Greetings pilots,

I have been unable since Christmas to have anything organised properly for you and hope that this coming Thursday I can change that. I will try to have a mission finished for us to fly and will start at 8 pm GMT/Zulu after training. There are 2 new members just joined in the last couple of days and I hope they will be able to attend and meet some of you Bravo guys. Last Thursday apart from the comms issues went OK although I could not help out the Preacher group but great flying for the most part and the formation flying is getting very proficient. Now we need to get that landing together tightened up so all ships land to disgorge troops at the same time. Best place for practicing that is Nevada with some tight LZ's with trees that kill you. On that note I would like to get back to some MP gaming on Nevada as with the rift things look nicer on thew whole and it seems to run better for me than 1.5.5 So B Company if you don't own NTTR yet please try to grab it when its on sale. It will offer some good scenarios for us all too.

Best wishes all
Cib

PS if anyone has new mission to fly please get i touch and we can incorporate it into gaming night. I will post brief in this thread when its done

B Company
229th AHB
Na Trang
RVN
2/2/1968

SITREP
Intelligence sources indicate a large movement of North Vietnamese Army personel around the border area with Laos where the Ho Chi Minh trail enters South Vietnam
The build up suggests a ground offensive will be imminent.
MACV has ordered Bravo Company 229th AHB to recon the area, lift 1st Battalion 7th Cavalry into the AO and assault the NVA before they can launch their own offensive.

Furthur orders and mission brief to follow

New pilots Kalahari and Fudd please join if you can

We have need of 1x Gazelle pilot and 1x Observer to man the recon ship which will emulate a Kiowa
The rest of B Company will take slicks and I will invite Delta to fill in the GS slots
There will be Artillery battery on hand for fire support
There will also be F5E's available for fast air

I'm in.

Task me where you need me - Gazelle if required (although the Rift is not so good for the observer slot, so prefer pilot).

In...

Friendly Forces
Home Plate Na Trang AFB (Tblisi)
3 x4 slicks
1x4 Gunships
1x recon bird/AMC
2x F5E with rockets
1x SPH battery
1x B52 Payload 51x Mk82's
Both Arty and Bomber support available to Mission Commander via the tactical map(F10)
1st Battalion 7th Cavalry Airmobile

Enemy Forces

Somwhere around MM55 MM65 and MM66
Estimated Battalion strength NVA plus unknown Vietcong irregulars
Small arms, RPG's and .50 cal weapons are all we should face.
Previous missions in this area have uncovered several tunnel complexes and numerous prepared fighting positions with interlocking fields of fire

Objectives

Mayfly 1 Kiowa/Gazelle
Identify exact location of enemy troop concentrations
Identify suitable LZ for up to 8 slicks at once LZ shall be called LZ X-ray. Secondary LZ's should be noted for emergency use
Co-ordinate arty and arclight for preparatory fire.
Co-ordinate Gunships and fast air

Bandit, Killer Spade and Northflag flights (Slicks)
Lift first elements of 7th Cav from starting strip to Firebase Veghel
Wait for the call to move in and insert.
Return to Firebase Veghel picking up the rest of the battalion and inserting them as quickly as possible.

Tiger flight (GS)
Provide ARA at designated LZ prior to insertion. Wait for LZ confirmation and the order to start preping from recon ship (AMC)
Provide close force protection for slicks on ingress and egress from the LZ. Rearm/repair available Firebase Veghel

Pirate 1-1 Pirate 1-2 F5E
Provide CAS as directed by AMC

Freqs

Battlenet/guard
124.000 Victor

Internal comms
Bandit 31.50 FM
North flag 32.00 FM
Killer Spade 35.00 FM
Tiger 45.00 FM

Pirate 255.000 Uniform
Firebase Veghel ADF 520.0 Khz DF

AO

Na Trang AFB and Firebase Vehgel


Additional info

Assign 2 slicks to transport lubricant and spare parts for the artillery battery. Once delivered to the Firebase Vehgel a new battery of howitzers will be on call for tasking
Tune to 131.00 Victor for music

Since I'm new here, assign me a slick please.

