Check Six

Winder, HOLD the rudder??? OK, that's not what I've been doing in any stall. I was of the opinion that you swap it over if, say for instance, you are in a "falling leaf" type of situation where you oscillate from spinning one way then the other. Interesting. Hopefully, I'll never have to use it (I know I'll be using it soon - sigh). Broadside, I don't know the answer to that. I'm guessing it individualised the aircraft, and therefore was not "uniform" and therefore, not "service-like". We all know how the Germans respected and promoted their Aces (in the media I mean), and allowed them some measure of slack, and hence the ability to individualise one's aircraft...hell, they even allowed them to use those new-fangled parachute things. Just not cricket, wot? I heard somewhere (it may be just a rumour or a story) that Richthofen was ordered to paint his Jasta's aircraft "different colours" (meaning I guess to camoflage them in browns and greens etc), and he took it to the extreme. I understand the reasoning behind the (dare I say it?) GAILY coloured aircraft (OK guys...get off my back. Gay meant something different way back then). Easy to recognise who shot down who, who saved your ass, who to look at for signals/directions etc. Erich Hartmann, the highest scoring ace of all time, painted a black tulip design on the nose of his Messerschmitt, and eventually, the Russians would understandably avoid this aircraft at all costs. This prompted him to lend it to a rookie every now and then. This may save the rookie's life, and allow Hartmann further opportunities to add to his VERY impressive tally (352 aircraft over a year and a half for a 22 yo...not a bad effort). There were of course, instances of aircraft being named (Little named his "Blymp" after the nickname he gave his son, and he had previously flown "Maud" [or was it "Lady Maud"?]). Collishaw's flight were named as well, but that's hardly what you're asking here. Maybe shredward knows. There was an Australian (Les Holden) who flew an all-red SE5a...(see above - hope Cam doesn't mind me posting that here) "Captain L.H. Holden was a fighting instructor for No.6 Training Squadron Australian Flying Corps. The fighting instructors conducted dogfights against the cadets so they had training in the modern fighting tactics. The instructors found it tiring, as cadets are less predictable than the experienced German pilots they faced on the Western Front - the instructors were constantly in danger of being flown into. As a result they painted their aircraft bright colours so they could be easily seen." Australian Flying Corps highest scoring Ace, A H Cobby had a large cariacature of Charlie Chaplin on the side of his aircraft. Collishaw's flight flew all black tripes. I can't think of any more instances off hand.

Some good RNAS squadrons flew the Camel. Most of the Sopwith family of aircraft are used in RNAS 8, from 1 1/2 Strutter through to Pups, and Camels (no Snipes...YET [hint, hint devs]) and you'll fly with such greats as R A Little, S J Goble, R J O Compston, C D Booker, R R Soar. Great to watch those guys in action, or to call on them for help if needed. Do you have M$ FSX? There is a lessons page in there where a flight instructor will talk you through aerobatic manoeuvres, and that might give you an insight in how to avoid the stall and spin performing this manoeuvre, or how to recover once it's initiated. You're not in a camel of course, more a Pitts Special or some other aerobatic specialist, and you can view a "replay" of your flight with three dimensional views that show you how your loop was not even CLOSE to a circle etc, and explain the reasons why, and how to perform it successfully. That might help.

Carrick, You mistyped the website for that video. See the bottom of my post for my signature for the correct address gents. The constructor and pilot of that craft is Adrian Hellwig, a member of our society and author of "Australian Hawk over the Western Front", a biography of Roderic Stanley Dallas, an Aussie who flew for RNAS during the Great War. Knowing that the original full scale aircraft were notoriously difficult to fly (as aviation was still in its infancy and there weren't any wind tunnels about to test if the rudder needed to be a bit larger etc), I had a long correspondance with Adrian about whether the scale models of WW1 aircraft were much more difficult to fly when compared to your basic bog-standard RC trainer. You guessed it, yes, they are. The BE2c had aerodynamic properties in full scale that are replicated in the small scale models. He was extremely nervous on her maiden flight. Duce, there are computer flight simulators for RC aircraft where your controller is a RC dual joystick setup, and has flyby views, and a "Picture-in-picture" superimposition of the aircraft so you can clearly see its orientation. Great fun, and the main reason I haven't tried to build a RC aircraft. It shows that these models are TINY dots and hard to ascertain whether they are flying towards or away from you (especially for someone with my poor old eyes), and very hard to maintain altitude in turns etc (two joysticks, not one...it is a learning curve to operate a rudder with an RC transmitter). Without the Picture-in-picture depiction of the model's attitude, I'd certainly have crashed many more times thatn I already did.

