J5_Hotlead

Agreed! Congrats Blue Team! You guys really did an awesome job. And yes, huge thumbs-up for the Saturday mission too. I know one USA pilot who is only able to make the Saturday missions, so I feel the extra mission is good not only for the European guys, but for others too.

Nice one! My younger cousins absolutely love "Snoopy and the Red Baron" & "The Battle of New Orleans" by them.

Congrats all!

Congrats all! Thank you also for the observer badge! It was a fun, new experience to gun for Vonrd.

Thank you guys! Congrats as well to my fellow pilots who also got promoted!

Congrats Maus! Live to fight another day!

Cool! Thanks for sharing!

Congrats Moxy!

Hey Zerfass! Glad to see you made it over here! I'll answer your questions as best I can, being rather new myself, but there should be others along who can explain in more detail. We have 3 squadrons (J11, J10 & J4 I believe) based out of North America. We also have a strong European squadron (J6). Right now we are flying missions for Flanders in Flames on Wednesdays at 9:00pm EDT and on Saturdays at 2:00pm EDT I think. We are a fairly large squadron. I'm not sure how large our CLoD group is but here's our squad page on the Wargrounds stats to give you a good idea. (Keep in mind some of our pilots may not have registered on our Wargrounds squad page): http://stats.newwingstraining.com/squad/1032/ Yes indeed, there is plenty of realism here. During your training, you will have the opportunity not only to learn formation-flying, but also tournament skills and navigation. Furthermore, if they wish to expand their skills in any area, members can simply post on the forums something to the effect of: "I'd like to learn how to ____." and almost certainly some of our pilots will volunteer to help you out. Really you couldn't ask for a better bunch of guys to fly with!

Thank you Sir!

Very nice, Kempf! The graphics were good, and you did a great job choosing the music. One thing I noticed is that the text was occasionally a little choppy and not written in complete sentences. Not too much of a big deal, but it would probably make for easier reading if it were fixed in later films. I loved Navarre's quote just after you shot down the E.III. Very well-timed! Also, the epilogue after the credits with photos of the Ace himself was a big plus. Way to go! Overall, it was fun to watch. Thanks for posting! S! HotleadColdfeet

Congrats Barton!

Thanks guys! I actually had the idea for this one knocking around in my head for about a year lol. Just glad it finally worked out.

Ah, yes I have... I just felt a little down about yesterday's mission and was surprised I got a medal for it. As far as returning to the front soon, you bet! I'm still learning but a couple bum flights aren't going to scare me away.

Cool photos!

Wow! Didn't know I'd get a medal for getting wounded lol. Er...thanks!

