Custom Mission Building Series

I will be making a video series where I show how to make and edit custom missions in WOFF UE (which would also apply to any version of WOFF). I will need to speed up some parts in order to keep the videos less than 10 minutes.

BRITISH

In 1916 it was deemed appropriate that the student pilot needed at least six months of instruction before being sent to the front. As the conflict wore on this training period became shorter and shorter, as more and more pilots were needed at the front. By 1918 this training period had been reduced to 3 to 4 months. (source:theaerodrome.com)

The Gosport System (in late 1917) spelled out exactly what a pilot had to do in order to earn his wings. To graduate a pilot must have:

1. Undergone instruction at a School of Military Aeronautics.
2. Had 25 hours solo + dual combined
3. Flown a service aeroplane satisfactorily.
4. Carried out a cross-country flight of at least 60 miles successfully--during which he must have landed at two outside landing places under supervision of a R.F.C. officer.
5. Climbed to 8,000 ft. and remained there for at least 15 mins., after which he will land with his engine stopped, the aeroplane first touching the ground within a circular mark of 50 ft. in diam.
6. Made two landings in the dark, assisted by flares (only applicable to B.E. and F.E. 2 pilots; pilots of other machines may do this at discretion of Wing Commanders and Commandant C.F.S.). (source:theaerodrome.com)

Mission 1 - Earn Your Wings (Training at Farnborough)
Observe take-offs and landings
This is a simple mission where you stand and observe a few take offs and landings. In order to make this more immersive, I recommend using the J key once you spawn on the field.

There will be one plane taking off and two others in the air preparing to land. To complete this mission, you’ll need to wait until either two or all three planes land and come to a complete stop.



Missions 2 to 4 - Earn Your Wings (Training at Farnborough)
Dual-control Flights
Fly as an observer with Capt. Triggers (4 to 10 hours total flight time)
The cadet will spend time with Triggers while he performs practice turns flying circuits within sight of the aerodrome and below 1,000 ft. Then Triggers will execute figure eights, and finally learn to glide and climb.

In the final missions, Capt. Triggers will perform acrobatics - recovering from stalls, spiral dives, and loops.





In these last group of missions, the cadet will spend a total of up to 25 hours flying solo missions until they earn their wings.

Missions 5 to 7 - Earn Your Wings (Training at Farnborough)
Solo Flights
*The first mission will consist of practicing at least 10 consecutive takeoffs and landings. Fly a circuit below 1,000 feet around the aerodrome and land, then taxi back into position to take off again. Do not turn off your engine (idle) after each landing until the last one.

NOTE (Optional): For this mission and to simulate the difficulties of learning to fly, you will need to use your keyboard and TrackIR ONLY. No joystick, pedals or rudder. Once you are able to complete 10 landings, you can then return to using you normal controllers.

*Then fly a circuit below 3,000 ft. for 15 minutes within sight of the aerodrome. Do not turn off your engine. Then fly a circuit for at least 1 to 2 hours a bit further away, but still within sight of the aerodrome and below 5,000 ft.
*Finally, fly a high altitude flight at 8,000 ft. and maintain for 1 hour.




Missions 8 to 10 - Earn Your Wings (Training at Farnborough)
Solo Emergency Landing
Fly for an hour before landing somewhere other than an aerodrome. Do not turn off your engine and fly back to your aerodrome. Taxi back to your hanger.

Solo dead stick Landing
Climb to 8,000 ft. and remain there for at least 15 min., then land with engine stopped and within a circular mark of 50 ft. in diam.

Practice some acrobatics
Practice spirals, eights, stalls, and tailspins.



Missions 11 and 12 - Earn Your Wings (Training at Farnborough)
Solo Night Time Flight
Practice two night take-offs and landings. Fly in a set direction away from the aerodrome until it is out of sight (i.e. you can’t see the aerodrome lights), then return. Taxi back to your hanger.



Mission 13 - Earn Your Wings (Training at Thetford or Catterick)
NOTE (Optional):
Nearly all bombing was done in a shallow dive in order that the pilot could keep eyes on the target. The altitude of bombing attacks increased steadily as the war went on:
*6-8,000 ft (1914 to 1916)
*8-10,000 ft (Jan to April 1917)
*10-12,000 ft (May 1917 - end)

Bombing practice
Climb up to a high altitude and drop bombs inside the designated target area.

Mission 14 - Earn Your Wings (Training at Thetford or Catterick)
NOTE (Optional): Ground attacks were done from hundreds of feet to treetop level.

