Thursday Night Fly-In video

[J99_Sizzlorr]

Dances with Fokkers...

[US103_Baer]

Thursday March 4th, 2021

 

 

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY 11th MARCH, 2021

 

Server full, 1000s of people on. Guess they all turned up for the Snow map huh?

 

So we didn't get to run the Spring Offensive map and adding insult to injury, we got snowed in for a full 3 hrs. But there was a lot of action at times and then at others you couldn't find anyone.

Great to see a full server!

 

 

 

Edited March 13, 2021 by US28_Baer

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

?so many pilots during a week (I stopped playing ww1 during week and switch to ww2 because i'm tired chasing 5 enemies) , what time is it the peak ?

[=IRFC=Gascan]

The Thursday Night Fly-in was popular last night. Pilots usually start getting online around between 20:00 and 21:00 Eastern Standard Time (US). That's UTC/GMT-5, so 0100-0200 Friday morning.

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY MAR 18th, 2021

 

Not a lot of rounds fired this week but plenty of tension in engagements.

There was a Long Snow Patrol, a 3PG flight does ground Attack, a DOP which went ok, fending off high D7fs which would bite but not swallow and a final scrap against high&low Fokkers. S!

 

Highlights timestamped in description

 

 

 

 

[Monostripezebra]

Some thursday sinppets from me

 

[No.23_Gaylion]

Excellent high alt bombing dude! And rear gunnery too!

 

That spad you bombed was Parsons I think lol.

 

I was the spad next to the camel and looked up to see you over the field and I barely finished flight fast enough lol

 

Funtimes

[=IRFC=kotori87]

I figured I should post these here, since they all took place on Thursday Night:

 

 

[Monostripezebra]

On 3/26/2021 at 2:35 PM, US213_Talbot said:

Excellent high alt bombing dude! And rear gunnery too!

 

That spad you bombed was Parsons I think lol.

 

I was the spad next to the camel and looked up to see you over the field and I barely finished flight fast enough lol

 

Funtimes

 

Thanks!

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY APRIL 1st, 2021

 

Light on numbers and action tonight. I guess expected with the long weekend ahead.

 

Started off with long high cat and mousing with 2 or 3 D7s. Neither side could really get an advantage though one Spad did have to return to base with a damaged engine after diving out.

Later we had a couple of engagements with J30's fine Fokker flyer and then one flight ran into a couple of D7s over the mud and dragged them to the others.

 

S! Happy Easter to all who celebrate

 

 

Timestamps in description

 

Edited April 2, 2021 by US28_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY 8th April, 2021

 

The 'Fokker-Free' Fly-in!

 

Tons of action as the Spring offensive map was tested. Central pilots seemed to be trying different tactics and testing aspects of the map so it wasn't a true ops night, but there were good scraps, even up at 3000m.

 

Most of the scraps occurred in the southern sector as the map was too big for the smaller player count. Targets, weather, clouds and layout were all excellent.

Without high D7s the SE5as and Spads were usually able to dictate when they wanted to fight, though the Albs, Pfalzs and Dr1s often sprung surprises with good formations and altitude. AAA over Central side was horrendous and several planes took direct hits.

 

Lots of fun and a bit of deja vu from RoF days when we did have varied time period maps.

S! all.

 

A million Timestamps in the desription.

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by US28_Baer

[JGr2/J5_Klugermann]

Total Turkey Shoot. I can't count how many times I heard PK'd on comms.  Biddle and Baer must have had a field day.

 

Perhaps balloon guns should be removed from the equation for Op. Michael.  Maybe 1PL as well, lol

Edited April 9, 2021 by J5_Klugermann

[No.23_Gaylion]

Just un-ban situational awareness

[US103_Baer]

9 hours ago, J5_Klugermann said:

Total Turkey Shoot. I can't count how many times I heard PK'd on comms.  Biddle and Baer must have had a field day.

