Canvas Wings

I don’t know if any one else has noticed this before… Nov 10th, 1918. As Oberleutnant Eric Sietz I was flying a DVII with Jasta 6 in my last sortie of the war. Like the greater conflict, it hadn’t gone well. After a successful bounce of three Spads from Esc-94, our 3-man sortie was in turn jumped by four more Spads -from 153, I think; I’m not sure, it got pretty busy. To make a hair-raising story short, I soon found myself alone, out of ammo, about 20 klicks (say 12 miles) on the wrong side of the Sushi Bar and pursued by the two remaining Spads. Worse, not to mention other damage, the tip of my upper right wing was peeled back like a Hershey Bar wrapper. A third of my lower right wing was gone; ribs and spars were sticking out in more directions than Picasso’s picket fence. I spent the next 20 minutes or so fish-tailing a forest a hundred metres up, inventing startling new obscenities for the Spads, the ground gunners, and even the damn trees. Again, to shorten things up, young Sietz fluttered across no-man’s land to a tiny little hay field, considerately ploughed it for the local farmer, and then wrapped his nice new Fokker around a large tree-less trunk. He walked away much older, if not wiser, and lived to kiss some fraulein on Armistice Day; probably the same farmer’s daughter. But the weird part was this; while frantically scanning the ground to avoid those Allied-sympathizing spruce trees, I noticed, as I crossed a small clearing, my shadow. It’s not something I pay much attention to normally, but my radar was on hyper alert; (I really wanted Sietz to live to see if there was some special end-of-the-war video. [There isn’t.]) So even though it was distant and small, I thought the shadow looked odd. I hit pause, centred it, and zoomed right in… and damned if my shadow didn’t have the top wing peeled back and the lower wing tip gone, complete with the ribs poking out. I actually felt the hairs on my arm stand up. Immersion, hell! – It was more like a Twilight Zone moment. For a second I was afraid that if one of the Spads nailed me in the game, my real life heart would stop. Gawd, I love this sim! PS . I have a screen shot to prove it wasn’t Combat Stress Syndrome- but I’ve never taken the time to learn how to attach that to my post. There’s a freakin’ war on!

Hilarious, Olham! I wondered what it meant myself, so I tried an online translation site and it came out interpeted as "You can do me (many?) times". I didn't think that could be right...

Wow! Cool resource, Olham! Thanks for the tip. CW

I can say the same. I have used the map during a scramble with no ill effects... as a matter of fact, just last night, so the latest patch is not the culprit. And you definitely don't need to hit all the waypoints to clock time. I can't remember a mission ending as if it never happened - but I have seen the rare occasion when I don't get a claim form for E/A which I have definitely downed, according to the on screen alerts. And it's not often I have to disagree w/Bullethead but I love the scramble missions; if the odds are reasonalble, I'll go up after them. They're dog tough, but fun. I've gotten the worst of it a few times, but when that happens, I often manage to get down in one piece. Historical - yeah, probably not so much. CW

I'm on your wing with that one, Schitzel. The Tripe is my favourite mount edging out the Camel & DVII ...though I'm hoping for the Snipe to someday put in an appearance. As a fellow Canuck, I've always been an admirer of Collishaw & the Black Flight as well. I've sometimes wondered what the rough percentage of Allied pilots were from Canada. It seems disproportionate that out of the 12 top scoring pilots of the war, (50+ vitories) 4 were Canadians.... CW

Yeah, the AI seem to be have skipped the landing classes back in flight school. When returning from a mission, I usually drop in and touch down as soon as I reach the field, while my flight toddles off for a long roundabout approach. Just for the hell of it one time I sat on the field waiting for them to show up; when they did, two of the three crashed on contact. On a second occasion, I followed them on their big loop back to the airfield and all three smacked in a few hundred feet short of the field. Pilots all survived tho- so it doesn't affect anything. Maybe they're just trying to force the upper echlons to give us some newer model crates.

