DD_Fenrir

Howdy all. I have updated the Groups tally sheet - it now looks like this: Rosters for the 402nd and 485th now look like this:

Ok chaps, the AAR for the 8th October mission flown this evening was accepted by PWCG and we have progressed. Alas, for the 402nd, this means that both Lt. Chris Bloobair and 2nd Lt. Jasper Jacobsen are now PoWs, though Lt. Bloobair was able to claim a Bf 110 prior to the tragic collision that brought them both down. Lt. Per Fesser returned safely to base after suffering a critical malfunction with his airplane just prior to crossing the front-line. Likewise 2nd Lt. Funflaque of the 485th. Shame for the 485th that they had such a quiet mission, particularly when the 402nd seemed to have more than enough to keep them occupied. We will review the possibility of revising squadron orders to better synchronise the area of operations that this Groups units will operate over, thus trying to ensure that if one squadron is engaged on ground attack and the other on air cover that the air cover group is doing so over the ground attack squadron. The next day of operations is the 10th October 1944. (Mission Event will be Tuesday the 4th August. Chris, Dennis, I need your new persona IDs as soon as possible.) Scores as follows:

With Fruitbat again away on TDY that means 402nd leadership duties will fall to FT, BluBear or Perf.

You don't Todd; the updater should automatically search for the Beta files to copy across you cannot as far as I am aware pull any element over in a copy/paste operation

Howdy gents! We have a new update to the Stable Release branch! Version 2.5.6.52437. High lights include the P-47, Channel Map and various lighting fixes, Supercarrier ops tweaks for the F-14 and a huge host of other fixes for both the core engine and individual modules; comprehensive to say the least! Details below:

Fascinating insight chaps. Just a case of damn bad luck. It's amazing considering the sheer volume of sky that two entities, so relatively tiny in comparison to the vastness that surrounds them, can so catastrophically gravitate towards one another, particularly in light of the fact that that you were each chasing different bandits!

Inspired by last nights DCS jet tail chase...

Noice! @Painless you have a new recruit joining the 485th; 2nd Lt. David Reginald is now rostered with your squad.

Hey Reggie, have posted you to the 485th FS under Maj. Mick Payne-Less.

Damn, best of luck Dave.

From the descriptions I've heard, more of a Homo Sappy 'un.

Hallelujah! At least some bugger has! Mind you, I suspect you have a head start over some of our members in that it appears at least you can actually read...

Excellent! Be sure to be in TS before 2100BST on the night so I know to allow an airframe for you. You'll be David Reginald for admin purposes if that's ok? There's some skin packs we'd like you to d/l so you can be dressed appropriately. They're linked in the 1st post of the Campaign thread, which is worth a read if you haven't already read it: http://dangerdogz.com/forums/topic/13668-pwcg-p-38-lightning-strikes-co-op-campaign/

Hey Reggie, Welcome to the pound! Next P-38 Campaign mission is Tuesday 21st July; if you'd like to take part just shout and I'll get you assigned to one of the squadrons.

I know Dave. Sufficed to say I logged two kills for you; a Fw 190A-8 and a Bf 109G-14 based on the fact that I thought I heard your squad mates confirm both. Where the -88 came from? PWCG making it's own rules it seems!

Next mission is the 8/10/44 (to be held on Tuesday 21/07/20) Overall claims board for the Group as of the morning of the 8th October:

Well chaps, a successful mission in nearly all measures! Well done to the 485th boys for kicking a lot of Luftwaffe butt and to the 402nd for sticking together and getting home despite losing their CO and having a couple of early retirees due to damage. We have some medals! Perf was awarded the Purple Heart - he took some light shrapnel wounds when the gunner of a Ju-88 he was attacking landed some hits, but is otherwise ok. On a more somber level, we see our first Bronze Star awarded; alas, it goes posthumously to Maj. Tom Fen, who died when his P-38 clipped trees after strafing a AAA position. Capt. Kevin Fruitbat now inherits command of the 402nd. 2nd Lt. Fenton Rea has been posted to the 402nd. The stats:

BAD NEWS: the After Action Report process failed yet again. No idea why this time. The error log seems to infer that PWCG couldn't find any of our air frames referenced in the log-files, kind of implicating there were no log files. Which is odd as Nick and I were able to progress our test mission just fine last Friday, so logs are being written. Bundled an error report package off to Pat for some kind of hope of explanation. Good News: Twas all just a horrible dream (AGAIN!!!!) for some of us. For those who got kills, bloody frustrating I know....

402nd FS line up for next mission (05/10/44): Red 1 - Maj. Tom Fen Red 2 - 2nd Lt. Jasper Jacobsen Red 3 - Lt. Arjen Efftee Red 4 - 2nd Lt. Louis Zook White 1 - Lt. Arthur Smedley White 2 - 2nd Lt. Peter Lamarr White 3 - Lt. Chris Bloobair White 4 - *vacant* Blue 1 - Capt. Kevin Fruitbat Blue 2 - 2nd Lt. Bertrand Finknottle Blue 3 - *vacant* Blue 4 - *vacant* Pilots not participating: Lt. Per Fesser - 24 Hour Pass 2nd Lt. Luke Rocks - TDY to 9th Fighter Command HQ (off ops for forseeable)

Jabo and I ran a test session last night - a patrol from which we had a successful engagement then I deliberately forced a game crash from task manager to simulate a disco. Happy to report fully successful AAR process with all stats recorded.

Ok lads and lassies, the DServer PWCG is now updated to v.10.0.0, which should include new routines to fix the issue of an entire mission having to be binned if one user suffers a game crash mid flight. I would like to test this one eve, Friday or Saturday after 2200 BST; if any one could assist it would be most agreeable.

A good number of luvverlee Pony skins here, courtesy of Il-2 skinning doyen of old, Bo_Nidle: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/56030-bo_nidles-skins-repository/

Arthur, I can't tell you on how many levels I'm impressed; the calibre of the flying is top-notch, well done Arthur & BB, and is certainly a joy to watch; however, the choice of soundtrack is inspired! It elevates what could have been a fairly monotonous one-take of some decent formation flying to a captivating and joyful celebration of what we do. Thanks, Arthur, for putting a big grin on my face this morning!

Well, after all that drama and heartache, the After Action Report failed anyway, my suspicions fall on Perf's freeze and disconnect. Same happened back on the 1st of June with Arthur's machine restarting without warning (thanks Bill Gates). Both FT and I suspect that PWCG is expecting to see a definitive mission ended routine in the logs (for when you click "Finish Mission" after landing, bailing or being killed) but when you disco, it doesn't register as something PWCG recognises and when it comes to the AAR process it can no longer determine whether the disco'd pilot is alive, dead, wounded, a prisoner or just plain safe and sound and subsequently throws a wobbly. So the good news is for all of you who bit the dust today one way or another: it was all a bad dream! As far as PWCG is concerned it never happened and the 5th October 1944 mission is yet to be flown. Nick, some consolation may be found in Pooka having an identical problem to you with de-synchronisation of engines just after take-off; it may be worth you two having a conflab on TS at some point to see if there are any common peculiarities to your set-ups or any potential double bindings. The loss of controller inputs both at mission spawn - or even mid-way through a mission is a troublesome and insidious one and one I think I've bumped into once on a standard co-op evening a few months back. I suggest that anyone who suffers from this from hereon in logs it here in a dedicated thread thread so we can build up a picture of what may be happening when it occurs because it's got to be either Il-2 and/or windows issue, and we need some better data before we start reporting it to 777. After all that (and another round robin of 35 minutes of restarts *sigh*) I rather enjoyed the mission. Hope those of you who managed to see it though did too. Next event will be on Tuesday 7th July. 2100 BST cut-off time for inclusion.