Pilotlog Page 10
Somewhere over England, 1941
BlackMagic's pilotlog entry:
In a match
that turned into a barnburner I finally got the hang of this, I
think :)
Both Clutter and myself stuck to his favorite the Spit XIVE
throughout all 5 matches. Revenge is a dish best served cold, but
a little hot sauce don't hurt none. :)
Results: 3-2 (both losses for each of us resulting in red cross
lifeguard training in the channel)..
Match-1:
Both pass off-nose. clean pass and start the dance. I forget I'm
not flying an "eagle nor a 16" and too much g's and too
little smash remind me to break out the mae west's.
Clutter:1 BlackMagic:0
Match-2:
This one same clean pass at merge and this time we do a little
samba dancing. Clutter tries for "lag" shots, while I
keep him off balance and guessing what the "next move"
will be. After a series of high-slices to hit the elbow on his 6,
to no avail. I then split-s while he's lost SA and then low slice
to make him overcompensate and he goes for a swim.
Clutter:1 BlackMabic:1
Match-3:
Same clean pass at merge, and after a series of near
misses-headon- I forget my nose is up and loss smash bigtime
while watching him and spin city prevails.
Clutter:2 BlackMagic:1
Match-4:
This is one of the longest of the night. Clean pass again and we
do a tango and cash. No one can get the advantage in the turns.
He tries a few times to reverse to gain the elbow. But I'm not
having it and keep him at arms length. I see the opening after he
almost augers in and pulls out at 350-150ft. And then proceed to
"make him" swim. After working the angles, I finally
succeed and he's goes in.
Clutter:2 BlackMagic:2
Match-5:
Best one of the night. Clean pass and now Clutter is thinking too
much :) I manged to work his 6 after 3 minutes and stay there for
quite sometime. Throwing some ordnance his way to keep him busy
and take his mind of what/where I am. He reverses a few times, I
basically keep to the high slice to keep him in raage and in
front of me. Cutting off the angles and giving him a false
impression. I let him get within 975-950 on my 6 but I have the
smash to sustain a tighter turn, I split-s from about 5700k which
takes him off my 6 as he's thinking spin. We both gain some
distance and as we pass I corkscrew, hoping to make him think I'm
in a spin and he'll hold off waiting to see :)
It works.. Allows a few
headon pass shots by both of us, with the last pass allowing me
to low slice into him and get his tail feathers :)..
Clutter:2 BlackMagic:3
Clutter taught me from our 1st encounter and I guess I learned
from that one :) Great match!!! Loong match!!! Lessons learned
and filed for our next encounter, which I'm sure will be that
much more difficult :)
Thanks Clutter, for offering that doover when I spun out 2nd
time, glad I didn't take it as it gave me a greater resolve to
make amends for that. We'll see each soon, as I feel this is the
start of some real fun flying for us.
Starwolf's pilotlog entry:
The watch officer stood over the radio operators as he waited for the commanding officers of the squadron to come into the bunker. "Damn how could this have happened !", he muttered under his breath, shaking his head. Just then the senior officers walked in, not too happy to have been summoned this early in the morning.
"What the hell is
happening?!!", asked the irritated general.
"Well sir, remember that new Flt. Officer that transfered in
last week?", responded the watch officer.
"Yes what about him ??", spat out the general.
"Well sir, it
seems he was not really a RAF officer but rather a Luftwaffe spy
!! This morning we recieved intelligence reports identifying him
as a Flt. Sgt Tuxedo of Jag 26. When they went in to detain him
he was
already in a Spitfire taking off towards France !!"
The general began to turn a frightening shade of purple as he
roared, " You mean a bloody kraut just put on one of our
uniforms, walked in here and stole one on my Spitfires !!??"
The officers in the room edged slightly away as the general
vented his fury at the hapless watch officer.
The general glared at the everyone in the room for a moment and quickly came to a decision. "We'll have to send someone up to take him out !! We cannot afford to let that Spitfire fall into Nazi hands!! Who do we have available?"
"Well sir", stammered the watch officer, "The only guy available right now is Flt. Officer Starwolf. But he just got back from being rescued at sea after being shot down over France. The guy has not been inside a cockpit in over a month ! The doc isn't sure he's overcome the mental stress of what happened to him yet."
"Then I guess
we'll have to find out today won't we !" growled the
general. "We don't have much choice in the matter, we must
get Tuxedo out of that plane! Send him up right away, we don't
have much time !!"
As the jeep rushed Starwolf through the foggy field to his
awaiting Spitfire 1A he could not help a feeling of anxiety as to
the outcome of this mission. The plane was warmed up and ready to
roll as Starwolf climbed into the cockpit. He glanced at the
familiar instruments and controls and slowly began to feel
better. As he let the throttle open full, the throaty growl of
the Merlin increased to a roar and the plane began to speed down
the runway. Pulling back on the stick Starwolf rose into the
morning sky as a grin appeared on his face . "I am back in
the air !!", he thought to himself as the wide panorama
offered by his newly designed viewscreen open up before him. Hope
and confidence began to swell up within him as he climbed high to
try to intercept the rouge Tuxedo.
