Olham

This well known photo of Jasta 12 at Roucourt was taken from "Das Kriegstagebuch der Jasta 12" (Michael Schmeelke). It made me curious about the place, and I zoomed into Google maps, untill I had Roucourt castle. In the book it says, that the airfield lay left of the wood we see north of the castle. So I painted 18 Albatros shapes into the pic, plus the larger craft behind them. The orange line would be the line drawn from the photographer (who might have climbed a tree) to the last tree of the alleyway. The lightgreen area are young trees, which I assumed not to have been there in those days. Of course it's only circa, as I didn't have the right size relationship of the aircraft. The maps shows Roucourt field location (red dart) and two other villages, where Jastas had been. I find it touching somehow, that so little seems to have changed. It's the same with Toulis, where Jasta 12 had also been. The village looks almost the same today, and the field is still there. I think, I'll travel there by train and bicycle next spring or summer, to visit some former fields.

Yes, I see what you mean, it's incredible indeed. How large can you watch it? I am in the web with an older rig with Win98, and I can't seem to get another size but a small frame in the left corner.

Thank you, DerMo! Can I download the film, or only watch it in that small frame? Excuse the question, if it's stupid - I'm so tired right now, I can't see a download button or anything.

Thanks all; yes, it is always thrilling me, to check through photographs of aerodromes. I may post more - even when I risk to be wrong again - the people with the better knowledge will perhaps get attracted and give us an interesting read. Balders, the airfield Roucourt does of course exist in BHaH. But you won't find it looking like the field in the pics here. That would sure be a great step forwards, if the devs could build some fields, which are well known by many, after the historical photogrphs.

In the "downloads" section, you can get skins already, but they are of course all painted in lovely ways. When you have your sim, search the folder "skins" for the craft you want, and pick one, that doesn't have any individual markings. For browsing through and opening and converting of skins, you could get "DXTBmp", a free download. Open the skin, save it as a 24 bit bitmap, and work on it in your graphic program. Finished, you save it back to dds format, into the "skins" folder.

French: earliest Nieuport 17 German: earliest Albatros DII (September 1916) or DIII (December 1916, I believe); Fokker Dr.1 (extremely good turn fighter), or DVII (very good overall fighter) British: earliest Sopwith Pup (very agile) or Sopwith Triplane (very superiour) American: Sopwith Camel or SPAD XIII I'd like to welcome you on the German side, that some call the "dark side" here. But don't be afraid - it's not any darker than the other side.

Okay, now send me your hometown please (country is Ireland, as I read), and I will add you to the OFF Pilots Maps. As Great Britain is very crowded already, a shorter name would have been fine; thank god you're not Welsh!

Update 09/02/09 22:00 Berlin time (GMT +2) almccoyjr, Georgia, added. HouseHobbit, Ohio, added. the maps are in post 1 of this thread

Hey, Wrestler Try the settings I attached here. You get there in Workshop this way: Graphics config > File > Custom settings > Window > Overrides (and: Texture Info) Perhaps you better not change all the sliders, but click or un-click everything I have. If your landscape wouldn't look good after that, please contact the support.

There you see, Dej: others have the same problem sometimes. I had to work outside Berlin, with no computer connection, and find the "wildcard picture" only now, that it's far too late. I find, that Lou always made sure to post the pics at very different times, to guarantee, everyone has the same chances as much as that is possible. Now, you had yours. Congratulations.

Bullethead has made a beautiful DFW in three colour hex camo, and we exchanged many posts about such Naval colour camouflage on German crates. Since I'm flying with MFJ 1 (Marineflieger-Jagdstaffel = Navy fighter squadron), I thought of doing a skin for my craft in that design. Now, it seems almost impossible to find out, which colours they used, as this early "Lozenge" pattern was not printed fabric, but hand painted on the surfaces. But I found a colour chart showing three Naval colours (Bullethead had found the same one), and worked from there. I changed mine with more brightness, since you see the craft from a distance of some meters, and most colours appear brighter, the further you are away. Out came this design. I still have to improve a lot; so the tail camo pattern seemed to get enlarged on the model, which means for me, to find out, how much smaller I must make it to get it right. And always tricky: the connection of fuselage sides to top/back pattern. I want to thank Bullethead for his inspiration and information on all this - hope, you like it, Bullet.

