Strike
04-18-2011, 09:12 PM
Hi I just thought that now that people are starting to get their games running, we could start sharing our experiences and stories from our sorties. I just recently started the Brit campaign as my computer was running the game smoother than ever and I am totally impressed! So far the missions have been great and believeable. And I am totally immersed!
So this thread is reserved for sharing and commenting on our experiences with the sim! (Perhaps we can get it to be a sticky!)
I'll go first where my Hurricane sortie took a turn for the unexpected!
Whilst shooting 110's over the channel, I caught a stray bullet in my L/H wingroot that ruptured my fueltank, spilling it all over the plane for 2 seconds before igniting into flames. Bollocks, I thought! I slammed my throttle forward and decreased prop pitch as I dove desperately to put out the flames. As my speed increased I could see the fire diminishing until it was out, only now smoking. Phew, that was close!
I quickly climbed up to higher altitude and set course for home, checking my six constantly whilst monitoring fuel tank contents. My L/H fuel tank was draining rapidly, apparently there was still some minor fire going on inside my tank as smoke kept pouring out of my left wing. My plane was getting heavier and heavier on the Right wing and without aileron trim I had to constantly put left roll into the stick. Meanwhile I was monitoring the radio comms to get an idea of how the rest of my lads were doing. I hear them call out a second loss of a friendly, and unfortunately not many kills being made on the 110's. It made me angry, wanting to be able to help them out more, but it would have been foolish for me because I wasn't up for a fight anymore.
As I was making my way towards Tangmere about 3000ft above the channel, my engine started coughing and oil filled up my windscreen! YIKES! What was happening? I opened the canopy and leaned my head out left and right looking for engine damage, and there it was! A few of my exhaust stacks were spewing out yellow flames and black smoke. My engine must have been damaged along with the fire or stray bullets. As I tried to ease the strain on my engine I realized it wasn't going to last, and I was right. About 10 seconds later the plane shook violently, the RPM's bottomed and the plane was dead silent. I was now a glider.
Looking desperately out of my canopy for Tangmere I could barely make out the hills north of the field on the horizon and it dawned on me I would not make it back. I barely made it to dry land and tried to lower flaps. No response.. I tried positioning the lever in flaps down and operating the hand-pump... still no joy, then as my altimeter and airspeed sunk and I was now at about 1000ft and sinking I set my gear selector to gears down and started pumping like mad. I saw the left hand uplock light go dark and kept pumping. Whilst looking into the cockpit to operate the pump I had to keep taking peeks up, because I was starting to get seriously close to the ground. The L/H downlock light finally came on and the R/H uplock light went black. Come on!! Come on!!! I thought as I could now see treetops in the corner of my eye as I was pumping... THERE! Finally both gear down and locked. I quickly made out the best location to land (found a field about 200ft below me to my 9 o clock) and sideslipped my hurricane into the field. I kept looking out to my 8 o clock as I flared to see my shadow creeping slowly towards me, and as my shadow and I merged I heard a thud and I was now rolling... It was rough terrain and my right wing slammed into the dirt, tearing the wingtip off. I kept toe-stepping my brakes until it stabilized and finally after much work, I came to a complete halt. I re-checked my aircraft, saw that the smoke from my wing was now gone and felt a slight relief as the ingame text said I had crash-landed. I could see the rest of my flight passing overhead, not as many as we set out with though. One came limping behind with what looked like an oil leak in the early morning sun as I sat there, below in my hurricane in a field about 10 miles away from Tangmere.
Great experience!
Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of my plane as I sat there in the morning mist, but it was truly atmospheric..
Now come on! Share your thoughts and experiences! :) I know we have a sticky for screenshots or videos but sometimes I prefer reading books than watching movies ;)
So this thread is reserved for sharing and commenting on our experiences with the sim! (Perhaps we can get it to be a sticky!)
I'll go first where my Hurricane sortie took a turn for the unexpected!
Whilst shooting 110's over the channel, I caught a stray bullet in my L/H wingroot that ruptured my fueltank, spilling it all over the plane for 2 seconds before igniting into flames. Bollocks, I thought! I slammed my throttle forward and decreased prop pitch as I dove desperately to put out the flames. As my speed increased I could see the fire diminishing until it was out, only now smoking. Phew, that was close!
I quickly climbed up to higher altitude and set course for home, checking my six constantly whilst monitoring fuel tank contents. My L/H fuel tank was draining rapidly, apparently there was still some minor fire going on inside my tank as smoke kept pouring out of my left wing. My plane was getting heavier and heavier on the Right wing and without aileron trim I had to constantly put left roll into the stick. Meanwhile I was monitoring the radio comms to get an idea of how the rest of my lads were doing. I hear them call out a second loss of a friendly, and unfortunately not many kills being made on the 110's. It made me angry, wanting to be able to help them out more, but it would have been foolish for me because I wasn't up for a fight anymore.
As I was making my way towards Tangmere about 3000ft above the channel, my engine started coughing and oil filled up my windscreen! YIKES! What was happening? I opened the canopy and leaned my head out left and right looking for engine damage, and there it was! A few of my exhaust stacks were spewing out yellow flames and black smoke. My engine must have been damaged along with the fire or stray bullets. As I tried to ease the strain on my engine I realized it wasn't going to last, and I was right. About 10 seconds later the plane shook violently, the RPM's bottomed and the plane was dead silent. I was now a glider.
Looking desperately out of my canopy for Tangmere I could barely make out the hills north of the field on the horizon and it dawned on me I would not make it back. I barely made it to dry land and tried to lower flaps. No response.. I tried positioning the lever in flaps down and operating the hand-pump... still no joy, then as my altimeter and airspeed sunk and I was now at about 1000ft and sinking I set my gear selector to gears down and started pumping like mad. I saw the left hand uplock light go dark and kept pumping. Whilst looking into the cockpit to operate the pump I had to keep taking peeks up, because I was starting to get seriously close to the ground. The L/H downlock light finally came on and the R/H uplock light went black. Come on!! Come on!!! I thought as I could now see treetops in the corner of my eye as I was pumping... THERE! Finally both gear down and locked. I quickly made out the best location to land (found a field about 200ft below me to my 9 o clock) and sideslipped my hurricane into the field. I kept looking out to my 8 o clock as I flared to see my shadow creeping slowly towards me, and as my shadow and I merged I heard a thud and I was now rolling... It was rough terrain and my right wing slammed into the dirt, tearing the wingtip off. I kept toe-stepping my brakes until it stabilized and finally after much work, I came to a complete halt. I re-checked my aircraft, saw that the smoke from my wing was now gone and felt a slight relief as the ingame text said I had crash-landed. I could see the rest of my flight passing overhead, not as many as we set out with though. One came limping behind with what looked like an oil leak in the early morning sun as I sat there, below in my hurricane in a field about 10 miles away from Tangmere.
Great experience!
Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of my plane as I sat there in the morning mist, but it was truly atmospheric..
Now come on! Share your thoughts and experiences! :) I know we have a sticky for screenshots or videos but sometimes I prefer reading books than watching movies ;)