@Cib: will MAYFLY 1 be an M Gazelle - so the observer role has something to shoot with?

@all pilots: anyone want to be the observer in MAYFLY 1 with me as pilot? I know, hard to turn that offer down

Gazelle is the L varient although this can be changed. I was going for a realistic scenario no SAMs no IR Flares no door mounted gattling guns, just grunts and gunships . I did though think the observer would manipulate the infantry units alter targets for arty call in the B52 and run the battle. You think they should be able to shoot too?
Nothing to stop recon with gazelle before changing to a slick or GS

Fair enough on the realism.

That does make the AMC / observer role pretty critical to the mission - am I reading that right? It also means the AMC needs to know what they are signing up to - e.g. an admin role not a flying role. I think you should do it

If we run this on Thursday as a tester I will fly recon Providing We have someone MQ to lead the slicks. I think that will be Painter, Blade, Metzger or Salty. If we can get a couple of them to take flight leads then you can be my pilot.
How does that sound? Anyone else capable of leading a four ship?

Invited the rest of the world

Works for me - we can argue on the intercom

Should we do a slot list that people can assign themselves? I think it can be helpful as it speeds up the briefing as everyone knows where they are flying before start... E.g.:

BANDIT flight

BANDIT 1-1:
BANDIT 1-2: Fudd
BANDIT 1-3: Flubber
BANDIT 1-4: Kalahari (via PM)

KILLER SPADE flight

KILLER SPADE 2-1:
KILLER SPADE 2-2:
KILLER SPADE 2-3:
KILLER SPADE 2-4:

NORTHFLAG flight

NORTHFLAG 3-1:
NORTHFLAG 3-2:
NORTHFLAG 3-3:
NORTHFLAG 3-4:

TIGER flight

TIGER 4-1: Gizzy
TIGER 4-2: PD
TIGER 4-2:
TIGER 4-4:

PIRATE flight

PIRATE 5-1: Nemax (aarrrrrr!)
PIRATE 5-2:

MAYFLY 6-1

Pilot: evilivan
AMC/observer: Cib

I wanna be a pirate

@Nemax: list updated

@everyone else: if you are joining, please copy the roster from my post, paste it into your post, and add your name in your chosen slot. Ta

Additional info added to brief

I'm slicker than snot, so count me in!

(B/229) Flubber wrote:I'm slicker than snot, so count me in!

Roster updated

Still to confirm from our regulars,
Metzger, Blade, Painter, Salty, Flick, Nighthawk, Gisen. Possibles Sleipner, Razorback Sundog.
That would fill the slots nicely if those guys turn up too

I am not sure if I can make it on time I will for sure miss the training and will do my best to get home for the mission but still cant say for sure.

You can join when you get in, we save you a slot

When is estimated T/O time?

Thanks for the mission Cib.
Went very well from my point of view and we got that hill.
Moved the troops around in combined arms after all pilots left the area and blue was able to kill all red, but:
- blue troops do not engage the red machine gun nests (maybe because they are from the additional objects?)
- I wasn't able to activate the Paladins and let them engage - shows they are not active
- the B-52 needs to take off from a bigger airfield - it was standing on ground on a taxiway with a broken wing, so I wasn't able to make use of it

PS:
Apologies for the bad-lead-approaches into the LZs. Especially during the last approach I think 3 of us went into the Vortex Ring State caused by my approach. 2 wingmen followed me into this Vortex state (and crashed). Amazing good wingmen, amazing bad lead

Hey Guys,
Hope you had a great flying yesterday.
Sorry for me not joining I went home after a buisness dinner having a couple of beers and felt sleepy and not flying capable. Hope to see you next time

@Painter, The Arty was in use earlier in the mission, I think they had run out of shells. The B52 starts airborne and takes an hour to get on station, if not used by the last waypoint it will RTB, the problems with the rift and difficulties with Gazelle radio's all played a part in adding layers of difficulty to the command.

@Metzger I think this one will be replayed, I may tweak some stuff but maybe it can be replayed next week now we know roughly what to do

Anybody for some fly tonigh, I guess I will be flying at arround 2130z

I don't have a life - so probably yes