Check Six

There is no need to Alt-TAB out of CFS3 or OFF. Simply before you wish to fly OFF, you select TrackIR, make sure you have your OFF profile selected (if you have one), make sure TrackIR is tracking your head, then minimize that, then I select my Joystick and make sure that my OFF profile for that joystick is selected, then I launch OFF. Simple.

FlybyPC, I saw Olham's post, and thought that was very interesting to say the least. I also immediately thought about "The battle of Kruger Park" as the video you posted is named. I didn't want to step on Olham's toes, but that is by far the most amazing wildlife video I have ever seen. I went straight to YouTube and sought it out, and then came back here to post a link, only to see you had done so. Unbelievable. They should post a link to that vid next to the dictionary definition for "Herd Mentality".

Olham my friend, You MUST watch this movie. But I would advise you to purchase a copy rather that visit your local video sotre and rent it, because you will want to own a copy. A great film IMHO. At this stage, THE definitive WW1 aviation film (at least until Peter Jackson gets around to making a fuill length film).

I agree wholeheartedly with the comments posted here on this forum. I see it as an honorable act to "save" a medal that will probably be thrown out by uncaring or unkowing relatives or executors of a person's estate after their passing from this veil of tears. To wear such a medal I find a despicable act, especially by someone who purports to be a recipient of said medal. Recently in Australia, the President (I think) of the POW Society (who claimed to be the youngest Australian POW, captured by the Japanese on the Malayan peninsula as a 15 yo boy, and witnessing the horrors of Prison Camps, and having those horrors inflicted upon him) was "outed" as a fraud by some investigators. The animal should be horsewhipped. We have a tradition here in Australia where we honour the fallen and returned servicemen and women on ANZAC Day. Some of the elderly veterans were transported at the beginning of the march in Army Jeeps, until they could not even make it out to the jeeps. The numbers are dwindling every year, but you always see a young boy, marching along with very old men, and wearing his father's (or grandfather's) medals with pride. If not awarded to you, in these circumstances (I believe) the medals should be worn on the right breast, not on the left. Some old "diggers" don't like the children marching to honour their fathers or grandfathers, and prefer to march alone. I personally see it as touching for the youth to march in the place of their fathers etc, but I don't like to see them wearing their medals. Whilst it is obvious they are not purporting to claim they were awarded these medals, I still see it as blasphemy. I do own a WW1 British Empire medal awarded to an Australian from the RNAS (Bell IIRC...not Bertam Charles Bell [not an Aussie], but another). Mike Westrop bought this for me on ebay (as I didn't have an account), but in reality, I was more interested in his Service Record which accompanied the sale of the medal. I have tried to locate living relatives to return the medal to them, and am so far unsuccessful. I see anyone collecting medals such as yourself Lou, to be doing a good thing. You respect those that were awarded the medal originally, and do not wear them and say they are yours, and are not doing it as a money-making exercise. It saddens me that these medals are for sale, but it heartens me to know that someone such as yourself would purchase them.

Bullethead, I might be interested in "Jutland". I worked for 25 years for the Dept of Defence (NAVY) as a civilian technical officer, and my last position was a weapons analyst. Whilst my "expertise" was anti-submarine warfare, I spent the last year or so analysing Naval Gunnery and learning the art of laying fire on enemy ships. LOVE navy sims.

TrackIR is by far the most useful tool for Combat that I have ever seen or heard of. I didn't have any "airsickness" problems with it when I first installed it, but I did find that I had a sore neck from twisting around a bit. You will not find a better device to spend your bucks on, and will wonder how you ever scored a victory without it. Sell a kidney, busk on a street corner...whatever you need to do to get the bucks...DO IT. You will NEVER regret your purchase. I find though that the LED lights in the headset that you attach to your headphones with all the cables hanging down are pretty obtrusive (well...that's not strictly true...it's MORE obtrusive than just wearing the cap clip), and so I fly with no headset (obviously I'm not a Multiplayer), and just use the cap clip. Much easier, and less cumbersome. I think you might have to be careful about the ambient light if you use this, so be careful. Also, read up Homeboy's guide to setting up TrackIR (in the stickies). You might prefer to use the default settings than use Homeboy's settings, as his are set pretty aggressive, and that might be a bit too harsh for your first time. After you get used to it, you might wish to tweak it a bit.

