AvA Challenge = Fighter Sweep Tonight 8:15 EST (20:15) Thursday, April 24

[Chilli]

I am proud to announce a challenge mission in AvA and invite all interested parties to respectfully participate tonight at 8:15 EST.  No parades, awards or ribbons (oh well maybe one lil small parade    ).
Please feel free to join us.  Just log and and join up, I will try to see that sides are balanced somewhat.

P51 pilot, Chick, takes off from Machinato with the 39th FG.  He is part of a 4 man formation that will head to sea and then North to Tokuno island on a Fighter Sweep mission.   On the way, along with numerous other 4 man formations, the group will attack Radar buildings on Tukono and surrounding Islands.  Fuel load will be critical for such a long flight.  Rockets or drop tanks will be available but cumbersome if (  when) engaged by Japanese fighter squadrons from their Carrier groups or many land bases.

Chick's mission will be a success if certain radar are destroyed and certain percentage of original mission reaches area within radar range of Allied fleet.  Landing is preferred but a screen shot of ditched plane within the radar circle of allied fleet will do (this will ferry Chick back to a hero's welcome at Machinato airfield).

The above was take from a small bio on a WW2 pilot below, to use as a framework to replicate a similar type of mission or objectives, adding to or taking away where needed to maximize the events appeal.

HENRY CHICK, born January 31, 1923 in Kansas City, Missouri. A graduate of Central High School in June of 1940. Attended Kansas City Junior College and enlisted in the Signal Corps September 7, 1942. Transferred to Aviation Cadet training, arriving for Pre-flight training at Santa Ana, California, Christmas Eve of 1942.

Completed Primary at Santa Maria, California, Basic at Chico, California and Advanced at Stockton, California. Class 43-J, receiving wings Nov. 3rd, 1943. Instructed twin-engine Basic at Lemoore, California until April,1944. Re-assigned for B-17 transition and sent to Lincoln, Nebraska.

Applied for fighters, under the weight waiver, and was assigned to P-47 transition and RTU, Harding Field, Baton Rouge, Louisiana in June of 1944. Following Harding Field training, was assigned to 5th Air Force and left December of 1944 from Camp Stoneman, Pittsburgh, California enroute to SWPA.

Arrived Nadzab, New Guinea for additional RTU In January 1945. Assign - 35th Fighter Group, 39th Fighter Squadron as replacement pilot flying razorbacks and bubbles. All combat missions in P-47's were flown from forward airstrips in the Philippines. These consisted of patrols, ground-support missions and five long-range missions to Formosa, one of which was 8 hours.

The 39th was assigned P-51D's in April, 1945 and Chick's last mission in a P-47 was April 2nd, covering a B-25 strike on Takao, Formosa, from Mangalden, Luzon. The move to P-51 's was not without mixed feelings. The time spent in the Jug resulted in a great confidence in the airplane, and a loyalty not easy to transfer to the "tin-whistle."

The P-51 has its good points, and many of them, so it was.

The 39th moved to Linguayen Gulf, Luzon, Clark Field and Okinawa in July. During a fighter sweep to Kyushu, Japan, Chick was hit by ground fire and made a forced landing on Tokuna Island in the Ryukyu chain, while returning to base in Okinawa. Destroying the radios and IFF Chick made it safely to the reef and was picked up by a shore party from a Navy destroyer and taken to a PBY (OA-10) and returned to Machinata airstrip, his home base, on Okinawa.

Following official surrender the 39th was assigned to Irrumagawa Air Field (later Johnson Field) Japan and arrived there October 13, 1945 having been delayed by the infamous typhoon of October 8th.

Returning to the States in November, 1945, Chick was released from active duty in January, 1946.

He enrolled in Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge in June of 1947 and graduated with a Forestry degree in June of 1951. He maintained an active participation in the Reserves until 1958.

From September of 1951 until March of 1958 Chick was a flight instructor for Graham Aviation, a civilian primary flight training contractor for the Air Force.

Moving to Arizona in 1958, Chick has been in the field of public education since 1960, and is presently teaching in the Paradise Valley School District in Phoenix.

Chick married Aimee Arbios, whom he met at Stockton, California while in advanced flight training. They celebrated their 36th anniversary in May 1980. They have children, Russell, Bill and Jim. As of 1980 there are three grandchildren, Shelby Ann, Christopher and Donald Eric.

[lutrel]

The troops have been briefed..............

[Chilli]

Thanks Avengers and all those who joined   The results were a faded by a low number of Axis participants.

