Hello All!

I hope everyone is well I still look over forums just busy lately anyway I just got round to flying Eindecker's just wondered what peoples experiences are with them ?

Salute!
James

The Eindecker is a piece of crap.

Of course, it'll always have the honor of being the first true combat aircraft, but other than that - no.

She moves too slow, stalls too easily, and turns like a brick. Given the AI skill of rear gunners the 'Fokker Scourge' never really happens, and by the time the Entente scouts start showing up you are completely outclassed.

I've been flying an EI from the addon and enjoy it.

It is an interceptor, not a dogfighter. To use against two seaters (and even hard times against the Strutter), otherwise in 1916 run away from enemy scouts !

A campaign in 1915 is very challenging with the EI.
Watch out for the Morane rear gunners!

The Eindecker was the subject of our first challenge. I think Louvert was the only pilot that could make anything of it. Of course, I believe he actually could make Snoopy's doghouse fly!

Yea I have not took the Eindecker to career mode yet. I know most of its strength is turning left. Just from what I know about the Eindecker from research. I used to love the Eindecker in OFF do not like it in WOFF. I think its flight model needs looking at for a few reasons.

Engine
Early Gnome (Oberursel) had a tendency to pull left.
In left turns had tendency to nose down, in right turns had a tendency to nose up.
(Flight model got tendency to pull right, left turns seem fine but right turns is a stall waiting to happen)

To get a better picture of the Eindecker you need to look at the Halberstadt.

Halberstadt was not considered to be highly superior to the Eindecker other than having a better rate of climb owing to the biplane construction and more wing area it was only 6mph faster. I would assume the Halberstadt was slightly better in a turn but this is not guaranteed due to the Eindecker having a greater wing area on a single plain giving it less drift. also had less passive drift and was lighter.

Halberstadt had a reinforced trailing edge and visibly appear to be rigged with wash out. No doubt this is to combat wing failures in high G turns. Is this something the Halberstadt suffered from or something the Eindecker suffered from? I know Immelmann and Boelcke both report vibrations and wing flutter in high G manoeuvres in the Eindecker. Maybe the Hablerstadt is a construction based on what had been learnt.

Anyway enough of that. If I knew how I would give this planes flight model a look at myself in my spare time between videoing myself flying WOFF and posting videos to my facebook page and work

Looking forward to the next phase

Salute!
James

Hey, don't forget to post some of those videos in the "Combat reports and cool stuff" thread. We want to see them too!

The Eindecker is great!





If you're an Entente scout pilot, that is.

You have to look at the Eindecker with the apropriate eyes of the time back then. If you fly the Eindecker with the knowledge that there will appear Albatros or Fokker DVII etc. later on, and you also having hundreds of flying hours in them, then of course you will consider the Eindecker as slow and sluggish etc.

When you are used to fly motorized kites, like the Etrich Taube or Aviatiks, albatros C series whatever, aircraft with multiple roles, and then the Eindecker appears with the forward firing gun, single seater, just with the purpose of hunting down other aircraft, you will see how agile, fast and dangerous they suddenly are. Of course especially with the eindecker the rumors and myths in those times played an even bigger role probably than the actual danger itself.
Hunting down other AC with the Eindecker, or with any early AC, was a generally difficult task. There is a reason why only a handful of the best pilots achieved enough victories to become aces. Why you received the PLM with 8 victories. To hunt down others with the Eindecker, the only real chance was to surprise them from above out of the sun. Otherwise they retreated quickly or the "dogfight" looked rather like a dogfight of very old, tired dogs. So wether the initial attack was a success, or it was often enough abandoned. The Eindecker show was already over in early 1916, so if you have an Eindecker career, and achieve let's say 3 victories in them until early 1916, then you have done your task.


Just try one thing. Start a Campaign in 1915 and fly a twoseater for several virtual months in your career. Then you transfer to a squadron flying Eindeckers, you will be surprised how roaring fast, and small and agile the eindecker suddenly appears to you. Forget what kind of AC will appear in later stages of the war.

