homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Wings: Over Flanders Fields The "DiD Campaign Revival" - Intro, Rules, Reports & Records Chart

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Yes it does. I noticed this some months ago using "air start". Flying time starts when you start flying. I can attest to the fact that the "boring" factor will get you killed, you have to fight past it. I heard a WWII fighter pilot say that "air combat is hours of boredom interspersed with a few minutes of sheer terror."

Sorry about your pilot Olham, still a long way off until we get our Albatros's back!

Thanks for your condolences, Beanie - yeah, I guess I will fly in a less hot zone
until we get at least the Halberstadt!

I officially enter the campaign, flying a Strutter for RNAS 4.
First mission railyard bombing deep into enemy territory. 3 Strutters escorted by 2 Aircos DH2. Bombing went fine all bombs on target from 11.000 feet. Was jumped by a lone Eindecker on the way back well inside our lines, more than halfway back (thought they didn't cross ? ) while I was looking at my map for navigation on the other monitor (looks like my observer didn't see it coming either, he never shot...) Managed to hit him once and he called it off. Soon after my engine dies at 5000 ft and I land on the next road. I'm off in hospital with my blind observer for the next 7 days. A hot start and a good lesson : don't think it's over because you're close from home !

Join the Club, Corsaire!

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Olham, sorry to see your pilot fell, and so quickly. On the up side, the Alsace is lovely his time of year.

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Private Journal of Artemus Burroughs


6 June 1916:

Arrived this afternoon at my first posting as an RFC pilot, 15 Squadron based at Marieux. Met my G/O, Captain Knight, who I will be chauffeuring about in what appears to be a very clapped out BE2. I’ve already written down my final wishes so that they may be carried out upon my demise. Still, better than eventually dying in the trenches with my old mates from the 1st Bedfordshire.



7 June 1916:

Morning sortie began at 8:00. Went with B Flight to bomb a rail yard west of Bapaume. Was very glad to see that we had an escort of Airco scouts watching over us. Gladness short-lived when all six of them went traipsing off after something on the horizon leaving us on our own as we crossed over the mud. Lt. Corwin led us well, dropping everything on the target. I on the other hand dropped everything well short. No Huns about in the air so a quiet out and back except for the occasional bump from Archie. Never did see the Aircos return. Lovely day in terms of weather.

Afternoon sortie had us going back out to attack the same bloody rail yard. Apparently the brass hats didn’t like how we were holding our pinkies during the first attempt. This run resulted in all four Quirks missing the mark, blowing up nothing but dirt and scrub. As we were passing over the mud five Eindeckers attacked our flight. I held my bus steady to allow the Captain a good shot on one that was zipping down upon us. I could have done better myself and flown at the same time and after the second volley from the Hun went zipping past my ears I began tossing the Quirk about to throw off our attacker’s aim. Luck was with us and the whole of B Flight returned intact. Upon landing I was chastised by Captain Knight for not allowing him more time to line up his shot. When I mentioned that the Hun appeared to have plenty of time to take aim he called me impertinent and said I’d better watch my step. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve been cautioned thusly since signing on at Kitchener’s behest back in ‘14.



8 June 1916:

Sunrise take-off, again with B Flight, this time to bomb some Fritz gun positions along the mud near Courcelette. Lt. Corwin leading again, and again he found his mark. I stayed right on his tail and managed the same trick. Returned to Marieux without incident and enjoyed a hot breakfast.

Afternoon sortie was a disaster. Three of us from B Flight, led by Lt. Dawson, were sent to hit the Hun aerodrome at Bertincourt. We were supposed to have an escort of Airco scouts but they never arrived so we went on without them. Found the target and dropped our eggs but caused no real damage. On our return my mount began losing power and started giving up altitude. Just as we crossed the mud a trio of Eindeckers attacked the other two Quirks, now some distance above us, leaving the Captain and me with nothing to do but watch the slaughter. Dawson and his G/O Milligan were the first to go, their bus bursting into flames, then plummeting to earth. Steele and his G/O Hayden were next, forced down, crashing into a small copse of trees east of Beumont-Hamel. I realized at that moment it would be wise to get the hell out of the area and dove towards Bellevue aerodrome. We reached it just as the three Huns were about to pounce. However, the gunners down on the ground made our attackers reconsider their plans and they instead turned tail and headed back across NML. One last bit of excitement, as I was landing the engine conked entirely nearly causing my bus to ground loop, fortunately only busted the right lower wing as I straightened it out. A god-awful outing. I’m putting in for a transfer to the scouts. They seem to come and go as they please and don’t have to rely on someone else to do the shooting for them.


