homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Battle of Britain + Battle of Britain II Here's what happened (Continued)

Folks,

Dux:

Your friendly e-mail dropped soundlessly into my rusty mailbox this morning without loosening much more than a fine, red dust. Never seen a skunk in the wild you say? Those who have never experienced, shall I say it, a full blown skunk attack, need not feel especially deprived.

Your kind wishes have been passed on to the birthday girl who received them with a a twinkle in her eye and a great smile. April 15th being the only date in the year that any mention of her birth date or age is thus received, I'd say that her smile on April 16th is a measure of the high esteem in which you are held in this household.

There are so many historic places to visit in the UK. You could probably take a garden spade and go out by the old 3-holer and dig down a mere 12 inches and find several museum quality relics yourself. I envy you the closeness of so many interesting sites.

Of course there is much to be seen right here around Lizard Lick. The new traffic light went up last Friday and there is still a large crowd standing about watching the thing change color. I understand the barbershop had to close early Friday as everyone walked the two blocks south to see the big lighting ceremony.....

OK, to be honest (for a change), I do live quite close to Jamestown, Yorktown, Williamsburg and many historic battlefields of our un-Civil War. We are also within a few hours driving distance of Kittyhawk.

Folks,

For some reason this thing refuses to remember my name and password even though I check the box for it to do so??? Perhaps someone is trying to tell me something? Most likely the problem is in my cookies settings somewhere.

OK, good news... for me at least. Thanks to a very, very good pal of mine, I now have a better video card installed in this box. We installed that this afternoon with no problems... well none after we finally realized that Dell computers do not have screws holding the box together.

With 128 MB instead of just 64 MB of ram on board I expect to be able to run BoB 2. It should run at least with most of the nicest features reduced. If that fails I'll reload BoB 1 with the last BDG patch and run that wide open. I must have BoB running and available somewhere.

Folks,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

We begin our ninth year today here at HWH. Thank you SNAFU for starting this thread where ever you may be. SNAFU is missing but presumed living comfortably somewhere in the wilds of darkest Maryland.

A big thank you also to all those hundreds from across the globe who have posted or read here over these many years. Special thanks to my very good friends Old Dux, C51 and the incomparable Jens. You have all changed my life.... and, I must admit, mostly for the better.

I have opened a rare aged bottle of Ch�teau Thames Embankment Vin last month for this most salubrious of occasions. Thank you for unknowingly donating it Dux. Raise your glasses gentlemen... you can raise your bucket too Dux. Friends, here's to another 8 years!

A happy birthday Thread and many happy returns. And thanks to my good pal for reminding me (once more) of this special date.

This means we shall have to be here to also celebrate the first decade, so use that Chateau sparingly, as it will have to last.

Folks,

MG:

Yes, we must all be here when the cork pops heralding our tenth anniversary. Of course with Ch�teau Thames Embankment it is more of a fizzle than a real POP. But by then who knows, we may all be drinking Dom?

OK, before you complain about billing Dux... the names are in alphabetical order.

Gents,

Sorry I missed the party! We are now well on our way to a ten-year thread!

Thanks for your batch of emails JRT. That upgrade will surely result in more tales of your exploits in the skies of south-east England. Roll 'em out old man!

Belated birthday greetings also. Two milestones in one week is enough to test the most well equipped 'hangover' cupboard, and upon reflection it is perhaps just as well that I was away in the Lincolnshire Wolds...

Which leads me to present the two pics below depicting aircraft of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight servicing area. My photographic efforts were generally disappointing, mainly because I kept finding myself with the sun in an unfavourable position (but haven't we all experienced that in our aerial endeavours?!) and the general effect was a milky cast to the shots.
The Lanc - PA474 - has different nose art from the last time I saw her.

Folks,

Dux:

We merely, Burp! Stagger... Hic! Pardon me. We merely started without you. The party goes on. In fact, if you will peek under yon table you will find a smiling MG struggling to rise to greet you. Actually, he has been struggling thusly for just over an hour now. I'd help him to his feet but those melancholy Danes are far too proud to ask for assistance, you know. Do have a libation. Your bucket is right where you dropp...er left it.

You are far too modest my friend. They are excellent photos. I cannot however figure out that rather odd looking pile of hot pink material just under the Hurri's port wing. Is that a huge pile of discarded bubble gum painstakingly scraped from under the wings or did someone drop their pom pom?

