What if the pilot is recovering from a hangover from last nights party at the officers mess..?

;-)

And what about the pilot modeling..?

When an admin/moderator says pilot 'modeling', he may be actually thinking at other things

Like this? http://buybronzeplaques.com/Plaque_Faces_and_Emblems_282.html

Back on topic...the Halb D.II will be a nice fit for 1916 missions, for sure.

well no, the issue is probably more complicated and I don't really have an answer. The facts and the problems/issues as I see them:

1. According to tests, a perfect 130 hp Clerget Camel could reach 113 mph as in the game. An Alb D.Va is either at 109 or 116 mph.

2. According to field tests conducted at St-Omer, some production Camels matched the tests results, some did not. Although it is not clear whether this is caused by normal variations in WW1 aircraft or by production quality issues.

3. British license built Clerget engines were supposed to be of poorer quality than the french built models (more on that below), but according to production records, of the 1500 or so Clerget engines the RFC accepted in 1917, 879 (58%) came from France.

4. According to some sources, most of the quality issues with the Clergets built by Gwynnes, the main British supplier, had been resolved by the end of 1916.

5. The issue with the Clergets appears to be more of a design issue, the piston ("obdurator") rings wore out prematurely, sometimes failing completely in as little as 15 hours. As they wore down, it would cause a loss of compression/power in the engine. However, the Clerget was a very simple design and a complete stripping/overhaul of the engine could be done at the squadron level in as little as half a day. The RNAS, which had a very strict maintenance schedule, do not appear to have had the same issue with their Clergets in the Triplane which suggests there may have been a maintenance issue with the RFC squadrons.

6. Even if some Camels had performance issues, this may be more of an operational rather than a tactical issue. As in all Air Forces, the best pilots would get the best planes and poor performing planes would either be left behind or abort back to base, so the planes the Germans fought would usually be the best condition Camels.

So the situation is not entirely clear.

The bigger point however is what would be the appropriate solution?

I think we can all agree that the current situation where 100% of Camels are faster than 100% of the Alb D.Vs 100% of the time is not ideal. However, I dont think making 100% of the Alb D.Vs faster than 100% of the Camels 100% of the time is the solution either. An ideal solution would be if performance was variable within a certain defined range to take into account production variations/maintenance issues so that when a Camel matched up with a Alb D.V, neither pilot would know which is faster...

...it would certainly make online dogfights more interesting.

I accept what youre saying, but can't remember reading a single quote where a Camel pilot suggests they could catch any of the common Central scouts, the DR1 being the exception of course.

So once we have a channel map do they make a Spitfire IX and FW-190 for rhubarb missions?

and how many biographies of Camel pilots did you read?