Thank you Sir! :D

S! all, I had the opportunity to participate in the FiF dry run last Wednesday. First of all, thank you all for such a great time! I had a blast. Anyways, on my college forums, they were having a thread where you could submit short stories. The theme for this month was "something that may or may not have been from your personal experiance". I wrote and submitted this short story about my first flight that Wednesday night. Who knows? Maybe I can get some college kids interested in WW1 aviation. A few notes about the story: The server that night had lots of lag. For the sake of immersion, I simply didn't mention that. Also, in order to include some of our dialogue in the tale, I decided to pretend that our biplanes got equipped with air-to-air radios. Enjoy! ***** I sat at the desk, in my study, with an empty notebook in front of me and what seemed like a lifetime of memories behind me. Summer daylight filtered through the paneled windows, providing all the illumination I needed for my writing. I set the fountain pen to the paper, but I could not decide where to start. How do you begin to tell a story that shaped the rest of your life? I sat back in the chair to think, absent-mindedly rubbing my chin. My mind wandered back to that time long ago...a time that would soon be forgotten if the memory was not kept alive. ..... Summer 1917, the First World War Courcy aerodrome near Rheims, 1055 hours I walked - no, ran - out of my quarters and onto the grass airstrip. This was going to be my first real mission with my new squadron and the last thing I wanted was to be late. Five sopwith camel fighter planes sat idly just outside the hangars, their blunt metal noses shining in the summer sun. I exhaled in relief. At least they hadn't left yet. Three of my mates were already in their planes, checking over the controls and exchanging banter, obviously in no hurry. I shot a nervous grin, waved at them, and climbed into my own cockpit. As I fastened my seat belt I turned to the pilot on the runway beside me. "Who's in charge of this flight?" He grinned. "You are!" Oh boy. My already knotted stomach did a couple more flips. I didn't even know what our objective was and where we were headed. Visions of possible disasters ran through my mind. Just then, to my profound relief, our CO, Otto Klaiber, strolled out onto the field to claim the fifth camel. I would be more than happy to simply fly his wing this first time around. I keyed my radio - marvelous invention! - and plugged my headset into the receiver. We were among the first units to receive the new air to air radio sets, improving our ability to work as a team a hundredfold. Alas, we did not as yet have parachutes. Best not to dwell on that fact. Over the radio, Klaiber gave us our flight ops. We were to take off, rendezvous with two heavy bombers over the city of Rheims and escort them to their targets. One by one, the mechanics swung each of our propellers and our engines coughed to life. At precisely 1101 hours, a green flare was fired at the periphery of the airstrip. That was our signal to take off. "Klaiber's rolling," announced Klaiber over the radio. I waited until he was a safe distance down the runway before starting my takeoff run. "Hotlead's rolling," I said, using my callsign. I looked over my shoulder, watching the other three camels rise like windborne leaves off the ground behind me. There was no going back now. Our flight was committed. In a minute or two, the vast stretch of Rheims lay sprawled out beneath us. We circled for a while, climbing higher, ever higher. We could hear the two heavy bomber pilots over the comms. They were following the river into Rheims. Klaiber called to me: "Hotlead come with me. You and I will fly out and lead the heavies in." "Copy." I left the number three slot in our rather loose formation and formed up on Klaiber's wing. While we flew towards where the heavies should be, I took up a patrol position, directly opposite of the enemy lines and to Klaiber's right. That way I could simultaneously keep an eye on him and on where any threats would probably appear. Just to be safe, I checked to our right as well. Contacts! I suppressed my first urge to call them out in panic. They might be friendly after all. I took a closer look. Ah, the heavies. And indeed, there they were. Two giant twin-engined Handley-Page bombers, slowly creeping their way towards us. We lead them over Rheims. When we got there, the other three camels had disappeared. Apparently they had gone off on their own mission. I'm afraid I missed whether or not they did so with Klaiber's orders. I had been busy keeping an eye on Klaiber, the heavies, and enemy territory. Oh well. Klaiber and I can escort the heavies on our own. We turned our four ship flight towards the blackened trenches that divided our lines from the enemies. I looked over my left wingtip at the heavies. They seemed to float over no-man's land below us. From this height, no-man's land looked dark and dreadful as the river Styx, and we, like Charon, escorted the bombers across that tortured expanse. I stretched my gaze beyond and, in the distance, enemy territory glowered at us. Would that place become a Hades of no return for some of us? It was an entirely real possibility. The flight continued, deceptively uneventful for a while longer until we had completely crossed the lines. Suddenly Klaiber's tense voice