Thursday Night Fly-In video

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY, 23rd DEC, 2021

 

Not many pilots on but we had some long drawn out skirmishes with high D7s/D12 of Hangman and J5.

I blew a perfect bounce on one. Thought my few rounds had all caught his cockpit and he had to be dead, but no, and i'd flown right up in front of him!

Got away, but shortly after another D7 just about pk'd me with a long prop-hang, which led to a nerve-wracking descent and landing while 86% wounded. 

Managed some revenge later in a long, high skirmish with the same pilot. S! Hang, that was a memorable fight.

 

Timestamps done

 

 

[US103_Baer]

Thursday 30th Dec. 2021

 

Classic 'game of 2 halves'

First map nothing went right.  Must've been tagged by Hangman at least 3 times, which, because wing DM, means rtb. 

All that faffing about and being shot at did set Talbot up nicely though!

 

Second map, Bapaume morning was completely different. 

Talbot and I found a brave but unfortunate flight of 3 Albs, quickly followed by a CL2 and tricky Dr1, then later a high flight of 4 D7s. 

 

Timestamps getting done, slowly. 

 

 

[US103_Baer]

Thursday Jan 6th 2022

 

Had a great time this last Thursday. 3rd PG had a good contingent flying and welcomed a few older regulars back. It was a lot of fun,  even 'between' the moments of action, and we flew well too, which always helps!

 

There were several good encounters in the clouds with flights of high D7s, but one scrap over Combles with many D7s in Central territory really stood out. All 3 of our flights were involved,  plus a coupe of SE5as and a Camel. Brilliant!

 

Time stamps in description

 

 

 

[US103_Baer]

Thursday 13th Jan, 2022

 

Solid 40+ flying in the US evening slot with most on the Central side this week. 

 

Included in that was a 'circus' of JG1s (what is the collective noun for a lot of JG1s?) who must've been the large flights of 8-9 we kept coming across.  

Is so interesting to see how large squadrons  form up multiple flights of biplace and escorts. They were pretty smart this time. Coming over using a huge cloud as cover, with 2 DFWs out front escorted by a couple of close fighters,  and a higher flight of about 4 fighters behind. 

So we had a couple of encounters with that lot. Plus a number of fights with solo flyers.

 

Hangman used that huge cloud a fair bit, taking us from near 4000m down to the deck mid-mud in one fight. 

Right near the end I got bounced after take off from Marieux airfield, which is one of rear ones, so wasn't concentrating as much as i should've been. Was actually looking backwards at the time and saw what looked like snow flakes going by! It was a CL2 attacking from the front. Lucky to survive that and have Talbot and some guy called Larner nearby to help.

 

Timestamps in description. 

 

 

Edited January 15, 2022 by US28_Baer

[ST_Catchov]

On 1/15/2022 at 12:04 PM, US28_Baer said:

(what is the collective noun for a lot of JG1s?)

 

Murder. 

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY 20th Jan 2022

 

A night for astronauts.

Good crowd of nearly 40 for most of the night and it seemed a lot of the Huns were into testing their oxygen apparatus.

D7fs and D12s above 5000m were the norm but at one point i nearly dropped my coffee.

 

While keeping an eye on a D7 at 5k+ I saw contrails, yes actual contrails from two more D7s waaaaaay above him!! Not steaming overheated engines. Nothing could overheat up there. I estimated maybe 6.5k but turns out they were nearer 8000m!

 

Timestamps done
 

 

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY 27th JAN, 2022

 

Worst day in years. Literally.

Less said the better.

 

 

Timestamps done

 

[US103_Baer]

Thursday 3rd Feb, 2022

 

A low scoring match. Where was everyone?

 

We did some Escort and offensive patrols but the weather was totally clear except for that large storm cloud over Brazieux. Which meant that everyone could see everyone else in the air across virtually the whole map, cos that's what WW2 players need. That leads to either altitude wars or try one's luck at lower alts. Still, did manage to get one of the high guys with a good setup, but otherwise there was bugger all we could do. Wasn't much happening lower down either.

 

Hoping all those upcoming Recon mechanics can create more mission variety and players.

 

Timestamps in description

 

 

 

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY FEB 10th 2022

 

Again clear weather with low player count so i took a Bristol out to try drum up some business. It kinda worked and we had a couple of good spells including a long one over enemy territory. Not sure my Bristol really contributed tbh, but it probably made them think. When Talbot jumped in the back seat as gunner we were much more dangerous.

 

Timestamps description

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by US103_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY 17th Feb, 2022

 

I guess everyone was glued to the Womens Freeski Half-Pipe final or something, but the action finally heated up in the last hour or so of Lens Afternoon map.

 

Spent much of the night over Hun territory which generally worked out ok. However one comms mess up and a miss ID on my part saw us testing the SPADs diving capability again.

 

Timestamps done

 

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY MAR 3RD, 2022

 

Good session with even sides and quite a lot of action after a slowish start.

 

Flew out with RNAS10_Echo and it was great to have a Camel mixing with our Spads. Strong combo.

Spent quite a lot of the night Hun side near Douai and had several good scraps and bounces amongst the clouds. Of course we got caught low our side too!

 

Timestamps in description

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2022 by US103_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY MAR 10th, 2022

 

Looks like the crowd is starting to return on Thursdays and there were EA high and low across the map.

 

We were missing plenty but did have latest fng US_Ford, as well as our oldest, US103_Hunter. Never a dull moment!

 

Spent some time trying to keep the D7s at a 'subordinate altitude' which led to plenty of tactical positioning aka high cat n mouse over enemy territory. Not everyone's cup of tea, but combined with plenty of cloud it did provide both challenges and opportunities and led to a couple of good bounces and fights in the clouds. Meanwhile Picard's flight was hunting lower down and also had good luck.

S! all.

 

Main timestamps done

 

 

Edited March 13, 2022 by US103_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY MAR 17th, 2022.

 

Thought there'd be a whole lot of bomber boys up and Gothas to take on, but never saw one.

Might have been the Recon unlock (or some helicopter launch?). Often takes a while to get recon done. Did see an HP though. looked cool as it trudged Eastward. Too low to support, though it apparently accounted for at least one D7!

 

The first map had overcast cloud, heavy haze and 16m/s Westerly winds. Yes, 57kph winds! We quickly got into a a scrap North of Lens, knocked a few down and then spent ages trying to recross the mud. Can imagine how the old BE2s felt. Might have been a bit overboard for a SPAD though.

 

The second map saw a bunch of D7s come over high. Was a bit impossible to fight so we buggered off and looked for other targets. With a bit of luck and some well-placed clouds i managed to find one on its way home.

 

Heard there's a 1917 map being readied for the Sopwith Triplane's arrival, which should provide some much needed variation. Hopefully the new Recon mechanics and Gui aren't too far away either.

 

Timestamps in description

 

Edited March 20, 2022 by US103_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY MAR 24th, 2022

 

Spent way to much time trying to climb and entice 'the only planes mentioned in the Armistice'™ into a mistake or run out of fuel. At one point i was sure we'd caught one napping all i had to do was get over the top of him, i checked my altitude - nearly 6000m - bloody hell! Naturally my poor 200hp Spad XIII couldn't even manage the simple task and the D7f saw me, altered direction slightly and climbed above.

Occasionally you can catch one out, but its so time-consuming. If it was every now and then based on map rotation it would be fine, but we've had literally years of the exact same scenario and planes. Think will leave the stratosphere to the astronauts from now on. 

 

Anyway, still got a couple of good bounces in, stopped a recon raid (i think) and had a few other skirmishes. 

 

 

Timestamps In Description

 

 

Edited March 29, 2022 by US103_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY MAR 31st, 2022

 

Interesting session. Again started with Entente outnumbering Central 2:1 but it evened up later.

