Olham

Hahaha!!! You couldn't do it if it had blue-white-red roundels, right?

Yes, with the luck one pilot may have, it feels like an hour glass - slowly but surely running out. And this one had several buckets of luck already... Hey, and I was lucky those where just "Fees"...

First I thought: how can you fly with one Entente aircraft against another? But then I'm thinking, one could really learn a lot in QC by fighting a certain type in the same. If I chase an S.E.5a with another, I see, what he can do to escape or to attack me, and what I can do against it - good idea for training. See you in "campaign" later, HomeBoy!

One of the FE2b's had turned round to fire at me; hadn't noticed; hole in the tank. I turned round towards the front line - I was two or three miles in enemy terrain, east of Ypres. About one mile still to fly, my engine stopped running. Thank you! Now be cool, I thought, if you find the lowest degree of nose down, to keep up the glide without stalling, you can perhaps make it. Feels like lying on a huge ball, arms and legs stretched out, trying to hold the balance! Closer and closer came the lines - and the ground! When I got received by groundfire from some 20 guns, I knew: if I would get through that, I might have made it. But right after the trenches came lots of trees - I had to go more left, without causing her to stall. The last bit, the ground zoomed towards me, and I touched down hard and bumped and bounced, but then she rolled out. Had we really made it? Yes, just behind the lines - could have been the end for my best DiD pilot! Sailplaning in Flanders - not bad!

Got to decide, which eye looks in the right direction (Lol!)

People who make a WW1 combat flight sim can't really be bad people. The pressure behind the making of such a complex product must be incredible. The producers, who give the money, want to release as early as possible; the makers/devs get little or no sleep during the final weeks; the printers and DVD producers wait for the sim to get burnt, packaged and delivered. And never - really never - the product is really READY at the deadline date. People who make a WW1 combat flight sim can't really be bad people - so let's give them the time it needs to finish. Try it, fly it or don't, but perhaps we should have the sense of decency, not to point or pick at them.

40 years ago, the step over to our single satelite, the moon was achieved by American astronauts. Just watched the TV docu drama "MOONSHOT" (GB 2008); and recommend it here to all, who have not seen it already. It's a combination of played scenes and documentary material; very impressive and moving, with some insight into privat lifes and "scenes behind the curtains" of NASA. Even more than 1969, when I was very young and optimistic, I chewed my fingers watching this again. Seeing the technology of that time and some failures, I feared for the Astronauts at hindsight, so to say. What did they dare - and how naive where we all. When I saw the pictures of people all over the world, staring at their TVs - even Pope Paul had for this live transmission set up an early colour TV - I understood more now than back in '69, how much this expedition had made everyone feel a member of the same, one humanity. Perhaps the greatest deed within this voyage.

Morning coffee? At 03:22 PM? Unbelieveable... (Lol!) Thanks, but again: it's Wikipedia info, not mine (but who would nowadays have 1. hand info). I'm really wondering, if the Nupe 28 could have been WORSE than flying a SPAD. The Nieuport looks so beautifully shaped, and they said, she was more manoeuverable; she had two Vickers - was she really so bad, or was she just a victim of the decisions made after those wing failures? I tried the SPAD several times now, but there's not much for turning - very much boom and zoom; and the DVIIs beat me up.

Pol, you seem to be a teaser sometimes - cheese, eyh? Stilton or Cheddar? OvS - when even you have lots of unconfirmed ones, I'm becalmed. Somehow, I seem to be a relative of Stachel too. And we both know - all our claims where true kills!

:lmaosmiley: :lol: Good one, Jim!!!

Hey, "Tripod" - a latex sock: okay, if it's necessary - a shoe: never!

No idea, Hauk, I think uninstall and reinstall won't take long? Much luck - perhaps some tech pilots know...