The mighty Lanc looks ready for battle. I saw one taxiing away the other night after an uncharacteristically soft landing in BoB2. I have installed the 2.09 patch and now I get a CTD if I try to fly more than one quick mission. Otherwise it runs amazingly well and everything in the game is so much improved. I would however like a few private moments with the bright spark whose idea it was to improve the aggressiveness and intelligence of those unsocial boys with crosses on their wings.

The fellows over at A2A are trying to help me stop the CTDs but they are all scratching their heads and saying you need at least a dual or quad core multiimpossi GHz rig with a generation 8 Directx9 compliant 2000 GHz ram video card to run BoB2... It is amazing to them that I can get it to fly at all.

OSRAM has popped in and several others you'd know. Stickman/Vadenstick sends his greetings from sunny Hawaii.

Last night my 10 year old grandson and I took off seeking glory battling against the dastardly Hun. We were victorious. You should have seen the smile on his face when we flamed two bombers, one blew up and then we flamed a 109. Yes, the AI was dumbed way down but he didn't know that. I wanted his first BoB experience to be a good one. I did not want him to see his Pa Pa get his tail chewed off either.

The flames and explosions are fantastically realistic now aren't they? I did not opt for the Hollywood effects. You and I were here at the beginning Dux and we have seen every version over the past 8 plus years. This is the best. I'd still like to have a go at IL2 just once to compare the graphics and game play.








Have you more?

JRT,

Your gaming comments do not inspire confidence in my intention of carding up to the necessary spec... Yep, it's got to be a completely new rig for BoB2 with latest patching and certainly for the forthcoming..*cough*...SOW...*cough*...*cough*. For the time being, such a card will still only allow play on low to moderate settings using previous patches.

There are some more pics to post shortly from Coningsby and East Kirkby which will be of some interest. That pinkish material looks like it came from some ballerinas tu-tu. Perhaps the lads had an all-night party...with guests?

Osram and Vadenstick/stickman eh? They and other old stalwarts are still around and likely to remain so indefinitely.

Wonderful photos OldDux, but clearly that pinkish garment is evidence that Olga had already retired to the hanger in the backround. I can imagine hearing a deep, dark, husky voice as she would ask an innocent airman; "You are a pilot,... Yez?!"

Folks,

MG:

OLGA!!! Of course, it has to be her. Well done you. Why did I not suspect? Why did Dux not suspect? Had he even the faintest inkling that Olga was anywhere about I am quite sure that the perfectly composed photo of that beautiful Hurricane would have been no more than a blurred shot of either sky or ground as he made a hasty exit.

The cries for mercy must have hung heavy in the air for hours. Surely you must have heard something Dux? That fellow in the green day-glo vest seems to have heard something. He has turned his head toward the hanger. Perhaps it was his final voluntary move? Surely Dux, you would not have deserted a fellow aviator in his hour (make that 20 minutes)of need?

One can but imagine the scene playing itself out inside that hot, corrugated hanger. Olga has 10 or twelve husky men in flight garb or coveralls more or less surrounded and completely subdued. They are frightened but docile now squatting there or standing. There is a terrified resignation in their eyes as they await their fate. One by one they are summoned to do their bit...and then some.

No! I cannot allow my fertile mind to wander further, it is too painful, too disturbing... the grunting, the groaning....the tortured screams. And all that coming from the lads who are just waiting. I dare not imagine what is happening elsewhere.

Folks,

I decided to throw caution to the winds and try to fly a crowded quick mission today. I chose a historic mission and there was plenty of action, scores of aircraft. I am amazed that everyone tells me I am not supposed to be able to run this game, yet I can do so smoothly and without everything turned down.

I never saw the bombers but I bagged 2 109s and I was about to pounce out of the sun upon another hapless soul when SWMNBN entered the cockpit and instantly distracted me. Drat and blast! Nothing distracts me from a juicy target like my wife stepping into the cockpit. Does that ever happen to you fellows?

Why is it that the ladies seem not to know how important this stuff truly is? They do not seem to be aware that the fate of England, perhaps the free world hangs in the balance. For some reason my wife acts as if it is just a...a game....