Great news, guys - and some really excellent improvements. Can't wait for the added planes tho' -I'm actually starting to feeling guilty about getting all these excellent updates without having to pay *something* for your efforts. You seriously rock. CW

Mais oui! Thanks, Waldemar. I was beginning to worry about the poor Legrand family. So many terrible losses....

I'm a hunter by inclination, but without TrackIR, and no TAC/or TAC always at 1mile, I usually find myself the quarry instead - so I'm a shooter by default. I had to guess at the accuarcy figure - I still haven't managed to find out where you can get that statistic from..

Welcome, RNAS- glad to have you in the flight. RNAS is my favourite as well. I have flown with a lot of others, but my pilots always seem to do best with RNAS. Love those Tripes 'n' Camels. Good Hunting - I'll look forward to your report, assuming you make it back from that first sortie. Which, with OFF, is a big "if". CW

Welcome to the ARAF, jimgad. That's the Alternate Reality Air Force. Many of us here share a similar story, back that far or further (though I was an Avalon Hill "Richthofen's War" fanatic instead of Dawn Patrol) And while RB3D was great in it's time, OFF has final reached the immersion level I always hoped for; I'm sure there's more to come in the sims of the future, but this one is the first to finally live up the level of realism I hoped for all those years. Enjoy CW

Welcome to the OFF squadron mess, Mike - you're going to love this sim. Like you say, the music is superb. In fact the many sounds in the game, from dogs barking in the distance, to rain beating on your wings while you sit waiting for takeoff, are fantastically immersive and just one of the many indications of the detail the devs put into the sim. They did it right, from the ground up. Enjoy. ...and good luck with that Spad. To judge from my experiences, you'll need it CW

Yes, that is what I remember as well - the life expectancy of "less than two weeks" and, if I remember correctly, an "average age of 19 years" was a classic "worst case" statistic based on Allied losses during Bloody April. (however, sometimes I have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast two days ago, so...) suffice it to say, the odds sucked. CW

Great idea, Olham- thanks for the time and effort- log me in at Penticton, (British Columbia) Canada on the south shore of Okanagan Lake, just a few kilometers north of the US/Can border. CW

Fabulous job, guys - thanks again for all your efforts. I just came back from from a wild furball eight-plane furball in the clouds. Enough turbulence to throw you about, slipped into a spin once or twice, but recoverable - and had a wild time trying spot other aircraft and tell the white hats from black hats in time to fire a burst. One of the best scraps ever. Salut!

Congrats, Ogmund! Getting back alive is the name of the game! It's' a rush, isn't it? Just wait til one of your pilots draws close to the legendary 17hour mark. You'll be downright terrified.

After all, we *did* win, eh wot? Treaty of Versailles and all that...

I really like the claim system; one of my favourite aspects of the game, really - and like many people here, I think, I'm not concerned about my pilot's victories nearly so much as his survival. But do have a question. I have no problem with claims being denied - ground fire, whatever. However, once and I while, I'm not even permitted to file a legitimate claim. On a recent mission I managed to down 5 Pflaz -each kill duly noted by the on-screen alerts. On my way home I spotted three DFWs below- dove on them, downed one in the pass and kept on going for home. It too was indicated as a kill by the on screen message. However - when I filled out my claim form it was continually rejected- for no reason I could see. I kept reducing the claims until it was accepted - for one Pflaz only. I ran the mission review, and sure enough it reported me shooting down all six E/A... Usually if an E/A I have shot up goes down as a result of someone else's efforts, I know because the alert doesn't register a kill. And like I said, I'm not concerned about the numbers; I fully expected to have the DFW claim denied, since I was flying alone- and at least two of the Pflaz, for the same reason. But these weren't rejected after the usual investigation- I couldn't submit the claim at all, -sometimes I get that response when I have to guess how many E/A I actually downed... count backwards til you get it right - but these were noted by both the alerts and the mission review- and no one else hit that DFW. Any idea why I couldn't even submit the claims? Is that a common occurance? It has happened a few times before and it seems (tho' I'm not certain) to occur when the total kills is 5 or more... though that could just be a coincidence.

