Hauksbee

And so it is! 'Happening right before my eyes. I feel better already. Danke!

I don't know, Olham; once you've donned the awesome mantle of power and responsibility, it changes everything. And you can't go back to those carefree, simpler days. Ah well.

Right. But, now that I'm a Moderator, do I have to embrace moderation?

Welcome aboard mate! If you're learning the ways of OFF, definitely start your campaigns in 1917. The SE-5 on the British side flies very well. As does the Sopwith Pup. Nice, stable flight characteristics, no viscious habits. On the German side, the Albatros (Olham rarely flies anything else), the Pfalz D.III, and the Fokker D.VII (1918). Anything prior (1915-1916) will be horribly underpowered and have lethal flight characteristics. If you've flown WWII Flight Sims, OFF can take some getting used to.

Ah yes, well...sometimes, the office makes the man. A quiet, unassuming chap, once vested with authority, can become a...well, we'll wait and see on that. And as for the "...just two fingers", the intent was, "just two fingers at a time". This is fine 'sipping whiskey'. Not that colored paint thinner they push in the mess. But when you finish your two, there'll be another two waiting.

Be'demmed! I went to bed a civilian, and woke as an OFF Moderator! My 'Authority' emblazoned under my avatar! (that was really fast, Dave!) Lifted from obscurity and swept into office on a groundswell of public approbation. (At least I think so, since it happened while I was asleep) My e-mail InBox, which normally sees only ads for Viagara On Sale, is now packed with congratulatory cables, special pleadings, and requests for immediate action from other modders. ( The SDF-784 15,000 gal. Centerline drop-tank for the Boeing 747 , "Flying Fantasy Freight" mod is ready for approval and upload.) Bloody Hell! I'm only on my first cup of coffee! But...I'm sure things will settle down. As you all know, the rules here are strict, but can be (dare I say it?) "modded" upon the receipt of a small gratuity. Capt.Sopwith, let this be your first warning...and you're now busted to Lt.! On that note, I'll have two fingers of Bowmore's Islay single malt, and let's get on with it.

I fully intend to keep a foot in each camp. This is not an either/or situation; it's just more good stuff to read with my morning coffee.

At least it's sex with someone you really care about.

YES! My very first Sim. I was in computer school, getting literate. I was living in a garret room with a cat and an Apple II held together with duct tape. Somebody loaned me a floppi disc with Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. I took it home and played for about three hours that night. No joystick. I was a devotee of the track ball in those days. When I'd be chasing a Me-109 from right-to-left, and he'd disappear off the left side of the screen, I'd find myself leaning farther and farther to the left in my chair as though trying to look around the corner to see where he'd gone. I'd start flying big loops to try and spot him, lest he turn up on my six. When I finally decided to call it a night, I looked at my hands; they were covered in sweat. I played that game 'til the one's and zero's fell off the disc. These days, you can't ask for much more than OFF, but even now, CYAC remains my benchmark for white-knuckle, immersive flying. It also caused me to divided the computer game world into two basic camps: Flight Sim, and everything else.

How nice. It's good to know that forgivness is possible. If his true identity becomes known, we'll just have to be careful not to poke the bear.

jwrich: We crossed a lot of this ground about two weeks ago ( or so). Check out Page Two of this Forum and find "Who's the Aussie Who Shot Down von Richtofen"? My vote goes along with JFM...it was Popkin. There's a .pdf article in there that covers most of what's known about the incident. And a map of the event, tho' it's a bit confusing. As you can see, I've modified a section of the map, and the German lines were not that far from where Popkin stood. Lt.May, running for his life, followed by von Richtofen, passed right in front of Popkin. The gunners saw the planes coming because Popkin reports that his Lt. was shouting at him to fire, but he couldn't because Lt.May was between him (Popkin) and von Richtofen. If the map is accurate, Roy Brown catches up to the fight and makes a single pass (approximately 45 deg. deflection shot) and then banks right and flies parallel to Lt.May and von Richtofen. By now von Richtofen is taking a lot of ground fire. All three Lewis gunners were firing, and God only knows how many rifles, so as he passes almost directly over (and between) Buie and Evans, it seems that he realizes that he's in a very tight corner and he turns Lt.May loose and banks sharply right and tries to run back to his lines. Within a second or two he's presented his back to Buie and Evans, but Popkin now has a broad field of fire as von Richtofen approaches. The bullet that killed him entered from in front (at an obllique angle) and below. von Richtofen was struck in the torso (and knee). The bullet may have ricocheted off his spine as it exited the left side of his body. (It is disputed). Popkin reports firing two long bursts; a 30-sec. and a 45-sec, the latter (no doubt) as von Richtofen has made his turn and now is flying toward Popkin. I think this puts Popkin in the best position to take deliberate aim. Buie and Evans both made claims. Buie reports seeing bits flying off the Dr.I. But Buie and Evans had the same problem Popkin did: Lt.May was right between them and von Richtofen. So...as Lt.May passes overhead, suddenly von Richtofen is upon them, then overhead, then banking and reversing direction and moving away. I think that would have been a quick and confusing few moments, and not conducive to accurate shooting. Popkin, who missed on his first burst, makes good on the second. Check the .pdf article. It gives a host of pro's and con's; but I think, by a preponderance of the evidence, Cedric Popkin takes the laurels. JFM: That was indeed a bold move to not even mention Roy Brown in your account. Did you take any flak from the readers?

