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    Hanger 09
    Fates
    By Fates,
      Jonny Ryder, Cyberdome Technologies, is about to open a Entertainment Arcade called "Hanger 09" and is banking on its location to attract business. Just miles from Oceana NAS, Ryder is building incredible simulator cockpits and mating them with Graphsims FA-18/OIF......and selling pizza all under the same roof.       Read more at >>>PilotOnline .com<<<

    IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey Missions
    Erik
    By Erik,
      IL-2 STURMOVIK: BIRDS OF PREY MISSIONS REVEALED TEST YOUR METTLE AND EARN YOUR WINGS   505 Games in collaboration with 1C Company have today released more information on the mission mode in IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey. The highly anticipated WWII aerial combat title will hit the shelves on 4th September for Xbox 360, PS3, PSP and DS.   Mission mode extends the game play experience in IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds Of Prey by offering new missions that are unlocked through progress in the main campaign mode. By successfully navigating the campaign missions in each of the six scenarios, new operations become available such as night time recon, airfield assaults, escorting bombers, supply transports or troops to their destination, neutralising anti-aircraft units, low fling ground attacks, vessel air patrol and interception of enemy supply transports to name a few. These additional operations bring the mission total to 50 across the campaign and mission modes.   Based around large-scale aerial combat over the ground-based military operations of World War II, variety is at the heart of the action in IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey. Players participate in the most famous confrontations of the era piloting fighters, battle planes or heavy bombers across a range of missions. There are six theatres of war in which to engage – The Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, Berlin, Sicily, the Battle of the Bulge and Korsun – representing the main airborne battles of World War II in Europe.   As well as taking environmental and landscape visuals to new heights by incorporating satellite technology, IL-2 also boasts a tangible damage effects engine. Players will see real-time damage to the aircraft such as holes in the wings and trail lines during dogfights. IL-2 will support up to 16 players in multiplayer aerial combat set across 4 scenarios - Dogfight, Team Battle, Strike and Capture the Airfield.   IL2 Sturmovik: Birds Of Prey will be published by 505 Games in collaboration with 1C Company on 4th September 2009 for Xbox 360, PS3, DS and PSP. Playable demos for Xbox 360 and PS3 are available to download now from Marketplace and PSN. For the latest information visit the official website at http://www.il2game.com or follow on Twitter http://twitter.com/IL2BirdsOfPrey     New Media Maze Ltd

    Reviewing the Logitech G940
    Ruggbutt
    By Ruggbutt,
      This year has been a great year for flight simmers. Announcements of new software and new hardware piqued the interest of the flight sim community. Of all the products we were promised nothing generated the buzz that the Logitech G940 did. It was promo'd at E3 earlier this year. With E3 being an industry show many people just didn't get the chance to see it, touch it or talk to someone who had. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on the G940 and run it through it's paces. Those of you that know me know I'm a gadget guy. I love to make periodic additions to my cockpit to ease the "workload" when I'm flying online with my squadron. I own a couple of Logitech mice (510's) and two Logitech 5.1 surround systems, one for my pit and the other for my FPS (First Person Shooter) desk. My main mouse has been going for 5 years.   The G940 is a HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick) and rudder pedals. The stick itself is FF (Force Feedback). I haven't "flown" with FF for years. I was anxious to see how well I'd be able to fly the jet and use the weapons with a stick that was alive, shaking and shuddering and doing it's best to spoil my aim. That's a common misconception that I'll touch on later in this review.   I was promised the G940 sometime in August as soon as the eval copies were to be made available. Sure enough I received a box that was shipped "next day". How's that for service?!! I immediately broke out my camera and started tearing into the boxes. The outer box was your standard brown cardboard with the Logitech logo, taped on all the corners with clear tape. Fitting tightly inside was the store display box. I thought to myself, let's see how well these are packed. After all, we know that our boxes get thrown around by UPS and FedEx. I hoped that nothing was broken.     