Yes, time for another WOW!! thread guys.
I wasn't going to bother posting how great I thought/think P3 is as the OBD guys heads must be big enough already
but after a mission last night I felt I had add to the praise.
I've got several pilots enlisted, one to muck about with trying out different planes, one flying a Bristol Scout campaign and now one enlisted to fly the Biff.
2nd Lieutenant Eric Leicester in 88 RAF flying from Capelle-La-Grande in March 1918, out to defeat the Hun and put the final nail into his coffin......or is that in my dreams! Anyhow, having enlisted, it was off to the briefing room for the first mission to be allocated....a brief flight on our side of the lines patrolling the front sector and looking for anything unusual, no need for bombs just keep it light and agile.....a piece of cake!!
The met officer said variable weather......rain, then less rain, then more rain is what he actually meant, good job I'm British and understand what the term 'weather' really means
So we take off, me in 2nd spot and lurch up into the air....round the airfield for the 3 craft to form up then off towards the lines climbing ever up into the clouds and the rain. Up, up, up to 10,000 ft and then......breakthrough above the rain and clear(ish) skies. Through a break in the clouds below I could see the front line, the huge brown scar across the land is unmistakable but then in front was that something in that cloud up ahead, it was hard to tell as the upper wing blocked my view...I looked around to check where the rest of the flight were, just below and in front of me, they don't seem to be reacting, maybe it was nothing........or not....as the flight of 6 Pfalz DIIIA's drop out of the cloud cover and straight onto us.
My gunner did sterling work fending them off, me......well I wasn't so good, but I did get a few rounds into a couple of the swine before my front end was peppered with bullets. I tried to looke round to see where the shots were comming from, but couldn't see past the [linestrike]gunners fat[/linestrike] gunner, when I looked forward again.....what's that, oil, all over the windscreen?? That's a new one, for a second all I could think was, Wow, well done OBD, then suddenly those thoughts were replaced with c***....oil leak, which was confirmed when the sounds of my smooth running engine were replaced by the sounds of 10lb scrap iron in a tumble dryer (suspiciously like my old Ford Fiesta, but that's another story). All thoughts turned to the ground now, where was I? Could I get to an airbase? Could I even get down in one piece?
8000ft later I was on the deck with an engine that might as well have been made of chocolate, airspeed was dying rapidly and a safe airbase was quite literally miles away, at least I'd make it down on our side of the lines......a quick check of the map and NO!! I was heading 'sausage side' as they say, with every appendage crossed I gunned the bag of bolts back into life and tried to get as close to home as I could, my gunner then leapt back into action as a Hun craft tried to get an easy kill, fourtunately warding him off as I saw a patch of empty ground.......tree stumps everywhere I dropped into the only empty space just as the engine died for the final time.......were we safe? or was it sourkraut and wieners for the rest of the war??
Turned out we made it to friendly fields and it was all home in time for tea and muffins after 27 minutes of hair raising action.
THANK YOU OBD.
P1 was good, P2 was better, P3 was........well worth the wait. :ernae:
I wasn't going to bother posting how great I thought/think P3 is as the OBD guys heads must be big enough already
but after a mission last night I felt I had add to the praise.I've got several pilots enlisted, one to muck about with trying out different planes, one flying a Bristol Scout campaign and now one enlisted to fly the Biff.
2nd Lieutenant Eric Leicester in 88 RAF flying from Capelle-La-Grande in March 1918, out to defeat the Hun and put the final nail into his coffin......or is that in my dreams! Anyhow, having enlisted, it was off to the briefing room for the first mission to be allocated....a brief flight on our side of the lines patrolling the front sector and looking for anything unusual, no need for bombs just keep it light and agile.....a piece of cake!!
The met officer said variable weather......rain, then less rain, then more rain is what he actually meant, good job I'm British and understand what the term 'weather' really means
So we take off, me in 2nd spot and lurch up into the air....round the airfield for the 3 craft to form up then off towards the lines climbing ever up into the clouds and the rain. Up, up, up to 10,000 ft and then......breakthrough above the rain and clear(ish) skies. Through a break in the clouds below I could see the front line, the huge brown scar across the land is unmistakable but then in front was that something in that cloud up ahead, it was hard to tell as the upper wing blocked my view...I looked around to check where the rest of the flight were, just below and in front of me, they don't seem to be reacting, maybe it was nothing........or not....as the flight of 6 Pfalz DIIIA's drop out of the cloud cover and straight onto us.
My gunner did sterling work fending them off, me......well I wasn't so good, but I did get a few rounds into a couple of the swine before my front end was peppered with bullets. I tried to looke round to see where the shots were comming from, but couldn't see past the [linestrike]gunners fat[/linestrike] gunner, when I looked forward again.....what's that, oil, all over the windscreen?? That's a new one, for a second all I could think was, Wow, well done OBD, then suddenly those thoughts were replaced with c***....oil leak, which was confirmed when the sounds of my smooth running engine were replaced by the sounds of 10lb scrap iron in a tumble dryer (suspiciously like my old Ford Fiesta, but that's another story). All thoughts turned to the ground now, where was I? Could I get to an airbase? Could I even get down in one piece?
8000ft later I was on the deck with an engine that might as well have been made of chocolate, airspeed was dying rapidly and a safe airbase was quite literally miles away, at least I'd make it down on our side of the lines......a quick check of the map and NO!! I was heading 'sausage side' as they say, with every appendage crossed I gunned the bag of bolts back into life and tried to get as close to home as I could, my gunner then leapt back into action as a Hun craft tried to get an easy kill, fourtunately warding him off as I saw a patch of empty ground.......tree stumps everywhere I dropped into the only empty space just as the engine died for the final time.......were we safe? or was it sourkraut and wieners for the rest of the war??
Turned out we made it to friendly fields and it was all home in time for tea and muffins after 27 minutes of hair raising action.
THANK YOU OBD.
P1 was good, P2 was better, P3 was........well worth the wait. :ernae:
