Olham

Camel of Wilfred Henry Wilmot, RNAS 10; 1917

The Pfalz D XII looks almost like a Fokker D VII, but wasn't as good, nor could it anything better than the D VII. So, the Pfalz would be no improvement for the German side. The absolute competitors for the next German model would be the outstanding Fokker D VIII, and the Siemens-Schuckert D III or D IV. The latter for it's unbeaten climb rate, that made it a perfect interceptor, and it's good agility.

Pol or Winder, any advice here? I used to have a more modern typestyle in the log first, and also had that "pending" thing at the end of my reports. But now, the type style changed to something near "Times", and some of the end of my report was missing. No "pending" thing at all. Must I now worry, not to get any confirmations? What should I do?

Thanks, Gous. Hope you enjoy your flights? Have you made confirmed kills already, or are you mad like me - full risc, and always dying? Lol!

Ditto to that, for sure! Just worked on a new skin for my Albatros. I went through the many skins they made, for the Albatros D V and D Va alone! It's just unbelieveable! And I found a yellow one, were the stencil written weight, load and fuel data were still on the sides. Even people, who might not notice exactly, what is so special, will definitely find this extremely immersive. I just phone talked to a friend after a dogfight, and he said "You sound, as if you are still in Flanders!" He was right - I called from the airfield (Lol!)

Congrats, HELLSHADE I must admit, that, since I started all new after a messed up system reinstall, I haven't got any kills confirmed yet. Usually, my pilots die, before I would see that to happen (Lol!) Carry on. And write many details in the report. When you have killed one, you may press "pause", and then "Z". Now you get lots of data. Try it with the exact time and altitude. Also look up in the map, were you are right then - like "south-east of Moreuil airfield". Carry on! Olham

You bet, Rickitycrate! And the mission, that crashed at the exit yesterday, came again today! But this time, I could just kill two SPAD XIII, which I think is still much more than expected. I made some screens of my new skin, the "Wolf", which I add here. And for the reports - I'll write a good one, when I survived something special. Have fun and come back in one piece, Jim!

34% - much better than in OFF, I'd say. And that without TrackIR (Lol!)

Got a detail mixed up above. The deep-red Esc. markings were on the Nieuports (kind of dragon or snake). The SPADs had a yellow-black sort of snake, which I hadn't noticed in flight (only saw it close, when I just looked up the skins).

A batman? I always thought, that's a comic hero. But then another (non-war) song comes to my mind: "I was Kaiser Bill's batman" Widow - could you explain to a hard-learning German airman, what a batman is?

Good one, RABU! So I suggest, that all German voters must attach a picture of them, standing underneath a German road name sign (Lol!) But: the D VIII or the Siemens-Schuckert - we would get a hell of a weapon in both cases.

Can only agree, Griphos Thanks for that nice report - so it IS worth going back as far as 1915. Carry on, Wels (you know, that Wels/Catfish is a FISH, not a CAT, do you, CATF... arhm - Wels?)

I came to OFF in October, but seem to be a rookie, still. FM, CoG - call me out-of-date or old fashioned, but I don't understand the shorts quite often. Perhaps easier for the English? I'd be happier, if you would write them out.

Don't choose "fast reply" but "reply". Then, below your text window, you find "manage current attachments". Max. single upload size: 3 MB. Cheers, Rooster. Olham