I know that some of you like the unboxing part and like it documented, so I attempted that for you. The first parts I pulled out were the HOTAS itself, packaged up nicely and covered with thick protective plastic. Logitech did it's homework with it's packaging, the G940 arrived in pristine condition despite obvious abuse on it's outer packaging.     I'd heard from a friend who was at E3 (sadly, I wasn't able to make it this year) that the stick had a nice feel to it. He said it was kind of rubbery to the touch. I unpacked the stick and set it down on the counter, I wanted to handle it a bit first. My friend was right, it felt great in my hand. I have medium size hands and the stick fit just right. The hand grip part of the stick is smaller in diameter than sticks from some of the other high end manufacturers. I liked it. I also liked the coating that was on it. It was slightly rubbery to the touch. I don't think you'd lose your grip with sweaty hands. After imagining myself in a dogfight with an adversary (and making the appropriate machine guns sounds with my mouth) I set the stick down and took a quick look at the how many buttons and switches it had. Two stage trigger, POV (Coolie) hat, another hat, several buttons, and three rotators. There's also another button that lies under your pinkie on the stick that can be programmed as a "Shift" button. Excellent! That's absolutely mandatory and doubles the programmability. You'll notice mounting holes on all four corners of the HOTAS. There are rubber feet on the bottom but I'll bet that a lot of you out there will want to secure the HOTAS via the mounting holes.     Shot of the front of the stick so you can see the trigger, shift button and connectors for the throttle and pedals.     Trim rotators on the base of the stick.     I couldn't stand it any longer, I unpackaged the throttle and set it up on my left side. In my mind I was back in the dogfight, chopping throttle and maneuvering my imaginary aircraft to keep on my bandit's six. Immediately I felt the afterburner detent. Gotta love that! There's an idle detent too. Well done! There's some major cool factor going on with this throttle, it seems like Logitech did it's homework and listened to it's potential customers. I'm seeing all kinds of things that I'd want on a HOTAS and it's on the G940. You'll only need one open USB port for the G940. The stick has the USB connector, the throttle and pedals connect to it via gameport-type connectors. There is also a power cord that plugs into a wall outlet with an ac/dc converter. The converter itself is about 4 inches long, 2.5 inches wide and an inch or so in height. The wiring is fairly robust and I found that all cables were long enough to string around my cockpit without having to tension them.     I take a closer look and there's a rotator in the front of right throttle. Right throttle you say? Did I forget to mention that it's a split throttle? You can lock the left and right side together or disengage them and adjust them separately. This feature is one of the most wished for features in the combat flight sim community. If you're flying an F-16 you just lock the throttles together, but hop in that Su-33 and you have total control over both engines. There's another rotator on the side of the right throttle. There's also a POV switch, another 8 way hat, several buttons and a mode sliding switch. Remember me talking about programmability? The mode switch lets you program 3 times the amount of commands. You could use mode 1 for Navigation, mode 2 for Air to Air and Mode 3 for Air to Ground. In this manner you could fly any number of aircraft and not have to load different profiles for each plane.     Front side of the throttle:     On the bottom of the throttle there's an adjustment rotator so you can adjust the tension of the throttle.     I set the HOTAS aside and pulled the pedals out and removed the plastic. The pedals look nice, they have stainless steel foot rests. I particularly liked the "humps" that fit where the arch of your foot goes. There's a dial tension adjuster in between the pedals as well. I personally like a little bit of resistance.     I turned the pedals over and found a nice surprise, carpet spikes. They normally sit recessed into the base but you can extend them (by pushing in on the locks) and they'll keep the pedals from moving forward as you push on them. They work great, I use a lot of rudder flying the A10 and they didn't move an inch all the time I used them.     I took a closer look at the connecting rods for the pedals and was happy to see that they seem to be built very thick and heavy. This is good because pedals take huge amounts of abuse compared to their HOTAS buddies.   