Baldric

It's great to go back to school :) Over the last two years I've been slowly working on my MN as a part-time student in a distance program (can't afford to be fulltime...bills to be paid, family to support etc) and still have my thesis to research and write. Trying to find stick-time is becoming an art-- easier as I get further along and know what hoops to jump through. Suddenly it gets into a routine and you know it's all good. When I first went back I found it very discomfitting; having to re-learn how to learn and all that, unsure if I was smart enough and so forth. Those jitters go away eventually, especially if you avail yourself of your instructors expertise and guidance-- thats what they are there for, and there is no shame in asking for help. Remember back to your service days-- the only dumb question is the one not asked. Good job on going back, Olham! I wish you only the very best :) Oh and as to music...I'd choose some baroque, Mozarts sonata's...and the glorious voice of Loreena McKennit.

Thanks for the translation, Olham. I really enjoy reading the anecdotes. When I have similar flights I usually end up in the trees or detonate :)

Just got crushed on a 1968 mission to destroy an avgas fuel depot. Wingman and I arrive, low altitude and I begin the run in with him covering my six o'clock. Bombs release, miss. Order him to attack target. Meanwhile I hear someone on the radio yell out Missile Launch...now I know I've got a RIO in the Phantom but no idea if the RIO's are actually functional. I'm eyeballing the mirrors and see 'something' as well as a smoke trail. I haul the stick over and the missile goes by. Red Crown still spouting off about bogies fifty miles away, nothing closer, nothing on search radar. I select guns, because I *think* this EA is close close, just can't see him at all, finally he goes screaming by and I turn after him. My wingman is suddenly vapourized just after he hit the fuel dump and there are MIGs all over my butt. Totally shaken and up to my neck in EA I manage to gun the MIG I've latched onto but then get nailed (think I went tunnel..bad Leaf bad Leaf) by a MIG with guns at six low. Crashed, ended up in hospital (hoping the campaign is still 'on'). My question is: Does the RIO have a voice in this sim? Since the radio voices sound fairly similar it's often hard to tell who's saying what (especially when a big scrap is happening all along the front). I'm assuming the RIO is not functional and what I heard was coincidental to another scrap?

Thanks for that info! Are those the voice packs in the SF2: Reloaded mod collection? Pretty sure I've heard some nicely done variations in there. It's now the chap in North Atlantic (where o' where is Redcrown Girl gone to?) thats driving me batty. Surprised as it sounds like unfiltered Teamspeak blather :)

Thanks for the responses- I'll have to pay more attention to the color of the HUD chatter :) Next up; more TLAR bombing run practice!

Well, I'm one of the newbies to SF series and I'm not a Joe Sixpack :) From what I've seen so far this community, and in particular the modding community, is pretty damn amazing-- and y'all have my respect for that. I've been reading about the discontent and can certainly understand it and the desire to try other systems. I will say that I've probably put more stick time in SF2:E/I/V in the past three weeks than I have in FC2/DCS BS/DCS A10 in the past three months. I've got that 'one more mission...one more' syndrome at the moment and I'm having a blast in the campaigns. There is something visceral about modded SF2 that I like better than the somewhat sterile FC/LOMAC stuff, and when you get one of those missions where the whole front seems embroiled in a sh*tstorm of whiteknuckled flying...well y'all know. I simfly RoF/OFF too and they're both quite different in approach to the same topic and I like 'em both. In the end though, the way I look at it is its apples and oranges, all fruit, just different and all good.

All I really use SimQH for is to get some idea about various sims I may or may not be interested in-- kind of a one-stop clearing house I guess. Thats how I discovered OFF after a buddy of mine mentioned it to me, and that led me to SF2 series here (love that sim game). For train sim stuff I go to UKTrainsim but I post a bit on SimQH when people have questions about TS2012/Trainz. I seldom post in the other sim areas on SimQH as I have forums like this I can blather on :)

The scheme on the bottom reminded me of a neighbour lady's kitchen curtains c. 1974 :)

Great info- really enjoying this thread :)

Hi all, I just picked up a copy of SF2:Europe and am really enjoying it (nice change of pace from biplanes in OFF ^.^ ). Thanks for the advice on the mod enabler- I had a copy from when I used to play a lot of Silent Hunter III and had forgotten about it. Works great with SF2:E as I've added a couple of mods (widesky and one of the German landscape enhancements). Love simming with aircraft of my era lol :)

I would like to live there. Lovely pictures, Olham.

