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Zulu Alert, runway is all yours....

Ah, here's my writeup from last year: Finally shipped the last NFA weapon from Gary's estate. It took two years, me, Jess managing paperwork, two firearm attorneys, the estate attorney, an SOT who handles really oddball stuff, the executor, and a very nice, very knowledgeable, very efficient Examiner at NFA Branch. It started when I was helping him sell sabers, bayonets, etc, and he said he wanted to sell some of the firearms, so I assisted with photos, a Gunbroker account, research, listing. And he said, "I also have the deactivated machine guns I loaned to the Fort Harrison Museum. In 1968 I sent papers to the ATF and they sent papers back." I twitch. "So, those are DEWATs." "?" "DEactivated WAr Trophies." "I guess." "Well, with a Form 1 and $200, those can be reactivated. They're sellable." Pulls out his pipe. "Oh, well, I've got a Maxim, a Madsen, a Hotchkiss, a DP28, an MG42, an MP44, a Lewis Gun, a Japanese Type 99, a Thompson, an MP18, a Soviet mortar..." "Holy $#!+, Gary, that's $100,000 worth of hardware!" "I only paid a few hundred." "Yeah, in 1962 when they couldn't give them away." Then he passed away, and we had to find the paperwork buried in his house. A friend, my son and I are up in the attic pulling out guns. "That's a mortar...is that a firing pin? This is a live mortar." "Holy $#!+, that's a complete Sturmgewehr." "Is that a Boys Rifle?" "Wait...that's not a bazooka....that's...holy $#!+, it's a Panzerschreck." This is in addition to Lugers, Broomhandles, Carcanos, Mausers, SMLEs, Webleys, Arisakas, a Sharps buffalo rifle, Trapdoors, more sabers, Mosin Nagants, Walthers, a Gewehr 41 and a Gewehr 43, an original 1800s musket, a percussion cape gun, an FN49, a No4 Mk1(T) sniper rifle in transit chest with matching scope, a Japanese Type 97 sniper rifle, an M1D, a Soviet Mosin sniper, pre-import markings, a P14 sniper, a Reichsrevolver, a Radom P35, a stocked Inglis, a Dutch Hembrug carbine, a Bayard .32, a Steyr M95 8mm, a No 5 Jungle Carbine ... some of them still with the museum tags and receipts. Not counting sabers, Japanese swords, bayonets, uniforms, scarce helmets, a mine detector new in box, radios, a drop tank, and all the mundane autographed SF books, comics, anime, the woodblock prints, jewelry... Then the executor, and estate attorney, had to file a bunch of paperwork that my attorney assisted with. Then the first buyer was also a firearm attorney, and knew someone at NFA branch who helped find the missing records. Then we had to fix all the Amnesty forms, including a WRONG SERIAL NUMBER and wrong IDs. Maxim 08/15 Madsen 1908 Hotchkiss 1914 with tripod DP28 MG42 (not papered, now converted to semi) StG44 Lewis Gun, in transit chest, with tools and accessories, Irish surplused after being British surplused. Japanese Type 99 LMG, being converted to take either 7.7 Jap, .308, or 7.62X39, because original mags don't exist (drop in conversion, no structural changes). 1928A1 Thompson (mine now, with new barrel, all new springs, bolt, and some other tuning) MP18A1 50mm Soviet RM38 mortar Finnish 81mm M42 Savunheiten mortar Panzerschreck Boys Rifle (.55 Boys British anti-armor rifle) His family thought he died broke. We were able to fix that, and find caring homes for some amazing, historically important hardware. The Finns literally don't have a Savunheiten in their military museum. I've been getting detailed photos and measurements with the assistance of Oleg Volk so their few photos can be upgraded with better visuals and specs. ~~ The drop tank. Apparently, he was on the mailing list for Interarms. He was flying out of Germany when he got forwarded a catalog with THIS MAY BE YOUR LAST CATALOG! tagged on it. And he believed them. Because it's never your last catalog. So he bid at auction on three drop tanks, $25 each, figuring to get outbid. Who needs a drop tank? Pretty much no one. So he won the auction and a truck showed up at his parents' house with three drop tanks. I have no idea where the other two went, but this one went into his basement a few blocks from their house. It was buried under other hoard/collectibles, and it took four of us to remove the stair railing and get it out.

I appreciate your input, and I understand your concern. Here's the problem more directly so hopefully everyone can understand it. The 5-file download limit per day does not work. Because free email accounts exist people go to the furthest extremes possible to beat a system put there to prevent unlimited free downloads. There are no options for us. We either switch to fully free downloads which is financially destructive, or we go to a pay for content model. It will not matter if we put an age restriction on the accounts, we'll end up with the same burden just one or two years down the road. I have believed in the honesty and integrity of people for over 23 years doing this. I have supported them financially and I have believed that they would get their fill and things would calm down. Today CA delivers over three terabytes of data every month and that number continues to climb. Then there's the other side to managing the multitude of accounts people create to download, it takes me hours every single day to weed through them, 365 days per year no breaks or no time away. I pay to work here. To make things worse it's only making those people mad when their accounts get suspended. They go out onto the internet and talk trash about what we do and how horrible we are, but they never once look at it from our perspective. I challenge each of those people to make a luxury sized car payment, a mortgage payment for some, every single month to work at a place where you're the enemy while you're paying for their download content. The change is here.

stary night..

