Messing about with Rise of Flight today. Like most combat sims it doesn't seem to get much attention at Avsim which is a shame because it's a great flight sim... extremely challenging, educational and interesting.

 

These pics are just a quick mission 1v1 with me flying an S.E.5a against an Albatros D.V

 

The S.E.5a is flying with a skin depicting the aircraft flown by Lieutenant Verschoyle Philip Cronyn - a Canadian pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. Cronyn has always been of interest to me as going by his name, he is quite possibly a distant relative of mine!

 

Cronyn was one of the pilots of 56 Squadron who took part in the epic battle with the German ace Werner Voss on 23rd September 1917. Probably one of the most famous dogfights in aviation history, Voss single handedly fought against no less than seven S.E.5a of the RFC's elite 56 Squadron, piloted by several aces including Captain James McCudden. Voss fought against overwhelming odds for more than eight minutes and managed to hit nearly every one of the British fighters before himself finally falling under the guns of the multiple British aces.

 

After this engagement Cronyn nursed his badly damaged aircraft back to base and by all accounts suffered what we would recognise as a post traumatic nervous breakdown - three months on the front line with 56 Squadron had taken its toll and the epic fight with Voss which Cronyn barely survived was probably the final straw. Cronyn was put on non-flying duties, and shortly after sent on leave. After his leave he spent some time test flying in Britain before being posted back to Canada as a flying instructor. Before he got there he was diverted to Fort Worth in Texas and instructed on Curtiss Jennys, then moving on to Canada to continue instructing for much of 1918. He eventually requested a posting back in France and this was approved. However, he only made it as far as Quebec before the Armistice. After the war he became the head of an insurance company and then a local politician in Ontario.

 

Cronyn survived 38 patrols with 56 Squadron over a three month period in 1917 - a time when the average life expectancy of an RFC scout pilot was three weeks.

 

 

The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a - one of the finest fighters (or scouts as they were known at the time) of the Great War.

 

The opposition - an Albatros D.V of the Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte.

 

The cockpit of the S.E.5a - only three flight instruments here: an altimeter, airspeed indicator and magnetic compass. The other instruments relate to the engine. Also note the Aldis collimated gunsight, quite an advanced piece of kit in 1917!

 

Battle is joined.

 

At full realism the flight models in Rise of Flight are extremely unforgiving and very challenging - even more so on the rotary engine aircraft where you have to wrestle with gyroscopic forces created by the entire engine block spinning around. No autopilots, no trim, barely any flight instruments, no parachute, open cockpit... How these guys just flew these aircraft, let alone fought in them is astonishing.

 

The lighting and effects in Rise of Flight is very good. Probably one of the best depictions of the sun I've ever seen in a flight sim. A simple thing, but immensely important in a sim of this type!

 

The aircraft models in Rise of Flight are top notch - my other hobby is plastic kit building and it was this sim that eventually got me to splash out on a bunch of 1/32 WW1 aircraft kits from Wingnut Wings.

 

TrackIR is an absolute must if you want to get the most out of this sim. Your head has to literally be on a swivel.

 

By this point we've both found ourselves in the other's sights during the dogfight.

 

The clouds also look great, with heavy cloud looking fantastic, perhaps among the best of any flight sim. Cloud shadows too... something that has caused a bit of a stir recently and something this sim has had for getting on six years now. The terrain has always got a bit of a mixed reaction. Some people don't like how the colours wash out as you get higher. My own opinion is whilst it's by no means the worst out there it's not the best either.

 

The doghfight spiralled lower and lower but eventually I was able to cause enough damage to persuade his wing to part company with the rest of the aircraft.

 

The Albatros came down on the edge of a wooded area.

 

Byt this point my engine was overheating, steam coming from the radiator so I started a slow climb heading west back towards the Allied lines. Period engine modelling is fully covered, and you will have to know how to correctly operate a WW1 era aero engine if you want to max out the realism options.

 

Every inch the Great War fighter.

 

You can see here now I'm back up at 8,000ft the terrain colours have washed out again to simulate the atmospheric effects of flying at altitude. Some like it, some don't.

 

Passing over the infamous trenches. The front line literally cut an open wound across the whole of Europe.

 

Here's an interesting effect flying through cloud - water droplets forming on your virtual flying goggles and streaming back in the airflow! You also get a similar effect with engine oil if your engine is badly damaged. Also note how flying through cloud is a risky business given nobody had invented an artificial horizon at this point.

 

Safely over Allied lines I spy an airfield and descend to land.

 

Of course not forgetting that WW1 aircraft didn't have brakes either!

 

Safely back on the ground. Something too many pilots in this conflict never managed to achieve.

 

 

 

And here's an excellent video on Youtube where someone far more talented than me recreated Werner Voss' final battle in Rise of Flight - it gives you an idea of what the sim looks like when it's all in motion:

 

Nice.

 

I love RoF, but there doesn't seem to have been a lot of development since IL2 BoS was announced.  The career mode has been in Beta for over 1 year with no significant development.

There is not the Fokker DR1 Richthofen ? Great shots!

The amount of realism and attendant research in that goes into RoF is simply mind boggling.  Thanks for the series and informed commentary.

 

 

There is not the Fokker DR1 Richthofen ?

 

Funny thing is Richtofen scored most of his victories in an Albatros!

 

 

 

The amount of realism and attendant research in that goes into RoF is simply mind boggling.

 

Absolutely! It's a tremendous sim, just flying the aircraft from A to B is pretty challenging.

 

However, I do have two criticisms of ROF:

 

i) As WotanUK says, development has slowed right down since IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad arrived on the scene.

 

ii) ROF is fairly typical of the current crop of Russian developed sims (i.e. DCS, ROF, Cliffs of Dover) in that whilst it's technically superb, it lacks real single player offline meat on the bones. Wings Over Flanders Fields (based on CFS3) is far better in this regard and recreates the air battles of the Great War in much more depth and detail for the offline flyer.

I really enjoyed your post thank you.  :Applause:

FANTASTIC!!! Great Shots Accompanied by a Great Story! Thank You :Applause: