J
Jimko
Guest
One of the reasons that I’ve always considered the cost of OFF P3 to be such a great deal is the fact that with this phenomenal sim comes an outstanding amount of direct, readily available support from the development team…unlike any other that I’ve seen.
Since the topic of roll rates and FMs has been raised by others, I’ll add some comments for future considerations by Winder, Polovski, and team.
I know that the development of flight models for a sim like this one must be a daunting task and trying to emulate the flight characteristics of so many ac that are not readily available today is a challenge. More importantly, perhaps, is the fact that in the sim there has to be some sense of relative realistic flight modeling, ie. how the ac types behave in realistic flight characteristics as compared to each other…a BIG challenge!
It’s likely that no one is ever completely happy with the final result. As in the old adage “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, so is the perception of sim flight modeling. Many of us rely solely on past written biographies and the descriptions of flight characteristics experienced by the pilots. We all develop our own notions of how they flew. Having said that, the developers still have done an amazing job considering the scope of the project. I certainly am not critical of the results, but like others, I wish for some future ‘fine tuning’, at least for my own pleasure.
It would be wonderful if I , for example, could easily modify the roll rate of my favourite kite, the Camel, just for my own use… to satisfy the impressions that I’ve developed about how this ac behaved. At the same time, some of her habits were rather mean and could make flying the Camel in a sim near impossible, although some of us might like to try even that challenge.
Victor Yeates, the author of “Winged Victory” gave some good impressions of what flying the Camel was like. It is generally accepted that although his book is fiction, not only did he choose to write a fictionalized account of WW1 flying experience rather than a biography but he also drew heavily upon his personal experiences as a Camel pilot. So I take what he has said about flying it to be a valid, honest description.
Many of us have read his book, but I’ll quote a few of his comments here about flying the Camel:
Re training:
“Camels were wonderful fliers when you had got used to them, which took about three months of hard flying. At the end of that time you were either dead, a nervous wreck, or the hell of a pilot and a terror to Huns…”
Re turns:
“And in the more legitimate matter of vertical turns, nothing in the skies could follow in so tight a circle...”
Re the half-roll (Split S):
“The same with the half-roll. Nothing would half-roll like a Camel. A twitch of the stick and flick of the rudder and you were on your back. The nose dropped at once and you pulled out having made a complete reversal of direction in the least possible time.
Thomson, the squadron stunt expert told him that it (half-roll) was just the first half of a roll followed by the second half of a loop; the only stunt useful in fighting. If you were going the wrong way, it was the quickest known method of returning in your slipstream.”
Re the loop (he didn’t like looping a Camel)
“But a Camel had to be flown carefully round with exactly the right amount of left rudder, or else it would rear and buck and hang upside down and flop and spin.”
Re general flight:
“…a Camel had to be held in flying position all the time, and was out of it in a flash. It was nose light, having a rotary engine weighing next to nothing per horse power, and was rigged tail heavy so that you had to be holding her down all the time. Take your hand off the stick and it would rear right up with a terrific jerk and stand on its tail.”
Re ground strafing (which he hated due to ground anti-ac machine gun fire):
“Unfortunately, they were good machines for ground-strafing. They could dive straight down on anything, and when a few feet off the ground, go straight up again.”
Re speed:
“…a Camel was a wonderful machine in a scrap. If only it had been fifty per cent faster! There was the rub. A Camel could neither catch anything except by surprise, nor hurry away from an awkward situation, and seldom had the option of accepting or declining combat…You couldn’t have everything.”
In his book he has a few observations about German planes such as the DR1 being able to suddenly climb like a “lift”.
Interesting comments about the Camel. I’ll happily settle for at least a faster roll rate…someday, please, as OFF keeps evolving!
Thanks for the continued great work and excellent support OFF team!
Since the topic of roll rates and FMs has been raised by others, I’ll add some comments for future considerations by Winder, Polovski, and team.
I know that the development of flight models for a sim like this one must be a daunting task and trying to emulate the flight characteristics of so many ac that are not readily available today is a challenge. More importantly, perhaps, is the fact that in the sim there has to be some sense of relative realistic flight modeling, ie. how the ac types behave in realistic flight characteristics as compared to each other…a BIG challenge!
It’s likely that no one is ever completely happy with the final result. As in the old adage “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, so is the perception of sim flight modeling. Many of us rely solely on past written biographies and the descriptions of flight characteristics experienced by the pilots. We all develop our own notions of how they flew. Having said that, the developers still have done an amazing job considering the scope of the project. I certainly am not critical of the results, but like others, I wish for some future ‘fine tuning’, at least for my own pleasure.
It would be wonderful if I , for example, could easily modify the roll rate of my favourite kite, the Camel, just for my own use… to satisfy the impressions that I’ve developed about how this ac behaved. At the same time, some of her habits were rather mean and could make flying the Camel in a sim near impossible, although some of us might like to try even that challenge.
Victor Yeates, the author of “Winged Victory” gave some good impressions of what flying the Camel was like. It is generally accepted that although his book is fiction, not only did he choose to write a fictionalized account of WW1 flying experience rather than a biography but he also drew heavily upon his personal experiences as a Camel pilot. So I take what he has said about flying it to be a valid, honest description.
Many of us have read his book, but I’ll quote a few of his comments here about flying the Camel:
Re training:
“Camels were wonderful fliers when you had got used to them, which took about three months of hard flying. At the end of that time you were either dead, a nervous wreck, or the hell of a pilot and a terror to Huns…”
Re turns:
“And in the more legitimate matter of vertical turns, nothing in the skies could follow in so tight a circle...”
Re the half-roll (Split S):
“The same with the half-roll. Nothing would half-roll like a Camel. A twitch of the stick and flick of the rudder and you were on your back. The nose dropped at once and you pulled out having made a complete reversal of direction in the least possible time.
Thomson, the squadron stunt expert told him that it (half-roll) was just the first half of a roll followed by the second half of a loop; the only stunt useful in fighting. If you were going the wrong way, it was the quickest known method of returning in your slipstream.”
Re the loop (he didn’t like looping a Camel)
“But a Camel had to be flown carefully round with exactly the right amount of left rudder, or else it would rear and buck and hang upside down and flop and spin.”
Re general flight:
“…a Camel had to be held in flying position all the time, and was out of it in a flash. It was nose light, having a rotary engine weighing next to nothing per horse power, and was rigged tail heavy so that you had to be holding her down all the time. Take your hand off the stick and it would rear right up with a terrific jerk and stand on its tail.”
Re ground strafing (which he hated due to ground anti-ac machine gun fire):
“Unfortunately, they were good machines for ground-strafing. They could dive straight down on anything, and when a few feet off the ground, go straight up again.”
Re speed:
“…a Camel was a wonderful machine in a scrap. If only it had been fifty per cent faster! There was the rub. A Camel could neither catch anything except by surprise, nor hurry away from an awkward situation, and seldom had the option of accepting or declining combat…You couldn’t have everything.”
In his book he has a few observations about German planes such as the DR1 being able to suddenly climb like a “lift”.
Interesting comments about the Camel. I’ll happily settle for at least a faster roll rate…someday, please, as OFF keeps evolving!
Thanks for the continued great work and excellent support OFF team!
