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... of reasons to get back into Cliffs of Dover, then please indulge me a few moments of your time. I have recently updated the game to the Team Fusion patch 4.0 available here: http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6321 Now version 3 was pretty good; fixed a great deal wrong with the game but there were still issues - visibility of aircraft at crucial air combat ranges, clouds, visibility of ground objects etc, but it was pretty good work all the same. A good effort and hopefully a portent of things to come. So here's what happened when I popped onto the ATAG server after our SEOW tonight... I joined just as a new mission map had loaded; joined RAF and read the brief. Seems Jerry was after our airfields at Biggin Hill and Kenley and industrial targets in Sevenoaks and Gravesend, meaning they would have to cover a lot of ground over Kent to make such deep penetrations - interesting. Usually the maps degenerate into a series of low level furballs over coastal bases, typical dogfight server fare, so it was good to see efforts being made to force some more realistic air ops. The server was sent up to prevent RAF planes camping the Luftie bases and give them time to gather formations (if reds crossed the frontlines, their aircraft disassembled themselves!). I on a whim decided to fly from Biggin in my trusty Spitfire Mk.Ia (100 Octane) QJ-F despite there being closer bases. Turns out this was a good idea.... I took off smartly and once cleaned up, took a heading of about 110 degrees climbing all the way, watching my temps carefully and trying to juggle RPM and Boost to give me best climb rate without cooking the lovely Merlin. I arrived over Ashford about 10 minutes later at Angels 20 and started getting the gen from the controller of all sorts of trade building over the Channel. Working my way further southeast I had a brief scare when I spotted a contrail above and behind me but soon ID'd the blighter as another Spit and resumed my slightly less solitary patrol over the coast between Dungerness and Folkestone. It wasn't long before a friendly reported spotting a formation of 27 (!) bombers pushing out from Cap Gris Nez; no height was given as he was engaged and shortly thereafter had taken silk, information that certainly made me swallow a bit and inspired a bout of Messerschmitt twitch. Not long after as i scanned out to sea I saw a collection of faint grey dots upon the horizon - a great deal of faint grey dots, getting darker by the second. Having throttled back to cruise power as I maintained my sentinel status above the beaches of SE Kent it was time to get into fighting trim, RPM to 2700 and Boost to 6 PSI as I rolled onto a southerly heading. "Christ, lucky I was wafting about up here at 23000 ft" I thought to myself, "that formation isn't appreciably lower!" As the Spitty picked up speed in a shallow dive towards the rapidly oncoming phalanx of enemy aircraft I grimly noticed an ever increasing number of smaller dots in front, behind and above the formation - fighters! 4, 5, 7, 9, I stopped counting as I had no way to recognise which if any were friendly and had to focus on keeping the Spitty trimmed and pick out a target from the bomber formation. Would not matter much anyway, if I could blast though the formation head on before the escorts had time to react, I could worry about them afterwards. I also noticed and tried to ignore an inky black smoke trail above and behind the bomber formation that was etching it's way steadily earthwards. Those last 2000ft of range passed awfully quickly. At the last moment just before I was about to hit the trigger I recognised my target as a Do.17Z and struggled to put my pipper gently on his nose; I didn't want to ham-fistedly over control and in doing so make a collision an even more likely outcome than it already was. At the moment I judged best, I opened fire. As it was, we weren't quite head-on and the slight crossing angle made my shots go wide; I was aiming for his right-hand engine and a saw a brief ripple of incandescence on his right wing tip when a fraction of a second later I flashed by him at something close to 550mph. I immediately pulled up, promptly but not too hard in an effort to not overstress the airframe and also make the most of my zoom climb. As I floated over the top inverted I looked down, heartened by the sight of a number of other Spitfires and Hurricanes wading into the bombers from all sides, but also sensing a twinge of anxiety as I spotted yellow nosed 109s also amongst the aircraft below. As my Spitfire accelerated downhill in an inverted dive a rolled her upright, and then dropped a wing, left and right, clearing my tail in case I'd picked up any uninvited visitors. Looking back to where the bombers ought to be a saw them slightly further West then I'd expected but immediately ahead I saw two aircraft in long trail formation heading North and away in a slight right hand turn. Somehow something didn't seem right, and the more I looked the more I was sure the trailing aircraft was on an intercept course with the first. I dived on in pursuit of a situation that was looking increasingly unpleasant. Sure enough as the range decreased I recognised the trailing aircraft as a 109 and it soon transpired he aircraft in front was his intended prey - a Hurricane. Fortunately the chap in the Hurri was awake and spotted the 109 as it was about to nail him, breaking into climbing left hand turn. The 109 opened fire as I desperately tried to cut him off, still out of range. I was coming in fast though - a bit too fast as it turned out because as I reefed into a vertical climb to follow I saw that I closing on him much too fast for a well sighted accurate burst. I had just enough time to get a snap shot at him before I thundered past, the tearing of my gunfire coinciding with a series of smoke puffs on his right wing. As I continued up I saw the 109 roll away and dive for the French coast. Hurriedly i cleared my own tail, expecting to find one of his cohorts on my 6 about to ventilate my aircraft. Luckily I was not being trailed. I let the 109 go; no sense in chasing him, I'd never catch him and besides, there were bigger fish to fry. Having done my Samaritan bit for the day I endeavoured to catch up with the bomber formation that was no doubt ploughing it's way on to paste one of our valuable targets. I saw the formation a ways West of me and very slightly higher and made heading to intercept, all the while keeping paranoid vigil on my vulnerable six. I caught up with the group just Northwest of the airfield at Lympne at around Angels 19, disconcerted to find most of the aircraft having dissipated and the bulk of the remainder as friendly - two Spits near and slightly above me were on a converging course to a contact ahead - a solitary Dornier. The chap above and ahead closed faster than I and whether he missed or had run out of ammo I saw his attack come to nought. I checked around quickly to ensure I wasn't about to collide with a friendly and couldn't see anyone. Where that second Spit went is anyones guess. Also a quick chance to make sure no 109s lining me up as their next victim. All seemed clear. Satisfied that I wan't about to meet my maker I settled on a good solid guns solution on the Dornier, again surprised at the speed with which I was overtaking him. There was time for couple of one second bursts producing some light smoke, fuel leaks and a noticeable lurch from the bomber before I had to break off hard high and right in order to avoid collecting him. As I reefed around in an off vertical loop to drop in behind him again I confirmed the trails of grey smoke and obvious fuel vapour as well as the fact that he appeared to be drifting right in a gentle turn and apparently was loosing altitude to boot. Again checking for 109s, I levelled off behind him and was nicely in range with a good shot to his right wing root; a good second and a half burst produced a cloud of black smoke and a flicker of flame. Got ya! Now where are the rest of the brutes? To be continued....