Final Throw: Frame 2: April 07, 2006

[forHIM]

Woot.  I can't land, but it was good to see the squad do so well.

332nd Flying Mongrels stats:
Pilots: 16    Kills: 20    Assists: 7
Obj Destroyed: 0    Deaths: 1    Landed: 15
Bailed: 0    Captured: 1    Crashed: 11
Ditched: 2    Disco'd: 0

WTG Sour -- you had ace status until you crashed.  Your wife will be presented your ACE certificate posthumously.

WTG TCE -- 1 shy of an ACE

WTG one and all.

[HeavyH]

I still don't have my tracker IR dialed in.  Couldn't see at all behind me, and in the heat of battle the views are not smooth.  Thankfully one 109 driver couldn't hit a barn door, or I'd have been out early.  He whizzed past me to his death thanks to one of you.  I tried to follow a 152 way south, but couldn't catch him and ran smack dab into a gaggle of more 152's all by myself.  I hightailed it back to the group, and then re-fueled.  My last kill must have slid it in (I sawed his tail clean off), since I was not awarded an actual kill, rather a "kill awarded" when he crashed.  I thought about lighting him up all the way as he was fluttering down with no tail, but I was greedy with my ammo in case there were more bad guys to shoot at.  Never again!

I guess I'll hang in there with the TIR.  I'm really liking the trim setup I am able to use now by mapping my trim to the hat switch (since I don't use it for views anymore).  That alone may be cause for sticking it out with the TIR.  On to rudder pedals next.   

[MP Sarge]

well i took off from a3 landed at 63 refueled took off. went to 61 one and 34 till i ran out of gas. landed at 67 I think it was. After refueling i left rearm pad took a hard left turn  ran into snow bounced a few times on rough terrain. Then left landing gear broke off nose dipped down, that bent the prop which killed engine and was about 20ft off the runway and crashed, so had to ditch. and all of this without seeing any enemy. looks like i can land spits. but this night i could not take off without crashing..lol so no encounters of any sign seen this night,
 

[Sour]

Logs showed I crashed, but I was shot down by someone. I think my wingie got him just before I hit the deck.
Topcat and I had a pretty good night as wingies go - 9 kills between us.

Sour

[Ghosth]

I feel SO stupid!

I'd just looked at fuel and forgot to reset it to automatic when enemys showed up.

Shot down 2, and ran out of fuel for that tank. Was out of airspeed, alttitude and ideas almost instantly.

Pulled off a good ditch & look down at my fuel gauge.
Shift it back to automatic, shows LOTS of fuel left. DUH  ARGggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg.


WTG over all guys, VERY good night.

And whats with you spit drivers? LOL

[skernsk]

WTG Sour and TCE!

I was in charge of daddog last night.  We all know how that is .. left is right, right is left etc.

The intial 190's were D9's.  The markings were those of  III/JG44, a crack Luftwaffe squadron.  I dove in thinking dd was doing the same only to find out that I was missing the boss.  I zoomed and joined him as he was chasing a bandit.  I remained until he killed the bad guy.  We zoomed and turned and I was lucky enough to get on one.  The barn door for a rudder really messed up my aim and I used most of my ammo on that one kill.

Somewhere in there I got a maneuver kill, a bonus for a wingman.  That engagement was great teamwork by the dogs, we killed them all without a loss I believe.

dd and I landed and re-armed.  The Temepest is real squirrely on the runway and the torque nearly wrecked me before the re-arm pad.  Once agian dd and I were airborne over 61.  But soon orders to attack V30 changed all that.  We moved as a group to A34 and went looking for trouble.  We found it in a furball over A34.  Ta-152's, 109's and 190's were all grouped up and we began to Rumble.  daddog had a Ta-152 right where he wanted him, but could not quite get to guns range.  Eventually he would kill him.  In that attack I chased dd, and his bogey for aobut 15 mins, twice I had to peel off as a bogey was on my 6666.  Luckily we had alot of help and I was only shot at once.  

dd picked up a trailer from above, a Bf109G14, and he was in trouble.  I told him about it, but he was too interested in his prey to care.  Cursing (not on the radio) I was about to see my wingman get shot down.  I pushed the throttle through the stops, and to my surprise quickly closed on the 109.  I made a decent lead turn and within about 5 seconds got a clean kill on the 109.  daddog, shot his friend down shortly after that.

