Check Six

"Steve, you may not be so aware of that, but Australia is to us Europeans like "one of us" - a neighbour, who lives a bit further away, but we have so much in common with, so much a similar mentality." We are well aware that many countries feel similar to yours Olham; as like the good ol' USA, we are a bit of a mixing pot of various nationalities...being such a young country and all. At the close of WW2, many people from many nations were encouraged to settle here, and helped us build a GREAT nation. "If Olham won't add a separate map for you folks "down under" I most certainly will." RAF_Louvert...what can I say. I'm touched. Stealth33...umm, there's more than 16 players playing this sim. The map is for display purposes only, and for those regular users/members/visitors to this Forum, and only those who want to participate in this venture. Gees! He has only included two continents so far. Oh, and BTW, it took me 6 days to get a copy of OFF by post from USA to Australia. So get real, harden up, and go order a copy. I can assure you, you will never regret it.

Hauksbee, I too ride a motorcycle, and have ridden at high speed in the rain. Normally I ride with my visor up unless it rains. Rain drops at 60+MPH are indeed like being shot by BB's, never mind the wind chill factor at those altitudes. There was a post not too long ago about flying clothing, big fur numbers, and I mentioned the SidCot flying suit (invented by an Aussie RNAS pilot Sidney Cotton). I thin it was in there that they had a photograph of a leather face mask, similar I guess to a hockey style mask. I'm guessing this was the best they could do. There's the "cowl style" flying helmet too... http://www.kaisersbunker.com/rfc/rfc06.htm "favoured by observers who were more exposed to the wind" I don't know if the prop in front of you dispersed the water outwards (that's what I could only assume it does). Hopefully it didn't throw the drops backwards at you. The gunner in the front tub of a pusher aircraft would be a different matter. Must have been hell for those guys. Did the pilots in WW1 fly much in the rain? I mean, if the enemy were attacking their aerodrome or lazily passing by, you'd probably get a scramble on. But would they scrub most missions unless they were absolutely vital? Did the "other side" fly in inclement weather?

Condor 44, I have seen Homeboy's signature with the little Lefty HOTAS picture down the bottom, hence the quip that we all knew Homeboy was a lefty. But a short while ago he posted a link to his photo gallery to show off his holiday snaps (jealous me), but it also showcases his work on a lefty joystick, how he moulds the casing, rewires them etc. Impressed the hell outta me, I got to say. I was a radio tradesman and a Technical Oficer for the Dept of Defence (NAVY) in the electronics field, and I know good work when I sees it. (Australian Dept of Defence BTW). The reason I commented on the proliferation of leftys here is that while you mention that 10% of the population are leftys, a high percentage of the cockpits posted are occupied by leftys. And I know it must be difficult for you guys to adapt everything (unless you live near Springfield and can visit Flander's Leftorium). I used to be ambidextrous, but the nuns beat it out of me. Every time I picked up a pen with my left hand, I got a whack. It was pretty good as I could write left and right handed simultaneously. Worked brilliantly when you had to write out lines when you were a bad boy. In 1984 I had a pretty severe motorcycle accident and wrenched the main nerve root for my right arm out of my spine. My right arm just sorta "hung" there for a few years, and I had to re-learn everything left handed, but it felt weird, so when I started gaining use of it again, I had to re-learn to use my right. Still feels weird not being able to feel it, but it's more comfortable. Mostly why I'm a lousy pilot.

Good ole onkel Theo eh? I read a very funny anecdote from (I think) Adolf Galland's book "The First and the Last". Apparently, Adolf and another Luftwaffe pilot from JG26 ("Abbeville boys" or "yellow-nosed bastards" as the Allies called them) were going to fly their Messerschmidt Bf 109's to onkel Theo's birthday party, and loaded baskets filled with ice and chilled French champagne and lobsters into the storage areas in their fighters. As it turned out, they got into strife and were forced to dogfight with the ice and bottles and lobsters rattling about inside their 109's. A huge memory strain remembering further details, it's been some time since I read Adolf's book.

