11 Sept, 2013: Shakedown Mission 8:00pm EDT

SCRAMBLE!

Brief immediately. Mission launch at 8:50pm EDT. Planes launch at 9:00pm EDT. 

Sorry for short notice: Butzzell wants the shakedown mission tonight, under the circumstances I agree.

Will do my best to be there.... have to get my rig all set back up after Tailhook which I have not done yet  

looking forward to it.

I am not going to be able to make this one tonight :(

no train or convoy targets ?

Guys, I can't fly tonight... tweaked my back/hip, making sitting upright a bitch.

patroled  southern box N toS a few red flares from ballons ..no contacts...rtb.. out  of fuel(53%)...landed short of field... no contacts until final 20min (nme 2-seater

at 12k+ hn 270 well s of that french  city,Yipres)

vectored back to Yip....jumped nnw of Yippy by several albs.. oiled...time expired,and I did not....need to be whiperized...tx    sorry Fritz

Not flying......I was still in Anaconda, Montana! Back now, 11PM EDT

Blue Flight patrolled center box at 10K.

Saw numerous flares shot by the three balloons in the area. Saw no contacts, high or low.

At 1 hour 10 minutes detached 2 wing men to refuel. We took off with 50% fuel.

At 1 hour 15 minutes sighted one Alb at approx 13K, he maneuvered towards me and boom and zoomed attacked me, nicking my paint. At that altitude with 20% or less fuel the Pup was still a pig. Probably pilot error. Went onto an intentional spin in an attempt to either drag him lower or escape. He chooses to remain at his altitude.

Recovered and began patrol again.

Saw two distant contacts in the area of Ypres running east suspect Huns, altitude about 13K

Landed re-plane’d.

Other two members of blue flight launched and were engaged at altitude, SS and Dooright fill in blanks….

Upon re-launch, joined up with Blindfaith and started to patrol assigned Blue flight sector at 7K.

10 Minutes remaining engaged about 5 Albs successfully disengaged no damage.

Mission ended.

Thoughts…
1. Pup is a pig at altitude no matter fuel load, someone please prove me wrong, please!!
2. Huns will come in at 13K plus as they always have.
3. Instead of bar cap, recommend caps targets areas at lower altitude, but open to anything.
4. I don’t think we can stop the high altitude operations.

If they have the alt advantage, we should look to engage them early before they get the alt. I believe both of our planes are significatly faster climbers than either alb, so perhaps we should make some early attacks.

Well misdirecting incoming comms may have resulted in DooRights death and my loss of an aircraft.

We took off from the south base and as we passed Ypres (I pronounce Why-press or Yipee) I saw two planes attacking our balloon. Then we got comms to immediately intercept and assist 2seater under attack at (Popper-thingy). Finally figuring out where that was I turned towards it but could not see any contacts. Then the comm came that it was over that "Y" city (how many ways was it pronounced last night) So turned around again. This resulted in loss of contact with enemy and wingman. I found a contact I thought was DooRight and moved in that direction. He reported he was chasing an Alb. I looked but couldn't see anything around the contact I was looking at. Then I was taking fire from behind, looked around and saw DooRight and the Alb he was chasing. (Memo to DooRight: Saying something about the con in front of the Alb might have helped. Especially since you were both smack on my..... posterior.) Almost close enough to feel the muzzle blasts and and close enough to have the tracers passing on both sides of my head, I noted the still too close muzzle blast of DooRights gun and his tracers as they passed just left and above the Albs left fuselage and continues on into my upper left wing. All control surfaces went to heavy deflection as I tried to snap roll, spin, or anything to get out of that dire predicament.

Recovered, but still nose down, leaking oil, gas, and blood as the engine sputtered and my freshly modded crate made it clear that going into a climb would not happen, I notified DooRight he was on his own as he continually revised his con count upward.

I shut off my engine before it ceased up and never saw a shot down credit so I guess that worked. Noted DooRights death as I was gliding down and was glad to be out of sight of the wolves. While contemplating the need for another wingman, I put down in a field 3 or 4 miles north of my drome.

With not much time left I took off and managed to catch up with Navy and company in time to hear "get out of here! Run! Were outnumbered!" Not feeling argumentative I stayed clear and took in the view as the game came to an end.




Yes I have found the Pup and Tripe preform poorly at high alt and can experience a engine power dropoff during maneuvers that will not come back until a much lower alt is reached.
We know how to tell if a bridge is an active target and if I understand correctly only the active barge is present. These are low alt bombing targets so we should find and CAP them at low altitudes not worry about recons which we have little chance of intercepting, and if we did with low performance and single guns slowed by interrupters it is further unlikely we would bring them down.

Also we know they abort arty spotting if there are contacts present so small mid alt patrols over those 2 locations might be worth while.


So basically saying the same as NavyJake.

Didn't know that was you in front of the Alby (actually,I thought you were behind me)You told me to lead and somehow,you wound-up in front of me   ....I assumed it was one of the DH4's and since it was smallish, the alby still had a ways to travel before shooting. I only saw that it was you when he opened fire so soon and you quickly turned/got on comms.

Work on comms & coordination or die.

Will do my best to get more flyers with you next week. This one snuck up on me, couldn't fly

Shnoze....historically the working class englishmen typically referred to Ypres as Wipers like.... "windshield wipers".....perhaps for consistency we adopt that pronunciation.

Is it safe to assume there will be another dry run this Wed night at 9:00 eastern and you would like all flyers to report to duty at 8:30 eastern?

Next Wed will be live...Mission 1.

Copy that! will get the word out

WWGeezer wrote:

Will do my best to get more flyers with you next week.  This one snuck up on me, couldn't fly

Shnoze....historically the working class englishmen typically referred to Ypres as Wipers like.... "windshield wipers".....perhaps for consistency we adopt that pronunciation.

Is it safe to assume there will be another dry run this Wed night at 9:00 eastern and you would like all flyers to report to duty at 8:30 eastern?

The key phrase here is "working class Englishmen"...we are "English gentlemen"(gentlesquirrel). The proper pronunciation is" e-priss".