DD_Fenrir

In preparation to tonight's event, a little re-shuffle is required in the Command Structure of 402nd FS. The painful loss of Capt. Nick Jabeaux has left a leadership gap in White Flight. Ergo, Lt. Arthur Smedley will be OC White flight hereon-in, with Lt. Chris Bloobair taking over the second element. As a basis going forward if we get a full compliment, then 402nd should look like this: 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. Luke Rocks White 3 - Lt. Chris Bloobair White 4 - 2nd Lt. Peter Lamarr Blue 1 - Capt. Kevin Fruitbat Blue 2 - 2nd Lt. Bertrand Finknottle Blue 3 - Lt. Per Fesser Blue 4 - *vacant* This of course is highly dependent on pilot availability so expect some shuffles from mission to mission to accommodate any absenteeism. Also I may choose to vary the Red 2 position as I see fit; cos I'm the ****ing boss. So there.

Understood Siddley, thanks for the prior notice.

Note to Squadron/Flight Leaders: During form up and ingress Perf pontificated (rightly it turns out) that any AI escort flight assigned to your squadron will not pick you up at the RV unless the two following rules are adhered to: 1) You hit the RV waypoint exactly, and 2) You hit every waypoint from lift-off to the RV As such I have adjusted the initial waypoint settings in PWCG to bring them lower and closer to the airfields to make hitting these easier as part of our orbits. I will also tweak each squadrons waypoints en route (where possible) prior to each event to make them more rational as some are, well, somewhat abstract to say the least....

Ok gents, so two days of rough weather have kept us grounded and it is now the October 5th, 1944 and we have a pending mission. The updated rosters for the 402nd and 485th are shown below. Welcome 2. Lts Jasper Jacobsen and Bertrand Finknottle to 402nd after the untimely departure of Nick Jabeaux and Dennis Wingy. Also the 370th FG board has been updated to reflect our latest successes. Next mission is to be flown on Sunday 28th June 2020, 2100 BST.

Patience my dear fellow... soon...

Bad luck chaps, but it happens. Nick, Dennis, if you can let me know the names you'd like for your new personas. Sorry gents, but you're back down to 2nd Lieutenants. I need this info soon so I can run the necessary admin prior to this coming Sunday's campaign event. As for everyone, else, hope you enjoyed it! Seems like there was some elation, some drama, some surprises, some anxiety and some satisfaction - a good mix if you ask me! The results are in:

Good news! FT and I successfully generated, ran and completed the After Action Report process for a campaign mission with PWCG hosted on the Dedicated Server last night. As such Tuesday nights mission will be hosted on the DServer.

Thanks Arthur, marvellous stuff!

Apologies to all that last night was a bust; obviously there were a number of technical issues, many of which that were no one persons fault, but considering it took 40 minutes to get from server up (2120) to ultimate scrubbing (2200) there is obviously some work that is required. I have my suspicions that my internet connection is partially to blame; it may also have to do with the server being hosted by a player - DCS seems to run happier with a segregated host/client architecture and I suspect GBS may be the same. I will look into options hosting the campaign on the DDz dedicated server with FT. I cannot guarantee this will fix all the issues (lord knows I've experienced the occasional kick/crash even flying our usual coops) and may require a full campaign restart but I will know more in the coming days. As for personal technical issues; gremlins strike, we've all had them and on occasion even a full test prior to joining an event does not completely eradicate the chance of them occurring. However it will help mitigate the chance of spawning in and finding your TiR has gone for a burton or that for some reason a controller detection has decided to go south. Personally I'd recommend a quick mission free flight or a test on the DDz dogfight server. Speculatively, it may help to fly the test on the Rheine map before joining the campaign mission as this could load textures into your RAM, minimising the information that your PC is having to process and the load it is having to cope with when attempting to join, making a successful connection more likely. Maybe. The upshot of this is: from hereonin, if we have all players successfully spawned in but your hardware screws up, then sorry we continue without you. Even if it's a gremlin that didn't show itself in the test prior then you're an abort. Done. We cannot continue doing 40 minutes of restarts every time. As for pre-organisation of who's flying which position - this will help lessen the time taken to ready up but will always be subject to vagaries and interference of Real Life. Leaders will have to prepared to be flexible and adjust to on the spot deviations promptly and decisively. It would help if those partaking read and thoroughly understood the SoPs The point of me writing all that guff was not just to stroke my own ego or cos I had nothing better to do; it plays an important role in getting everyone in server and airbourne in the minimum of time. How? Well it means that the required information to be imparted at briefing is condensed down to just the following: 1. Formation assignments (or any deviations from prepared) - 1-2 minutes 2. Target - type and location - 10 seconds 3. Navigation - waypoints, points of note & egress headings - 1-2 minutes 4. Loadout - 10-20 seconds 5. Runway in use - 10-20 seconds 6. Any other matters lead wishes to bring up - 30 seconds Everything else is known and should not vary between missions. Thus a briefing could be over in as quick as 3 minutes. As for start time; next mission is scheduled for 23/06/20. This mission will have a participation cutoff of 2100 BST. If you are not in comms prior to this you will not be flying. If you have not entered server and selected you plane by 2110 you will not be flying.