Yes, I was like your "brothers" when I was younger; I was more fascinated by the Spitfires and Messerschmidts fighting the "Battle of Britain", than of WW1 aircraft. That came only later. But - I remember to have bought a lovely painted assembled AIRFIX S.E.5a in my favourite model shop. One customer had built it and give it only for exhibition; he wanted it back later. But when he saw, how much I wanted it, he sold it to me for only 7,- Deutsche Mark. That must have just covered his costs - no winnings.

Congrats, Rickitycrate, Red Dog, Zoomzoom and Luftace! Great sportsmanship here; I know, the race is far from being run. It is an honour to fight with you.

Well done, Carrick! The next step may be not the 50 hours, but your first own kill. My best pilot so far had 16,8 hours - almost the average 17! But he also had 16 kills.

Maybe you expected me to identify the German craft, that's type I can't say right now, but I don't have a wider knowledge about WW1, or even the craft and the aces. I tried it, but couldn't find it. In the end it may be the craft of someone famous, and everyone knew it, but me? Well, may Dej or RedDog jump at it - I'm really curious about it! Gee - this is great fun; thanks once again, Lou!

No. 27 is a Hispano suiza V8 engine, it was standard with the SPAD VII and SPAD XIII. In the XIII, I think it was geared version. Picture is from the National Museum of the US Airforce Béchereau's first real success was the SPAD S.VII. Developed from the SPAD V, of which 268 were ordered but none certainly built as SPAD Vs, the SPAD S.VII was a single-seat tractor biplane fighter of simple and robust design powered by the new Hispano-Suiza water-cooled V-8 engine. Compared to earlier fighters, when the SPAD VII appeared in 1916, it seemed a heavy and unmanoeuvrable aircraft, but pilots soon learned to take advantage of its speed and strength. Some 3,500 SPAD S.VIIs were built in France during the First World War, 120 in Britain, and 100 in Russia, although far more had been ordered from a new factory in Yaroslavl which was not completed until after the Russian Civil War. Béchereau's subsequent designs until 1918 followed the basic outline of the SPAD S.VII. The two-seaters, the SPAD XI and SPAD XVI, were built in moderate numbers, around 1,000 of each type, but two-seater SPADs were much less successful than the rival Breguet 14 (5,500 built) and Salmson 2 (3,200 built). Single-seat developments of the SPAD 7 were more successful. The SPAD 12 was a minor variant, the first to use the geared output Hispano-Suiza V-8 engine, which allowed it to be armed with a 37 mm Hotchkiss cannon (moteur-canon) firing through the propellor hub. Tested successfully by ace Georges Guynemer, the general conclusion on the SPAD 12 is that only very skillful pilots could exploit its powerful armament. Accordingly, although 300 were ordered, most were completed as normal SPAD fighters, with possibly one or two of the SPAD XII aircraft even serving with the US Air Service in France. The SPAD S.XIII was essentially the SPAD S.VII redesigned around a more powerful, geared drive Hispano-Suiza engine, as was used on the SPAD XII. This was produced in even greater numbers, the exact total is uncertain with figures from 7,300 to 8,472 being quoted in different sources. Single-seat SPADs were flown by many ace pilots, including Italy's Count Francesco Baracca and the United States Army Air Service's Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, with 34 and 26 victories respectively. Georges Guynemer was, as has already been noted, highly successful with the SPAD S.XII, as well as the SPAD S.VII and SPAD S.XIII. At the end of the First World War, all 1,152 single-seat fighters on the strength of French front line air units were SPAD 13s. It is reported that nearly 900 SPAD XIII fighters were eventually to end up in American service. Although SPAD had been successful, and had reaped very large profits, the very high profits in aircraft manufacturing had led to increased competition during the war. In 1916, for example, over 98% of the SPAD fighters built had come from factories owned by SPAD and Blériot. By 1918, with large industrial syndicates competing for contracts, this had fallen to 43%. SPAD designs accounted for around 20% of French aircraft produced during World War One. Louis Blériot's 1913 investment was a very profitable one. The Hispano-Suiza 8 was a water-cooled V8 SOHC aero engine introduced by Hispano-Suiza in 1914 and used by a number of Allied aircraft during the First World War. The original Hispano-Suiza 8A was rated at 140 hp (102 kW) and the later Hispano-Suiza 8F reached 300 hp (220 kW). General characteristics * Type: 8-cylinder liquid-cooled Vee piston engine * Bore: 120 mm (4.724 in) * Stroke: 130 mm (5.118 in) * Displacement: 11.76 L (717.8 in3) * Dry weight: 445 lb (202 kg) Components * Fuel system: 1 Claudel or Zenith Carburetor * Cooling system: liquid Performance * Power output: 150 hp (112 kW) @ 1,700 rpm (eq. 463 ftlbs torque) * Fuel consumption: 0.51 lb/(hp·h) * Oil consumption: 0.03 lb/(hp·h)

