Olham

Hey, Hauksbee! I have just visited your website briefly (will have a closer look later). The dinosaur looks great! When you make T-Shirts - that could be something to do for OFF! I will try to make some designs - perhaps you can get them printed? PS: those Panzers, are they made for games?

Especially with the Albatros, I often seem to put her to a lot of "airframe stress", which may be "counted and summarized" by the program. So, even if I made it to the field in one piece, my lady may have to be "restructured", and the mechanics may curse me.

There are several aces flying Albatros with an all-black fuselage. Hermann Goering was one, Franz Ray (I think) also, he had a yellow/black tail. You need to collect more details to find out; from his plane, but also those of his wingmen. With "multicoloured", do you mean the Lozenge (polygon) camouflage? Which time in war was it? The easiest way though would be to switch labels on shortly, to read, and off again. But if you want to go the hard way: google for the program "DXTBmb", it's free for download. With that, you can browse through and open the skins. Maybe you'll find him. That way, you will realise, how incredibly many skins the team has made on Albatros alone. The skins are in the game folder > campaign > campaign data > skins The outcome of your downing of an ace will not influence history. The ace can be shot down, but he always survives it and comes back, until the bell tolls for him. But nevertheless can you be proud on shooting him down, and add that to the report.

Well, Prophead, now you know the easy bit of air combat - dying. Next time, try to last a little longer. It may take all the brothers of Cecil and Cyril, too, to find one 17 hour pilot among them.

Hi, Macklroy! For the claims, the facts seem to be most important. Type of craft, markings or Squadron/Esc./Jasta, when and were shot down; ace name known? You don't get all claims confirmed, when during the fighting your wingmen got carried away or die. If you had 3 kills, but after the first, no one's there anymore to witness, you will get only 1 confirmed. Ground crew doesn't count, it seems. And be careful with your wingman. A guy, who is on leave so often, may be a relative of the general? PS: please report, which claims worked better.

Sergeant Wildfowler! If you think, you only have to pretend to be an idiot, and we will let you on the ground to peel the spuds, you must think, we're idiots. A man who doesn't want to climb into a crate of wood and canvas, only to be shot at from twin Spandaus, can't be stupid! What you're lacking, is simply overview! Situational awareness! A pilot's life insurance up there. So, now you signed in, you better learn to keep your eyes open, and recognize, what they see! And believe me - once you're up there, you will never understand no more, how you could dream of peeling the spuds in the canteen kitchen. Dismissed!

A Dsherrmann hangar??! Me - destroyed???!!!! How could I do such terrible ssings to my Kaiser's equipment? I am an officer and gentleman pilot, mein Herr! Vee shoot down SPADs!!! But, vell, if you vant to split hairs - if you meant a shot SPAD, crashink into zatt hangar - because it's dyink pilot cramped - now, zatt is not in my hands, but his. French are famous for zeir cookink, right? For zeir wines! For l'amour ! (blush!) But not for pilotink, right?

Yezz, zere are! But you can djoin us! Come to der Kaiser's side of ze trenches! Fly der beautiful German planez, vizz der polished twin gunz! Ant 1.000 roundz of Dshermann quality ammunishion!!! Help us vipe der 'crumpetz" off ze skies!!! Mmmuahahahahaaaaaa!!!

Hi, Pol, and thanks for all that testing. Nice, you cared! I'm flying the D Va with Jasta 9. When Hasse Wind will not experience it, something may be wrong my end. But what? No new stick, nothing changed, except patching. But I couldn't bear it to have "aircraft stress" switched off, and put it on again. And then I flew almost carefully against some SPADs and killed them still. So, I can handle it. Oh, and yes, the yellow warnings are and alway were on. Can they possibly be put into the low center of screen? If not - I'll manage somehow to get used to it.

Hhmm - did we read about the same event? Cause, in my book, it says he was driven to Arras by an officer, who saw him; from Arras he phonecalled his Jasta and got brought back to his field, were he entered another plane, and chased after the British planes again... And I didn't mean to say: he got almost killed; I wanted to say: he could have got killed. Excuse my English - I'm German.

Good one, Jarhead!!! :rofl:

That's a jinx, or how you call that - I have the wing failures Hauksbee doesn't get. That's not fair!!! PS: I flew much more careful today and brought the lady home in one piece. Damn hard, to let them SPADs dive away, and not to follow!

