JimAttrill

A quirk is what the RFC pilots called the Be2. Strange name, but there it is. I first came across this name in 'War Story' by Derek Robinson. A young pilot delivers one from England to a FE2b squadron (why?) and writes it off. He then flies as an observer in the FEs. Well worth the read.

The flypast background is Brighton. His pallbearers were 3 RN and 3 RAF serving members. And two of his great-grandchildren are in the US Navy.

I tried that. The mission said I had to stay for 14 mins and I stayed for much longer than that. But I have found that the manual override works, so I select next waypoint and off we go.

I had no problems at all with installing CSF3 and OFF, though the AMD patch did help the stuttering in CSF3. This was with SP2. OFF has always worked perfectly apart from a strange error message which didn't make any difference that has now mysteriously gone away. As of yesterday I have SP3 (because a friend told me it is faster) and all is still well.

I must admit that I hate paying money to a certain software company that is making billions out of their overpriced operating systems and other stuff. Yes, I have 4 pcs running real volume license copies. They don't need the money and won't miss it. But I did buy OFF because I think the developers deserve the money and I do the same for other small outfits which sell really good stuff. But it might be a good idea to digitally 'sign' each legal copy sold, and only allow one update per copy or something like that. I'm not sure exactly how it is done, and IMHO all copy protection systems have not really worked. I do remember one software package that expected you to insert a disk every so often. I found out that the disk had a real hardware error on it and was not copiable. Well, you could copy it but it would not work as a verified copy. Just for a laugh I tried to write a TSR to trap the codes and got close to it. I was teaching myself assembler at the time and had some fun with this. (I had bought the software btw). That copy protection DID work. So there are ways of doing these things. Best of luck to the developers and may the pirates be forced to fly Bristol Scouts till the end of time

Thanks Olham and Homeboy. It looks as if I was at the top of the Be2c envelope (not that they called it that in 1915). I think I tried shift+w but it didn't work. Will try again. Maybe I should set the 'don't fly into your leader' setting '

The sea books of C. Northcote Parkinson aren't bad. Not as funny as Aubrey/Maturin but well researched and written. Better than the rubbish written by Dudley Pope, anyway. I have read the whole canon of O'Brian a few times now and always spot something new.

I think this thread should be made 'sticky' so that it shows newbies how many of us there are and encourages them to buy OFF if they haven't already. Then put a link to the thread from the OFF website.

But there doesn't seem to be any EA around in early 1915. But on the other hand I am learning to fly a bit. I try to avoid the warp, because then I could have even more hours. But I do circle my starting aerodrome until I get to at least 4000 ft before setting out for the lines. From what I have read, this was a good idea, too high for the machine guns and a bit too low for the AA. This last time I crossed the lines at 9500 and the Archie was getting very close. But no enemy fighters at all. So I went home for tea. :yes: I must add that I am flying a Be2c, so I quite like it when the enemy aircraft fail to show up. This can't last.... Maybe I can hit the world record for the longest living BE2c pilot. Last I heard it was 20 minutes

Amazing! Sgt Majpr Albertson's story is almost too good to be true. I never cease to be astounded at how brave some of these airmen/soldiers were. And he was a very intelligent person as well, if you read between the lines. Why was he not commissioned I wonder. So what happened to him after 1 April 1918?

I always tend to think 'there but for the grace of God go I', for if I had grown up in Germany at that time I would most likely have joined the Hitler Jugend and become a fervent Nazi. It is very hard to go against the feeling of your nation at such a time. In my time, I joined the Boy Scouts instead...

Flying my Be2c of 4Sqn 1915. Over the German lines, lots of EIIIs appeared, at about the same height - 6000ft. I managed to hit both the aces, and others, but eventually they were flying below 1000 ft and after being shot at a lot by mg fire a 2000 I wouldn't go down there. Being down to a few rounds left, I legged it back to the British lines. Both my wingmates with me as well. I don't think anyone on either side got shot down in this engagement. I quite like the Be2c - at least it doesn't spin with my hamfisted controlling. And it seems to be more manoeveable than the EIII, which is its only opponent at this early stage of the war. A good learning tool, I reckon. ps I am chicken because I am flying Did at 100% and trying to stay alive...

Yes, Colonel Lewis was an American, but he had arguments with the US army procurement people, so he went to Europe where the gun was made in Belgium and mostly in England. Later on, the gun was made in the US but for the British and the US Navy. US Marines had their Lewis guns confiscated on arrival in France and replaced by a rubbish French gun.

