JimAttrill

I'm looking forward to the DH5 for two reasons: first that I can fly through the war in 24 Sqn, and it may be a better aircraft in OFF than it was in reality as it has good upward vision with the backstaggered top wing. I also hate Christmas, partly because it's my birthday

That's what I thought and then wondered why I had no ammo for it. I put the picture in because it shows how brave these gunners must have been to sit out of the cockpit on one gun and fire another. And to have another fixed gun aimed at your kneecaps at the same time One spec I read said that the FE2b could have up to FOUR guns fitted. Maybe we could get a mod to the Fee to add in the fixed forward gun. I don't think the devs really expect there to be much demand for Fee stuff. Maybe we should start a 'Fighting Fee' thread rather like the Did thread. But first I need a lot more practice.

BulletHead "NOTE: I find it best to fly the Fee with my view zoomed all the way out/back. This makes it easier for me to see targets ahead and also keep 1 eye on what the rear gun is doing." So you don't fly from the cockpit - do you use chase view? I am having fun with the Fee - the gunners are quite good, better than I am I reckon. Unfortunately my pilots never get back to base so I haven't tried a landing yet. Mostly I am not shot down but lose control - the Fee does not seem to come out of an inverted spin easily Either that or the wings get so much damage they fall off. I am flying with 'the old enemy' 20 squadron. They were the second RAF Germany Harrier squadron and were second in everything. We even stole one of their aircraft one night without them noticing..... But unfortunately 'fantastic fearless fighting Four' had a pretty boring time in WWI, only flying Be2s and Re8s.

It's all a bit unclear.... So you fly along until the enemy comes along and then switch to gunner. Who flies the aeroplane? I don't even know how to switch to gunner but I guess it's in the help. <br><br>But that would be a good reason for not having any ammo if I am the pilot.<br><br>Bullethead, I see that in the true Semper Fi tradition you like to do things the difficult way <img class="bbc_emoticon" alt="" src="http://forum.combatace.com/public/style_emoticons/default/Salute.gif"> But I think I will follow you in seeing what I can do in a Fee. After all, after 100hrs in Be2cs anything is possible. (Actually it was a glitch in the software I didn't know about that kept me alive). <br><br>If you haven't already, you MUST MUST read 'War Story' by Derek Robinson. IMHO it's his best book, and it is about a very young and brainwashed schoolboy sent to war as a pilot in a Be2 and who becomes an observer in a FE2b. For students of literature I can honestly say that this book meets one of the main criteria for a good novel, in that the characters at the end are not the same as they are at the beginning (with a vengeance in this case). If you haven't read it you will love it, and if you have read it, read it again! It is a sad and funny book, impossible to put down and has the ending it should have.<br><br>ps I like your 'graffiti' on the Feee, but I don't think the powers-that-be would have approved <img class="bbc_emoticon" alt="" src="http://forum.combatace.com/public/style_emoticons/default/grin.gif"><br>

So, thinks I, lets have a go at this FE2b. I sign on a new Fred Bloggs (all my pilots are called that), and take the mission in Campaign and get to the airfield. But I have no ammo, even though the previous screen said 100%. Even I am not silly enough to try a campaign sortie with two machine guns that can't do anything. So I sign on another pilot, make him active etc and try again. Again no ammo. Does anyone have any idea why this happens? Add another Fred Blogs, this time in 48sqn F2 Brisfits. He gets lots of ammo, the normal 500 rounds. Even a BE2c gets ammo, but not the FE2b.

Well, I have now met the other OFF'er in Africa! Mark had agreed to sell me his 'old' TrackIR 3 for a ludicrous price, and when I arrived to pick it up he didn't want the money until I forced him to take it. I also found out how I have managed to get to nearly 100 hrs in April 1915 in a Be2c - there was a glitch in the software that stopped EAs from appearing at all. I was wondering where everyone had got to. 1.32g fixes that. We had a nice chat, only interrupted by his 'dark side' tortoise who decided that I was public enemy no 1 and had a go at my shoes. Maybe he should paint iron crosses on it ....

Anyone remember the German officer in 'Those Magnificent men in their Flying Machines'. He stood to attention when someone played Deutschland über Alles and punctured the gasbag of his balloon with his pickelhaube. Of course that film was a collection of stereotypes, but quite funny all the same. And I still remember the tune.

