I've been flying around in WOFF, on and off, since "Between Heaven and Hell." So what's that, about a decade?
For the first time ever I survived 100 sorties! Willy Kaunitz, flying with Jastas 2 and 8. Twenty-seven victories and a bunch of medals.
How did I finally make it so far? I'd point to two things.
First, my Track IR. It's so much better flying with it than it was with views, no matter how well they were set up. I hardly ever get surprised from behind anymore.
Second, I've learned to get out of dodge. I always make of note of where I'm at, and in which direction I need to fly to get back over my own lines. If the EA has a better machine than I ahve, or if the pilot's better than me, or a combination of the two, I do not force it; I dive away and head home. If I get pinged over the lines, I head home. No point in waiting around to see what, if anything, was damaged. And, damn it, it's usually your fuel tank! If the situation looks grim, egress!
I read somewhere details about some Allied ace. He survived the war and had a record of each of his sorties. These were broken down into those that he had engaged in combat, and then there were the few where he achieved an aerial victory. He had flown hundreds of sorties, but only a small proportion had actually ended in combat. And, of those, even fewer led to a score. I had come of WWI air sim age with Red Baron. Basically every sortie led to some kind of action. And if you wanted to run up a big score, you almost had to score when the opportunity presented itself. And then I flew on line in Air Warrior. And there, every hop was expected to lead to a kill, or several kills.
That's why WOFF is more realistic. I started the Kaulitz career in September 1916. It's now February 1917. So in six months I've flown 100 sorties. In Red Baron I would have long since reached the Armistice. In Air Warrior I would have had a hundred kills and been shot down 25 times. (I was pretty good and ended up as a flight instructor.)
Reading about this guy's record, I realized that I didn't have to score every time I went up, or even every time I got into a Kurvenkampf. At the rate I'm going, with about 24 months left in the war, I could conceivably fly 500 sorties. An average of one kill per five sorties would get me well head of the Red Baron!
I suppose most of you are saying: "Duh! Nowi! What took you so long to figure that out?" And, yes, it shouldn't have taken me ten years. I guess if I'd been an actual WWI aviator, I would have been one of those poor schmucks who died in a fortnight.
Better later than never.
Nowi
