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

Hasse; Nice go mate! 25 hours is a milestone! Keep the top side up and the wheels down!

The continuing Career of Albert "Mushroom" Ward:

28 Jul 1916 @ 05h25 Bombing of Enemy Front lines West of Messines

Shook Lead the flight with Hill, myself, and Huskisson accompanying.
We had a successful bombing mission with no enemy craft encountered. We all returned to base unharmed

YouTube Video:



28 Jul 1916 @ 13h30 Bombing of enemy front lines South East of Armentieres.

Escort of 2 Nieuport 11’s from RNAS-1 out of Furnes.

Mesurier lead the flight with Hervey, Shook, myself, Huskisson, and Chadwick accompanying. “A” flight sent 3 Strutters for the second bombing run. On the approach to the target we encountered 2 EIII’s crossing our path but they did not attack. Our bombing run was successful and we returned to base unharmed.

YouTube

Hasse, congratulations! 25 hours seem yet so far away for me...
Seeing your pilot photo, I'm thinking you might be one of the "Seven Deadly Finns"!...

image hosting without account

Took 1 Replacement pilot and my long time Wingman on a Airfield Security Patrol down to the Front Lines at Cappy
and back. My Wingman ( Beanlands) Took Gnd Fire Lt Damage and dropped out of formation but made it back.

It won't last forever. Sooner or later, luck runs out. I feel that I've already used several of my pilot's lives. Hopefully he still has a few left!

Hi

Apologies for not posting sooner, but RL has got in the way of my flying in the campaign, but I will continue with my pilot sometime this week. There have been some excellent reports and I hope to add to them soon. As always best regards.

I can see that my current pilot Augustus Mueller has been posted dead! - will start a new pilot.

Beanie, you pilot is not DEAD, he is only on the "Inactivity Chart".
Just fly missions and report them, and we'll reactivate him.

.

His Majesty King George V hereby confers the following honours:







A grateful people thank you for your service and loyalty.

.

Welcome back, Lou, and thanks for the medal awards and documents!
I'll add those awards to the Wednesday chart.

Congratulations to your awards, Robert_Wiggins and Carrick!

Uh..Er...You mean "Albert Ward" don't you! I'm just his ethereal support!

Thanks Lou. I wonder if you noticed in my vids that your handiwork is evident on the whole squadron aircraft!! It may be hard to see but I think you can make it out.

Just curious, are you flying some of this mission on autopilot? After the bomb drop you look off into the distance for over half a minute but when you turn your head back your plane remains perfectly in formation. I can't look away from my flight for more than a few seconds at a time or I get myself into trouble.

It's interesting to note the difference in viewing style between 'navigators' and 'non-navigators'. My head is never behind the gun, as I am constantly leaning to one side or the other in the cockpit and taking constant peeks down at the ground. Your head stays fixed right behind the gun and almost never looks at the ground.

You do a very good job of spotting aircraft in your area, much better than I manage.

Scout;

yes some of the mission is on autopilot. If I didn't do that I would have difficulty generating interesting videos. Flying formation and staying within your group would not let me spend long times looking around at the visuals around me. You should notice me scanning over the cockpit edge at the ground below in some of these vids but it is more for video effect than for a need. Do you not notice me lean left or right scanning over the nose sometimes? If I stay with the formation I expect the leader to be concerned with where we are going instead of me. For the bomb runs, I am in auto, again it allows me to switch to external view and observe the bomb damage. I guess the point here is that I enjoy making the vids and therefore compromise on how I fly the mission. That said, if I engage enemy aircraft, all commitment to video presentation goes to hell in a hand basket and you then get whatever happens in raw form. I don't think I personally want to spend the whole mission focused on staying in formation as that is not where I get my jollies so to speak.

Best Regards mate!

I didn't even know WOFF had auto pilot.Whats the key press for that?

CNTRL + SHIFT + A

Thanks Robert,I'll give it a try.

Hasse, congrats on 25! Also to Augustus and Albert on those pretty medals.

Seconded on MFair, Congrats Hasse!

Aw yes, I will wear the Military Medal Proudly Thanks for the award, Lou.

I swear my observer will be the end of me yet. Completely unpredictable, that man!
Perhaps transferring to a single-seater unit would offer me a greater level of safety.

Third sortie took us over the German lines for the first time, bombing a Hun airfield at Bapaume. With our spiffy escort of 3 DH2's we headed out and found our target easily enough. Dropped my payload on the leader's signal and destroyed some hangar's on the field. As we turned and began our way home we were approached from behind by two Fokker machines, our escort now separated from our view, and they took no time at all to close on us.

The closer they got the more nerve-racked I became. The leader and my winger seemed content to hold course all the while I'm getting more and more twitchy, speeding up, slight left, right, up, down. Flak taunts with ominous booms constantly closer to our formation. Abruptly one of the Hun lost his taste for the odds I suppose and broke away to the left. The fellow with him seemed unwilling to retire and was lined up squarely on my 'quirk' and closed to such a distance i felt I could see the bugger's flight goggles.
I kept semi-frantically looking over my shoulder, and forward again, trying not to crash into my own flight as I watched my tormentor's devilish figure closing behind me.
I d e s p e r a t e l y wanted to dive away, but didn't want to abandon my formation. I thought any moment, he's going to open up with that gun and send me down before I can get safely across the lines, the tension in those ten or twelve fleeting seconds was almost unbearable, I was a shallow breath from breaking and diving away in near panic....

A sudden rip of machine gun fire literally jumped me 2 inches out of my chair!

My cheeky observer Leif Frehley finally fired a burst to dissuade our pursuer from his mission. I kicked the rudder to the side slightly and he fired a gain, this time striking the fokker with a few rounds, which seemed to be enough for the fellow and he broke off in the direction his winger had taken to.
As for me, I GRUMBLED all the way home. What a fright! Perhaps the chap staring me in the face couldn't get a clean shot, but he could've said SOMETHING!


I've been flying OFF since phase 2, and I've never been that nervous! A very bittersweet moment that was, I'll not forget it anytime soon.

My sincerest thanks to the tireless efforts of all contributors, big and small, who continue
to make this the best engaging flight sim I've ever had the pleasure to fly.

Thank you, Thank you.
Cheers mates, best of luck in the air.

-Jenks