Olham, From 12000 feet to 1000 feet in one sweeping turn is some cool flying. I find that I start to shudder a fair bit and it becomes completely unresponsive (in a 1 1/2 Strutter). Good for you. Also pleased to see you learned a lesson in when to change seats with your gunner. All that clambering over a fuselage with no-one at the controls when you're at 100 feet? (Yes Mr Lucky, I found the 1 1/2 strutter to be a good sturdy fighter with RNAS 8). Olham...you are close to being subject to court martial charges if you shoot at your flight leader. Be very careful my friend. :yes:

Thank you gentlemen, I'm so pleased to find these are useful to you nice people that frequent this Forum. Olham...It's always a pleasure to assist you, and OVS...it's a great pleasure thinking that my simple gesture here will in some way repay you for all your hard work on this great sim. rabu, These pics were taken during a visit to the "Musee de l'air et de l'espace" at Le Bourget Aerodrome in Paris. It is certainly one of the best air museums in the world. Excellent for early aviation (starting with boxkites and balloon ascents to Lillienthal-type gliders, and very nice WW1 aircraft displays), and ending with massive rockets outside on the tarmac. I hope the pics are suitable to be blown up to get details that I'm sure you skinners enjoy. I don't know if they are at a lower resolution when downloaded from here, but if anyone wants a set (or just one) in full resolution, please just message me in private and I'd be happy to email them to you. I try to get the captions on the blank canvasses next to the colourful emblems, as they explain what escadrilles used them and when.

Broadside, All I know is that in a spin, you should centralise your controls to try to regain speed, and then use "opposite side" rudder to counter the spin ie if you are spinning counter clockwise (to the left) you apply right rudder to counteract it, and vice versa. I'm uncertain how this might apply in a tail down spin. I'd certainly try every trick in the book as you seem to have done to get my nose down (WHERE the hell do I get this book!? I'm guessing the closest thing will be Homeboy's guide to OFF aircraft if and when his nearly severed digit recovers, and he's able to fly again). (Get well soon Mark). I have had similar results with the Camel. I'm not sure if I can handle her, she's a hard mistress to please. I have gone into an uncontrollable spin in a Camel every time I tried to fight in her. Flying is ok, as long as you think before you turn about the gyroscopic eccentricities. Combat, where you'll instinctively attempt a manoeuvre that you're incapable of performing in that craft...that's another thing. I wonder if the AI knows of these "eccentricities" and performs manoeuvres whilst being pursued by a camel that they know the camel cannot match (like a quick climbing turn to the left...as I understand it, you turn left on a camel, and you'll lose altitude, turn right, and you'll gain it). I know that the Luftwaffe used tactics of flight envelope inabilites to counter the Spitfire in their Messerschmits. As the BF109 has fuel injection, and the Spitfire had carburettors, the BF109's were able to shake off a Spitfire or Hurricane by putting the stick forward and going into a negative G dive. The following Spitfire would cough and splutter at the lack of fuel getting to the cylinders due to it being tossed upwards in their carbys from the G forces of this manoeuvre, and that might mean 1 second or 2 seconds where they have lost slight power, and might mean life or death for the Luftwaffe pilot. The Spitfire could, of course, roll inverted and pull hard on the stick to perform much the same manoeuvre, but it again gives a slight advantage to the pursued BF109.

Madmatt, Interesting post. You say you "found it"? A way to start a campaign mission in the air? Do you mean similarly to the Quick Combat choice where you can start on the field, or 5000 or 10000 feet in the air? Interesting. I think anyway that knowing this choice existed, I'd still take off myself. I know you can choose to end your mission at any time with the options available under the menu that appears when you hit "Escape", but I still choose to land. (It's stupid, I know, but at one aerodrome...Vert Galant I think...when I was flying for RNAS, I always approached the field from a certain direction, and imagined that my French mistress lived in the little house a few hundred yards from the field, and "buzzed" her house every time I returned from a mission to let her know I'd be around after I filled out my claims (if any) and briefed my AM on what work was needed on my aircraft). You know...it IS a simple little thing, but I ALSO noticed the females talking and sounds of cutlery clicking on plates. But I do like the simple little "tap, tap" on the pointer on the lectern to get total silence. It's amazing how totally immersive this sim is, and hence that we do notice these things that seem (just a little) out of place. I'm not suggesting the devs replace it, but if you do find the filename of the briefing room background noise, I for one would replace it with a .wav file that you post here or in private. PS. Your thread was top of the list in General discussion page. After my reply, I read the new super patch addition and it says there is that option (to start in the air). No wonder I hadn't seen it. I'm off to download it now.