Guided by the radar
operators on the ground Starwolf quickly caught sight of the
purloined Spitfire. He began shouting taunts in broken German
over the radio in hopes of getting the German pilot to turn
around and engage him. He called into question Hitler's ancestry
and questioned the purity and intelligence of the German race
itself!! Tuxedo could take it no longer and enraged, turned his
plane around to teach this ignorant Scweinhund Anglander a lesson
!!
The planes merged head on !! Tuxedo with guns blazing !! Starwolf
banked his plane hard to starboard as he tracked Tuxedo. Another
head on pass !! Guns blazing on both planes this time !! Both
planes scored hits on each other but were unharmed !! 3 or more
head on passes with multiple hits by Starwolf on the Tuxedo and
vice versa. As the turning fight went on both planes lost
altitude with each turn. Just as Starwolf was trying to set up to
avoid another head on pass Tuxedo's wing clipped the water !!
Starwolf 1 Tuxedo 0
Round 2
At merge Starwolf turned hard right in a lead turn. Met up with
Tuxedo head to head and got hit by him. Did not even get a shot
back !! Surprised and a bit dazed Starwolf began some hard banks
which only succeded in giving Tuxedo a better shot. Again bullets
pinged against Starwolf's Spitfire ! This time Starwolf overdid
himself and went into a stall!! As he spun in Tuxedo scored even
more hits. Starwolf managed to recover and level out of the spin.
At this moment he realized Tuxedo had broken off the attack and
was now more than 2000 feet away. Starwolf quickly seized the
initiative and managed to manuever onto Tuxedo's six in a perfect
tracking position. With just enough lead Starwolf thought "
GoodBye Mr.Tux " And squeezed the trigger !!
Bammmmm !!! The screen went totaly black !!!
A stunned Starwolf
looked at it with flashbacks from a month before as the illusion
of flight was broken by a freaking PC rebooting itself in the
middle of a furball for no good reason!!!!
(Might have been a quick power surge due to snow)
An enraged Strwolf
reset everything, apologized to Tuxedo and returned to the world
of EAW.
[We now continue with our regularly scheduled EAW dogfight.]
Starwolf 1 Tuxedo 0 Draw 1
Round 3
At merge Starwolf begins a lead turn sooner than last time while
climbing a bit. This time the fight goes to 1 circle as we both
seem to be just out of each others reach. We turn and turn and at
one point Tuxedo manages to hit me witha high deflection grazing
shot. Unharmed, I decide to try some low yo-yos to try and get a
better shot. I reduce speed to 112 mph while Tuxedo was doing
over 140. As I crept into perfect firing position I again
said my mental farewells to Tuxedo !! From a perfect tracking
positon on this six I opened up with my eight .303's!! Multiple
hits!! Again Guns!! Smoke from the engine!! Tuxedo begins to roll
and roll and finaly hits the water!!
Starwolf 2 Tuxedo 0 Draw 1
Round 4
The previous fights have been very intense!! This one proves to
be the most intense of them all!! At the merge I quickly gain a
positional advantage over Tuxedo. Begin taking shots at him from
his six with few hits if any. Sensing his doom as I am again on
his six, Tuxedo begins some radical vertical manuevers. A series
of split-s ' that have us both spinning downwards!! Carefull to
not dunk myself into the channel I break away from
the dive and level off above Tuxedo. He continues in his dive and
gets up his speed to300 mph!! He then extends to over 4000 ft
from my plane as I try to build up enough speed to catch him. He
then Immelmans and it is all downhill from here on for me!!
Tuxedo manages to surprise me with this manever and comes roaring back at me as I climb to meet him. Don't even know how, but he gets on my six!! At this point I am totaly focused on trying to shake him and get a better position. I am totally unprepared for the thunder of shells hitting my plane!! As Tuxedo hits me I am so surprised by the noise (using headphones) I jump in my seat and let go of the stick for a second !!
Wow!! Talk about immersion !! Heheheheh !!!
Badly shaken I
reposition my controls and try to get out of this dilemma. Again
we are in a 1 cirlce fight only this time Tuxedo is on MY tail
and just won't go away !! I go down low to try to get an
advantage but end up low and slow. Again and agin I see tracers
go by the left side of my canopy and hit the water ahead of me!!
Some even find my Spitfire 1A! As I try every trick I know to try
to shake Tuxedo I get a sense that this plane won't take much
more punishment. More hits register but nothing damaged yet!! As
a last ditch effort I begin a series of scissors to try and take
advantage of my low speed. If anything at least I manage to avoid
getting hit again. However, Tuxedo still is in position behind me
countering my scissors. Here, fate smiles on me!! As we fly low
and slow Tuxedo pulls too hard and enters a stall. He is gone
even before I can realize I am not being pursued anymore!!! Very
surprised, I look around but even the wreakage of Tuxedo's
Spitfire has disappeared into the water.
Starwolf 3 Tuxedo 0 Draw 1
"Mission accomplished!", radios Starwolf back to base.
"That German spy will have to go back home swimming if he
wants to get there !! No Spitfire to play with for the Luftwaffe
boys today !!"