 

Picard, Tobin and Ford's flight got a couple early on down South over hun territory. Then Parsons and I caught a couple of D7s up North that had come over following a recon flight i think. Talbot and Stenseth followed up with a textbook drag on a D7.
Got to see an impressive formation of 3 HP400s headed towards hunland, but they were so low, not much more than 1000m, so escorting them was suicide. I don't know how far they got but i think higher airstarts may be required if they're to have any chance. I remember doing bombing runs in RoF and you had to use cloud cover to have any chance. Clouds are up at 2000m+ usually.

Towards the end a flight of 2 CL2s and a D7 came over low. Very tough to attack initially as the CL2s were protected by the D7, while the D7 was protected by the CL2 gunners, and they were human gunners with Beckers i reckon!

 

After the map roll a bunch of us finished the evening with a P-38 flight on combat box. My bomb runs sucked, my SA sucked, but somehow managed to hit a 190 that Talbot was playing with.

All good fun.

 

Timestamps in Description

 

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by US103_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY 21ST APRIL, 2022

 

Nope, didn't see anyone sporting a Manfred skin on this anniversary, in fact it was hard to see any Huns. One reason was the gloomy light as the sun got low, another was the fact that there were hardly any Huns flying. Well, it was odd really. At first Entente was massively outnumbered and then Central was. But concurrent pilots online never got above 15 for the three hours i was on. 

Which brings up another anniversary of a kind.

 

I noticed it was 2 years nearly to the day that i'd been posting Thursday Night Flying Circus videos here. Its interesting to see the journey. Invisible Fokkers, Controls Rod jams and our favourite Wing DM breakages. But despite these bugs the player numbers maintained around 25-40.

 

Now we have all the FC2 planes, a 1917 map (just, sort of), no invisible fokkers and reasonable control jamming -  but way fewer players! Yes, the Wing DM is still with us but I'd still like to understand why so few people (US time) fly on the one weeknight fly-in we have.

I think DM and other FM compliants are just excuses tbh (not that they shouldn't be fixed of course). Sunday Afternoon does very well so its probably a case of 'more pilots flying = more pilots joining'. The solution is then self evident.

 

Anyway, this night saw Parsons, Ford and I hit a flight of D7 and 2 Albs at the Southern balloon and then patrol looking for the few, and at one point, sole hun on the map. He still managed to get a near bounce in. Its super easy to get sloppy when there's hardly any EA online. I had switched off and was doing a little work on the phone, fortunately SeaW0lf called out the danger and between us we evaded and he stood no chance after that.

Later there was a nice little hunt deep in Hun territory as we tracked a lone D7 using clouds for cover. We stayed patient and it went well, but respect to J5_Wolf for sticking it out against ridiculous odds until more Central flyers turned up online.

 

Timestamps in description

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by US103_Baer

[JGr2/J5_Klugermann]

Only European evenings and Sundays are populated. People are tired of losing streaks to bumpy landings and catching debris. Impossible to survive any sort of collision now. Flew the Spad for a few sorties....nice luxury to be able to exfil anytime you get a few holes or the situation is less than optimal.

[SeaW0lf]

That was intense! I felt bad for the steal, but since I got him in my sights, I imagined it would be a bad idea to risk let him on the loose.

 

And Klugernann is right. Streaks in particular were very attractive for veterans, a sort of mini-campain, which usually bring more veterans and players in their wake. Would be nice to see streaks roll with the seasons / months as well on the parser, a long sought wish, but that is a small luxury under the current context. And the Americas time zone, always in smaller numbers, benefited from this surplus of players.

 

I hope to see improvements, but we know how that goes. And the pandemic put some things in perspective for me. I went back to running and walking, old habit of mine, which puts gaming in check, especially when it becomes a hassle. 

 

We’ll see. I hope to see it bounce back. 

[US103_Baer]

On 4/23/2022 at 9:54 PM, J5_Klugermann said:

Only European evenings and Sundays are populated. People are tired of losing streaks to bumpy landings and catching debris. Impossible to survive any sort of collision now. Flew the Spad for a few sorties....nice luxury to be able to exfil anytime you get a few holes or the situation is less than optimal.