:cray: I suppose us Aussies will have to content with an arrow on the West coast of the North America map pointing even further West saying "Aussies over here somewhere" Well, I see we miss out AGAIN because we're on the other side of the planet. It's lonely out here. Just me and Pips I think. Say What maybe joining us soon.

I'm sure we all know Homeboy is a "Lefty", but have you noticed how many others are (or suspected to be)? Homeboy and Condor 44 both have lefty joysticks. Capt Sopwith has his Joystick on the left hand side. Olham and Rabu have their mouse on the left hand side. Is that only because their joystick is on the right? And now I'm annoyed I chucked my "Remove Before Flight" flags. That made it look authentic.

Rabu, I just downloaded your great posters, and I'll print them up when I get home (at work at the moment, with a B&W printer only) In two weeks time the Australian Society of WW1 Aero Historians is having one of our quarterly meetings, and on this meeting we have organised an Art & Modelling Show. We have had many entrants in the modelling field so far, but very few Art entrants. I have gone all out preparing for this, as this is the first Show that I'm organising as Vice President (Special Projects). Usually it has been the Vice President (Administration) that has organised these shows (John Goble, son of Stanley James Goble, RNAS 8 Ace and a Squadron Commander). I have downloaded all the "Ace Skins" that our members have posted here, and all the "screenshots" that they have posted as well, and will place them on a laptop displaying them as a slideshow for decorative purposes. This will also (I hope) ellicit a fair few OOHS! and AAHS! from the members who don't fly sims (and those that did, and still think RB is the state of the art graphics). Hopefully, this will generate some interest. I was going to just print out an information-type sheet on OFF and leave them next to the laptop for anyone who might be interested, but these posters will be ideal to place as a backdrop, and good decoration for the display.

Mark, The trouble I've had in the past with setting up elevator and aileron trim is that usually these contols are assigned a single button (for instance the Control Key Card will say that elevator trim up is + and elevator trim down is -) as opposed to a command that says "Elevator Trim" so that I can assign it to a sliding trim-pot. I send the trim-pot to its maximum travel in one direction, and try to assign that to "up" and the other direction to assign "down" but it doesn't work. Hope you understood all that, it's kinda hard to describe. Thanks for all your very useful guides mate. Most here would be LOST without them.

BuB, Keep an eye on your TAC. If you're warping, you are just basically "along for the ride" until (or if) you get dragged out of warp due to enemy action or proximity or arriving at your aerodrome...So you've got plenty of time to do this. Look at the figure at the TOP of your TAC. This figure shows you how far to go until you reach your next waypoint (the lower figure 8NM, 4NM, 2NM or 1NM is the range of your TAC radar). If this figure is over 20NM, be suspicious, as they rarely are in a normal patrol, taking several waypoints on the way to the target. Exit warp (CTRL + X???) and pause. Look at your map ("M"). Zoom in or out with the Square brackets ([) or (]). You'll see a graphical representation of the orientation of your aircraft. That will tell you if you are heading home, to the next waypoint etc. If you can't see any "waypoint" lines on the map, zoom out and see where you are. You'll find that you're nowhere near your assigned waypoints, the TAC is showing you 50NM to your next waypoint, and you're in the middle of nowhere. If this is the case, keep the Sim paused, Map present on screen and try "SHIFT + W", next waypoint command. See if that points back towards your base. If it does, you should first CHECK YOUR FUEL LEVEL (using the HUD) to make sure you have enough fuel to make it home. Then you can warp back, keeping a careful eye on your map, TAC range to waypoint etc. If you don't have enough fuel, look at your map, and check the orientation of your aircraft, and which way to your side of the lines. When you get close to your side, keep pressing "T" (which cycles through your different targets on the TAC radar) until you see "Airfields", look for a blue one, and head for it. Turn your labels on too if you need to, look for Blue "AirBase" and head for that. Land at a friendly air base and you can end your mission, and you can exit back to the duty room.