9 June 1916:

Morning grey and cloudy. First sortie, off to bomb the rail yard east of Bapaume, again! Due to certain observations I made at the evening meal the night before I was told to head up this outing. Led Sergeants Abbot and Sedgewick and their G/Os Lieutenants Bristed and Rodland, and we flew directly to the target without escort. Approached from the south, dropping to 1,000’ before delivering our eggs. I scored direct hits on the warehouses and the rest of B Flight hit the ammo dumps and rolling stock. The entire yard erupted in flames. Turned immediately west and returned to camp as fast as our Quirks could go. Back at the mess in time for breakfast and boasting. Good news as well, Lt. Steele was not killed when his bus was forced down and he is now back in camp and swearing revenge for his lost brethren.

Afternoon sortie was a recce of the front lines south of Arras. B Flight actually had protection in the form of six Airco scouts that stuck with us the entire trip. They earned their keep by driving off a hoard of Eindeckers that tried attacking us as we began our reconnoitering of the area. Minimal interruption and we completed our task in about 25 minutes then returned to camp, everyone safe and sound. During evening mess I was informed by the CO that my request for transfer had been approved and good riddance to anyone who didn’t want to be in his squadron. I would be moving first thing in the morning to Bertangles West where I was to report to Major Hawker. 24 Squadron and the Airco!


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Dawson and Milligan gone west.



Nearly an ender.



On target.


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That bomb blast shot is awesome, Lou!

Congratulations on your success and transfer to scouts Lou. I am looking at the same squadron myself, hope I see you there.

Rick, I found it helps if you go to the observer seat and see what his field of fire is. I would swerve in the FE and the observer would not fire. I am thinking, "shoot the bloody thing, you idiot." Not until I put myself in his shoes did I realize I was taking him out of his field of fire. With that plane anyway it is very limited, but now I know if one is one my tail in that plane how to give the observer the best shot.
Mark

Con grats Lou on making it to scouts.

Where is the running DID Campaign "scoreboard" to be found? Did I miss something earlier?

Thanks
Royce

Olham and I are still working out the details of scoring. Whatever we do it will be the same for everybody. It is simple at the moment but will become difficult when pilots fly in different difficulty areas or the difficulty for the same area changes with time.

For the moment, can I backtrack on what I asked before. ALL HOURS ENTERED ON THE WEB SHOULD BE TOTALS. (otherwise I have to add them up which is next to impossible to get right).

So, as an example, if you have done two sorties of 1.5 hrs and 1.4 hours at HOTSPOT then you should capture:

Hours: 2.9 Hotspot Hours 2.9 Medium hours 0 Quiet Hours 0 sorties 2

If you then move to a squadron in a Medium area and fly 1.3 hour sortie, then capture:

Hours: 4.2 Hotspot Hours 2.9 Medium hours 1.3 Quiet Hours 0 sorties 3

ps. If you get it wrong for some reason then capture it again. I mostly look at the latest post.

And I do not check that you are putting your hours under the correct sector difficulty level. I trust you to get that right.

Olham and I are doing well (except he is dead and I was 'forced down' on my second sortie).

At the moment we do not give points for bombs dropped etc which is reported by WOFF. Maybe that will come.
Be careful Lou! Without giving anything away I can say you have the most points at the moment as I have the least!
So we both have to try to stay alive ....

Oh, and I have just remembered... The WEB software captures the results in a database that I use to extract to Excel. It can also email all the results in readable form to specified email addresses - only mine at the moment so I know when someone has captured their latest details. But anyone else can get these as they are not secret in any way if you want to see how everyone is doing.

If you want this facility please PM me with your email address. Do NOT put it in here as that can be dangerous for trolling software. The PM's are, I believe safe from spies.

From reading the great report from Lou, I see that you can fly several flights a day, which is different from Rick's challenges where we had to fly one mission per day. Could we have a confirmation from organization ? I didn't find anything about it in the rules.

I thought 1 flight per "REAL" day. My first was on Saturday the 7th, 6 days off for wound on that mission, puts my next flight for Thursday....the 13th...real time. At least thats how I interpet the campaign.

Jim, sorry, but this doesn't make sense.
Please, let us communicate everything about the rules and valuation via PM.

Corsaire, I was a little confused myself and Olham answered it in an earlier post, which there are a lot and easy to miss.

You can fly however many missions your squad flies on that day. Or you can fly 1 if that is all you want to fly. Once the time advances to the next day, you wait till then to fly again. I flew 2 missions on the 9th, was wounded on the second mission and will not fly again until the 14th when I get out of the hospital. If your flights for say the 11th of June are cancelled for bad weather, you don't fly on the 11th, try again on the 12th. Hope this explains it.
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