DD_Fenrir

Hi chaps, In an effort to provide some more visual clues as to how the AWG-9 - pronounced "Org(hard g) Nine" - radar operates so you have a better chance at understanding it's limitations I have CAD'd up some diagrams for your delectation:

I am most despondent about this development - not just for Flying Legends but for the warbird scene as a whole. Legends was the antithesis of the bland "air fair" formats that have increasingly popped up as organisers try to generate more revenue for less content, but it appears this is the route IWM are branching down. We'll probably see them rebrand some time soon as the W in that acronym is "too aggressive"... If we're increasingly going to have to deal with a mentality that wants to censor the undesirable or unpalatable in our past in the name of inoffensiveness then we tread a path leading to a culture of bland conservative veneer hiding a repressed seething undercurrent of malcontent. And that historically has always gone so well... 🙄

Is North Weald an option?

What!?!?!

Yeah, this isn't the first time I have seen a disconnect between what the game registers in terms of ground kills and what PWCG registers, and to whom. According to PWCG seems Zukker & Wingy accounted for the bulk (2 each) with myself and FT picking up one each. I wonder if the game is registering bulk damage where PWCG seems to be looking at last damaged... who knows.

Lt Fryer had one helluva morning. Having brought down an enemy aircraft, on his flight back to base his cockpit suddenly filled with smoke, we suspect from an in cockpit electrical fire. Unable to see and almost overwhelmed by the smoke and fumes he managed a first rate belly landing not far from Liege. After escaping the aircraft he went back and single-handedly retrieved the extinguisher and managed to put out the fire. He and his aircraft were picked up and were trucked back to base.

Rosters & scoreboard as of the morning of the 18th: Please note we welcome a new pilot to the 485th, Tim Pookie. He's an ex-enlisted who started out flying P-40s in the New Guinea Theatre.

Quite an eventful sortie for the group today; both the 402nd and 485th were assigned air patrols in the area east of Verviers between Malmedy & Eupen. It was a beautiful, clear dawn, however that blinding eastern sun held some surprises as both squadrons ran into e/a well behind friendly lines, with 485th encountering a mixed force of long nose Fw 190s and Bf 109s around Angels 10 - needless to say, a robust engagement ensued. 485th took some casualties but the Krauts paid dearly for it, 8 e/a being shot down. However, we are sad to report that Lt Denny Pook is missing presumed killed. Others hit in the fighting did manage to safely RTB however. The 402nd got tangled with a pair of Fw's at 20,000+ ft, only to be joined by a second pair of 109s looking to bushwhack them whilst they were distracted with the 190s. Thanks to some excellent teamwork, some sticky situations were avoided and all the bandits were eventually smacked down. The squadron then descended to search out targets of opportunity and discovered some fierce fighting on the ground in the vicinity of Limbourg. Diving into strafe, despite some pretty spirited AAA, the squadron decimated an enemy artillery position that was engaging a push by the US 5th Armored Division and also took heavy toll of the surrounding flak positions, with only one P-38 taking damage; Lt Fesser managed to get his well ventilated airplane back to home base safely, though he did run out of gas whilst taxiing back to dispersal! The 5th AD send their heartiest thanks and say they'll be asking for us by name in the future! Great work all. With that we have some more fruit salad to throw at the chests of some esteemed brethren! 2nd Lt. Casey Baker has received a Purple Heart for his miracle escape from the collision with the Fw 190 he experienced on the 12th. Maj Mick Payne-less & Lts. Delta and Apeehill of the 485th and Lt Per Fesser of the 402nd have all been awarded the Bronze Star. Warmest congratulations gentlemen and keep up the sterling performance. Next mission will likely be the 18th October [event to be held Tuesday 1st September 2100BST] as Met reports indicate that the weather is clamping in for a couple of days, so rest up boys and see if the CO will grant you a pass into Charleroi...

Dave, I hadn't realised till I spoke to Mick this morning that you'd crashed and were killed - PWCG didn't even log it so I assumed you'd force/crash landed in friendly territory. With BluBears similar indestructibilty in evidence from last weeks mission this points to a PWCG logging error. I will raise a thread regards it over at the Sturmovik forums. As for now we'll say you also had one in a million escape from the jaws of death and were discovered unconscious in the wreckage of your P-38 by a force of advancing US troops.

Rosters as of the morning of the 15th October 1944: [Mission to be hosted on Sunday 23rd August 2020]

So to summarise, the 485th and 402nd are neck-and-neck on confirmed air kills, but with more than double the number of 402nd ground targets destroyed of all types and having accomplished all this having flown one less sortie than the 402nd, looks like the 485th are currently the top of the 370th FG rankings right now. Well done Maj. Payne-Less and all you 485th jocks!