Yeah,  dying on ditching is way over-modeled, but control jams were ridiculous and we still had more guys flying then. 

 

Speed is a luxury for sure, but Rtb with a few holes isn't. Weirdly, maybe the combination means we're often flying back to aerodrome with basically sound aircraft more often, and avoiding ditching ?

 

On 4/24/2022 at 7:33 AM, SeaW0lf said:

That was intense! I felt bad for the steal, but since I got him in my sights, I imagined it would be a bad idea to risk let him on the loose.

 

And Klugernann is right. Streaks in particular were very attractive for veterans, a sort of mini-campain, which usually bring more veterans and players in their wake. Would be nice to see streaks roll with the seasons / months as well on the parser, a long sought wish, but that is a small luxury under the current context. And the Americas time zone, always in smaller numbers, benefited from this surplus of players.

 

Pvp streaks for Flugpark medals, scoreboard do carry over even if the parser resets after a quarter.  You just have to submit proof from the multiple quarters that the streak runs for.

 

Happy for you to have the D7 as I'd probably have been toast without your call out in chat! I knew i was flying sloppy SA, said it out loud several times before that moment. Just couldn't take it serious with so few enemy on. Good lesson for sure. 

Think you changed your Camel skin which is why it didn't show up. Got the latest now. 

Edited April 25, 2022 by US103_Baer

[SeaW0lf]

Yes, I updated my skin. You can delete the old one because I won't be using it again. 
I know that streaks will still count for medals, but it would be nice to see the whole picture instead of rolling through different pages and seasons.
Anyways, let's hope for the best. Tripehounds are back!

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY 28th APRIL, 2022

 

Had a few more pilots tonight. Still not great but around 20 online most of the time. Hopefully when the current J5 campaign finishes we'll get a few more look for an evening fix.

We set out to help the Northern recon and, despite a disco for me, the escort went ok until the DH4 got back to its airfield. A low intruder on ballloondar sent us on a bit of a goose chase until we finally got him. Meanwhile the DH4 looked clear to land except now another low CL2 had crept in while we were away and apparently got him while landing! 

Later a bunch of D7s and a Dr1 came over high and caught us out of position after diving down towards low contacts. We were very split up and it took a while to reestablish some altitude and reform at least 3 Spads. By this time we were far west of Arras and tbh i thought we did fairly well to recover, but the Huns flew smart and weren't about to get sucked into anything. Did get in a good position on one when i chanced to look up and saw a high D7 curling in on me almost vertically! Sheesh, where'd he come from??

 

I rolled into him and dived but caught some bullets from an unknown source (turned out to be the Dr1), but was ok diving out. So long as i didn't do anything stupid and kept it straight, Jason's wings would stay on. However I tried to flare while diving to help others find us and this is where i blew it! My flare buttons are on the right side base of the t16000 and to 'stow' the flare gun is the furthest button away. You can probably see where this is going. So i changed hands on the stick for a second, just enough to wobble the wings slightly and poof, off they went. Such a stupid way to die.

 

Of course i should've seen the high D7 earlier, or not bothered flaring, or not bought a sim that has stupid wing DM, or bought a Hotas to give me more buttons, or flown Hun cos parachutes, or just fly WW2...but that's hindsight and not the point. It's 4 months effort and 25 PvPs down the drain. Felt pretty sick when it happened tbh.

Anyway, S! to everyone flying.

 

Timestamps in description
 

 

 

 

 

[=IRFC=Gascan]

Specd_Out joined Kotori and I for that fight and we were lucky to escape from it. I think I saw five different SPADs and a Camel all operating in the area. I know that you guys specialize in the team tactics, drawing attention one way and attacking when the target is distracted. Fighting against you is a challenging but effective way to stretch my SA to the limit (and often beyond). We had to stay level and minimize climbing to stay close enough to convince you to attack, then try to respond effectively when you came in. Kotori was extremely lucky you didn't see him coming (looks like you were focused on us and the other SPAD below), and Specd was able to take advantage on the way down. Looking at the tacview, it looks like Kotori missed most of his shots despite a good bounce and Specd got some good hits in. As you said, though, it was survivable. As much as I want to shoot you down, I want it to be because I outflew you and outshot you and used better tactics, not because of an error on your part or because of DM issues. After that, Specd took down a lone Camel, and we started to back out of the area. That's when the rest of the SPADs showed up. At various points we were attacked by four or five from the south and the west. It looks like damage was done on both sides, but nothing decisive. I think we escaped with one SPAD (you) and one random Camel killed, and we all had damage in return.

