Messing about with Rise of Flight today, it's been a long time since I fired this one up and had forgotten what a great sim it is.
These pics are just a quick mission 1v1 with me flying an S.E.5a against an Albatros D.V
The S.E.5a is flying with a skin depicting the aircraft flown by Lieutenant Verschoyle Philip Cronyn - a Canadian pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. Cronyn has always been of interest to me as going by his name, he is quite possibly a distant relative of mine!
Cronyn was one of the pilots of 56 Squadron who took part in the epic battle with the German ace Werner Voss on 23rd September 1917. Probably one of the most famous dogfights in aviation history, Voss single handedly fought against no less than six S.E.5a of the RFC's elite 56 Squadron, piloted by several aces including Captain James McCudden. Voss fought against overwhelming odds for more than eight minutes and managed to hit nearly every one of the British fighters before himself finally falling under the guns of the multiple British aces.
After this engagement Cronyn nursed his badly damaged aircraft back to base and by all accounts suffered what we would recognise as a post traumatic nervous breakdown - three months on the front line with 56 Squadron had taken its toll and the epic fight with Voss which Cronyn barely survived was probably the final straw. Cronyn was put on non-flying duties, and shortly after sent on leave. After his leave he spent some time test flying in Britain before being posted back to Canada as a flying instructor. Before he got there he was diverted to Fort Worth in Texas and instructed on Curtiss Jennys, then moving on to Canada to continue instructing for much of 1918. He eventually requested a posting back in France and this was approved. However, he only made it as far as Quebec before the Armistice. After the war he became the head of an insurance company and then a local politician in Ontario.
Cronyn survived 38 patrols with 56 Squadron over a three month period in 1917 - a time when the average life expectancy of an RFC scout pilot was three weeks.
And here's an excellent video on Youtube where someone far more talented than me recreated Werner Voss' final battle in Rise of Flight:
Lovely shots. The SE5 has always been my favorite plane in ROF. I sucked in it when it first came out, but stuck with it and now its th eonly plane I consistantly do well in.
Yup the SE5a is my all time favourite WW1 fighter. It just looks the part! As far as flight simming goes having the in line engine also makes it less of a handful than a rotary like the Camel.