crackled across the comms. "Contact 3 o'clock!" His plane in front of me broke right to face the threat and I followed suit. "It's Dr 1!" Ugh. If there was one plane I hated to fight, it was the Fokker Dr 1. Nimble as a greased fish in the hand and deadly as a concealed rapier, the Fokker triplane was a terrible opponent in the hands of a skilled foe. "Machine guns cocked!" I jammed the cocking levers on my two vickers machine guns forward with shaking arms while adrenaline took hold. We merged as swiftly as colliding winds. The Dr 1 ducked our fire and shot underneath and to the right of us - straight towards the heavies! Klaiber and I kicked rudder to follow. Already, I could see the Dr 1 shooting at one of our wards. Klaiber closed on him and took a shot, scaring the Dr 1 away from the heavies. Deftly, the enemy pilot reversed direction and went into a sharp right turn. Gritting my teeth, I yanked the stick back and followed him. The wind sang madly about me as I fought with my plane, trying to maintain the turn. I mentally deplored the Camel's lack of stable handling. My plane lurched and wavered as my airspeed dropped. "I'm pushing him, go left," Klaiber commanded. I broke off my failing pursuit and went around, trying to catch him between Klaiber and I. But our adversary climbed up, and reversed direction again. Blast it! I couldn't change directions as quickly as his plane could. "He's firing another flare!" Klaiber warned. Indeed, the pilot had been shooting red flares during the entire fight. This wasn't just random flare-shooting - he was calling for help! "Hotlead look out! There's an Alb in here too!" Another German, flying an Albatross scout had latched onto Klaiber's tail. As I turned to help Klaiber, I caught sight of another Dr 1 screaming in from above. "Hotlead, we've got to get out of here now!" Klaiber and I pulled the stick back and stomped right rudder, intentionally throwing our planes into a spin. Our enemies didn't appear to follow us as we spiraled to the earth below. That was fine, but now we would have to stop our spin soon. Getting into a spin with the Camel was easy. The tough part was getting back out of the spin. Many pilots before us had been killed when they couldn't pull their doomed crates from a flat spin. My horizon wheeled madly like a tilt-a-whirl doing 80 mph. The ground started to get alarmingly close. I held down the blip switch - momentarily killing the engine - applied left rudder and shoved the nose down. Come on...come on... Cold sweat came and evaporated as soon as it made contact with the rushing air. Finally! The spinning stopped and I regained control. "Head east!" Klaiber told me. I looked to my left. He had pulled out too. I could see the horde of enemies coming down after us. Only a couple hundred feet off the ground, we made for our own lines. But first we would have to cross no-man's land. The sky went ballistic all around us. Anti-aircraft fire exploded from every angle. To my absolute horror, a burst of flak caught Klaiber! "Klaiber's been hit! Going down-" Those were the last words I ever heard from him. Now I was alone. I weaved right and left, desperately trying to dodge the bursts of flak. Up ahead, to my shock a massive dogfight swirled. Dr 1s, Camels, and Albatrosses engaged in a lethal struggle a mere hundred feet off the shell-pocked wasteland. I looked behind me. No! An Albatross was racing up behind me, too fast to outrun. Panic welled up inside me as I turned hard left, trying to get him to overshoot and miss. This momentarily threw off his aim. I continued my turn, blood pounding through my temples. For an instant, he flashed across my gunsights! I pulled the trigger! He flinched away, trailing fluids. I had holed his fuel tank. But he was experienced. He quickly turned right. I vainly tried to convert my hard left turn to a hard right. My Camel shuddered and leveled out. Curse the Camel's instability! My anger chilled to cold fear as bullets whipped through my plane... Augh! ...and through me! In my peripheral vision I could see 2 Dr 1s. They're here for me. I thought as I started to go numb. Instinctively, I went back into a tight left turn. The Dr 1s could not - or chose not to - follow me. Why bother? I was at their mercy anyway. The Dr 1s might not have followed, but the Albatross did. Doggedly, he turned with me. My heart sank as I saw him pull into a shooting position. I would have pushed my aircraft further, but I was doing all I could do. Bullets again. Spars and struts snapped. Wings folded. This is the end. I hit the ground. Pain! Searing pain that I could feel even through the numbness. Yet the pain didn't stop or fade. I still lived! ..... I finished writing the last sentence, unconsciously tracing the scars on my shoulder. I smiled, remembering how a platoon of British soldiers on scout found me a couple hours later and brought me back to friendly territory. Come to think of it, it had to be Providence that those guys had found me so far out in no-man's land. I shook my head, laughing softly to myself. Really, it was Providence that I survived at all. I closed my notebook, set it on the desk, and leaned back in my chair. Writing for that long had taken its toll on me, reminding me that I wasn't as young as I used to be. I folded my hands behind my head and closed my eyes. The sound of birds singing outside my window was all I heard as I drifted off to sleep.