JG II "Berthold", Jasta 15; Bonneuil Ferme / Golancourt Field 26, April 1918 Mission order: Railyard attack on Rail Marshalling 168 Takeoff: 08:15 h Wheather: low clouds, misty Flight 1: Rudolf Berthold, Joachim von Ziegesar, Walter Dingel + two new wingmen Flight2: myself, Rolf Krawolitzki, Hans-Joachim von Hertzen The wheather looked better than in the forecast; it wasn't misty; the heavy thunderclouds were of the same gray as the sea ooze between the isle of Norderney and the mainland of Ostfriesland, my beloved homeland at the north sea. It was my first flight with Jasta 15 (I arrived yesterday afternoon) and my second with an Albatros D Va; after the introduction yesterday. Felt good immediately; Berthold is a quiet, intelligent man; I felt safe with his flight. West of waypoint 9, south-east of Moreuil, we encountered two flights. The first, 6 Sopwith Strutter, crossed our way some 2.000 feet higher up, but Berthold didn't care. Watching the other flight, I climbed sideways, to eventually get behind them. They were 5 Nieuport 17, and they jumped on Flight 1. Their last mistake! Berthold's flight split up, diving - but only to pull up again; and now, they had advantage of hight. They finished of the light grey planes, before I could even reach them. I was a bit disappointed. Had I been too careful? But wondering soon was over - 4-6 SPAD XIII came chasing down from between the clouds; carrying the deep-red marking of Escadrille 88. Now, my distance became my advantage. I think, they hadn't even seen me! Everyone was tossing and turning, spiraling down. I ordered attack for von Hertzen, but signed Krawolitzki to cover me. And down we shot like Valkyries - the SPAD's didn't realise, what happened! I hit the first craft so devastating, it expploded; and I regained altitude. The D Va is doing that fine; very strong, she carried me back up. A look over the shoulder - Rolf still there with me. He is a very good wingman; he remained behind me throughout the whole fight! In a turn, I saw another SPAD attacking von Hertzen; chasing him down, firing all the time. I thought, I heard the hammering; saw smoke coming off von Hertzen's craft! Oh, if I could only get there faster! I went down like a falcon, almost vertically, but no problem with the wings! And then I see von Hertzen crash right into the mud, and the SPAD pulling up again. But now I got him right in front of me. He got a terrible burst and seemed to fall sidewards. He recovered a bit, but I was round my half turn and there again. I literally shot him to pieces, and my rage was so terrible, that I only missed his stalling plane by inches - that could have been my own end! My next victim was a bit higher up, turnfighting with two Albatros. When it got too close for him, he broke away and thought, he'd escape with a shallow dive and his speed advantage. Again, I'm sure, he didn't have me on the checklist. He ran right into it, turned on his back and pulled down hard into the soil. Now there was only one left. Quick check - Rolf still there. Good guardian angel! I approached the last SPAD from underneath. It tried to steal away, smoking. Now, I was faster. I went close, pulled up and fired some 100 - 150 rounds into it. He performed a slow left turn and crashed into a group of trees. My god, what a morning! Berthold served champaign in the mess, before lunch, and I was off duty for the rest of the day. So, I dug out my bottle of old Armagnac from my suitcase and drank two (or three?) glasses with Krawolitzki. We drank on von Hertzen. Rolf said to me, I shouldn't quarrel with myself. I had chosen the right fights from the best angles; he had felt safe behind me all the time. After that, we didn't speak no more. [it is a real shame, and I was pretty annoied, that after "end flight", when I pressed "yes" on the question, if I really wanted to end the flight, the game or system totally crashed. I could only do the monkey grip. Could that be from TrackIR? Anyone made a similar experience?]

Hi, Baywing Yes, I had that twice - I stalled and fell down a bit, and they stopped shooting at me. Why should Winder take that out? Human pilots WOULD possibly get cheated? Thank you, Bullet; and have fun in Phoenix (Lol!) I'll see what I can use - I wonder, if the AI would get confused, if I PRETEND something ?

If you devels should consider this poll at all: please remember, that the "Allied voters" are at least 75% against German voters of 25%. So, votes for the D VIII should be multiplied by 3, to be fair (and then she wins, WomenFly2 !)

Hey, that sounds good, Griphos Maybe I'm still missing a lot by flying fighters only. But then there are still all the Allied fighters yet to be flown. Ah - it's incredible - maybe stuff for years!!!

Heeeyy! Nice you get on so well - now the only thing missing is the bar, were you could get drunk together (Lol!) But what about the rest of us? The stuff about "energy and angles fighters" just became interesting! You mentioned figures from the book. Do you think, you could show them here, without bringing up Mr. Shaw against you too much? I'd be really keen on learning, how to counter the obviously superiour Camel?

These I made some weeks ago, when I had no TrackIR yet. If you hadn't seen them on the old forum; enjoy. Ride of the Valkyries End of a Hunter Day of the Albatros Unfortunately, after patching and with TrackIR on, I don't get reasonable framerates anymore, so I can't make movies right now. But I'm upgrading, and in a couple of weeks, I'll produce more.

My goodness - youth and uniforms... I used to have kind of a self-tailored American blue north states uniform - a blue jeans with yellow stripes on the side, a blue shirt with golden knobs and golden sergeant's angles, a yellow neckerchief and a black hat with a golden band around it and golden crossed sabres on the front. Seeing your son now, I see me, many years ago. (Don't bother - he'll come off the "colonial time dreams" himself, when he grows up. Quicker than you even like...)

Hahaha! Great report, Creaghorn. Perhaps zee Dshermanns invented zee psycholodgik warfare?! Vee paint zee planes most colorful ant bright, and zee enemy ssinks, vee vere not at all affraid of zem! Cheers. Olham

Have you played online already, Widowmaker? (If so: what did you fly? How did it go for you?) I consider myself as still being just too bad for it. I must learn this all again, as the plane's behaviour was changed a lot; I even had those close-to-ground stalls again in the Albatros, which I thought I had overcome.

For a beginner's flight training, you can pick "free flight" in "Quick flight", and take all the time you need to learn to know your plane and exercise manoeuvers. For first combat experiences: You could enter service as "flieger" (I don't know the Allied equivalent - lowest rank). Then follow your leader and the pilots, who's wingman you now are. Fly defensive, but help your comrades out, if you can, without putting yourself to risk too much. Run away, when you feel, it's the best you can do.

To collect an ace's impressive kill tally here, you got to - remember and follow all the golden rules - run more often than you kill As I said elsewere before: Udet's kill tally was collected by having 1 kill every 15 flights. (Or you fly like me: I have a hundred and plus lifes and names. I'm the devil's soap box opera actor. I'm the reincarnation of the rookie fool. I have to go through this again and again, until my karma may change. And I'm getting killed every 5 flights; or even more often...)