I feel your pain Daddog...I really do. Please understand that I'm not asking that you declare a hard time limit of say, x seconds before one must return to the tower. My interpretation of the rule is (and has always been) that we 'should' tower after being shot down. As stated in a previous post, the rule does not use the term 'shall', but a lot of other hard and fast rules don't either. The purpose of this rule (by my understanding) was to address gamish behavior and practices in FSO. Speaking for myself, and probably quite a few others, the primary reason I fly FSO is to get a break from the gamish behavior and lack of discipline we all see in the MA's. FSO has always held the player to a higher standard.
Now that said, how realistic is it to see two chutes just outside of base ack range spottting the rearm pad to let their squaddies come in to vulch? On top of that, numerous people tried shooting the chutes with 20mm cannon rounds but apparently there is a bug in that terrain that prevented it. Did those pilots shot down over Europe and in the PTO have hand held radios doing this? Not hardly.
The rule clearly says you should return to the tower. These two obviously didn't.
Sorry for the rant Daddog. I just want to fight guys I can have some respect for in FSO.
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Dan