I was taught NEVER to stop an aero-engine by switching off the magnetos. I think the reason was that if, for some reason, you accidentally switched the mags back on before the prop stopped the resulting explosion would destroy the exhaust and possibly set the engine on fire. I did know of one guy who, when doing a mag-drop check on a Bristol Hercules 14-cyl radial, switched off both mags instead of one. He should have left it at that and let the engine stop, but he switched the mags back on and blew the circular exhaust to pieces.

Winder and I have a compete continent to ourselves!

Olham, I think to run 120% you have to have Trackir which I can't afford at the moment. But I'm running as realistic as I can and stay alive. I must say the Tac is not useful once one has met the other aircraft and it might be a good idea to have a joystick button programmed to switch it off. I know the Be2c quirk is a death trap but at least it is easy to fly, unlike the dreaded Bristol Scout which just falls out of the sky. And last night I flew through Tower Bridge in an SE5A of 56 sqn! (As an aside, I worked on the ex-54 sqn Hawker Hunter FGA9 back in '68 which had done the same thing. The pilot was cashiered/resigned of course).

Sshhhh.... a word to the wise. If you use DVDshrink (available freeware on the internet) you can shrink 8Gb DVDs down and write them on normal 4.7Gb DVDs. Also they come out with no region code (if you wish, and most people wish). Ok, maybe you lose a bit of quality in the shrinkage, but I can't say I have noticed.

Maybe someone should sell 'joss sticks' impregnated with castor oil. I remember the stuff from the Castrol R that the 2-stroke moto-cross bikes used in their Villiers engines back in the '60s - also the J.A.P speedway bikes - they used castor oil because they ran on alcohol and no mineral oil could cope with that then. Such a lovely smell! I somehow think SWAMBO would not like it unless I moved the computer to the garage. This would be 'total immersion' for those flying rotary engined planes

If I may ask, what settings have you used - what is the most useful? So far all I have done is made button 6 the 'idle cutoff' command. This stops me running off the aerodrome before I can look up how to do it! Damn - these things got no brakes at all

Hauptmann Rudolf Berthold, the commander of JG2 in May 1918 wrote the following about this new scout: 'Basically the Siemens-Halske Sh.III engine is sound and the pilots have faith in it. One particular advantage is that engine power remains constant even at high altitude. [..] but the aircraft cannot be used at the present time as, after seven to ten hours' running of the Sh.III engine the pistons seize, the crowns being torn off and the pieces dropping into the crankcase.' "Berthold went on to list the possible causes of this major defect, including inadequate engine cooling, inferior castor oil substitute and weakness in the alloy used for the pistons, and concluded: 'It is urgently required that this fighter be made available for front-line use as quickly as possible'". from Aces' Twilight - the war in the air, 1918. Robert Jackson, Sphere Books, 1988. [bold mine] So maybe the answer in that quiz that we all disagreed with was actually right after all?

24 squadron was one you didn't want to meet. Their kill to loss ratio in 1918 is amazing. Johnson survived the war and went on to be an Air Marshal in the RCAF IIRC.

Hey Flyby pc, I've got one of those too! (Except the seat in mine is in better nick and I got carpets on the floor. 1995 tdi)

I'm also a lefty, though I switch my mouse around about every 3 months or so to avoid the Carpal syndrome. I also fly left-handed, though I have found over the years that I am gradually getting more and more right-handed as time goes by. I learnt to play the guitar upside-down as a teenager and when I picked one up ten years later found that I was right-handed. I also can't hit the board with a dart now with my left hand. But some things don't change - I hit things with hammers left handed, use a rifle left handed and drink left handed. The only time being left handed is an advantage is when touch-typing as the QWERTY keyboard was delilberately designed to slow the right handed typist down. Oh, and my rather cheap Rockfire joystick is of the ambidextrous kind.

Errrr what can I say - it's my name If you want to use diacritics I suggest the free very small download of Allchars. It not only does über, also Göring, é, è etc. Also € and ¥ and other currency signs. It is easy to use, you can guess the sequences most of the time, eg the u umlaut is <ctrl> " u, the Euro sign is <ctrl> = E

It happened to me once after installing a new graphics card. The screen resolution was too low, I think. Anyway setting the resolution properly seemed to fix it.