I have to admit that one of my favorite treats in WOFF:UE is the incorporated flight training. And, if I'm honest, I really only send my pilots through the hassle of take off and landing runs, circuit patterns, and navigation flights to reach the holy grail at the end: free flight hours.

In those few short hops around England, you really get a chance to enjoy the "Flight Simulator" roots of WOFF, and enjoy just tacking on flight hours as you choose your own waypoints and take to the skies. In another life, I would have loved to be a pilot, and this is a great chance to see what it was like 112 years ago.

My British 1915 pilot, Edward Harriot is training for service. It's been so long since I created Harriot - and I took the "luck of the draw" approach of picking the first date and squadron WOFF wanted to throw him in, that I don't remember what, exactly, he's training to go do.

But today he reached that milestone - solo hours without his training officer. The weather wasn't great - gentle NW winds at 8 knots, but heavy snowfall and a ceiling of about 5500 feet. Lining up on the runway at Sutton Farm, I checked my controls, and fired up the engine (I'm pretty sure I may have shouted "clear!" over my headset... the joys of having an evening to myself... )

So I took off and headed out over the outskirts of London. I wanted to take in the sights (and see how WOFF is running in heavily populated terrain... not bad, btw) but realized that in bad weather, with some slight gusts, and the chance of mechanical failures, a dense urban landscape wasn't ideal.



I then turned south, and headed for the airfield just North West of Tonbridge. I spent the hour climbing, mostly trying to get above the snowfall - but to no avail. Finally realizing it was hopeless, I decided to practice my approach and landing techniques in the BE2 by doing a touch and go at Tonbridge. Turning away from the headwinds, I dropped the throttle, coasted the BE2 down from 7500 feet and set down nicely on the field.







I gave the throttle some intermittent bursts and kicked the rudder hard to turn the plane around at the end of the runway. The approach to Tonbridge is a bit tricky - I can see why we train out of Sutton Farm. Lots of elevation changes approaching the only clean side of the field, with lots of trees and obstacles around the other three sides.



Once I turned around, I hit the throttle and was back to the skies.



A while later Sutton Farm came into view. I had done the entire mission off of the briefing map only and relied on navigation and landmarks to see where I was headed - not something I attempt often. As I turned for final, I realized quickly that in the bad weather, I had missed my turn for Sutton and was descending towards a cow pasture!

A quick correction on the throttle and I was back up again, performed another pass over the field to verify my landing approach and a few minutes later I was back down again - home sweet home.

As the engine cut and ticked itself cool, I could hear the sound of birds chirping in the distance, and a gramophone playing. I could almost smell the coffee that would be waiting for me.

What a fantastic sim!!

Captain Sopwith, I couldn't agree more. I really enjoy the training missions once you get past the first few stages. In my dreams, I see a future expansion with Shorthorns and Avros, and an expanded training phase. We might be the only persons interested, of course, but...

.

No Raine, you and Soppy are not the only persons who long for such, my name is on that list as well. And a wonderful write-up CaptSopwith.

Im with you guys,i always do my training 1st with every career pilot i choose.
Great report and shots Captain

Excellent thoughts CaptSopwith!

I enjoy the free flight aspect of training as well. Many years ago, I had the good fortune of studying (in real life of course ) at the University of York for a term, and even though the stock maps do not list the city of York in the game, I was curious to see if it was there and schemed to use free flight to find out...

...so, getting out a map of England from, of all things, my grandparents old set of World Book Encyclopedias circa 1959 that I rescued from abandonment (I have a much better Harmsworth Universal Atlas circa 1911, but that one is tucked away) and finding the Humber and the River Ouse and comparing the in game depiction with what is on the paper map, I plotted a course to see if York was there...

Sure enough it is! I was a bit disappointed the York Minster was not represented in game (hey, we can't have everything lol), but it appears not only is York there, but also Heslington, a smallish village just to the southeast (and also where much of the University campus is located today)...all of my WOFF:UE British characters are based from Heslington. A note: I barely made it up to York and back to Sutton's farm...with a full load of fuel, I had about 4% left upon arriving, and I admit I used auto-level flight in an attempt to save on petrol.

Regards,

Jeff

Superb description Sir! You have captured the heart and soul of WOFF with your words.

Thanks guys - glad you liked the post!

@Raine I was thinking the same thing last night. I like the BE2 but it would be great if they mixed it up a bit - used a Caudron G4 or a worn down Parasol, or have the British use a beaten up old Sopwith Strutter, just to mix it up. The wish list for this thing is endless!

@Jeff that's fantastic. I'm amazed at how well modeled the world is - that even obscure locations for a WWI combat flight sim are modeled there. How long was your flight time?

Hmm, unfortunately I deleted my pics of the log (that pilot died during a crash landing), however, I still have the written log. On my first solo flight, I flew to the Wales border (near Chepstow), and the second was to York. I had just over 4 hours of flight time before the two solos, and then nearly 15 after. My recollection is that the flight to York and back was something like 5 1/2 or 6 hours (which is about twice the endurance listed on the wikipedia page specs for the b.e.2c), and I remember the flight to Wales was not quite as long.

Regards,

Jeff

I also like the training but Triggers is an unreliable and dangerous man to fly with, he likes clobbering trees on final approach. (Ok, it only happened to me once so far but once bitten, twice shy)

As a flight sim, WOFF can't be beat.

A few weeks ago I picked up XPlane11 figuring: "Well, let's see what modern planes feel like. Let's see what wonders exist when you aren't saddled with the CFS3 engine."

Feh. The graphics were pathetic, and the flight models...well, I admit I don't have enough experience to have much of an opinion, but in WOFF I feel like I'm dancing with the wind and the air. In XPlane I feel like I'm on rails.....and I'm not talking jets that can laugh at wind. I'm talking Cessnas.

The final straw was when I took the 'Space Shuttle' in for a landing. Lost sight of the runway, so I figured 'Meh' and headed for an open field. I went THROUGH 3 buildings and a dozen or so 2D trees - no damage to anyone. No collision detection at all. This is a modern sim? Feh.

Triggers can teach me to fly properly any day.

CK, maybe the Space Shuttle can laugh at buildings and trees, just like the jets laugh at the wind?

I agree , WOFF cant be beat as a flight sim.