Nice plane, the Beau, in a chubby sort of way. I remember a story from my late dad; he was working on a Beau (post-war) with the engines running, standing under a wing. Suddenly there was a serious jet of fire back from the exhausts, unburnt fuel or whatever. His mates thought he was a goner. But when they ran over, he was standing with his head up inside the nacelle, having avoided getting frazzelled and wondering what all the fuss was about. Still, that is maybe why he ended up on ASR launches, after that
My dad was also a fitter and had a Lanc story too, Bisher. One day, when he was stationed at RAF Ballykelly, he decided to visit the NAAFI van, which was across the runway from where he was working. He had access to a bike and the coast seemed clear, so rather than going the long way around, he cycled across the runway. As he was sitting at the counter drinking his cuppa, a Lanc came in and landed. It braked to a halt opposite the NAAFI van and the navigator, sent by the pilot, got out, came over and took Dad's number. Apparently the Lanc had to abort its first approach because some bloke had cycled straight across the active runway.
'Oh, come on! What IS the point in me being up here protecting you from the Huns, if you lot go bashing your boats into one another like a bunch of dodgems in a fairground? I ask you!'
Scenes from one of the stock single missions, an air start with a flight of Hurricanes intercepting a raid headed for Manston.
This is one of two Ju88s I damaged...
...by the look of the next pic, he's the one I was afterwards credited with destroying...
...but trailing what looked like oil and glycol, it was time to go home, after that...
...'home' in this context meaning anywhere I could get down, a choice between Ramsgate and Manston itself, my engine conking out as I headed for the latter...
...I just about made it beyond the airfield boundary, and to cap it all, I couldn't get the undercart down. At least, both pilot and aircraft (after a bit of TLC) will be re-usable...
I'm not sure how it happened, but after another 'Updating Steam..' session I'm back at the start of my RAF Redux campaign. Not a massive problem since as mentioned earlier, the first couple of missions are not unrealistic and fun to (re-)play....
...although I think the inline-engine Dornier 215 was commonly used as a recce bird, and the Do17Z version available in CloD would have been a more authentic choice for the exciting low-level raid on Tangmere in mission 1. I have no idea why I (Luton 9) am being warned for firing on a friend when none were near my line of fire...none that I saw, anyway.
I got two of them and made it down afterwards, managing to land on wheels rather than radiator this time...
In the Channel convoy mission after that I had to plough up the grass at base after being damaged by this Stuka. For ages he wasn't credited as a kill despite being an obvious flamer and not shared with anyone.
Also strange was that the debrief credited me with one Stuka destroyed and another one 100% damaged. Still it was a reasonably enjoyable and not unrealistic mission, even the third or so time around.
Next RAF Redux campaign mission is the one that has me and the CO tasked to fly east to cut off some retreating Huns. Apart from # 1, about all the mission briefings are based on the wrong approach - by and large, you should just get the order to scramble, then get your tasking on the radio from the Sector Controller, on the radio. Which is near inaudible in CloD at any sound setting, so you would rely on the text display. But still, it should be possible to write a scripted campaign that produced a realistic Battle of Britain experience. This isn't quite it, being an improved version of the stock campaign, in which it is moderately successful.
Here we are taking off from Tangmere, I'm flying on autopilot, which uses flaps on take off, not generally done in Hurricanes.
Cleaned up and climbing, we make a gradual turn to the east. The Blitz landscapes are quite good but there are rather a lot of tree-rows rather than hedgerows. Note that the rectangular red doped patches over the guns are unbroken, indicating we have not yet fired them.
On autopilot, I can escape the chore of formation-keeping and yet stay close. You can't see it here of course but in turning, the CloD AI uses a lot of coarse rudder, in the Il-2 tradition. On top of that, AI formation leaders turn with much less bank than everyone else, which looks odd.
Here I am breaking off after setting on fire a single retreating Heinkel. The boss had already damaged it, but I got the credit. I missed the subsequent action due to having to RTB from return fire damage and just about made it back, missing the subsequent action - sorry, boss!
Here we are taking off, having unrealistically been briefed before takeoff, again. This time the job is to intercept an incoming sweep by aircraft unrealistically identified, well out over the Channel, as Messerschmitt 110s.
At least CloD can put a full twelve-plane squadron into the air, in realistic close formation of four sections or vics. On autopilot there is plenty of time to admire the CloD visuals, which are rather nice apart from aircraft being 'jaggy' beyond abouty 200 yards.
And the Dark Earth is a bit brown for my taste - there's a reason the RAF Temperate Day Scheme of the period was known at the time as 'sand and spinach', rather than 'soil and spinach' (or a less polite alternative).
