Canvas Wings

As previously stated, Noops will glide for miles. Still, it's an unpleasent feeling when that engine conks out. I, too, was at 9000+ when my N'17 unexpectedly changed from an aircraft into a kite. Punch the starter... what the-? ...no fuel????? Thinking evil things about my recently deceased opponent and the mating habits of his family pets, I checked the map for the nearest friendly airfield. Nearly five natuical miles?? ...and most of that over Bocheland? Mon freakin' dieu!!! So, like you say, I sweated out the balancing act... altitude vs stall speed... coaxing every ounce/gram of lift out of her. By the time I crossed the trench lines, I am down to 1500. Everyone on their side is shooting bullets, and I am sweating them. I dare only the mildest of evasion manuevers, begrudging every meter it costs. I take a few punches, hear that nasty sound of canvas ripping... but finally, the ground fire and flack at least ease off a little. Now, past the worst of it, I see the field ahead. Even from a distance, the hangars are the most gorgeous things I've ever seen. A quick altitude check, and at about 800, I think I have a good chance to make it; I start looking for a clear field just in case.... and BANG! The flak hit was loud, sudden and damn near stopped my heart and killed me in real life. Another one bites the dust. Soooo close. In retrospect, a few days later, I guess I would have *almost* been disappointed if they hadn't downed me. I mean, drifting deadstick over the lines at rock-throwing hieght? They should have sent the whole battery back to the trenches for missing me. C'est la vie, non? -Ah well, at least it wasn't one of my best DiD boys... CW

14 for me - should have been 15, I gave one wrong answer by sloppy mouse work. Dang drop downs. CW

Lot of posts here - scanned 'em as best I could - but if I missed these and they've already been suggested, my apologies: I'd like to see pilots get wounded occasionally. I think I saw this happen once - the pilot's health dropped from the perpetual "59" ...but if it did happen, it was only once in literally hundreds of flights. I'd also like to see pilots *potentially* injured in any crash they walk away from. In both cases, it would be good if the injuries/wounds resulted in time spent recuperating (I know, you can advance time yourself... but a hospital sequence would be nice.) I understand there was one once in the earlier versions of OFF, but I never played them, so I don't know. And it would be nice if the missions-per-day or enemy-contact-per-mission was adjusted some. I love the difficulty of surviving the 17 hour barrier. But invariably if I make the 17 hours that represents the achievment of the average pilot, I am already one top scoring pilots of the war with 20+ confirmed kills to my credit. Could the game be retooled to fly one mission a day, or even 3 in a week? - maybe just indicating the pilot flew 'x' number of 'uneventful' missions since his last flight? No need to change the actual missions, -even then, not every sortie would result in a combat; and the 17 hours would then be measured in actual sim-flying time... I'd like to see a pilot who lived roughlly as long as Richthofen (as if) end up with a fairly comparable tally, rather than something like Hartmann's 352 WWII kills. CW

Welcome to skies of Flanders, Pappy - a lot of us got here by the same flight path as yours. You're gonna love this. And never mind Richthofen & the boys... the flack will scare you. Ground fire will scare you. In some cases your plane will scare you. Hell, even clouds will give you the green willies. Strap on that helmet, this one's gonna put you right in the cockpit. CW

One day - 360 views/31 responses and counting. 'Nuff said.

The pop-up map could really use some attention. There are other aspects of the sim that could be buffed a little of course; always will be; but IMO the map is the only area of the game that is sub-standard compared to the rest of the package which is otherwise uniformly superb. CW

