-Hawkeye-

That said, there are at least some bomber pilots who don't like the escort idea so much. They've become so sneaky and knowledgeable about target approaches and such, that they don't want you around to actually draw the enemy in when they might otherwise have come in and escaped unnoticed. I don't know if, or how many, of those types we have here. All I know is, if they want escort, I'm very happy to oblige. In any case, it's very hard to figure out the exact type of flight that's going to offer the best possibility of complete success. Although it may be best for the escorting fighters to have the two-seater(s) high so that they can offer the best protection against enemy fighters, that doesn't even guarantee they can stop a fast-mover enemy before they're able to effectively disable the planes you're trying to protect. If the idea is to sneak in low and fast, the escorting fighters are pretty much sitting ducks and not a lot of help. One thing I've always been adamant about is that having the greatest number of planes around an enemy target that is being attacked, is the best protection by far, against being killed by the protecting AAA. The more it has to keep track of, the less effective it is against any one plane. One thing that's obviously worked for us in the past, is relatively large groups of 2-seaters that protect each other at the same time as distracting the defenses. This has the added benefit of making the rear gunners more effective due to their massed firepower, and the inability of the attacking enemy fighters to concentrate their fire on all of them at once. But it's necessary for the group to think more like fighters and turn in on any enemy that presents, and be good marksmen with their front guns too. That makes them a dangerous group to deal with. At this point in time, I think we're basically using the same tactics they did in WWII, in terms of fighter/bomber cooperation or support. Back then the belief was that fighters were most effective when they could roam free to engage the enemy on their own terms. The bombers flew as their own groups and tried to support each other as best they could. Is that the best thing we can do within RoF? A lot can change based on the plane sets involved. Interested to hear everybody's opinion on this. S!

Very interesting, enjoyable 2nd video. I think you hit it on the nose when you said you needed to stabilize your plane for more accurate shooting. Great SA during the whole thing. The kill total doesn't reflect the action level of those sorties! Thumbs up!

Ha! I knew it wouldn't be long. Great job Centerline, on the beginning of a long line of victories! S!

Beautiful! Almost as good as having been there!

Zounds!!

Great job, guys! S!

All the best, Barton, Centerline! I would say may your luck hold out, but getting out of a 3 or 4 on one not only alive, but as the winner, is not luck. Salute!

They really have worked out a ton of issues with drivers and such since it first came out. It really was good that you waited but were still able to upgrade for free. Hopefully it will work out well for Klaiber too, when he finally upgrades.

Sure I can tell you what it's like from experience. Mostly the first thing I see is a lot of blood or oil, or both; then not a lot happens after that except me dying.

Best video ever ! I can see you need me around though, if for nothing else than aircraft recognition.... N28's are SPADs, Hanriots are Nieuports, Albs are Nieuports, SPADs are N28's....LOL Real bummer about Britchot He had an excellent set of sorties going, and it just goes to show you how these streaks can end through no fault of your own (that guy trying to turn fight with a SPAD, going for a shot at all costs and obviously not caring much at all about his own virtual life); so I wish you continued luck Barton, you sure have some great positive Karma going there!

LOL that is SO funny!! I like her!

Outstanding, everybody! What an excellent job you're doing! Keep up the good work!

Isn't that what the wound badges are?

The I.M. is a very good bomber, however slow. The challenge is escorting it well enough so that it can do its job. It's a shame that the devs left its defensive armament options so limited and in some aspects, hard to use. It was known for its greatly varied defensive armament configurations, perhaps more so than any other heavy bomber in RoF. We're given a specific model which is apparently strictly interpreted as to how it was armed. A later model (or variation) had an actual tail gunner sitting atop that huge tail plane. How much fun would that be?

Thanks for considering JG1, Ricky! Our CO Klaiber will send you a reply ASAP, he's a busy man for sure! S!

My favorite Alb D.Va skin !