 

Perhaps balloon guns should be removed from the equation for Op. Michael.  Maybe 1PL as well, lol

 

The Albs were toast for sure with this DM, but we had quite a few 'unaware' bounces too, so BG or .303 gonna have same result.

 

Honestly,  I'd focus on evasive maneuvers that make it hard for BnZers to land those hits in the first. The Pfalz and Dr1 are tough if you don't hit the pilot... and bring friends of course. 

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY 15th APRIL, 2020

 

Some good fights up high tonight with a flight of 3 D7s creating problems and opportunities.

Plus balloon attack and defense. S!

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by US28_Baer

[US103_Baer]

Thursday 13th May, 2021.

 

Quiet night and rusty as heck after a month not flying, but got into decent positions and didn't die.  

Timestamps in description

 

 

[US103_Baer]

Thursday May 20th, 2021

 

Quiet night. A nasty CL2, a good tangle in the clouds with Hangman, an unaware Fokker, but then a promising venture sausage-side was cut short by a disco to wingman.

 

Timestamps in description

 

 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2021 by US28_Baer

[JGr2/J5_Klugermann]

Thursdays dying a not too slow death.

[US103_Baer]

Yeah.  Tbh, whole FC is. 

What happens when you make changes that piss off core user group and don't address them.

[=IRFC=Gascan]

There was some decent action a bit earlier: afternoon for the Americans and evening for the Europeans. 76 Squadron and I got into some great fights with J5 over the recons. But ultimately, yes, Thursday night action hasn't been what it once was.

[US103_Baer]

Thursday 27th May, 2021.

 

Series of good scraps and chases amongst the clouds with high D7s tonight.

Some dumb DM issues of course, but the D7s were well flown and used the conditions well. S!

 

Timestamps in description

 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by US28_Baer

[=IRFC=Gascan]

That fight starting at about 1:32 was one of the most atmospheric fights I have ever had. Kotori signed off when the map changed, so I spawned in alone in a D7F. J5_Wolff had been on earlier, and I was hoping he was going to come back, so I borrowed a generic J5 skin. Then another D7F spawned in next to me, which I later learned was J30Hangman. Apparently I don't have the J30 skins (any chance they can get uploaded to HSD?), so I only saw the base D7F skin.

We took off and climbed together, climbing to about 4km. With no comms, it is difficult to tell what the other pilot is thinking, especially if there is no chain of command or designated flight lead. We wandered back and forth over Entente lines, peering down through the clouds. I had to constantly look up and check his position to make sure we didn't get separated too much. If either person wanted to change direction, it was done by gently veering off to the new direction. Once or twice, flak forced us to maneuver suddenly, but we got back in position.

Eventually, I saw something in a break in the clouds below: a flight of SPADs. To get Hangman's attention, I made a deliberate, sharp turn and pointed near the targets so it would be easier for him to spot them as well. I think we made an initial shallow dive towards them which caused them to break into two 2-ship elements. We then selected a pair of SPADs to engage and approached from about 4-5 o'clock. That's when I started my flight recorder. Now I am not very practiced doing steep dives in the D7F, so I had to spend more brain-power managing my engine in the dive compared to the SE5 I usually fly. We each picked a plane and dove in. My target (Talbot) broke off. Rather than make a severe turn to follow and take a low probability shot, I swapped to follow Hangman after his target (Patterson). Patterson continued, and Talbot turned back around since I was no longer chasing him. It was then that Hangman swapped over to Talbot, who was coming back our way. Since Patterson was continuing to run and I wouldn't be able to catch him, I turned to follow Hangman. We both fired a few bursts at Talbot. We both missed at that range, but forced him to turn away again and keep his distance. Hangman broke off the pursuit to chase Patterson again, so I followed suit. Again, Talbot turned back, and again Hangman turned to engage Talbot, who was forced to break off again.

This time, another pair of SPADs erupted from a cloud bank in front of us: Baer and Parsons. Baer turned and climbed rather than take a head-on pass, so we headed for Parsons. He, too, broke away from a head-on. While we charged the two new SPADs, Talbot turned back around looking for a shot at us while we were distracted. Unfortunately for him, Hangman noticed and we both turned into him. Closing fast at only 300m, Talbot couldn't break off in time and was forced into a dangerous head-to-head pass. He picked Hangman, who was hit a few times while dodging to the right. I was able to take some free shots and scored good hits on Talbot's SPAD. I took a few more shots as he dived away, but they missed. Now Parsons moved in to take a shot at Hangman. I broke off the fruitless pursuit of Talbot, and zoomed up to take a shot. Parsons was having none of it, and dove on me for a quick head-on pass transitioning into a dive to escape. With him diving and me zooming, we passed each other so close I could have read the gages in his cockpit, but neither of us scored any hits. At the peak of my zoom, I flipped the plane around to chase Parsons. He had just leveled off, and my burst of gunfire landed a couple hits before he dove away again.

Hangman was looking around for new targets when Baer dived in from his high 6 o'clock. Not wanting to get shot, Hangman naturally broke into a dive. This gave me a chance to zoom up at Baer for a long distance shot. The D7F can maintain control really well even right at the edge of a stall while prop-hanging. I landed most of a long burst at about 250m before stalling out and flipping over backwards. Unfortunately, this left me very slow with Baer now starting to dive on me. He got a burst off but missed. When he broke off, Hangman took the opportunity to shoot up at him, landing a few hits at about 200m and opening. At this point Patterson tried to zip through the fight at the same level. He didn't get a shot at Hangman, but I was able to get a few deflection shots into him at 50m. At the same time, Baer was diving after Hangman, who had stalled out and was diving to regain speed. When Baer broke off and zoomed back up, Hangman turned back around and both of us took the shot. At 250-300m, Hangman had a longer shot to make than mine at 75m and closing. Between the two of us, we scored numerous hits and wounded Baer.

Now both Talbot and Parsons came screaming back into the fight guns blazing. Parsons, further down, opened fire on Hangman from 250m as he stalled out. Talbot sprayed bullets in my direction while I followed Baer into his dive. This is where more experience diving the D7F would help: I couldn't follow the SPAD as closely as some other pilots might have been able to, so Baer was able to escape. A couple things happened here. Hangman turned away from Parsons to shoot up at Talbot, scoring hits while Parsons shot up Hangman in return. I turned my dive away from Baer and into Parsons and opened fire as he was starting a straight vertical dive. I hoped for a shot at Parsons, but I had so much speed that my plane began to shake and I had to ease out of the dive. Talbot followed me through this series of maneuvers, taking shots when he was able. Just as I was able to level off, I looked behind me and saw him at barely 15m about to fire. Then his wings tore off. With wing damage and very high speed after a dive, I imagine it was easy to overstress the wings when trying to get a shot at such close range.

At this point, the fight was over. We took a couple parting shots at Patterson, but he easily escaped. Hangman was pretty shot up. His upper wing was damaged and his plane was shaking. We took the opportunity to disengage and head home. An AI SE5 followed us back. I noticed it as we crossed the lines, and Hangman and I both turned to engage it. It was hardly a fight. I emptied the rest of my ammo into it, killed the pilot, and we headed home. I buggered the landing, crunching my left wings a bit, but the rest of the plane was intact.

The next flight, we did the same thing, but patrolled north along the lines. We turned back south and found a trio of SPADs a bit above us. I don't know if Hangman turned south because he saw them or not, but I didn't spot them until there was no chance to climb up to the same level. When one SPAD turned in to set up for a bounce I made a sharp turn towards him. This was both to alert Hangman that something was happening and to get ready for a vertical fight. I probably should have started descending to pick up speed as well, because I had no energy to dodge that first pass. It shredded my engine and I was basically out of the fight. I stuck around just in case I got an opportunity to shoot and to provide a second plane to distract the enemy (gotta spend time looking at me even if I don't attack). I think I made one feint at Baer and Patterson made one pass at me right after, but that was it. My engine quit on the way home, but I managed to land safely at the dogstart airfight. 

