Want to earn your wings?

[Oberst Hajj]

Like in all wars we have lost some good men here at the Aerodrome. As good as these men were, as the Commanding Officer I need to try and find some replacements for them. I am currently looking for Flight Leaders for these countries:

• New Zealand
• Denmark
• Spain
• Germany
• Belgium

If you are interested in the position, here are a few things that you would be responsible for:

1. Keeping an eye out for new members from your country.
2. Getting those new members to join the Flight for your country.
3. Getting those new members signed up on the Player Map.
4. Starting and monitoring the discussions in the Flight area of your country.
5. Making sure players from your country add an avatar and country flag to their profile.
6. Work with other Flight Leaders and the Admins to help keep the site a fun place to visit.
7. Come up with ways to improve the site and discuses them other Flight Leads and the Admins.

Basically, you would be the person for all things related to your country. Your main goal would be to organize and motivate the other pilots here on the site from your country and generally help the site grow.

Sound like some thing you would be up for? If so, shoot me a PM letting me know.

As a Flight Leader you will be expected to be active here on the site (I understand real life can get in the way of this) and to respond to requests for help from my self when needed. There is a little bit of work involved, but this will give you the chance to strengthen the Wings of War community in your area... which means a better gaming experience for all.


Fly Safe,

The Col.

[Doug]

Col ignor my last message, as I have just read my duties, not a problem I will get on to it. By the way in the personal profile you have not added Australia to the nations a play would like to fly for

[Oberst Hajj]

This was talked about in a thread a while back. From what I was told, the Aussies flew for the Brits in WWI and did not have their own service/ranks for me to use (I'm also not sure if there is a card back for any Australian pilot in Wings of War). I'm thinking that you guys did have your own service/ranks in WWII, but again, not sure if there is a card back for it?

[Doug]

Col this a bit out of my depth so I hope some ex RAAF member will correct me.
1/ Yes the rank structure was the same as the British for both WW1 & WW2 not sure if that is the case today.
2/ In WW1 the Aircraft was part of the Australian Army and had it's own squadrons opperating under Australian Command, but in coperation with the British.
3/ It was the same in WW2 Austrlian Squdrons opperated under Australian command.
I think the real problem is that so many Australian served in the RAF as individuals and did many other Commonweath personel. Also to confuse the issue some Australian squadrons had Australian & British pilots in them for example 451 Sqn in Egypt & Libya, which had both British and Australian pilots but was an Australian Squadron. I hope this makes sort of sence.

And yes Angilolli has not made a card for an Australian pilot and we are still awaiting a minature with Australian markings on it from Nexus!

[Dom S]

Ahem, I think you'll find Messrs. Ryrie and Baker, both with Sopwith Snipe miniatures, hailed from the 4th squadron of the Australian Flying Corps, while Dallas was also an Aussie, even if he flew with the Brits. (Or to put it in terms of WWI single-seater models, there are three times as many Aussies as Brits.... ) Odd but true - Blighty is well-represented in 2-seaters, but the allied scout models, counting Series 4 and the new deluxe set, add up to:

4 Canadian (Barker twice, Brown, Bishop)
1 Brit (Elwood)
1 Belgian (Olieslager)
1 Italian (Baracca)
3.5 French (Fonck, Nungesser, 1/2 Thenault, De Guibert)
4.5 American (Rickenbacker, 1/2 Lufberry, Luke, Boudwin, Johnson)
3 Aussies (Baker, Ryrie, Dallas)
1 Russian (Kibanov)

The 2-seaters (going by the pilot's nationality - gunners are sometimes different, eg. Leckie was Canadian) are:
2 American (D Sqn USMC, 96th Sqn)
1 Canadian (Atkey)
3 Brits (Cadbury, Longton, Ferguson - I think; I don't have any bio on Longton or Ferguson.)
1 Belgian (Unknown)
2 French (Br.107, Br.129)

Dom.

<Updated cos I forgot the balloon-busters Nieuports, and added the 2-seaters....>

[Oberst Hajj]

I guess my point is there are no Aussie marked planes or cards. I guess I could rework one of the cards in PS to be Aussie and then just use all the same rank images for them??

[Dom S]

I guess my point is there are no Aussie marked planes or cards.

There are, (ie. Ryrie and Baker at least.) There's nothing screamingly obviously marking them as "Australian" but only because the real things didn't have anything that marked them as Australian.... The RFC-style cockade is 100% correct, so the only difference between an AFC card and an RFC one should be that the AFC card should say "Australian Flying Corps" on the back instead of "Royal Flying Corps" which is already the case on the AFC cards. (Or at least it is on Ryrie and Baker - I don't have the Dogfight booster, but would presume that the Cox and Alberry SE5a cards are also correct.) Any further differentiation would be a fiction, like the "New Zealand" Camel card in the files section, with kiwi-centred roundels, first introduced on RNZAF aircraft in, umm, 1970....

Dom, climbing down from his soapbox....

[Doug]

Thanks Dom I was not sure about this being ex-army, That would be great Col, as I said the RAAF is seperate from the RAF, but Australian pilots flew with both nations along with other Commonwealth Nations. I don't know when the red Kangaroo roundels were first used by the RAAF but they were certainly in use during the Vietnam War as I am told by Aussi Vietnam Vets that the locals refered to these roundels as "the big red rat"

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Yes Cox And Alberry's SE5s' have the Australian information on the backs.
Rob.

[Dom S]

Doug - 1956 for the Kangaroo.... For WW2 cards you could at least do an "Australian" card with the plain blue and white roundels (which weren't universal - Aussie units in Europe kept RAF-style markings, but from about '42 the blue and white SEAC roundel came to be viewed as "Australian" too, to the point that when other SEAC squadrons switched to two-tone blue, RAAF ones didn't.)

[Oberst Hajj]

Okay, so for WWI we essentially already have the Aussie background and ranks since they used the RFC roundels (that we have) and the RFC ranks (which we also have). The only thing missing is the Australian selection for the countries to fly for list. That is pretty easy and only shows up in one of the tabs in your profile.