"Well done Starwolf return to base vector 345", returns
Air Command.
As Starwolf nurses back
his badly beaten up Spitfire his only thought is dreadful
anticipation as to what the Sgt.Maj. MacCulloughy will do to him
for bringing back a Spitfire with over 44 bullet holes in it !!
Tuxedo is an Awesome pilot who by all means should have won the
last encounter. He flew very well and made me sweat every
victory. Salute to you Tuxedo !! Keep up the good work and You'll
soon see those victories rolling in !!
Kendo's pilotlog entry:
ChickenHawk Choose Spit IXC This Round developed into a circling down low and slow fight. I slowly was gaining the advantage and more than once I had to ease up on the controls. Every once in a while I could hear Wolf in the background saying. "we'll beat that aggressivness outta u yet!"
Slowly, ever so slowly
the reticle is creeping up on his tail. Gotta get a lead shot...
Then it happens, I'm not sure what he did but I seen a slight
wallow in his path, and "Bingo!" sights out in front at
350 feet (or whatever that unit is) Blam Blamm...Boom he goes!! I
managed 62 hits in about 3 seconds for a 28.5% hit ratio.. Talk
about Luck!!
Round 2
Chickenhawk keeps the same planes. We very quickly develop into a
Circle Fight, however this time he is starting to plink me!! I
figure now might be a good time to scissors...after a couple of
these.. I was able to plink him back a couple times... Then,
splash...He's in the water... I think he just got dis-oriented...
He got 6 hits to my 5 before crashing.
Round 3
Same Planes again....This time I spin....and he overshoots me...
Then he spins and Falls in front of me.. However he gets away,
with a radical move, just as I was about 250 ft from him... soon
He's on my 6 again... round and round we go... this was getting
too slow for me and when I thought I had a chance to extend, I
took it. Looking over my shoulder for him I see a splash!! He got
6 hits or so... Me zilcho
Thanks for the great time Chickenhawk!!
Salute
For this match, Kendo attained "Ace " status, and was promoted to Flt. Lt.
Sgt. Major MacCulloughy's response:
"WILL MY SUFFERING
NEVER END?"
"ANOTHER WOULD BE MONTY!. MY GOD IS THERE NO MERCY. NOW THAT YA AT THE ZENITH OF YA BLEEDIN CONQUESTS, YA BLOODY RUPERT, PER'APS YA START ACTING LIKE ONE AND PUT SOME BLOODY POLISH ON THOSE BOOTS OF YOURS AND PRESS THAT BLOODY SHAMBLES YOU CALL A UNIFORM."
Kendo's pilotlog entry:
I am still vibrating
inside from the excitement from this match!! Anyone have any
Prozacs laying about??? Please!!! This match was the most intense
one I've flown...not the longest but definitely the most
intense!!!
After meeting up on ICQ and deciding whether or not to fly
tonight....(eyes twitching from playing for 6 hours gg ) Starwolf
picks the Spit 1A for our first Simm Match!
Round 1
After the merge we are both pulling hard to get on each others 6.
After about 10 mins of intense turning, rolling, diving, Blacking
Out gg...I watch him enter a spin from about 500 feet...
Goodbye.. But wait, He made it outta there with like 250 feet to
spare. Thats the quickest spin recovery I've seen. Shoulda noted
this ability right away. I zoom in for the kill and land a few
rounds. Slowly i am able to creep up on him.. I hit him somemore,
and
he's dancing like Horny Toad in Heat! :)
More hits, I'm losing
my patience here, uh oh.. I'm spinning...Splash. I dont Believe I
just did that.. So with 70 hits on him to his 0, I lose that
round!
Round 2
I say what the heck, lets keep the same planes. No lucky cannon
hits with these baby's. Off we go again, my heart is racing,
trying to remember how quickly the tables turned previously.
Starwolf spins 4 or 5 times and each time, Snap no problem'o. Boy
I hope I can learn that someday!! However after one of his spins,
I manage to place myself in a good position, and 96 hits in 4
seconds and Boom!.. whew!!!
Round 3
This is the Biggie round. Gotta have that advantage of a 2-1
lead. Now I'm really nervous, even a little too cautious. Three
turns after the merge, I knew I had made a wrong move, great, I'm
dead!! I think.... Here they come, bam, bam, plink. Good grief, I
can't believe I'm going to die so quickly. Soon we are on the
water at 400 feet in a slow circle, and he isn't giving up.
Plink, Plink...so what the heck .. I do a slow roll and he's
still
there. Some more (I'm dead anyways). Heres the buffet..nose
drops, I take a deep breath getting ready to go swimming, but I
recover and start a scissor fight. I land a couple but
remembering his low speed skills, I extend. I'm watching him
playing Possum, going like 90mph at 200 feet and no way in the
world am I going back down there until I am on his six. Soon he's
got his power back (gg) but I down him in a hail of rounds. 122
to be exact... He got me 42 and later told me that he had run
outta ammo just as he had a perfect shot.Lucky for me Starwolf
had a premature..uh I'm lucky gg
Round 4
Starwolf picks Spit 14E More of the same intense flying! But
bolstered with confidence, (my lucky rabbits foot in
hand) I chase him in a series of vertical maneuvers, that finally
puts me at 350 feet and I release the Cannon Dogs. Wow Big
Explosion, Parts everywhere, oh oh, I am going to collide... roll
dive..whew..made it!!
