Hasse Wind

I'm no pilot and have no experience from that field, but it sounds to me like a very risky decision. At 46, you're not exactly young anymore. Not old either, though! But it seems that at that age, if you do become a pilot, you won't have too many years of active flying left to achieve a better position with a bigger paycheck. Would it then be worth all the trouble?

A few days before the Apocalypse.

This is a great place to have our OFF community.

And it looks like it was designed to take some hard knocks and still keep functioning.

Those are Aviatik C-types, if I'm not mistaken. A Rumpler being restored! Wow!

The Germans did pretty much the same stuff as the British, but more defensively, as they spent most of the time defending against Entente offensives and launched their own major attacks less often. German recon aircraft would generally try to stay closer to their own lines under the protection of their AA guns and fighters, and artillery observation could be handled just as well by balloon and ground observers, when the purpose was to defend their own well-prepared positions against Entente attacks. It was of course different when attacking enemy positions. Then air support was needed much more, and in the big offensives of 1918, German aircraft had to act very aggressively indeed. Germans also had special high altitude photo reconnaissance detachments, which did recon work deep behind the Entente lines. These aircraft, the most famous and successful of which was probably the Rumpler C.IV, stayed so high that it was extremely difficult to intercept them effectively. As Germany was the world leader in optics, they had access to some excellent cameras and could take detailed photographs from very high altitudes. Unfortunately I don't know much about the French methods and tactics of reconnaissance, or their other similar activities. Here's an example of a German recon camera, made by the Zeiss and Goerz companies: Something else than our modern digital toys, eh?

The RFC began using wireless equipment for directing friendly guns already in 1915. The first squadron to receive such equipment was the No. 9. The system was a relatively simple one, based on clock and alphabet. "The clock code for signalling the results of artillery fire was first used in 1915 and afterwards generally throughout the war. The target was taken as the centre of a clock and imaginary lines were circumscribed around it at distances of 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 yards. These lines were lettered Y, Z, A, B, C, D, E, F, respectively. Twelve o'clock was always taken as true north from the target and the remaining hours accordingly. An observer noted the fall of rounds with reference to the imaginary circles and clock-hours and signalled the result, for instance, as Y 4, or C 6. A direct hit was O.K, and there were other signals. Messages from the battery or any other ground station were signalled to the observer in the aeroplane by means of white strips which were laid out on the ground to form the letters of a code." (Walter Raleigh: The War in the Air. Being the Story of the part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force. Volume one, page 342.) This series of books has a huge amount of historical information about the air war. The problem is finding it from the many volumes and hundreds of pages. By luck, I remembered the volume that contained this bit about the wireless code. "The institution of wings was a great step in advance, and made it easy to provide for later additions to the strength of the Flying Corps. When the newly-formed squadrons began to appear in number, they were formed into wings, and the wings themselves, in the winter of 1915-1916, were combined in pairs to form brigades. The brigade became a self-sufficient unit, to work with an army; it was commanded by a brigadier-general, and comprised, besides the two aeroplane wings, a third wing for kite balloons, an aircraft park, and everything necessary for a complete aerial force. Further, when fighting in the air became all-important, whole wings were made up of fighting squadrons, and these wings were symmetrically paired with other wings made up of squadrons designed for artillery co-operation, close reconnaissance, and photography. The wing which carried out the long reconnaissances and offensive patrols, bombing the enemy, attacking him in the air, and, in effect, protecting the machines which did their observation work above the lines, was called the army wing, and worked for army headquarters. The wing which observed and photographed for the corps command, reporting on the character of the enemy defences, the movement of troops, and, above all, the effects of our artillery fire, was called the corps wing, and worked for corps headquarters." (Walter Raleigh: The War in the Air. Being the Story of the part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force. Volume one, page 436.) I'm sure there's much more about the details of recon work in the books, I just can't remember where to find it.

The Nupe is not my favourite WW1 fighter, but I do like them a lot. And they are so very elegant and beautiful! For 1916, it would be my fighter of choice until the appearance of the Albatros D.II late in the year.

I can't remember anymore how the Escadrille was represented in RB2/3D. It was under the French air service there too, if I'm not mistaken. But I can't remember how the pilot replacements for it worked, and if they were only French or American pilots.

Sounds like a credible theory, HPW. Flying straight through trouble does work better for a B-17 than for a B.E.2, though. The Quirk is somewhat lacking in defensive armament.

I wonder how OFF2 will handle that escadrille. The air force is French, but the pilots should be mostly American. When there are casualties, the replacement pilots shouldn't be only French. By the way, nice work, Lou.

Exactly what Widowmaker said. There should be no need to keep P3, because P4 will have everything it had and then some. They are not starting from scratch, but building upon all the previous phases.

I've heard from many people that TrackIR made them feel some motion sickness when they started using it. Fortunately it doesn't seem to last long and your brain gets used to it sooner or later. Just keep flying and you'll soon get rid of it. I guess I'm lucky, because motion sickness has never been a problem for me. Not even aboard a ship in bad weather.

What a generous man! And yes, once you have seen TrackIR in action, you'll be left wondering just how on earth you could play a flight sim without it.

Europe experienced some awful weather during the Great War. Many summers were colder and had more rainfall than usual. And yeah, this can be seen when flying OFF careers with historical weather option turned on.

I'm looking forward to the combo mod pack. It's getting more than a little confusing to have so many different mods all separately for OFF.

Politicians.

Best of luck with your enterprise! It's so good to hear something positive like this for a change. Our declining Western world desperately needs more small businesses like yours and less those damn blood-sucking big corporations.

I also recommend you to get HitR ASAP. It's far from being expensive, and really improves the sim in so many ways that it's an absolute must-have.

It takes some time for the guys behind the front to read your claim forms and confirm or deny them. Sometimes you get them quite quickly, sometimes it can take longer.

If pilots lack basic flying skills, bad things will happen, sooner or later. It's not good to learn to rely too heavily on hi-tech systems. And this is not restricted only to aviation. For example, how many people today can do some basic maths without using a calculator?

Looks great, as always!

This thread needs some new posts, I think. The movie is so great it should be watched regularly by every OFF pilot! Maybe the friendly devs could reveal something new regarding P4? Like about the improvements being made to two-seater careers?

Maybe with the early Goerz Kamera for aviation purposes?