Gunnery practice
Fly to the designated target area and practice strafing runs at static targets.

Mission 15 - Earn Your Wings (Cross-Country Flight)
Fly from Thetford to Northolt, Northolt to Castle Bromwich, Castle Bromwich to Thetford triangle.

Mission 16 - Report to designated squad’s aerodrome or St. Omer's Pilot Pool
Receive orders. Fly across the channel to your destination aerodrome.


GERMAN

(Source: parts taken from "Training in the German Air Force, 1914-1918" from Cross & Cockade International by Hannes Tager) - Many more hours of training were required, however, it is a shortened version posted here.

Mission 1 to 5 - Earn Your Pilot Badge (Training at Koln)

Dual control and first solo Flights
*Fly turns and circuits at low altitudes (under 50 meters – 165 feet) and near the airfield. Each mission is no more than five to seven minutes in duration.
*Pilot trainee holds the stick to ‘get a feeling’ of the controls in order to learn the correct movements.
*Solo flights - Climb to higher altitudes above 50 meters. Practice as many take-offs and landings as possible

Mission 6 - Earn Your Pilot Badge (Training at Koln)

I. First examination – Pilot examination
Take-off, fly five eights in the air, then land where the instructor with the red banner is standing; take off again, fly another five eights and land like before. Finally, climb to at least 100 meters (328 feet) and glide in for a landing with the engine turned off. Not allowed to restart your engine when gliding.
Passing the examination made the student a Pilot Trainee with 1st Examination (Flugschüler mit I. Prüfung).

Mission 7 to 10 - Earn Your Pilot Badge (Training at Koln)

II. Mandatory exercises between 1st and 2nd examination
*Three landings over at least four days.
-Glide from 800m and 1000m
-Glide from 1000m where the aircraft has to stop within a 50 meter diameter circle.

Mission 11 - Earn Your Pilot Badge (Training at Koln)

III. Second examination – Field Pilot examination
After reaching a flight altitude of 2000m a half hour flight at this altitude. Glide in for a clean landing from at least 1000m altitude. The examination is only valid if no crash occurred.
Now the student is called Pilot Trainee with 2nd Examination (Flugschüler mit II. Prüfung)

Mission 12 to 17 - Earn Your Pilot Badge (Training at Koln)

IV and V. Mandatory exercises between 2nd and 3rd examination
Same as before with addition:
*Pilot with observer
*Two outside landings on different airfields
*One cross country flights of 100km with an assigned intermediate landing.
All landings had to begin gliding from an altitude of at least 500m and were only valid if no crash occurred.
*Two successful mock aerial combat flights, beginning at 2000m, and each lasting 15 minutes. Proof of success: mutual photographs.

Missions 18 to 21 - Earn Your Pilot Badge (Training at Koln)

VI. Third examination – Flight Master examination
*Pilot with Observer
*Cross country flight of 250km with an assigned intermediate landing.
*A separate altitude flight to at least 3500m; with a 30 minute stay at 3000m altitude.
*One exercise in take-off and landing at night (without observer)
*Completion of a number of flights over the enemy as determined by the Stofl (later the Kofl). Done at the Pilot's final assigned squadron.

Pilot trainee is awarded the Pilot Badge and receives the title Pilot (Flugzeugführer)


Last video in series.


NOTE: Unfortunately, I no longer will have the time to do each individual video. So, I have made an uncompressed video showing how I locate and insert any coordinate into the mission file which should cover mostly everything you'll need to get started. Then you can either use the mission editor or manually modify waypoints as you see necessary. Hopefully, I will get some time to release a MOD.

Update to planned future missions.

Credit and Thanks goes to Lou for providing this information.

Looks good OldHat,I'm looking forward to the future missions pal

Interesting

Missions 2-4 Video uploaded. Enjoy.

Missions 5-7 Video uploaded. This video shows more mission editing like adjusting lat/lon, pilot names, speed, altitude, loiter and startloop/endloop commands. YouTube description will have more mission info as well.

Nice one OldHat,ive noticed theres no sound after the initial startup on the 2nd video pal

Yes, you are correct. Actually, it is intentionally done that way. It could be either due to the time compression or that I removed the audio.

New video uploaded. I also show how to edit the pilot's log to match the mission descriptions.

OldHat;

I would like to recommend having all this invaluable training material put up on the "FAQ's and Reference" sticky page, so that it doesn't get lost.

