33LIMA

I'm confused now, i thought "Aviatik CI" was exact enough; maybe I should have typed it 'C I'. The CIa reportedly had the pilot in front and the observer behind, like other C types including the Aviatik CIII. If you want a serial # of an actual aircraft, C1952/15 is the serial # of the CI pictured in Gray & Thetford's book.

I certainly don't expect a WW1 sim - or any sim, for that matter - to be "perfect", or to have every plane or feature I just happen to favour - that would be silly. Nor do most simmers in my experience. To to characterise such criticism of RoF - especially in a thread which seeks views on the sim - as a "hard truth many...don't want to accept" is I believe at best a sweeping generalisation, which fails to distinguish between fair comment and sim-bashing. The lack of even a basic set of representative 2-seaters really is a big gap in any WW1 air combat sim, whether peolple accept THAT, or not. Hopefully that situation will soon be remedied. In the meantime I wish RoF and its adherents well and look forward to joining them in due course.

1. The aircraft is an Aviatik CI I believe, and the distinguishing feature compared to other German C-types is that the observer sits in front not to the rear of the pilot. 2. 1915, according to Gray and Thetford 3. KaGHOL = Kampfgeschwader der Obersten Heeres Leitung, roughly translated to Battle (bomber) Unit of the Army High Command

Do you mean Jasta 11 or JG1? Or die Rote Kampfflieger himself? These may be what you are after: http://combatace.com/files/file/3738-jg1-rittmeister-manfred-von-richthofens-albatros-dv-205917/ http://combatace.com/files/file/3737-rittm-manfred-freiherr-von-richthofens-akathe-red-baron-albatros-dvd/ http://combatace.com/files/file/3734-jg1-rittmeister-manfred-von-richthofens-albatros-dv/ http://combatace.com/files/file/10699-jasta-11-diiis/ http://combatace.com/files/file/3620-jasta-11-fokker-dvii-dviif/

Yes. gotta love the old RFC mess songs, wish there was an album available. "Aces High" (the movie) is about the nearest to that we'll get I daresay. At 1.20:30 in "Aces High" you can hear the pilots singing part of "You haven't got a hope in the morning", in the background mostly.

1. What RFC Squadron is recorded as operating this actual aircraft?? 2. What is the origin of this aircraft type's commonly-used name? 3. When you soar in the air with a Sopwith Scout, and you're scrapping with a Hun, and your gun cuts out...Well, what do you do? Bonus question (and clue to Q.3) - to what popular tune, well-enough known today, was the RFC song from which the above lines were taken, sung?

1. It's an SE5 (as opposed to an SE5a) - possibly 2nd production batch, but without the greenhouse windshield, field-modified. 2. engine Hispano-Suiza 8A, 150HP (possibly Wolseley-built, rather than Aries) 3 Wings - tips blunter, earlier version had more 'raked' tips

Yes thank you - town Belfast, country UK.

You can get RB2 here free, plus the patch that upgrades it to RB3D: http://www.virtualaces.net/redbaron/redbaron.html I have one install (downloaded & patched as above) flying with the Hell's Angels SuperPatch mod; plus a second install from a 'Sold Out' CD version of RB3d, with Full Canvas Jacket. Both are working fine on Vista 64, tho I find that Fitst Eagles (with the latest patch) looks vastly better than RB3d and is just as immersive, so I'm playing that mostly now.

Yes Olham, but so far just Phase 2 - Phase 3 will be ordered when I replace my budget card in a few weeks. Phase 3 looks a lot better. I expect to continue playing FE too, which I also like a lot - tho at the moment, while the enemy's Cambrai offensive is reported pushed back, Jasta 5 is losing a lot of pilots and the replacements have still not arrived, so things are looking pretty bleak. I had to make a dead-stick landing last mission when an SE got me as I was trying to shoot another one off a wingman's tail. We lost 4 out of 6 Albatros DV's in that fight with 1xKIA and 1x wounded. One moment the sky is full of whirling planes and you're fighting just to stay alive, the next moment it's all gone quiet and you're on your own. I was lucky the chap who killed my engine left me to glide down. Looking forward to experiencing the OFF equivalent soon!

This thread is getting a bit too high-brow for those of us with less appreciation of the finer points of lyrical writings, so in a determined effort to lower the tone, here's some contemporary customer feedback on the Royal Aircraft Factory's most famous products, not quite poetry but worthy enough of repetition, for all that: Oh they found a bit of iron wot some bloke had thrown away And the Factory said "This is just the thing we've sought for many a day!" And so they built the weirdest thing Strangest engine ever seen And they put it in a flying machine And sent them out to fight. When the blokes who had to fly them swore The Factory said "They'll be all right! The bus is as stable as can be We thought of every bit of it ourselves, you see!" They were so darn slow, they wouldn't go And they called them RAF2c's. ...and an RFC variation of the Pilot's Psalm... The B.E.2c is my bus; therefore shall I want. He maketh me to come down in green pastures He leadeth me where I do not wish to go. He maketh me to be sick; He leadeth me astray on all cross country flights. Yea, though I fly o'er No-man-'s Land Where mine enemies would compass me about, I do fear much evil, for thou art with me, Thy joystick and thy prop discomfort me. Thou preparest a crash for me in the presence of mine enemies; Thy RAF annointeth my hair with oil, thy tank leaketh badly. Surely to goodness thou shalt not follow me all the days of my life, Else I shall dwell in the House of Colney Hatch for ever.

There was an interesting thread about this over at The Aerodrome: http://www.theaerodr...-legends-2.html The conclusion (on P2) was an RoF of around 440RPM for a synchronised Spandau. If I'm interpreting this right this is for one weapon and varies accorcing to the RPM of the motor (as you can hear in the Blue Max movie). The sound of the WW2 German MG42 is often described as "tearing calico" and that had a cyclic RoF of about 1200 RPM. Despite the many instances of dramatic licence, there are signs that the movie "Aces High" made some effort to get this right, as seen in ths clip where the CC-geared Vickers, the twin Spandaus, and the unsynchronised Lewis all have their own RoF with the latter noticeably faster; http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Gy4e0P6DNWw

Agree, the FPS problem is probably shadows. The highest setting gives nice high-detail shadows which you can see move around when you are in the 'cockpit' view, as the angle of the sun changes. But it kills FPS, especially when looking in a direction where you can see your plane,s shadow on the ground, from the cockpit. The next highest shadow setting is also a big FPS hit. Set shadows to 'Medium' - you still get nice moving shadows in the external view, but the FPS hit is much less.

Good to know, a Biff and a Harry Tate are just about's what's needed to make RoF's planeset acceptable in my eyes. Noticed the B14 and DFW were playables after I'd posted, but a few more 2-seaters is what's needed, certyainly at least one common, general purpose RFC/RAF type, the RE8 being the obvious choice, if less exciting than the F2B or the elegant and archetypal BE2c; after me now, everybody, Oh they found a bit of iron wot some bloke had thrown away And the RAF said "This is just the thing we've sought for many a day!" And so they built the weirdest thing Strangest engine ever seen And they put it in a flying machine And sent them out to fight. When the blokes who had to fly them swore The RAF said "They'll be all right! The bus is as stable as can be We thought of every bit of it ourselves, you see!" They were so darn slow, they wouldn't go And they called them RAF2c's".

Also unless I've missed something, RoF has precisely two 2-seaters, both AI, a B14 and a DFW CV. Even OOB, FE and OFF Phase 2 provided a minimalist but adequate selection of 2-seaters, a situation now much better. Flying for or against the RFC/RAF without at least an RE8 or a BE2 in the air is just plain silly/bone/naff. RoF looks best for "flying WW1 planes" (scouts, anyway). But at the present, in my view it is for the above reason still a simply inadequate simulation of "flying in WW1", regardless of its other fine features. Each to their own of course but that's my position. I hope the 2-seater selection, and the SP campaign, improve in due course, tho I'm not at all impressed at the idea of having to pay extra for what should have been a basic planeset and part of the basic package or an early patch.

There is no substiture for relying on an actual photo of the aircraft or unit you're representing. A quick look at my Monogram 'LW camouflage & Markings' vol 2 shows an undated pic of some He111H6 s of KG26 in 70/71/65, no theatre markings, and the nearest aircraft, 1H+CH, clearly has the full code under the wings, 1+H C+H. A colour profile of Ju87B2 2F+CA, said to be used by KG54 (!) in N Africa has 79 with 80 blotches, 65 below, and is shown by the artist with no letters under the wings (Monogram's research would be i think considered more reliable than Profile's) . A colour 2-view of Ju87B2 T6+BM of StG2 in N Africa - in in temperate 70/71/65 scheme - is shown with no letters under wings, individual letter B in white on the front of each wheel spat, and strangely, a painted-out letter C on the upper wings both sides outboard of the cross. A photo of wrecked Bf110F 3U+GS of 8/ZG26 near Fuka in 79/65, dated 13 Nov 42, has the red 'G' under the lower wings outboard of the cross. Ju88A L1+DN of 5/LG1 photographed in Sicily during 1941, in 70/71/65 with white theatre band, also has the individual letter 'D' under each wing in the usual position, outboard of the cross. Most odd is a pic of a 70/71/65 Ju87B2, undated and unit n/k, which has the individual letter C behind the LH fuselage cross, no other fuselage letters visible, but has TWO (individual?) letters outboard of the left wing's lower-sufrace cross, a large L next to the cross and then a smaller A nearer the wingtip - the authors speculate this may have been a plane that changed units several times. A pic of a nosed-over Ju-87D1/Trop WNr 2396, S7+KS of 8/StG3, captioned as shot sown by Allied fighters on 1 Nov 42, is in 70/71/65, white theatre band, and has the 'factory' Stammkenzeichen radio code under the wings, +MO being visible in black under the port wing. The Ju88A Profile Publication has a 5-view colour profile of 5K+DC of II/KG3 in N Russia Summer' 41, with D in black under each wing outboard of the cross. The colour profiles mostly have the same arrangement, including two African Ju88s, L1+EH of 1/LG1 in Benghazi, 1942, and 7A+LH of 1 St (F)/121, Martuba, also in libya, 1942, both in 79/65. The artist's rendition of the letter E under the wing of L1+EH is confirmed in a pic of the plane crash-landed. The Ju87B Profile has a 5-view of S2+AM of 4/StG 77 in 70 or 71/65 (should be 70/17/65?) said to be in France 1940 (but with yellow cowl & rudder, more likely to be in the Balkans in 1941?) plus two African Ju87B2s; first, in 79 with 80 blotches, 65 below, is S7+HL of 3/Stg3 at Derna 1942; also 1/StG3's S7+IH at Daba 1942, both represented with the individual letter in black outboard of the underwing crosses. Overall, most common - relying on photos rather than artist's interpretations which can be wrong - seems to be the either the individual letter only OR no letter at all, in all Theatres. All four letters seem quite rare. Rarest are factory codes rather than unit ones, or multiple or overpainted letters. Some bombers including Stukas I recall having seen with individual letters in a light colour on the outer tops of wings but this is also rare, methinks. Another source would be the Osprey "Stuka Units of the Med", I have the cut-back DelPrado issue about somewhere, IIRC it had some Desert Stuka colour profiles.