<S> Venom who organized the few Axis and gave us a pretty good wupping.  At least my group got our butts ground up.  However, I believe that our group + BC21 did obtain one victory point killing the communication tower at the first field. 

Luttrel, I believe that your guys had much more of the action ( and fun hopefully).  I underestimated the impact of the low numbers of enemies and split the task group and headed forward to our destination target Ryunkyo Islands. 

Congratulations, to all who made the event happen.  If nothing else is going on we may try again this weekend.  I wish to thank the Freebirds for their appearance and apologize for having to run the mission prior to your arrival.  As it was, I had just enough time to spout out a few yes dears (to wifee) and hit the door for work.

Be on the lookout for a re emergence of this challenge.  I want to see Henry Chick, get home safe, marry his flight school sweetheart and have lots of grandchildren  

If anyone has any screenshots of the event please save as jpeg and send to me blueboxpilot@msn.com

[a4944]

Thanks Avengers and all those who joined   The results were a faded by a low number of Axis participants.

<S> Venom who organized the few Axis and gave us a pretty good wupping.  At least my group got our butts ground up.  However, I believe that our group + BC21 did obtain one victory point killing the communication tower at the first field. 

Luttrel, I believe that your guys had much more of the action ( and fun hopefully).  I underestimated the impact of the low numbers of enemies and split the task group and headed forward to our destination target Ryunkyo Islands. 

Congratulations, to all who made the event happen.  If nothing else is going on we may try again this weekend.  I wish to thank the Freebirds for their appearance and apologize for having to run the mission prior to your arrival.  As it was, I had just enough time to spout out a few yes dears (to wifee) and hit the door for work.

Be on the lookout for a re emergence of this challenge.  I want to see Henry Chick, get home safe, marry his flight school sweetheart and have lots of grandchildren  

If anyone has any screenshots of the event please save as jpeg and send to me blueboxpilot@msn.com

Thanks for setting this up Chilli.  It's very nice to see some proactive support for the AvA.  We would have never found the allied flight without the tips on 200.  It was great fun once we engaged.  to the allied P51 flight that continued to fight even when becoming disadvantaged.  It was a fun engagement.

We can learn from this.  I think enemy dar bars should be on for the big war being planned.  Just tooling around once formed up looking for a fight is not the fun part.  Forming up and the actual engagement is what is fun.  We need to look for ways to bring the sides together in a runnning air-to-air fight in the war.  I think a dar bar will help with that.  It's somewhat realistic also as there were observations posts and the like that could potentially see and report bomber streams in an area along with radio intercepts and the like which also gave clues on the approach of an attack.

Venom

>

[bcee]

I myself enjoyed the mission...even though the Axis wing was a tad smaller than expected, it was still a pleasurable experience..........

Salute to all involved..looking forward to future events taking place such as this..!

Husk0........

[TMAW]

Thanks for setting this up Chilli.  It's very nice to see some proactive support for the AvA.  We would have never found the allied flight without the tips on 200.  It was great fun once we engaged.  to the allied P51 flight that continued to fight even when becoming disadvantaged.  It was a fun engagement.

We can learn from this.  I think enemy dar bars should be on for the big war being planned.  Just tooling around once formed up looking for a fight is not the fun part.  Forming up and the actual engagement is what is fun.  We need to look for ways to bring the sides together in a runnning air-to-air fight in the war.  I think a dar bar will help with that.  It's somewhat realistic also as there were observations posts and the like that could potentially see and report bomber streams in an area along with radio intercepts and the like which also gave clues on the approach of an attack.

Venom

>

I was lucky to log in just before this started, it's definitely a nice idea for this arena. Unfortunately I had to log as soon as I landed.
Although the hunt is a big part of immersion the two opposing COs should coordinate the mission(s) beforehand, then the 2 sides wouldn't have to fly around so long without making contact. Having the 2 COs on 200 kinda ruins the immersion part.
What I'd suggest is both sides posting missions with way points, if the mission planner supports them, and a country channel for vox and text.
For the newer players the mission should have as much information as possible without using abbreviations. The arena's Message Of The Day(MOTD) shouldn't use abbreviations either.
It would be a bad idea for each country to have a dedicated vox channel posted in the MOTD.

TMAW

[lutrel]

Us Avengers had a great time and a good high alt fight with the enemy when they found us.  We were the light ponies so we stayed and intertained our guests as the heavies pressed on to target.  It was a good fight, but we found that we need some more practice in the ponies; we switched over to P-38's after the mission and faired much better.  <S>

[Odee]

LMAO @ 200 comment.  Nice of Venom to advertise for more cons to kill 

Wish ida been there for the flight.