Overall, this flight was incredible. Without comms and without any real plan, we were still able to navigate, patrol, and locate the enemy. Once the fight broke out, we were able to perform amazing feats of teamwork, downing one plane and damaging three others in exchange for damage to one of ours and a landing accident back at the field. I really enjoy chatting with everyone while flying together, and the comms allow flights to form up and work together even if we get online at different times or launch at different times. Comms allow someone who was shot down to take off and rejoin the flight. However, flying without comms was a totally different and yet amazing experience. It really forced me to pay attention to my formation more, keeping track of my buddy. On comms, I can simply ask him what he's doing, or where he is. He can call out for help in a fight, or tell me if he wants us both to focus one target together or take two separate targets.

In the first fight, Talbot tore his wings off, and in the second fight, Parsons lost his wings. Talbot got shot pretty good and had a lot of speed after that steep dive. I can easily imagine why his wings got failed. The parser shows that Parsons got hit by flak before the fight, and then ripped his wings off in the initial dive. There are times when flak explodes close and does no damage and times when flak explodes far away that I don't notice, yet does damage. My best streak was lost when I made a diving attack not knowing that flak had shot at me and done damage. So yes, there are still issues with the DM. I'd like to think it was pure skill and coordination between Hangman and I that kicked your asses the first time around, but I know that the DM certainly made it a bit worse.

Salute to everyone involved. Hangman, it was great flying with you. 3PG, you guys make for some tough opponents. I always look forward to flying with or against you guys.

If anyone wants to see, I have the tacview and game track for this fight and the one after it (the one starting at 2:12 on Baer's video).

Edited May 28, 2021 by gascan
correct the start of the fight

[No.23_Gaylion]

It was actually stupid when my wings came off and further cemented my lack of desire in playing this game at all anymore. 

 

So long and thanks for all the fish.

[JGr2/J5_Klugermann]

Fly the DR1...you get extra wings to shed.

[JGr2/J5_Baeumer]

Great report!  Re the no comms experience....stay tuned....we hope to have a non comms mini event sometime in the not too distant future.

[US103_Baer]

@gascannice to hear it from your pov. Good work without comms too.

Talb got his 3rd DM event in 3 successive sessions I think, so can feel his frustration with devs.

 

First fight you guys used the double layer cloud well, so we couldn't get above you and were kind of forced into a sub-optimal co-alt fights and we never managed to get everyone engaged at same time. 

 

Hangman is excellent in a 1 v 2. He'll throw a few shots at A, then whip round to hit B in a head on,  knowing that an attack coming. 

 

You definitely caught me by surprise in the first fight after my last run on Hang. Last thing I expected to see was the other D7 coming up guns blazing as I run out of puff in the zoom. I ducked into the cockpit to try avoid the shots! Diving out you can see was a nightmare, real shot up trying to dive as steep as I dare but keeping wings straight.

 

Second scrap we saw you early and split to climb either side at distance.  Lost viz of course with all the cloud,  but figured you'd head north. This worked well as Patterson found you and we got a good pincer from high.

I hit you hard in first attack and thought you were heading home.  Parsons dived on Hang and his wings just flew off. It was bizarre and none of us including him realised he'd been damaged by AA, possibly friendly I guess. 

Patterson and I went to finish Hang, but he used the cloud well (again) and when he popped out he did his 1v2 thing again and put some holes in my wings. Your plan to stick around also wasn't helping us!  Hang did a great overshoot reversal on Patterson so I had to hope my wings stayed on and try help.  In the end Hang found a gap to dive out, a great fighting escape.  

 

I ended up enjoying the session. Combined tactics, action, jeopardy and drama.

