Wayfarer

Absolutely! Unfortunately the last time I backed up turns out to have been August 2010. I suppose I did have some preoccupations, with my Dad dying shortly after and such, but I am definitely going to put some reminder system in place if we manage to get things working again. I really should have thought of it at least once since then! Fortunately, I constantly annoy the hell out of everyone to back up their work in at least two other places, and no one seems to have lost any course work. We also think all photos are copied to at least one other location. I even think that I backed up everything I had for IL2 and CFS3, because I haven't touched them since I got OFF. Of course, my OFF information folder, with all my templates for key commands, joystick buttons, info compiled from forum posts, aircraft background material, etc. doesn't seem to have got backed up - even though some of it ought to have. So, yes, it really is the vital thing to remember.

Thanks for your replies. I had thought about two drives, but it is possibly the worst time of the year money wise so I think we are going to have to go with one (plus it's probably all my vestigal computer knowledge can cope with). I think if I get the 1TB drive I would probably go with something like 250GB for the OS and programmes partition as I am sure between the 5 of us we could make respectable stab at trying to fill it up!

Yesterday our PC started giving us a black screen with just a 'Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key' message. I've been through a number of internet sites on the laptop and as far as I can see the hard drive has failed. I checked in setup and the 'Primary IDE Master' is 'Not Detected', although the DVD/CD drives are. I have disconnected the cables from the back of the hard drive, reconnected and tried again. ( I haven't managed to disconnect the SATA cable from the motherboard because it felt like it was going to break). I have virtually no knowledge about PCs, the most adventurous thing I have done is upgrade RAM. I know there are some very PC savvy folks on this forum, however, and I just wanted to check that hard drive failure seemed most likely before I start working out what to do about it. And it had been such a pleasant day ... visited Coventry's air museum and Airbase ... toured some aircraft... saw an Avro Anson flying ... saw some of the bits of WW1 aircraft they used to manufacture in Coventry ... even saw a piece of original German lozenge fabric ... got back to eldest daughter saying ' err Dad ...'

Thanks everyone for your commiserations and advice. We are fortunate that almost all the important stuff, coursework, photos etc., is saved elsewhere apart from the external HD, but it certainly is a lesson. It's just that this Sunday morning would have been prime OFF flying time!

Thanks Widowmaker. I feared it was so. I read that you could try it in another PC. We don't have one but there is one friend I can try. Oh how I wish that I had backed it up to the external hard drive more recently than I did. All my OFF pilot details will have gone!

I sympathise Pappy, our hard drive just packed in yesterday. At least with that, all the family want to see it remedied as soon as possible - I don't have to justify the expense to anyone!

'Such as absent-mindedly observing to one's spouse as one passes the intended motorway junction that one is approaching the blimp over Halfords from the East to avoid the archie ...' 'Gawd! It's good to know I'm not the only one who does those sorts of things Dej. The other afternoon I made note of the fact that the clouds rolling in from the northwest would provide perfect cover for a dusk raid on the railyards at Roubaix and that I should ring up the field and have them ready the buses. My wife looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears ...' Likewise, I am relieved it is not just me. Anyway, from certain angles, flying magpies do look like eindeckers - especially when there's a flight of them - and evasive action would have been prudent!

Thanks for another lunchhour chortle!

I meant to say before that I noticed a compass peeping out from under the seat of the BE2c, although the compass HUD is also also on the screen. Would that compass in the cockpit be useable? In my attempts to wean myself of using the HUDs, it's the one instrument that I haven't been able to bring myself to dispense with yet. If there was a useable compass in the cockpit though, I'd have a go.

This was a good point that I hadn't realised. Although I appreciate that there were numbers of Americans serving in RFC squadrons, I have changed a couple of of 'Kalebs', which sounds more American to me - although I have usually seen it spelt Caleb - to more British sounding names (I now expect someone to tell me of one or more genuine British pilots called Kaleb!)

I'd just like to second that. It has a wonderful elegaic feel that particularly seems to suit WW1.

A coffee? I should think something from the mess drinks cabinet would be called for! I remember the first time I saw a pilot's parachute fail in the old 'Battle of Britain' game. He started wildly flailing his arms, and I literally stood up at he horror of it and knocked my chair over! From serenely admiring the scenery on a long reconnaissance flight to the horrors of combat, OFF certainly runs the gamut of emotions.

Just out of interest really, does anyone know if occurrences of ground shelling are all predetermined, like AI aircraft missions? They seem to me to mostly become visible once I am within a certain distance from the front. I didn't know if this was essentially similar to the terrain detail increasing as you get closer, and that shelling is effectively 'occurring' whether I can see it or not, or whether the actual occurrence is linked to player aircraft proximity.

I certainly noticed the density go up once the Battle of the Somme started. That's what prompted the query really.

