JimAttrill

I normally run the HUD at 1 mile, labels on. But yesterday a red blip appeared suddenly and before I could even turn round I was shot down in my trusty BE2c by an EIII. Crashed into some more trees (again) and was only wounded for 21 days or so. This has now happened twice (being wounded, that is) so I am pushing my luck. And the score is now BE2c 1 EIII 1. But now over 30 hours and still going! Maybe I should run the HUD at 2 miles instead.....

Fying the other day, minding my own business in my BE2c (I am trying to fly the kite as it was in those days, that is I don't look for any trouble at all). All of a sudden my engine seemed to lose power and eventually I sort-of landed in some trees. Luckily on my side of the lines and I was only injured. It took a while for the crash to happen and I have no idea why it happened. Maybe I had dirt in the petrol or something. Or maybe I had been hit by Archie? There were certainly no EA around at the time. I remember other FS where you could look to see what damage your aeroplane had sustained - is there any way of seeing what is going on in OFF? There is that 'health' thing which always says 59% so that isn't much help at all. ps. now up to 23 hours, mainly because I try to fly highish 5-6000 ft and the Fokker EIIIs are always lower and I stay up there. Maybe I'm a chicken, but I'm still clucking away unlike my other pilots

Somewhere in Germany there is an Me163 - I get this from 'Wings of the wierd and wonderful' from Capt E Brown RN who flew one as a glider back in '46.

In our local war museum here we have a beautifully restored (or kept) Flak 88. Along with the unique ME262 2-seater night fighter, and an SE5A. Also Mosquito, Hurricane and Spitfire, 2 Bf109s, a FW190 A4(?) and other stuff. Just looking at the SE5A makes you wonder about the bravery of those who flew such bits of wood and wire. It is TINY and doesn't look strong at all. Unlike the SE5A in the Imperial War Museum in London it was not used as a skywriter, but just got lost for about 50 years at a technical college in Durban. It's a pity there are no German WWI aircraft in the museum. Guns, yes, but no aircraft.

I have read this thread with great interest, having heard from many sources that the Camel was tricky to fly. Apparently caused by 90% of the weight of the aircraft being in the first 7 feet! When I have a bit more experience I will give it a try, but I think at the moment I would just get depressed at trying to fly an aircraft with such strange control responses. Though they always say that in the hands of an experienced pilot (if he lived that long) the Camel was just about the greatest dogfighter ever. I AM glad to see that OFF has not emasculated the Camel, so when I eventually get to fly it I will feel that I have really learnt something about that amazing aeroplane.

Hi Olham, I always enjoy your posts on this forum. But tell me, what did the Germans in WWI call what the Brits referred to as 'Archie' or (possibly) AA? I have forgotten the German expression that 'flak' came from, I think it was originally a description of the AA gun itself. I do know that 'flak' is definitely a WWII word, rather like 'Stuka' which was really a description of a type of aircraft, not just the JU87. Linguistically this is all interesting, rather as the Brits call all vacuum cleaners 'Hoovers' and it has become a verb 'to Hoover the floor'. Apparently in the 20s a 'Handley Page' was Brit-speak for any large aircraft (and I would like to have a HP 0/100 to play around with, devs please note :yes: ). Oooh I remembered one German word - 'Sturzkampflugzeug'!

Yes, I have occasionally swiched my engine off by pressing '1' instead of TAB, or the padlock ` toggle - which I instantly switch off again as I find it doesn't help - but it does show me if the enemy is above or below my position which the TAC doesn't do. If the Fokkers are below me I ignore them, and none (so far) have been above. If on the same level I send my mates to sort them out with 'A' while I put the pedal to the metal and get out of there. The Fokker EIII seems to be even slower than the BE2c! But the engine was running at 100% throttle and sounded ok, but obviously had no power at all, maybe 20% at best. The BE2c engine often stops of its own accord, especially when you start it with 'E'. I have to whack some throttle on before it stops. This only bothered me the first couple of times. Anyway, I always remember that many famous aces started in 2-seaters including MvR and (I think) Bishop. Also McCudden? By the time I have learnt to fly I shall be the ace of the base

