Leaderboard

HI Folks, sorry for being away so long... I had pretty much lost track of time, I only went out for the papers. I sort of left for a spell and never found my way back. And here come the excuses... Like BadAim says above, I'd love to fly more, but times of the meets dont always work with everyday life. having 2 kids is not helping, plus theres a whole list of other things that tend to get in the way. as is normal with life I guess. Another thing getting in thw way is my eldest son, who is now of an age where PC is cooler than Xbox, so I have to fight him off my comp when he wants to play Banner Lord 2 for 17 hours at a stretch, he doesnt have his own rig and I cant afford to buy him one atm, I was going to get myself a new rig and donate this one to him, but thats sadly been mothballed thanks to Herr Putin, and BOJO De Pfeffel... That said I have had urges to do some flying, but I havent got to a point where I set up the VR and actually do it. I too also prefer the more casual co-op missions to event or campaign flying. not interested so much in tanks, its 100% flying for me. The campaigns, while fun, are perhaps a bit too long winded for me. Both in mission length and campaign length. and for a creature who likes flying a variety of planes, being stuck on one can get a bit tedious. There are plus sides, having taken part in the P38 campaign for a spell, it taught me how to really fly the machine, and it wasnt necesarily one I would pick from the list if I was casually flying. I would definitely like to learn to fly some of the other planes better... there are some I love but havent quite mastered, and they arent necesarily all of the glamourous ones... Besides this, the campaign nights can be a bit 'too' serious. and thats a bit of a buzz kill at times. even if my focus generally is at a higher level. I'd like to do more campaigns, but maybe with a slightly different format, perhaps on a shorter campaign, that allows us to fly more aircraft, learn them, have some fun then move on to the next. I know its a difficult one to cater for, but I far prefer flying the early/mid war planes as well, whereas a lot of guys here like the later war gear. I just find the early and mid war planes are a bit more hands on, and thats fun for me. and also dare I say, I also love WW1 as well, which I've never got to fly with the dogz, well not entirely true, but only for a few minutes before being raped by an FW190 A4. lol The Co-op nights, I have no complaints about. the missions are good and I've had fun times taking part in them. and realistically if the session is too long I have the opportunity to leave earlier, Not that I ever have. Just a small note though, on the warmup DF server, it would be nice to have most if not all planes unlocked, as some that I own as DLC are often excluded such as the Macchi Fulgore and Yak 9. I know its done in the interest of 'theme' for whatever the map is, but I dont think thats entirely necesarry in a casual DF scenario. I will pop on on Sunday evening, and have a fly, dont mind what we do... I guess a large part of this for me is getting the buzz and the addication back. just to wrap up, I know how much work goes in behind the scenes, to create events, missions and campaigns, and to cater for as many people as possible, and I also know thats a nearly impossible task. So I tip my hat to those of you that take on this burden. My suggestions above are in no way intended to cause offence to those who create and run this fabulous club. Tbone.

I'd love to fly more, but it's not in the cards right now. I hope to get my life to a point where I have more time for things other than work, the Dogz being one of the more important things (Probably the only thing more important is to get to the Grandkids ballgames). In the meantime I hope to get by for a Dogz Sunday every once in a while. Unfortunately I just don't have time to keep up with the "event" type stuff. (especially formation flying, I suck at it so bad it's not only not fun, it's downright painful). I do miss you guys. Love u. 😪

I think we can muddle through and there is no “magic bullet” which would cure all of our issues. We are still a great bunch of chaps but like in all friendships there are phases of the moon shall we say. The plandemic has undoubtedly played its part as Chris has said, especially when it comes to getting together face to face from our own shores and abroad. The many years we have had doing Duxford and other events will always be extremely precious memories and who is to say we won’t find something similar in the years to come. I intend to keep that “DD55DOG” number plate on my car until I pop my clogs.

Hi chaps, I understand the frustration and concern shown here; as Mick says I think it's been a while coming but I believe there are appreciable and understandable reasons: Firstly, we'd be remiss not to consider the effect of the pandemic, both positively and negatively. The lockdowns of 20/21 prevented us from doing so many things, but it did mean we could all spend more time here; which sure was a blessing. Simultaneously, we had the Lightning Strikes campaign that brought us all together for a common purpose with some friendly rivalry; even attracting some new members to the squad. I think what we saw during this period was a boom; we were seeing numbers those Tuesdays and Sundays frequently well into double figures. But. What we're seeing now, is likely the pay off for that boom. Understandably, as the world has opened up and we've got our lives back to as close to normal as we can, people are catching up on all those other things we were forced to forgo, away from a computer screen and outside of the house! The P-38 campaign has for sure lost its momentum, with the cutting back to every other Sunday it's easier to miss out on if the RL planets do not align, which is a shame. Though, attendance had dropped before then anyway. DCS has been on the scene for about 14 years and rightly occupies its own slots during the week as we decided a number of years ago, but even that is quieter now than last year. Thursdays will be lucky to see 3-5 Dogz now. Personally, since Christmas I've had some RL things to deal with that simply have to come first, so I can't always plan to be on. When the Lightning Campaign cut back to once a fortnight, I tried to keep the original routine up in order to attend some Co-ops and crucially catch up on the good ol' Dogz banter that I'd been missing. Even this is proving difficult as RL keeps insisting on getting in the way. I'm sure there are other factors, other online temptations and I'm not entirely sure what we can do about it, but anyway. That's my tuppence. I'm not going anywhere, but I can't commit as often as I did, not right now.