Hi chaps! Alert to all: NEW VERSION OF A-4E IS AVAILABLE! Available here: https://github.com/heclak/community-a4e-c/releases/tag/v1.4 TAKE NOTE!:

Next Tuesday '38 Campaign Mission is on the 23rd June old fruit. Glad you enjoyed it, it was awesome looking back over my shoulder and seeing all those Lightnings in formation. Wonder if Arthur got any good cinefilm of the event?

Hi Llama, great vids! Please note I have moved this to our general discussion area, known in these parts as 'Jim's Place' after our late founder and patriarch Jim Blairgowrie.

Next mission is 02/10/44 (to be flown on Sunday 14/06/20). Scores as of the morning of the 2nd:

Well, gents, for the first time I get to say... Welcome to Debrief! (Whoot!) 01/10/1944 Firstly, great job guys on all making it back. Particularly well done to the 485th for hitting their targets so unequivocally. 402nd - Reconnaissance of the frontline East of Bastogne. Great takeoff, form up and ingress to recon area, cruise alt Angels 16. Well flown gents. Spotted two contrails high over frontline, shortly after two Fw 190s dived through the formation. Broke formation and pursued one through cloud, lost him then reacquired him twice then came up on his 6 as he climbed south east and shot him down with a 2 no. 2 second and one no. 5 second burst, confirmed by Wingy and Zukker. Jabo claimed a probable in the same vicinity but couldn't get it confirmed. Regrouped squadron over Bastogne and we flew back to the frontline. Zenith squadron called mission complete so we RTB'd. All a/c down safe. To address some issues brought up: 1. Stuttering mid-mission; this is an AI issue and occurs when we fly close enough to the mission area to spawn the enemy and friendly AI air and ground units. I will tweak the numbers of these down further. 2. The multiple restarts were a pain and I am VERY conscious of those who suffer most for it, and can only apologise. For future I suggest the following: a) All players restart Il-2 prior to joining the P-38 Coop Campaign server b) All players DO NOT TOUCH A SODDING THING WITH THEIR CONTROLS UNTIL ALL PLAYERS ARE SUCCESSFULLY SPAWNED IN COCKPIT. In 402nd we basically call "Red 1 is in", "White 3 is in", etc, until everyone is in cockpit then we begin startup. c) We start even sooner. A 2100 start time perhaps?

Just use the natural metal or olive drab generic for now Rox. I'm hoping to make some historical 402nd skins for the future - when I can find the time...

Llama, I only have room for you in 402 currently. For tonight's adventure the provisional 402 lineup will be: RED 1. Fenrir 2. Wingy 3. FT 4. Zukker* WHITE 1. Jabo 2. Blubear* 3. Arthur 4. Lllama BLUE 1. Fruitbat 2. Rox 3. Perf Please note those names starred have not confirmed and therefore this arrangement could very well change.

The host can.

Lol! Some sminky looking stuff there. That P-38 quadrant... *dribble*

Great idea Crash!

MiG-29 is a good choice. Pros - 3 versions in one purchase: the A, the S and the G. Manoueverable, powerful, fun! Looks great in cockpit and out. Former FC3 aircraft so systems simplified a bit thus making it easier to get into. Cons - Former FC3 aircraft so no clickable cockpit. Range is a bit of an issue as those Turmansky jets guzzle fuel! Landings can be tricky unless you follow the book exactly by the numbers.

What's your fancy Llama? Propellorhead or jet jockey?

That map edge issue was a brand new one for me Dave - never actually experienced it! It was damn bad luck that meant you caught the worst of it's effect. I have highlighted the issue to Pat Wilson, whether or not he can make any necessary changes, I can't say. For sure they won't come very soon if they do, in the interim I will have to scrutinise the mission map prior to committing to ensure a target area is not going to cause similar issues. Regards the timing, I'm happy to push to an earlier time from my standpoint, however, it becomes more of an inter-personnel issue as to whether it's more convenient for some rather than others; I'm trying to get a balance where we don't end too late for some, or start too early for others. There's some wiggle room but it is tight, not helped by me needing to know exactly who's in prior to generating the mission. Furthermore, additional admin factors, like checking the maps for targets too close too map edge will eat into start times some. I can push for perhaps a 2115 start if that helps?

Gents I am sorry to report that PWCG generated an error report during the After Action Report process subsequent to tonight's mission; for why I cannot tell you, however I have bundled another error report over to Pat Wilson to see what went wrong and whether there's anything that we did that PWCG didn't like or an issue with PWCG itself. Will keep you posted. In the interim we will still be attempting the next mission on Tuesday 9th June, though it will ultimately be a recomencement of the first mission - regenerated to avoid the issues encountered in this evenings foray.

Yeah.... Popped on last night and lo and behold, no issue spawning or landing on t' super carrier with Tomcat. The mind boggles...