Hi, Duce So you're flying the "dark side" as they keep saying here - my side! Herzlich willkommen! Und danke fuer den Report! (Can you translate that?) Yes, wings from the other flight do that, but at least you can stop your own flight wingies (when you are lead) by pressing "R" (return to me). Then they should stop. Also, when you chase a marked target, and you press "H" help!, your direct wingman 1 will fire at that target, except when he finds someone behind you to attack. Great report, could see it all happen. I'd like to encourage you to report the special fights in "Reports from the front" sticky thread - I do that regularly. You could add screenshots. If your engine hadn't been hit, you could have finished them off by dive attacking and zooming up again, but this time, you did the very best you could do by getting back to base alive. Gut gemacht! You will grow better and better, once you find "your" fighter and stick to it long enough to REALLY learn how to fight in it. Have fun, blue skies! PS: blue DVIIs could have been Jasta 15 who saved you, if my memories don't fail me there - OvS? (Did they have red cowlings?)

For "time" and "expression for the kill" we have mostly "another way" in the poll. Please show us, which way you use. Winston, you seem to be the proof for a lot of data - not necessarily so wordy, though; but that's for the fun, I assume. UncleAl - yes the "Z" key is very useful; I press "pause" and "Z", cause I don't have another ingame watch. Burning Beard - how many do you get confirmed your way?

The "castor oil answer" was not right, Jim - it where "political decisions".

You wouldn't have a Christmas tree with burning candles in your flat all the year, would you? So, to me "burners" or "explosions in mis air" will remain something special - a "Wow! What was that" thing. Wouldn't have it all the time, if that was not so in reality. Edit: ...and right, Duce - even SPADs can flame, as the picture in my thread about flying the SPAD shows. An Albatros had killed one of my wingmen, and the SPADs engine caught fire.

NIEUPORT 28 First fighter craft for the American pilots The Nieuport 28's principle claim to fame is that it was the first aircraft to see service with an American fighter squadron. Design and development By the middle of 1917 it was obvious that the Nieuport 17 was unable to cope with the latest German fighters, and that direct developments of the 17, such as the Nieuport 24bis. were unable to offer a substantially improved performance. In fact, the Nieuport was already being rapidly replaced in French service with the SPAD S.VII. The Nieuport 28 design was an attempt to adapt the concept of the lightly built, highly maneuvrable rotary engined fighter typified by the 17 to the more demanding conditions of the times. It was designed to carry an up-to-date armament of twin synchronized machine guns, had a more powerful engine, and a new wing structure – for the first time a Nieuport biplane was fitted with conventional two spar wings, top and bottom, in place of the sesquiplane "v-strut" layout of earlier Nieuport types. The tail unit's design closely followed that of the Nieuport 27, but the fuselage was much finer, in fact it was so narrow that the machine guns had to be offset (*) to the left. Operational history By early 1918, when the first production Nieuport 28s became available, the type was already "surplus" from the French point of view. The SPAD S.XIII was a superior aircraft in most respects, and was in any case firmly established as the standard French fighter. On the other hand, the United States Army Air Service was desperately short of fighters to equip its projected "pursuit" (fighter) squadrons. The SPAD was initially unavailable due to a shortage of Hispano Suiza engines – and the Nieuport was offered to, and perforce accepted by, the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), as an interim alternative. A total of 297 Nieuport 28s were purchased by the Americans, and they were used to equip the very first American fighter squadrons, starting in March 1918. All together, four AEF "pursuit" squadrons flew 28s operationally, the 27th, 94th, 95th and 103rd Aero Squadrons. On 14 April 1918, the second armed patrol of an AEF fighter unit resulted in two victories when Lieutenants Alan Winslow and Douglas Campbell (the first American-trained ace) of the 94th Aero Squadron each downed an enemy aircraft. Several well known WWI American fighter pilots, including Quentin Roosevelt, the son of US president Theodore Roosevelt, as well as American aces like the 26-victory ace, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, began their operational careers on the Nieuport 28. [Picture: Rickenbacker with his Nieuport 28 – note * offset guns] On the whole the type was not a success, however. Although very maneuverable and easy to fly, its performance turned out to be mediocre and its engine unreliable. More seriously, the mixed plywood/fabric skinning of the wings proved problematic – the fabric which covered the rear portion of the wings tending to "balloon" and become detached from the plywood leading section. Although a solution to this problem was speedily found, the operational Nieuports in American service were replaced with SPADs as soon as sufficient of the latter became available. This process was complete by the end of July 1918. Got this text fro English Wikipedia (hope they got their facts right here); I shortened it a little. Photograph Rickenbacker borrowed from Wikipedia Photograph Nieuport in flight: Michael Fast - borrowed from www.flugzeuginfo.net Nieuport shemes borrowed from www.flugzeuginfo.net