You can plug the G940 in and play. For the first time user this is great. You're up and running with little to no effort. I recommend that you take the time and use Logitech's software to create profiles for your sims. It's more time consuming but you'll be pleased with the end result and you'll find you'll be using your keyboard much less should you go this route. Now that all the exploring was done it was time to install the software. Installation went without a hitch and walked you through every step of the installation. You plug in the G940 during the software installation, it'll tell you when. The GUI (Graphical User Interface) was fairly straight forward and similar in nature to Saitek's software. If you're a first time profile creator there's a bit of a learning curve. You'll catch on quickly though. It worked just fine in Lock On/Flaming Cliffs and Black Shark. You have to tell both sims which axis is assigned to which command but the buttons and POV hats worked right off the bat.   The Profiler software (as it's called) is well thought out. You can pull up a graphic of each controller in the GUI and when you press a button, move a hat switch, dial a rotator or move an axis the software automatically highlights that particular part for you to command. No guessing involved.     You click with your mouse on the command panel and another menu opens with multiple choices.     When you choose to add a keypress or a cycle command another menu opens (depending on which of those you chose) and you can give custom names to your commands. For instance, if you're programming Flaps and there are three levels of flaps (full up, half flap, full down) you can add all of these commands to your new flap command and every press of the button will change the position of your flaps. The Profiler software allows you to record macros, keybinds, bands, etc. I played around with the software quite a bit and after a couple of days I had a nice Lock On/Flaming Cliffs profile that I was content with. Remember where I discussed "Shifted" commands? You can do that as well and Logitech has changed the color of the shifted commands so that there will be no mistake when the user is creating his/her profile.     I know you're all dying to know how well the hardware works so I'll move on to that. I love the pedals. They feel great. They're accurate. They feel solid. Don't let anyone tell you that cuz the G940 is made of plastic that it's "cheap" or isn't a quality product. I've put quite a few "miles" on my G940 so far, but it seems to be built sturdy. The throttle is just plain sick! (that's means awesome for some of you old folks). I programmed the rotators for radar elevation and for wide/narrow scan. The buttons seemed to lay nicely underneath my fingers and even though I'm used to using a different HOTAS I found I got used to the G940 fairly quickly. To unlock the split throttle you reach around to the lever on the left throttle. There's a raised metal "button" that you push in which separates the throttles. To lock them you align the throttles and push the metal button in on the right throttle shaft. During combat you'll find it a bit difficult to lock the throttles back together. At least I did because my stick and throttle sit at my waist in my pit.     The stick was "different". I haven't flown with force feedback in a long, long time. I found that I liked being able to feel buffeting on the wings of my A-10 as I pulled into a tight turn. In the F-15 I could feel I was at corner speed and I found myself quickly pulling just hard enough to feel the buffet. It made me fly better and the force feedback was a better cue than the visual one I was used to. The stick has a dual stage trigger, I messed around with programming it for jet sims but found that it just didn't work as well as it would in a sim like IL2 where some aircraft can fire machine guns and cannon at the same time. The dual stage trigger would really pay off in that sim. I flew several different types of aircraft in Lock On/Flaming Cliffs with the G940, just like I do with my old kit. I wanted to see how well I could adapt to a stick that "kicked back" at me. I spent countless hours using unguided rockets and GAU 8 to see if I could shoot as well with the G940. To my surprise I can. The stick doesn't spoil your aim even if you're in a turning fight against other jets. It makes you fly smarter. The stick is as accurate as anything else I've used. I'm told that Logitech uses Hall Sensors in this stick. I was able to tone down some of the centering forces in the stick as I found that my wrist became tired after flying for a while. I found the perfect adjustment and that pain went away. You can also adjust other parameters of the force feedback without affecting centering strength.   