Zig's SEA Event-Wrap up

[Sundog]

Well, for anyone who wasn't there, you guys missed alot of fun! I finally had the chance to buff in one of these events. It was just like you read about in those World War II stories....cruising along in formation....then the escorts call vis on bogeys (Which are, of course, Bandits in this case)...Next thing you know, Luftwaffe planes diving in...escorts chasing them...buffs 'sploding and burning...fighters going down...check 6...one low, one on the left...BAM,BAM , BAM (Firing back on a 190 from my tail gun position...GRRRR...I get him, he gets me..not an even trade). Float down in my chute and rejoin Jimbear as a gunner. Of 12 Buffs, I think 6 went down in that first encounter. It must have lasted, maybe, two or 3 minutes. Seemed like 30 seconds.

I recommend everyone fly in one of these events if you like a good adrenaline rush. Zig set up a great event...the sides were very well balanced. Of the 12 buffs, I think 3 made it through to target (NME HQ) and I know two made it back (Cobra and Jimbear) and maybe Loiter can let us know if he made it back. He was smokin pretty good, but still made target.

FYI, they turn friendly collisions on in these events, which means friendly fire is on as well. I didn't know that until I saw one of my kills was a friendly BUFF that was in front of me while 3 LW planes were diving in HO. OUCH! Gonna have to work on a vertical spread on those buff formations.

Thanks to the luftwaffe pilots for making such intense attacks. Thanks to my fellow buff pilots/gunners for making it so much fun. Thanks to the escorts, they stuck with the buffs through it all. Thanks to Zig for getting the ball rolling on this event. Thanks to Udie and Kieren for helping with the set-up. And finally, I would like to thank the Academy for..er, I mean HTC for the great playground.  

LB-HAM!

   


[This message has been edited by Sundog (edited 07-11-2000).]

[Dnil]

Yes it was great fun.  I was in the 47 group, and dived on a 190 during the first bounce.  I chased him through the box and never saw his 109 buddy on my butt the whole way.  The skilled 109 pilot had tracers off and I didnt know he was there until rudder and left ron were gone. <S> mister 109 driver.  I broke off and a min later cleared markat's tail, hehe tough to line up shots with no rudder or left ron.  Killed that 109, then popped another low.  I have a big file of the whole fight if anyone wants me to send it to them.  Pretty good fights.(flying as skyhawk)

I was in the friendly buff that ya popped sun.  I was in top turret shootin a 190 when blammo! down we went.

Great fun guys!

------------------
Dnil
JG-2
Part time aircraft restorer. www.kingwoodcable.com/jheuer

[Nash]

Talk about Murphy's Law whackin' ya upside the head.

I rush home from work... and finally get into the SEA 5 minutes before the planes start rollin'. I am completely disoriented. Nath sez "we need bombers". I say "I'll bomb".... he sez "Cool". So I do a quick roster check on Nath, see his country, then change to his country. I'm just getting my bearings at this point, when I ask on the country channel "Any RW channel fer Buffs?". A chorus of "What the hell ya doing here? Buffs are on the other team".  Doh!

So I quickly change sides, hop in my B17 just as we're taxiing for take-off. The take-off was uneventful and we form up in a southern heading, as per the little line on the mission planner. That's when I start to fall back. Somethings not right here. I go from being oh, 3rd or 4th in the pack, to falling behind to 2k out of the formation.

During this, I notice a comm mentioning RW at such and such a channel. Good, ok. I switch to RW, as well as find our text channel. At this point I realized why I was falling back - I had forgotten to bring my flaps back up. Doh! again. I'm not making up much ground at all, but by now I'm not falling behind any more. So the chatter on the Buff's RW and the text buffer continues along.. when someone says "Ok - I got the Buffs in sight - 3:00." Wot?! It turns out I was jacked into the escort's comm. Doh!

So ok.... I'm thinkin'.... I got a bit of time here... Damage control. Flaps up, level out fer a bit of speed, finally got the RW set to the Buffs now... Not too bad. But I really need to get back into formation. The Buffs were between 2k and 3k out in front of me. I'm gonna be easy prey for the Luftwaffles. I gotta make up some ground in a huge way.

So I'm looking at the map, at the mission planner, and seeing the route we're chartin'. That's the ticket! I'll cut a few corners, take a more direct route, and within' ten minutes I'll be back in formation. Damn clever huh?

It turns out the Buff group mistakenly took the wrong route... holding the course not of the route to the enemy HQ, but the course coming BACK from HQ.

Oh this is beautiful.

However, the commute was a long one... and I finally get semi formed up. I'm about 1k out from the group when the enemy fighters pounce. But hell, I'm ready. I got my game face on. Then I see Buffs all around me start to pour smoke. Wings and tail sections start to litter the sky. Where the $@#@# from?! I'm not liking this at all... and I take up my vigil at the back of the Buff, waitin' for the ghosts to come. And they came. A hail of tracer fire comes at me out of thin air. I'm jumpin' back and forth in my gunner positions... I'm zoomin' in... I'm zoomin out... And all I can see is what appears to be God taking a rather forcefull and determined leak on my aircraft. Great. All this damn trouble, and now God is peeing on my plane.

