Enjoy
I was recently flying in the MA having fun killing mostly bombers. Killed some low flying bombers flown by Fin3Time and Cheater, who are excellent buff pilots and outstanding shots, and they gave back as good as they got. I think I only shot down 2 or 3 fighters, each flown by a different pilot. However, I did get a single kill on flippz who then claimed he was being targeted. Skyyr soon joined in and claimed I was receiving information from another player. During this time Skyyr was initially a rook but changed to Bish. After a short fuss, I decided to leave them to themselves and moved to the other side of the “3 point” map to fight rooks as neither flippz or Skyyr were a rook and it would have been a very long flight for them to get there. I was Knights flying from A91 to the rook A61 just about two thirds of a sector apart. A couple more sorties and done for the evening. What could go wrong?
Then flippz changed countries and sent me a checksix to get my attention. That sortie was uneventful, so I never saved the film but the next sortie I upped just after flippz and headed back towards the rooks when flippz invited me to fly with him, here is the combat report and the film.
The film begins as I take off from A91 in the wrong direction and turn south towards A61 behind flippz. The film was recorded from the AH film viewer using my recorded views, and as I only use the fixed views, you see pretty much exactly what I did. My in-game name is Specter. Here are the events as they occurred based on the video clock in minutes and seconds. I cut the last 5 minutes of the film as it was only text buffer.
0:42 flippz sent me a check six that sounded like “Just checking if it works so I can save you”
2:46 flippz says on vox “You get me wing-manned? Just lock onto me I’ll take you right into the fight baby”. Now, the thought did cross my mind that this might be a set up, but Skyyr was still a Bish and they were a long way from this fight, and that trip would take around 5 sectors so I was relaxed about it. It did occur to me of course that other shades flying as rook might be involved, but hey, it’s only game, we don’t really die. There might be a hunter looking for me but so what? We all get to laugh about it after right?
3:36 A voice call from flippz, “P51 off our right wing Spec” I wonder if the P51 is the anticipated “Hunter” so turn in just in time to see he’s going for the HO, so I do an outside turn reversal to avoid the HO and follow the P51. As I turned away from the P51 I noticed a 190 following him. I assumed they were both rooks. What I didn’t notice was that the 190 was a Bish, only when I watched the film later did I notice it was indeed Skyyr. When I watch the film I wondered if flippz was hoping I would engage the P51 in a turn fight to set me up for his squad mate Skyyr to pick. Of course at the time, I assumed if I was being hunted it was probably whoever was flying this P51. His HO attempt convinced me I wanted this kill so I gave chase.
5:11 The P51 then HO’d a Mossie (he’s braver than I am) and the mossie came apart, perhaps a collision. The P51 took critical damage and began to go down. I followed him for the proxy.
5:37 P51 dies, not who I thought it was.
6:00 Got back to flippz and he calls out another P51, ok, maybe this is the one?
6:26 He informs me the P51 is out of E and encourages me to dive on him.
6:34 P51 dies in the ack, flippz gets the kill and sounded real excited about it. I send a text “We got a P51 each” and form back up.
7:26 flippz informs me of the size of his guns and his manhood.
8:00 At this point we were south of our field over water and I noticed there was a red dot on radar close to our base so I reversed and started to climb back towards it, while flippz continued south. A bandit near the base is bad news for uppers or returners with battle damage, so they are always high on my list of priorities. Of course I had no idea this was Skyyr.
9:43 Notice at this time Skyyr again shows up in the film viewer side bar. At this time of course I am entirely unaware of that.
10:20 I spot a dot at 1 O’clock low and adjust for a merge.
10:27 I have a red 190 Icon at 5.5k out and I still don’t notice this is a Bish and not a rook and wait for the merge before pushing to War Emergency Power and turning in.
10:43 He’s a runner, I have a few seconds to adjust my zoom magnification for some anticipated longer range shots.
11:08 He dives hard and then tries to scrub his speed to force an overshoot. As soon as I sense the increase in closure I throttle back and stay behind him missing some shots.
11:26 He is entirely defensive and trying hard to force an overshoot, but a get a couple of hits among the many misses, just enough to keep his pucker factor high.
11:47 At this point he tries to do a zoom climb and as his speed drops off as he cuts the engine. Then the penny drops! This is Skyyr! As he reaches the top of his zoom his speed drops to 46mph as he does his trademark hammerhead reversal.
11:57 As he comes out of the hammerhead and turns his engine back on, he normally expects to have his adversary below him with their noses dropping away so he can get an easy shot as they wallow while trying to recover airspeed. Unfortunately for him I was popping flaps and riding him like a bronco… Yeehaaaw, Ride ‘Em Cowboy!!
12:04 The first zoom climb didn’t work, so of course he tries it again, he had no choice he’s a one trick Pony.
12:11 He’s slowing down fast near the apex of his second hammerhead, but I’m 200 yards off his six, my nose is steady and stable as I aim and shoot. The D9 has magnificent guns! Hits that from lesser aircraft would just tickle, now cause massive damage! His aircraft disintegrates, disappearing into the clouds as aircraft parts fall around me. He was gone so quickly and quietly I had to spend a few seconds searching to make sure he was really dead. Kill message confirmation! Posted a laugh on 200. Seriously, that was some very funny cartoon flying.
12:34 RTB and time to talk smack on 200.
Here is the film
After watching the film I asked myself the following questions:
- Why did Skyyr fly so far avoiding other much closer fights?
- Was he up to his old tricks, and hunting someone specific, or did he just fly 5 sectors because he enjoys sightseeing?
- Why at 3:36 in the film did Skyyr appear within icon range, heading right for me, just as his squad mate was encouraging me to engage a rook P51, was I being set up for a pick or was this just an amazing coincidence?
- Was Skyyr receiving guidance/directions from his squad mate using external voice comm’s? Or did he just bump into me twice by coincidence, among eleven other knights in the area after flying five sectors?
- Did Skyyr just try to target and hunt the wrong guy? Or did he just experience an epic failure while innocently enjoying a Luftwaffe Freie Jagd?
I'm still thinking about my answers... But first I just need to stop laughing
Gunzo
