", when everything is still new and excitingly unknown territory. For me, my first contacts with WW1 aviation was an AIRFIX model, and then the film poster for "Von Richthofen and Brown" by Roger Corman (1971). The poster made me watch the film, and after that I was drawing lots of dogfight scenes, but the model was even earlier, and it has it's own story. At one of my visits to the only model shop in town, I saw in a vitrine two plastic models in the scale 1:48, which had been assembled and painted by a real masterly hand - they were an S.E.5a and a Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I. I went in and asked, but they said they were not for sale. But I was hooked, and like a hound I came snooping around that vitrine and the two models again and again for weeks, until one day the decoration had changed - other models had taken that place. I went in to ask again, and I must have been quite annoying, so the lady called up the owner of the shop, and he was finally willing to sell them to me - for a price I could not afford from my small pocket money. So I went home and made my mum lend me the money (I had to pay it back over many weeks); and then I went back and bought the two models and carefully carried them home. I still remember clearly, that I was wondering over a long time (and actually still today), why these British planes both had a kind of eggshell colour on the undersides, while all German craft seemed to have a light sky blue - the S.E.5a more yellowish; the Spit with a tint of green or turquoise in it. The upper camo colours were also different. While the Germans used gray and dark gray-greens, this Spit was earth and green, which I found more sympathic looking; and the S.E.5a had that deep English green. I found the Spitfire more elegant looking than the Messerschmidt Bf109; but this bulky S.E.5a was not obviously elegant, sleek or hot looking - but I found it sexy somehow. I was fascinated by that, and it added to my feelings, that the British were somewhat different to us; interestingly different; that they had their own ways to approach things. And some years later I went over there on my first new motorbike, and found a country quite different to Germany - delightfully different actually!

Welcome back, Balders! And the DiD - it's already like that all the time! You'll see - better read the pilot manuals again. It's tough...

Only when I had the mod, I realised what had been missing all the time! AFAIK they are working on an "official" version to implement in WOFF.

My pleasure, Tom! Personally, I found the TAC always too distractive, and then too modern anyway. Of course, Labels are also "false", but I confess, I occasionally switch them on, just to find anyone else around me.

Jim, yes of course, you are welcome! The rules are: the one who answered the last question correctly, will put the next one. But since Corsaire will take some time for important stuff, we can have yours as an interlude. I confess, I have no idea who did that. Is it a sign in any way, saying something particular, when you throw boots at someone? I know the Arabs throw their shoes after someone in disgrace.

Now problem, Corsaire - time for the brain cells to settle...

Deadhead, Did you visit the "ladies of the night" there? (One night in Paris is like a year in any other place...) I wonder how though - you could hardly land your Dreidecker in a road ... ? ***** What a grand Sunday I had today with WOFF - damn, is this sim good! But see yourself...

Yes, that's what I thought. Then I looked through all Sopwith designs I could find - but I didn't get the idea, someone who had been with Sopwith could have left, and built his own kites.

Geeze - at first looks I thought it should be easy to find, but... ...I didn't. Yet... Cripes! ...

It must be a very good fighter!

The pilot of that Biff was a very good flyer - and very determined. Here is an excerpt from THE AERODROME about him: In 1917, Lieutenant Holliday was posted to France with 48 Squadron. Between April and July of that year, he and his observers scored seventeen victories flying the Bristol Fighter.

I just downloaded it successfully, from the "Mirror download" button.