Flight Journal: Pfalzing out of the sky

Last week I was on the Flugpark server for one of their Thursday night fly-in events that have recently picked up steam again after the announcement of Flying Circus Vol 2. Among my flights that night was one particularly challenging fight in the Pfalz D.IIIa that I thought I’d share. Sometimes its not about the victory but surviving the fight. Here’s what happened.

Rushing in

One of the members of my flight, after a particularly challenging fight over the barren pockmarked landscape of no-man’s land, was in trouble just on our side of the lines and after ending my last flight I was ready to scramble and go and help.

Taking the Pfalz D.IIIa out of one of our frontline bases, I climbed to about 900 meters and made a turn towards the front. I wanted altitude but I also needed to get there as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, rushing in even with a short climb can leave you vulnerable and so in my first engagement I had less energy advantage than I had hoped for.

My first shots on the enemy were ineffective and the they managed to turn around and put in a pretty good burst into my Pfalz. The D.IIIa might not be the best fighter but it is robust for a WWI aircraft and that helped make the difference.

Desperate fight to survive

From this moment on, I was in a desperate fight to survive. With aircraft joining the fight on both sides and me caught with damage at low altitude I began a series of tight turns trying to throw off the enemies aim and trying to regain composure in the fight. When I was able to, I even got a few bursts in of my own.

Together in the melee were a friendly Dr. I, Fokker D.VII an enemy SPAD XIII, Camel, and S.E.5.a. The battle raged for what felt like 20-minutes but which was probably more like 5-6. Twisting and turning, chopping throttle and pushing it forward again to try and gain advantage.

I got a burst in on one of the attacking fighters which seemingly did nothing but which had the effect of cutting their control cables I later learned. Two of the attacking fighters ultimately crashing together!

The fight was memorable enough that one of the other participants, Gardimus, later recounted the fight on the r/il2sturmovik Reddit group.

https://www.reddit.com/r/il2sturmovik/comments/l77yuy/for_the_new_players_of_flying_circus_looking_to/gl79os3?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

A challenging and enjoyable flying experience to be sure! It has me excited for the first new planes to come to Flying Circus Vol 2 and later this year we’ll see some new types hit the sim that will have an even more dramatic impact on the experience.

Salute to all of the folks involved including Gardimus (from Reddit), Requiem from the Air Combat Tutorial Library and Woflpack345 who regularly streams IL-2 content including Flying Circus.