Spade777, To quickly answer your question...I don't think you CAN turn off stalls completely. I understand where you are coming from, wanting the enjoyment of flying these beautiful aircraft without having to stress about engine revs, speed, attitude etc. (an "arcade experience" if you will). But there is enjoyment to be had simply flying these aircraft without crashing them. Remember that the first powered flight was a mere 11 years before the start of the Great War, and aircraft were seen as "very dangerous toys" that had no real purpose. Sure, you could get from "A" to "B", but you couldn't take a passenger or your luggage. History has proven many, many times over that "Necessity is the mother of invention". The father of invention is war. HUGE technological advances that would have taken decades in peacetime take mere weeks in times of conflict. We seem to be very adept at improving ways of killing each other. So these fragile craft...it's an art form to keep them aloft sometimes. Fly some of the earlier craft in this sim, and try to climb...it doesnt seem right, does it? You can't ZOOM to the heavens, and quickly get on the tail of that two-seater 2000 feet above you. That is how it was. You had to manoeuvre and be patient. You had to observe Boelcke's Dicta (rules that govern how one should fight in the air if you wished to survive). I believe, and I think I'm not alone here on this forum, that stalling is a necessary evil. It gives you a NEED to respect your aircraft and the limitations it has. I think half of the "fun" of this sim is mere survival, not success over your opponent (though that is very satisfying). So, I don't know for certain that you can turn stalling off altogether. Try setting it to Automixture, easy flight model. That helps a great deal. Next thing I suggest you try...enlist a new pilot in RFC 92 Sqn (it's down toward the bottom of the list). Your assigned aircraft is the Wolsely Viper engined SE5a. This aircraft WILL stall, but it is very powerful, and it is harder to stall than most. It has a higher speed than many of the aircraft here, so that if you DO stall, and your aircraft begins to fall, it recovers VERY quickly, and you won't find yourself wallowing about the sky in a "falling leaf" stall, madly swapping your rudder from left to right to correct the stall. The only other thing I can think that might help you is a Force Feedback joystick. They shake violently just as you are about to enter a stall, which prompts you to put the nose down a bit to try to regain some speed. Whatever you do, enjoy the sim, my friend. Please don't uninstall it and put it on the shelf as being "too hard". Please be patient and learn how to fly the way these aircraft flew...slowly and deliberately. I really think that once you do that, you will be amply rewarded. If you read many of the threads here, you can "hear" the joy and relief of merely surviving for 5 or 10 HOURS (in total). "I MADE IT! 10 HOURS ALOFT AND I'M STILL ALIVE!". Survival is the measure of success in this sim, not victories. When you can get your mind around that, I'm sure you will have may hours of enjoyment ahead of you.

Stumpjumper, The thread I started for you on "The Aerodrome" produced a couple of good pics of the machine guns for a Caudron G4. http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/aircraft...d-armament.html

Broadside, I use a Saitek X-52 and TrackIR 5. I sometimes like to check my attitude using Chase view. So I have mapped Virtual Cockpit to "V" (you need to assign Virtual Cockpit of course, as by default it's not assigned). I then have mapped on my upper hat switch... Up is virtual cockpit (ie TrackIR view) Down is Chase View (Ctrl+F4) Left is toggle TAC range (Ctrl+Shift+T) Right - well, I TRIED to map Player/Target View, but I couldn't find a command for this (help anyone? Do I need to assign it to an unused key? - I can't see how this is possible, as it is a "cycle view" thing) I have F12 (centre TrackIR) mapped on my joystick so I can reset it when I enter TrackIR (Virtual Cockpit) and also F4 (because I also use Player/Target view a lot). "Next Target" is of immense value in OFF - when confronted by enemies on my TAC, I target the enemy using TAB (mapped onto my joystick Toggle 1). I then hit pause and cycle through views until I get Player/Target View. This shows you a pic of your targetted enemy. Very useful to know if it's a two-seater or a scout. If you can see a rear view of him, that means of course, he is headed straight for you. You can see if he is interested or busy doing his job. This affects your attack strategy (or escape strategy if you are considering escape) - attack from the sun, underneath etc. The next thing to do is cycle through "Next Target" (TAB). The reason? COUNT THEM! You hit TAB originally, then Player/Target View. That shows you Enemy No 1. TAB again, that's 2, then another etc. until you are presented with a rear view of your aircraft. That gives you a few things. One...how many aircraft you're up against. Two...what type of aircraft they are (fighters, bombers, slower than you, faster than you, Albatross, Fokker etc). There may appear to be only one "blip" on your TAC, but there may be a flight of fighters directly overhead of the bombers, that will show up as one blip. So cycling through TAB is, I find, very beneficial. Keep an eye on your TAC whilst you're doing this. There might be 4 Fokkers in one flight, or two flights of two Fokkers. So look to see which blip you have targetted. The blip directly to your 12 o'clock could be two-seaters, the blip at your 4 o'clock could be 6 fighters etc. The blip at your 11 o'clock could be 4 friendly fighters approaching the two-seaters in front of you. So you should consider either assisting, or concentrating on avoiding the enemy fighters. If my situational awareness has been distracted by tunnel vision of my last attack, I can pause and cycle through views until I get to "Spot View", and then I take a good look around using my main hat switch, get my bearings again, ascertain who my biggest threat/next target is. I know this is cheating...pausing before and during combat, but it helps me in my learning curve, improving my situational awareness. One day, I'll get to fly DiD with no HUD, no Z, no TAC, no Labels etc...but in the meantime, I'm learning a LOT using these tactics.

