Flying a line patrol in my SPAD VII, I felt almost invincible, which was even amplified by the wonderful weather.
And then the god of war seemed to give me as a little present a German two-seater - a Roland Cl.II.
Lovely, I thought - get this kill and back in time for lunch!
Thought it and attacked.
But then: tackackackackack!!! Sploing! Twang! Shred! Crack! Bonk, bonk, bonk! Shrrrrrreedddddd!!!
I was hit!
A quick check showed the reason: the Boche had had a wingman! And this very wingman was now right behind me,
about to chew my SPAD's tailplane off with his prop!

I turned high and low with that lovely couple, but - boy! - that German pilot could fly!
He gave me some quick, short lessons, before I realised that my engine lost power.
I was no longer up to this "fighting school"!

Somehow I managed to evade as well the guns of my persecutor as the barbed wire fences and tree stumps which you find
spread all over the mud line. I could put my SPAD down right beside the old Roman road from Metz to Reims.

Never again will I underestimate the defensive abilities of the Roland "Walfisch" - this "whale" had been a shark!

1. If I feel relatively confident in a Spad XIII, it is very different in the VII, specially the early 150HP. You should forget this "almost invincible" feeling...
2. The Roland can be a tough opponent. If you leave aside its slow climb rate when loaded with bombs, it can give a hard time to attacking planes once the bombs are gone. As it can fly around 5 hours with full tank, I usually take off with 50% fuel to make it lighter.

I have already lost it, where I put down my SPAD...


Haha, that's funny! A Frenchman flying the Roland Cl.II, and a German flies the SPAD VII!
Well, the SPAD VII is still very good, I think.
After all I shot down Hermann Goering in it, who was flying an Albatros D.II.
But sure - the SPAD XIII is not only stronger; it also carries 2 machine guns.
I hope I will get to that version some day - maybe when I stop attacking Rolands?

You don't have to convince me! Those fellows are right buggers!

Agreed! Those Roalnd CL.II pilots know how to use their craft to best advantage. I was very surprised with how maneuverable they were. And yes, they tend to have a another German scout shadowing them. I love the Spad S.VII, but they are not invincible.

I have a healthy respect for their gunners with a nice field of fire, but I've noticed on more than one occasion the AI losing control resulting in some pretty strange behavior. The airplane will suddenly snap into a wild horizontal spin and eventually crash. For old time CFS3-ers (like some on the OBD team) it is very similar to the weird altitude gaining spins the stock aircraft would go into after a collision. Anyone else seen this? The Roland is the only one I've encountered this problem with.

I think I saw that a couple times awhile back, but I had chalked it up to the overzealous wind issues that were fixed in a patch. Are the two-seaters still going into a spin without being shot?

The Rolands do. I last saw it yesterday, - I'm flying 1.24.

I've seen a couple AI SPADS stall out at lower altitudes and crash into the ground while in a turning fight with me. Most of the time, the AI does a good job of avoiding the ground.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the kill claim for them since I hadn't shot them yet.

Not sure how often that happens, that the get into an unrecoverable spin -
mine didn't. But it was one of the many nasty things that could happen
to a desperate pilot chased by E/A, that he might do too wild manoeuvres
and end in a fatal spin.

I'm not referring to just spinning out of control, which I think is great that the AI does on occasion, they aren't perfect. What I'm talking about is the way it spins seems more like an old CFS3 bug rather than actual spin behavior. It will suddenly break into a wild spin that looks like it's rotating around all three axis moving horizontally or even up as it spins and at a speed at least as fast as its normal cruise. It looks very strange.

Ohhh. That does sounds like a bug.