Ras, I have only used this once. I was damaged and needed to find a safe landing place pretty quickly. I had three Albatrosses harrassing me, and I was jinking about the sky as best as I could in my crippled crate. I landed at a friendly Aerodrome (not my home, but good enough). I checked by scrolling through my F4 and got a pretty good view of the three enemy circling around, swooping on me (but NOT firing - good sports, those chaps), and stunting over me. They were getting only sporadic fire from the aerodrome as I was at the other end of the aerodrome. After working out they weren't going to get shot down or leave me alone, I fired up the engine and was going to taxi to the huts and hangars in the hope this would produce more concentrated fire and either shoot them down or convince them to go home, then I could choose to end my flight there, or try to limp home (I was going to opt to stay there, I really was shot about pretty bad). Well, the inevitable happened. Ground loop. Dead. Still, it DID work, they DID leave me alone and didn't strafe me on the ground, and I DID enjoy the stunts they were performing over me (at first I didn't, thought was a dead man).

I have a Saitek X-52 and throttle, and I have programmed the following keys: Button 1, fire all guns Button 2, drop ordnance Button 3, Select Ordnance Button 4, Virtual cockpit Toggle 1 - Next Target Toggle 2 - Previous Target Toggle 3 - Auto Trim Toggle 4 - Auto Pilot Toggle 5 - Accelerate Time Toggle 6 - Decelarate time I haven't assigned any of my hat switches to anything yet. On my Throttle, I have a button for "Take Screenshot" (which I find useful for claims...I hit "Z" to bring up time, lat, long, altitude etc, then take a screenshot whenever I get lucky - when it comes to a claim form, my information is all there for me to copy). I also have Auto Cut off (Can't recall the correct term or Key assignment it performs as...cuts your engine off). I would really like to use my Throttle trim-pots (adjustable wheels) as elevator trim and aileron trim but I can't work out how to do that yet (any ideas Homeboy?). I also have now got my G-19 keyboard, that has another 18 programmable keys, so I'll reprogram everything when I set up on my new beast (now that I'm more aware of what I use the most). The keyboard can also proram a "pause" so that I could use one of those for a "kill" key...Hit "Z", pause for a moment, take screenshot, hit "Z" again, return to sim

As I've mentioned a few times, I just got a new computer and will be installing OFF over the weekend. Are you serious? I really don't need to install CFS3?? I bought a new copy of CFS3 originally as my old copy of CFS3 was missing disk 2 (discovered whilst I was installing CFS3 in preparation for OFF - so now I got two copies). I guess I'll try to use the new one I bought. Don't know the manufacturer, only know it's a 2xCD version, not DVD . I just install OFF from my DVD, then load CFS3 disk when it asks me to?? Then I suppose I just need to patch OFF with 1.30 first and then 1.30c before applying 1.31L. Have I got the process right? I really don't want to have to uninstall OFF, as I've seen a few posts about people not being able to get it up and running again due to hidden files etc.

And mine. Note the TrackIR hat on the left, my squadron boards (Left side - my squadron pilots; right side - enemy squadrons and planes [see Olham's notebook thread for further explanation]). Twin Keyboards (can watch YouTube clips on the bottom one if I get bored). Saitek X-52 Flight Control System Joystick and throttle, Saitek Pro Flight Pedals on the floor. Logitech G-19 Gaming Keyboard. 24" HD BENQ E2400HD monitor. Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 CPU. Kingston 4GB DDR2 800 RAM. 3300GB 10KRPM SATA Hard Disk. Nvidia 1.792GB GTX295 PCI Express Card. Inwin Miditower case with high wattage output and cooling fans. Dual layer DVD-RW. Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer. Cambridge 5.1 Speaker System. MS Windows XP Pro. (Still waiting on my Logitech G35 Surround Sound Headset and Logitech G9x Laser Mouse). (Oh.BTW. On wall behind the desk and also on the left wall...signed limited edition lithographs, all of Erich Hartmann - highest scoring fighter pilot of all time). LOVE my "Office"!

