Newcomer's best MP sortie to date, WoL server.

April 4, 2017

This may be a long read.

Between various sims I have endured quite a many hours of flight in the last year or two without much guidance from other players and it's only recently I'm starting to really "feel" the planes I fly.. and I don't just mean because of the fact that I picked up an FFB stick =x. Mostly been flying solo, not that I want to.. just need to find English speaking players to fly with. That being said, doing the research for myself without the opportunity to wingman for someone with experience it's taken quite a while for concepts to really sink in. So while this may be a walk in the park for some of you.. I'm feeling a little proud of myself right now. I'm used to getting my butt kicked so far. So, I hope if you read this you enjoy my story.. I wish I had been recording.

I spawn in a BF-109 F-4 next to about 4-5 other BF-109's. I wait for them to start taking off and follow them as I tend to try to do despite not being on voice with them. I ended up in formation with a couple of them.. and it's one of few experiences I have to fly on someone's wing. At first I paid attention to only the guy up front, I lost a little bit of speed and saw there was another behind him so I kept myself in position to where I could see both of their 6's.

As we fly near the border, the lead breaks right towards friendly ground units I'm not even sure where I was on the map, below is an IL-2 heading towards a bridge. Lead dives, I follow suit in second position. Lead takes shots, on my screen they were misses, he pulls up from his dive and I take shots at the IL-2. I'm unsure if I hit or miss. I pull up to make way for #3 if he's still behind me. I lose sight of the IL-2 and make several passes over it's target area passing by the friendly 109's once or twice. I think we all lost him in the treelines. My guess is at this point that the friendly BF-109 responded to seeing enemy fighters and headed that way, because I lost sight of them. I hovered above the IL-2's previous target area for a minute or two, lessened my altitude and saw a plane heading my way in the distance. I regain my altitude and I'm not sure if it was the same IL-2 or a new one, but I get above him, let him go under me, and roll in on him as he goes beneath. My approach is bad, I pull up for a displacement roll and realign myself, and notice a furball in the distance 4 or more planes tracers in the air about 8-10km off. The IL-2 is trying to point his guns at me, making tight turns, I dive on him looking at his propeller coming towards me. I don't even remember if i fired shots on pass two. But I pull up and keep eyes on him, he goes low and turns and I position myself behind him. He has no tail gunner. I get close and hold the trigger for 3 seconds. He smokes.. pieces fly off.. he hits the ground. Pilot is dead.

Someone in chat says "enemies 612." I was near by.. flew past it without realizing and started chasing a friendly bomber attacking a target. I got close, saw it was German and held fire. A german fighter approaches to protect the bomber, sees I'm friendly and flies right by. I hadn't seen enemies yet so I began to follow the fighter to help with the escort and again in chat "enemies 612". I start heading south towards it, I'm between 5-10km out, scanning the skies. I didn't see anything until I was within 5km of them. Then I saw the tracers.. Then I saw the smoke. I couldn't tell what was what.

I believe they were P-40's chasing a BF-109. The BF-109 was smoking. There's another fight going on above me, a P-40 chasing a German fighter. All I could recognize was the German, and it was the P-40's shots that sealed his fate. I chased him.. he was trying to zoom up towards the german, as he starts to stall I get close and squeeze the trigger very briefly..I see the smoke from hits as I pass him, look behind me and nothing but black smoke. The P-40 pilot has either bailed or died and the plane is going down. I turn my attention below me and see the smoke trail I saw earlier. I wasn't sure who was who yet in that fight. I see another plane start to chase the plane that is smoking. I get close attempting to identify and initially was under the impression it was german. I followed it as if I were flying in formation as it chased the smoking plane.. as we got near I saw the smoking plane was definitely german, most likely a BF-109. I thought the plane I was following was just getting back into his position in formation. Then I see him fire shots, I zoom in further and see the stars on his wings and tail.

The smoking german breaks right, I'm trying to get in position to get the p-40 off his tail. The turn is too sharp for me, I pull up for a yoyo or displacement roll and they turn underneath me. I swoop down on the p-40, squeeze a small burst and black smoke erupts from his plane. I didn't see a chute, just pieces of his plane so I continue following him down until about 500m where I watch him crash into the treeline and explode.

The smoking BF-109 is still alive.. trail of white smoke behind him. I try to ensure he sees my wings as he goes evasive, after what appears to be a moment of panic.. he straightens up and starts flying home. Then the map ended. I so wanted to see that smoking German land.. and I'd have loved to land myself.

I know the poor IL-2 and the two P-40's never really stood a chance against a flight of BF-109 F-4.. but this is probably my most successful sortie on an expert MP server.. and it's a nice experience compared to flying around solo getting my rear handed to me. To the pilots I killed. S! To the German fighters involved. S!

Thanks for giving me an awesome experience in combat flight simming. I hope people enjoy this chapter of my simming story.. not that I plan to share all of them in this way.