Whoo-hoo – finally made it! "Today" Jan 8/18, Lt. Kerry "Canuck" Jones flying, with 54 RFC out of Bertangles West in Flanders, passed the notorious 17-hour mark in his log book, returned to the airfield, jumped out of his Sopwith Pup and kissed the freakin' ground. With only one confirmed victory and five pending, he is not the darling of the press – but he's alive, by Gawd! -Not much of an accomplishment compared to some of the old aces here, I know- but I've been flying strictly campaign DiD L/T at 110% for more than 3 months since I first got BH&H, and it sure felt good to see that airfield come over the horizon. Now here's a question. In this pilot's last three missions, he had barely avoided a collision on four occasions. In three cases a friendly or enemy A/C whipped past his nose just as he made a turn. In the fourth an enemy pilot came head on, without firing, in what seemed like a deliberate ramming attempt. In part, he survived these situations because I was half expecting someone to run into me. Why? Because the three previous pilots who got closest to the dreaded 17-hour barrier where all killed in mid-air collisions. Two flew camels, one flew a Tripe. They had logged 12, 13 and 15 hours respectively in different times/areas but all three were killed in collisions. …Now, in 3+ months flying DiD, as you can imagine, I buried a lot of pilots of all nationalities. A very, but very few died from running into someone else – yet all three, and nearly the fourth, of my longest surviving pilots did. So – is it possible that as a pilot nears his 17 hours, the missions get tougher and actually tend to favour a collision? Has anyone else noticed this? –Or am I just being paranoid? Bear in mind, as someone once said "Being paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you." Either way, if you have a pilot approaching the 17-hour wall, I'd suggest avoiding a developing furball and only engaging an enemy when there is no other A/C, friendly or otherwise, within say 800 meters. If a third plane comes any closer that than, break off and head for open space. I'm probably just imaging it – but four pilots out of four is a very high coincidence. In the meantime, I'm going to send Lt. Jones off to the nearest local village where he can buy a medallion of St. Thérèse, patron saint of pilots. No wonder so many of those guys were superstitious; another aspect of total immersion. Man, I love this sim. CW

See! It's probably not even the AI, just our imagination; -but as I said- after you've invested a lot of time and a little terror in an DiD pilot, you start to get downright paranoid and a little twitchy, ....like many of the r/l pilots did. That's immersion, baby! Beautiful. CW

I've got all of my fingers crossed too. We wantsss it, my preciousssss. CW

Here's an odd one for you. I have pilot flying with Jasta 2 - or I should say I did. When he reached Sep 18/16, "Today's News" announced the death of Oswald Boelcke. He was actually killed on Oct 18 –and that was the date on the"Newspaper" –it popped up a month early. (I have noticed the "today's news" date doesn't always match the actual date the pilot is flying; could be an installation glitch or maybe a result of using the time advance feature – dunno) At any rate, as I was waiting to take off, I glanced around the field. To my right, my wing was preparing to go; to my left, the other wing was already taking off. Richthofen's plane trundled off down the field, and the Albatross beyond him became visible – none other than Boelcke. I thought was a little odd, him being dead and all… maybe I was having a premonition. It was too good an opportunity to pass up; so once we were all airborne, I abandoned my wing, fell in behind Boelcke and flew with him. That was easy enough, but once he reached his patrol area staying with him as he tooled all over the sky was some really difficult flying. His Albatross was doing things I just couldn't emulate. If I hadn't had labels on, I would have lost him. Eventually though, just about the time he would have reached the end of his "time over target" I watched from about half mile away as he fell off on one wing on a low pass and crashed. There was no attack on a DH2 and no collision with Boehme (who wasn't even in his flight); that would be stretching the reality capabilities of the sim beyond belief; but still, it was an eerie feeling to know this was the great Boelcke and I actually saw him go down. Felt a little strange, actually; my own little moment of history. So –in addition to all the other little touches that prove there's a "real" little world down there in the mud, you can add this… not only the aces die according to their historical dates… they don't just disappear from the squadron lists and show up as a newspaper obit, apparently they actually fly their last mission and die. At least Boelcke did. I never ceased to be amazed by this sim. One more "salut" to the Devs. Simply phenomenal. My only regret was – since the newspaper announcement was a month early, I wondered if that was just another case of an ace crashing and walking away to fly another day. The thought didn't occur to me until the middle of my next mission, so I never got to check the duty roster to see if Boelcke was still listed in the squadron. Unfortunately my DII was badly shot up by a pack of Nieuport 16s and though I managed to shake them and make a nearby airfield, the left wing was so shot up I couldn't hold it level on the final approach. You know how that goes…. Still, since no one actually shot him down, I'm thinking I actually witnessed Boelcke's final flight.