I just read all the above..and some people live in different dimensions... ....sorry for that..but then, we should be sorry for everyone from Europe or Asia and Africa, I do not want to think exchange rate on Ceres or Io... We all have problems, fu...k Why? Mods are still freeware. Think of it as paying for a transfer...But mods are free. And for those whining about every peso, centavo or whatever...Modders are paying a high cost for this. They are spending their time, making models, skins, and terrains..for years. And no one is paying for it. Only modders. If you think that model can be for free.... then you are wrong. If something is free it means someone else had to pay for it...In this case - modder..he paid using his time. 5 free downloads? NO Erik was paying for your 5 free downloads... So to all whiners..Enjoy free mods..and pay subscription. First, 2 persons who will reply to me here..and send a nice pm..I will pay for you 1month choice membership $9.95.... and stop whining for dog's sake... Holly Crap...

Been here for a very long time. I eventually knew this would happen after all these years. CA has done so much for the sim community. I've used this site to build both SF1 and SF2 up. The latter for my 7 year old son who is nearly an expert at SF2. I don't play it much anymore, but will keep an eye out for anything that he might like and pay for a month or two as needed. I'm a paid member of several other forums these days related to cars as that is my current hobby so another yearly subscription to another place is out of budget currently and would be minimally used. For those who are looking for the change to pay, there may be members who are generous enough to donate a couple bucks to get you a month of downloads. Best of luck to ya'll and please continue to enjoy CA like I do and my son too.

I don't download all that often, but this did just help remind me that I needed to re-up my subscription. Been here what, 17 years now? It's the least I can do. Erik, for all your hard work, thank you.

This is after we excavated all the autographed books, electronics, comics, and misc piled around it. Anyway, for the modelers and archivists, we tried to get every image possible. If you need others, a friend of mine bought it for display outside his business, so we can possibly get more.

Holy Shit!!! I knew it was bad, but NOT that bad!! Cheapass leeches ...

Well, I'm resurrecting this thread because a late friend of mine had one of these tanks in his basement. He was a retired USAF navigator with a stack of decorations, a weird collection, and a long story as to how a drop tank got in his basement. But here's the link, and a couple of pics to start it. I took photos from every angle possible. https://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/randomfactoids.html

While you can't exactly re-fly a mission as they are auto generated every time, in the workshop you can set the outcome to easy - pilot never dies. If you want to re-run the exact same mission number, you would need to manually backup your pilots before each mission and restore the backup after your pilot dies. Robert Wiggins has a utility that does this. It's also useful for any weird mission outcome...

I was trying to ID it and found this thread. I'm retired USAF, contacted some old timers, and they told me which nomenclature to look for, and I made sure we took every image possible for you guys. Half the Fort Harrison museum was his collection. We sold most of it. I paid the estate for several to add to my collection.

That is the greatest and wildest story I've ever heard, but how neat is that? Personally, I don't know a single person who could ever claim they have an entire drop tank in their basement.

This game has a dynamic campaign, you will never see the exact same campaign mission twice. That said, if you die in campaign mode that pilot is done, period. Since you are new to the game I would suggest you fly quick flights or scenarios, they have a button that says pilot never dies. The scenarios can be quite difficult, but they are the same mission over and over, you will have to enlist a pilot in the appropriate service, ie, British, French, Belgian, German, or US, to fly that service's planes for those scenarios. Quick flights are the same way, you can pick your service, plane, and simple scenarios, and you will see the same mission over if you wish to try it again (just press go to field when you get back to the screen). Just make sure you have clicked pilot never dies. Also if you opt for an air start (not field in the altitude box) you will need to throttle up immediately (even if you joystick has the throttle set on full) pull the throttle back and advance it, the game will not recognize the previous throttle input. Try those things first, so you can get familiar with the flight models, then try the campaign mode, don't be discouraged. It is very good immersive game and personally I have been flying it for years and have never lasted a year (in game time). I have only completed two campaigns, and that was because the squadron was withdrawn from the front. Have fun!! Mike

Well, if now it will only be possible to download through a paid account, that's it for me. I don't have an international credit card at the moment, and even so the value of the dollar is absurdly expensive given the shitty political situation my country finds itself in, that the monthly subscription becomes surreal.

New 1/72 models...

Welcome to the CA clan, That's unfortunate timing... but you can probably figure out by yourself that there will be no exceptions to the (new) rules. It has been a long time coming, and 'labour of love' doesn't pay bills... You can still do a 1 month subscription to give it a try. It doesn't break the bank and gives you the trial you want, and also you add a bit of moolah to the piggy bank. Enjoy your stay and enjoy your game.

Best wishes and hope you are well soon my friend!

While I admittedly didn't see it myself, I have a paid subscription so it as it says won't affect me. Got to pay money to get them thar downloads now. Which in effect removes the need for people to create multiple accounts to circumvent the rule.

No manteinance, but a definitve measure to stop people from creating multiple accounts just to download mods, and to make the economical burden of Erik a bit more tolerable.

I have uploaded it in the "What if Hangar". When the Admin gives the okay, you can enjoy it. Have fun! Remark: If you fly for the East Germans, you will find 100 more or less different skins. These skins are made by large decals, which are placed over a greengrey basic skin. For self defence, the plane comes with a 5 shot flare dispender. This device is not my invention. The most Warsaw Pact planes and helicopters had had such a dispenser. It was intended to give own forces the signal "Friendly Plane!", but worked as decoy launcher against early IR-seeker missiles as well.

Just contact one of the CA gurus and explain the situation... there's nothing that can't be explained and worked out! ;-)

Yeah good luck with that. He's a gamer though, so if you get a hold of him, let us know and we can flood him with vids and stuff, and get him hooked, then throw in the "SF2 is dying, PJB needs SF3, and we'll need some money." Gotta stretch it out though so he doesn't become aware of our plan until it's too late.

building up to the grand phinale......

The current count is: 3,631 accounts on this site have more than one account. 715 of those accounts have more than 5 accounts associated to them. Our top offender has 44 accounts associated to them.