I'm still flying. Had much going on in the real world, a windows loading issue with my rig, and a new Grandson born on the first day of winter.

Dolf went out for a flight a few days ago. His wingman is back from leave so now there are two Pfalz EIIIs in the air to protect the rest of the squad which is flying Aviatik BIIs and CIs. Think I'll take Dolf out for a flight now after advancing some time to current date. Seems like those BIIs ought to phased out now.

Journal Entry: December 26, 1915
St. Pol-sur-Mer

I haven't flown for 10 days and it's been great. I returned from a five day leave on the 21st and it's rained ever since. It has rained nonstop for the last five days and St. Pol is a morass. It will probably take a week for everything to dry out. This is beautiful country in spite of the rain, but when it does rain, it isn't fit for man or beast.

My five day leave couldn't have come at a better time, I went home and was able to celebrate Christmas with my family. It was a lovely time of just relaxing with my family, eating good food, and generally just lazing around. Of course, everyone wants to know about the war and I tried to relate only the humorous and positive happenings, no sense in burdening everyone with the reality of what is really going on. I found the common man's reaction to both of my VCs to be rather humorous as well, I hadn't realized that I was now royalty. I'm enjoying this respite, but I understand that it won't be long until the killing begins again and I'll be called back to do what apparently I do rather well, shoot down Huns.

Here is the latest status report.

Thanks Banjoman

Okay, my new Guy is Berthold Bruchlandung. Nomen est Omen, his very first Transfer Flight from Cologne to the Front ended with a major Engine Malfunction in the Proximity of St. Quentin. The 2nd did not even start, because WOFF spawned the Planes below Ground (all Crafts written off, all Pilots okay).
Nevertheless, I absolved the Training Flights in an Avi C... and now I am allowed to "use up" Berthold's old E1 for the following Misions :-)
Enlistment in the DID-Board will follow soon...

Haha, I don't know who has worse luck, you or Carrick.

Thanks for the Chet Banjoman.

Today my squad was renamed from MS57 to N57. With that came the new emblem:



I decided to add it to my otherwise plain plane. Hopefully it doesn't look too much like a bull's eye.

That looks good. The French had such cool markings for their Escadrilles.

Agreed. I especially like their Egyptian motives.
Storks ... not so much.

Dec. 29, 1915

Seems the new emblem on Achille Renard's mount is a magnet for Eindekkers. He and his wingman were on a routine escort mission when 2 E.III's came sniffing around. Achille's wingman took care of his pretty quickly, while Achille himself was toying with his prey, savoring it, letting him think he can run away (not really - he could barely get behind the Fokker and aim properly until they run out of altitude.)



Even then he barely escaped from crashing into the trees, but finally he got a lucky burst. The Fokker started burning and crashed into the ground. It happened so quickly there was no time to take a picture.



Achille looked around for his wingman, but couldn't locate him. He assumed he already went home, but noticed a few dots above the nearby Douai aerodrome. He contemplated going there and taking a few shots at the unsuspecting Huns concentrating on landing. He didn't have much ammo left - he didn't have much ammo to begin with. Then he noticed that the dots weren't really circling the 'drome. It was another dogfight and most likely this is where he would find his wingman. Achille pointed his plane towards Douai. It didn't take long to get there, as his wingman was already in full retreat flying to the closest friendly field, followed closely by a German. The enemy pilot was concentrating so intently on catching up to Achille's wingman that he totally missed another Nieuport fly right behind him and empty the rest of his ammo into his back. He started smoking and went down in slow circles. Achille and his wingman made it back home safely.

Nice little dust up Fullofit!

To anyone who cares to chime in. Is scoring optional? Adelwolf has been promoted but I have completely lost track of his score. Surviving is my score but will try to reconstruct it if mandatory.

Scoring isn't mandatory and I've wondered if I should just drop it. I think when we started we wanted some way to measure how well everyone was doing in relation to each other. If the rest of the group wants me to eliminate the score from the Status Reports I'll do that or we can keep going as is and you can just pickup where you left off.

Thanks Banjoman, I will be flying this campaign more now that Adalwolf has more than engine fires and Archie to worry about. Lots of fun!

Happy New Years!

ahhhhh...all those report forms I've filled in!

either way...just staying alive seems to count the most. But then we already have Olhams DID. If we only had online play.
Perhaps a different way of score keeping is needed. As it is I fill out my homemade logbook after each flight or things get messy come wedensday.

Maybe:

Missions flown = 1pt
Hours flown = 1pt per full hour
Claims total = 1pt (wether confirmed or not)
victories conf. = 2pts (as per the rule 1 claim for every 3 victories in a single mission)

Promotion = 10pts per level.

n.b. perhaps a new rule...when you make Captain (or what ever in other nations) then you have to transfer to be a flight commander some where else.

Nice idea. Sure would make scoring easy.

Lederhosen, I like your scoring idea. There aren't many of us flying this campaign so I say that we switch over to your scoring from now on. As far as the transfer idea goes, that is what I'm going to do anyway as soon as another RNAS unit gets created.

lederhosen, That score system looks way easier! I was often scratching my head on whether the mission was a success with the current system.

So Banjoman, do we switch to the new system today when we send in scores/fill out report forms?

Everybody start using Lederhosen's scoring system today when you fill out your reports.

Adalwolf Becker has been promoted to Lt.! He just brought down his first plane. Waiting confirmation.