 

Still, can't help imagine this had taken place pre-dm 'update' and the impact of damage was a lot more equal between planes. Anyway...the Snipe and SS will fix everything ?

[J30Hangman]

Salute to gascan and the 3PG,

Always looking for a good fight.

 

Salute

 

Hang.

[US103_Baer]

Thursday June 3rd, 2021

3hrs of the much-loved foggy, overcast Snow map, minus the snow.

Not many pilots at first but kind of filled out during the session.

 

Most of the night saw us defending from groups of D7s up at the cloudbase, but there was some good teamwork creating drag n bag opportunities from both sides. S! all.

 

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by US28_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY 10th JUNE, 2021

 

Lots of cat n mouse in the clouds with D7s. Caught a couple unaware and played the long game on 3 high guys which was fun. Unfortunately they saw us just in time and the ensuing scrap was tricky.

Never saw a DVIII despite a few incursions sausage-side. Maybe the technology is too new and they aren't allowed out, or the planes don't go well above 1500m. ?

S! all.

 

 

 

[US103_Baer]

Thursday, 24th June, 2021.

 

Must've been a sausage festival on or something cos basically there were almost no Huns in the sector and only 1 flying above 2000m.

Even stone cold Camel pilots were swapping over to provide opposition. Of course the bots were hard at it but this is what Multiplayer has come to in the US window. Apart from last week with the release of the D8 and Snipe hype, numbers have been awful for a while now.

I put that squarely on the DM. If you don't fly MP you won't know.

 

 

Timestamps in description

 

 

Edited June 26, 2021 by US28_Baer

[ST_Catchov]

Cheer up Baer. While we wait for the fixes, I've taken up the accordion! Gets me out of the house and the chicks dig it! 

 

 

 

And I get to wear lederhosen. 

[BH_Adabadoo_VR]

17 minutes ago, ST_Catchov said:

Cheer up Baer. While we wait for the fixes, I've taken up the accordion! Gets me out of the house and the chicks dig it! 

 

 

 

And I get to wear lederhosen. 

Oh man I'm missing out!!!

 

I had a pair when I was about 4 years old.  That was a while back

[Irishratticus72]

3 hours ago, ST_Catchov said:

Cheer up Baer. While we wait for the fixes, I've taken up the accordion! Gets me out of the house and the chicks dig it! 

 

 

 

And I get to wear lederhosen. 

It's not just the chicks that approve.... ?

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY 1st JULY, 2021

 

Of course the day I have trouble getting on to fly would be the one that everyone decides to dust of their rigs and fly FC!

Did make it in the end but missed the peak. Ended up on J5 discord and it was great to catch up with Shot, Cuban & Ducky who i hadnt seen for a while as well as many of the regular trouble-makers. Nice to see so many JG1s too and get glimpses of Hotlead's Pfalz up there as well, though couldn't get close enough for an attack ?

 

Lots of the action was low, but tried to support a southern recon Bristol and generally take care of anything high but still got dragged down to the weeds once and had a lucky escape when i ran into a bunch of fokkers after attacking a D7 in hunland. Session ended with Parsons and I in a nice manipulation of a high D7.

 

Timestamps in description

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by US28_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY, July 8th 2021

 

Not a huge number of pilot on, but most were willing and organised so it was quite an eventful evening.

 

Our 3 Spads did 2 recon escorts interspersed with line patrols. Parsons and I had a good encounter with a D7 over the mud then we did the Southern escort which went smoothly though it always has you on high alert. The Northern escort however, was completely different.

 

The lower screen ran into huns immediately after crossing their lines and a frantic battle took place around the balloon. We avoided that but there were plenty of enemy aircraft to be seen and the Recon swung South then North to avoid them. Talbot and Parsons ran slap bang into Hangman co-alt and a desperate scrap ensued! Talb has higlights of it on his Twitch. I was higher and further ahead with the Bristol and was caught between staying to protect it or go back to my mates. I went back, sorry Gas. But just as i arrived Hangman was dispatched, so back i climbed to the Bristol. Both Talb and Parsons had serious damage and had to RTB. 

