Friday Flight Night 7:30pm BST

Heading to the Syndicate Server now.

Wish they'd keep it as Airco DH2 vs Fokker Eindecker, because when they add the Nieuport 11 and the Albatros D.II it's just shit.

I actually managed to shoot something down with the Airco though, which is nice!



I think with the D.H.2 vs the Eindecker it has more of a quaint early war feeling to it, as they're both unique looking contraptions and are both completely rubbish (though I think the Eindecker is better than the Airco unfortunately!), where as when you add the Nieuport 11 and Albatros D.II it's just naff because if you take an Airco DH2 and run into an Albatros then you die, and the Nieuport is crap - plus it takes away the whole early war point a little bit because it's less quirky early war and more just plain old crap versions of normal aeroplanes.

that looked like a nice big flight

Speedy and I are in RoFland by the way, in case anyone is wondering why it's quiet in WW2OL.

So how did you find it then, Speedy?

I noticed you seemed to be having trouble spotting contacts at long distance.

Bag any Huns when I wasn't watching?

And the mission designers clearly have very good taste!:



We should make an effort to have the Sopwith Dolphin as our primary ride really, if we intend to be 19RFC.

(Syndicate Realism Server seems to be very busy on Sunday by the way, 75 player server and it was completely full - guess the Vintage Missions must be popular.)

i don t like the dolphin. prefer the camel or se5

I took a 'tooled up' dolphin out on Syndicate the other day, got bounced by an albatross over the line. couldn't turn, couldn't roll, couldn't climb, didn't want to dive out...

No point having 6 forward firing guns if the bastards are behind ya! I'm pretty sure that apart from slow non maneouvering targets, the Dolphin would struggle against most Central Powers aircraft.

Maybe if we could ascertain the advantages of the Dolphin we may better understand its usage versus the likely opponents of the era.

In fact, a full breakdown of Entente aircraft vs Central Powers (a little like the Spit vs 109 thread somewhere on here) might help us all out, if anyone has the time or inclination to provide it!

I don't know what the rest of you fly, but my experiences based on the ones I have are as follows -

Pup (seems most agile of them all)
Dolphin (guns. Lots of guns)
Camel (awkward bugger, turns and rolls like the Pup but bigger and more likely to put you in the ground)
Tripe (difficult to fly, seems to enjoy turning more than the Camel)
Se5 (fast and stable, good guns and best overall package but not for turn fighting)
Spad 13 (excellent dogfighter, fast, decent guns, stable, but French)
Neuport 17 (bag. of. shite)

It was good fun MJ.

I had only ventured onto the realism server a few times previous just to test things out. So this was the first proper flight with a wingman. I did find it tricky to spot the contacts, but hopefully that something i will get accustomed to with practice, incidentally do use look around with the 'zoomed in' view when searching?

My biggest issue was not be able (or not knowing how) to scroll and zoom in the map whilst flying. If I take my hand of the stick the plane kind of wanders about too much, and especially in a camel has entered a spin while I've been trying to use the options menu. I can navigate quite well until I go off the page! How do you chaps deal with the map?

I didn't get any kills, just a few bursts at a couple of Dr.1s. Does anyone else find the aldis sight more of a hindrance than help in a dogfight? it just seems to get in the way when looking around.

Keeping track of each other in a dogfight is near impossible, which I guess is quite realistic, so we need to work on re-grouping after a melee.

Skips idea of a breakdown of each plane of the advantages and disadvantages of each plane is a top idea. If only there was someone in the squad, like a student type, who doesn't have to go to work everyday and instead of watching daytime TV could cobble something together....

I did get the email about the sale, so I might bag myself a dolphin and a yellow streamer!

Skip19 wrote:
No point having 6 forward firing guns if the bastards are behind ya! I'm pretty sure that apart from slow non maneouvering targets, the Dolphin would struggle against most Central Powers aircraft.

Yeah, there might be a reason why they didn't have 6 machineguns as the standard Sopwith Dolphin loadout Skipper - these aren't Spitfires you know, guns and ammo weigh alot - so don't expect to be able to do anything but fly in a straight line if you want to take all those extra weapons! (I imagine they were probably for trench-strafing and baloon busting and other such activities where the Rambo Dolphin would be escorted and not expected to fight enemy scouts itself.)

It's important to remember that all the weapon mods have an effect upon the performance of aircraft, ie if you put more Lewis guns on your top wing it will probably increase the likelyhood of structural damage when coming out of dives, plus the extra weight will probably make you dive faster - and the extra large view square for the Sopwith Camel probably lowers the amount of lift and makes it less maneuverable - and just don't even try taking off in an R.E.8 with full bomb load, full fuel load, an overwing gun and a dual Lewis rear gun.

As for the Dolphin, from what I've read it's meant to be a high altitude fighter/escort, which is good in a dive (probably not as good as an SE5) with 'acceptable' maneuverability (so a better turn fighter than an SE5, but no Sopwith Camel) though it does have a tendency to go into a spin if you push it in a turn.

So if you were to imagine the SE5 as a Spit IX and the Sopwith Camel as a Spit IIb, the Sopwith Dolphin is probably a Spit V.

