Olham

Okay - was about time for the first SPAD. So, now we have: E III 1 Halberstadt 2 Alb DII 3 Alb DIII 1 SE5a 4 Strutter 1 Sopwith Pup 2 F2b 1 Nupe11 1 Nupe17 5 SPAD XIII 1 Did you ever try the SPAD VII, MK2 ? Although (or because) only single gunner, much more agile!

Anyone else doing things like this, just for fun? Not a big problem, when you have Photoshop, or something similar. If you have some own "cheats", please come up with them here.

cosmos33, I understand your suffering. And when you are in the sim, you will realise, that you should have even suffered harder. So good is it! Remember, how pre-X-mas was, as a child? Try to see it that way; even when you're grown up now (Lol!!)

http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww1/f/415/59 This is a lovely site with lots of plane types/skins. I had it posted before, but read now, that some of you didn't come to grips with it. Now, you choose your plane from the list on the left; then in the middle appears a choice of nationalities, of which they have paintings. Choose one, and on the right, you'll get a list of planes, ordered in pages. Click on a page, and you'll see all the preview pics of the skins. Click on the skin, you want to see, and it will come large. Enjoy!

You mean, like this one, Paarma? I wonder, how Widow will get to grips with the skies? (Lol!!) Edit: and here's a Finnish D VII with skies on. Both are from the great WINGS PALETTE site: http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww1/f/111/78/0

Welcome, Macklroy! Enjoy the waiting-for-delivery time. It will, at hindsight, be the longest lifespan you had as an OFF pilot (Lol!)

Good report, Lou - I see, you're having fun. And when this happens in future: "I had seen Commander Reynolds suddenly jinx off to the south and a split second later I was under attack." you will know, what it means, and react a bit faster.

Here's what Wikipedia have about it: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_C.II It was used 1916, and into first half of 1917. It could not only defend itself, but, like the Strutter for example, operate like a heavy fighter. "Bloody April 1917" was, more than a fighter's fight, an airbattle of mainly two-seaters. ROLAND C II Technische Daten * Charakteristika o Hersteller: Luftfahrzeug Gesellschaft m.b.h, Berlin Charlottenburg (Roland) o Typ: Aufklärungsflugzeug (Reconnaisance plane) o Motor: ein 160 PS Mercedes D.III wassergekühlter Sechszylinder Reihenmotor (watercooled 6cylinder inline) o Erstflug: Oktober 1915 o Stückzahl gebaut: circa 300 o Besatzung: zwei Mann * Abmessungen o Spannweite: 10,33 m (Wingspan) o Länge: 7,70 m (length) o Höhe: 2,90 m (height) o Flügelabstand: 1,32 m (dist. between wings) o Leitwerksspannweite: 2,08 m (tail fin span) o Tragflügelfläche: 27,96 m² (wing surfaces) * Gewicht (weight) o Gewicht (leer): 789 Kg, andere Quelle: 764 Kg o Gewicht (beladen): 1309 Kg, andere Quelle: 1284 Kg * Leistung o Höchstgeschwindigkeit: 165 Km/h o Steigrate 1000m: in 7 Minuten (climb rate) o Steigrate 2000m: in 14 Minuten o Steigrate 3000m: in 26 Minuten o Flugdauer: 4-5 Stunden (flight time) And, yes, you can fly all sides. I have had two pilots, on S.E.5a and Sopwith Camel; besides my German pilots. That is so great about this sim: the choice!

Louvert: So, who is Wolf Mahlo's replacement going to be Olham? We repeat history, right? So I'm lucky - I can repeat Wolfram "Wolf" Mahlow (this time with a "W", as a difference). Hasse Wind: Maybe Wolfram can write a complaint to their CO through the Red Cross? Wellllll - the Red Cross, you say? I don't think, it was against the Geneve Convention, that enemy ground crew fired at me. Lol!!! Hellshade: ...chasing after a Spad XIII (---) and as he flys low over the ground, tracer fire hits him near head on and his plane just explodes, stealing my kill! Well, this is NOT a reason to complain, really. I mean, they took an enemy plane out. That's their goddamned job! (Lol!!!)