Well done everybody on a good showing despite a few frustrations with the start and then the issues of the pea-soup overcast. The fact that we gave the Kraut a bloody nose with minimal losses reinforces the fact that your trials were not in vain. Firstly, you'll all be relieved to hear that Maj. Payne-Less bailed out of his '38 behind friendly lines; he's a bit banged up but he's pissed off and determined to fly the next mission. I wouldn't want to be the squadron MO right now.... Secondly a double whammy of jet-jobs, one each to the 402nd and 485th.... though it seems that my initial outburst of "first 370th FG Me 262 kill to Perf" was erronoeous; that honour went to Lt. Bloobair (MIA) back on the October 2nd, with Lt. Smedley and the late Maj. Fen also scoring against 262s on the same date. So Lt. Per Fesser, your wallet is safe. Lt. John Artiesbi, however.... it is the first 262 kill for the 485th! Congratulations on getting the first blow-job for your squadron! Gonna be an expensive night for you methinks... Congratulations to Lts. Reginald and Apeehill for scoring on their first ops for their squadron. Also of note is Lt. Pook's selfless attempt to relieve Lt. Friar of some unnecessary weight: http://dangerdogz.com/forums/topic/13737-p38-mission/?tab=comments#comment-140222 Whilst Group HQ appreciate Lt. Pook's efforts in improving the agility of his squad-mate's airplane, we would point him to the crew chiefs who would be happy to recommend some more traditional and eminently less flammable engineering methods to accomplish the same. Well done all for some good team work. And finally we have TWO Bronze Star recipients! Congratulations to Capt. David Prang of the 485th and to Lt. Fenton Rea of the 402nd. Good work gentlemen.

Ladies, gentlemen and those of a more ambiguous gender identity, please make note: I would therefore, strongly suggest that it would be very prudent to get some dive-bombing practise in and get familiar with these new characteristics before tonights op.

Any luck Craig?

A hearty thanks to the chaps who helped test out last night, looks like the edits I made were successful. FT, masquerading as "Bert", completed the mission and we successfully pushed through the AAR process. Campaign had been reset to the 12th October, so (fingers crossed) all will be well for this coming Tuesday.

No fear Dave, it was. I believe Monsieur Painless is referring to Siddley's trip to Dutchland rather than the campaign status...

Right. This is a make or break. The potential/perceived issue with Nicks persona name: it is not confirmed, but with Pat saying that it maybe a cause of some of our issues, I decided the best bet would be to remove it as a factor. So I tried to side step: I have the option to 'retire' personas from the squadrons. Since "Bertrand Finknottle" - having not actually flown a mission that successfully passed AAR yet - had no missions, kills or awards to his credit, I thought I could just retire him and create a new persona for Jabo called "Bert Finknottle" instead. Easy! No. As soon as I tried to commit this new Persona to the campaign I got thrown an error. Furthermore "Bert Finknottle" appeared in the 402nd roster but Jabo was not assigned to him! And I couldn't even find a way to boot "Bert "out and start completely from scratch! The ramifications for the campaign are pretty catastrophic - it would probably mean deleting the entire thing and starting from scratch. However, I had a dig through some of the supporting file structure and think I found a way around this; without boring you I believe the edits I have made have managed to re-instate Jabo as "Bert Finknottle" and I'm hoping we can continue... Thus we need to test. So for the sake of the campaign can I ask for some volunteers to test this tinkering I have been making and ensure we can continue? I'm thinking Saturday night, 2100BST.

Painless's persona has 15 characters; Jabo's has 18. I'm wondering if there's a 16 character limit? That's a very computer value... I think I might be able to manually dig out the file which constitutes the user database and manually edit Nick's name; make him Bertie or Bert rather than Bertrand, see if that works.

I'll get me fishnets warmed up.

Sorry you missed it Nick. I'll try to remember to put a reminder out the day before to avoid people missing out.

Congrats to Arjen on his first Gong! Despite encountering heavy enemy fighter opposition prior to RV with the RAF Mitchells he and his squadron were assigned to escort, Lt Efftee led and organised his squadron with great decisiveness and they downed many e/a before racing to catch the heavies under their charge, escorting them to a successful drop on their target. 2nd Lt. Casey Baker miraculously survived a head on collision with a Fw 190A-8. Knocked completely unconscious and trapped in the falling wreckage Baker had a million-to-one shot when remains of his aircraft hit the steep slope of a tall river bank and slid into a muddy, silty bog at the bottom. He was rescued by friendly ground troops and taken to a nearby aid station. Apart from a light concussion he suffered no further injury! Some one get that guy a lottery ticket! 2nd Lt. Zook aborted due to technical issues with his a/c but not before claiming a Bf-110. 2nd Lt. Funflaque again aborted due to technical issues with his a/c but made it safely home. Congrats to 485th for their victories. After further discussion with 9th AF HQ, Group have decided that if whilst on air patrol near the frontlines, should a squadron see little or no enemy air activity after 20-30 minutes on station squadrons are free to expand their search area and also search out and attack enemy ground targets - but only if identification of targets as enemy is absolutely unequivocal. It will be left to the squadron commanders discretion, with the forces he has available and availability of suitable targets as to how this is carried out, but group recommend leaving at least one flight high as cover in case our Luftwaffe friends decide to show up late. Next mission on the board is October 12th 1944. (To be hosted Tuesday 18th August.)

Mission successfully processed chaps, the results are in!

Not officially, but I think some here may have mentioned Post Scriptum... I've been looking with interest at Hell Let Loose; as an old player of Day of Defeat it certainly looks incredible and would certainly scratch an itch for WW2 FPS I occasionally suffer with but as I barely have the time to keep my DCS and GBS commitments as it is, my head says "No"!

Unlikely Colin. We had both Perf and Funflak hard crash out of Il-2 last week and we were able to progress, can't see your early departure causing an issue.

The reports are with Pat and he's looking into it, but yes, again, After Action Report process failed. So last night never happened, and you were never here....