JimAttrill

I went from a sergeant to Major in less than a month! In the real RAF I went from apprentice to corporal in five years

Well it makes a change for the Germans to be evil, normally all the 'baddies' in Hollywood movies have British accents

There's a plug in for Firefox that downloads and converts videos from the web sites. Just look for 'recommended plug ins'.

I also shot down a Fokker EIII with a Be2c! I also got up to nearly 40 hours with my pilot until he was shot down by Bill Gates. Windoze went mad and I had to reinstall everything. My latest flier is in a Bristol scout and that thing is hard to control - the slightest stick input and it is all over the place. I tend to over-control in dogfights (also against EIIIs) so mostly seem to spin into the ground, or even kill myself trying to land the thing. Maybe I should try an Fe2b as it certainly looks stable with that wide wingspan. On re-reading the posts I see that Olham also reckons the Bristol Scout is a killer (in the wrong way, that is).

I don't know if it is a secret and not publishable on a public forum, but I am somewhat interested in how many copies of OFF have been sold. I consider it the best software purchase I have ever made, and I don't personally buy much stuff at all. I do like the fact that there is a dedicated forum, and am not interested in other games or sims thus far. I can't see that I will ever get bored with OFF because there are so many options to explore.

His English was better than yours, what he said was: "Now then, let's not bicker and argue about who killed whom. This is supposed to be a happy ocassion." :yes:

Lou, if you look at my sig you will see the squadron I fly with! I am doing that for old times sake because I served with 4 sqn RAF from 1968-1972 when they first started with Harriers (AV8A's to you Americans). This was a bunch with the most amazing esprit de corps. My favourite pilot ended up in charge of the Harrier wing later on. We ground crew worked amazingly to prove we were better than the other two squadrons there, nos 20 and 3. I have never worked so hard in my life or drank so much beer either! To answer your question, Lou, I am very close to St. Omer. I have met Fokker DIIIs and shot one down a while back, but they don't seem to be around much now. To Olham, well I am trying to fly the whole war as a pilot with 'fantastic fearless fighting four' as we called the squadron, and I believe that they eventually get the RE8 (wow!) in 1918. But that does not stop me enrolling other pilots in other squadrons and aircraft. I have a DH2 pilot in 1915 (terrible aircraft) and also an F2B pilot in 1918, but I think he is deceased. Interestingly you can't sign on with no 48 sqn with a Bristol Fighter, though they were the first. I insist on flying pretty realistically in Campaign mode, so I have a lot of dead pilots in my computer

I was going to post exactly what has been said above by Condor44. I am a mod on a few forums that have had to do exactly that. It works well. Normally the 'Please read me first' sticky includes the rules for the forum, like no bad language, insulting other members, etc. Also it can include interesting stuff like how to post photos on the forum, how to size them, etc. Also some forums require a mod to approve posts from newbies and they do not understand why their posts are not visible. I don't think that one applies here though.

I am enjoying the on-line book about 100 Squadron RAF. I note that on page ten the squadron was held up as Fismes, en route to another aerodrome. My wife's Uncle and Aunt and cousins various all farm there. A nice little town, I was there when the French won the footy world cup back in 1998 and we drove into Rheims for the celebrations there. That was a night to remember!

I've read before about the exploits of those Shorts. The engines were dreadfully unreliable, just what you want when flying over the sea! The exhaust valves were made out of mild steel or something like that and had to be changed after every flight: they would bend and/or stretch and had to be thrown away. I think the engine was made by Sunbeam and seems to have been a bit behind the times as far as the metals used were concerned. Most of the advances in metallurgy happened after the war anyway, and even the petrol they used was of extremely low octane (not that octane ratings had been invented either). My father used to tell me of those early days when he would regrind a RR Eagle crankshaft using grinding paste, a block of lead, two nuts and bolts and a couple of bits of wood. Aircraft technicians nowadays don't fix anything, they just change components. It was a different world then. We were both of the same service, the same trade even, but had little in common technically. He was born the same year the Wright brothers flew and I was born the year after the Bell X-1 broke the sound barrier.

Coffee in the US seems to vary from place to place. My wife went on a business trip to New York, San Francisco, San Diego and Detroit. She said the coffee was so weak it was undrinkable. At home we use what the Italians call a 'mocha' to make coffee using Italian Blend beans. We make it about half the strength of espresso but drink it by the mugful, not in tiny cups.

I suppose if he got the eagle to flap its wings hard enough he could have been the first VTOL monarch?

And as for Africa .... anyone else out there?

I'm going to a French eatery tonight for a special meal in honour of the day. Last year's do was very good. I'm going with my wife and her sister - both French-speaking and Nationals, and my nephew who has a French passport but doesn't speak a dickey bird of the language. The dessert will be Crepes Suzette mmmmm

And who's the guy with an eagle perched on his head?

I want to give it a go sometime, but my mike has stopped working (and its the MOB not the mic itself). Also I am a pretty useless pilot and don't want to show myself up too much. Do I absolutely need the voice mike? Or can I just take orders via the speakers which work fine. And another problem is that I am 9 hours in front of California for example, so when I'm eating my breakfast its midnight there. I'm only 2 hours in front of the UK at the moment though.

So to fly QC you have to be a lawyer then? (If British, that is) Of course, in WWI times they would have been a KC...

These messages I get when in Campaign mode. And then the mission does not start properly. How can I get over this? This happened with my F2B in 1918. When I swapped back to my BE2c pilot in 1915 I got the first message but not the second and the flights worked fine. (I am now at 31 hours in the BE!)

Ok I don't mind doing a complete reinstall - but I must keep my existing pilots - especially the one with 31 hours! Can I do this?

I am beginning to hate this forum as I have replied three times to this thread and nothing happens. This one, of course, will work

Ok. I don't know what I did but all of a sudden I can't get the virtual cockpit view. Pressing F4 and F6 repeatedly does not bring it back. It was there, so where has it gone to? I have enough trouble flying without having all of this real aeroplane in the way.

Training wheels is what I need I have looked for this option but can't find it

So you use the views with the whole cockpit getting in the way of your forward view? Then you are an even better pilot than I thought. I have no hope of doing that (yet).

The card I printed shows _______ for Virtual Cockpit view which isn't very helpful.....

Err... I understood a few of those words, but most likely the easy ones. one notch? pits? FOV? please explain.