Has anyone noticed this possible bug? At one point I found myself and my aircraft pointed more or less straight up for a few seconds. At this point I chanced to look at my instruments as you are prone to do now and again just to make sure you are still flying right side up and sometimes level, and I noticed that the artificial horizon bar was clean out of its housing and moving about above the instrument. Now this seems odd I remember thinking to myself and then other more pressing things demanded my undivided. I forgot about it until now.

Has anyone else noticed this peculiar instrument behavior or is it attributable to advanced age and the loss of too many little gray cells?

Chaps,

JRT,

I give you my word as an officer and a gentleman that I did not know that Olga would be at the airfield bash! Perhaps however, I thought there may be the possibility of her appearance which has happened occasionally..well..OK then, I knew all along but kept it quiet in case it affected the numbers who had responded to invitation. Satisfied?
I saw her approaching to recover her tu-tu as I took the snaps but felt it paramount to my safety to stand behind the airfield perimeter fence. I do recall doing the decent thing and mumbling a warning but it was obviously insufficient to overide the din from the ascending Skylarks...
Those poor devils including the chap by the hangar door seem to be transfixed by the approaching behemoth. I quickly made my exit to the nearby fish n' chip shop for din-dins so did not witness the outcome.



This is the East Kirkby Lancaster photographed last week, which is still earthbound but does an engine run-up on open days and taxis about - to the delight of the airfield museum visitors. It is just eight miles from the BoB Lanc. I believe the other survivor, a flying example, is in Canada.

Folks,

Dux:

As an officer and a gentleman myself I realize that this painful disclosure must ease your conscious somewhat. Not that you could have done much to save those lads had you tried harder. The picture of a monkey impotently chattering away at a Bengal tiger springs to my cluttered mind. The big cat has singled out a hapless Sambar and will not be distracted....the warning will come too late. Tiger, tiger burning bright...

You did your best Old Sod. Were there survivors?

Would that well armed "taxi dancer" be old NX611 'Just Jane'? A lovely lady she is too. Perhaps she is a trifle immodest for an old lass standing there with her bay doors wide open. I wonder is the Canadian sister you mention perhaps the one C51 was helping to restore? That was not supposed to fly after restoration.

These yellow nosed rouges fresh over from France seem to be devilishly hard to hit in the new version of BoB. Yet on the odd day when I fly for the Fuhrer I seem to be getting my own gray tail feathers scorched on an all too regular basis.

I was not there myself mind you, but I have read that a single cannon shell from a 109 could absolutely ruin the day for any Hurricane pilot, yet I spray the things all about the sky as if they are going out of style and they never seem to cause so much as a two fingered salute from the boys with circles on their sides.

Back to the armorers we will go. I think my cannonen need bore sighting. OK there is the slight chance it might just be my fault. For one thing those Spitfires simply will not fly straight and level long enough. They tend to want to turn too sharply for me to follow and that completely ruins my aim! I may not be hitting anything but I do like the new gun sounds, don't you?

I've just now begun to re-read Peter Townsend's book "Time and Chance". I am at the most interesting part (to me anyway) where the BoB is about to start and he is flying a Hurricane. I had forgotten that he claims to have shot down the first enemy plane over English soil since WW1.

The story of his flight training in various aircraft was most interesting to me as well.

Gents,

JRT,

That's NX611 alright, built in April 1945. Some say she won't fly again, others say she could. There is a clip on YouTube which shows her charging down the runway at East Kirkby and I'm certain that only a little back pressure on the stick would have seen her lift off! Seems she has 2000 hours airframe life left but it has been stated that a new mainspar would be required among other things. Not beyond the bounds of possibility when you consider that the huge Avro Vulcan has taken to the air again due to subscriptions and donations from various sources.

Do I hear the rattle of a collection tin?

Folks,

Dux:

Here's a shiny washer and a large copper bus token from me...clink...clunk, rattle!

You Wrote: "I'm certain that only a little back pressure on the stick would have seen her lift off!" Shades of Howard Hughes and the Spruce Goose, eh?

It is a pity that she is not flying. With no bombs aboard to weigh her down there should be tons of extra lift. I cannot see why they don't let her take off now and then myself. On further consideration, it would indeed be far more of a pity to have her groan and settle into a flaming, rusty pile at the end of the runway. We have had far too much of these crashes of late.

I am delighted to report that after invaluable help from Jens and indirectly from Ursa I now have FCG installed, patched, modded and running on this box. How long has it taken Dux? Months, years? Now on to reinstall MA.