I flew in autopilot right up until contact. The boss calls out the sighting long before I can see anything on the screen, but sticking with the others, we end up flying head on into an oncoming shower of 110s.
I was credited with destroying this one, plus another damaged. The former, and getting back to base, earned me a mission success, these being the default criteria in the Redux campaign.
The next mission has another unrealistic preflight briefing - head out over the Channel and assist 111 Squadron - another Hurricane outfit - who are in trouble with 109s. The boss doesn't bear grudges, for I'm promoted to lead a flight, in this sortie. It turns out this means a section (three aircraft) not a flight (six). Apart from 'help me', the wingman commands don't work I think, but it helps knowing there are two other aircraft who will follow you about, when they're not doing anything else.
I got this 109 and another damaged, without being hit in return. We met the mission target of saving most of 111 and me getting home. Neat damage model - note that what is likely to be glycol coolant is clearly escaping from a damaged underwing radiator on the Messerschmitt.
Here I am with one of my section, who rejoined on the way back. The R/T inaccurately has my callsign as Luton 9, when it should be Green 1 (or whatever the right colour is for the section I am now leading).
I think I haven't long to go before the awful Me110 ferry flight mission, but so far - apart from inaudible R/T, some crap radio chatter like 'I'll fly your wing', the mostly broken command menu, unrealistic preflight mission briefings, and a dearth of what should be the default Battle of Britain mission by August - a sudden scramble, after which you are vectored by the Controller on the R/T to intercept an incoming raid of at least Gruppe strength plus close escort if there is one - I'm finding this moderately enjoyable. Yes that's a lot of 'aparts' but as Sokol1 put's it, 'That's CloD!'
Nice mission 33lima. One thing that is bothering me more and more is the spinner on the CLOD Hurricane. Someone said in one of these threads that the spinner on the WOTR Hurricane is to pointy, but the more and more that I look at real Hurricane pictures the more that I think OBD has it much closer to reality in WOTR than CLOD does. CLOD's spinner is actually way to dull. Looking at your silhouette picture above really makes this glaringly obvious. I wonder if TFS has noticed this and will fix it? Don't get me wrong, your pics are awesome.
Though preservation has come along a lot, preserved aircraft are always to be treated with caution as a source, compared to contemporary photos. Some preserved Hurricanes were reportedly fitted with spinners from Constellations!
The 'pointy spinner' with a 3-blade prop is available in Blitz as well as in WotR. It represents the second type of prop fitted to Hurricanes, the De Havilland variable pitch prop. This came after the original two-blade wooden Watts fixed-pitch job. During I think it was August (1940), the DH props were converted to constant speed units, the company doing this in advance of an order from the government, with one prominent company executive doubting they would ever get paid for the work. The story is available online somewhere.
The third prop fitted to the Hurricane is the one with the bulbous spinner, the Rotol This was the first constant-speed prop fitted to Hurricanes, before the DH ones were converted. I think the CloD bulbous spinner one is actually a little undersized, if anything! This spinner was actually designed for the Spitfire, which had a bigger backplate than the Hurricane's nose. Mk I Spits with pointy spinners (and 3-blade airscrews) will have the DH prop.
Hurricanes started to get the Rotol with the spinner that was actually designed for the Hurricane about the time the Hurri Mk2 was introduced. This is the more bullet-shaped spinner seen nowadays on LF363, which is a MkIIc, despite the absence of the proper armament for that mark in BBMF service.
I believe similar spinners, but with less curve to their profile when viewed from the side) were fitted to Canadian-built Hurricanes - some of which can be seen in wartime pics with no spinners at all, just a nice, shiny prop hub (eg in Ian Allan's 'Hurricane at War' by Chaz Bowyer).
The WotR designation of 'Hurricane Mk I late' is I think an invention, rather than an accurate designation. I don't know whether its prop represents a two-speed DH, or one modified to constant speed. But in your WotR pic above, it looks like it has the distinctive blades of the Rotol prop, but with the 'pointy' spinner of a DH, which I don't think would be accurate. I think a prop with that type of blade would be a Rotol and in the BoB era, should - in general if not invariably - have the bulbous spinner seen in the CloD pics, not the pointy one. The blades actually seem to have the Rotol company emblem (the outermost one on each blade) so yes, IMHO, for a BoB MkI, the WotR Hurri should actually have the bulbous prop spinner. Or the pointy spinner but with the more slender DH/Hamilton Standard type prop blades. Not accurate, that combination of the angular Rotol blades and DH 'pointy' spinner.
Hi Peachy9, not sure what you are trying to do here. If using SimHQ uploader for a pic I think it must be under 2mb, IIRC ? If you are using a host such as Imagur, then you can just post the BBC link right in your post. Hope this helps.