I had 90% or so fuel left. The engine sounded normal and was apparently at 100% throttle, just no power and a sinking feeling as the airspeed dropped off. I hadn't been in a fight at all, just cruising along. Maybe AA damage from when I was over the front. The aircraft didn't want to glide well, but apparently most WWI aircraft don't glide well (read that somewhere on this forum). If I had a rev-counter I could tell you what it was reading ..... Maybe I should look in the cockpit occasionally. I don't even know if there is a rev-counter in there. I know pilots of that day were always mentioning that their engine either did or did not reach the correct 'revs'. Bill Lambert seems to have been obsessed by this and was forever taking his engine to bits to fix it. He also lived out the war, so there is a message there. One thing is that I was flying home 'manually' as the TAC insists on pointing the blue line back towards a waypoint over the lines. Is this because I didn't stay at the target for the required number of minutes - normally 12 or 14? I can warp until I am blue in the face over the lines and just go round in circles, or backwards and forwards more like between two waypoints very close together.

I didn't know I could do that! It would be nice if the devs could get rid of the whole thing and give us some sort of fuel gauge. Though I don't think aircraft of that time had fuel gauges (?). I flew in a SAA Ju 52 3m a couple of years ago, and that had sort of floating dipsticks protruding above the wings. And the DH Chipmunk had mechanical gauges on top of the wings. The Harvard also had some sort of sight gauge IIRC. So using the digital fuel gauge is rather like using the Artificial Horizon which was invented by Elmer Sperry in 1929 ....

Here is a pretty good description of how the Aldis sight worked. It seems that the real version worked better than the sim version. http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Re...3/msg00008.html

My BE2c pilot made it to 23 hours and one kill. Met his end last night. I think he only lasted that long because there weren't many EA around in 1915....

I have got used to spinning into the trees with the DH2. It doesn't seem stable at all. Luckily my campaign pilot survives after a stay in hospital. I've not been shot down in it yet though hit a few times. The German air corps has nothing to fear from me as yet. I did shoot down a Fokker DIII with the very stable BE2c though. Pilot is still 'alive' but inactive for the moment. One question about padlocking - this might help me a bit at this stage - how do I 'select' a target before padlocking it? How can I tell if an aircraft is 'selected'?

As a software developer myself, I think that anything you do to avoid piracy is something I will support. I must add that I don't pay for stuff sold by M$ as they have too much money anyway. But I appreciate the efforts of the OFF team though it did annoy me to have to buy CFS3 first .... It is possible to encode a DVD, as done by the Oscar people who discovered which person was selling their pre-release movies to the Chinese this way. But to give each DVD a unique serial no is a bit of a pain for you. Now I just have to find my 'purchase number' - I hope I kept the email. ps. As I bought OFF for $39.99 and it is now on sale for $29.99 when will you send me my $10? :yes:

Apparently it was not possible to fit an interrupter gear to the Lewis because it is gas-operated. The action was copied by the Germans for their MG42 and the Americans for the M60. A truly great gun, not used by the US in WWI for political reasons.

I don't think so. I normally fly with the TAC at 1 or 2 miles and often cannot warp when there is nothing on the scope. Although sometimes it tells me I am taking off when I am at 5000 ft and miles from the aerodrome.

Lancashire? Liverpool? That's a London accent if ever I heard one. I used to speak like that as I grew up in Sarfend - it's a great place to leave.... But I am glad to hear I can get rid of it.

