JimAttrill

Doesn't the Smithsonian have a Sopwith Camel?

Just out of interest, what is the difference between TrackIr 1, 2 3 4 and 5? Anything major?

Just wait until I get the RE8 (though I have to wait a couple of years for that). At least the gunner is in the back seat this time Hey Bullethead, I thought the CFS3 trim controls didn't work in OFF so I haven't tried to use them......

This may be a very stupid question but where is support? You could sms me your email address to................ as I know it is not normal to put these on a public forum. Jim never put personal details on the internet - many weird people out there. Contact me on: support@overflandersfields.com WM

Whoopee!!! As they say, it's not what you know ..... email on its way.

Hi there Winder and Polovski I think you two know more about Flight sims than I ever thought possible. I'm a bit of a newbie though I did manage to get a BE2c to 34 hrs and major with one kill before biting the dust However, in 1915 that is easy because the only enemies around seem to be even slower than me and I can always run away :yes: I wasn't shot down but collided with my wing man (I think). Couldn't have been Archie as I was on my side of the lines and the TAC showed no EA at all. But height is what I need and that thing climbs incredibly slowly. It does seem that the way to gain altitude is to warp, and often I end up above the EA or at the same height. I see others complain about the warp bringing them below the enemy but it doesn't seem to happen to me. As I am still in 1915 maybe that has something to do with it. I am using auto mixture at the moment but will try leaning it off a bit to see what revs I can make. I should, of course, lean the mixture with altitude. I have just realised that the HUD has a rate of climb instrument - which I wasn't using as it hadn't been invented then. But at least I can find the best climb angle and mixture setting. It's funny to think that most of the time my bum in front of the computer is actually higher than my 'virtual' bum in the BE. Winder - do you have TrackIr? It seems to be a bit pricey here, so I am considering making a FreeTrack setup. Electronics isn't my forte but I can try.

And fasten your seat belt!

As a sort-of philosophical point, I think it was the success of good 2-seaters in WWI that caused a few mistakes 20 years later in round two. These WWI two-seaters were as fast as the scouts and better armed in the back. By the time WWII came around the fighters were faster and better armed from the front, the brits with 8 rifle-caliber MGs and the Me109 with 2 MGs and two cannon. And later they had four cannon or 6 0.5 mgs. So the 2-seater Zerstorer Me110 and (even worse) the Fairey Battle and Boulton-Paul Defiant were easy meat for a modern single-seater. Both air forces had to learn this the hard way. The Me went on to prove itself as a night fighter but the other two ended up as target tugs or scrap.

I used to get the can't populate airfield message. I think it had something to do with the pilot I had at the time. Since he kicked the bucket the message has gone away. The message didn't seem to mean anything at all as the airfield looked ok to me.

"tHX for your answer. I can see you live in Berlin too. greetings! now some words in german. The play is almost perfect. However, I miss a detailed front report like in RB3D, zb. which aces in the area are stationed. In addition, I have found one no bug. Has announced me to the Jasta 11 and every time by the start my relay companions crash in the houses of the small town. Otherwise a Supergame. If I have waited long on it, since RB3d." Using Imtranslator - a Firefox add-in. Maybe there was a typo in the original "Ausserdem habe ich einen kleinen Bug gefunden"? Maybe 'Bug' would be better as 'Kerbtier'

It's a nice piece of software. My problem was I overdid it a bit and somehow disabled the sound. What I should do is start again and disable one service or program at a time, that's the only way.

While you are over there you can fly up the Thames and through Tower Bridge. I think my pilot (at the time) was with 56 Sqn SE5a's early 1918. It's pretty boring so you have to fast forward the time.

Ï cän tÿpë löts öf ümläüts :yes: Wasn't it Goethe who said "in Tzchermany humour is not a laughing matter"?

People have long memories. The British Army lost more men to the US Air force in Desert Storm than they did to the Iraqis.

AAA is current usage in the US. But on this side of the pond it is still called AA. And in WWI usage it was always called 'Archie' And in WWII usage it was always called 'Flak' So let us use 'Archie' if you want reality or immersion.

I must say that this is one of the best forums I have been on, and I am a mod on three others. The guys are very good at answering any question, no matter how newbie the questioner is (often myself), and that is a sign of a good forum. There have been no serious 'flame wars' and those that have smouldered have been extinguished instantly by the mods. The overall impression is a bunch of guys from all over the world who enjoy playing OFF and telling others of their experiences. This is a 'game' that you could possibly play for ever. I started with a single squadron and have so far made it to August 1915 so I have a long way to go to the end of the war, and then I will start again with a different squadron.... etc. I also have other squadrons that I have started from the beginning but hate their aircraft so much that I have stopped for a while. Bristol Scouts are a disaster

But the Camel shot down more enemy aircraft than any other allied plane. And still holds the record for the most aircraft shot down by one aircraft by one pilot, by Barker - I think it was 46. HE knew how to fly it. So if the OFF Camel is hard to fly and turns like the devil - that's how it was. Well done the developers.

