Right! New guy here. Just enlisted for 1st RNAS in march of 15.
BE2 C's you know. A fine kite. 5th mission. Mostly quiet flying but sometimes I see another harmless airplane . I even managed to down one of those pesky German recon crates. Flew in front of him and let my gunner have a go!

Sub LT. rank so I follow all the time.. Went on a recon mission at 5000 feet. I noticed that my lead was flying at close to...or even below stall speed for long stretches going to.....patrolling at....and returning from the area. Even in descent from from lines. Not all the time.....but much of the time.....so I know he was capable of faster.

Why is he flying at 45 to 50 knots? I am in perfect formation.

Also Devs......it seems that incendiary ammo is selected EVERY time as default. Is this intentional?

true about incenery rounds. regarding the leader speed on recon, it takes time to make sketches of enemy positions in that shakey crate. and you can't see enemy if you just buzz around full speed.

not sure if they had photo equipment in 1915 already, but that, i guess, would need really slow overflights as photo equipment worked only on longer exposures and you cant do that flying fast. it had to be slow steady flight or phots wouldn't show much.

however, it is all guessing

Not sure if I buy that but it is a good theory.

The real problem is he was doing it to and from the recon area as well.

mbarbaric, they were first using cameras in aeroplanes beginning in late 1911 during the Italo-Turkish War and they were used extensively throughout WWI. Also, they were far more developed, (pun intended), than you might think and provided incredibly detailed photos from considerable altitudes.

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Yes just had it happen again on the next mission. We get to altitude and instead of just setting a cruise power it seems like the leader keeps going from full throttle to 50% over and over and over again. Can anyone else confirm this?

It happens on both side of the trench. I'm flying an Alb D.1 and it's 100%, idle, 100%, idle. Not really that drastic, but we never fly, say, 75% or so, going or coming back. It's continually throttle up, throttle back. You're probably just going to have to get used to it.

Well I'll say that things will be different when I'm leader!