Some notes from tonight!

Flew a flight of three SE5as tonight (WW2OL was quiet, end of campaign blues!) which is one of the first times we've had a flight of three Pilots on the realism server, so here are some things of note that I noticed whilst leading the flight:

1, The Flight Leader doesn't know which of his wingmen is which unless they tell him, if I have a green SE5a to my rear left and I have a green SE5a to my rear right, I don't know which one is Speedy and which one is Hinkel - even though Hinkel was using a streamer and Speedy wasn't - it's hard to spot a streamer from the front (as obviously it streams behind the wing) or at distance unless I zoom in fully, and it's even harder to tell what colour the streamer is - as such I would say it would be best for only the flight-leader to have a streamer so the wingmen know who to follow.

When forming up I would say that each wingman should say what their position is, ie 'forming up left side' that way the flight leader knows who is who! Important to do this after all major formation changes too, such as in turns and the like.

Another note on this is when reforming the flight after combat - when you come across another Aircraft you need to communicate who you are and ask who the other aircraft is! i.e.: Speedy: 'I'm forming up on the 4 o'clock of an SE5a' MJ: 'Roger Speedy, that's me - I have visual on you.' that way you know who you're following, and they know who's following them!

2, Navigation - if you have a scrap with the sausage guzzlers and everyone gets lost, then the flight leader says 'Reform over Mevine at 7,000 feet' then you need to know where Mevine is and how to get there - you also need to know when you've accidentily found yourself on the German side of the front lines, and get bounced and killed whilst looking at the map being confused about where you are.

So the first thing you need to do when you get lost is look for the front (the big brown bit).

Second thing you need to do is look at the compass, and make sure you're on the right side of the front - usually this means making sure the front is to the east of you, though sometimes it will be the north, depending on the sector.

If you should find yourself on the wrong side of the front you should head straight for it and get to the friendly side, before trying to work out where you are (if you're lost you can't get more lost, and it's better to be completely lost over allied territory than completely lost over enemy territory - you'll also find the reception a bit friendlier should you decide to land and ask for directions!)

This does bring up one question, however - generally speaking the flight leader navigates and looks for enemies, and the wingmen keep formation and look for enemies, so this means that should the formation be split up, the flight leader will be the only one who actually knows where he is, whilst the wingmen will have to look for landmarks and find out where they are, before they can move to a rendezvous point.

One way to counter this is for the Flight Leader to give regular updates on the formation's position (ie 'We're crossing eastwards over Baileul') and also once everyone has finished fighting and is trying to reform he should state what the flight location was at the moment of becoming seperated, either that or we need to practice landmark identification, to make it easier to find where we are just from what we can see around us, rather than from following a route from the aerodrome - or otherwise everyone will have to navigate to make sure they know where they are all the time, though I think this would give too much Pilot work load on top of keeping formation and looking for the enemy - as it is now the Wingmen have to keep formation, but are rewarded by the fact they don't need to navigate, and likewise the Flight Leader has to navigate, but is rewarded by the fact he doesn't need to keep formation.

Another way to counter this would be to work out the general flight route before take-off, ie 'we'll fly north to 'A' then turn east to the front, patrol south along the lines until we reach 'B' then head west and RTB.' that way everyone will have a vague idea of where they are in relation to the route.

3, Aircraft identification! - shan't name names, but one of us may have slightly somewhat shot at a friendly aircraft! So we need to work on Aircraft identification!

You'll usually find that each aircraft have one or more distinguishing features that can narrow down or positively ID an aircraft, for example, the Fokker D.VII (our main adversary tonight) has longer top wings than bottom wings:



(Note: The R.E.8 also has longer top wings than bottom wings, but I'm hoping we're at the stage where we can tell the difference between a British two-seater and a German scout!)

Likewise, the Sopwith Camel can easily be recognized by the way that the upper and lower wings are closer to eachother at the tips than at the fuselage, and - upon closer inspection, a rotary engine:

also like to add the chat system is less clear then in ww2ol
so suggest you buy a mic :p

They seemed to manage ok in the real WWI without Microphones, maybe you just need to pay more attention!

they used hand signals and plane wiggles to communicate. probably if they got seperated they just made an attempt to rtb.

and if i get close to you to be able to see your hand signals you get scared :p

All valid points MJ.

From my point of view, I have mapped a few extra commands to my stick that enables me to use the map without losing control of the plane for too long (it still briefly does it own thing whilst I'm zooming/scrolling with the mouse). I have also found the hard copy of the map that came with the game. The scale is a little small, but it will be on some help. Once I have found a landmark I can navigate quite well. I'll just have to remember to head west straight after an engagement, before trying to locate my position.

I agree with Hinkel about he chat window being less clear, it can be hard to pick up the messages against the background. I'm not sure if there are settings to adjust the colours and transparency of the chat window? So you'll have to allow for the fact we may miss a message at times...repeat pls

btw where are the movies from our nice evening?

hinkel1 wrote:btw where are the movies from our nice evening?

I recorded it, but I haven't made a film of it yet as I've been doing skins.

Soon (tm)

Two more flight leader notes from yesterday:

1, In the S.E.5a the flight leader should try to maintain an RPM of 1500 during level formation flight, so that the Wingmen can maneuver into formation without having to be at full throttle all the time - climbs should be made at approx. 70mph.

2, It seems that the flight leader has a higher chance of spotting aircraft, as the wingmen have to concentrate on not crashing into eachother, which usually leads to the flight leader engaging the enemy first, and getting a higher number of kills than the wingmen (for example last night I was flight lead, I got 5 kills, Hinkel got 1 kill and Dezey and Speedy were without kills) so the flight leader should make an effort to allow his wingmen to attack first (preferably in section pairs) rather than just dive at the enemy in full formation with the flight leader at the front (to be fair I did make myself high cover for one of them, but Speedy lost vis then the enemy randomly blew up. )

true I followed your dive in multiple occasions. which leaded to me seeing to kill the enemy . if you would not have killed them i would have a shot at them and maybe kill them so tactic wise it is not so bad