Fun Flying, Crazy Landing

Photo Recon in Rise of Flight 1.019

Based on Richy's excellent information (Reconnaissance photo thread), i made a quick demo mission for Rise of Flight version 1.019 (excellent patch!).

Basically 2 check zones, one activates the camera icon when you get above the target area (nearest factory), one deactivates it and tells you to return to finish taking the pictures. After 5 photos are taken, a counter deactivates both check zones and display success message. It should also trigger a reached mission objective, but this is just a demo.

The actual mission can be found here: post

Direct link: Spad XIII - Photo Recon Mission Demo

Skin Manager for Rise of Flight (version 1.0 beta 04)

It's a beta, so i appreciate feedback.

Download latest version (DDS preview added; opening archives is broken): Skin Manager for Rise of Flight v1.0 beta 04


Previous version (JPEG previews): Skin Manager for Rise of Flight v1.0 beta 03

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Courtesy of ImPeRaToR (post), we now have some compressed skin packs which you may find useful:

1. Squadron Skin Pack for Les Hellequins: hq_skins.1019.tar.xz

2. A Skin Pack for use with the 1.019 Career mode, "including the entire official skin pack as well as a few community skins which are being used or will be used in 1.020 by player and AI controlled squadrons, but without bloating it with skins that are not being used (yet)": 1.019 Career mode skin pack

Install instructions for such skin packs, can't be easier (images by ImPeRaToR):

Artillery Cooperation

From the book: Memoirs of The Great War 1916-1918 by James Racine (edited, restored, digitized by Nik Racine)

(Pages 150-151)

The final test was duly carried out, that of Artillery Co-operation. A short distance from the depot a dummy battery of guns was stationed and at a position in tie far corner of the aerodrome, was an object upon which imaginary artillery fire was to be directed. These positions were marked on the map carried by the pilot undergoing the test. All messages were carried out in code and sent from the air by wireless in morse.

As soon as the machine had reached its requisite height, when the pilot had located the target, he wirelessed to the battery, whilst flying towards it '"Are you receiving my signals?" and waited for a ground signal to be exposed in answer.

These ground strips were made of white linen and positioned to represent various letters viz. "L2 might mean "Yes" or "K", "No"- and soforth. Under service conditions, a pilot when patrolling a certain sector of the front, would possibly spot a target (such as a battery of guns, moving troops, etc.) upon which he desired to direct suitable artillery fire. Each of the batteries of our artillery possessed its own code calling up sign, e.g. 60 pounder battery might be "B.E.", a six inch howitzer battery, "R.N.", etc. and according to the type of gun it was desired to engage, so the pilot would utilise the necessary code letters to call up the requisite battery.

In addition to this, each machine had its code number so that the battery would know the flight carrying out the shoot. As soon as the pilot had received the signal that his own signals were being received, he wirelessed the position of the target, which he had worked out from his map, and this message he repeated and followed it up with the coded question - "Are you ready to fire?". An example of the routine is as follows (ficticious code letters are used) –

Machine: A.B.1 Battery Code: R.N. Message: Are you receiving my signals B.

Machine: A.B.1 Battery Code: R.N. Message: Position of target P64L39

The complete message – AB1RNP64L39M

Battery answer – L.

The shoot then commenced. The pilot flew towards the battery and wirelessed the order to fire, turned and flew towards the target to observe the burst of the exploding shell. His next duty was to send down the correction, preceeding this with the code prefixes. For the purpose of such correction, an imaginary clock face was, drawn round the target, with twelve o'clock due North, calculated by reference to the machine's compass.

Imaginary circles were pictured at various distances from the centre, viz. first ring 50 yards, second one, a hundred yards, third two hundred and fifty yards, etc and called A.,B. and C, etc; the position of a bursting shell was calculated thereby. For instance, a shell exploding fifty yards North of the target would receive a correction 12A, or if to the east, 3A, and a pilot sending a complete correction, including code prefixes, would transmit AB1RNL2A.

When the burst had been observed, the pilot turned the machine, flew towards the battery whilst the correction was wirelessed, and repeated the order to fire; this continued until a direct hit was obtained.

At times, the pilot was called upon to carry out a shoot with two batteries upon different targets, which duty was by no means an easy one; the bursts of two lots of shells had to be observed and corrections sent down with the code prefixes of the various batteries being utilized. During such operations, the pilot was generally subjected to anti-aircraft fire from enemy guns and in addition, had to be prepared to resist an attack by enemy machines.