In my youth, Castor oil was used in two-stroke scramblers (before they were called MotoCrossers), glow and diesel model aircraft engines, and especially J.A.P and Jawa speedway bike engines. Notably these all had total-loss lubrication systems. The two-stroke scramblers used it because it was considered the best oil for a racing two-stroke, and I was told the other engines could not use mineral oils because they used alcohol and nitromethane fuels. I was told that alcohol turned mineral oils to glue. I certainly used to love the smell and stopped going to moto-cross when they stopped using Castor oil. In 1968 I bought a Honda CB77 production racer that used Castrol 'R' for road use, and had to convert it to mineral oil because otherwise the oil had to be changed at least once a week, and that was expensive stuff. Apparently US drag racers used to use Castor oil because it could cope with the massive blow-by of alcohol and other stuff without diluting. Again, the oil would be changed after every run. But recent experience of reading the specs of some Redline oils specifically made for drag racing is that the oils can be drained and then the nitro/alcohol boiled off in a saucepan and the oil reused. This seems to show that the oils do not mix with the fuel.

In my father's time in the RAF (1922-1958) it was considered very bad to call an airscrew a 'propellor' as those were fitted to ships. Even when I joined in 1966 airscrew was the preferred term. He also called a radio a wireless, a term which is coming back into use with a rather different meaning. He also pronounce 'radar' with a short first 'a', unlike the modern 'raydar'. And, of course, a 'penguin' was an RAF expression for a non-flying officer long after those strange 'flight simulators' were forgotten. Maybe the OFF team could simulate one of these early flight simulators just for a laugh. No, no, I didn't say that !

As today seems to be one for nit-picking - here's another nit.... /didactic boring mode on/ The name for the place I live is the Highveld. The 'v' and the 'd' are unvoiced so the word sounds like 'felt' to English speakers. The original word is Afrikaans 'veld'. Sometimes in English (not here) it is written 'veldt', but never 'velt'. And you don't have to be an entomologist to figure out that 'veld' and 'field' come from the same Germanic root. /didactic boring mode off/ (Spot the deliberate mistake )

Cross of Iron is also a good book. Another book about WW2 Germany is 'The past is myself' by Christina Bielenberg, not sure of the spelling of her name. She was British, married a German lawyer in the mid-thirties and stayed in Germany till the end of the war. He was lucky to outlive the war as he was connected with the July plotters. Overall, it is a very interesting book written (of course) from a woman's point of view and about as far away from Vera Lynn as you can get. The descriptions of what Germany was like in 1944/5 are an eye-opener. She and her husband went to live in Eire after the war. Nice and peaceful there, if a bit wet.

Eventually I resorted to my normal trick of fixing things with a sledgehammer. I uninstalled and reinstalled TrackIR - no change. I uninstalled and reinstalled OFF and the patches up to 1.32g. It now works when it feels like it. Possibly the reason is that light from behind is affecting the tracking - even though I get three nice green splodges on 'tracking'. I have a blind on the window behind me, and it may let a bit of light in - it is a sort of horizontal cane roll-up thing. Also the sunlight here is very high in UV when it is not behind a cloud. I find flying with virtual cockpit a bit confusing when TrackIR is working - as there is no reference it is hard to know whether you are looking down or diving, and the same on all axes. I then tried a Bristol Fighter without virtual cockpit but couldn't see where I was going - the pilots must have had x-ray vision or something. Maybe I should try an FE2b as the view is unobstructed and it can fly quite well. Or what other aircraft would be good? The Be2c is no good because of the head of the observer gets in the way. Maybe if I could toss him overboard it would be better as he's no use for anything else

Not very exciting, but I have had a few different jobs. After being expelled from Grammar School (a sort-of high-end Government School) for non-attendance, I got an apprenticesship at a firm making lorry bodies. After about 18 months of this, I and a friend decided to get away from Southend Essex by joining the RAF. (Joining the forces was about the only legal way out of an apprenticesship apart from suicide). So I did a 2 year apprenticeship as an aircraft engine fitter, and stayed in the RAF until 1973 when boredom with England had me 'buy myself out' for £200 and I went to Saudi to make some cash. After a holiday in South Africa I left that lot and came here where the weather is better. After a month on Beechcraft I went back to school and then university, ending up with a BA hons in Linguistics. As I was a useless teacher I then decided to become a computer programmer, the refuge of many people with rather strange qualifications. After 24 years as a systems programmer/DBA I was retrenched. As a 57-year old 'pale male' there were no jobs around. I worked as a Land Rover mechanic for 3 years for a ludicrous salary, something like £20/day. And then I was offered a job at five times the pay doing Excel stuff as a remuneration analyst. As I knew nothing about stats or Excel I had a trying time of it for a while. Now it's getting boring ..... My first love is still aeroplanes

I have War Story and Goshawk Squadron. War story is a much better book from all aspects. I re-read it about once a year. Very, very well written. The characters in Goshawk squadron are 2-dimensional and very flat ie. they are the same people at the end of the book as they are at the beginning. As the characters are all different, the use of prequel and sequel is misleading. (But the pilot who loses his memory in War Story comes back as the squadron adjutant in A Piece of Cake 20 years later). I reckon Catch-22 is a tragi-comedy, or a black comedy as it is certainly funny in places and any ex-serviceman in war and peace will recognise the characters. I hear the Italians in Afghanistan are being accused of bribing the Taliban to not shoot them. They seem upset about this.