And I always thought under about 3000 feet you were out of the weather.... January 12/17 Flying a Sopwith Pup with RFC-54 out of Chipilly. Returning from a successful strike against a Boche airbag near Douai. The weather was treacherous the entire flight, overcast and heavy snow. Clouds forced us down under 3000 feet most of the way, but we're back in one piece. Chipilly rolls into view, and I start my approach turn, bleeding off altitude. Suddenly the wind and snow pick up; flakes are streaking past like tracers. Visibility plummets. Within seconds I am in a total white out at maybe at about 800 feet …and I know the altitude around Chipilly is at least 200. White knuckles? I drive Canadian winter roads -in the middle of the Rockies no less; this pushes *all* my adrenaline buttons. Did I mention this is my only 17hour + pilot? After several scary minutes circling the area, inching ever lower with one eye over the side and one on the altimeter (thank God there's one in the Pup), I finally glimpse a few dark lines off one wing. Roads? Hangars? I sideslip in that direction, and drop out of the storm; for another hair-raising few moments the turbulence just below the clouds bounces me around like God's own pinball. I finally get control somewhere around 350 feet or so make for what has turned out to be, after all, a line of aircraft hangers. It is still snowing heavily, everything is white, and between the wind and the nerves, I bounce in like drunken pelican, switch off, heave a great sigh of relief and check my map… only to find I am at Molancourt a good 5 miles from Chipilly. I don't know what my 17-plus hour pilot did after that… but I went straight to the fridge and had a beer. A couple, in fact. My suggestion for P4 … put a freakin' medical disclaimer on the cover! -something about people with heart conditions and such. Gawd, I love this sim!

Thanks Duce - but... Toronto? Dunno what they were thinking. I'd put Montreal well ahead of Toronto, and Vancouver in front of both... CW

Hah. Where were all you well-wishers a few days earlier on Canada Day? Never mind. I had a case of beer, eh?

My longest surviving pilot to date is Kerry "Kanuck" Jones, flying a Sop Pup with 54 RFC in Jan '17 - having survived 22 missions, 21.5 hours logged, and with 5 confirmed kills to his credit. Unfortunately, since his Pup is getting a little outdated, I have the feeling he's flying on borrowed time. I fly all my pilots DiD –but I do use TAC. I understand how Creaghorn considers it a cheat, and so it is… I'd love to do away with it, but since I don't have Track IR, I find that POV limits my vision/response time unrealistically as well, especially once engaged. The time delay in checking your six can be (has been) fatal. In R/L all it took was a quick glance over your shoulder. I have to assume Track IR is similar. With a POV joystick it takes 3 full seconds, every time. I try to compensate by keep my TAC set a 1 mile. That way, any E/A which I don't spot have at least a chance to get in close and get good positioning before I know they're there… then I just pretend someone else in my flight spotted them and signalled me, which is not too unreasonable. It's a trade off. [quote] and since i always lead (i decide when to attack, not AI leader who always attacks everything)[/quote] But in terms of realism, I also have to ask… do you not consider that a 'cheat' as well? -Not so great as the TAC, surely… but you're right; if you're not leading the flight, the AI can take you into some ill-advised attacks -but that was what the average pilot had to deal with; not all the flight leaders were a Boelcke. Pilots attacked when the flight leader gave the command, and sometimes it wasn't so smart. So; is it not unrealistic to have your rookie pilot always leading the flight and calling the shots thus giving him an edge the R/L pilots never had? Or do you start all your pilots at senior rank? No criticism- just wondering what you thought. Thanks for the tip about zooming the view one notch… I'll try that.

Well, it's no big deal, -but maybe there is a difference in cards. I have my settings at 'normal res' and I never see bullet holes or any other damage...

Yah, I know. But the field was only a half mile or so from the trenchlines and I thought I was out of reach of the flak boys. I had the altitude and wanted to be bring th bird home instead pronging into some farmer's cow. Bad decision. Added to my own personal "Dicta CW" ..."If your engine quits, land immediately on the closest friendly real estate."