Jasta 9, Vauxcéré, July 21st, 1918 Oberleutnant Juergen Mahlo What a day this is! About 03h00 in the morning, we got a call from a command post south-east of Soissons. Knapp is alive. They found him near the wreckage of his Albatros, unconcious. He had left all papers at the base; they didn't know, who he was, until he awoke. At 03h50, he was back with us, and we couldn't see a scratch, nor did he seem hurt in any way. He begged me to take him with me on our ground attack, early at 07h00. He looked so demanding, and he said, he had to get right back on that horse, or he might loose his nerves. So, how could I say "no"? I wish, I had. East of Soissons, we spotted 4 SPAD XIII high above us. They didn't hesitate long, and came down on us. A frightening moment, when they come like huge hawks, growing bigger and bigger. We had just begun the turning, when I saw 2 more SPADs arrive from the north. But Stemmler, Gottschling, Knapp and the new Eugen Koch fought very well; so I could take on the visitors. They had a blue echelon painted on their planes, they were obviously unexperienced, and they are dead now; they fell at 07h39 and at 07h42, near Soissons. The second though, he had almost lured me to fly into an obs balloon - I hadn't seen the damn thing! I went down to help my wingmen with the remaining two SPADs, but they finished them off. I decided, not to continue for the ground attack, as I had perhaps left 300 - 400 rounds, and I didn't know, how much my wings had left. So, we headed home. Knapp is missing again. Between Ambrief and Mont de Soissons airfield, we came across a bigger dogfight. Three or four D VII from Jasta 28w, with their yellow and black tail fins, were turning with at least four SPADs. South, I saw four more SPADs, beginning to attack Ambrief field. I decided, that the Fokkers could help themselves, and took my flight over to help Ambrief. But when I just got into hunting one SPAD, I noticed that mad Fokker below me, also firing at him. Looking around, I realised, I was surrounded by 3 SPADs and three D VIIs now. Fokkers everywere! I shot my last rounds into the bulky, camouflaged plane, when it suddenly lay on it's back and pulled headover into a hangar; resulting in an explosion and a fire. I went right out of this furball now, and collected my flight. Passing Mont de Soissons Ferme, we saw 5 Fokker Dr.1 with blue fuselages. I felt safe like a baby now. Never before had I seen so many German fighters present. Approaching our field, we had to go round three Bristol fighters - those are nasty opponents; well fortified and very aggressive. But then I saw, they were hunted already - I spotted four more D VII with greyish Lozenge camo approaching them. Back on the ground, there was no plane to be seen or heard anymore. Combat had moved on. We had our lunch outside the back of the mess, sitting on a slope in the grass. A cricket hopped into my hot soup and got boiled. Avoid the too hot places - how much longer will we be able to?

Why not offer Microsoft a percentage on each sold copy, for the rights, to put the necessary data, that we now have to load from the CFS3 disc, directly on the BHaH-disc? That would attract more buyers.

Winder: ...and we think its still very special. What took you so long to find out?

Wow, Dej - now you made it up so beautifully, I will read it all (I'm not the great reader of large posts otherwise, but the form and style of your journal makes it something special). But Pol is right - it's a bit tricky to read, as I'm not even thinkin' in English.

As UncleAl didn't say it again (he must be tired of repeating it): there's his very usefull thread: "OFF Tips and Cheats" were you can find answers to all such practical questions.

As some have said, my above report should perhaps have been in "Combat Reports from the front"; so I have posted the second report of Oberleutnant Juergen Mahlo there now. Here is just a pic from his last fight.

Okay, I admit, that I switch it on shortly sometimes, to check, were the planes are, that I have to escort; after having been distracted by attacking SPADs. What everyone seems to enjoy though here, is the atmosphere, when it's switched off again; the more natural view of all around you.

How often must I repeat this: - I have NOT changed my fighting style! - No Albatros EVER broke up before in Phase 2, nor in BHaH before patch 1.28 - NEVER! - It only happens to me now, after 1.28 (and that, although it is said to be made rather stronger; and despite I'm flying the Hardcore damage model, that should make her stronger again).

There is, Creaghorn. I always used "Dead is dead", and I have been in hospital for 20 days. After that, you can go on. But, as Tttiger said, "Die roll at death" makes the same sense. You loose your records and begin like a new pilot, but you don't have to write it all again.

Widow, I just have 5 pilots right now. One of them is doing the DiD standards flying. If he should die, I still have the others. I do it like this: I start first flight with my DiD pilot. If that went rather stressfull and bad, I don't fly another sortie with him, but choose another brother, for some fun. I don't fly the DiD man, when I'm tired, nervous or elsehow distracted too much. Make yourself a brother in arms, and try it with him - it's sheer excitement!

Ditto to Widowmaker's words, and Welcome in this experience, Prophead. You may not find that much air activity in 1916, but believe me: in 1918, it can be mad as hell. So, not the wrongest way, to start a bit quieter, until you can handle everything. Have you got TrackIR? If not - it's absolutely great for air combat simmers.

Hi, Rickity - great you're enjoying TrackIR so much. Yes, flying this way increases the thrill, the feeling of actually being there, having to care for yourself and your wings. An intensive, lively feeling. Griphos and Hasse Wind: Absolutely! Ditto! Macklroy, binoculars would be possible; so for IDing other planes, you may press "+" several times, to zoom the image. Another tip: don't use "padlock view". There is a command key for toggle between the view in fixed angles, and the pan or glide view (forgot how it's called). Now, you can put this command on a thumb knob of your stick. You can now check the overall situation with gliding view, and when it comes to direct fighting, switch to fixed angles view. That is much faster for checking the six, or left and right; better for fighting. Inbetween you may switch back for overall check. Also, try to mark a target, and then switch off TAC. As far as I remember, you could then still assign new targets, without the screen on?

"Strawberries, cherries, and an angel's kiss in spring; sweet summer wine..." Yeah, the army days. I wouldn't want to live them again; but wouldn't want to miss them either.