I found the Bristol returning from Recon target with photos done, but a Triplane in tow. It looked a juicy setup but as i closed in the triplane turned away. Damn.

So we headed home though i soon found a D7 climbing up on my low 6 fairly close, definitely an F! I was in two minds whether to try attacking while i still had some alt on it or drag it back over the mud. Starting a climbing turn to dive on it i found my energy was too low, he was too close and we were still well over hun territory. What the hell was i thinking! A long drag it was then.

I entered a very shallow descent carefully maxing revs, but we were up at 3700m and he had been slightly lower so all i did was fly down in front of him. As we got over the mud and below 3000m i could keep him just out of effective range but i'm surprised he didn't shoot anyway. Over our lines now at 2500m heading for Bethune he wasn't giving up and wasn't getting left behind. Talbot had severe wing damage from his Hangman flight but hadn't landed at Bruay so decided to come back and act as a distraction. By the time we reached Bethune Talbot was near and hadn't been picked up by the D7, who was shooting at me by now.  Talbot made a couple of gentle attacks which wounded him, then promptly ran out of ammo. But it had given me a chance to turn back and apply the coup de grace just North of Bethune. 

 

We ended with patrols in the South but the Huns were organised and had 4 D7s flying pretty high. From below there was little we could do except try to split one off or drag them down. Turned out to be us that got split up, though a scrap with SE5s dragged a few down. Just when i thought i had one split off and dived to attack he nosed up at me and bullets flew all around. I caught sight of another D7 diving in too. Not good. Better keep diving!

 

So not a heap of fights but quite a lot of tension.

S!

 

Timestamps in description

 

 

Edited July 10, 2021 by US28_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY JULY 15th, 2021.

 

Had a lot of fun and a huge slice of luck tonight.  Solid crowd of about 24+ for much of the evening, with a good bunch of J5s, J30s and Hotlead around on the Central side. 

 

When we got our formations right things went pretty well and managed a fair number of bounces. Talbot makes a great bait too ?

 

Some went better than others though.  I thought I'd hammered Klug in one diving attack and went to duck under him only for his D7 to nose down violently as well! We collided hard and my right wing was a mess and all struts busted.  My time had to be up.  But no! Somehow the wing didn't break off, and I could keep flight ultra slow and straight till ditching.  

S! All. 

 

Timestamps in description. 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2021 by US28_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY JULY 29th, 2021

 

Dreaded ex-snow map for the most part. Couldn't see anything but yeah, it's same for everyone. Still don't reckon squinting hard at a hazy screen for hours is much fun though. Went and did a P-38 patrol over Stalingrad in the end.

 

Evening started with a heavy Entente advantage but the Huns soon showed up and had the numbers for most of the session.  We saw CL2s hitting ground targets plus D7s/Dr1s/D8s. Most of the Squad getting a couple but did suffer 2 losses.

Hangman got a couple of good prophangs on me, but Talbot hit him in the second. Gonna have to rethink how i attack him, his swerve and hang is damn good.

Had a nice high angle run later on a CL2 which shows you can attack them reasonably safely.

 

Talbot, Parsons and I then went and flew P38s and knocked down a 109, which is on stream too

S!

 

Timestamps in description

 

 

[=IRFC=Gascan]

Yeah, all the low visibility maps can be a bit rough. I saw 34 online at the same time when I got on, but it dwindled after about an hour of mucking around. We rolled the map, but by then things had already died off. Got in a great fight with a pair of Dr1's, including Otto Matix (wow that skin is eye-catching!), and I sniped a CL2 that was harassing a Bristol, but that was really about it other than the bomber stuff later.

[US103_Baer]

Just wish that map could be 90mins. 

Is Otto's skin on HSD?