I need to tidy up a bit before I get a new pic of my cockpit. I might add though, that after my last keyboard suffered greatly at the hands of a cup of coffee, and the panic that ensued attempting to get it going, not succeeding, digging out an old one etc... and the fact that I just paid $AUS340 for my new keyboard (yes, that's right, not a typo - a Logitech G-19 Gaming Keyboard). Coffee DOES NOT share a desk with my keyboard, but sits kinda behind me. Makes me forget about it sometimes, consequently, I drink cold coffee, but I'm not making that mistake with this computer and keyboard. I can't help thinking how...intimate...we are becoming here...what's your nationality? Ethnicity? Pics of your hometown? Pics of your cockpit? But that's a good thing. All warm and fuzzy.

Winder, No, thank YOU, and all the devs! I have flown flight sims for some time, waiting in vain for a WW1 sim. RB came along and I was in seventh heaven. After a while, it got a bit ho hum (just a bit). You could set the realism high and get a bit of a thrill to down an enemy in a sortie, or wind it all the way back and yawn as you returned with another bag of five. If you were shot down, you waited for the "Mission has ended. Would you like to save this mission?" window. UMM. NO THANKS, not this time. That was a...practice run, and I think they cheated anyway. It is due to the realism that you people have put into this sim that makes us feel so...alive! It IS real out there. How many posts have you seen from people saying they had sweaty palms and were clenching...err...certain orifices so tight, that felt a wave of relief overcome them...and all they did was LAND! They survived! Up against the Rittmeister and five of his best pilots, or made it home after Albert Ball shot the hell out of your Albatross. It is due to being presented with a claim form that you need to fill out and await the outcome. It is racking your brain to remember how long into the flight you took out that pesky Fokker because you feel you DESERVE to have your claim approved. Where was that?...must have been just North of Arras. It is being genuinely frightened when you see five Albatrosses above you heading towards you. It is being genuinely relieved to find they had strict mission orders, and left you alone. It is struggling to achieve the best climb rate. It is how steep a dive can I afford to make before I rip my wings off. It is wanting to fly all the way there and all the way back, and not warp, because you need to get used to the nose up attitude of your triplane. It is the beautiful sunsets. A glorious end to another day. You made it. Tomorrow you may die. No, Winder...THANK YOU!

What my method is...I have a large workstation, with two cupboard spaces either side of my monitor. On my Squadron board, I have written on small individual Post-It notes the names of Squadron Aces that accompany me on my first flight, then on subsequent flights. Next to them, but seperated by a piece of tape is my Flight. I look at who is in Flight 1 accompanying my flight, and remove the Aces names and place them on the "Flight 1" space, and another Post-It note with "Plus two" on it for the usual unnamed pilots in Flight 1. Then I look at my flight, I have my Flight Leader's space, under it my name, and a space for "My wingman", and spaces for others in my flight. So on that cupboard, I have all the names recorded of all named pilots accompanying me. On the other side, I have another piece of tape dividing it into halves. On one side I have my individual Post-It notes for Enemy Squadrons, and enemy aircraft types. During my sortie, if we encounter enemy aircraft, and it is going to develop into combat, I take (for instance) the Post-It note "Albatross DII" from the left side of the board and place it on the right. I rely on memory for their numbers. As I use labels "on", you can see before it develops into a furball how many you're up against. As they get much closer to manoeuvre for the fight, you will see thier markings, and the labels tell you they are from Jasta 2 (for instance). I take my "Jasta 2" Post-It note from the left side and place it on the right. So I have my flight's names on the right hand cupboard door, and on the left I have "Jasta 2" and "Albatross DII". If I'm fortunate enough to take an opponent out, I pause the action, press "Z", write down the time and Lat. and Long. (maybe also altitude),close that menu, open "M" map and record "5 miles SE of Arras". Another method is to press "Z" and take a screenshot. So I find this method useful for me. After a few flights, you will have individually recorded all the Aces names, the individuals that are in your flight, the Jastas that oppose you in that area at that time, and their aircraft type. All you need to do is to grab the notes of each pilot before take off, and before combat just grab the opposing aircraft type and Squadron and place it on the "active" side of the board without even having to pause the action to take notes. If I get a kill, I pause and either write the details down or press "Z" and take a screenshot. Works for me, less writing down every mission...they're there for you, just grab them from "Inactive" and place them on "active" side. Great for when your wingman goes on leave. If you die you can rejoin the squadron on the same date, different name, all the aces, squadrons etc will be the same. Occasionally, you'll need to write a new pilot's name on another Post-It note, or a new squadron or aircraft type. Like I said...works for me.