Only 27 hits this time.
StarWolf, You gave me such a scare that I don't think I will be
able to sleep for along time tonight. Going to have to sit up and
watch "All in the Family" re-runs and it's all your
fault. gggg
Thanks for flying with
me.. Please Dont ever ask me to fly with you.. kidding
Salute! my Friend!!
U6's pilotlog entry:
Longest and most
intense match I've ever flown yet.
U6 Spit XIVE, Mad Dog Spit IXC
First match we make a few passes and I get Mad dog to stall first
however as i turn to get him I find hes
recovered such that hes facing me slightly below So my pass
couldnt do much. I went for altitude and manage to extend away a
bit. When I turn back MD is slightly above me and keeping good
n'rg. I think he stalls again this time Im more aggressive and he
dives for the sea to shake me. Chopping throttle dosnt do much to
slow a spiy 10
down in a pure vertical spiral so Im having trouble keeping the
advantage. Somehow I high speed stall and MD pulls in behind me.
Now I have to do the defensive thingie all the way down to the
wavetops. My speed is not helping me here. Finally the waves come
to meet us and I go vertical in a barrel roll to start the
scissor process. (Oh btw Im taking pings all the way down on my
wings and fuselage) Then after that ts pretty much a race to see
who can go slower as we barrel roll and flat scissor back and
forth at the wavetops. Mad Dog gets a little too greedy and while
in an early lead turn at 100 feet he loses control of his
airplane. He almost recovers but...
A sigh of relief from U6.
U6 Cant remember, Mad Dog Cant remember
Round 2
This one were both getting or trying to get angles on the other.
I manage to get some extra energy while enticing
MD to pull away at me. He soon figures out that what my ploy is
and begins to relax his turns to gain energy. Then I stall my
beast while looking the other way and recover as fast as I can
only to find that MD has found
himself on my six oclock position with about 1k of altitude adv
and 50 or so knots of airspeed advantage. I spiral extend and
pray. Fortunately the speed differential builds rapidly and a few
jinks (just to be safe) allows me to get a better look at my 6. I
see MadDog pulling his Spit as high as he can get it to go; he's
eeking out every bit of altitude he can. Of course I begin doing
the same and figure my plane can beat his in the HorsePower
department. After awhile of doing this I find my engines
overheating so I have to take it easy. MD is in no rush to use
his energy so we both spend time recharging our energy states in
a slow turn. (MD on my 6 the whole time and high up there) After
a few mins of this my engines are ok so im trying to get MD to
commit to coming at me. (He has a few k on me by now ) He finally
commits and I try to get the fight down low in the hopes that he
will get gready again. Each pass finds us head on and just about
able to make a shot at each other then bam our wings collide. A
very long match for a draw, hehe:
U6 Spit XIVE, Mad Dog Spit IXC
Match 3
After a few passes I find MD stalled again. This time I have
about 90 degrees to go to get a shot. He recovers just as im
getting in range and immediately dives in a spiral. This time I
try not to follow him but the her "Hiny-ness" (my Spit
XIVE) is a fast woman with no in-betweens. I get a peck or 2 on
his wing but he jinks
well and keeps the angles high. Now were at the waves again in a
series of flat scissors.
Finally it comes down
to the dreaded "death turn" to the left and I'm almost
home but the beasty girl has me
instead and I lose control of her at 50 feet.
U6 -1, Mad Dog -1, Draw - 1
We need a break since its late so we agree to finish at another
time.
Match 4
U6 Spit IXC, Mad Dog TEMPEST
Ahh. Now normally I' m a rather good sport but this time I keep
my mouth shut as I see MD pick the Tempest.
A great ground attack plane and a really heavy cannon but
wingloading is high so against my spit I should have no problem.
Well it almost works out that way. MadDog uses the frontal attack
at the merge as I anticipate. His speed is good so it becomes a
series of front shots and I know better than to go H2h with a
Tempest. He's basically chipping away at me in these attacks but
at one point MD gets greedy and sees an opportunity to get on my
6. He just can't resist my tail. He jumps for it, and after a few
swivels we're basically slower now. Now it is I who is on his 6
oclock. I keep the pressure on as he tries to dive away but this
time Im in the saddle so theres no getting away like in the
spit14. Finally MadDog does a high power stall in a dive for
speed and cannot pull her out.
U6 - 2, MD - 1, Draw -1
Match 5
U6 Spit XIVE, Mad Dog Spit IXC
It's unbelievable how two hard nosed sim pilots can stretch out a
match to the point of making it last about 3 hours. This is not
realistic version of what happened in WWII but it is kind of fun
and makes the adrenelin pump.
This match lasts about 1.5 hour but becomes a draw due to lag! I
cant write all that happens here. Were both using our planes
strengths against each other. But were connected so long that I
begin to see lag up close.
We agree to reconnect after a break.