I am thinking of buying a laptop tomorrow. Wonder whether it will handle OFF. HP Pavilion DV6-1214AX HNX 16" Widescreen Notebook AMD Turion x 2 (Dual Core) @ 2.2 Ghz RM-75 IMB L2 Cache / 3600 MHz SB 4GB DDR2 RAM (800 MHz) 500 GB SATA Hard Drive ATI Mobility Radeon HD4650 PCI Express Graphics 1 GB dedicated video memory DVDRW Super multi drive with lightscribe Draft N Wireless, Firewire, e-SATA & HDMI connectivity 1.3MP webcam with mike, Memory card reader 2.56Kg The OS is Vista 32 bit. Is that a problem? It might be a problem for me, I've never used Vista. Ant reports on that OS as well? Of course, there's other uses for it, but the video graphics seem like they might be able to cope with intensive graphics games. Anyone have a similar system and they run OFF on it?

Duce, I recently purchased (for this new desktop computer) Microsoft Office 2007 that came bundled with a free Mircosoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3000 that does exactly as you describe (dongle plugs into the base and turns it off to save on batteries) and I'm using that on my new laptop right now.

Thanks Ricketycrate and BirdDogICT

I had a good love affair going with my Sopwith Tripe, but recently started getting an itch, and I looked around. The Wolsely Viper SE5a is a superb aircraft, great to fight in. If you stall (even at very low altitudes), it regains speed very quickly, and doesn't wallow around in the sky falling like a leaf. Adequate ammunition supply, good speed, sturdy in a dive. Very forgiving aircraft. Can't go past it really. The tripe is much slower, but climbs very well. I'm afraid that she stalls all too easily, and is reasonably difficult to regain speed after the stall. SE5a gets my vote. Mind you, I haven't flown all the aircraft in OFF yet. I have had a flight or two in the Camel, and found her to be a b**ch to handle, but I understand that once you master her eccentricities, she makes you a better pilot.

Stumpjumper, The only info I could find on the Caudron G4 is that it was a twin engine three seater. Length 7.3 meters; Span 16.88 meters; Area 36.796 Sq m; Weight Machine 820 kgs; Weight useful 500 kgs; Motor Two 80hp le Rhones; Speed Max 130 kph. Also was fitted with two Anzani engines of 100 hp each, and was widely operated during '15-'16 as a bomb dropper, and as a fighting machine, later used for reconnaissance and training. A photograph shows a machine fitted with a forward firing machine gun (it appears to be a Vickers type, belt fed mounted in a nacelle. (From Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War 1). Fighting Aircraft of World Wars One and Two states that the Caudron G4 used two x 130 hp Hispano-Suiza. It stated that the caudron had a bomb load of 460lb. I couldn't find anything else. It's not much I'm sorry to say. I have started a thread on "The Aerodrome". http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/aircraft...d-armament.html We will have to wait and see what that results in.

All I can suggest is to select weapon (Backspace), then immediately press the Enter to drop ordnance. This should work. I have the feeling that "select ordnance" (even though the screen shows you that you have selected 4 x 25lb Cooper Bombs) only stays active for a little while. It's not much but try that and see if it works. Check the mapping profile of your joystick, and make sure it is set properly.

OK, call me stupid, but I have seen some screenshots of pilot's logs that have extensive descriptions of the events of that flight, but as far as I could tell, all of those involved a claim either being logged or confirmed. (HEY! "call me stupid" is just a saying, OK...you can STOP now!) So for the first time, I attempted to write out a mission description in my pilot's log, but it didn't appear the next time I went to write a log of my next flight. I was surprised to find I could write directly on my log. I thought all these descriptions were taken from a claim form. How do I save the text of a sortie "log"?