From Leon Portier Respawn Coop Missions --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fight for Velikiye Luki PVE Description: Tanks are preparing to assault the city of Velikyie Luki. Fly and complete 6 different objectives from ground attack to intercept mission types with your friends! Since this mission is set up as a dogfight one, it allows respawn, plane selection and join in progress as seen in regular dogfight server. Only the blue team is AI controlled. Fight for Velikyie Luki is also designed to be hosted from the Multiplayer Menu in IL2 from regular Personal Computers, making DServer optional. Available Planes: IL2 1941 / 42, PE2 s35 / 87, I-16, MiG-3, LaGG, P40, Spitfire V, Yak s67, LA5 s8, U-2VS (Spotter) Recommended player count: 2 - 12 Map: Velikyie Luki Hat auch deutsche Übersetzung! ¡También tiene traducción al español! English Briefing German Briefing Get it here, it goes into the Multiplayer\Dogfight folder: (Release: 28.04.2019, last update: 31.08.2021) https://www.dropbox.com/s/9to54xrc65rd6ql/fight_for_velikiye_luki_pve.zip?dl=0 Special thanks to JP, Sketch, Chad, RoyRoger, Dorf, ResonantCard and the 216 SAD for helping and testing!

That's a good idea... And it could be a bit of challenge to decide when the mission is complete ... And to have the EMG generate dogfight maps? I don't think that'd work, and to edit each generated Coop to convert to DogFight? Lots of work ... Maybe focus on shorter coops, and really focus on Teamplay, so only one side, and use a theme for an evening, kinda like a very short coop campaign - I am thinkin' here from what the EMG can deliver us: On one Map (ie. Stalingrad) it can give us like three 'fronts' ie three different stages over the war over there. So, maybe two missions per front, switch to next stage, two more. All the time using a similar set of aircraft ... like for Stalingrad - Axis: 109 + 110. Thus fill one session of cooping... Next session... Rheinland map, Allied... P51 and P38 ... and so on... I dunno, really.

Sorry boys, it has to be said. This is crap, where are the Dogz....on a Tuesday night.... Too many options, not enough support for the core game. Makes me want to go and do single player. Get a grip boys, the Dogz will go under if we don't.

its not so much the time slots, you cant beat sunday evening for availability usually, but alas, thats also the most popular day for family gatherings., things are a little unpredictable. Tuesdays were always difficult for me, due to my job as are any week night to commit to regularly. for my part at least i hadnt planned to be away so long as I really enjoyed the last sessions I attended, I just fell off and then got distracted by other things. and after all this, I have still only decorated half the house. lol. been here a year now. but hey ho, marathon, not a sprint...

He was my instructor at Bomber School J-O...he could put a bomb through a chimney used by emergency exit by Marry Poppins ...I am still remember his first words in first session of BS : "you fighter boysneed to erase your reflexes...you're gonna need every inch of the runway to take-off, for a start...Nice to hear he's ok

May be the right time to reintroduce the two Dogz 'Motivational' and 'Flight Preparation' posters to encourage pilots and tankers to be 'Fight Ready!!'

I have placed the folder of coops we use on Thursday mornings in the 'Downloads' section here

The "Project" Revel F4U-4 in 1:48 It's been sitting on my shelf for at least 10 years before I got around to it. So much easier to do larger pilot figures. My messy workstation, I liked the cheapo airbrush so much I went out and got a decent gravity fed one from paasche. Also did tests on spoons to get the color right. I think it turned out well. Kit had a gimmick, where the wings and gear were hinged. Great idea 'in theory' Wing joints broke, and the gear don't sit quite right. (Gear does twist and fold like the real deal though) And now for the hideous mistake that put it back on the shelf for months. Didn't have varnish, so used the model builder 'Future Klear' trick, I saw on youtube... Finally got back to it, and buffed and wet sanded as best I could. Some decals were tiny, but went on great. On the shelf with ordnance. Extra drop tanks, were turned into napalm canisters. (Nose band did end up with some silvering.)