Only heard this morning that Clarence Clemons had died. As a child I wanted to learn to play the sax, and I loved his work with Bruce Springsteen. That music always reminds me of travelling across the USA by Greyhound bus in 1979. They are great memories and it's sad he's gone.

Just heard today. My wife commented that he may not have been able to play again after a stroke and, for such a musician, it might have been a mercy in a way. Still sad though.

That's funny, and very interesting. What are you working on and where?

Of course, once the they become more than an anonymous back of a head, and my survival starts depending so much on them, I am going to have to start naming my observers. Then I 'll have a double feeling of virtual guilt when I get them both killed!

I just saw the pics! The sheer atmosphere of them, apart from anything else, is an inspiration. Now whenever I get P4 I am going to have to start my BE2 campaign all over again! Dej, you are right, that particular shot is so evocative. As for the rifle, if anyone wanted to provide a Taube for me to take pointless pot shots at, that would be an entertainment in itself.

My wife and several daughters are still doing courses at present, and this takes up a great deal of computer time. Our rule has always been 'work first', so I try and fit into the quiet gaps when they occur. This means I usually get in a mission a week, sometimes two. I have a quick look at the OFF and Aerodrome forums most days though. I do occasionally get into 'figure frenzy'. As a wargamer and figure painter in my youth I am still get captivated by the by the variety, quality and painting standard of many wargames figures displayed on websites, and have sometimes shocked myself at how long I have spent following links from one figure site to another. Away from the computer, I still persist in trying to teach myself to play the fiddle and try to get in an hours playing (if you can call it that) on as many evenings as possible. I would spend more time with my daughters, honest, but their ages range from 17 to 22 next month so they have more exciting things to do nowadays!

One of my main reasons for getting OFF, rather than RoF, was that the campaign enabled you to experience in detail how the war gradually developed and changed over its course. Doing some background reading beforehand, I developed a great admiration for those two seater crews, of all nations, who carried out reconnaissance and spotting duties. It seemed to me that their job often required that they stay in vulnerable situations with less opportunities than scout pilots to improve the odds. Couple that with an empathy for other awkward creatures and I have, therefore, solely flown BE2s with 2 squadron RFC since I got OFF. Starting in February 1915 I have now reached July 1916 (using Bletchley's 1916 mods). There is something about seeing the old Quirk, with it's 'chimneystacks' smoking, heading determinedly towards the enemies lines. Trying to keep as far away as possible from the allied AA - signalling enemy scouts to the left and right, dodging Archie, and knowing that at some point you are going to to have to give up all attempts at evasion and spend that endless minute keeping your eyes glued to the instruments, to fly as straight and level as you can to get those photographs that could be so valuable to the troops on the ground. That said, I also really want to experience the point of view of a German scout pilot. After reaching armistice with my BE2s I intend to start again with Eindeckers (despite the sage advice of wiser pilots to start with something more amenable). And the only reason I haven't mentioned the French is because OFF will be up to Phase 11 by then and I haven't thought that far ahead!

Just flying to and from the Lines in OFF, and drinking in the experience of the lovely planes, the tremendous scenery and cloudscapes, and the roar of your engine almost drowning out the drum-fire you can see going on in the desolate, shell-swept landscape below, is an experience which can fill the senses all on its own; marvellous and not to be missed ... would not have believed I could have got so much enjoyment from a sortie in a combat flightsim where not a shot was fired in anger, apart from some Archie. What can I say, but 'wow! 33Lima, you've summed it up very nicely. After over a year (real time) flying BE2s, it's what I think of as 'OFF therapy'!

I reached June 1916 in my British two seater campaign and the update announced that the Battle of the Somme had started. I wasn't expecting this until July, but I thought this might have been to take into account increased reconnaissance activity prior to the attack. On 1st of July the newssheet came up announcing the start of the Battle of the Somme. Now I am wondering if the campaign timing can have got mucked up a little, or whether OFF actually does start things ahead of the historical commencement.

Well that certainly fits. There is a lot more ordnance going off since the start of the battle was announced.

I have reached June 1916 and, for the first time, got a Troop Contact Patrol mission (flying a two seater campaign using Bletchley's 1916 (1) mod). As I usually spend some time attaining a reasonable altitude before crossing enemy lines, this caused some mild unsettlement on my part (though some of that was probably a result of RAF Louvert's 4000th post Amiens bash). I noticed that the average flight altitude given in the mission description was over 9000' and a guilty part of me wanted to go over at that height, but I felt that wasn't in the spirit of the thing. I ended up circling the mission objective for a while at between 3000' to 3500' and then made a pass at about 1500'. Checking through 'Sagittarius Rising' afterward, I noticed Cecil Lewis talking about circling at 1000' over the Somme. So I'm thinking I ducked out rather. At what height do other people fly these missions (if you have them) and how long do you spend over the objective area?