Who do you normally prefer to fly for, and why?

[UnknownPilot 33]

i love flyin' the Tomcat of the VF-143 "Pukin' Dogs".....c'mon, is there any other nickname out there that compares?....i need to find out how this nickname came about....got to be an interesting story behind this one!

 

 

Hehe. That's why I ended up going with the Red Rippers (VF-11) on my first foray into SF campaigns. Unfortunately, almost as soon as I did it, I tried looking for a VF-11 F-4 skin and found none. Then I looked for online images of the real things and found none, then saw the killer VF-84 F-4 skin here, and regretted my decision. lol

 

But, the name is kinda cool, they survive to this day, and the patch (which personally I think is ugly) has a cool thinking/layout behind it -

The Red Ripper squadron insignia as described by an early member: "The boars head is taken from the one that graces the label of the Gordon's Gin bottle. The scroll effect under the head is a string of link sausage, a good line of bologna which all members of the squadron were to be adept at 'shooting'. The balls on the shield might be called balls of fire; actually, they were supposed to typify good, strong, masculinity. The bolt of lightning was the bar sinister of bastardy. The whole theme was worked into a sort of toast or creed with which the squadron members were to begin and end all good drinking bouts. I can't remember all of the toast, but it was something to the effect that, 'Here's to us, the RED RIPPERS – a damn bunch of gin drinking, bologna slinging, two-balled, he-man bastards'."

 

 

 

On the attack side, VA-196, The Main Battery. Love the A-6 for strikes.

 

 

Yeah, I've always loved the Intruder. Really ever since I first saw Flight of the Intruder. And it's really odd too, becuase generally speaking, I don't like 2 crew planes. Yeah, I like the Phantom and the Tomcat, but those are recently gained appreciations, and it's really more a case of "in spite of the 2 place nature".

 

Something about the look I guess. And the name is really cool too - Intruder; comin' into your space and having it's way with your things. hehe

 

Since I've come to find Grumman to be my favorite manuafacturer, that's just added to my A-6 interest I think. (and I say "come to find" because when I saw FOTI, I never heard of Grumman, but liked the plane. When the Tomcat was all the rage (GI-Joe, Macross, Transformers, Top Gun, etc), ditto - it didn't totally suck me in, but I definitely thought it was really cool looking. Then I got heavily into WWII, and sims, and then the PTO, and the cool ugly and amazing toughness and hot performance of the F6F Hellcat (plus the cool name) lead to me liking that plane. It actually has ended up my favorite plane of that era. And then I kinda grew an affection for the F4F (and especially the FM-2). Then I learned about the F8F and was in awe and in love. lol Then the F7F comes along, and I don't care much for twins - the Lightning has a lot of fanbois, but I never "got" it, but the Tigercat.... damn is that pretty, and a beast too! Then I see pics of the F9F-6 Cougar, and again, lust at first sight. Later I see that the F11F is cool too, and well damned if I'm not just a Grumman fan!

[Derk 265]

I mostly fly with the Luftwaffe and USAF, then VVS and USN and I'm quite often in the French Mirages, everything else is occasional. I know, I'm boooooring

 

Even more booooooooooring : F16A (mostly MLU), F104G, Hunter, F84F, F 86K, NF5A, all from our own Kluchtmacht........

 

Some Mirages, F8E FN, Tornadoes, and UK and German F4's,

 

Hou doe,

 

Derk

Edited January 11, 2010 by Derk