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Purposely of Mentors

JRViPVO MiG-21bis

Close of Taiwans eastern coast.

Air combat training at RAF Alconbury Airbase. F-4F vs Lightning.

Not entirely true. The early Indian AF Su-30s( Su-30K/MK) , like the Su-27UB ad a a single wheel on the nose gear and three weapon stations on each wing. These early Indian Su-30s in the mid-2000s were bought back by Russia and the squadron that flew them converted to Su-30MKIs. These ex-IAF SU-30K/MKs were upgraded to Su-30KN standards and most of them are now in service with the Angolan Air Force. Diecast model of an IAF Su-30MK in my collection & three weapon stations on each wing

Mitsubishi A5M Claude - 1st Fighter Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1941

Grumman Mohawk GR.3 - No.26 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1976

Still "What- (BiG) IF" for now.. but, I do really hope we can join Bayraktar Owner Club someday.. TB-3 Indonesia, Navalized. / https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/11/the-carrier-candidate-bayraktar-tb3s-for-indonesia.html

Antarctic transport

A new standalone mega-mod that brings all that's best to Silent Hunter 3 SH3 got justifiably rave reviews when first released in 2005. Arguably (and I'd be one of those arguing it) it's still far the best U-boat simulation. And can be much improved by the huge number of user-made mods available for it (many of which you can find in the Doentiz Elite Flotilla mediafire SH3 archive http://www.donitzeliteflotilla.com/forum/index.php?topic=1.0 ) . Notably, as every SH3 aficionado will know, there's a number of mega-mods available which provide a single major overhaul, often with optional submods included. One such, and possibly the most popular, is the Grey Wolves Expansion 3 (aka GWX) whose Gold edition is what I've been playing until very recently. Now available is a comprehensive further development of GWX - the OneAlex Edition. You can see the mod's intro video here - the download link is in its description: Silent Hunter 3 - GWX Onealex Edition - YouTube This comes as a compressed file of just over three meg and unzips to under nine. While nominally a mod, it's self-contained and fully functional when unzipped - it doesn't need enabled or installed onto an existing installation. You may need to use a utility called Multi SH3 to create the dedicated subfolder it needs in 'My Documents' for career files but that can also be easily created manually eg 'My documents/SH3' if you unzip the mod to its default folder. Could hardly be simpler. GWX OneAlex Edition comes with: - the features of the GWX mod, including harbour traffic; - the German U-Boat Compilation mod (GUC) which greatly improves the boats themselves, including enabling off-duty crew to be assembled on deck in harbour, the battle flag flown or taken down, and victory pennants to be flown from your periscope on return; - many other improvements, including better crew and uniform textures; - an already-inbuilt widescreen mod so it's 1920x1080 compatible out of the box; - Jonesoft Generic Mod Enabler (JSGME), plus a set of submods including a range of skins for Type VII and IX U-boats; - Silent Hunter 3 Commander (SH3C), optional but regarded by many as a must-have utility for the sim. As an indication, this is a typical stock boat, a Type VII in this case - Nice, but the skin is relatively low-resolution and some details are simplified, like the insulators and tensioners on the jumping wire This is one of the OneAlex, GUC-based Type VIIs... ...and this shows the conning tower detail, albeit it's a larger Type IX... Skins are higher resolution and detail is much better. The next pics show the 'crew on deck' feature and harbour traffic, either moored like the destroyer... ...or moving like our minesweeper escort... ...which we will follow until we get into open water. Another nice feature, shared with some other recent mods, is the addition of animated water streams from the holes in the boats' free-flooding casings. The seas are often much less calm in SH3 and OneAlex Edition does a particularly good job of bringing them to life. Bridge detail is excellent. A nice touch is that unlike in stock SH3, the UZO binocular sight is not permanently fixed to its mount (lower right in the pic below), and when you do fit it, the UZO is animated, and rotates. Internal detail is also up to a high standard. In this control room view, you can just about see the open circular hatch (closed in stock SH3) into the commander's compartment... ...opposite which is the radio room. I'm not sure but I think OneAlex deliberately left out the extended interiors made for the Type VII boats, which in the base GUC mod include engine rooms, crew accommodation and bow/stern torpedo rooms. Torpedo impacts are also very well done, with debris flying and splashing into the sea. Amongst the many included optional skins is this one for a late Type IX, which has the two-tier flak platform (but kept its deck gun as many Type IXs did) and GEMA 'rigid radar' on the upper front of the conning tower. Apparently it is likely that U-boats, unlike surface ships, always had dark grey, not red, anti-fouling paint below the waterline. But red certainly looks good! GWX Onealex Edition also includes a fully-updated sound mod, which fans of the great movie 'Das Boot' will recognise! What's not to like? So far my biggest gripe is that in the 'follow your boat' external ('Ship') camera (key <), mousewheel or tab zoom doesn't work, and can't be made to, it seems. You can move the camera closer but your perspective becomes exaggerated and less attractive the closer you get, unlike 'true' zoom'. in action, the mod looks and feels great! The author is still releasing updated versions (I'm at 1.46 at time of typing) in the light of experience and is obviously very committed. There are other good mega-mods out there, but this new effort really has a lot going for it already! Highly recommended, but somebody, please fix the Ship Camera mousewheel zoom!

Nope, Strike Fighters does not support a third Neutral force. It's either Enemy or Friendly side.

Thanks Guys. Decided to get the Logitech X56 . Seems to be the best for the money for SF2 and Falcon BMS. Still use my 3D Extreme Pro for WW I and WW II sims. Thanks for all the advice. Regards, Scott

Somewhere over the Ukraine,

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey is set to deliver an undisclosed number of armed drones to Kuwait in a contract worth $370 million, Turkish defence firm Baykar said on Wednesday. “A contract worth $370 million was signed with Kuwait Defence Ministry to export Bayraktar TB2 drones,” Baykar said in a statement. The statement did not reveal how many drones would be delivered to Kuwait or when. “Baykar won out in competition with significant firms from America, Europe and China, in the (bidding) process going on since 2019,” the statement said. It added that with Kuwait the number of countries that signed contracts for the Bayraktar TB2 had increased to 28. Reporting by Yesim Dikmen; Writing by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Daren Butler and Tomasz Janowski. Ps. I guess we need a new texture for the Kuwaiti TB2 drone.

Some photos of the TB2 while being in Kuwait for testing and evaluation.

From the 561st TFS of the 23rd TFW.....when color mattered!

Welcom to Bayraktar club! I wait for Kuwait skin)

334th TFS...circa 1965

Same here..

L-39ZA Albatros BTW. The armament with R-3S (AA-2 Atoll) was rather a joke then a real option. The L-39 was to slow to reach the minimum lauch speed of the Atoll. Only in dive the speed could be reached. Thatswhy this armament was tactical nonsense.

Another teacher, this time from the Great White North (and it's 2 year service life!!!)

I use an X56 Rhino. Works outstanding for me.

Early AM...somewhere over the German countryside...circa 1960.

I'll just leave this here, and let you all figure it out... (evil grin)

Dave Waldrop's Thunderchief....

On the Night Shift...

Buckeye!

White Swan

Venezuelan J-10CE on patrol over the Andes

SU-27U uploaded awaiting approval

Wild Weasels, Ukrainian style...