Of course I'd like to iron this last CTD kink in BoB2 first. I still get a CTD every time I try to run two quick missions in a row. Over at the A2A forum a puzzled Buddye is kindly trying to help sort it. It is a wonder problem. Everyone over there wonders how I can get it to run at all.

In the meanwhile I can play one scenario per session for as long as it might take to clear the skies of the dastardly foe and then to find a soft spot to crash land on. I'm having fun and that is what it is all about.

In other less interesting news, I am still reading P. Townsend's memoir. The war is over now. He has been the King's equerry and he has participated is a couple of air races. Townsend, not the King. George VI has passed away and Townsend has just discovered that the new Queen's sister has grown up.... The BoB chapters were the most interesting part for me so far.

JRT,

It seems that the powers that be stood in the way of Margaret and Towsend. He was more than good enough to put his life on the line time and again and to become a highly decorated fighter pilot but obviously didn't measure up to what they thought suitable - being a divorcee. Nobody would bat and eyelid nowadays, in fact, it might seem almost compulsory!

Sorry...Olga's just nicked the washer to fix a tap in the WAAF's latrine.
No...I think that's the pilot's latrine...

Folks,

Dux:

Townsend was a hero it is true, but he was also both a divorc�e and a commoner. It was a Church of England thing. Being born a commoner may not have been cause enough for cleric's raised eyebrows but divorce was much frowned upon. The Queen as titular head of that ancient religious institution felt strongly her obligation to follow its rules.

An edict written by none other than Georgie Three of Revolution fame, made it impossible for any of his heirs to marry before their 25th birthday without the present monarch's approval. After that they might do so with Parliament's approval plus the approval of no less than the Parliaments of the entire Commonwealth.

Churchill was vehemently against the liaison despite the fact that his own son had just gone through a divorce and was now re-married. I believe Churchill's prot�g� and ultimate replacement as PM, Anthony Eden, also strongly opposed the union yet it did not keep himself from divorce court or from re-marriage. Can you say 'hypocrite'?

I have not reached that part of the story yet I'd venture to say that Snowdon clearly was no worthy replacement for Townsend. I believe Margaret lived with a grudging, broken heart for the rest of her life. She took to drink I believe. Correct me if I am wrong about that.

I've read that Margaret's unhappiness weighed heavily upon her sister's conscious. It would seem that contrary to what one might think about the ossified monarchy, lessons were learned. Thus, we across the big, wet spot, have been treated to the horrific spectacle of HRH Charles Windsor married to Camilla Parker Boles, who is not only divorced but the granddaughter, no less, of a former King's mistress.

In his book, Townsend is in no way critical of the Queen or very much of the politicians. At least he is not so far. There are several photos of his second wife in that book. To me, she strikes a more than fair resemblance to HRH the late Princess Margaret.

Sometimes what is done in the name of good is the very worst of all men's deeds.

Gents,

JRT,

Here is another pic taken through the wire at Coningsby showing Spitfire MkXIX PR631. I missed the take off when stuffing my hodge down at the chippery but saw her land eventually at the eastern end. A group of spotters were already there including a retired couple in a large camper van. He had her well trained and she was obviously quite used to this sort of thing. She appeared on the roof of the van with binoculars and diligently scanned the blue vault of sky directly above in response to the sound of a Griffon engine...

'There she is!' she exclaimed - 'Just going into the third cloud on the right!'

That woman must have had eyes like a sh*thouse rat because I couldn't see it at first, the PR blue matching almost perfectly against the sky. Then, very briefly caught a glimpse as she passed into and through cloud at 8-10000 feet.

Folks,

Dux:

Thanks for the photo. She's a lovely multi-bladed lass all decked out in her fashionable invasion stripes. I would love to see one in the sky just once and hear her engine roar overhead.

Speaking of something passing over, a tornado passed right over our house last evening. It gave us quite an adrenalin rush I can tell you. We could not see the actual funnel from our perspective but someone 2 miles north of us took a snap that showed it clearly. That photo was on page one of the local paper this morning.

The twister never touched down and no damage was done. At one point whilst wisely heading for the relative safety of the house I looked right up the skirts of the thing as it was passing over. I could see the dark and light rotating clouds. that sir was a bit too close for comfort.