Copied withoput alteration from the London Gazette Third Supplement, Tuesday 30th April 1918: Victoria Cross Citations: "Lt Alan Jerrard, Royal Air Force (formerly of the South Staffordshire Regiment). When on an offensive patrol with two other officers he attacked five enemy aeroplanes and shot one down in flames, following it down to within one hundred feet of the ground. He then attacked an enemy aerodrome from a height of only fifty feet from the ground, and, engaging single-handed some nineteen machines, which were either landing or attempting to take off, succeeded in destroying one of them, which crashed on the aerodrome. A large number of machines then attacked him, and whilst thus fully occupied he observed that one of the pilots of his patrol was in difficulties. He went immediately to his assistance, regardless of his own personal safety, and destroyed a third enemy machine. Fresh enemy aeroplanes continued to rise from the aerodrome, which he attacked one after another, and only retreated, still engaged with five enemy machines, when ordered to do so by his patrol leader. Although apparently wounded, this very gallant officer turned repeatedly, and attacked single-handed the pursuing machines, until he was eventually overwhelmed by numbers and driven to the ground. Lt Jerrard had greatly distinguished himself on four previous occasions, within a period of twenty-three days, in destroying enemy machines, displaying bravery and ability of the very highest order." Eat your heart out Billy Bishop! What about THIS one... "2nd Lieutenant Alan Arnett McLeod, Royal Air Force. Whilst flying with his observer (Lt. A. W. Hammond, M.C.), attacking hostile formations by bombs and machine-gun fire, he was assailed at a height of 5,000 feet by eight enemy triplanes, which dived at him from all directions, firing from their front guns. By skilful manoeuvring he enabled his observer to fire bursts at each machine in turn, shooting three of them down out of control. By this time, Lt. McLeod had received five wounds, and whilst continuing the engagement a bullet penetrated his petrol tank and set the machine on fire. He then climbed out onto the left bottom plane, controlling his machine from the side of the fuselage, and by side-slipping steeply kept the flames to one side, thus enabling the observer to continue firing until the ground was reached. The observer had been wounded six times when the machine crashed in "No Man's Land", and 2nd Lt McLeod, notwithstanding his own wounds, dragged him away from the burning wreckage at great personal risk from heavy machine-gun fire from the enemy's lines. This very gallant pilot was again wounded by a bomb whilst engaged in this act of rescue, but he persevered until he had placed Lt. Hammond in comparative safety, before falling himself from exhaustion and loss of blood." Astounding courage and doggedness. I dare say both those chaps deserved their awards.

I'm going to build a 1/32 scale SE5a Wolsely Viper, possibly in Mick Mannock's livery. Does anyone have any good colour photos of the SE5a I can use as a guide, particularly of the Wolsely Viper engine. Also if anyone has a colour profile of Mannock's SE5a, that would be nice. Photos posted here or links to sites will be greatly appreciated.

McLeod received his VC at Buckingham Palace on 4 September 1918 and returned to Canada to continue his recuperation. Unfortunately he fell prey to Spanish Influenza and died on 6 November 1918. A very very sad end to a brave brave man.

Thanks Lou, I'm very happy with my "find" of the AFC wings. Very pretty medal you got yourself there. When you get YOUR set together, please remember to post it here for us all to admire (of course, alongside your CdG France and CdG Belgium please). Might I suggest that Stiffy's "Office" isn't what you are seeing here. Perhaps these are promotional pics displayed by the medal sellers to place them in a "period" setting to increase their realism to entice you to purchase the item, and these are the pics he has posted. Indeed, you have not YET received your medal, and yet have a advertisement photo of it. I hope I'm wrong. I'd LOVE to see Stiffy's "Office" if it has period telephones, newspapers and the like scattered about.

JAA, Your "Erroneous Claim" message means that ONE (or more) of your claims is erroneous. You don't have to just shrug your shoulders, curse, and walk away. You should remove the claims one by one to see which was rejected (perhaps they will ALL be rejected once passed on to High Command, but for the moment, it's not even being accepted by your CO, and he is refusing to pass it on to HQ). An enemy balloon is NOT a valid claim UNLESS you are sent on a SPECIFIC balloon-busting mission. Then the balloon is a valid target (make sure you get the correct balloon...the one next to it or nearby is NOT a valid target. You can check on your TAC if unsure, cycle through until you get "Vehicles" and then select one of the vehicles under your balloon (presumably a truck winch to drag her down). If you have the target brackets selected, it will show you the ground vehicles UNDER your assigned target, you need to look up from there to find YOUR balloon. Perhaps if you were on a "lone wolf" mission, no corroborating witnesses saw your combat. Perhaps none of your wingmen survived to report your victories. Did you correctly name ALL your wingmen (and maybe even accompanying "A" Flight members?)...names only, not ranks. Next time you get an erroneous claim, remove them one by one to see if it is any one in particular that is a bogus claim or an unwitnessed one. Good Luck with your next claims.