Duce, from the looks of the Nupe 28, she is just beautiful. Here wing surface problems where solved quickly, but the decision to change for SPAD XIIIs wasn't reversed. The Nieuport 28 is reported to have been a two-gun craft that was very manoeuverable. I'd also like to see her in - maybe some day... (See my new thread "Nieuport 28" - when I got it done)

Brunettes always have been much more my taste. I need another WW1 air combat sim as much as I need a third shoe.

The pilot in the red-yellow striped Albatros DV seems to have been Wilhelm 'Willi' Reinhard. I would have added his pic and victories, but since 20 minutes, it is impossible to get through to the Aerodrome site from here, at 00:39 after midnight. Must be 18:30 American east coast time more or less - UncleAl, Cameljockey and OvS are hopelessly blocking up the web. Edit: ah - at 01:50 h I got in at last! So here's Wilhelm Reinhard's picture. He had 20 victories and succeeded MvR after his death as Geschwaderkommodore. After getting wounded in 1918, he was in Berlin-Adlershof for test flights. A wingfailure made him crash fatally, in June 1918. He had almoast made it...

To meet the man himself would be an impressive feeling to me, I'm sure. And the chance to meet him is reason enough for me to start an English campaign now, close to Brayelles.

Hey, Jim, the hardware facts sound great - don't think negative, old chap! And forget the 'old' - I'm sure here are so many experts (I'm none. sorry) that you will find help. I remember someone used those (UncleAl ?). I wish you much luck. But I fear, you'll have to learn dogfighting all new again. Please report, how you like them!

The red one - is that the 'Red Baron' himself? And who is the other pilot? Craft seems to be striped in deep red and ockre? Picture 1: that sight should make one's blood freeze, I suppose...

I'd like to make an exception here, and report, with screenshots, about my first campaign fight in a SPAD XIII with 103rd Aero, La Bonnemaison Ferme. Would you believe it - Albatros-Olham in an American fighter, shooting down an Albatros? Well, I had to overcome quite some emotions. I'd prefer to see this pilot as my cousin, Dennis Marlowe - the son of my father's brother, who had immigrated to North Carolina in 1892 (fictional). We encountered Albatros DVa and DVa 200, and we where equally numbered. As the Albs wanted to fight low, I had to go and stay down lower than I liked, but I feared for my fellow pilots, and though climbing up, to come down again, would just take too long. So I did more turnfighting than I should in this crate, and I must say, she's doing far better than I had feared after reading about her easy stalling at banking. I did have 4 - 5 minor stall situations, but without bad spinning, and I managed to get out of them. It seemed to me, that she behaved contrary to all my previous experiences with other stalling craft: I got her out by pushing FULL THROTTLE and pulling the NOSE UP a bit above horizon. It felt, as if she pulled herself out of the stall with sheer engine power. I will try that again, before I claim it a fact though. See the fighting picture with my steep banking, more than vertical wings! With full speed it was possible (I'm flying with 110 % realism; only auto-mixture is on). After flying a craft like the Albatros, which isn't so much a turn fighter, it did not feel to big a change to the SPAD - for a Nieuport or Camel pilot, it must be a big difference. The SPAD even has it's own beauty, as the shot on the field may show - enjoy my pics! Olham - arrhhm; Dennis Marlowe PS: oh, and I got him - the Albatros. Edit/PPS: My goodness - these French can make a comfy cockpit!

Please, all who click "another way" / "another expression" - would you show, how you write it? Thank you!