As I raced for the house, I couldn't help thinking how I had brought into question the sanity of all those storm chasers I've seen testing fate on TV. Such storms are indeed exciting for nature's great power unleashed in such a storm is overwhelming to the senses. It might have touched down at any minute yet I found myself stopping, transfixed watching it swirl away.

After the storm for some reason I found combat in BoB2 a bit less exciting than usual. I flew a quick mission against a cloud of Me110s determined to have their wicked way with Kenly. This would never do. JRT and friends came out of the sun to the rescue.

Call me picky if you must but I often prefer the 110 as an opponent rather than the 109. This might be because it is a larger target or it may be because they do not seem to be able to hit me with anything but smoke from their burning engines. I bagged 2.

Folks,

A friend bought me a copy of a special commemorative edition of Garson Kanin's award winning film "The True Glory". It is an audio and video celebration of D-Day. There are tons of archival footage and lotsa music of the period. I couldn't wait to pop it into the DVD player.

Alas, the grand kids are visiting this weekend and that usually means the seven dwarfs, Bambi or Dumbo are likely to be hogging the player. No sweat, I came in here, put disk one in the DVD/CD/CDRW drive and fired up Windows Media Player. When that choked and rudely suggested that I lower my resolution and my color settings and try again, I suspected rightly that I was in for trouble. Who knew that when you get XP you have to pay extra for a DVD player and codec? Thanks Bill. I see why you're one of the richest men in the world.

Anyhow I got on the Internet and downloaded something free called "Real Alternative" that was supposed to play DVDs. It did. Unfortunately although talkies came in 70 years ago there was no sound. Nothing I did corrected the problem. I thought about it for a split second and then I loaded the control panel and gave "Real Alternative" the boot.

Suddenly it dawned on me, yes it was an epiphany, because this is a Dell computer there must be a DVD player hiding on a disk somewhere cunningly disguised as a DVD player. I looked. I found and I installed. Now all is just yummy.

After watching 120 minutes of my gift DVD I had lunch and then I popped the Bob movie into the drive. I never tire of watching that movie. I watched 95% of it before I was irresistibly forced to drag out the joystick and load BoB2.

Thanks in part to friends here and over at A2A, I am doing rather well with BoB2 in spite of my system's short comings. Today, I flew a one on one quick mission, this time with weather set to high and mission weather set to fair. Yes, I know I can't do that without twirling a black cat round my head at midnight in a graveyard and paying for an expensive upgrade. But I'll be darned if I had any problems at all. No indeedy. Thus encouraged, I took on a flock of He-111s from the rear (where else) with great success. We chased them right through all those here-to-for unseen but incredibly realistic, billowing white clouds. It was almost just like in the movie.

Let me shamelessly brag. I have no reason to do it very often you see. I got one of the bombers and sent another off with smoke pouring from its port engine. I sprayed several more of the behemoths with .303s before taking on a slippery 109 that had slipped up on me from behind and sent his red-hot calling card zinging past my starboard wing root. I took this as an un-friendly invitation to play and so off we went, guns blazing through those towering cumulus.

What a glorious sim this is. Would that my system had the power to take full advantage of all the options. I found this 109 to be an exceptionally good opponent. He boomed and he zoomed and every time I let my guard down he admonished me by putting another brand new hole in my lovely Spitfire.

At long last he zoomed when he should have boomed and I found myself sitting right on his six and climbing. I put the pipper on his little gray arse and I let him have it. A few of my shots must have hit his engine for he took to his chute and tumbled past me. Do two extended fingers mean the same in German as they do in English?

Listen you folks like moi with older, weaker systems. There is hope. I do not know why Bob2 runs for me. It just does. I have BoB on a separate drive from my OS and that drive is less than half full. That drive is also kept un-fragmented. I do not know if any of this helps in any way. With a PC nothing is standard and you never know. Everyone's configuration is different.

I do know that the bright sparks scratching their heads and wringing their hands over on the friendly A2A forum keep telling me Bob2 shouldn't be running this well for me. Especially since the 2.09 patch does not even support my video card anymore and although I am running DX 9c, I'm told that my card is not DX 9 compliant. Since I have DX9c installed and since it is running, I assume that means that my card simply cannot take advantage of all the wizard things DX9c is capable of like shading.

Whatever the case may be, I am pleased to be able to climb into a Spitfire once more and head up into the clouds in search of dark and deadly swarms of the determined foe.