Just saw UK_Widowmaker's flying instruction presentation. Jolly good show old man! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e644WFD1rgM...player_embedded And they say the time to survive here is 17 hours! I just knew it wasn't that much. Here they say your life expectancy is 20 minutes. That's much more like it for me anyway. Remember...treat your kite like you treat your women.

Sorry to do this to you gentlemen. If this was a contest.... I can see my house from here (almost). Maroubra Junction. About 1 km down the hill. Maroubra Beach

I'm very proud to announce that I have a 100% bombing record. I have been on four bombing missions for the RNAS early on in the conflict, also all in the Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter (I agree she is a sturdy and reliable aircraft, though the engine keeps "missing" all the time... gives me the willies if I'm over the "other side" of the lines). In all of these missions, I have been elected Flight Leader (ie I am a lower rank - Flight Sub-Lieutenant but ordered to lead the Flight despite choosing "Lead by rank" in the Workshop). My method...I load up with 12 bombs (25 pounders if I remember correctly) and dive down when I reach the target until I can see a line of huts, or if the target is a rail station, a rail line with an engine and cars full of munitions). I align myself along this line of attack, dive for speed, pull up at about 100 feet, level off. At this point I press "A" to order my wingmen to attack my target. You WILL be getting a bit of ground fire, but I haven't been shot down attacking in this way YET. Then I fine tune my line with small rudder corrections, wait until I'm passing the first target along this line (knowing that my bombs will fling forwards of my aircraft, if I have passed the first truck or hut, my bombs will fall on the next few), then I rapidly hit "Enter" several times (or whatever button you have mapped to your joystick for "drop ordnance"). You should be able to do 6 consecutive drops in about 1-2 seconds if you have good enough reflexes, and this has so far resulted in me getting all my bombs onto valid targets. I haven't actually watched their fall via the F9 bomb view, too scared I'll plough into the ground. Immediately after I drop my payload, I drop down to treetop height to give the defending gunners less of a target to shoot at (and anyway, they should be concentrating their fire on the other flight members who are performing their runs). About a mile from the target, I turn as rapidly as I can, re-align myself on the target line, then come in low for a strafing run. Immediately I begin firing in my strafing run, I re-hit "A" to order my wingmen to continue to attack. At the end of my strafing run, I stay low until about a mile out, then begin a climb and turn back towards (but NOT over the target), then switch to target view to see if I can see if my Flight members have completed their attacks and to see if the target is sufficiently damaged/destroyed. At this point, I recall my Flight Members with "R", Select SHIFT + W for next waypoint (making certain that it does send you to another waypoint, not back over the target [horrors!]). I press "R" once more to make certain they heard, then check if they have joined me. If I am satisfied all is well, I warp home. Oh, also...I know that in some flight sims, you can end your mission once in friendly territory, or when you are over the aerodrome, but I choose to ALWAYS land. Taking off in an aircraft is relatively easy (usually...these WW1 birds with the rotary engines aren't so simple), flying straight and level is easy. Combat is difficult to say the least, but landing is also difficult. For this reason I choose to land. I like the dangerous aspect of the landings. Sure, I have survived combat only to find I'm damaged more than I thought, and have little or no control over the craft, especially low down and especially in dead-stick landings, and some of my pilots have sadly died in this manner. But for realism, I think you really should land her.

Hauksbee, Great work. Very impressive. More please?

DukeIronHand, Australia's higest scoring fighter pilot of all conflicts, Robert Alexander Little took a long time to get "good" at piloting his aircraft. His Service record states he had a "trick of landing outside the aerodrome", and it mentions his inability to command men. It even mentions that if he receives just ONE more unfavourable report, his commission will be terminated. Within a month, he started gathering an impressive collection of victories and medals to go with it, ending up as a formidable opponent in aerial combat, and quite fearless (I posted a thread some time ago where an artillery officer writes to the CO of the RNAS outfit where Little was stationed about how a single pilot in a Sopwith Triplane attacked 11 Albatrosses from Richthofen's Jasta, and completely outclassed them) http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=42902 Lucky they didn't send him to the infantry.