Bullethead's Energy Fighting Tactics and Energy Management

Here's a PDF version of the document, resurrected from Internet-death:

Bullethead's E-Fighting Tactics and Energy Management

(Use File->Download in Google Viewer menu to download the PDF)

Source: wayback-machine HTML link (2002):

http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20020204072555/http://people.delphi.com/jtweller/training/tactics.htm#top

Red Baron 3D Utilities

* TViewMP (adds TrackIR support to RedBaron 3D MULTIPLAYER): TViewMP link

* ReLoad for Win2000+ (with TrackIR support and other enhancements for SINGLEPLAYER): ReLoad 1.166 link

* ReLoad for Win98: ReLoad 1.163P link

* RBLogger (useful for modders, together with DebugView, to see around which missing files will Red Baron executable crash): RBLogger link

* A copy of DGVoodoo 1.5beta2 glide wrapper (made by DeGe), which has enhancements for Red Baron: dgvoodoo 1.5b2 link

Usage:

Sideslip indicator in WW1 planes

From the book Practical Flying (1918)

Mr. Feldber had the courtesy to post a picture of an actual inclinometer from that period, at the Rise of Flight forum.

Ergo, here's an original inclinometer used in Sopwiths, made by Elliot Brothers of London:

Rise of Flight - Screenshots

A short glance in a multiplayer session (flight combat simulator - Rise of Flight)

From the "Fast Food" russian dogfight server:

An. Petrovich post about SPINS

Source: http://www.sukhoi.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=66233&p=1528064&viewfull=1#post1528064

Translation thread: http://riseofflight.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=17392

Translated by TX-BroWright

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About spin recovery.

It was always a mystery for me: why the f* they often write in aircraft manuals, that in case of unanticipated spin, at first (after pilot has had identified the direction of rotation and the type of spin) one has to set controls in the direction of the spin, and only after that - in the opposite direction, for recovery. I considered it a "military by the book". It turned out, I was wrong. Detailed study of the physics of a spin gave me a very definite answer, why it is necessary to set controls in the direction of a spin ( at first). In a spin, pilot has 2 main enemies: high (past critical) angles of attack, and high slip/skid angles. And at that, the high slip angles are even more dangerous than high angles of attack. For due to various kinds of interactions between longitudinal and lateral motions of the airplane (so called inertial, aerodynamic, kinematic interactions while airplane performs complex motion in space) angles of attack and slip/skid angles in established phase of spin "work" in tandem, complimenting each other: if the angle of attack is on the increase, then the slip/skid angle will decrease, and vice versa: if the AOA decreases, the slip/skid will increase. So much so that even at a low AOA but under high slip/skid angles the airplane can continue to stay in established spin. 

This is exactly why every method of spin recovery (which under standard classification are 5 for regular spin and 3 for the inverted) prescribes to first remove the slip/skid, and only after that to correct high angle of attack situation. If, instead, while in spin, one immediately sets controls to recovery - then - for some types of stall and for some airplane types - it oftentimes leads to the situation where the angle of attack indeed decreases, but the slip/skid increases! And an airplane would stay in the spin, and with more enthusiasm at that, with increased rates of turn (spin up). 

But if one at first sets the controls in the direction of the spin (i.e. stick aft, and rudder position - regardless, because if airplane responds well to the rudder, it will recover from the spin without any voodoo, but if it does not respond well - then at this moment one can push rudder pedal in the same direction as spin, airplane will not be likely to respond anyway), then the angle of attack will increase, but the slip/skid? right, it will decrease. And the airplane will slow its rate of rotation (get closer to a flat spin). Only now lets begin with rudder set to recovery (and it is desirable to set control column in the direction of bank and spin direction - in order to assist in removing the slip/skid), and after a small delay (0.5- 1.0 seconds), when slip/skid angle decreases even more - push control stick forward. Airplane leaves high angles of attack with ease and appreciation of the pilot, who has just mastered the airplane's "practical aerodynamics".

By the way, sometimes it is not even necessary to push stick forward - for those "strange" cases where slip/skid in the spin is predominant factor over angle of attack. Airplane is simply slows down its rate of rotation, and either leaves high angles of attack (with stick still aft), or transitions to the spin in the opposite direction (exactly the occurrence described by RB). In practice, this way of spin recovery is rarely used, because it has potential risk of a secondary spin. However for modern airplanes with a one-piece stabilator (the whole vertical fin turns as one piece) this method works fabulously (so called 5N or "Fedotovsky").

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An. Petrovich

Aerobatics book from 1918

If you have ever seen this book "Horatio Barber - Aerobatics" on Amazon or other online stores, it's a book right from 1918 (!),  which is actually available for free, at this address:

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022833382

I made a PDF version optimized for printing, with all white pages removed, white margins reduced and with 2 original pages placed on a single page, in landscape format. Text and "plates" (images) are separated. Total number of pages: 45, therefore you can "save the woods" and print the whole book on just 23 sheets of A4 paper.

http://www.mediafire.com/?cz89h92mt4797kt