Thanks Olham and Duce

I saw a thread here recently on how to reduce the size of the TAC and thought I might give that a go (though messing about in the code be mighty scary - no, I'm sure it's easy). I read some time ago in another thread about increasing the brightness of the yellow used to indicate which of the "blips" on your screen you are currently targetting (can anyone help out with that one...I can't find that thread). One more thought I had regarding the TAC was the light blue line indicating the way to your next waypoint is...well...sky coloured. Can anyone show me how to change that so that it's orange or something not too obtrusive, but visible on bright sunny days if you are climbing, and your screen is mostly blue. I'm trying not to be picky, I just think these things would help a little bit to make the TAC more useful.

Olham, I guess I was right. All those "narratives" must have been written in the claims forms. I had a brain fart, and thought I'd try to type directly into the log, and it worked. But it wasn't saved. Pity. That would be nice. Devs...any chance of this happening in some future phase? I'd really like to record a log of all flights, uneventful, heavy combat, lone wolf...whatever. I have started writing stuff down, and thought I might produce a pilot's log for all my chaps.

Homeboy, I don't use my compass at all. I find it unnecessary. You're given the direction to your waypoint or target, and I follow that. The only time a compass is useful (in my opinion) is when you have been pretty badly shot up and need to land quickly. I don't even use the compass then, as what is most important at that time is not compass direction...the most important thing then is if you are on your side of the lines or theirs. I call up the map, and all you need to know is that home is at your 10 o'clock. You check your six to see if anyone is on your tail. If so, land asap in some field, if not call up a friendly aerodrome on the TAC and head for it. From what I can remember, the compass is kinda opaque, and that might make the waypoint line stand out against a blue sky (it isn't a worry if it's poor weather with grey skies). Does the compass superimposition obscure the info on the TAC...your friends, enemies, waypoint etc? Well, I might try it at least. It is something that doesn't involve saving a copy of viewui and messing about with code. It seems to me as if, with an already reduced TAC size, the compass would be too distracting/obscuring. Like I said, I haven't used the compass...does it float back and forth like compasses in "them days" really did? I mean nauseatingly back and forth for a long time before it settles down. Well...I'll try it. Thanks. But still...if anyone knows how to change the waypoint line colour, I'd love to hear from you.

OK, All is well. My TAC is now a good size (I prefer 0.25), and I have altered my targetted enemy colour to green. But i'm still unable to find where to change the colour of waypoint line (it is still sky blue, a problem on a clear sunny day). Can anyone point out the steps to go through to change it?

Mr Lucky, Might I suggest that if you are chugging along, and time is passing, yet your cockpit clock fails to record the passage of time, that you do not have a time machine, merely a broken clock. :yes: Like uncleal suggests, you have to hit "z" to check the time.

From the latest newsletter of the ASWW1AH: (Author Colin Owers) "After the Omaka Air Show we were guests of Peter Jackson at Hood Aerodrome near Masterdon on NZ's North Island. At Hood Aerodrome there are two new Fokker D VIII monoplanes, three or four reproduction Fokker Triplanes, a Halberstadt fighter, AVRO 504K, B.E.2f, three S.E.5a fighters, Bristol Fighter, a radial engined Sopwith Triplane, the ex-Blue Max Pfalz D.III and Fokker D.VII, and the F.E.2b biplanes, one in parts and the other in full flying condition." He goes on to describe his flight in the FE2b...even standing in the nacelle to see what it might have been like trying to shoot from that position. But WOW! What a collection of aircraft. I don't know if it is open to the public. I think all these aircraft belong to Peter Jackson. I can smell a good movie coming.

Tourists possibly. Those BLOODY English types or damn aussies and the like that drive on the wrong side of the road when they're home, so they come "here" and are used to it, so drive on the left side of the road! Just quietly, some of our American friends do the same here...you turn out of a driveway and automatically head for the right side of the road. The right that is the opposite to left, which is wrong. At least here it is. Glad to hear you came out OK Bullethead. Also glad that whilst you American types use a different measuring system from most of the world, some measuring systems (such as RCH) are universal. Also glad to hear you have "usual Friday night bar fights" in your "little town". Helps relieve the boredom I suppose. Nice post mate. Maybe the admins will consider moving it to "Reports from the Front". About as dangerous and threatening to life and limb, just as exciting as the other posts there. Good work.