I have a lot of respect for the 3rd Pursuit group. You guys know your stuff! I know that when I fly with you, Huns will fall from the sky. Recons do better, more bombers get through, and when I fly scouts have someone to help me out of a bad spot. When on the opposite side, I need eyes everywhere (especially above and behind me), the fight will be tough, and I will need good aim because I won't get many chances to shoot. I hope to see you again on the occasional Thursday when I'm free to fly.

[US103_Baer]

Cheers @gascan. Good tactics you guys used, we could see that straight away. Am glad there are tough fights to be had on Thursdays, even if numbers are lower at moment.

Getting KIA always starts with an error of some kind ? so no worries on that front. Had seen the high D7 earlier but when he went off East and we went so far West i guess i kinda forgot about him. After flying so long with little action you get focused on the opportunity in front of you. Good learning!

Edited May 1, 2022 by US103_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY May 5th, 2022

 

Steadily building numbers back up, but it started out with zero Central pilots so i jumped in a DH4 to do the Northern recon. Shocking weather with heavy squalls and strong winds made seeing the target difficult. At one point i was looking down through the bomb site and it was completely grey, not from cloud but from rain! Eventually the wind blew me over the target and, with AAA bursting way too close, i got them done and headed back, Phew, that was nasty. Of course the map rolled as i was seconds away from touching down.

 

Following map was 1917 so i finally had a chance to fly the SPAD VII on a Thursday. Ran into lots of Dr1s high and low. At one point a colourful flight of 3 were climbing high inside German lines and we had a couple of engagements with Tobin, Stenseth and Ford all doing well. Another Dr1 was the beneficiary of the S.VII being a bouncy gun platform at speed as i couldn't get the sights lined up quickly enough and he saw me just as i got it sorted. Still its not a bad ride and very fuel efficient compared to the XIII.

 

Timestamps in Description

 

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by US103_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY MAY 12th, 2022

 

Had a fun time today with a variety of scraps and a good crowd for most of the evening. Even a bunch of WW2 guys on for a while. 

First map was clear and a flight of D7s came over as we were climbing with a couple of DXIIs following higher as late entries. A dangerous situation, but we avoided the D7 trap and the poor Pfalzs did their usual trick, surrendering their wings at the first sign of trouble, and it was all over.

 

Second map had those intense squalls and thick clouds which add immersion and tactical options. I really like it. Searching for enemy was tricky but Talbot found a group of Dr1s and a DVIII and we had a tough scrap with them. Their SA was superb and i think both sides lost a plane in the end. 

 

Reforming we tried to prevent a low J30 attack but were just too late. A Pfalz DIIIa then cheekily tried it on with the balloon, an Se5a and a Spad - but failed to see the second Spad. 

 

Salute to all the guys who came out and flew.

 

Timestamps in Description
 

 

Edited May 13, 2022 by US103_Baer

[Zooropa_Fly]

.

Edited May 14, 2022 by Zooropa_Fly

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY MAY 19th, 2022

 

Not a classic. First map was an afternoon and had an hour left to run, so it started to get difficult to see planes against the ground. Thats my excuse!
Fired a million rounds when diving steeply on a low CL2. Seemed to do nothing. Tried again, same result. Tobin came in and shot properly. Think it demonstrated the issues of using 11m rounds at long range. I really overestimated the bullet drop, probably cos of the dive angle and lack of practice doing it. Later got a good run on a D7 over Lens and thought he'd been pk'd so headed off, only to see him recover and go home. %^&$^!

