BluBear

402nd FS Combat Report - 10/12 - Recce in the Jülich area Firstly, it was a shame to have such a reduced force today; some kind of clap-induced vertigo apparently according to Doc Daneeka, or was it something to do with the liver? Anyway, flying as a mere three ship today, this was regretfully another mission of ups and downs. Each aircraft took a couple of 1000 pounders as intel suggested there was an enemy advance in our target area. Once there and with our patrol complete, we headed down to drop on targets of opportunity. Vehicles, artillery and AAA were all spotted to the South of Jülich as Red leader made an attack followed by Red two. On egress from the attack, Red two was observed to take an 88 shell in the back of the head. This is the second day running the 402 have been struck down in such a way and we mourn the loss of newbie Doug Grabowski. In the meantime, Red three had spotted possible enemy aircraft and had remained high to investigate along with our P-47 escorts. With Red leader joining in, a short scrap ensued which resulted in one Fw190-A8 destroyed by Red three in a precision sniper attack and a further A8 damaged by Red leader. As the P-47s were keen to get involved, the now two-ship 402 decided that was enough for one day and headed home. If pilot availability continues to be an issue, we may need to consider our options.

Some of you chaps might recall, a couple of weeks ago, whilst warming up before a Lightning Strikes mission I had a little tree-felling incident. After a forced landing somewhere in the winter Rhineland map, I ended up skidding into some trees, ripping my wing off in the process. What I didn't expect was to hear the sound of a falling tree, then looking behind and seeing it slowly crash to the ground. I had no idea this was modelled in this sim, pretty cool!

Reporting in for today's P-38 shaped fun

I reckon you would have landed that if it weren't for that pesky focke hell bent on removing ALL of your control surfaces!

402nd FS Combat Report - 9/12 - Engage enemy aircraft in the Utrecht area Flying as a four ship, the squadron flew the long way North to the interception area, orbited the patrol point for circa 10 minutes and soon realised that the Luftwaffe were not coming out to play. With the hunch that this could be a distinct possibility based on previous experiences, the squadron had equipped with 2x 500lb bombs for targets of opportunity. Working as pairs, at first with Red 1 and 2 flying top cover, with 3 and 4 dropping down to attack and then the reverse, all that was encountered amounted to a great deal of flak batteries with the hots for our behinds, protecting remarkably little in the way of juicy targets. With 3 and 4 still up top, Red 1 and 2 were flying low weaving around the trees trying to shake the barrage when leader took a clattering of lead and shrapnel to the right boom of his aircraft damaging engine #2 and causing a fuel leak. Deciding this was all now a trifle on the risky side, it was decided to knock off and head for home. Heading South for the frontline still at low altitude trying to find an opportunity to climb, a column of trucks were spotted approaching a bridge by Red 2 that were flanked by AAA. With a bomb still hanging from his racks, Red 2 decided to drop on his way through. Sadly on the route out, with the AAA now very much awake he was seen to take burst to the back of the head and that was that. RIP 2nd Lt Aaron Massengill. We will certainly miss having the only pilot on strength able to decipher these difficult to pronounce European towns and cities! Now firmly in friendly territory, Red lead climbed to 20,000ft to give best possible chance of gliding home should fuel starvation occur, though it would turn out that engine number two would give out first. Red 3 and 4 headed home as a pair with only a brief interruption to ID a flight of P-51s and all three remaining 402nd aircraft landed safely at Florennes with five engines between them. Losing two pilots in successive missions is difficult to take especially when we are already at low strength, but this is war. And war is hell.

Reporting in

Stunning

402FS combat report - mission date 7/12 Our target for today - seemingly with the rest of the 9th AF - was infantry in and around the town of Weeze. We transited to the frontline at Angels 14 and slightly North of the 485th to avoid conflict and offer additional top cover. Upon our descended entry to the target area from the West, Red 3 spotted a trio of Ju52 transports flying below 5000ft and on a reciprocal heading. Following an initial attack from Red 3 and 4, Red leader and his wingman also dropped down for a taste of the action and between the flight, all three enemy Iron Annie's were swiftly sent to earth in flames. Good job. Regrouping, we continued on to attack ground targets of opportunity to the South East of Weeze, where unfortunately we lost Red 4 from Red 3's bomb blast on the first attack run. 2nd Lt Luke Zander, a distinguished canal boat enthusiast, was a man of few words but well liked in the mess for his ability to draw the perfect mallard whilst blindfolded. He will be missed. Let this be a reminder though gentlemen to always observe strict spacing on bomb runs in order to avoid these unnecessary 'own goals'. Either go in close together or keep it distant. After dispatching a number of tricky tree covered targets and with the 485th now in the area we decided to push South to the town of Geldern to see what the craic was down there. With minimal juicy targets around, we took one final punt to the East to strafe and pickle off the remainder of our bombs on the airfield of Bonningshardt-sud. Red leader strafed a lone parked Bf109 as well as blowing a few buildings to smithereens along with Red 2 who also took umbrage to some jerry storage tanks. Calling it there, the trio headed South West for home, picking up a further couple of AAA along the frontline on the way through. Well done gents, some decent team work and a reasonable haul of targets destroyed, marred only by the loss of 2nd Lt Zander. RIP.

Oh go on then

That's what I'm thinking, however surely they'd try to keep the CofG as close to operational as possible to ensure correct flight characteristics?