Jump in a Eindecker at 6000ft cut its engine and let go of the stick see what happens. Then do it again this time pay attention to the direction of the wind. the nose of the airplane being the heavier point should be blow around its shortest axis so you end up with a tail wind. Tell me if this is what happens when you cut the engine.

Also I see no reason why the Eindecker would be rigged tail heavy. It would be rigged to fly level at 87mph or there about. like most WW1 airplanes unless pilots favoured a different type of rigging most would be rigged to fly level at a set speed close to its cruise speed. Also on a airplane the angle of incidence of the tail-plane is mounted at a different angle to the angle of incidence of the wings. this is called Longitudinal dihedral. This is why in a dive an airplane will begin to nose up. If the diving tactic was being used anyway then why would they rigged the plane to be tail heavy your going to be fighting that drag all flight.

I would not raise this subject if I did not think there was something seriously wrong with the Eindeckers flight model. But at the same time if it is not too much trouble would like to know how I could look into changing it myself.

A Immelmann turn a dive followed by a vertical climb followed by a roll followed by a dive. try doing this

The EI pulls to right for me, just like the EIII I flew in DiD. Haven't tried the EII yet as I want a little suprise when it arrives. For keeping the nose down I cut the throttle back for level flight.

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I agree with Creaghorn, you have to look at the Eindecker in a contemporary fashion and compare it to what came before. It can be made to serve you quite well in the early WOFF skies provided you don't try to fly it like it's a late-war dogfighter. Attack from above and use hit and run tactics.

Also, Freiherr_Wulff, I don't know where you found that book but that is NOT an Immelmann Turn. That diagram is showing a Lufbery which was a maneuver that could be used to either stay on the tail of an enemy or, provided you had a kite with a good climb rate, could be used to turn the tables on an attacker that was on your six. The historic Immelmann is this:



To the Eindecker being tail heavy, I agree. However, you can quickly trim this out in your control settings and then simply remember how many clicks it took to set it to your liking and make that adjustment before you even leave the field. Easy peasy.

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I like them.Will start a new career up again after this British one ends with the inevitable me bursting into a ball of flames.I have been injured 5 times and spent 53 days in a hospital so far.3 times to flipping my Nieuport 16 on landings though I am good enough so that the plane does not do a complete nose over so I seem to be surviving the harsh landings so far.

And I agree that using trim is needed.I like the planes so that if I wanna climb I go to 100% throttle and 83% is to cruise and maintain altitude.I then fly with my finger on the time compression buttons at all times and with just a touch of rudder to maintain heading.

Keeping your fingers away from time compression buttons will greatly enhance your experience !

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A very big +1 to that corsaire.

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time compression? Where we're going, we don't need roads

Thrust Angle



Now look at Prop Angles. (This is documented in 1917)




Louvert No one can be sure what a Immelmann Turn is but the example you gave does not contain a half roll. Half Loop - Half Roll this is description Immelmann gives himself. your image is a sliceback



Back to the issue of flight model - this book was wrote in 1917. Stability is something planes was designed too at this stage they knew a lot by time the Eindecker was designed





I think the problem is. our flight sticks being simmers have a fixed neutral. In WW1 they had to lash the flight sticks when the planes was on the ground to stop wind from blowing the control surfaces about and damaging them. So once the lashing was off there neutral would be whatever the pilot holding it was comfortable with. So on that position the airplane would have been balanced. So our neutral should be the planes balance. But yes I can set this with trim I do not mind that really.

Thrust and engine characteristic in my opinion needs altering Gnome nose down left turn, nose up right turn. suggest Thrust angle of engine in level flight eliminated the tendency to turn left. Like I said though if I knew how I would change it myself I would like to see how the Eindecker performed with it setup with facts in mind.

Gotta disagree.Auto pilot is dangerous but I find time compression is perfect by never going higher than 4X.

I place plane at cruise throttle and just a touch of rudder and the Nieuport-16 flies perfectly level and straight allowing me to concentrate on scanning fully.Some planes require some aileron etc also but when you find the sweet spot they are easy to fly straight and level.

Auto pilot and time compression