After action reports

Here you will find some stories of actual missions flown with Rise of Flight on our server. It will give you an idea of what you can expect when you join one of our hosted games... (armed with a rich fantasy of course!)

Boom 'n Zoom! (May 20th, 2010)

Server: SYNDICATE full realism dogfight server

Mission: Somme river, april 1918

I went in for a quick game before turning in. I took the Se5a as the allies were outnumbered and I'm always looking for opportunities to learn the boom n zoom technique. I selected an aifield and flew over the lines at 5000ft, just north of Cappy.

No opposition, but a flak battery found me soon enough. I was afraid the flak bursts might attract some enemy fighters, but none came and I just flew on. I settled to cruise speed at 6000ft and scanned the area below. There is Cappy and just south east is the airfield. What is that speck on the ground? It looks like a two-seater and it's about to take-off! Mmmm, let's see where he's going. I patiently hovered above the clouds, just east of the enemy airfield while I was watching the two-seater take off.

Very slowly the DFW climbed and crept over the lines and soon it was joined by an enemy fighter watching over him. It seemed to be a Pfalz and it kept a little distance behind the two-seater. I waited until they were well over no-mans-land and carefully scanned the sky around me. Not a soul in sight so I pushed the stick, cut the throttle and watched the airspeed and rpm build op. The engine screamed, wires were singing but all was at it should be. When I was within 600 m or so the Pfalz noticed me and made a sudden turn to the right. Okay, no use trying to get a bead on that machine, my speed is now far too high to follow him in that turn. I kept going for the two seater. Because the Pfalz had turned, there now was a gap between him and the two seater. I rocketed on, watching as the big DFW was growing bigger and bigger in my sights. Close enough! A good burst in the engine/cockpit and I gently pulled the stick to avoid a collision, while maintaining my speed. The Pfalz had already turned around and tried to follow; it fired some shots in my direction, but the distance was too great and I wasn't hit. I could see the two-seater was still flying, but it was no use getting back with that slippery Pfalz around.

Instead, I looked ahead and at 12 o clock high, about a mile off, there was another German two-seater! It was already being attacked by another Se5a. I quickly climbed towards it and when I was close we were joined by a third Se5a. We took turns in shooting at the two seater, but unfortenately I had to disengage due to lag-issues. The others kept going and the German recon aircraft was doomed.

I then noticed one of the Se5a's was fired upon by an Albatros DVa, closing in from their lines. I turned to get a closer look and to chase away the foe. It then turned towards me and pointed it's nose in my direction, firing off a long burst. As I was higher and climbing, there was no real danger and I had a good look at him. I watched the aircraft stall and it then spiraled down. What was that? The radiator of the Albatros was blowing lots of steam! This kid is a rookie pilot! I knew now who my next target would be! The Albatros recovered from the stall, turned and started attacking one of the other Se5a's, firing from too far away. I quickly checked the sky to make sure the hunter wasn't being hunted and dived again, towards the Albatros. The rookie kept flying towards the other Se5a, was he blind? I carefully lined up my sights, watching the tachometer every now and then. In the last seconds it seemed the foe noticed me, but it was all too late. I poured bullets into the cockpit area and top wing, quickly pulling up again and watching behind me. There he was, with a lot of debris around him. Some part -an aileron?- fell off. The Albatros seemed to fly on, but then a wing crumbled and what was left of the aircraft spiraled slowly to earth....

-This mission will end in one minute-

Excellent timing! Off to bed.

Riding the Camel (Nov 9th, 2009)

I was assigned to A-flight, flying as last man in a flight of four Camels. My bus was completely new and had only yesterday been flown in from the depot. That's the positive side of wrecking one's bus: there is a good chance you'll get a new one! I wanted to use this one a bit longer so I very carefully raised the tail on takeoff; push a bit too hard in the Camel and the prop is eating dirt!

We formed up over the base and headed over to Warfusee, where we picked up a flight of three bombers. We were going to provide close cover while a couple of Se5as would fly as top cover. This was a minor show and since the sun was only just rising we did not expect to see many huns as they are always late risers. The bombers were going to attack a factory near Assevillers, only a couple miles behind the front and we had to continue our patrol after that. Our flight leader climbed hard to get above the bombers. Once over the trenches there was some Archie, which was widly inaccurate. Our group headed straight for a big cloud and our flight leader didn't find it necessary to go around it. Unfortenately, being relatively new to the Camel, I became disoriented and dropped out, below the cloud. So did one of the other squadmembers, Faz and so we teamed up, climbing back to our flight. By now we were well above enemy territory and we were continuously scanning the horizon, looking for enemy aircraft.

We had almost reached the rest of our flight when we noticed tracers and flashes of gunfire to the north east, near to the bombers. They were under attack! We headed over and sure enough, there was a group of at least four Albatrosses, shooting at the bombers. A little further away another scrap seemed to be going on and my heartrate doubled when I could make out two brightly coloured Fokker triplanes, one of them scarlet red! I looked around for other threats but there were none and felt a bit more secure when two Se5as came tearing down, heading straight for the Albatrosses. I was closing in rapidly on the bombers and on arrival I found myself just above one of the triplanes, this one with a yellow tail. No doubt, this was Manfred's younger brother Lothar! I quickly inverted and dived on the foe. The camel has very sensitive controls at speed and although in a good position, my bullets went everywhere because I couldn't get the nose steady and cursed out loud! The triplane did a flick roll and I lost him out of my sight. I scanned the sky again.

By this time, there were aircraft everywhere I looked. The bombers were turning to give the gunners a good chance of hitting their pursuers, but one was already smoking and loosing altitude. After a couple of half-hearted passes at an Albatros the fighting spread out and individual dogfights continued. Once again I found the yellow triplane and attacked without hestitation. This time he was more prepared and in no time at all we were chasing our tails and were locked into a "dance macabre" over German held territory. I couldn't get my guns on him, but then he couldn't get behind me and so we danced on, flying -it seems- in overlapping circles. Every now and then I managed to let off a burst when he wizzed by and another revolution would start. That blasted top wing! I could not see him at all just after he would pass through my sights. I just kept turning and hoping he'd do the same and luckily for me he did. It was difficult to hold the turn and not stall out; after a couple of evasive maneuvers we entered a nose to nose turn where the one that was first to complete the turn was able to fire a couple of rounds. Usually this was me, but I should really practise my gunnery as the Fokker didn't seem to take any hits. All the while we were loosing altitude and now we were almost at ground level. I briefly contemplated to disengage after the umptieth hair raising moment after which I had completely lost track of the triplane. If only my wings were invisible! I knew in my heart that to leave the fight now, would mean instant death as I did not have any tactical advantage in height or speed so I pressed on... Now that there was no more room to descent, it seemed the German had some trouble keeping his turn, had he been hit after all? After a couple of violent twists I managed to get into a good position and fired off a good burst. At first it seemed I had missed, but when I looked over my shoulder I saw part of his wing come off! Moments later the Fokker triplane crashed into the ground...

Very pleased with myself I climbed back, over the trenches to my own lines. There I found my squadmate who also had had a succesful flight and together we flew home...

(Two camels and two Fokker dr1s were flown by real players, the rest by AI)