does the game actually keep track of whether or not you're in the designated area for 'observation'? or does the game simply register if you've arrived over the target and flown the required number of minutes after arriving at your specified target?

towards that end. are these missions where you simply do the following:
1. log in flight time
2. try to stay alive and uninjured?

I admit, that after doing a half dozen or so of them I've started taking up flares and seeing if I can 'bomb' targets with them on artillery spotting missions. sure, it's a bit wonky-- but at least it gives me something to focus on. if the flare actually hits something... great. if not, it's not really a big deal since it evens out with bombs being able to destroy multiple targets with a single hit. eventually, after you've expended thousands of flares and scored hundreds of target kills with dozens of bomb hits... it all sorta evens out to a more historically accurate number....

since it required hundreds, if not thousands, of bombs to actually hit something during WWI.

as for recon flights... I used to take screen snaps peering through the bomb sight and pretend I was using a camera. it was also a bit silly, but added a certain level of immersion... since I could be surprised by enemy fighters rather easily if I tried that out.

at one point I was even looking up the altitudes that aviators would have flown at so that they could meet the requirements that the photographs depict terrain features at a specific scale. but that was back a few years ago when I played it more often. I don't remember the figures, but I've got them buried in my library somewhere.

do you try to 'stay on mission' or do you wander about freely looking for trouble?

I did that while flying a Morane Parasol. I flew on over to get a closer look at a German balloon and very much regretted it! suffered a direct hit from flak that emptied out my fuel tank almost immediately. I spent the next several minutes desperately trying to glide back into friendly territory and came up three kilometers short. miraculously I was only a POW for 16 days. since my observer and I were both at 95% health or more... we both escaped back together. is that fairly typical? or is it possible for you to stay a POW and your observer to return (or vice versa)?

so... what do you guys do when you get an artillery spotting or recon mission?

I have those same questions.



Dreaming...I do essentally the same. Sometimes I 'll go off on my own two-seater missions. Imagine ....a long range recon where stealth, navigation, and surprise are factors. Maybe in a the mission you could be surprised by something unexpected like a troop column or new industrial site. You would have to take specific photos too( If we can bomb specific targets why not specific photo sites). Maybe you could decide on the route to take.. All the while using stealth and wits to avoid fighters and get your photos back safely. Mission would be rated on returning accurate photos of designated sites.
Or how about arty spotting specific map spots at low dangerous altitudes to get a definite fix, then dropping notes flares etc behind lines. Lots of interesting possibilities could be imagined to happen in a dynamic environment. I have no idea if any of this tech possible but need to dream first.

Recon and art spotting are not as romantic and broad appealing as fighters. But we all would benefit from more depth to those missions.

I put it on autopilot and read a book.

well since we the "Y" key for level flying this is what I do...

Arty spotting:
auto pilot to the area untill the aircraft then starts its 20min or so stay in area order.
I then look for the nearest friendly gun Bty ( rear of large infantry positions ) fly over it to simulate radio or light signal to Bty.
Fly over to the enemy opposite Bty, and hang around 3 min, move back over to friendly Bty to signal corrections, 3min

Do this for a total of 3 times and then your finished. Normaly the pilot would range more than one set of guns so you could move on to another area if you want etc.


Recce:
Auto pilot to starting position over the lines.
Then decide just what you want to recce. eg. The "mud" , roads, rail tracks/stations.
Use the "Y" to simulate taking your "plates" as you would be forced to fly straight to do this.
If the enemy shows up you can bug-out and return to finish.

Its up to you realy,

p.s: due to the British policy of "very offensive" patrolling, you must (if you can) take bombs and dump them on the Hun! regardles of mission

For recce, I alwayz take in screenshots of my target like this :

Nice shot. From what kind of ac? Did you get down low enough to see if there where any parked ac/ activity? Last time I did that they came up after me and ran like like mad and tried to find a cloud-didn't work though..

I was in my trusty Caudron G4.
In this cas, yes, I went low and there was no reaction
Indeed, report from the French Iar Force showed the main objective is to count the number of planes in the airfield and identify them

I fly around the area for the designated time (or longer), keeping an eye out for any activity on the ground that would be worth reporting to a gun battery. You'll often see columns of trucks, infantry positions and occasionally return fire from enemy batteries. Then I make notes of these things and compile a report after landing which gets sent to HQ and ignored by the brass. I especially like Jeanba's screenshot idea for photo reconnaissance missions. Generally I just fly a racetrack pattern to approximate holding the aircraft steady for an oblique angle shot and then maybe a direct fly over or two (or more depending on enemy interference) for overhead shots.