Im definately getting too old for this shit Mad Dog, I kid you
not!
DRAW
Match 6
U6 Spit XIVE, Mad Dog Spit IXC
Im as determined as ever to get it over with (by winning) MadDog
wants my spot real bad. The Spit XIVE has terrible combat
endurance and in addition will not stay in control in a vertical
dive. I dont have the expert skills
required to finness her where I want her. (Maybe some better
equip) She is a beast of a girl and Im quite
sure Mad Dog knew this as he taunted me with pressure from
behind.
My "beast"
(as I call her) tortures with a thirst for rest and shade that I
can never totally satisfy. I am beholden to her whims as well as
the pressure from my worthy opponent.
For three hours of nonstop merges, extensions, engine cool off
periods and tangling in all manner of spaggetti
like moves up close we fight and try to get the six shot. Each
series of passes gives me about 4 minutes of
endurance up close. Then, I must escape to console my woman and
cool her engine for up to 10 mins.
Meanwhile Mad Dog is
effectively countering most of my moves and is also taking
advantage of any minor mistakes I make. Im chipping away at his
wings though and he is also getting a ping or two on me but its
not enough. In each engine cooling period Mad Dog is behind me
getting as much altitude as he can for the next pass.
I must loop vertically to engage him again and go for any head on
shots I can. Two or three passes with scissors and I must
disengage again to cool her.
After 2 hours of this I want to try a different tactic on Mad
Dog. Most of the time he's clawing for alt as I extend away to
cool but in the last hour he's instead staying under me astern
and keeping his speed up.
Only problem is the Spit XIVE does not dive in well on an
opponent from the vertical position. Trying to get a shot from
above is fruitless due to the speed differential. My only
advantage here is knowing that MD is having
difficulty judging my position from above but its not enough to
get a good shot. Only a bullet or two hits his wing with this
approach.
I have not found a way to do a steep dive yet. In my final
attempt to dive slowly on MadDog I extend my flaps.
This is a big mistake. I ruin my flaps and they are now stuck in
the extended position. Now Im in real trouble. Im low and slow
and in a death turn with a plane that is lighter and slightly
more maneuverable in this enviroment near the waves. It is here
that I am now locked with MD in mortal turning combat at 50 feet
again above the cold waters (shit! shit! shit!).
Now I can feel the bite
of his pitbull determination and I dont have the power I need to
get away for another pass.
It is here that I begin to learn as quickly as possible what the
Spit XIVE can do with full flaps extended near
stall speed. Most of the time MD is hot on my six and trying like
crazy to get the one shot that will end it. Im equally as
determined to not let him have this shot at me. My tactic now is
to keep the plane flying (no matter what) and hope he makes the
first mistake. His bullets are pinging my wing and I actually
scrape the water once with my right wing but I somehow keep her
flying.
Then my woman begins to moan that she needs another engine rest! "Hell, no way honey! Not now! Not now!" I say.
Its about 2AM and my
REAL woman is also yelling at me during this tense period. You
getting the feel for what
the level of tension is here?
Somehow by God's luck I
managed to nurse my wounded bird by playing my throttle and
watching the gauges. She wants to go smoke due to the higher
temperatures but I refuse to let her do me in so I give her some
intermittent rest periods and continue to push her as far as I
dare.
If I lose power now its over. I begin to realize that I can go
vertical better than MadDog can so the scissors
we are locked in becomes more like defensive and offensive barrel
rolls.
I use a few early turns in the scissors and manage to get MadDog
in my sights in a few snap shots but he's keeping the angles high
so tracking time is very short and not much is coming off his
plane. I even take a piece of his canopy off in the best shot I
can muster in all the matches, but hes still flying and pushing
me hard. Now all I can do is keep my plane flying.
"Dont stall
first" is my only concern and fills my mind. Ill be dammed
if I didnt finally see MD lose control of
his plane 50 ft under me in a defensive barrel roll. It was the
prettiest sight I ever saw just cause it could
have been so easily been ME. (Sorry MD)
My own Maureen is now livid and cussing me for waking her up but the victory is too sweet for me to let her ruin it. I hear nothing for the moment.
Wiping the sweat off
hands forehead and ungluing his wet ass from his seat he realize
its finally over.
U6 - 3, MadDog - 1,
Like I said this is too
intense for me. Im thinking of hanging it up for awhile. I have
heard other people say that Mad Dog should have been easy to beat
by me. I think not my friends! MadDog is by far the most
determined and careful pilot I have ever faced and we are both
very evenly matched in ability to fly the edge without losing
control and shake opponents off our tail. This match taught me
lots about determination and stubborness. Oh, btw No one I have
ever seen yet can recover as quickly from a stall as MadDog can.
MadDog did not make a single mistake throughout the match that I
could capitalize on to any degree. I however
made numerous ones and only my aircrafts speed, horsepower and
determination allowed me to somehow get away each time for
another try.
Mad Dog my sincere respects to you for making this a match I will
never forget. :)
Taipan's pilotlog entry:
“England expects
every man to do his duty” Admiral Nelson at the battle of
Trafalgar.