I hope it is a wind-up watch not one of these new-fangled quartz things

I was also worried it was a hacker attack and am happy that it is all now working. It is only when it doesn't work that you realise how much it means. Flying OFF is great, but reading about it adds to the experience. The nearest I can come to explaining this is that I often go to the Kruger National Park, but never on my own. When I see the (occasional) car with one occupant I always think that it must be so lonely to see an animal and not be able to share it with a companion. At least here you can say 'whoopee I shot down [x whatevers] yesterday!' (or the opposite which often happens). Happy flying, guys

It is amazing sometimes how little changes. Back in 1972 we deployed 4 sqn Harriers to a field in Northern (West) Germany, I can't remember exactly where it was even though I drove there in a Land Rover with the OIC. I do remember that it was owned by a 'Baron von' something or other and he had wild boar in a large fenced property. We used to feed them our leftovers after meals and they loved it! One problem we normally had in Germany was camouflaging our aircraft so that we could not be spotted by the 'enemy'. I don't remember exactly who they were but we would hide every time a flight of F4s or F104Gs flew down the autobahn which was not far away. It seemed that all military aircraft in Germany navigated by the autobahns, but they never spotted us! We were not allowed under pain of death to cut down trees to create places to hide our aircraft, but found perfectly cut-out places to put them. I spoke to the estate manager (at least I think he was) and even with my poor school German found out that the cut-outs in the trees were made to fit fighters towards the end of WWII. As a Harrier is a very small aircraft, cuttings made for Me109s suited us just fine! We were there for a week, and thought that the patrolling fighters must spot the burnt grass from takeoffs and landings, but they never spotted us. Maybe being so close to the autobahn fooled them. I must add that using grass runways and living in tents and doing servicing outside made us closer to the RFC experience than anyone in the modern RAF had. We enjoyed it a lot, in a mad sort of way - away from the discipline and bullsh1t of regular bases, back to basics where hard work was what mattered. We also found the camaraderie between pilots and ground crew was superb, mainly because we went back to the ancient tradition of having a fitter and rigger for each kite. I was one of the fitters, and my pilot was Sqn Ldr Pat King, later to be IC all Harriers in the UK. Oh hell, the best years of my life.

The reason Canadians (and US citizens who joined the RFC via Canada) did so well is that they knew how to fly as they were trained well. Most Canadian pilots had quite a few hours by the time they eventually got to France, unlike the Brits who were thrown into the fray with sometimes less than 20 Hours solo. It was hard to train a pilot in the UK (and still is) because the weather is so horrible for flying. In WWII the British did not make the same mistake, sending many pilots to Canada, South Africa and (then) Rhodesia to be trained as the weather was and is much better there. It is still a 'cottage industry' here in South Africa, offering cheap accomodation and flying time, so you can have a holiday and get your PPL in a few weeks at nice places like Port Elizabeth on the coast.

Just to add to what everyone else has said, I find the music in OFF so evocative of the era, somewhat sad and military as befits the time, but at least it doesn't make me shed a tear like Elgar's Cello Concerto which was written in 1918 by a very saddened man. The music adds to the overall feeling of the sim, or the immersion as some put it. I think this is the BEST money I have spent on ANY software of any description, EVER. As I am still in 1915 in my trusty BE2c (or many serial BE2c's I should say) it will take me until about 2020 to get to the SE5a in 1918. And by 2020 I will have learnt how to fly...

I read somewhere that US airbags are more powerful than European ones and therefore more dangerous. This is apparently because wearing seat belts in the US is not compulsory as it is everywhere in Europe.

I once came off a British ferry at Ostend very early in the morning as it was just getting light. I was one of the last cars off, and all the Brit tourists were in front of me. I was not in their category as I lived in Germany at the time. All went well until the roundabout before the motorway to Ghent. The first car went from the RHS of the road and then blithely set off down the wrong LH side of the motorway. This is easy enough to do when there is no 'native' traffic around to show you the right way. However, about another 20 tourists then followed the guy in front. I then went down the right road, put my foot down and overtook them all, flashing my lights and blowing the hooter like mad. I remember them looking across at me, no doubt thinking 'that car is on the wrong side of the motorway' before the penny dropped. I last saw them all slowing down and pulling to the side. But who can point fingers? I once drove through Dover and was wondering why I couldn't read the signposts until I discovered I was looking at the back of the signs. It's easy to do at 4am with no traffic about.

Monopropellants are very dangerous. I used to work with Iso-propyl-nitrate (coded as AVPIN) which was used in Hunter FGA9 and Lightning starter motors. We once had an idiot who primed a diesel engine with the stuff and blew it to pieces. And someone who thought adding a bit to their car tank would make the car go faster.