Good points chaps, but I suppose my question really was why Hadfield diverges from the pilot's notes, leaving DCS out of it for a moment. I shall have to check other in-cockpit vids to see what other RL pilots do in modern day Spitfire flying.

Great vid thanks mate! I do enjoy Hadfield's insights. One point I noticed, on his pre-flight checks he wheeled the elevator trim to one division up. I've always followed the manual with one division down. Could this be to compensate for the possible differing CofG / weight of a non-combat Spit?

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh

Should be good for this

402nd Debrief: 6th December 1944 A reconnoitre of the Zülpich area armed with 2x500lb bombs A mixed mission for sure and not without incident sadly. We flew as white and blue flights to 485th's red flight, in a show of force to jerry. As we reached cruise altitude blue one was seen to nose down violently by blue two and despite his frantic calls, never recovered from the steep dive. Suspected catastrophic control failure and the subsequent extreme negative G the likely cause of pilot incapacitation. 2lt Roger Over joined 402 only a few missions ago, but he quickly became a favourite of all in the squadron, especially for 'that trick' in the mess hall involving a chalice, 20mm cannon shell and a pair of nylons. How he managed it, we will now sadly never know. Blue skies young man! Blue two formed up with white flight to resume as a fighting four. Shortly after 485 engaged with the Ju88 and whilst orbiting awaiting their new position, we answered the call to engage fighters to the South. A busy furball ensued, with our Tempest escort also getting stuck in. A number of 190 D9s were shot down or damaged in the engagement with no loss to our own. At this point white three reported possible control damage to his aircraft so opted to RTB; this later turned out to be a dodgy window causing buffeting - after giving it a bash he headed East again and joined the rest of 402. After a period of searching the sky and an aborted engagement on what turned out to be friendly aircraft, we looked for ground targets of opportunity along the frontline from Zülpich up to Jülich. Some AAA were dispatched, one of which caused damage to white four who, escorted by white three returned to Florennes as a precaution whilst lead and two continued the search. White two was the only pilot to still have bombs hanging from his -38 following the earlier dogfight, so we were keen to find somewhere meaningful that he could lay his eggs. Unfortunately, this was not to be as a well aimed AAA hit caused severe damage to both of his engines. White two immediately diverted due West to successfully recover at a forward airfield escorted by white leader, who then made the lonely flight home for a well earned cup of coffee. A slightly frantic mission with a decent tally of aircraft downed and a handful of ground kills, though sadly darkened by the loss of 2lt Over.

I trust his judgement. It'll be worth the wait

Well the bottleneck sure is obvious now: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/41531338 Other than that, I'm pretty happy although not sure why my Ryzen 7 is showing "Performing below expectations (36th percentile)"

Reporting in, so I am.

Buy the farm it seems!

Why don't the online stores reserve stock for telephone/mail orders only? Go old skool. That'll deal with the bots at least?

Hello, from the other side! Thanks ever so much @Jabo for your assistance this evening, we got there in the end. New rig up and running, all drives sorted and now leaving it overnight to download all manner of sim-fliegen-goodness.

Okay thanks Nick, I think I understand it now, however I'm not sure the best way of proceeding with my proposed hardware set up. Here's the lowdown: Current rig: C Drive (SSD1 250GB) Windows + most programs inc. GBS B Drive (SSD2 250GB) DCS D Drive (HDD 1TB) DATA - Relocated User files and Steamapps New rig with new drives, my plan: C Drive (m2 1TB) Windows with all programs GBS, DCS etc - should I partition or not bother? D Drive (HDD 2TB) DATA - Relocated User files I had planned on keeping my old rig as operational as possible, because I may have a plan for it (possible hackintosh candidate). Therefore, I thought a fresh install of Windows on the new rig would be preferable, transferring windows license, however if your method is doable with my above drive plan, that sounds like the more straight forward option! Once everything is up and running on the new rig, I'd planned on wiping the old one anyway.

402nd Debrief: 3rd December 1944 Attack on trains and rail facilities in Krefeld armed with 6x500lb bombs With little AAA resistance encountered over the target area, the squadron dutifully attacked and naturalised the primary objective. Shortly thereafter, red leader and red two spotted an FW-190A8 with lights on to the NE, presumably in the pattern for Krefeld airfield. Both pilots landed hits on a head on attack, which was met with return fire. With the enemy aircraft now trailing grey smoke, red leader swiftly lined up behind and shot it down in flames. No other enemy aircraft were encountered. Forming up over target area, we headed due south to look for targets of opportunity in nearby Mönchengladbach. Further train and rail facilities with assorted ground targets and AAA were encountered and also swiftly dispatched. With further ground targets spotted to the West and South West, the squadron split into fighting pairs and racked up an impressive tally of AAA and artillery near the front-line. Apart from a slightly hairy moment for red two, nearly losing consciousness due to oxygen starvation (and red three for a heart-stopping near collision as a result!) - all pilots and aircraft returned home safe. Well done chaps, great team work and a decent haul of ground targets destroyed. A particular shout out to red four with 13x AAA/Artillery destroyed - well done that man!

I'll be there

Thanks Col. Although, I own a boxed copy already (have the disc in which to make a bootable usb) and have the licence key which is being used on my current machine. It's just a case of deactivating and transferring right?