Stiffy, Yes, the horizontal bars on the ribbon identify this as a ww1 award. Sometime after, the ribbon bars were changed to a diagonal pattern. Wear it to the mess a few times (you'll have to put up with a bit of ribbing I'm afraid), but a couple of ales spilled on her, and she will develop the desired patina.

Found an interesting article about this chap in the 1994 edition of our journal. The "Eagle of the Aegean Sea" was very active in this area of operations, and made a complete pest out of himself. The British were conducting observation flights and other duties, including incendiary raids on the wheat fields and he continually chased away the Sopwiths and BE2c's claiming at least 19 confirmed kills. He had particularly been active at taking out an observation balloon put up on several occasions near Orljak, and on the last occasion, the balloon observer (who happened to be the CO) jumped out of the balloon but due to his slight disorientation due to an injury caused in one of the pilot's earlier attacks, he had failed to secure his harness to the parachute correctly, and plummetted to his death. This section was given an escorting flight of three scouts due to the attention of the enemy on this balloon. On his next visit, he approached from above and behind the scouts, and dived through them, narrowly missing collision. This threw the scouts off enough for him to get twenty rounds into the balloon, and he dived away and made his way back to base. Having had his old CO killed, and his balloon attacked three times in as many weeks, the new CO devised a deadly trap. A bomb was assembled from a 60-gallon drum, filled with 500lbs of ammonal and hermetically sealed. The main charge was primed with guncotton and the bomb was set up to be detonated by electric cable. A dummy observer was its "passenger". On the fateful day, Lt von Eschwege dived on the balloon, closed to 50 yards, and zoomed away in a climbing turn and when he was approximately 100 yards away, the switch was thrown. The Albatros emerged from the smoke seemingly intact, but then it sideslipped, catching itself momentarily before spinning and crashing to earth. The gallant pilot was given a full military honours funeral by the RFC, placing a wreath and a flag (dropped by his squardon mates) with his coffin. MORAL: Balloons CAN fight back.

The more I read that, the more I kept thinking...a hundred yards away is a touch far to be detonating that trap (no matter how large the explosion might be... the pilot might be disoriented, or concussed, or even temporarily blinded, but he MIGHT be able to regain consciousness or sight or balance, and make for home). But the thing was, he was used to striking this target...knew how to get in and out quickly...and had gotten some rounds into it on his first pass. Perhaps he got a close look at the "passenger" and discovered the trap and would not return (problem solved?). Perhaps he thought things were "fishy"...no attacking escorts, minimal Archie etc. SO, perhaps, even though he WAS a fair way away from the trap, explode it anyway and hope for the best??? Then I got to thinking...what if he simply put lotsa holes in the balloon and it started to fall rapidly... I would NOT want to trust that guncotton fuse would not go off on impacting the ground at most speeds of descent (guncotton is very volatile, and sensitive to impact), and DEFINITELY would not like to be within 100 yards of its detonation.

Rudolph von Eschwege graduated flying school in August 1915 after a stint in Third Mounted Jaegers. He was posted to Feldfleiger Adteilung 36 on the Western Front to fly two-seaters (type unknown. The incident of him "losing" his observer is not mentioned in this article). He served with that unit for 10 months. After re-training as a scout pilot he was transferred to the Monastir sector in Serbia. When the Bulgarians advanced into Greece, von Eschwege was transferred to FleigerAbteilung 30 at Drama.

