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#4560768 - 03/20/21 11:01 PM Jasta 11, RoF #2  
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
33lima Offline
Senior Member
33lima  Offline
Senior Member

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Posts: 2,712
Belfast, NI
5th July, Phalemphin. I'm flying number four in a five-Albatros patrol, west to the lines then south along the enemy side, back up north over our side of the lines, then home.

[Linked Image]

I would normally have changed the mission roster in PWCG so I was leading but rather than re-learning the formation leader commends, I decided just to put up with a spot of the dreaded formation flying. Mine is awful.

[Linked Image]

The patrol looked like being a washout. Until, on the leg flying south down the enemy side of the lines, the leader suddenly dropped away, with the rest of us following. what he was interested in, I could not see.

[Linked Image]

In fact, it was all I could do to keep up. Having recently re-read Udet's accounts of fluttering albatross wings in one of the Osprey Albatros Aces volumes, I was more concerned with keeping my wings on, than with keeping up.

[Linked Image]

There it is! A large enemy machine, a two-seater no doubt, already under attack by an Albatros, our leader's most likely.

[Linked Image]

It's a bombed-up FE2! Or a Vickers, as we Germans know them. The pilot holds a steady course. Presumably, he's keen not to pitch his gunner out into space.

[Linked Image]

I weave above the action, waiting my turn should it be necessary and covering the others.

[Linked Image]

Looks like my turn has arrived.

[Linked Image]

Down I go, aiming to come up from behind and below.

[Linked Image]

The attack goes badly. My excuse is trying to take screenshots while flying, without pausing the action.

[Linked Image]

One of the others has another go...

[Linked Image]

...then it's my turn again.

[Linked Image]

As you can see, another thing I'm hopeless at, besides formation-keeping, is making decent attacks from behind and below. I invariably seem to end up quickly in this position, dead astern. Fortunately I seem to do some damage while somehow avoiding serious hits. This is where my erratic flying helps.

[Linked Image]

There he goes! But no! He recovers and it's back for some more conveyor belt attacks from astern.

[Linked Image]

Finally, riddled with holes, he spirals down. That's my last view of him, just before he piles vertically into the trees.

[Linked Image]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who hit him but I'll be claiming him when we get home. But first, there's a patrol to finish.

...to be continued!

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Last edited by 33lima; 03/20/21 11:11 PM.

SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread
CombatAce Mission Reports
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (attributed to Marcus Aurelius)

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#4560830 - 03/21/21 01:56 PM Re: Jasta 11, RoF #2 [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,707
Rick_Rawlings Online content
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Rick_Rawlings  Online Content
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Posts: 3,707
Originally Posted by 33lima


I would normally have changed the mission roster in PWCG so I was leading but rather than re-learning the formation leader commends, I decided just to put up with a spot of the dreaded formation flying. Mine is awful.



Heh, this has been my long-standing take on formation flying:

[Linked Image]

Originally Posted by 33lima


As you can see, another thing I'm hopeless at, besides formation-keeping, is making decent attacks from behind and below. I invariably seem to end up quickly in this position, dead astern. Fortunately I seem to do some damage while somehow avoiding serious hits. This is where my erratic flying helps.



Again, not just you... personally, I blame the weird effect of having the pivot point being your eyes in the game and not your neck in real life which gives a weird kind of reverse parallax. Sounds scientific at least!
Great report as always!


Attached Files Suck.jpg
Last edited by Rick_Rawlings; 03/21/21 01:57 PM.

The older I get, the more I realize I don't need to be Han, Luke or Leia. I'm just happy to be rebel scum...
#4560832 - 03/21/21 02:17 PM Re: Jasta 11, RoF #2 [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 8,213
Trooper117 Offline
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Trooper117  Offline
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Posts: 8,213
UK
Good stuff!

#4560861 - 03/21/21 07:09 PM Re: Jasta 11, RoF #2 [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 173
WolverineFW Offline
Member
WolverineFW  Offline
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Posts: 173
Can you shoot the gunner and take him out? I would have been aiming there first.

#4560862 - 03/21/21 07:14 PM Re: Jasta 11, RoF #2 [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
33lima Offline
Senior Member
33lima  Offline
Senior Member

Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
Belfast, NI
Thanks guys and good to know my skillset gaps are not unique! As for taking out enemy gunners, read on...!

