^JEEZE!:k_confused: ANYONE GAZING THRU THOSE AT CORDITE SMOKE, MUSTARD GAShttps://i.pinimg.com/474x/89/61/26/8...hotography.jpg AND GENERAL FOG-OF-WARhttps://i.pinimg.com/474x/c0/ef/da/c...ld-war-one.jpg WOULD TEND TO BE A LITTLE 'OVER THE TOP' AT THAT https://i.pinimg.com/474x/bf/60/96/b...9163342776.jpg

What an amazing thing to have in your collection! That's a thing of beauty.

28 March 1915

Verdun is suffering under another rainstorm, but Flanders is quite active.

Gonneham
Corrigan Aujla writes: "0903: Lt Christensen and I supported Lt Cruikshank on a Photo mission over the trenches near Lens. 1 hour 21 minutes."

Saint-Pol-Sur-Mer
Filimor Hance writes: "0906: Defensive Patrol with Sgt Desramée over our airfield at Droglandt. 1 hour 30 minutes. Garros went on his own special mission – an Offensive Patrol looking for Germans to attack with his new gun system. He returned, like us, having seen nothing.

Saint-Omer
Dugan Vystavel writes: "1024: Scouting misson with Lt Lehman. 1 hour 44 minutes."

Bertincourt
Lennart Altendorf writes: "1102: Photography mission, Vfw Leffers supporting. 1 hour 29 minutes."

29 March 1915

Saint Omer
Dugan Vystavel writes: "0809: Supported Lt Ellis on an Artillery Spotting mission over the trenches near Lens. 2 hours 21 minutes."

Saint-Pol-Sur-Mer
Filimor Hance writes: "0903: Offensive patrol over the lines near Niewpoort, Lt Coupet leading. 1 hour 22 minutes."

Gonneham
Corrigan Aujla writes: "0925: Scouting mission over Haubourdin again, with Sgt Alford supporting. 1 hour 32 minutes."

Bertincourt
Lennart Altendorf writes: "1101: Scouting mission over Allied positions west of Arras. Vfw Leffers supporting. While crossing the lines engine quit. Was able to glide several kilometres back into our own lines. Made safe landing about 1 km from an observation balloon. Used their telephone to call base. Vfw Leffers was able to complete the mission. 1 hour 14 minutes."
Garros went off on his own again. Returned with nothing to report.

Senard, Verdun
Noel Kay writes: "1132: Misty weather. Scouting suspected troop buildup in the woods around Buzancy. Didn’t see anything. 1 hour 19 minutes."

Pontfaverger
Odis Först writes: "1552: Misty day. Scouting mission, further west than usual, over the trenches near Pinon. 1 hour 55 minutes."

30 March 1015

Another storm sweeps across the Front during the night. Everyone is grounded again as heavy rains turn everything to mud.

Getting better. My second patrol saw combat I survived somehow but ended in another muffed landing while I struggled for a better view.

The third patrol saw no combat and crappy weather. I almost have a handle on staying in formation but it's difficult to keep an eye out for enemy patrols at the same time. I made a proper landing for once.

Sorry to say that I cheat a lot. I programmed both Autopilot functions into my Joystick and until I absolutely need to fly the plane I let the AI Pilot do the hard part while I look around. Of course my current date is April 1915 so the chance of running into an enemy plane is very low, and running into one that is armed is practically zero.


As for landings, well...I've figured out how to reinstall careers when the game kills me for its own reasons, such as the Stick going wonkers, but I did lose the one pilot I left dead when I was so worried about hitting the hedge at Chocques that I didn't see the tree ahead until it was far too late. I deserved to lose that one. :dead:

I knew there would be an autopilot but I wanted to see what it was like not using it at first. I ran the next two missions on autopilot and even let the AI fight to see what it did. I still survived but the last mission it tried to land in no mans land so I took over. It must have been the MCAS system. :shucks:
I also wanted to see how it handled formation flying.

I'm flying a Bristol Scout in Flanders and I have no idea how to aim that canted MG well. Yes, F6 gives you a sight view but it's still strange so I should set up a quick combat scenario to practice.

Nice sky.

