Dear all,

i started a Pilot in the Jasta 5 in 2016, flying the E.III

1) Is it normal, that the Fokker E3 is so very slow in the bank controls? Is it because of the missing ailerons? Its quite difficult to change directions in a dogfight, even with intensive use of the rudder. All other aircraft feel more "normal" to me. What i have read about the E3 was that it was very maneuverable because of the winding wings. But this seems to be very heavy and slow turning behaviour.

2) Why can i join the Jasta 5 in January 1916 when it was historically found later, in August 1916?

BTW my first pilot had 5 hours flying experience and two confirmed kills. I was on a successful balloon busting tour over Verdun when i saw a convoy. Tried to strafe it, but i had the feeling im only firing plush balls. Not one of the trucks got damaged although i fired hundreds of rounds on them. But OK. Suddenly my wingman got involved with two Nieuport 11 high above me, i saw it too late. Climbing to them took a lot of time with 100 km/h speed. Then it happened...one of these french guys hit me, i was slowly bleeding out. Roughly only some hundred meters before i was on the save side on the front, my pilot passed away and crashed. So sad. This game tells really immersive stories! Love it!

I have read quite opposite - Fokker Eindeckers had very low maneuverability just because of warpable wings.

Welcome Palajan.
1) Yes. Quiet manoeuvrable in 1915 perhaps . No seriously wing warping (wires pulling on the ends of the wing and bending it) is not the answer in WW1 era aircraft for aerobatics. Keep your speed up and try the Immelman manoeuvre (the old one not the new one).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immelmann_turn#/media/File:WW1Immelmann.png keep the speed up before doing it. Don't overdo the stick movement just get the roll going then ease off.
If you are stuck in a roll, it's quicker to use rudder to slide your nose pointing down, then gain speed and pull up then you can use rudder to slide off in a different direction.

It was deadly versus a BE2c or other slow mostly unarmed or poorly armed craft with no forward gun. Not deadly versus much else.

2) I think you mean 1916 not 2016 ? They were not active until August 1916
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Jagdstaffel_5

Glad you are enjoying though!

WOFF celebrates the awkward, the poorly trimmed, quirky aircraft, underdog, you name it - welcome to WW1.

@OP, wing warping is somewhat inefficient and stiff but used longer than necessary on early Fokker aircraft (penny-pinching on materials, sticking with tried-and-true methods, etc., the Fokker factory was well-known for skimping on things until about the last year or two of the war). Also, in terms of the Eindecker series, the best one is probably the E.II, mid-production batch with the slightly shorter wingspan than the span that was then used as standard on the E.III - gives a bit more maneuverability and basically the same top speed, almost, as on the E.III.

Cheers all,
Von S

Makes you wonder how pilots like Udet, Jacobs, Berthold and others survived until better aircraft came out. Going against Nie 10's and 11's, you either had to be very good or very lucky.

Although it's listed as Jasta 5 on the drop-down, several of those Jastas originated from various KEKs and Fokkerstaffels and Jasta 5 is no different.

If you join Jasta 5 prior to it actually becoming known as Jasta 5, it shows as KEK Avillers I think it is. So on the main campaign screen you should see it showing as KEK Avillers.

It's done that way so that when the KEKs become Jastas you just carry on with the same unit.

Discretion is the better part of valour. I flew a career with the E.III and it's not they type of aircraft for people who like to charge in bald-headed. If you don't have a viable exit strategy, don't engage, especially not with the new AI who will punish you for your hubris!

From my reading most Eindecker pilots avoided turn fights because the wing-warping made banking very slow. An Eindecker pilot would gain height and loiter over the lines awaiting an Allied aeroplane to pass underneath him. Then he would dive, shoot and climb for another pounce. However few hung around if there were Nieuport Bebe's around. The it was a case of dive, shoot and keeping diving to get away.

Very few Eindecker pilots possessed the ability and skill of Wintgens, Boelcke or Immelmann.

Thanks for the information, that brings some light in it.

In the german Wiki is the sentence i mentioned.

"Durch die Verwindungssteuerung und die voll beweglichen Seiten- und Höhenruder reagierte das Flugzeug sehr sensibel auf Steuerbewegungen; ein Vorteil für den geübten Flugzeugführer, aber auch ein Risiko in der Hand unerfahrener Piloten"
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker_E.I-IV
Means: Because of the winding controls [and the full movable rudder and elevator] the aicraft reacted very sensitive which was an advantage for the good pilots [and a disadvantage for the unexperienced pilots...]

I like the look of the aircraft and is fun to fly but when it comes to dogfight it's not pretty at least for me. I almost always end up a lawndart lol. I seem to have trouble building up enough speed to do Immelman. Guess jus need more practice.

The way I see it, if it was so good to fly in dogfights, it would still be used in 1918. It may have been twitchy etc, but not necessarily manoeuvrable due to wing warping.

The way I see it, is it had a machine gun(s) firing through the prop so it didn't need to be nimble, just able to dive, shoot and zoom, repeat as necessary, on obsolete two seaters. At least at first. When the DH2 and Nieuport Bebe came along, things became a little more problematic. From what I understand, against such aircraft, it's performance was somewhat lacking. It was not a great fighter in retrospect, but at the time with its radical gun setup it swept all aside. Until the Entente kind of wised up with inventive and lateral thinking ways of shooting forward to avoid at all costs an interrupter/sychroniser mechanism! And it worked! For a while ....

Until the Albatros scout came along ....

Hiya Palajan. Welcome. As an early war German pilot, you'd be wise to just boom and zoom any Entente planes other than the observers and recons. The Bebe is a better plane than the Eindecker series. Do not turn fight.

Whatever that wiki said is wrong. It's a known fact that wing warping is the worst way to control an airfoil. Aside from the sheer force it takes to warp the wing from the design, the system is inaccurate and creates a lot of drag on the rest of the aircraft as it twists such a large mass of wing


The ONLY advantage the Eindecker series had over all else was a forward firing MG that could carry a consistant 500 rounds without changing any clips or drums. That's it. Get the gun on target, get the hell out of there. If you miss...zoom away, climb and try again. Once you see enemy fighters...dive for the trees and get home.

Once the Halberstad and Albatros series are allocated, you can turn fight and knock down almost everything they have for a little while.

Good hunting!

Interesting, thanks, i will do so.
Because i had the Wiki statement in my mind i was turnfighting all the time (with 2 kills).