Taipan=3 Duke=1
Spitfire 1a
Round 1:
Duke and I go Fangs out from the start. A head on merge to start
the ball rolling. Then into a turning fight using every ounce of
fiber we posses. After some intense maneuvers Duke turns the
tables on me and gets behind me. He fires, I jink, turn, spin and
ask myself, “self are you still alive”. The answer was
"YES! THEN FLY YOU SERPENT, FLY!", I heard myself
saying. Anything to get away from the 303’s. I go vertical
as does Duke. I go balls to the wall straight up, I’ve got
nothing left to do and I can’t think. We both stall, I knew
I would but I didn’t think Duke would. I recover from it,
Duke however, does not.
Spitfire 1a
Round 2:
Again we go for each other’s throats in a head on merge. And
again we enter the realm of the tail chasing dogs of war. This
time we go so low we can feel the sea spray on our cheeks. Luck
is with me, yes, yes I’m on his six, just a little bit more
stick just an ounce more I have him I know I do, then the
shudder, and all familiar roll and Taipan has another swimming
lesson (JANFU).
Spitfire 1a
Round 3:
Does this man no the meaning of mercy?. Another head on merge. My
nerves are shot. I could just throw up. Duke ducks down low and
pulls up, I stay high and let him have my 303’s. We both
miss. And we enter another snake fight. Semi stalls, tight turns
in the horizontal and vertical, loops, in fact I think we use
every trick in the book and then some new ones. Then a turn and I
am on Duke’s six, and I’m fangs out. I can taste the
oil. I fire
my 303’s and the sight of smoke emits from the Duke’s
plane. I keep firing. The sound of 303’s filling the air.
And Duke is no more. I dip my wings in salute.
Spitfire 1a
Round 4
My mind is a blur, Again we go for head on merge, Duke ducks and
pops up, we fire and begin the dance of death. We twist and turn
like the coils of a snake, ferocious beasts we tangle and merge,
then at last, I gain position on his six, he pulls up into a loop
and I thank him with my 303’s, twisting and turning still in
a gun sight frenzy, then his speed, my God his speed it’s
dropping, I climb and watch as Duke slow and easy slip from the
sky.
His smoke trails leaving the image of a dying snake but oh what
grace this man doth have..
My compliments on an excellent match my friend.
I await the re-match sir,
Respectfully
Johnny “Taipan”
RoadRunner's pilotlog entry:
LongSabre was swinging a butter knife, of the Heritage collection
silverware, when I came upon him over the channel. A bit formal
for such an event I thought, but what the hey. So I reached under
my seat and clawed for the frosted handle flatware Koko got at a
shower prior to her fourth marriage. But frankly, I think she
stole most of it. I mean none of the stuff we have in kitchen
matches.
As I looked about, I caught a glimpse of LS coming around, twirling the butter knife high above his head. With a loud scrape and a ping, LS keyed my fuselage from nose to tail. Eyeing the damage carefully I noticed the unmistakable marking of a serrated edge.
"Damn!" I yelled aloud. I dropped the cheap-o frosted handled knife and grappled among the debris Koko stuffed under the seat. A cookie, pennies, a lifesaver, a spoon, another spoon, a comic book, handcuffs chains and a Balero record. I laid my out stretched finger on a cylinder of some sort. I looked at it. Hmm, what's this? It's made of cardboard. It's too small for a map case and too big for a firecracker.
"What's this string for?"
LS had now positioned him self square on my six. I lit the fuse and threw the cylinder over my shoulder. LS banked quickly to avoid the burning object. Then to both our surprise it popped open, then seemed to fill with air and fluttered to the sea below. I pulled hard and rolled into an inverted dive. Suddenly the sound of assorted garbage began sliding out from the seat and piled beneath the rudder pedals.
There between my feet,
sticking straight up was a serrated steak knife. I grabbed it,
leaned into the
slipstream and began slashing. LongSabre screamed by, eye's
tearing from the cold air battering his face, the mashing of
aluminum echoed from 8,000 feet. I glanced back to assess the
damaged I had inflicted. LS was streaming shards of aircraft skin
from which spewed bits of parts and fabric. Then he hit the silk.
Understandably pissed off and primed for revenge, LS returned like that of a scorned chef over a returned plate of poorly prepared mutton. A moment later I found myself face down in the water. Bobbing beside me were the halves of the cylinder I tossed at LS. A few yards away was this huge white ball. It was growing, bubbling like a cumulous cloud.
Fearful it was a timed delay. I quickly swam in the other direction.
Back in the wild blue, I searched the sky for the ragging culinary lunatic. I managed to position myself on his six, but quickly spun in. As I shook off the impact and gained my bearing toward shore I realized the looming object from a distance. It had eclipsed the sun, massive in size and weight I estimated it to be 30-40 yards across. Half its sphere was submerged and appeared to be sucking up the water around it.
Back in the cockpit I
banked to view the anomaly. I could now see it's shadowy outline
beneath the surface. It's girth had doubled. It was like an
iceberg. The familiar sound of metal against metal startled me.
LS came out of nowhere. I banked hard, saw that his face was red
with rage and swollen from the windblast. We twisted and turned.
