After decades of virtual WWI air combat, I finally had an aviator reach 80 kills! Capitaine Dax Bonnassie, aka L'Homme Protectif, aka Monsieur Mercure, aka the Pride of Gascony, scored his 80th (DFW) and 81st (Albatros DIII) aerial victories today, 2 May 1917. Dax is flying with N69, from Rosnay on the Marne front. He's filed 88 claims in total, and logged 169.67 combat hours, almost all in Nieuports.

He's earned a full month's of leave, and will spend it at a sanitarium somewhere in southern France, where doctors will address his chronic medical problems. Thankfully, Mercury is a wonder drug.

But here's my question. Should I retire the guy, or keep flying until he ultimately dies? I doubt that he can survive another 16 months at the front.

Suggestions welcome.

Nowi