Dolphin

[BadBud]

Never really cared for flying the Dolphin before......................until now. Good show!

Still love the D.VII. Another good show!!

BadBud

[CanadaOne]

Yep!

 

Remarked in the other thread how nice the Dolphin cockpit was with the brass and wood, and the visibility is fantastic. And six machine guns. My kinda plane.

 

I bought FC half because I kinda wanted it and half just to complete my BOX collection. But the planes are a riot and to fly and absolutely top shelf in eye candy. And the low and slow and open cockpits really make for some nice sightseeing flights. Damn good fun.

[HagarTheHorrible]

Cockpit does look good and once you lose the wings the views are about as good as you might hope for in a WW1 kite.  That said it manouvers like a pig so having the less restricted views dosen't help that much.

[BadBud]

Flies fine for me. No lose of wings yet after a couple of hours of air combat with the D.VII.

BadBud

[Zooropa_Fly]

I think it feels better than the RoF Dolphin, a bit smoother and high yo-yo's seem to be a strong point after a couple of goes.

Don't think it stalls quite as easily either, although kick that rudder too hard.. and she still flops over.

Easy to land, and the views are good

Be interesting to see where it ultimately rates in the pecking order of things.

 

Now if only some kind soul would (buy the game and) tell us how to get out of that damn stall !!

[BMA_Hellbender]

37 minutes ago, Zooropa_Fly said:

Now if only some kind soul would (buy the game and) tell us how to get out of that damn stall !!

 

Ah, that blasted spin! By far one of the uglier sides of the Rise of Flight legacy. Only the Pfalz D.XII has it worse, in my opinion.

 

It's really nothing but a more severe version of the Camel spin, which requires lessening the severity of the spinning motion through oscillation followed by countering with rudder and downward elevator the moment your nose reaches the highest and slowest point of the spin. The question is: rudder into the spin or against the spin?

 

The laws of physics clearly dictate against the spin, but I've had more success with going into the spin instead. I would call the devs for this to be fixed, although stalls and spins are amongst the most difficult aerodynamic states to simulate in a flightsim engine. So for all intents and purposes, we have an "in-engine accurate" spin, rather than an "aerodynamically accurate" scripted spin found in older sims such as Red Baron 3D and IL-2 1946 (et al.).

 

Best to avoid spinning her altogether for now, which is really not that hard to do.

[J2_Trupobaw]

The Dolphin spin is much more docile than in RoF; left spin is easily recoverable from and presents no danger at all, and right spin is much more managable. 

In general, Dolphin is much less clumsy than its RoF incarnation, closer to the "British Albatros" it's supposed to be.

[US103_Baer]

Noticed that revs weren't increasing when in a dive with engine throttled right back. Even at 140mph rpms sat around 400-500.

Anyone get same?

 

Didn't think much of it at the time but then read 1PL_Lucas post about the DVII doing something similar.

[US103_Baer]

Ok flown it PvP  a few times now. While nice to fly around in generally, at the edge of it's envelope it quickly reverts to type, dropping into nasty, unannounced spins.

It does fight vertical fairly well and sustained turn radius is good so a more calm and experienced pilot may be able to get the best out of it. 

[HagarTheHorrible]

30 minutes ago, US103_Baer said:

Ok flown it PvP  a few times now. While nice to fly around in generally, at the edge of it's envelope it quickly reverts to type, dropping into nasty, unannounced spins.

It does fight vertical fairly well and sustained turn radius is good so a more calm and experienced pilot may be able to get the best out of it. 

 

The Dolphin should really come into it’s own at greater altitude,  where it was designed to operate.  While Albatri and Pflaz are struggling to get a grip ( anything over 3000m and optimum engine power) should become increasingly challenging, the Dolphin, with it’s speed ( power to weight), compact mass and generous wing area should be in a different league, able to circumscribe circles without the same loss of altitude of lesser mortals.  Even the thick winged D VII should be given a good run for it’s money, up high, while maybe not able to fly on the edge, or as close too, as the Fokker, it’s power to weight and wing loading should help it retain altitude in a turn if at the expense of increased angles.

[ZachariasX]

I find the rather nasty (at times) spin of the Flipper is well announced, you notice when it starts shuddering. To me, it is like a slow SPAD with a view. Whlie in principle it should be good up high, if used against the D.VII it can be difficult as I find the D.VII to be a clearly superior dogfighter. If the D.VII has some speed and altitude, it can turn on a dime, impossible to follow with the Dolphin. Also in contrast to the SPAD, you have to be careful to pull a lot of angles at high speed (where most of the planes turn remarkably well, especially the SPAD) for not shedding the wings. If the D.VII has altitude to make up for lost speed in thight, high AoA turns, it can get on the Flippers tail right away.

 

On the other hand, down low you can fly the Dolphin against the D.VII in the same way as you fly the Camel against the Dr.I. The Fokkers are hopleless to follow the climbing turn D.Vii vs Dolphin and Dr.I vs Camel. You then do so untill you gained enought altitude and angles (you get both!) to dive on them for the kill. The Dr.I however CAN follow the Flipper in the climbing turn and park himself comfortably close enough to shoot you with the pistol.

 

Online, I found the D.VII a rather interesting opponent for the Camel, as it can pull more maneuvers than the Pfalz that force the Camel beyond its capabilities, should the furry one try to follow much rather than sticking to its strenghts.

[Blitzen]

I really like the Dolphin now in FC after hating it in RoF. I fly VR and absolutely love the visibility from the open cockpit with no upper wing to get in the way of seeing things at 12o’clock . Yes I too have pulled the wings off & now just resist pulling too hard on the stick after a high speed dive after some hapless Hun.

 I find myself just grinning ear to ear while playing our still limited FC in QM’s .I can’t exactly say why...slower speed ,colorful markings different FM’s or simply that FC is doing a better job making playing it more fun & more immersive than RoF. I was all in with RoF and bought everything available for it.I loved the modeling but always thought the landscape & skyscape was so-so compared with say CloD or BoX and of course it didn’t have VR which to me is the biggest game changer.

[HagarTheHorrible]

I have to concur, having been rather (extremely) underwhelmed with the Dolphin in RoF, I now enjoy flying it (VR certainly helps).  I think I was overly harsh when it first appeared in FC, the glue holding on the wings seems to made of sterner stuff than it was back in the day, the only addage is that I have yet to fully discover if the wings are made with the same glass fittings if they get even the mearest whiff of a bullet or two, by comparisson the fokker VII seems to be built like the proverbial brick out house.