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So I'm flying as a German pilot earlier (Feldwebel Rudi Hentzau in his Albatros D.II) on an offensive patrol. Very near our target, Oberleutnant Stroud (the only other pilot in the flight) dives to attack some Nieuport 17s. I down one, but Herr Oberleutnant is still busy with his so, not wishing to spoil his fun, I amuse myself by strafing an Allied aerodrome that happens to be right there. After a few passes, I check and the fight is still going on. Resisting the temptation to join in (it's bad luck to steal a superior officer's kill!), I circle back around to the airfield.

There, just starting to taxi along the runway are four lovely B.E.2s trying to take off. Even better, my turn is bringing me up behind them at low level. It's Christmas for Rudi :)

Barely airborne, still over the field, the leftmost plane takes a burst and falls sharply away. There is an explosion below, followed by the sound of the ambulance, as I line up the next plane. A few bursts and down he goes. The third follows him quickly. Number four is attempting to make it away over the hangers, but he doesn't get very far. Four kills in perhaps thirty seconds!

Alas, the Oberleutnant was still dueling his Nieuport when four more arrived and he crashed after a collision. Rudi managed to take down at least one before being badly wounded and fleeing (I figured it's a bad sign when the screen is tinted red). He made it back to base, but crashed while trying to land and was invalided out. Still, it was worth it for that moment at the airfield.

I love this game!
Post edited January 14, 2012 by Techromancer
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Techromancer: So I'm flying as a German pilot earlier (Feldwebel Rudi Hentzau in his Albatros D.II) on an offensive patrol. Very near our target, Oberleutnant Stroud (the only other pilot in the flight) dives to attack some Nieuport 17s. I down one, but Herr Oberleutnant is still busy with his so, not wishing to spoil his fun, I amuse myself by strafing an Allied aerodrome that happens to be right there. After a few passes, I check and the fight is still going on. Resisting the temptation to join in (it's bad luck to steal a superior officer's kill!), I circle back around to the airfield.

There, just starting to taxi along the runway are four lovely B.E.2s trying to take off. Even better, my turn is bringing me up behind them at low level. It's Christmas for Rudi :)

Barely airborne, still over the field, the leftmost plane takes a burst and falls sharply away. There is an explosion below, followed by the sound of the ambulance, as I line up the next plane. A few bursts and down he goes. The third follows him quickly. Number four is attempting to make it away over the hangers, but he doesn't get very far. Four kills in perhaps thirty seconds!

Alas, the Oberleutnant was still dueling his Nieuport when four more arrived and he crashed after a collision. Rudi managed to take down at least one before being badly wounded and fleeing (I figured it's a bad sign when the screen is tinted red). He made it back to base, but crashed while trying to land and was invalided out. Still, it was worth it for that moment at the airfield.

I love this game!
Yes - the redder the worse it is and if very red, if you don't land fast, you bleed to death,

Never had that sort of luck. I have a habit of getting kills via collision. Use your guns my Hauptmann kept telling me.
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Techromancer: /snip
Nice :)
Excellent story and adventure.I really do love RB3D's single player campaigns. You never know what is going to happen sometimes.
I've spotted enemy planes taking off at other times, but never when I was in such a perfect position to take advantage of it.

Some of the small fights can be bad enough for collisions, but I've started to steer clear of the big furballs. The last time I jumped into one, there were some near collisions and I got shot by one of my own guys. Two of my pilots have had their careers ended by collisions. One lost his landing gear and then crashed trying to land back at base. The other had his engine smashed and died trying to glide into a landing in the middle of the British lines. He did get to see some tanks up close, though - crashed a few hundred feet behind several that were advancing with blazing guns. You don't see that in "Fly Now." :)
Whenever you attack an aerodrome, the game will send up all enemy pilots not already on a mission. For me, it always seems the enemy squad has the day off when my staffel attacks, so we always get a full compliment against us. It is pretty fun when you get there as they are coming in for a landing, can you say turkey shoot?
I was a French pilot and I was doing a patrol over the front line. I encountered some Eindeckers and did away with the others, but one more remained. I finally got behind him and fired a burst at the plane: the plane caught on fire in a magnificent manner and spiralled... up? The plane did a constant turn without losing speed, climbing higher and higher in the process, all the while burning. At first I wasn't sure if the pilot was dead, but after a while I reckoned he must have died. I stayed around for a few minutes just gazing at the burning monoplane ascending to the heavens.

It was somewhat reminiscent of one scene in Porco Rosso (1992) where the protagonist loses his friends in an air battle, blacks out and sees his friends flying in their planes to join a massive cloud of planes high in the sky, all apparently ones that had been shot down before.
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Selderij: I was a French pilot and I was doing a patrol over the front line. I encountered some Eindeckers and did away with the others, but one more remained. I finally got behind him and fired a burst at the plane: the plane caught on fire in a magnificent manner and spiralled... up? The plane did a constant turn without losing speed, climbing higher and higher in the process, all the while burning. At first I wasn't sure if the pilot was dead, but after a while I reckoned he must have died. I stayed around for a few minutes just gazing at the burning monoplane ascending to the heavens.

It was somewhat reminiscent of one scene in Porco Rosso (1992) where the protagonist loses his friends in an air battle, blacks out and sees his friends flying in their planes to join a massive cloud of planes high in the sky, all apparently ones that had been shot down before.
Are you sure you weren't upside down? (just kidding :) ). I've never seen that; I do often see planes burning seemingly forever, though while they glide in a wide spiral down. I too assume it is a kill, especially if I hear, "ieeee!". Once, on a airfield attack mission, we downed a bomber near our airfield. When we returned, it was still burning in the air :), circling in the same spot. Well, a few minor bugs can be fun at times.
I have had planes where the enemy pilot has jumped due to fire, but the pane kept flying for a long time, even gaining air. That s one thing RB3D can not model well, the loss of aerodynamics as the canvas burns away.
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Wailwulf: I have had planes where the enemy pilot has jumped due to fire, but the pane kept flying for a long time, even gaining air. That s one thing RB3D can not model well, the loss of aerodynamics as the canvas burns away.
As I recall, prior to some fixes, damaged planes used to climb better and high altitude problems were never fixed with the resort to limiting altitude artificially (ie, planes that could historically fly and fight higher were limited) probably due to the same reason I'd guess.

Sure would be nice for someone to develop a Red Baron IV up to modern standards.
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Wailwulf: I have had planes where the enemy pilot has jumped due to fire, but the pane kept flying for a long time, even gaining air. That s one thing RB3D can not model well, the loss of aerodynamics as the canvas burns away.
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lordhoff: As I recall, prior to some fixes, damaged planes used to climb better and high altitude problems were never fixed with the resort to limiting altitude artificially (ie, planes that could historically fly and fight higher were limited) probably due to the same reason I'd guess.

Sure would be nice for someone to develop a Red Baron IV up to modern standards.
What you are talking about is the Uber effect in AFM. That has been taken care of in a number of modded flight models.

What I am talking about is that the fire really does not seem to burn the fabric of the planes. Canvas planes covered in dope, aflame would lose large portions of it's flight surfaces fairly quickly. But that does not happen in game. I have landed burning planes in RB3D and bailed out, just to watch the machine burn and burn, but never breaks apart for taking damage. The main thing the fire seems to do is damage the pilot.