As for other Aircraft, I'd say:

Airco DH2 - Piece of crap, but you haven't got much choice! Just be glad the gun points forward you ungrateful so and so's - there's a war on!
Nieuport 11 - French crap.
Sopwith Pup - Probably the best early - mid war Scout, out turns all the sausage machines of it's era, plus it can carry Le Prieur rockets, think of it like a friendly Sopwith Camel.
Sopwith Triplane - Not as good as the Sopwith Pup, but more readily available.
SPAD VII - French crap, but used by 19 Squadron, and so acceptable - good at boom and zoom, crap at turning - think of it as an early war SE5, can also carry Le Prieur rockets and can be fitted with optional over wing Lewis Gun for extra firepower and attacking enemy aircraft from beneath (gun rotates upwards.)
Nieuport 17 - French crap.
RAF SE5a - Boom and Zoom, can dive faster than any sausage machine and so disengage when it wants to, stable guns but never try to turn fight with it! Also has upper wing Lewis that can be rotated to attack enemy aircraft from beneath.
Sopwith Camel - The best allied turn-fighter of the war, and probably the most unstable aircraft of the war (as Biggles said, if you can fly a Sopwith Camel you can fly anything!) all turns require heavy use of the rudder to counter nose rise, which if left uncountered will result in a probably fatal spin '413 pilots died in combat and 385 pilots died from non-combat related causes while flying the Sopwith Camel' pretty much sums it up - it can probably out-maneuver every central scout apart from the Fokker Dr.1, the result of which would probably be down to pilot skill, or who manages to survive long enough for their enemy to make a mistake and spin into a big hole in the ground.
SPAD XIII - French crap.

speedy77 wrote:I did find it tricky to spot the contacts, but hopefully that something i will get accustomed to with practice, incidentally do use look around with the 'zoomed in' view when searching?

Indeed Speedy, I use the mouse scroll to go from normal field of view to full zoom field of view for looking for sausage guzzlers (just think of it as binoculars. )

speedy77 wrote:
My biggest issue was not be able (or not knowing how) to scroll and zoom in the map whilst flying. If I take my hand of the stick the plane kind of wanders about too much, and especially in a camel has entered a spin while I've been trying to use the options menu. I can navigate quite well until I go off the page! How do you chaps deal with the map?

To scroll the map you hold down alt (I think) to so that you can use the mouse, then move it over the map and mouse scroll to zoom in and out, or left click and drag to move the map itself, you could try using level autopilot (either ctrl + A or shift + A) when reading the map if you're having trouble keeping it steady, like I said I can hold my stick with my knees now, but I do have rather a unique Joystick.

Or you could print off some maps and just navigate in the old fashioned way!

Can't say I've had any trouble with the Aldis sight getting in the way though Speedy - if the sight is blocking your view of the enemy then it's probably time to open fire!

As for getting lost, my general rule of thumb is to head west upon losing contact, then try to find the nearest landmark to reform at.

I removed the aldis on the camel as i find it hard to allign targets with it and seems to mess up my vieuw.

on the se5 i love it however

I don't use the Aldis on the Camel either actually - just seems like an Aircraft that wouldn't have one for some reason.

Same with the Sopwith Pup and sometimes the Sopwith Triplane, I always use the Aldis sight on the SPAD VII, SE5a and Sopwith Dolphin though.

So really it could be said that the Aldis sight is useless for a turn fighting plane, but for a BnZ plane it's useful to line up the shot on an unsuspecting hun from a distance. Which makes sense of why I found it getting in the way whilst turn fighting in a Se.5a against a Dr.1!!

I would say that you should pick whichever sight is easiest to use.

in the SE5 the ironsights are off-set to the left side on the engine I seem to recall, so you have to lean across to aim properly, where as the Aldis sight is right infront of you.

And in the Sopwith Camel the ironsights are right in front of you, so there isn't really much need for an Aldis Sight.

The Dolphin is an interesting one however, as the ironsight and Aldis sights are set up for two completely different seating positions, with the Aldis sight up on the top wing bar, which I think is actually correct as the seating position is meant to be high up on a Dolphin.

As for issues turnfighting the SE5a vs the Fokker Dr.1, I think the Aldis sight is the least of your problems if you intend to take one of the worst turnfighters in the game and turn against one of the best turnfighters in the game.

With the SE5 if I ever get a Hun close to me and my wingman isn't in a position to assist me I always take Mick Mannock's 14th air fighting rule:

'Pilots must never, under any circumstances, dive away from an enemy, as he gives his opponent a non-deflection shot — bullets are faster than aeroplanes.'

And completely ignore it!

(Either the SE5 in game is completely different to a real life SE5, or he wrote his rules before he started using an SE5, as it seems to make no sense at all! Unless he's meaning that you shouldn't just dive in a straight line if there's an enemy behind you in guns range, which I could understand.)

Though when I say dive out, I don't always mean head to the deck - rather go into a slight dive to extend out of the enemy guns range, then once you're relatively safe you can level out and either climb above them, or drag them to your wingman, or what not - so diving out isn't always a maneuver just to disengage from combat.

I would say ideally you want to break into the enemy so that he has to turn to get a gun solution, then while he's turning you extend away in your dive.

Here's a video of last night's adventures (Part I):

The long awaited Part II:

Yay us, draggin and baggin n that. ace!

Of course, Speedy - we're highly trained flying aces remember!

Going to be watching t'olympics guff, so probably won't be on tonight.

Unless it's crap, of course.

Might be on tonight after 8:00pm BST if anyone else is about.

i m not home tonight

I have to sort a few things out tonight, if I get done I'll join you.

Will be on TS if you manage to get some time.

Though technically not a Friday, being Saturday and that, I'll be in ROF until from now until 9.00ish.

It's Sunday, Speedy.