 

Second map had a lot of rain but unfortunately not many pilots. Gascan, Kotori and Gardimus joined us in trying to fight off J30 CL2s and there was one rather intense fight at Arras with the CL2s using the smoke, buildings and Beckers well. I took a glancing hit in the wing but it stayed on fortunately. Could only watch after that.

 

YouTube restricted the video shortly after, stating it violated their T&C as regards Spam, Deceptive Practises and Scam! I have no idea why, but after giving them some 'constructive feedback' ? I found it had been reinstated today. Just thought i'd mention in case it happens to anyone else.

 

Timestamps in Description

 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2022 by US103_Baer

[=IRFC=Gascan]

Its happened to a number of streamers recently. There have also been cases in the last week or so of streamers losing their YT accounts when bots get in their chat and post explicit content in chat. For some reason, the streamer gets their channel deleted for violating policy, when its the bots in chat causing the problem. Some popular streamers were specifically targeted, and even got banned despite immediately ending the stream to prevent the bots from posting. Most of the ones I have heard about have been fixed, but there may still be smaller streamers who haven't gotten their accounts restored. YT is probably working to fix this as rapidly as they can, and a possible side effect may be the incorrect marking of certain streams as spam/deceptive content. Hope that gets fixed soon, too.

Lots of fun flying with you, though. Hope to do it again at some point. Work may be lightening up a bit, so I may be able to fly a bit more during the week. Or I may work on a HP skin, who knows...

[Zooropa_Fly]

Don't ya just love surveillance and censorship.

[ST_Catchov]

Yeah It's hard to believe an influential monolith tech company would indulge in such practices. Go figure. Bots rule. Sorry CynicAl.

[=IRFC=Gascan]

Pretty sure Youtube/Google aren't trying to screw over their content producers. They can't sell their advertising and earn money if they don't have people producing content that draws viewers who can then be shown ads. The problem is that there is far more content being uploaded than can possibly be reviewed by an employee manually. It is only logical that they have automated most of their review processes to find and eliminate spam, explicit content, and copyrighted content (with manual reporting capabilities as well). The bots/spammers are also trying to automate their attacks and trying new techniques. Every time someone comes up with a new way to post the unwanted content, YT must find a way to automatically detect and remove it. This sometimes results in perfectly acceptable content getting incorrectly flagged.

Of course, YT doesn't make it easy to get mistakes corrected, which is a whole separate problem. That is the part that I don't think YT/Google have handled well. You can tell there's a problem when even a major company like Bungie/Microsoft (developer for the Halo franchise) gets their channel deleted due to false copyright claims and is unable to get a timely response from YT despite having a dedicated person within YT who helps manage such issues. It sucks when the small guys who do this for fun lose a video. It really sucks for the small youtubers who earn a living from Youtube revenues lose monetization on a video or even get their channel deleted. Sometimes it gets fixed quickly, sometimes a month later, sometimes it never comes back.

Youtube is in a constant battle trying to stop the bad guys from posting undesired/illegal content (spam, explicit, copyrighted, etc). They just don't do a good job of handling the innocents who get hit along the way. This is unfortunately the latest round of issues that I've seen with the streamers and other content creators that I follow.

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY MAY 26th, 2022

Timestamps in Description

 

[JGr2/J5_Klugermann]

Waiting with baited breath  compilation of last nights action

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY 23rd JUNE 2022

 

Seemed like a lot on at first, but they were all flying Entente!

Tried to balance by flying a D7 for a while. Flew it like a Spad of course. Then most of the Entente left as they couldn't get Bombers. Seems like locked bombers is causing a lot of frustration on Flugpark and preventing players from staying or coming back. With the numbers so low every day except Sunday I suggest everything should be on the table to make the experience more user-centric. Anyway...

 

Back in a Spad we had a couple of tricky engagements with low CL2s and D7 from J30, then went after the Arty in a Bristol and finally a balloon in an Se5a.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by US103_Baer

[US103_Baer]

THURSDAY July 7th 2022

 

Timestamps in description