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After a week's vacation it is back to work for me folks. I will be on the road for the next two days which means Kurt Heusinger has a respite as well and the timing is quite good as he was just promoted to Flugmeister, (after coming off yet another two weeks in hospital).

A few things I've noticed while flying this most hair-raising campaign:

The gunners in the two-seaters as far too good to the point of being unrealistic. They can fire when you are still 300+ yards behind them and hit you within the first few rounds. And when they do hit you, (i.e. the pilot), you are instantly wounded to the point where you will spend at least a week in hospital and likely more than that. Kurt's latest mission saw him trailing a pair of BE2s over Diksmuide and while he was still about 350 yards behind and well below the tail of the trailing bus the gunner opened fire and immediately there was the faintest tint of red 'around the edges'. Everything else was fine and Kurt's mount flew as before and when he landed the report noted he was only lightly wounded. But it still bought him 14 days in recovery. As of 28 September 1916 Kurt has had five stints in hospital for a total of 73 days, and that's out of 120 days at the front! Talk about your layabouts. I believe turning down the accuracy of the rear gunners may be in order, (which can be done in the workshop), as well as shortening up hospital stays, (which would have to be a change made by the devs).

Medal awards were a bit out of whack during this campaign with Kurt receiving the Blue Max as his second honour. Realistically it would have been the EK1, plus the fact that the PlM was for officers only. I know the officer thing has more to do with game coding so that one I get, but the order was a bit odd. Also, he was given the Blue Max a second time after his 15th confirmed victory, but this award was never given twice to any pilot, ever. As note of what appears to be the fluidity of the awards criteria and not as any criticism is the fact that after Kurt returned from his last hospital stay he was also given the Military Order of Max Joseph. I assume for his length of service at the front more than anything else, and that was a pleasant surprise.

Planes that are relatively easy kills if you are saddled with the EIII are the Bristol Scout, BE2, and BE12. Kurt also got in a go-round with a Pup and while he did not shoot the EA down it was not hard to get on that plane's six and stay there for quite some time, (the Pup pilot finally ran for home and Kurt decided to do the same). Planes that should scare the bejeebers out of you if you are flying the Eindecker are the Nieuports, Fees, and Strutters. Avoid these like the plague if you can. If you do get jumped by a plane, or planes, of vastly superior ability try and dive down and drag them over friendly guns, and stick close to the ground and treetops. It will improve your odds of survival immensely.


Alrighty then, off on the road I go, but I will check in this evening when I get to my hotel and I will be back home tomorrow night so that Kurt may be able to sneak in his next mission. I leave you with his most current dossier page.




Cheers!

Lou

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Great work so far! I already play with the rear gunner accuracy reduced, and they are still pretty ridiculous, but...yeah...

Lou;

Thanks for the dissertation Sir! It is appreciated and will be added to my little black book.

Week survived (10 days survival; 5 total missions, 2 days repairs, one day no assigned missions due to lack of pilots and two days poor weather)= 3 pts 1x confirmed kill (1x FE2)= 3pts Total = 6 points.

That was a blast to fly on full real. Looking forwards to the next challenge!

Kind regards,
Dave

Looks like we are down to Louvert and DrB334... paging DrB... if I am missing anyone else, please let me know!

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Flugmeister Kurt Heusinger is still in the hunt. I returned from my work trip last night and have since gotten in a few more missions. Here is a screenie of one of Kurt's recent sorties, a recce escort that took he and his chrarges over the lines SE of Diksmuide.



I liked this particular shot just for the atmosphere. Also, it captured that barrage going on down in the mud quite well.

Cheers!

Lou

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Hang in there guys! Good show.

Yes, interesting stuff!

Maybe WOFF needs another, less brutal difficulty setting with less aggressive air activity? It seems to be practically impossible to survive more than a couple of missions flying the Eindecker in 1916 without getting killed, wounded or captured, even though there are some very fine pilots here participating in this contest.

Hey everyone. Sorry for going AWOL for so long. Let me just get this out of the way then:

I died my first flight out.