I don't have that many "hobbies" any more as I'm kept pretty busy with work (I'm a Security Supervisor). I mostly get my tired old body off to work and then drag my sorry a$$ home again. I am kept very busy with my work in Australian Society of World War 1 Aero Historians, and when I get the time, I get around to compiling biographies of all Australians who served in the RNAS (in any capacity, not just pilots and observers). I am planning on writing a book on that (with help from my co-author, Andrew Smith). I have recently moved from ONE ROOM in a house rented by my brother to the "granny flat" downstairs (if you don't call them that where you live, it's a small one-bedroom, self-contained apartment), so now my "storage room" down there is as large as the entire living area I had at the beginning of the year. Consequently, I have a LOT more room, and so I have begun getting tools and equipment together to begin modelling WW1 aircraft. I enjoy playing computer games, mainly first person shooters and action type games, driving games, as well as OFF of course. I ride a 2004 GSX-R750 (this is my third after an '88, and a '97 - so I just commute on her, no racing, no dragging off punk kids at the lights sort of stuff) but still enjoy riding her FAST. I like watching WW1 aviation movies and documentaries.

Olham, I got this from "the Aerodrome"... For his actions on 30 March 1918, he was credited with three victories for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross. On that day, Peter Carpenter and Harold Eycott-Martin accompanied Jerrard on his last patrol of the war. After engaging several Albatros scouts and attacking the Austro-Hungarian aerodrome at Mansue, Jerrard's Sopwith Camel was shot down by Benno Fiala von Fernbrugg of Flik 51J. Jerrard was captured but managed to escape several months later. When the war ended, Jerrard remained in the Royal Air Force, served in North Russia, and retired as a Flight Lieutenant in 1933.

I thought it looked interesting emough to get the credit card out. Ordered it. Now, comes the wait.

Walking sticks were also de rigeur. Some carried them as an affectation, others required them after debilitating injuries after the obligatory crash or two. A sidcot suit would be the go.

Ryan, I would suggest that over 95% of the people who see you ONLY are aware of the "look" of a WW1 pilot by the very means you suggested ie Hollywood. So if you dressed as an extra for Blue Max or Brown Vs Richthofen, you can't go wrong. There was so much variety in the clothing worn whilst aloft that you could wear just about anything and be considered "realistic". Would you like a suggestion?? The EXACT flight gear worn by David Niven in Dawn Patrol (the time when he was thought lost and was missing). He returned in his polka dotted pyjamas with a flight coat. His helmet and goggles were missing, but maybe he dropped them because he was carrying as much champaign as he could hold (internally as well as in his hands).

I got a hold of this quite by chance as my "contact" at I. S. Wright's (medal, memorabilia, coin, banknote etc dealer in Australia) KNEW I would be interested in this, so he intercepted it and contacted me (happily!). I had already asked for a set, but he told me the best he could do was the RFC wings, so I bought those. A month later, he told me he had something for me, and I was suitably impressed. I also have an orignal British Empire medal issued to an Aussie RNAS chap, and this one was a bonus...I really was mainly interested in his Service Record that accompanied it. Mike Westrop bought this for me from eBay, and trusted me to repay him. I have been chasing a set (or one) AFC and RFC shoulder flashes (anyone know where I can get them?) and occasionally sift through the usual places.

I got my wings some time ago as well. One set of original AFC pilot's wings, and an original set of RFC pilot's wings. The AFC wings were VERY expensive, RFC less so. Also bought a couple of new replica AFC pilot's wings from the Australian War Memorial.

OK gentlemen...Here's how it works. Here is the main map You look for the area of operations you wish to position the aerodromes on rabu's great maps. Find a cross index map number (for instance B-4). Select that map and away you go. If you want to find where any aerodrome is on these maps, go to this index... Select the aerodrome alphabetically, find the map reference, and there are four quarters to each map (detailed on the main map). Like I said, I personally just cheat and fly by waypoints and using TAC, and I have no qualms at all using the in-game map (but that's only if I've flown off course, and that's usually because of a protracted combat. I pull up the ingame map to ascertain my orientation (I don't use a compass) and basically close the map thinking to myself "I need to fly in the direction of about 2 o'clock to get home", and then close the map and run. Once over friendly territory, I can cycle through my waypoints until I locate the one that leads me home. Oh...BTW...this research is the work of H Hugh Wynne.

Abso-effin-lutely made my day. Excellent tale well told. Haven't laughed so hard since...hmm...a long time. Thanks bullethead.

Not being subjected to US tax system, this is just speculation on my part, but shouldn't that be "Pay-through-the-nose-ware"?? Oh...for Christmas???? Something oft-talked about but NEVER given as a gift... a partridge in a pear tree