I try to be completely honest with my reviews and with that usually comes some criticism or suggestions that would make for a better product. Some of these are based strictly on preference and I would like you readers to take that into consideration. I only have a couple things I'd like to point out and see changed.   Hat switches. There are two kinds on the G940. The "coolie" hat and the one that's shaped like a cross. The cross hat is too smooth. It needs a bit more texturing.   I mapped the rotators on the base of the stick to trim pitch and roll and rudder. They really need a center detent. There are marks for center on the rotator but over time I can see them being rubbed off. Besides, tactile beats a graphic any time and being able to feel center is better than seeing it. I mapped the rotator on the front of the throttle to the elevation axis for my radar. I had to roll the rotator to the max end of travel both ways before it would auto-calibrate and work correctly. I'm not sure if this is a component of the software or if it's a hardware issue. Either way, I'm sure that those coming from an X-45 or X-52 will miss that detent.   Lastly (and most importantly), stick center compared to elevator position. With most of the sticks I've owned I found that stick center related to elevator center. Not so with the G940. I found that if flying straight and level that if I let go of the stick that I could expect a 10 degree nose down attitude. Upon mapping the rotators to trim I found that I could correct this situation. If you look at the close up of the rotators you can see about where the trim has to be to rectify the situation. The stick still jumps around a little when trimmed and doesn't work as well as it should. The good news is that I've been in contact with Logitech's support and it's a software issue. I've been told it can be fixed and that the Logitech software guys hope to fix issues like this by working with the developers of the sims we play.   Edited 8/31/09 by ruggbutt Mark from Logitech posted this on another forum: The issue described is from the slight force dead zone, which allowsthe stick to lean forward against the force feedback "spring". Thestick centers perfectly, but when you let go, the optical dead manswitch turns off game force and substitutes the default centering.There is some looseness, to avoid high power usage of the motors atrest. We are looking at tweaking the driver to have the stick rest atcenter. Its not a difficult fix.   We are also working with sim developers to improve the in-gamelooseness of forces. There hasn't been a good reason to put in extraeffort on force feedback until G940. We find that the developers areeager to incorporate better feedback now that the work will berewarded..   It's nice to see that Mark is active in the community and that Logitech will work on the centering. There's nothing better than being able to interact with the developers on a product that you would like to purchase. Out of My three criticisms of the G940 Mark shot the important one down in flames. Nice shooting Mark, I'm glad to see that you're on this. As are the slew of potential customers.   End edit   The last thing I'd like to discuss isn't a criticism. It's more just FYI. It has to do with the colored buttons on the throttle. I'm sure many of you have seen the flash movies on Logitech's site showing how the buttons can show the state of landing gear with colored lights. Currently this isn't available. From what I understand software is being written that reads the state of gear, flaps, etc that would translate into the colors you see on the buttons. I would also imagine that the sim you're playing would have to be able to send that info (probably via LUA programming) for that function to be available on the G940. However, you CAN run the joystick SDK (Software Development Kit) to change the color of the buttons or turn them off completely.   Retail price on the G940 is $300 U.S. This may seem steep for some but the G940 is built sturdy and should provide many hours of use. I'd like to thank Sarah at Logitech for providing me with the G940 to evaluate. Mark at Logitech answered my questions and walked me through the use of the SDK. My e-mails were answered promptly and this tells me that Logitech is on the ball with their customer service.   IMHO Logitech did their homework and released a product that mid to hardcore flight simmers would be happy to have as part of their kit. I predict that Logitech will sell a whole slew of G940's to satisfied customers.

    New Theme Available
    Fates
    By Fates,
      Just finished up another new theme for everyone. Big Shout out to Erik on the group icons! We plan on creating new sets for all the themes. You can select the Theme's skin in the lower left on any page.   Enjoy!

