I've been flying Caudron G4 careers now that I feel more comfortable with how the flight model and damage model works. I've flow five sorties at 6.5 hours total and filed three claims. the aggravating thing is that the first two victims had multiple witnesses but fell in the No Man's Land or crashed in German territory. Finally, on my third attempt at combat, I managed to get a confirmed victory that fell behind French lines AND had witnesses.

the Aviatik can be very dangerous. I've found that a quick burst of machine gun fire from one of them can rip off half of the Caudron's upper wing and is an almost instant death sentence. so I've avoided using the stern gunner position to make attacks! I use the Caudron's competitive speed to stalk enemy planes in the blind spot beneath their six o'clock position. with the first two battles they lasted roughly ten minutes to fifteen minutes each.

the third victim only took about eight minutes.

now I tend to fly the machine into a good position and jump into the observer's station WITHOUT activating the auto-pilot. the auto-pilot tends to want to fly AWAY from the enemy. the auto-level flight feature tends to be too rigid, and I don't have as long to fire. it also tends to pitch sharply when setting up so I avoid it. worse, yet, it also means you're a sitting duck if that Aviatik wants to take evasive action.

Attached Images
Augustin Oemichen (First Confirmed Victory, Third Claim) .jpg