So far, we have this result: E III 1 Halberstadt 2 Alb D II 3 Alb D III 1 SE5a 4 Strutter 1 Sopwith Pup 2 F2b 1 Nupe11 1 Nupe17 5 Some more to take part here?

I can't see, that everyone is flying for the German side - I rather think the opposite. We can check that in my thread "Which plane do you fly mostly?" though... My reasons: - I am German, so I identify with this side of the lines, like Widowmaker does with his, flying Camel (that's for the actual combat flying - not any politics behind that for me. But had I been a pilot, I would have been a German one). - The colourful painted planes look so much greater (yes, they do, Widow - not all Camel s**t green - Lol!!). - Almost all German fighters carry a more powerful armament (two machine guns) and more ammo. But you'll find lots of S.E.5 pilots, Nieuport pilots, SPAD pilots and Camel pilots around here.

Here's a German site, I just found. Must check the download though, not sure, if there's more detail. http://web2.altmuehlnet.de/luklam/Modellbau/Props.htm

Actually, I have flown the Eindecker. And I even managed to do an Immelmann in it. If you want to try, you should have some altitude, lower the nose to gain good speed, and there you go! Try it - it's fun! Flying like MvR isn't my cup of tea. All on safety - I don't know. For me, it's a game still. (Not for him though, so I can understand him well). I'll carry on, having or building up two pilots, that should last longer; and one for the mad gunzablazing craze.

My best pilot Wolfram "Wolf" Mahlo just got captured. We spotted a flight of 4 SPAD XIII deep below, attacking an army camp. Easy prey, I thought, and led my flight downwards. When we levelled with them, one SPAD was badly shot up by ground fire, she fell like a stone. That should have been my warning! Cause they were now heading home; the lines were already close. Fast as they are, we found it hard to catch up with them. When I saw in the map, that we were above the line, I turned round, to remain over our territory - only to get heavily shot at. I checked the map, but was right - we had returned over our territory! The shooting went on though, and I was so terribly hit (splinters flew around me), that I had to introduce an emergency landing. But they kept firing from all guns like mad. "This is an Albatros, you mad b*****s, you stupid m***********s; bunch of idiots!!!" They really made it into a crash landing! Could I have walked, I would have run right over there, to clobber them...! Jesus!!! But now came the strange part. On exit, I was told, I was now captured and a POW for the rest of the war! After that, I have switched AA gunnery back to "normal" (better than "not normal!") and have sworn myself: never shall I cross the front lines again below 2.500 feet. Dammit! Mollusks!! Brainless like bread!!! PS: Wish I could say: Look, another kill. But this SPAD was also killed by FLAK, short before I could shoot it up. These AA men really are a pain in the a** today!

Well, I received a PM of her. She is really doing a tour with the orchestra or band, to France and Italy, soon. They may be rehearsing a lot now. And if the RoF people asked her to help, that's okay. She isn't only a pilot - this girl has flown the Fokker Dr.1 - and even performed Voss' flat turn manoeuver in it. She'll be back soon.

This could be my solution for my impatience at making kills, resulting in short carreers. I felt different with my pilots, and the same way each time I "used" them. Two of them, I value meanwhile, and wouldn't want to loose them through bloodthirst and crazyness. The thirs is still so new, and flying the Dr.1, that I like to go crazy with him. When I start BHaH now, I choose the right pilot for the momentary mood. If I'm into gunzablazebloodthirstcraze, I use the Dr.1 pilot (he never made it to more than three sorties yet). But if I'm quieter, and into some lasting success, I use the other two. The Dr.1 pilot had the max. kills so far - 8 kills in only 3 sorties. But he's dead again...

Jammer; I assure you, ignorants, blockheads and crass people florish here, too. And some of the nicest people here in the forum are Americans. What I like about (the few) Americans I actually met in life, was the forward looking optimism. So, I like "old Europe" for it's large basement of history, and very developed lifestyles; and America for looking optimistic towards the future, and the Americans for their uncomplicated way of meeting new people. Very open and friendly. And I won't excuse either. I mean, the poll is growing - even when we came off topic a bit.