I have now been enlisted since the 23rd March 1915 and it is now the 20th April 1915. I have done 18 missions in the BE2c of 4 squadron. I have spent most of this time learning how to fly and I must say it is a good training aircraft. Not much action, though I was attacked once and shot down a Fokker Eindekker (confirmed). Now promoted to Captain from the original Sgt. One question - the aircraft seems tail-heavy and wants to go left. Is this how the original aircraft flew? Now I have a LCD monitor I must say it is easier to spot other aircraft. I am running at a realism level of 90 at the moment. One point of note and thanks to the OFF team - it is nice to be shown dates in the dd/mm/ccyy format for a change! If I sign up for an American squadron will it change to mm/dd/ccyy? (Only joking folks :yes: ).

I think I will recruit another pilot to 48Sqn which were the first to use the F2B Bristol Fighter. I tried another early squadron, no 24 with DH2s but I can't seem to fly it well. A moderate bank turns into a more than 90 deg bank and then I spin in. The first time I was lucky to be wounded but the second time ended up dead. It also seems very slow and unable to catch anything at all. Lanoe Hawker seems to be able to fly them, but then he isn't a beginner. All the same, I shall keep plugging on with the BE just to see if I can make it to Major General before I get shot down

They (ie the Royal Aircraft Factory) deserve 'harsh words' for designing aeroplanes that were a German scout pilots dream. If you want a good laugh look at the FE2d where the gunner had to stand on his seat to fire backwards. Brave men flew them and got killed. Remember that Sopwith was a private venture company and if it hadn't been for the RNAS the RAF would have had no good fighters until the advent of the SE5. Correct me if I am wrong, but the R101 was designed by them with ridiculous underpowered engines. They refused to admit they were wrong, and 48 people were killed. The private venture R100, designed (amongst others) by Neville Shute Norway, flew to Canada and back. As an historical aside, some of the R101 alloy structure was bought by the Zeppelin company and used to make the Hindenburg. ps. I now have 23 hours on the BE2c, though very little combat at all. Am now a major, so must be the squadron commander

Well, the Bulgarians had had a few recent wars with the Serbians (who are next door after all). I agree that the Zep questions were badly worded for the answersthey wanted. And I still wonder if the castor oil answer is actually true, though there was a shortage in Germany of lots of basic food stuffs (if you can think of Castor oil as food that is). I thought there was just a general prejudice against the French-designed engines, rather as the RFC/RAF didn't like any sort of monoplane until the middle thirties.

I am going to try to fly all the way though to Nov 11th 1918 and see how many pilots I need 4 squadron changed to RE8's later on in the war but I believe that it was not a lot better than the BE2c. Once I am a better flyer I will start with fighters as well with either 24 or 56. I must say that I really like this game, getting more 'immersed' all the time. I can see how players go into mourning when their favourite pilot gets killed.

I got 15 and learnt something new ...

You wouldn't like brightly polished aircraft if you had to do it! I remember spending days polishing a Hawker Hunter for static display. Luckily the RAF banned the use of the metal polish impregnated wadding we used after a few aircraft had to be scrapped after the rivet heads were worn away. IIRC it was the 'Queens Flight' aircraft. In the sixties and early seventies the RAF used polyeurathane gloss camouflage paint (yes, I know it is a contradiction in terms). We used to hate the stuff as it was extremely slippery when wet. When they discovered that the white in the roundels could be seen from 20000ft they soon got rid of the white and then used matt camouflage paint. The pilots reckoned the shiny paint was worth 20 knots....

Another one to read is 'Combat Report' by Bill Lambert DFC (from Ohio), writes of his training in Canada and experiences with 24sqn RFC in 1918. And 'Winged Victory' of course as mentioned already. Is there any other good fiction or non-fiction stuff about flying in WWI? 'Goodbye to all that' is a terrific description of the war on the ground but I don't remember a mention of an aeroplane in it.

Today, I was flying over the lines, TAC set at one mile, no enemies seen at that distance. All of a sudden the screen goes red and the next thing my pilot is put in an ambulance and officially wounded. Was he (I) shot down by Archie?