Well... one wing gone, horiz stab gone... I'm dead. Turns out my icon was set to enemy off. Sigh... I figure I had so much bad luck in there that Karma is gonna kick in huge... I'll be untouchable. Invicible. Zigrat - outstanding job on this! Now give us another! I'm cashin' in Karma Currency. I need payback, dammit!

<S> Gentlemen... despite it all, it was a great time and very well thought out, Zig.

[Tac]

I am proud to report that both Loiter (the B-17 with its butt on fire) and ET (who nuked the HQ with several passes in his Buff on his OWN).

The P-38 flight had a great time, we flew in V formation most of the way, engaged the 190's a bit late in the encounter (when we got there several buffs had been nailed).. but we kept our altitude and got em Big Friends home.

I have a full film of it for anyone who requests it.

Great event indeed Zigrat!

If I wanted to make an event, how would I go around doing it?

[CavemanJ]

It was a blast.  I led the 38s.  We got out in front of the buffs by a good bit because I missed Cobra's turn to get back on the right track  
We're cruising along at 30k lookin for the bad guys when the buffs cry out they're under attack.  After a few frantic calls to find out exactly where they are we reverse course and get there after 4-5 buffs have gone down and the luftwaffles have been chased very low or killed.

Citabria and I peel off and head out ahead of everyone to scout the route, leaving the other 4 members of my flight with the buffs and jugs.  Cit and I found a gaggle of 190s around 32-33k over the HQ and headed for the buffs.  We engage and I get a few hits on a couple of them, but the 190s pretty much ignore us and go for the buffs, and get jumped by the jugs and other 4 38s.  I pick up a few assts while chasing down the bandits.
Fly through some 88mm flak while the remaining 4 buffs (started with 12) make thier runs on the HQ and kill it.
On the way home, zig-zagging behind Cobra and Jimbear a pair of 190s come out of the sun and make for the bombers.  I roll in behind the trailer and saw AKSwulfe looking like he was rolling in on the leader.  A short chase, prolly 20-30 seconds (that seemed like 5minutes), and I'm finally in gun range.  I open up at 500yds and watch the right wing peel off that 190 just before he was in gun range on the buffs.  The other 190s made it to the buffs but Sundog took him down before he could do any real damage.  I think that 190 gave JimBear a fuel leak  

Cobra and JimBear went on to land at 2 and AKSwulfe and I turned back west to find the last 2 B17s and the rest of our flight.  Citabria had lost an engine playing decoy to keep a luftwabble off one of the bombers.  Time we found him he had already dealt with that bandit and we headed for 3, where the other 2 buffs landed then we landed.


[This message has been edited by CavemanJ (edited 07-12-2000).]

[mason22]

Must agree with everyone here.....

I flew a buff in the event, and the formations were simply amazing. I was right wing to Corbra most of the way and came within 100yds of Sundog several times. We had a pretty tight flight untill we were jumped by the LW. I made it through the first jump, getting an assist and one kill. Problem was, i had to pilot and gun at the same time, when the first wave was all over, i had "wandered" about 3-5k ahead of the rest of the formation. (guess that auto pilot likes to put the peddle to the metal.)

So, i slowed down and Spike joined me as a gunner. Since we had to slow and level scissors untill the pack caught up, we were just a little low and still outside once they came back to a close distance. By this time, we had fallen back and the second wave of LW were upon us. This time it was crazy!! We had only 6 or 7 existing buffs from the first attack, so there were fewer targets for the LW to concentrate on. And Being the lone wolf behind the pack, i got picked on. Made it through about 3 passes of LW AC, and the last came from the six, and suprised Spike as well as myself. (those LW were everywhere!!). We were just outside of HQ by the time we were downed.

<S> to everyone. i have film as well.

[ygsmilo]

Rats, sorry I missed it but RL got in the way.

------------------
JG 2's current cannon magnet

Milo

[Cobra]

<S> to Zig, Udie, and Kieren for their work into making this thing happen.  <S> to the pilots on both sides for a great fight and event.

<S> to the Bomber force, wow these guys had nerves of steel to hold that close formation with friendly collisions on!  My navigator has been re-assigned to the motor pool for his errors in following the waypoints last night, for that I must apologize.

It was as the others described it....climbing, station keeping, course correcting, then WHAM....fighters filling the sky, tracers, bandit calls, then just as quickly....nothing but the survivors left getting back into formation.....and then WHAM, second wave, then ACK, bombs away calls, re-forming....was ALOT of fun!

The mission planner will work, once we all get used to it.  It is a very valuable tool!

I got film from start to finish as well.

I was just starting to get abit bored with the same old in the MA, so...Great Fun, Lets do more of these!

Cobra
Musketeer Escadrille

[AKSeaWulfe]

***INDEX PAGE IS MADE. URL PAGE FOR FILM IS http://www.geocities.com/weissdr1/index.html
CLICK ON THE LINK AND IT WILL DOWNLOAD***


I have my film uploaded to a website zipped so it's compressed to 2 1/2MB or there abouts. http://www.geocities.com/weissdr1/escorts.zip

I missed takeoff, but it's starts somewhere on the climb out. I couldn't describe how cool it was, you'd just have to watch the film to get an idea. (too bad you can't record the RW chatter =)
-SW
AKSeaWulfe

[This message has been edited by AKSeaWulfe (edited 07-12-2000).]

[This message has been edited by AKSeaWulfe (edited 07-12-2000).]