Jammer - it may well be, that Americans often do not know much about Europe, and us Europeans. But we know a lot about America. Good school education, thirst for knowledge, and admiration are some good reasons.

Hey, Jammer, good links! I wonder, if we may use the OFF music for BHaH videos, we post in YouTube? YouTube is recently very strict about music in the vids. But if we would name the composer, and he or the team allow the use for this specific purpose? Perhaps someone from the team can clear this?

Flirting shamelessly with our age here . Well, if the 40 - 60 beams are growing most, no wonder. That's were the money is! (or should be? Lol!!!)

LOL, pity there's no real on line way to fly and find out. Well, there might be in future. When I finally have the money together to update my rig, I could join Multiplayer games. But I assume you're a very good fighter pilot, and so I'm not sure, if I want to be the fox for your hunt (Lol!) Must definitely improve my tactics. I can only tell you that in QC (which I don't think counts for much because the AI are much better in Campaigns) I fly head-to-head against AI aces and I've NEVER lost in an SE5a. Well, same for me, with my Albatros versions. But as you say - QC doesn't count. You know before, what type and how many you'll encounter, and that they will appear right now etc. I admire much more cold blooded campaign pilots (as I think you are), who care about the tactic rules, situational awareness, and advantage/disadvantage etc. And then even may break off and zoom back home, when it's useless. Personally (and very subjectively) I think the DVa is over-modeled. It shouldn't be able to dive as well as it does without snapping a lower wing. I have lost my lower wings now three or four times; and in a QC testflight earlier on today, it was close to another accident of that kind. I don't know, how easy or often that would have occured, and how realistic the model is. But I'm getting quite some disadvantage from the way it is. SPADs regularly dive away like hell. I can only keep cool, and say to myself: we'll meet again on the deck - for your slaughter! But, again, all we can do is fight the AI, which, one-on-one isn't much of a challenge. How do you mean? You know, you can choose more than one opponenet or wingmate, surely, in QC ? Edit/PS: SittingDuck regularly does Multiplayer session in the net. They even have a Jasta and a Squadron; you can enter one of them, and as far as I know, that works pretty good. Isn't there an MP announced right now? Think, I saw a thread. They'd surely welcome you!

Enjoy that peace and learn to handle your crate well. The day will come, when you wish, you could get beamed back there. I just had a flight, there were 3 planes in a cubic space of 300 x 300 x 300 feet. I needed the situational awareness of a Chinese ping pong player. But I can't play ping pong...

Honestly - I admire your style, Hasse Wind. Instead of giving up on a mediocre fighter plane, you take it and make the best of it. Flying after Dicta Boelke, being patient and careful, you may achieve more than the famous 17 hours, and slowly but surely, collect a great kill tally. I am the stupid opposite - the fool around here, if it comes to lasting longer. It seems, I can't have it any other way but take all enemies available on, have some really great fights, with 3 or more kills per sortie - but after 3 - 5 sorties: dead! But with Wolfram "Wolf" Mahlo, I'm doing better so far. He is the fiendishly, clever Wolfpack leader, who fights with more strategy. Last time we met Camels, my pack had them shredded to thousand tiny hand- tall pieces, before I couldreally join in. But I had ordered and controlled the whole action. It took less than two minutes, although it was 4 against 4, and the Camels had attacked from 3.000 feet higher! Were is your Jasta 10 stationed, by the way?

Bump maps? (Disco beat on:) Dooo the bump, doobidooahh! Do the bump - doobidooo! Do you really mean bump maps - never heard of that? If you mean bmp (Bitmaps): yes, Photoshop deals well with them. Convert the dds skin file into a bmp file, and you can work in it. Later, reconvert it into dds. With DXTBmp for example - free download; must google it.

Luiz, if you join an Escadrille, make sure, it is "offensive", not "defensive". You can find that in the choice menue. And, as Interlocutor said, some have more, and others less action. If you settle near Arras in 1916, you should "have fun" - on the other side are Bertincourt and Brayelles. Some of the finest German aces around there. And me, with my Albatros DII.