DukeIronHand, I had not read that article before. These are merely selected articles from our past journals to pique the interest of prospective members. That particular article was in the journal for 1967. "One day, while flying towards the lines, things were fairly quiet & we were taking things easy. I was shocked to suddenly realise that the aircraft alongside was drifting in on me, and before I could do anything about it, the leading edge of his starboard wing bumbed into the outer struts on my port wing. It was rather a terrifying situation, with a lot of grimaces and snarling at one another. Fortunately everything turned out OK, as we both had the presence of mind to pull away in opposite directions with a kick on the rudder. We continued the flight and had a look at the damage when we returned to the drome. His wing was damaged along the leading edge, and I recall that my strut was chipped. I do not remember the result of the incident, but as the poor fellow has now passed on, I think we can leave it to Squadron Records. I notice that the pilots of the last war refer to their duty flying as 'sorties', I might mention that, according to my log book, I carried out 96 sorties during my sojourn with the A.F.C. It also seems to me, considering the time I spent in France, that the action of my C.O. in transferring me to the Infantry was rather drastic, and remains something that should be explained, even after all these years." It would appear to me from reading that, that he was held to blame for the mid-air collision, or perhaps both pilots were transferred to the infantry, maybe to prevent this sort of event recurring (I'm sure it put the "wind up" both of them so badly that they might fear flying in formation again, and may lag behind their patrol too far). Perhaps a spot of fisticuffs ensued upon landing. He does mention there was much "snarling". Semper Fi

Broadsire uda Barn, Mark (Homeboy) neglected to tell you two things. He has compiled a great setup guide to TIR4 which goes a long way to understanding what's going on with TIR (it's up there in the stickies, either on General Help or General Discussion pages). Ver 5 IS different, but not by that much. His guide is still very useful and informative. The other thing he neglected to tell you is that he's a very experienced user, and his graphs may be a bit harsh for the beginner, with very rapid head movements and tweaked to HIS specifications - the way he likes it. You may find this a bit extreme, although after you get used to it, you'll find it may be ideal. Try also using the default setup or the one-to-one, see the graphs for those. Check the differences Mark has with his graphs. You'll probably settle for something in between (like I did). Mark's guide is going to help you much more than he can help you here, one graph at a time. You might also check back through the old threads, and you can see where Olham has uploaded his graphs for those who were interested. A happy medium amongst all these is a great starting point.

wklink, All the information required for setting up is in here: http://www.overflandersfields.com/FAQ.htm First of all, you need to have M$ CFS3 installed. Then upgrade this to Version 1.3a by downloading the upgrades here: CFS3 3.1/3.1a Updates (http://www.microsoft.com/games/combatfs3/downloads.asp) I'm not certain, but I believe you need to run CFS3 at least once to set up the desired graphics etc. Once your copy of OFF:BHaH arrives, you simply install it from the DVD. Then you download the latest patch (Ver 1.31L) and you'll be up to speed. If you have a CD version of CFS3, you will need to have this running in your drive drawer to play OFF. If you're one of the lucky ones that have the DVD version of CFS3 (Ubisoft I think), the dvd does not need to be in the drive. The community here on this Forum is very helpful. If you have any issues at all, please submit your question/query here and I'm certain you'll be answered fairly promptly. In the meantime, it may pay you to read the FAQ file and maybe some of the sticky threads on this forum. There are many useful tips, keyboard command lists, guides for setting up TrackIR (if you have the money, invest in one of these devices), joysticks, rudders etc. (Although I'm sure that you won't need too much help at all). Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride! Blue Skies!

I need to completely re-install CFS3 and OFF. No, nothing went wrong. I just got my new computer, and need to install all my favourite stuff onto this one. So, just to remind me... I need to install CFS3 to version 3.1 standard, then install OFF, then patch it to which version? And which patches do I need to download?