I swung and slashed, but LS breathed renewed life into his
aircraft. Then he went in. I watched as
LS to, swam for his life to avoid that thing lurking just off
shore.
But he'd find himself
swimming with the great white once again. LS began throwing
everything at me, even his Randle collection but it was all in
vein. He bellied in. LS ran along the wing and dove into the
choppy surf. I watched in horror as he was sucked up by the mound
of bulbous white. It seemed to take a breath and heave to one
side, then rolled and submerged quietly. The water calmed.
Thanks for a terrific match LongSabre, you were one wily nut to
nail.
RoadRunner
"Feet That Scream"
Goshawk's pilotlog entry:
The lad wasn't
complaining, mind you, he was simply stating the facts and could
not understand why his mum was not believing him.
"I tell yuh, mum, it's really true! There's hardly any fish
there now, and I found it by the shore!", he was geting
frustrated to the point that he began to cry.
"I don' wanya tuh hang out thayar any more!", said his
mum angrily. She walked briskly to the sink and dropped the
tampon tube into the garbage.
"This thing won't kill fish, but it'll make ya go blind and
grow hair on yer back if ya touch it!", she chided. Her
hubby, sitting nearby, mumbled to himself, "that's for sure,
laddie, that's for sure!" Whiffs of smoke
billowed out of the crack in his lips as he quietly mouthed the
words of disgust at his wife's aging physique.
The lad went off to bed, and decided that the next day he would
return to the waters' edge anyway. The fact that the water level
in the channel had dropped 12" in the past week was a
strange curiosity to the boy, as well
as to all of his friends. The secret toys that has been floating
up to shore since RoadRunner's recent victory was too great a
temptation to avoid, no matter what the wrath of his mum.
The next morning, the boy and his buddies were at the beach below
the cliff at the end of the long airstrip. The sound of planes
taking off and passing overhead was a cause for added excitement.
They looked enthusiastically for more treasures floating ashore.
Long balloons wrapped in foil were found and inflated. They made
lousy water balloons because they broke so easily, but they made
excellent playtime swords for poking at each other!
The lads heard the planes overhead, but these planes sounded
different from the ones occasionally taking off. The rapid
staccato of gunfire began to pierce the morning calm. All action
in the shallows stopped as necks strained and heads turned
upward.
"Blimey, it's a Spit", said one of the boys.
"Aye, and that other looks like a yank mustang!",
replied another.
Far overhead, Goshawk and Yentl were duking it out. It did not
take long for the agile Spitfire to make short order of the
larger American fighter. The boys watched as the mustang fell
from the sky, smoke pouring from the cowling!
Not long after, one of the boys felt a brush of something like a
wet towel across his leg. A quick glance at the water revealed a
trace of whitish matter quickly receding into the murky depths.
"Bloody 'ell, what's THAT?", he shouted. By the time
the others had looked to investigate, it was gone. The sound of
more planes overhead broke their stares at the water, however.
None of them noticed that the water level had dropped another
inch while they waded up to their knees in the cold surf.
Farther out in the channel, slightly below the surface, the
still-growing white mass of fish-absorbing fluff sucked up more
of the liquid, intent upon finding more space. It would absorb
whatever got in it's way, be it water,
fish, boys, or an occasional mustang or two, dropped fortuitously
into the murk!!
"Look at tha', I say!", said the lad, "tha's
another Spit, for sure. It's goin' after a second Spit
there!"
Above, Goshawk was fighting for his life, trying to best the Spit
9 in a climbing match, and losing sorely in the 1A. He was barely
able to make it above the lip of the cliff above the boys, as he
brought the damaged bird home.
The next round of action resulted in both pilots hitting the silk
as their Spitfires collided out over the channel. Both planes
were quickly absorbed. Both pilots drifted in their chutes back
to the field, thankful of the westerly
breeze.
He hurriedly grabbed a Spit 9, and returned to the heavens, where
he located Yentl buzzing around in a German machine this time.
The BF109K-4 fell quickly at the onslought of cannon fire from
the Spits guns.
Goshawk landed to rearm and refuel the plane. As he ran to the
outhouse by the field to relieve his strained bladder, he heard
the sound of his Spit 9 start up, and take off. He cursed his
opponent when he looked around and found the only available plane
on the fielf to be another 1A.
Yentl made quick work of attacking the old-timer. After several
close encounters, bullets flying all about, Goshawk's plane was
smoking. Yentl, in his lust for victory, happened to bring his
Spit 9 within lunging range of the 1A. The growing mass below the
water's surface was fed two more planes as a result of the
resulting collision.
Yentl was able to grab the next Spit that landed, but he had to
drag the young pilot from the cockpit in the process. With one
quick pull, Fox1 was hauled out of the plane's cockpit, and
bounced on the wing. As Yentl jumped in and pushed the throttle
to the hilt, Fox1 fell off the wing and landed on his hiney in
the middle of the field. Goshawk grabbed the next plane to touch
down at the busy strip, another 1A.
After a climb to altitude, Yentl made mince-meat of Goshawk's
plane, and stayed clear of the damaged 1A.