I've made a scenario for the Bristol Scout fighting a Fokker EIII and based on that I made a couple of changes to my control mapping to help keep situational awareness in combat. That's helped a lot although I still get messed up often enough. Back to the career.

I now wonder if I'm missing something. The mission I just flew, as a rookie pilot, was a ground attack mission on a railway yard. There was no load out of bombs and when we attacked nobody shot at anything despite several attack runs! Am I, the lowest man on the totem pole, expected to determine the flight's load out? Confused.

What are you launching the mission from? Campaign? Quick Combat? Quick Scenario? I've never used the last one, so I can't help there, but when the Campaign assigns you a mission it does the loadout automatically. On the other hand every bombing mission it's given me so far has been level bombing from 8,000 feet. Then again this is in a BE.2 in early 1915, so I can't say what comes later.

31 March 1915

Pontfaverger
Odis Först writes: "0850: Followed Ltns Boelcke and Müller on a scouting flight down to Commercy. 2 hours 7 minutes."

Saint-Omer
Dugan Vystavel writes: "0901: Photo-Reconnaissance mission over trenches near Lens. Lt Aldaine supporting 2 hours 21 minutes."

Bertincourt
Lennart Altendorf writes: "0901: Photo mission over the trenches south of Bapaume. 1 hour 47 minutes."

Saint-Pol-Sur-Mer
Filimor Hance writes: "1001: Offensive patrol over the lines near Niewpoort again. This time I was alone. 1 hour 44 minutes. Garros went out alone again. Says he encountered no enemy aircraft."

Gonneham
Corrigan Aujla writes: "1218: Lt Cruikshank, Lt Harvey-Kelly and I were sent to that same observation balloon. We saw it. 1 hour 29 minutes."

Senard
Noel Kay writes: "1621: Sent back to Buzancy again. Heavy overcast. Had to drop to 1,000 metres, but nothing to see. 1 hour 8 minutes."

It was a campaign mission. I've done six and mostly they are front patrols so I was surprised and let the AI handle it to see what happened. I also find it odd that even with an observation balloon pretty much in your way, it's not attacked. I attacked one anyway on that mission but had a gun jam and couldn't kill it.

That's very odd. As I said, so far the Campaign missions have armed my plane automatically. I would ask on the SimHQ WOFF forums. The people who know everything hang out there.

1 April 1915

Pontfaverger
Odis Först writes: "0557: Short solo scouting mission over Somme-Vesle. 1 hour 28 minutes."

Senard
Noel Kay writes: "0644: Photo mission over Sedan. Beautiful clear sky. 1 hour 41 minutes."

Gonneham
Corrigan Aujla writes: "0821: Went with Lt Harvey-Kelly to bomb a railyard north of Vitry. 1 hour 29 minutes."

Saint-Omer
Dugan Vystavel writes: "0923: Supported Lt Lehman on an Artillery-Spotting mission southwest of Neuve-Chapelle. 2 hours 6 minutes."

Bertincourt
Lennart Altendorf writes: "1003: Bombing mission on a factory near Arras. Vfw Leffers as second. 1 hour 47 minutes."

Saint-Pol-Sur-Mer
Filimor Hanse writes: "1104: Offensive patrol over the lines, this time near Paaschendale. 1 hour 21 minutes.
Garros has done it! He returned from his solo flight claiming to have shot down a German Albatros machine! There is no confirmation as of yet, but his forward gun has been fired several times. If someone saw it, this will be the first time such a feat has been accomplished! All of us are clamoring to fly with him the next time so we can provide affirmation when he does it again. Of course the truth is that we just want to see it happen for ourselves. We also want to have one of these gun fixtures for our own machines."

I think apparently I am supposed to control the load out which you can do by selecting the lower right sector from the briefing room. I'll check that out next time the mission load out looks wrong.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...921/DyaRFO.png

I discovered the tactical map which will give me all I need to know when leading a flight as well as other modes. It's the lower right clock looking gizmo.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...921/jcoToU.png

I also changed the labels so it also shows the ground installations and helps me get oriented and I learned how to select what is displayed in the HUD.

Another thing was I mapped the "move eyesight" keystrokes to the joystick so I can now lean out to the left, or right, and look ahead with a clearer view.