This is great stuff and will be easier to find if you put it there.

Thanks. I agree and will wait for devs to approve and move this thread.

More edits to the pilot log to change aircraft pic and add "Cadet" after mission description. I apologize for the darkness of the video recording. I decided not to alter the brightness. This is the last mission until I can get more time to edit and record. Enjoy.

I'm trying to finish off these training missions so that I can get to the front....

A sample of an edited front mission would go something like this...

Got the info from the briefing. Solo and no observer as well. Pilot will do the shoot alone due to the weight of the transmitter. I'll remove the waypoints so that I can't use autopilot as well.



Plan it out on Lou's map and use JJJ's Mission Editor for the final touches...



Here's the finished product.

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Oldhat, I am working on getting you those practice targets at Thetford and Catterick that we talked about. I am attaching a screenshot of what could serve as the bombing practice target and I can make a slightly different version for gunnery practice by swapping in a trashed aeroplane for the burnt out manor house, (I'm thinking the backstory for that manor house can be that it caught fire and burned years before the war, perhaps by an errant lit candle left down in the wine cellar by a less-than-attentive butler or steward).

(right-click on image and open in new window to view it full size)

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As is often the case, things just don't work out the way you think they will when you start something. While in the process of putting together the bombing target for OldHat's Training Missions Series I discovered two things: The first being that the target I originally planned on using was too small, historically speaking; The second being that said target would disappear entirely once you were about 4,000' away from it in any direction. So I scrapped the whole idea and started over by building an entirely new facility that I can add into the landscape where it is needed. This has allowed me to "paint" the needed markings right onto the ground in the sim and make them the proper size for bombing at any altitude, (not just low-level diving bombing as was mainly practiced early in the war). This also keeps the markings from disappearing regardless of how far away they are so that you can now practice bombing from as high an altitude as your heart desires. I am including a few screenshots showing the new facility in the WOFF landscape near Thetford. I will next create a slightly modified version of this facility for the gunnery target that OldHat has asked to be located at Catterick.

(right-click on an image and open it in a new tab to view it full size)


Approaching Thetford from the north with the new target range off towards the east.



Flying north to line up on the target cross as per the direction arrow, the fledgling bombardier can also use the tree line as a guide if need be.



Diving down on the target in a mock bombing run.



This shot is simply to show the overall size of the target range.



Appropriate warning signs have been placed every hundred feet or so around the perimeter of the range, hopefully they will be heeded.



Later everyone!

Lou

Lou

A masterful approach you have taken. Very nice to see the details you have put in. the fencing and the warning signs really add depth to the project. Cudos!! You are never one to do things in a half assed way Sir!!

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No Sir, I am all ass. And thanks for the kudos.

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Lou, you keep outdoing yourself. How do you manage?

I will try to contain my excitement...

....actually, forget it I can't..

Super details - the warning signs and fence... as real as it gets! Thx!

A big update to the original post above.

*YouTube descriptions and additional details were added.

*German training added

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Thanks everyone, I'm glad this project is looking good to you all. I did have some time this morning to work on the gunnery range at Catterick and I am providing a few screenshots to show the progress. I will be back home tonight and hope to have some time tomorrow morning to continue on this. With any luck I can wrap these up by the weekend.


Approaching Catterick with the new gunnery range below my starboard wing.



Dropping down over the range you will notice that there are areas to practice trench strafing, diving attacks on aircraft, and low level attacks on ground objects.



Lining up on the row of empty crates and about to let loose on them. Said crates have been soaked with a bit of petrol and as I am using tracers it should become obviously when I've gotten in a fair number of hits.



Good show, eh what!





Later Gents!

Lou

The gunnery range is looking good.. You are a fast worker.

Update to German Training

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OldHat, I will be travelling now until Friday evening but I was able to make some progress this AM on the field at Koln. As I noted before, if all goes well I should be able to have these training facilities wrapped up for you this weekend.

Later All.

Lou


(right-click on image and open in new tab to view it full size)

Lookin' good...

These missions look awesome! For those of us without the necessary competence to put them together ourselves, will they be available to download at any point? Or maybe as a mod that changes the training missions automatically?

Most definitely. I just need to finish up some things first and figure out the best way to deliver it as a MOD.

If I can pull it off, then it would make WOFF the first WW1 sim to have comprehensive British/German training missions loosely based on real historical events.

This project will take longer than I had anticipated. so, this will be the final Update. Please see original post.