Aw, thanks guys! I'll probably post it later today.

Thanks for posting! Loved the leftmost tanker's jaunty salute at the end.

Thank you for the responses gentlemen. My parents and I looked over what you had to say and they've given me the green light! Application submitted: http://forum.jg1.org/topic/2951-jg1-application/

What is your Timezone - Central United States Do you have a joystick or HOTAS? - Yes. I have a Logitech Extreme 3D stick & Saitek Combat Pro rudder pedals. Do you have TeamSpeak installed, as well as a working microphone? - Yes. Do you have TrackIR, or a FreeTrack system for view control? - Yes. I have TrackIR 5 with the baseball hat clip. What sims are you currently flying? - Currently I fly Rise of Flight. However, I do own Battle of Stalingrad and Cliffs of Dover. I haven't learned to fly these yet, but I might in the future. How did you hear about JG1? - I posted on the New Wings forum inquiring about squadrons I might join and Vonrd let me know about JG1. Is there anything else that you'd like us to know? - I am 19 and a college student, majoring in history. - I enjoy learning about military aircraft, especially from WWI and WWII. - I own all currently-available aircraft for ROF and have flown 'em all at least once. - My favorite planes are all the Albatrosses, Fokker DVII/DVIIF , Halberstadt CL.II, and Sopwith Strutter B. As you can see, most of my favorites are Central, so I am working to better myself in many of the Allied crates. - Right now, I'm trying to learn the SPADs, with mixed success. - I am not a spectacular pilot, but neither am I a noob. I've been flying ROF for 2 years more or less, so I guess you could say I am an average pilot. - My situational awareness is not great, especially in Wargrounds, so I could definitely improve there. - I will generally be able to participate in squad events 1 night a week. Sometimes I might be able to do 2. Here is what I would like to join JG1 for: 1) To become a better pilot. 2) To be part of a goal-oriented team in servers like Wargrounds. 3) To become familiar in all the ROF planes and enjoy 'em to their fullest. 4) To relax a little and have some fun. 5) To learn new skills like formation flying, team tactics, flying new planes and adjusting response curves (never have wrapped my head around those yet lol). 6) To extend my virtual lives and those of my teammates.

Hey thanks for your responses, Britchot and Klaiber! Just to clarify, when you mentioned Monday/Wednesday practices, is that the same thing that I've done a few times with you guys on Wargrounds, or is it something different? Also, how does one request a "leave of absence"? I might have to once the school year picks up again.

Dear JG1 pilots, I have had the opportunity to fly with you on Wargrounds several times now and have thus far enjoyed my time with you. Before submitting an application however, I have some (more) questions. (In case you haven't already noticed, I like to know what I'm getting into before I jump in lol.): 1) How many times a week am I expected to fly? While some squadrons say that "you don't have to be at every flight", non-participation is generally looked down upon with them. 2) From my times on Teamspeak with you, I learned that you are a tournament-oriented group. This in itself leads to a few questions: - Am I expected to participate in tournaments? - Do these tournaments take the place of your usual Monday/Wednesday dates? - How often per week are tournament missions flown? - Can I fly in some missions and not others? - I know some squads go into rigorous training prior to flying in any tournament. Would I have to do this? 3) I know new JG1 recruits go through training/orientation missions. How often per week do these occur? Who determines what days these occur? How long do they last? Although I would love to spend more time flying in squad events, I am afraid my schedule and my family will need to take first place. I would be available only 1 or maybe 2 nights a week for squadron events. My parents don't want this to take up my whole summer, and I have three wonderful younger brothers who deserve my attention and involvement in their lives. I don't want to leave them hanging just so I can fly more. Thanks for allowing me to tag along on Wargrounds the last couple of times. Hopefully when these questions are answered, my parents and I will better understand how my summer will look if I join JG1. S! HotleadColdfeet (Rookie Ace online)