In answer to RAF_Louvert re the Belgian order of Leopold 1 - it is a very pretty medal and that might not be in its favour as an award for gallantry (compare it to the VC which is very dull) also most people don't even know that the Belgians fought in WWI, thinking that Belgium was totally occupied by the Germans. And also because Leopold 1 was a complete sh1t so I would not consider wearing a medal bearing his name to be a particularly wonderful experience. The rarity of the award of a medal does make a difference, the British Army made this mistake at Rourke's drift (as those who have seen 'Zulu' will know), but they have issued the VC less frequently as time passes. It seems that medals suffer from inflation and devaluation as well as currencies. As an aside, am I right in thinking that the first British (or maybe RN) medal was awarded to those officers who survived the Battle of the Nile?

I quite honestly can't see the point of 'upgrading' to 7 if you have XP. It doesn't seem to do anything over and above XP that I want. And XP is stable. Although maybe I am biased because I have a Volume License Copy of XP which doesn't have to be 'activated'.

A 'banger' is a British pork sausage, normally fried or grilled but never boiled. They are smaller than German bratwurst or bockwurst, normally about the length of your index finger but thicker. A normal breakfast dish, served with eggs and bacon. They are also served with mashed potato and gravy, and sometimes encased in a pudding-type substance (aka Yorkshire pudding) whereupon the whole dish is called 'toad in the hole', I have no idea why. I like all three versions. If you go to England and stay in a cheap hotel or Bed and Breakfast, they will often try to save money by serving you an inferior version made of beef, in which case you should move out to a better place. ps. I have no idea why they are called 'bangers' either. Maybe because they tend to split while being cooked, but they certainly make no noise while doing it.

But it does seem that the PBI thought that all flyers were mad, maybe on the 'better the devil you know' principle.

What aircraft were they flying?

Sorry, Olham, getting mixed up with the French who can say 'mon petite Chou' where Chou is cabbage. I must say I was also surprised to find that the RN in the days of sail used sauerkraut. But scurvy was a big problem - they didn't know about Vitamin C, but empirically they knew that if you ate vegetables and especially citrus fruit, the symptoms disappeared very quickly. And of course this is where the American use of 'limey' for the Brits started, though I would be very surprised if the USN did not also use some type of citrus fruit juice. After all, US orange juice kept the whole British population healthy in WWII. And the use of Skat as an endearment is actually Danish. Well, at least I think so, but no doubt one of the Scandinavians on board will tell me the correct usage

The word 'Kraut' is only mildly derogatory in Br. English, rather like 'Frog' for the French. Both refer to something that is eaten (even the Brits eat frogs nowadays), and Sauerkraut was used by the Royal Navy as an antiscorbutic way back as far as the 18th Century. It had the advantage that it would keep in barrels for a long time, although it did have a famous smell and some sailors had to be forced to eat it. I guess the only way to check this out would be to get a wooden barrel, fill it with cabbage and vinegar, close it up and wait for about 5 years. And our German friends will confirm that it is often used in German to describe a loved one. I think only used by men to women, but I'm not sure here. Mind you, Germans also refer to their wives as 'mein skat', which I think means 'tax'; many of us would agree with that

For the last few weeks I have only been able to get into this forum during the day. At night I get the combatace home page but can't get to forum 204 which is this one. Eventually the whole thing times out. Does being on GMT + 2 have anything to do with it? On the other hand I used to be able to get in at any time.

In Irish (Erse). Some people did not like the sentiment in English, so it was sort-of disguised. Or maybe he wanted it that way.

IIRC it was an experiment to increase the ferry range.

I hate to disagree with the Osprey series, but the reason I remembered this was that I was using ADABAS/NATURAL at the time and their headquarters are in Darmstadt (Software AG). But what I read could have been wrong. These things stick in your mind, like the mention of an airfield at Fismes where some of my wife's relations farm. Maybe the field was on their farm as it is in a likely place. There is no airfield there now. It seems that the French were only interested in the DVIIs from the other aircraft that survived.