Yeah, It didn't go so well. I was alone in B flight about 3Km ahead of A flight. Got engaged by N11's high over no mans land. Knowing facing them was suicide I tried to lead them all back to A flight. A flight were either oblivious to them or were pretending they weren't there. I took a burst of fire from one and couldn't keep it airborne from there. I tried to bring it down easy, but to no avail.

Some say my crater is still there to this day.

I will have to try again unofficially. I want to learn how to even shoot an N11 down in that thing let alone survive more than one flight!

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DrB344, sorry to here of your pilot's very short career. Bad luck, Sir.


On an up note, Flugmeister Kurt Heusinger hit two milestones this morning: 40 missions and 20 victories. I thought mission forty was going to be an ender for him though when his recce flight was jumped by five DH.2s 6,000' over Diksmuide. Kurt and his wingman managed to drag the attackers away from the two-seaters and the EA then followed the pair all the way down to the mud. Fortunately it was just on the friendly side for the two intrepid fliegers and they battled against the odds valiantly with the aid of ground troops who fired at the EA as opportunities presented. The enemy at last broke off and ran for home but left Kurt struggling with his mount, which by this point had lost nearly all ability of level flight. The young hero was glad to see that his wingman had managed his own getaway so Kurt continued to focus on getting himself down in one piece. Through a fair amount of skill and far more luck he was able to plant the beast back down on Mother Earth and while it was one ugly landing it was none-the-less a successful one.


Flugmeister Heusinger fighting a stall as well as the EA in an attempt to get a shot on his attacker.


A good landing despite outward appearances.

After a short walk to the nearby friendly obs balloon position Kurt caught a ride back to camp and reported in and a crew was sent to salvage his kite. Kurt sat in the mess and took some schnapps to warm up and toast his good fortune of still being above ground rather than below it.





Lou

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Great report, Lou! They really didn't like your left wing, huh? I am out of town for a few days, but since Louvert is the last pilot standing, so to speak, I think we can start to wrap this one up over the weekend and declare a winner and get ready for the next run!

Any landing you can walk away from is a good one - especially in an Eindecker with one wing shot to pieces. Well done sir.

Doesn't seem like it will be too hard to figure out the winner ... forty missions and twenty kills while flying a death trap is damn impressive Lou!!

Lou, I agree with Scout. Kurt should be sent home to a hero's welcome and let him teach the newcomers how to fly the Eindecker. We all know luck plays a part in this sim but 40 missions and 20 kills in an eindecker! I would say lots of skill and a little luck. Congratulations Sir!

Well flown indeed! Nicely done RAFLou I'm looking forward to the next challenge.

Kind regards,
Dave

That Eindecker is a killer to fly. I hope the next one doesn't require us to fly Snoopy's dog house!

Shhhh! You're giving away all the secrets!

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Thanks for the kudos Gents, they are much appreciated. As all of you who gave this a go are painfully aware, it is tough to survive this period of 1916 in Flanders flying the Eindecker and I am rather proud of young Kurt's record thus far. Seeing as how he is now one of the Kaiser's leading aces perhaps HQ should give him a two-week leave so that he might have a spanking new Halb waiting for him on his return to the flugplatz. What say you all, send the Flugmeister home to Holzminden for a fortnight to visit the family and show off to the young ladies round town?


To the next challenge, I can't wait to see what you have planned Rick!



Lou

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That would certainly seem to be a high command priority at this point. His value as a propaganda piece is at least as valuable as his combat skills. Get that boy some R&R!

So, here we are, a week and a half after the first challenge and one pilot stands alone! I hereby call the 2014 Eindecker Invitational and Chili Cookoff to a close!

The winner: (a surprise to no one reading this thread ) is RAF Louvert! (The Kaiser is not pleased with the name..)

But congratulations go out to all! Pilots, check your PM's for your certificates that you can show to all who wouldn't look askance at you for participating in an online WWI flying challenge! 14 pilots participated and, much like in real life, a few aces carried our team and we caused more havoc than was caused upon us! 14 pilots participated and gave their all for the cause: fun! And much fun was had, and more still will be in challenges to come. But for now, we must say adieu, or, more appropriately, auf wiedersehen...

As goodbyes are always melancholy times, I will leave you with this oddly appropriate Tori Amos video.


Humbly yours,
RR