JimAttrill

Yes, my TrackIR 3 with version 5 software is still working ok. The only problem is that no matter what I do it starts up when the computer is booted anew, even when that option is not ticked. Just a bit of a pain to have to wait for it to start up properly and then close it down. And if I try to close it before it is running properly it hangs the machine and I have to reboot again by switching off the power.

Yes, after my last pilot bit the dust I have manually engaged the next one in 4 Squadron. Just as an aside, the other pilot had an engine failure while miles away from the lines. I engaged autopilot (which is great in WOFF) and he was landing at another allied airfield when his engine burst into flames and that was the end of him and his observer. I think in future I will shut off the engine when it has a failure and do a 'dead stick' landing anywhere. Maybe it can't catch fire if it is not running...

I wanted to fly with 4 Sqn (my old squadron) but WOFF sent me to 2. After a couple of missions I applied for a transfer, which was allowed as both squadrons were operational at that time. I would not have been allowed to transfer to a squadron that did not exist at that time. This makes sense.

I think the WOFF time acceleration is MUCH better than the OFF warp. I couldn't get it to work until I found that it didn't like the +- on the numeric keypad. Luckily (for once) the shift +- is easy to do with one hand. And the autopilot is excellent. I'm a pretty useless pilot and when just about to crash due to a spin or whatever the autopilot saves my bacon. OT - I read the book 'Das Boot' (in English as my German isn't that good) and thought it very good. We are mostly overwhelmed with books from the Allied side so it makes a change. For some reason the book was banned here in South Africa at the time. The film is good, but I always prefer a good book. To see the other side, I have read "The Cruel Sea" many times. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the U-boat crews had just about the worst casualty rate on the German side. On the British side it was RAF Bomber Command by a long way. The thing I liked about the Blue Max film was that Peppard gets it in the end. The book was obviously written with a sequel or two in mind. I have just realised that this is an answer to a post on the 'other' forum

Now with WOFF I never get a blue led. And TrackIR doesn't work at all. Any ideas anyone. I am getting a bit pissed off because apart from buying WOFF itself I have also bought 4Gb of memory and an expensive graphics card. Helluva waste of money so far.

Now I am back to not getting Trackir to work at all. I feel like throwing the whole lot out of the window. Sometimes I get a blue led, and even then it dont work. Most annoying. There must be some way of getting this thing to work with WOFF every time. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

I have kept quiet about this, but Mark (Winding Man) Andrews gave me his TrackIR mk 3 a couple of years ago. I'm still using it (now with 5.2 software) in WOFF. As he lives close by, I was able to collect it personally. Thank you Mark

If you want I can go to the SA war museum and take a few shots of the REAL SE5a that they have there. One can't get in it of course, but it is suspended next to a walkway and you can see it all. I was actually amazed at how small and fragile it was compared to the other aircraft on show - even the Hawker Hart seemed gigantic in comparison. These WWI pilots were brave men indeed. And consider that it had only been 14-15 years since the first powered flight. That would put us back to 2000 or so .... It was all new, unknown and strange. Aerodynamics was an unknown 'art', not a science as it is now. Fokker only discovered the advantages of thick wings by accident as his main designer needed the strength for a cantilever wing. There is also a real one in the Science Museum in London. They only survived because they were used for signwriting! Blame it on OMO (I think the first signwritten word, quite easy to do). And one in the US somewhere masquerading in US colours (could be a replica).

Great minds think alike!

I used EasyBCD for about a year before I decided to use Oracle Virtual Machine instead. It means I don't have to boot into WinXP and then reboot to W7 just to print a CD (the Canon iP4600 driver for XP will print on CDs and 'proper' double sided whereas the W7 driver does neither.) If your 'external' drive is a normal 3.5" or 2.5" SATA drive you can remove it from it's USB enclosure, plug it into your desktop using the existing SATA power and signal connection, install whatever operationg system you like, remove it, refit into the USB enclosure and then boot from the USB. May require a BIOS change to do this. I had to do this when I got a SSD drive as the Intel utility to transfer the OS and programs didn't work. After doing the install and copy of data on my desktop I transferred the SSD to my laptop.

And (as I found out) if, for example you have a later Windoze OS mounted on, say your C drive and decide to install XP on your D drive DISCONNECT the C drive otherwise the older OS installation will stuff up the C drive OS, beit Vista or W7. Dunno what it does exactly but it will never boot again. There is a 'dual boot' free program called EasyBCD which means you don't have to try to catch the BIOS boot POST thingy. It comes up with a menu and you can then choose. It also has a default which will boot the preferred system after n seconds (programmable). Also works if you want to dual boot into UNIX or even DOS. I boot into W7 and use an Oracle Virtual Machine inside that for XP. (this is so I can use XP printer drivers). Both OS's run at the same time. I don't think that would be a good idea for WOFF because I don't think the 'guest' OS can see a fancy GPU card. And the OS's have to share memory when both are running, so much for each. So in your case, don't bother.

Option B is obviously the best and has lots of advantages in that you can tailor that drive for OFF/WOFF only, like have no internet access or anti-virus installed. I have done something similar in the past but for some other reason (which I forget now).

I'll try to have a merry Xmas (and birthday) but it is overcast and raining - most unusual for this time of year. Out of interest I notice that nobody is posting the US 'happy holidays'. Good. May you all have a happy Xmas (and also a happy holiday )

Me too. Although I did like 'Wings of Glory' but that was easy compared to OFF and WOFF. Now I have to really fly properly.

Well, there I was landing at Abeele (at least I think it was) and then I ran into a fence that some barsteward had put in the middle of the runway! 9 days in hospital but still alive.

You can't take on a pilot with a double-barrelled name unless you omit the hyphen ....

Nope. Give it a try

He must have been a good pilot to survive the war. Maybe he got a better gunner (and aeroplane) later. You don't hear people speaking like that nowadays, not even the Queen.

I have tried again with the Be2c gunner and found my joystick works fine in the vertical plane. When fully 'up' it seems to move horizontally (sometimes) but very slowly, not good enough to aim at anything. I think I will try an FE and see what the front gunner can do .... I'll try Olhams suggestion and see what happens. For some masochistic reason I want to fly as a gunner for a change I've figured it out.... To swing the gun left and right you don't use the rudder but the aeileron control. The rudder control (twist stick) does nothing at all! Now I want to complete at least one mission without crashing - and there's no opposition at this beginner level in 1915. I wonder if I carry on as a gunner whether my pilot will manage to land the thing?

Expolsion = Exposed when your trousers are blown off, especially at altitude

Well I reckon if I can stay alive in a Quirk I deserve the VC. But I still need to know how to aim the gun as an observer to knock down a DIII or two. Anybody know?

I thought so. Keep up the composing - I like your music.

Matt - are you any relation to the Matt Milne who is an actor in Downton Abbey?

I am going to start at the beginning with a Be2c and see how long I last .... Question: In WOFF I can switch from the pilot to the gunners view but can't figure out how to aim the gun itself. Nothing seems to work. I have TrackIR if that makes any difference. So I am not flying a campaign until I can figure out how to shoot

The whole transaction - using PayPal to pay Avangate - getting confirmation from Avangate - getting my download info from WOFF and starting the download took only a few minutes. Pity my download took nearly 3 days !