We both landed and called it a night.  

5 kills and a helper between us.  

<S> dd, was fun

[daddog]

Was a good night and I wanted it to end on a good note. I was not real keen on straffing down a field, but was willing to do so. When we engaged the TA-152’s on the way to 30 I was quite pleased about it. The TA-152 IMHO is a nice match for the Tempest. I had a real hard time catching them above 20k. The Tempest tends to shine at about 7k to about 20k. Skernsk and I bagged a couple over V61. I was careful with my ammo and for the past few weeks have been going with “tracers off”. It is taking some time getting used to but I really feel the enemy does not evade as much. I try to make my hits count and if I miss they don’t break/evade as hard because they don’t see the tracers. I will go with tracers off for a few more weeks and then decide what works best for me. After we killed all the 190’s that dove on our vehicle base we were protecting we took turns rearming. Once we were all fueled and ready to go we had orders to hit (I think it was V30). I was not eager on that mission, but we headed there. Also I wanted the spits to see some action and they had not yet. Not to mention Nif was there for the first time in over a year and I wanted him to get some shots off. Anyway on the way to V30 we all engaged some TA-152’s. I chased one for quite a while, but could not close. He kept peeking back which allowed me to finally gain on him. The closer I got the more he rolled and was looking back. Finally I had him. Skernsk was there all the time tell me I was clear or not. When he had to break due to an enemy I always broke off mine to make sure he was ok. After the 152 chase I went after a damaged 109G14. Had a hard time closing on him too, and that is when Skernsk said I had one on me. The G14 I was on began to get desperate with the evasives. Skernsk warned me about the one behind me again and looking back sure enough there he was, but I could tell with the evasives of the G14 Skernsk would gain on the one that was on me. I told myself “we will see what kind of wingman Skernsk is.  I concentrated on the G14 and sure enough Skernsk came across the radio and said he bagged him. Moments later I finished off the G14. 

We headed back to a near by base and landed. Skernsk and I did well too, he had 3 kills and I got 2. Well done guys!

[HeavyH]

I told myself “we will see what kind of wingman Skernsk is. 

Skernsk gets my vote as the ultimate wingie.  He has always done more for me in battle than I ever did for him.  I bet if you could look at the logs and compare them to who had who as wingies, you would see that his wingie always has plenty of kills.  A ribbon of some sort is in order.   

[gospel]

The Spitfires did not fare so well, I'm afraid.

They are a front line fighter.  Taking off from that rear field, and with refueling, we did not make it to V61 before the enemy   

We were refueling both times cons were encountered by the tempest group.  No cons were seen or encountered during our flight 

Personally, given the problems I have had refueling lately, I was pleased that I could take off , refuel, and land 3 times with out crashing   

On a side note, it was great to fly with Nifty again!  It has been awhile!  <S!>

[daddog]

Just fill this form out Heavy, but I could not agree more. He really is an excellent wingman.
http://www.332nd.org/commendations.htm

[skernsk]

Thanks for the kind words Heavy/dd.

IF you watch my film you will see me giving into temptation a couple of times.  I really FIGHT to keep with my lead, it is a test of patience and GREED!  In the past whenever I peeled off for a kill, my wingman died a horrible death.  Lately, I have been able to keep that in check for the most part.

Twice last night I got separated from daddog, luckily in the first engagement he did not get bounced because I was never closer than 3K to him for about 45 seconds.  I 'cleared his 666' over Vox just to make him think I was there - if he did have a trailer he would have been on his own.  I actually peeled off a sure kill at d400 to find daddog as I thought he was right with me. 

I ended with as many kills as he got, just trying to stay close and cleaning up the scraps.  I got a bonus maneuver kill as a reward I guess   I got me 3 new black crosses in my sig now....