Olham

Well, it must be a hard job to do such a cup final. Had he wistled like the ref in the first German play, it would have become a disaster. I think, as an English ref, he knows that such matches will have some rougher tacklings, and didn't want to pull tickets too easily. Then towards the end he realised, he should have pulled some earlier, and now, after enough warning words, he produced them. I'm sure they showed him some of the nasty scenes in slomo in the break. But had he wistled too much, they would have had a word with him about that then. A job with little gratitude - seems, whatever you do: everyone hates you. I think, he could have done a far worse job today.

I didn't find him "trigger-happy". I mean, the way the Netherlands played, he could (and perhaps should) have dealt out several more yellow, and at least one red card. The kick into the chest was without any example I had ever seen before - you can kill with a kick like that! He rather tried NOT to destroy the match, and so he was perhaps too careful rather. I was really glad, when in the end that team had won, that deserved it. It could have been a nice match, if the ref had told the Dutch, that is was a football match. European football - not American.

Hmmm - then this pilot might be corrupted. If you haven't already achieved much with him, you could leave him alone and start another pilot in the same squadron, same date - to see if he works better?

Well, the top tick box is for 18.000 feet in my OFF Workshop. The medium one for 10.000 feet, and the low one for 3.000 feet. I don't want to make you look stupid, but I myself have sometime gotten things wrong, simply because I only did believe I knew what I had done. On second looks, I found, I shouldn't trust my beliefs.

A thread full of interesting stuff, indeed! This last post was also new to me; I know that rhyme from the German rock group CAN. They made their tunes incl. the singing and words mostly in improvised sessions. Their first singer, the American Malcolm Mooney, used this rhyme, or at least parts of it in the song "Mary, Mary". So now I know that he used an old nursery rhyme with a cruel meaning.

I'll see what I can do, Lou. And yes, Wagner's "Wallkürenritt" is a theme to raise immediate fighting spirits. And as you are going to fly a German carreer, I started a British one today - and not in the easiest kite. I'm flying with 29 RFC with McCudden and Tempest; we use the late DH-2. Challenging after an Albatros, but easier to fly than some think. I do even like this craft, for it's good forward view. And TrackIR makes it wonderful to strech up in your seat to look rearwards through the rotating engine! This kite has probably been flown far too little so far. (for more see "Reports from the Front")

RAF_L: ...immediately the pilot shouts "Clear", to indicate "Get out of the way you silly sod!", (as if any mechanic with half a brain wouldn't be well away as soon as the engine fires up). Yes, natural selection a la Darwin - those who didn't move, are dead. Thanks for the proceedure, Lou. So there are actually two voices necessary. I'll see if I can do it with a friend I make music with - he should know how to treat the files, and you could then "glue" them together with the right engine sound (inline! Please!!)

Cripes, what a challenge - maybe even more for you than for me, Lou! Ringo's and Pol's voices are really sexy compared to mine, which sounds like a Troll in hibernation mumbling something ununderstandable out of a cave. Does anyone know, what they would have shouted (in German) when they started an engine?

...and the Macchi sea planes! Imagine to have one of these!

As I said above - Escadrille 94.

Good info, EricGen - would be great to have the Italian-Austrian theater in OFF, too, eyh?

Nieuports have the tendency to turn towards you, as close as they can. Best avoid them - if they are hit, they sometimes even collide with you. So stay high, and don't get too near them - even when you are behind them - they may pull up vertical, and you crash into them. Gute Jagd!

Your Staffel as well as your aircraft are a very good choice to start flying OFF. Jasta 2 has a high morale, so the pilots in 1. Kette (A-flight) should be really good in dangerous situations. Also the wingmen in such Jasta act and react more efficient than in the mediocre or bad ones. Your fighter, the Albatros D.I / D.II is a very stabile and sturdy craft. In it's time, it is fast, climbs quite well, at least below 5.000 feet, and it has a devastating fire power, as it fires about the double amount of rounds compared to the British and French single gun aircraft. Your strength is rather to "boom and zoom", but in LEFT turns, you can even keep up with Nieuports and Sopwith Pups. If you are not that good yet, the best you can do is to hit the enemy craft early in the fights, stay highest of all flyers, "pepper" as many as you can, and when they can only fly half of their performance - shoot them down. The Bordeauxred Baron (my alter ego): "Mmuahahahahahahaaaaaa!!!!"

Zatt iss TOP SSECRETT, Herr von Oben - Militärisches Geheimnis!

Yes, that explains it. If you should get killed and want to start again there: Jasta 2 get the Albatros D.I earliest of all Jasta - I think on September 9th. You will get the same craft, as we don't yet have the D.I yet. You would have a bit longer time of good weather then, before nasty November comes.

They were French, Hasse Wind - it was a "non Full Did" flight, and I had switched the Labels on to check, which aces I had met. But the ones I flew closly to, were normal airmen. They were from Escadrille 94, which has a larger reaper than the Americans. It is all white bones and scythe, running forward. If you like that sign, this might be a French Escadrille for you - a good one even, as I saw!

There you are - congratulations, vonOben! Generally, you may get about a third of all claims rejected. Which squadron and craft are you flying?

Well, you had the craft type right - later on his SPAD XIII, his emblem was the rising black stallion, that we know from the Ferrari sign.

Hasse Wind: Did you see the emblems? Yes, they had reeper skelettons on their sides.

Gawd - when they started singing like castrated roosters, I never managed to drink enough to reach the state were I didn't bother. And I was in the army then!

Capitano Francesco Baracca, 91a Squadriglia, SPAD XIII

Now I'm really wondering: since the release of HitR, I had not flown in 1918 much. And now I meet those guys in their SPAD XIII - not even aces - and they smoked us! They used a more "oval tactic" - all performing oval circling; approaching, firing, leaving fast! An Albatros D Va can't follow that, particularly, when they dive after passing you. So, each time I wanted to follow one, the oval of another came to it's closest point, and I got shot at. I could not find a way into the fight, nor a way out of it - I was lost! Did anyone else notice that? (I must write to the Geneva Convention - changing the SPAD, without getting me informed! Tch!!) It was a great flying of those French pilots - they used the best of their kites, and I'll have to be much more careful next time.

Not yet won, Davy, not yet - the boys seemed very low after their loss; but thanks anyway. Good old Neil definitely belongs into the Olymp of the Rockstars; that I don't like his voice doesn't mean anything. I even have a record of his music - the soundtrack to the Jarmush movie "Dead Man" (good film; good soundtrack).

Neil Young? Arrggghhh!!! What about Blur (well, they don't exist no more, but) or Archive ("Lights"!) ?

The Bordeauxred Baron: You von't hav to vorry about any of ziss, Herr Rabu, in a Dsherrmann plane. Der Dsherrmann fighters hav two 08/15 "Spandaus" vizz 1.000 roundz - so you can twitch, shoot from long distanz, jump from plane to plane - you vill get zem all down anyway. Mmuahahahahahahaaaaaa!!!!