    An Interview with Jug
    Dave
    By Dave,
      Thank you Jug for agreeing to do this interview.   Can you tell us little about yourself? Born in Virginia, raised in Tennessee, undergraduate at Auburn University, AL, where I lettered in varsity football and varsity wrestling. ROTC to pilot training and graduated UPT in 1971. 20 years in USAF air operations, MS from Southern Cal, 84 grad of the Brazilian Air Command and Staff College, Assistant Air Attache US Embassy Brazil, returned to school upon retirement and now I am a computer programmer working these past three years with Joint Special Forces Command (JSOC, Ft Bragg, NC), III Marine Expeditionary Forces (IIIMEF Okinawa, JA) and Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA Ft Belvoir, VA). I hold two copyrights for software and program in C#, Sharepoint, and ASP.NET.     What all aircraft did you fly and how many hours have you accumulated? Spent most of my USAF career in SAC. I was a 'plowback' instructor in T-37s (1000 hrs) at Columbus AFB, MS, and then went directly to the aircraft commander seat in a B-52G (2000 Hrs) at Loring AFB, ME. Flew Buffs for four years as instructor pilot and standardization pilot and then volunteered for the U-2 program. I have 80 hours in the U-2C model and first soloed tail number 680 which hangs in the Smithsonian Air and Space museum today. The rest of my 1100 hours in type is in the U-2R and the TR-1 out of Beale AFB, CA, and RAF Alconbury, UK. Was dual qualified in the T-38 (600 hours) at Beale so I was invited to fly F-5Es (35 hours) with the Brazilian AF while stationed in Rio attending school. Was the Embassy instructor pilot in the C-12A and have about 450 hours in type and have flown the BAF Mirage IIIEBR (4.5 Hrs) out of Annapolis, BR, while stationed in nearby Brasilia. I also have around 500 hours in light aircraft (Cessna 172/150).     When you were in SAC, can you tell us what it was like then? SAC has been from its concept a very serious business. It's main mission was nuking the then Soviet Union back to the stone age. When I joined up with SAC, the bomber force (third strike) was relegated to clean up crew to the submarine (first strike) and land-based missile force (second strike). It was not something to dwell upon and most people just put their heads in the sand and prayed fervently every night that it would not happen. If you thought about it too much you could go off of the deep end and some did. I sat alert in a cold lonely miserable location way to close to a nasty mission. It was the best tour of my career, because I really learned what it means to be a professional. SAC did not communicate very well with the rest of the commands and did not participate very well with the other commands. It's primary position in the US defense structure made many enemies, but SAC was always ready and fully capable to do its mission. Loss of focus was not tolerated and I have been through three commanders in as many days. There are no rewards for second place. Looking back on it, we did a good job and I am proud of my time and my contributions to SAC. The Russians never found the opening they were looking for and when our forces and theirs stood down from daily alert, it almost passed without notice. I can tell you that it was a day of celebration for all members and former members of SAC. I imagine the Russians crews felt the same way.   High altitude reconnaissance is one of the most difficult and lonely missions on the planet. Armed with sensors and imagery equipment, flying in a hostile environment, usually with a host of people and equipment who earnestly want you dead and gone arrayed against you, far, far away from anything or anybody that can help you if you get in trouble, for long periods of time, with little communication with your loved ones for extended periods of time, and no rewards for a job well done is not exactly what every pilot's dream job consists of. If anything went wrong, it was and is an international incident. Most people do not realize that the U-2 is still flying. U-2 pilots receive very little recognition, medals, or the normal stuff that goes along with the military flying business. No news is good news and any news at all is a bad thing. That is the one and only rule of engagement we have. Be quiet and bring home the bacon.   We used to call it the Beale flying club. There are only about 35 U-2 pilots at any one time that are operationally flying the bird since 1955. Missions are tasked by the NSA and inspectors usually do not have a high enough clearance to inspect recce operations. We never saw the dreaded surprise visit of the KC-135 filled with SAC inspectors that visited other SAC bases saw every six months. Virtually all of the birds are deployed at various locations around the globe, so training command gave us some T-38s and some instructors for us to play with and keep currency requirements when we were at home. I think one of our contributors in this forum was a T-38 IP at Beale.   What was one of your most humorous moments? What was one of your hairiest moments? Most of the missions I flew are classified even unto today, so I cannot go into detail about my hairiest nor most humorous mission without breaching that trust. I may return to this subject since hairy missions and humorous events are not limited to aircraft type.   What was your favorite and why? My favorite is the Dragon Lady. She is just like your favorite party girlfriend. Lovely and graceful dancing in her high thin environment, painfully eager to get there, and a real bitch when it comes time to go home. When I take my last flight, it will be to the sound of that Pratt and Whitney J-75 thundering in the background. I gave my heart to my wife and family, but I gave my soul to the dark lady known only as the 'article'.

    September Calendars
    Fates
    By Fates,
      Man....its been a while since I've done these. Now that I have some extra time on my hands..... Enjoy the September Calendar. There is a Normal and Wide screen version available.

Portal by DevFuse · Based on IP.Board Portal by IPS


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