I'm finally getting to a point where I feel in control of what will be happening.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...924/JUZXsE.png

As I said, I always get my bombs loaded automatically. I'm not sure what we're doing that's different, but I'll look for that button on my next bombing mission.

I stumbled on the Tactical Map some time ago, but I never used it and have forgotten what to do with it. I'll try to remember to check that out later. Right now all my pilots are in two-seaters, mostly fly recon missions and are usually second to higher-ranking officers.

Good job. The Label tags are Identify, which is the one that shows everything in sight, including ground objects, Dots, which shows nothing except aircraft, and then only as dots in the distance, and Activity, which also shows nothing but aircraft, but you can see them at a great distance (far beyond real visual range) and it tell you what they are up to.

As for the HUD, I see that yours are overlapping. You can use the mouse to drag them further apart, or to place them anywhere on the screen.

That's one I hadn't though of. I have a head-tracking device, but I still haven't gotten it to work properly. On the other hand my joystick is maxed out. No buttons left to spare.

Cool! That's always a good feeling.

2 April 1915

Gonneham
Corrigan Aujla writes: "0501: Bombing mission against a railyard north of Lens, with Major Salmond and Lt Cruikshank. Had barely reached altitude when my engine failed. Managed to land just west of the aerodrome at Merville. 33 minutes.."

Saint-Omer
Dugan Vystavel writes: "0530: Trench-mapping mission with Lt Buck near Neuve-Chapelle. 2 hours 13 minutes."

Senard
Noel Kay writes: "Our new Commander arrived yesterday, Capitaine Louis Mazier.
0841: Scouting mission over the lines from Reims down to Sillery. Heavy overcast. 1 hour 56 minutes."

Bertincourt
Lennart Altendorf writes: "1102: Scouting mission over the trenches. Took a Flak hit. Both of us scratched and the engine knocked out. Made it halfway back to Bertincourt and landed near an observation balloon. 37 minutes."

Saint-Pol-Sur-Mer
Filimor Hanse writes: "1108: Defensive patrol over our airfield at Coudekerque, with Adj Coupet. 1 hour 4 minutes."

Garros has gone off alone again. He says he prefers it that way, and wishes the rest of us would stop badgering him. Well, despite his low rank he is rich, popular and famous as the first man to fly across the Mediterranean Sea, so he pretty much gets what he wants. Some confirmation of his victory has come through in the form of some farmers who say they saw the fight from the ground."

Pontfaverger
Odis Först writes: "1505: Scouting mission over the lines near Varennes-en-Argonne, with Ltns Boelcke and Müller. Engine failed on approach and we hit some trees. Both Hptm Straub and I are in the hospital for an indeterminate amount of time. Some serious cuts and bruises but nothing broken on either of us. 1 hour 32 minutes."

Killed my pilot tonight clipping a tree while strafing a German airfield so starting a new pilot in a Nieuport 10C1.

The last flight for Danny McNears he led and I did not have any load out options so that settles the load out question.

3 April 1915

Saint-Omer
Dugan Vystavel writes: "0602: Lt Ellis and I are assigned to scout an enemy balloon. 2 hours 6 minutes.
1509: Lt Ellis and I flew a second mission, this time scouting the enemy aerodrome at Hambourdin. 2 hours."

Bertincourt
Lennart Altendorf writes: "1001: Showed a new pilot, Vfw Fricke, around the area. Took him from our base at Bertincourt north to Monchy-le-Preux, then up to our airfield at Phalempin, southeast to Douai then home again. 3 hours 1 minute.

Saint-Pol-Sur-Mer
Filimor Hanse writes: "1117: Offensive patrol over the lines near Niewpoort. Traveling alone again. Saw nothing. 1 hour 20 minutes."

Senard
Noel Kay writes: "1156: Sent north to scout Buzancy again. Propeller failed along the way. Made it back to Senard safely. 28 minutes."

Gonneham
Corrigan Aujla writes: "Rain squall moving through. No flying today."

Pontfaverger
Odis Först writes: "Ltn Boelcke came to visit us today with some sad news. His older brother, our beloved Hptm Wilhelm Boelcke, has been transferred to a new unit. Hptm Straub and I will have to miss the party."