Amen!

If Uncle Al got booted from this site once, might it not happen again if we blow his cover?

So then...are we here, or there? One of Pol's posts said that Sim HQ would be the new 'official' home.

Since modern scholarship has fairly well determined that it was an Australian MG crew, and not Roy Brown, who fired the shots that brought von Richtofen down, do we know what unit they were from? The names of the gun crew? The man firing the gun that day?

He definitely would have. It's a 90 deg.deflection shot.

It was regrettable, for sure, but to take any action on the matter was to go head-to-head with the Soviet Union, and we all know how intractible they could be. In 1945, I think Britain had more than enough on its plate just digging out from the rubble of the war.

Right. At 800 yards, I'm sure there was a lot of "Spray and Pray"

Build it and I will come.

I agree (mostly) The movies get it wrong because they feel that a scene gets more exciting if they pack it with so many planes that they're damned near wingtip-to-wingtip. History Channel's "Dogfights", on the other hand, always looked very good to me. I've maintained, and still do, that anyone wanting to make a airplane movie, first gets a complimentary copy of OFF and MUST play it for at least 8 months.

One of life's great ironies.

After looking up "Dark Blue World" it seems that the Spits were not RC Models after all. Most of the flying footage was borrowed and CG modified from "Battle of Britain".

Like the D.VII's after 1918, the Me-109 stayed in production long after hostilities had ceased. But, I always wondered about the changes made to post-war 109's. The 109G (Gustav) was a sleek and elegant fighter. Why change it? Did the changes that destroyed its looks make it a better plane? Here's the Wikipedia on it: In Spain, two versions of the Bf 109G-2, the Hispano Aviación HA-1112 "Tripala" and "Buchon", were built under license, the former with the Hispano-Suiza engine, and the latter with the same Rolls-Royce Merlin engines that had powered Spitfires. Many of these aircraft have been used for theatrical purposes, posing (rather unconvincingly, given their very distinctive undernose air intakes, mandated by the R-R Merlin engines they used) as "Emils" and "Gustavs" in Battle of Britain and Tuskegee Airmen, respectively. These modifications were carried out in the Hispano Aviación factory in Seville. Germany had agreed to let Spain have 25 un-assembled Bf 109G-2s to help familiarize the Spanish with the Messerschmitt plane. The wings and airframes arrived but not the engines, so the Spanish installed the French Hispano-Suiza engine, and then fitted Rolls-Royce Merlins as late as 1956. A few were still in active service until the late 1960s.[107] The Ha 1112 was produced until 1958. I was also told that the Spitfires in the dogfight scenes (all of which far exceed the number of currently flyable Spits) were radio-controlled models. In looking for the pics., I found these interesting few paragraphs on the 109. Even when outclassed, the Messerschmitt could surprise its adversaries. Thomas L. Hayes, Jr., a P-51 ace of the 357th Fighter Group with 8 1/2 victories, recalled diving after a fleeing Me-109G until both aircraft neared the sound barrier and their controls locked. Both pilots took measures to slow down, but to Hayes' astonishment, the Me-109 was the first to pull out of its dive. As he belatedly regained control of his Mustang, Hayes was grateful that the German pilot chose to quit while he was ahead and fly home instead of taking advantage of Hayes' momentary helplessness. Hayes also stated that while he saw several Fw-190s stall and even crash during dogfights, he never saw an Me-109 go out of control. Allied pilots who had the opportunity to sit in the 109's cockpit claimed it to be so narrow that they could barely work the control column between their knees. "The windscreen supports were slender and did not produce serious blind spots," said Eric Brown, "but space was so confined that movement of the head was difficult for even a pilot of my limited stature." The British and their American colleagues were also appalled at its minimal instrumentation. Soviet ace Vitali I. Popkov, who scored 41 victories in LaGG-3s and La-5FNs, flew a captured Me-109 and, like his Western colleagues, came away amazed that its pilots had been able to perform as well as they did. It has been said, however, that where you sit is where you stand, and German Me-109 pilots saw things from a decidedly different perspective. Franz Stigler, a 28-victory Experte, test-flew captured American fighters and commented: "I didn't like the Thunderbolt. It was too big. The cockpit was immense and unfamiliar. After so many hours in the snug confines of the [Me-109], everything felt out of reach and too far away from the pilot. Although the P-51 was a fine airplane to fly...it too was disconcerting. With all those levers, controls and switches in the cockpit, I'm surprised [American] pilots could find the time to fight." British Captain Eric Brown said that the captured Me-109G-6/U2 he test-flew in 1944 was "delightful to fly" at its cruising speed of 240 mph, but in a 400-mph dive, "the controls felt as though they had seized!" On the whole, he concluded that "providing the Gustav was kept where it was meant to be (i.e., above 25,000 feet/7,620 meters), it performed efficiently both in dogfighting and as an attacker of bomber formations."

Good point. Despite the murky evidence, I'll cast my vote for Sgt. Popkin.

Thanks, HD. I guess we'll never know. (Great paper, though!)