Great stuff, thanks, WF2 - the Women's race of '29 is a fantastic story. They were some incredible women who, in addition to the perils of flying in the first place, had to take the flack of bucking the system to do it. When you consider Thaden, who won the race, very nearly crashed/died enroute to the race in the first place and that Marvel Crosson was killed during the race itself... and add in the fact that two other competitors died in air crashes within the next 18 months. (Not too mention Amelia Earhart 8 years later) you get an idea of just how dangerous flight still was, some 10 years after the time we sim in OFF. I hope they do a good job on the documentary; it's a tale. It's a wonder Hollywood didn't pick it up years ago. There's' so much drama, intrigue and courage in it, they wouldn't have even had to embellish it. (They would have, of course.) CW

Yes was surprised to see that myself. I don't imagine I'm nearlly as wide read on WWI air history as a lot of people here, but I have never seen that apellation before;- but if Fonck used it and it was reported without clarification in the article, it must have been commonly understood. - Anyone?? :umnik2:

Hey, congrats, Widowmaker! Like others have said –practice, practice, practice. But every once in awhile, screw the practice! Just bang away for all you’re worth, sing like you need psychotherapy, and enjoy the hell out of it. It’s good for the soul, my friend. Then practice, practice, practice. Kind of surprising to see so many musicians (of whatever ability) in a WWI air sim forum. I’m mostly a guitar guy myself … rock, r&b, blues etc; like some others here, did the rock band thing in my 20s -but I love to play anything- folk, country, celtic- especially if there’s someone else to play along with. (For me the real buzz comes from playing with others, more than playing solo for my own enjoyment, or for the benefit of an audience) CW

I'm with you, Widowmaker - 2 seaters are probably more of a priority; but give me my Snipe. Want it, want it, want it!

Welcome back to the skies, Slick Wilhelm! You're right, this is the uber sim of them all - and an outstanding forum to go with it! Not to mention phenominal support from the OBD team. However I regret to inform you that you have now developed a split personality. And one of them is a WWI pilot.

I've been thinking about a similar, but somewhat opposite scheme. -Starting ten pilots simultaneously, all in the same squadron/date – one “me” and the with the names of nine of my buddies/co-workers. I plan to fly them consecutively, one day each, say April 1st –one sortie daily, advance that pilot to the next day, then fly the next pilot in the list for his April 1st, and so on… No replacements. The idea being to get more of a “real” feel for the losses, and to see who is “the last man standing”. (And how long it took for him to lose his ten friends and find himself flying with a group of strangers)

Yeah, great viedo, CJ - so what do you play? CW

fabulous vid, parky , thanks. I've got to check playingforchange.com out!

Just wondering; having received medals for the first time (two DFCs awarded on the same day?) -how are medals earned? Is it by kills, logged hours, successful missions or some combination thereof? Maybe it depends on which medal?

Not concerned at all, Unc; merely curious. The gongs don't matter. Survival is everything.

I just recently started to use the Time Advance, occasionally... same rationale. Three missions a day or more might have been the norm, but I imagine most of the missions were uneventful. -And did they have to fly seven days a week? I give my pilots a day off once a week, and a couple of days to recuperate from a crash (assuming the survive) maybe more if they pronged several miles from nowhere. And if any of them ever *survive* 4 months, heck yeah, I'll let them go leave for a week.

Well a damn sight more cautious since I started flying this sim! I play dirty when I can, go head to head when I really have to. In a tight spot, run if I can; fight if I have to. Slowly un-learning the cavalier attitude of RDB days - developing a really healthy respect for those AI flyers. As for a real-life career, who can tell? Especially since accidents took out as many pilots as enemy action. Thank heavens that isn't realistically simmed in the game. Although it happens... it happens; my longest surviving DiD pilot cashed in when his camel mysteriously put its tail up and did a full speed nose dive on take off.

After an annoying sortie that found me on the wrong side of a disagreement with a DFW, my latest pilot had to break off his sortie and limp back to the airfield empty handed… where he got word that 13 of his 16 claims had been confirmed all at once. And two shiny new DFCs had arrived to go with them! At 8 hours flying time, I wondered if he’d ever live long enough see a single kill confirmed. I’ll have to advance the time for a day to account for the hangover. At nearly 9 hours logged, he’s my most successful pilot since I got the game 6 weeks ago or so. Trouble is, now I’m afraid to send him back up. War is hell.

Well, the claims were backed up over 8 hours of sorties... they just were all confirmed on the one day. Hell of a party tho'. And it's great to be top gun in the squadron for once. Five confimred is my nearest rival. Gonna put the gongs on and try chatting up Yvette at the local pub...

He's a split-arse Camel jockey with 4-RNAs out of Frontier field in Flanders mid-June '17. .... you suckered the SEs into a turning fight? Serves them right! Too bad about the wingmen/claims tho'