...and a fair amount of patience...and possibly alcoholic beverages. Hmmm - I knew, I was in a disadvantage there: I gave up any alcohol. My life is a bit more orderly and better organized since - and much more boring (Lol!)

Update 09/01/09 15:07 Berlin time (GMT +2) jayo, England, added. Wildfowler, England, added. the maps are in post 1 of this thread

Thanks for the heads up, Lou, and that link. I see, the Alb is not the only tricky skin. Does the model form make such distortions necessary?

Roger, in the "downloads" you find a skin section. Download the skin(s) you want, unpack it by right-click on the file; then add the file here: (game folder) > campaigns > campaign data > skins

Dej and Bullethead, I recommend to make square math paper linings on a white part, plus additional numbers or colour dots, to find how what a specific part will work in the sim, and if it's distorted. Make screenshots, and import them into the skin file you work on. Then you keep that part on a separate layer, to work after it. That DVII looks great, Dej - and may give you some headache. But when you get it right, you'll have quite something to show off with here. Bullet, I don't give up easy - before I use "evasive moves", I will confront the problem from several angles, before I may give up.

It's not that easy Bullethead. Dej, the backplate is NOT represented rectangular; it's the part at the top of the skin bmp, and then only a little part of that (strangely). If it was only about a normal constant distortion, it would be simple. But when I did that, I got the pattern fields GROWING towards the tail, where they should have been rather smaller than the front ones. I think, they have first distorted the part perspectively that way, that the part grew SMALLER towards the front. And then they may have stretched the frontpart in width. I'm too tired now - may get on with it the next evenings.

1.32f ????? When was that released??? For gods sake - do I have to check that website EVERY day, to make sure I'm up to date????

Thanks for the poem and explanation, Dej. Then the word exists in both old languages, but means something different. In Friesisch, it means "Stand up tall" more or less, as the opposite to "kneel down" - showing your devotion to a king, you had to kneel down in those days. The Friesen never did that - they refused to have any kings, and even beat one in a battle. Another motto there is "Lewer dood as slav!" (Rather dead than slave!) The back part on the Albatros is indeed difficult. But I have an idea - I will place a white part with squares like math paper there - then I can see how it gets distorted.

Yes, I fire at enemy craft over longer ranges than usual, often deflection shots, and had good success with that. It's in my blood by now, no gun sights, just knowing, where the enemy will be, when you rounds arrive. But when the in-game numbers are yards, then I have made my longest-distance kill at 650 yards? No, that must be feet there, or not?