Thanks for sharing the profile, Olham. I'll give this one a try.

Uh my first WWI airfighting simulator was a paper and cardboard affair called Fight in the Skies (originally published by Tactical Studies Rules aka TSR) followed swiftly by Avalon Hills' Richtofen's War, another cardboard and dice affair. Brilliant! Computerized WWI air sims started for me with Microsoft's WWI scenario in their DOS flight sim, not-so-swiftly followed by Rise of Flight. I came to OFF looking for something with more depth and I found it, found a nice community to be a part of as well. Can't beat that.

I've been a member of the SimHQ forums for awhile and it was through a friend there and Polovski's posts at SimHQ that led me to discover the joys of OFF. I'm hardly active as a poster there (or here for that matter the last while), mainly just reading to get an idea as to what is going on with my favourite air sims, what new mods may be out and so on. I personally have no concerns as to where the official OBD forums are located as I don't imagine we'll be lacking for information here on CA anyway. By the way, it was nice seeing a lot of the familiar names from here posting there too.

Sadly fairly typical behavior, but meh. Bring on the next phase of this most excellent sim.

Having been lost over the Ardennes a few times I must say I use warp with trepidation. I've been using it lately similarly to Olhams suggestion above (flipping on map and then warping) and have managed to avoid the surprise trip so far. I'm just happy OFF doesn't have an 'Otherworld' like the ancient microsoft FS WWI scenario did where you could fly off the combat zone, over the mountains into an etherworld, maintain the same heading for a few minutes and heypresto another combat zone...spooky.

Red Badge of Courage... I'd forgotten that one. Memphis Belle

Henry V

Hmmm...my favs include Battle of Britain, Blue Max, Cross of Iron (the book is actually way better), Das Boot (German version...I dislike lipsync), .... The Great Escape, A Bridge Too Far, Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin)...Black Adder Goes Forth (I know its a TV series, but still a fav).

Other than OFF2 and the Steam Easter sale which I hope has some of the recent DLC for the train simulator (Trainsimulator 2012) I enjoy very much on sale, I am keen on Arma 3 and Flaming Cliffs 3. I've been contemplating giving Third Wire's newest jet sim a looksee (never tried any of their sims).

The Calgary museum is small, but pretty interesting- I've taken my son there a couple of times. I'd share photos but I've none. I know they were busy refurbishing a Lancaster, but its a long project. The aeronautical museum at the old airbase in Ottawa is excellent. The Canadian War museum has at least one biplane displayed (Bishop's Nieuport) Canadian War Museum (not local to me either but I do get back to Ottawa once in awhile).

Marvelous, sir. I wish you the very best. Woof!

Thanks for sharing that, Olham. I love that kind of historic investigation

Great post, Cpt. Well put indeed. I usually get that 'one more...just one more mission' syndrome happening when I've a paper due or some other submission deadline near. Nil carborundom illegitimo I always say (or some facsimile thereof)

I want to support Lou's suggestion about the use of tactics in OFF. The sim models the tactical very nicely and you'll likely find that by using the WWI flying combat tactics you've read about, and practicing them of course, you'll gain success. I've realised as I came back to OFF that I had to unlearn a few things such as not having to worry about surgical strike head shots from 400+ metres away so if I play it smart I can get in close; "spray and pray" is more of a waste in OFF; rear gunners don't shoot through the bottoms of their fuselage nor through their tail assembly so I could go back to hunting them from their sixlow;... what else...oh, Dicta Boelcke ftw so altitude altitude altitude-- and really don't get sucked in to following the enemy down to the deck; ...clouds of triple A mean something; ...and attack only when confident your plan of action will succeed otherwise get the heck out of Dodge (and watch for ambushes all the time)...welcome to whiteknuckle flying at it's most exhilarating.