Goshawk grabbed a Spit 9 after he returned to the field, and was
already raising his gear as Yentl began to land for rearming and
more fuel.
Somehow, to Goshawk's amazement, Yentl was able to find a ME262,
probably dragged in by Muad'dib in his return from 12 Group.
Shivvers of apprehension passed through Gos as he listened to the
sound of that awesome jet passing closeby.
For the next 1.5 hours, the game of cat and mouse occurred. Some
400 rounds of Spitfire cannon, and 150 some rounds of German 30mm
shells later, after many short blurps of gunfire, bits of 262
wings flying off, and puffs of smoke, a lone bullet from the Spit
found it's way into the fan blades of the right engine of the
faster plane.
The Spit followed the 262 across the channel's skyline, waiting
for the chance
to add the finishing touch. After only a couple minutes, the Spit
was able to close in and administer the final touches. The 262
erupted in flame as the main tank was hit. Due to the length of
time in the round, the amount of damage sustained, and the lack
of maneuverability of the badly damaged 262 (as well as the
increasing lag onset due to the long connect time), Yentl punched
out, congratulating Gos for the victory.
The white mass was reaching again for the boy's legs when the
water erupted
with the splash of the big German fighter. It's lust for mass
would be satiated
for now. There were planes to absorb! The water level dropped
another 3 inches.
The boys failed to notice. They hurried out of the water and
walked off toward home. They would return again however.
Thanks for the match Yentl. You're a tough bird, and a helluva
sport!
[Salute!]
Greasemonkey's pilotlog entry:
As I pull into Coyote's
quanset hut, and he is scurring to cover up all his tactics books
and notes. I notice a set of serrated steak knifes he has sitting
around and they seem to match the set Road Runner found sliding
out from under his seat in his trusty plane, only one was
missing! We start chatting about the F-15 we plan on biulding in
50 years or so. Well, he looks at me and asks if I would like a
lager, and {poof} he is gone. I start skirmishing
around his lockers and sheds, pulling out my little camera and
start snapping pictures of his tips and tatics. I notice some
plans he is keeping from me, JATO bottles, hmm, what are these?
And I snag the 1-800# off the ACME catalog, gotta get me some.
{Zip} In comes Coyote with two Guiness ales, instead. He lays down the skinny on flying props.
{Knock knock} "ROOM, TEN-HUT!", as in walks Goshawk.
"Ya done talking to this Wog? Grease you got 2 seconds to get in that Spit and ready to recieve a crash course on prop planes."
"Yes sir!" I reply. As I walk away I wonder what are those huge red marks are on his neck, with a few teeth marks in it, guess his recon to retrieve Moose from France went well!
After a few times of
shooting the boss down, he tells me that upon landing I had best
sign my damm name on that ladder board!
Round 1 Mustang 51d's
Red Spar and I merge and all is fair. I pull over and start a
bank in to him, he is struggling with too much air speed,
recovers nicely. I am about 3K above him and decide to start
down, as I have a clear shot of his six. He loops up and over in
front of me, hits the drink. I radio for a tug to recover the
pilot and wreckage, after all it is time of war and they must be
able to recover something from all that mess.
Round 2 Spitfire IV
We merge, but anticipating his move I select up my cannons. As
soon as I see that urine coming from his plane, I let loose, not
a mark on either of us. We start the looping and turning, he cant
shake me. I am whittling away at him and he decides that he wants
to live with the fish!
Round 3 + 4
Bad lag. For 3 again, I gain favor somehow and he cant shake me,
so he wants to see how hungry I am for the kill. We turn and loop
at the massive height of 1000 ft. He splashes down in front of
me, with a wing as it turns out, and I am left in a big splash
(cool, just slap the water), but still in my jet waiting for the
ticker to turn in his favor, and the kill view, nothing. I froze
with both of us wet, I can chat, but that is it, must reboot.
Round 4 we take 51D's.
Again I chase him around, and around. He is feeling some of my
warm greasy lead filling him up, in a attempt to escape he pulls
a little too hard, and enters a spin. Of course me, foaming at
the mouth, I pull just as hard and it is like the Olympic
silhouette swimming.
Round 5 Mustang 51D
At a loss for who should pick a plane we agree to use the same
plane from last time. We chase each other all over the sky,
trading turns at head on passes. I end up behind him, pop his
engine but blow right by him and he starts the chasing, yelling
"Try some red lead!!!"
But, he can do a pull
over and spins out shortly after connecting up with my shiny new
piece of American machinery.
Results, Greasemonkey 3, Red Spar 0, Draws 2
Red Spar and myself just popped each others cherries on this
simm, both walking into the match thinking we jumped the gun
after buying the simm. I feel I benefitted from having force
feedback as I can feel when the jet is going to spin out, and
when I am taking fire. It could be a advantage but I just dont
know! This was a great fight! Just two pilots, making the best of
what they have, get in close and kill kill kill, or try like hell
to get the guy off your tail!
Red Spar Salute! was a pleasure and am sure we will meet again on
our climb to the top of this ladder!
Greasemonkey, out! Going to the pub!