Really well done! I've always considered the Halb D.II the better of the two planes, once the maneuvering begins. I've always had the impression that the N11 is a somewhat better climber, and is also faster. Most people I think would say that the gun on the Halb is better, easier to be accurate with, and with more ammo, and no reloads. However you really have a great handle on shooting with the N11, and showed the potential of it's great rate of fire. It's amazing to see how easily the wings came off both Halbs, with accurate shot placement. I swear if it had been me closing on that second plane with the N11, one bullet would have fired and then a reload, giving the guy the opportunity he needed at ground level to do what the Halb does best to turn the tables....such is my luck (or bullet usage) I'll be honest, I never really thought about the roll on the N11 as a way to try to get an advantage over the Halb D.II. I guess I never considered the two planes much different in that aspect. You obviously were just plain better at performing the scissors, using the nose-to-nose concept and timing of your reverses far better than I ever do. If it had been me in the Halb, I think I would have used a continuous turn and not tried to follow your scissors, once I realized how good you were at it. You may have been forced to take a passing shot head-on, or maybe been just short of a firing solution on my six, which I might have tried to increase into an eventual firing solution for myself. In any case, the Halb is extremely dangerous with a pull-up shot and so can afford to sacrifice altitude to get itself in position. It's really great to see you performing in an Entente crate instead of the usual Alb, and an early, at that....and doing just as well. Very many pilots out there don't bother with the earlies and think there's nothing much you can do with them. Personally I think planes like the N11 are extremely challenging, and therefore the most fun. Awesome work! S!

Great work as usual, Barton!

Just run the executable and accept the defaults works fine. If you have special considerations like a drive you use for games only, that's something you have to decide.

Well done! Good publicity

The RoF response curves utility is the best way to judge. If you check each axis and it moves smoothly from 0 to 100% consistently and repeatably, there's no problem with the stick. If you see it jumping or acting unstably at any point in it's range, it's the stick, and as others have stated, if you have pots instead of Hall sensors, that can happen, although I've seen it happen by poor wire connections on the pots themselves. I wouldn't suspect USB connection unless you lost functionality altogether, and had it normalize after unplugging/re-plugging.

Ashamed to say I don't know what the Eagle of Lille (event) is.

Lipfert, was wondering if you had any feedback on reliability. I've had a set of the white MFG Crosswind pedals for a couple of years now; like you, I love them. However, after I recently built a new machine, I started having troubles. Although they installed and eventually operated perfectly, it was immediately apparent that my new computer would not boot up with the pedals plugged into the USB. After trying many different ports of the 8 USB 3.0 / 2 USB 2.0 ports that I have available on the back, I found one that would allow the machine to boot up reliably. However, there were a few instances where my pedals just quit working while I was in the game. The last time it happened, I took off with them working while flying a Dr.1, and when I dove in to attack an enemy, the first turn I tried to make it became immediately apparent that they had quit working. That really pissed me off.... So I tried again to find a reliable port. My new motherboard uses 3 different USB controllers; Intel, VIA, and one other. I grabbed the front panel USB's fed from the MB pin headers and routed them to the back instead, via a card slot adapter. I had high confidence this would solve the problem, but it didn't. By reading up on my MB's reviews, it seems the USB controllers leave a lot to be desired, although the Intel ones are usually considered reliable. Bottom line is that I never once had a problem with my old MB or machine, with these pedals. I'm beginning to suspect that the pedals must draw quite a bit of current, compared to most other USB devices. For now my workaround for this problem is to just leave the pedals unplugged from the USB when I boot up. Then, I just plug them in after all is running normally, and they reconnect just fine, and work trouble-free. My last resort is going to be to install a separate PCI-e USB expansion card, which will have it's own USB controller. This little card will provide 2 additional USB ports on the back, and it also has a direct power feed via a Molex connector right on the card, so it shouldn't really have any issues that are caused by the MB. If this last thing doesn't prove reliable, I think I'm going to have to start blaming the pedals themselves. That would really be a shame considering how expensive they were. Anyway, just wanted to see if you had heard of any similar issues. Thanks!

Respect! Hopefully, you see my point.... Nothing to fear from Windows 10, if you're building a new machine or just want to upgrade. For those comfortable with what they have and see no reason to change, gotta respect that! For those who've taken the plunge, there is help available for the asking. You can bet, if you're having some problem, you're not the first one! Probably over half of pilots here are using it. S!

vW, I hope you'll check with us next time before you do anything as radical as ditching your entire operating system. If your joystick got screwed up because of an automatic Windows driver update, it's easy to roll back the driver to what you had originally. Also, there is a setting in Windows 10 with which you can tell it to NEVER update drivers automatically, so that your problem would never happen again, for your joystick or any other hardware in or connected to your computer. It's a LOT easier than doing what you're now going through. Eventually, you're going to have to go back to Windows 10 anyway. Sorry for all your troubles!