Climbing back up, I see that I'm being shot at from the ground.

[Linked Image]

I look around for the others as I spiral upwards. That looks like them, over there. Albatrosses, definitely. Are they resuming the patrol? Or going after something else?

[Linked Image]

The ground gunners aren't giving up on me yet. And there's some shelling down on the ground, too. I'd forgotten how impressive Rise of Flight's aircraft and scenery could look.

[Linked Image]

Sight-seeing costs me sight of the other aircraft and I can't pick them up again. What I do notice is a solitary aircraft at about the same level, over our side of the lines. Our flak people are shooting at him so that rather settles the issue of his nationality.

[Linked Image]

It's an RE8! These machines seem to have largely replaced the ubiquitous BE2s at the front by about mid-1917 so I find this is the best time for a realistic campaign, notwithstanding the availability of the Strutter and FE. Anyway, in we go, the 'behind and below' attack ending as usual in a shoot-ot from close and dead astern.

[Linked Image]

I don't get him on the first pass and he doesn't get me either. I seem to be in greater danger from our own flak.

[Linked Image]

After my next attack, the RE8's pilot seems to decide that he's given his observer enough of a chance and that it's not time to throw his aircraft about like a fighter. I make several passes, plagued by stoppages in one or the other of my guns. Finally I see the observer drop hisLewis Gun and slump forward I his seat.

[Linked Image]

The enemy is now at my mercy and I waste no time I letting him have it, relieved of the fear of anything coming back in return.

[Linked Image]

Suddenly, flames appear in the two-seater's fuselage. Next second, his upper wing breaks away!

[Linked Image]

No doubt about that one! I'm not sure if disconnected wings are really a collision risk I Ro, but I manage to avoid them.

[Linked Image]

I'm now on my own again on my own side of the lines, quite low down and as it happens, close to my base at Phalempin. I've used up quite a lot of ammo, taken at least one or two hits and can feel a slight wobble in my aircraft.

[Linked Image]

Yes, I think honour has been satisfied and it'll be best if I went home! Phalempin is just up ahead near that big U-bend in the river, so it won't be long till I'm safely back on terra firma.

[Linked Image]

A final check astern reveals no sign of friend or foes in the air.

[Linked Image]

Out of curiousity, I use the next aircraft views to see who else is in the air. My flight is there, and another one of D.Vs, plus a couple of Halberstadt CL.IIs.

[Linked Image]

What I didn't do was pause the action before doing this. On returning to my cockpit, I find I'm in a near-vertical earthwards spiral, at a few hundred feet. I realise I'm not going to be able to pull out when I recognise the solid objects flying over my head and disappearing astern my my wings.

My saviour is Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator. RoF itself records my demise, but PWCG controls my campaign and for whatever reason, I had it set so that serious injury was the worst outcome. So I get to file my two claims and hopefully, fight another day!

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Last edited by 33lima; 03/21/21 07:21 PM.

SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread
CombatAce Mission Reports
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (attributed to Marcus Aurelius)

#4560874 - 03/21/21 10:01 PM Re: Jasta 11, RoF #2 [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 936
VonS Offline
WWI Flight Sims on a Mac
VonS  Offline
WWI Flight Sims on a Mac
Member

Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 936
Another handsome report and screenies Lima. RoF has definitely aged well in the visual dept. I have to test my PWCG "modulator" files further these days, so that I can release them, and will also revisit the AI-mod patch one more time in case any further tweaks are needed on that one too (although from what I can see in your pics. there don't seem to be too many low-in-the-weeds, twisting dogfights anymore - which is very good).

Cheers all,
Von S smile2

P.S. Disconnected wings are a collision risk in RoF (also in WOFF and FE2 but it really packs a punch in RoF).

Last edited by VonS; 03/21/21 10:03 PM. Reason: Added info.

~ For my various FM/AI/FPS/DM Mods. for First Eagles 2, WoFF, RoF & WoTR, and tips for FlightGear, recommended is to check over my CombatAce profile (https://combatace.com/profile/86760-vons/) and to click on the "About Me" tab while there. ~

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