Erik

In a rare show of support the National party offered some music they purchased for upcoming Rocket Labs advertisements. Skip to the chorus at 1:05. Welcome to space Kiwis.

I know you'd never want my pity or sorrow because you all are a proud people and rightfully so. What happened in your city last night is unacceptable and I pray we all muster the strength and wisdom to find the solution so it never happens again. It won't be easy but whatever it takes the people here in the USA will support you. God bless you all. E

The bird had some wings on her that's for sure.

I think the only Moderator was Hauksbee. The other moderation was done by the devs which is most likely the confusion here. Hauksbee probably didn't realize his Moderator account had special access because the devs handled everything. I will upgrade one or two of the regulars into the moderators roll if you'll agree who those two should be and then let me know. Our member icons are great ... I love them and I can't bear to part with them and probably never will because of all the hard work that was put into them. E That's really weird about the moderators changing because I didn't do it. I wonder if the Devs stripped your moderation abilities before they left.

We can ... send me a PM with your questions. Thanks.

I bet they flailed around the cockpit like a fish out of water keeping watch on enemy aircraft above, below, behind, and in every direction. Any padding they could give themselves I'm sure was welcome, of course should I also opine.

Here's an article by CNN that shows what has been found of the missing aircraft 3 years after the fatal accident that took all lives onboard. http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/08/asia/mh370-debris-found/ A mystery for sure one that I hope one day we solve.

Not sure it would have sparked off WWIII but it surely would have provoked a response (stern talking to) from China.

This is my point exactly. You have the power friend. All the tools for doing just those things are at your disposal. If you need help using them let me know by PM.

Anything is possible and with the small amount of debris found it would lead you to hope the aircraft is intact. At the same time there's some evidence from what was found that the impact wasn't controlled. It's hard to really know. I think most of these people speculating are hard pressed to offer any real evidence of either water entries.

It sounds like 95% of what you need is for the moderators to do some housekeeping. Maybe the OFF moderators need to reach out so we can go over the moderation tools they have their disposal? E

You're lucky it's the Microsoft version because just imagine the Microhard version which probably changes daily.

Don't mess with witty pilots they'll make your day. On a fairly calm and beautiful afternoon in Georgia the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold short of the active runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed, rolled out, turned around, and taxied back past the Cherokee. Some quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radio and said, "What a cute little plane. Did you make it all by yourself?" The Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult go by, came back with a real zinger: "I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing like yours and I'll have enough for another one."

Nice to "see" you too!

You guys can do whatever you like. If you want a Two Eggs Over My Hammy section it can be done. My point is feel free to create.

A humble request for a mission/campaign to nuke the Microsoft Campus. Now that's hilarious and iOS might use such a venture for their in-house humor roll. I've officially seen it all now. I can rest easy tonight that someone officially just broke the internet. May the force be with you.

I will be happy to use the advice from the moderators of this forum to rename, move, or otherwise manage the forums for better use. I do not know what you need so therefore it needs to come from someone who does. As for merging older posts and changing them to read only content ... I'm not sure I understand the need for this. Pruning happens on boards where the resources of the machine need to be freed up. We do not need to prune for that reason. All our topics are generated in chronological order so if new posts are what's needed then by all means post away. The boards here will keep up with your demand. We don't prune old posts for another very important reason. Research and history. This is a community wide philosophy because answers come from posts 2 days old and 2 years old. We believe in protecting that asset. I don't know about moving OFF to a sub-category of WWI. OFFers have always wanted to be set apart and NOT lumped into a group with other sims. This may have changed but that was the last take I had on it. As a recap most of this stuff your moderators can already do. I do hope they will keep with our philosophy of preserving history when they do. If they need a course in managing their tools for this board I will be happy to help them with that. They have a staff forum where any questions or concerns can be posed. E

Most recent posts in these forums are links to content elsewhere and "most" may be an over exaggeration of the facts since I'm hyper sensitive to such things. For every link you provide to SimHQ on our site that link back to them from here it promotes them and degrades us in search engine ranking. In non-technical terms it's much like stolen valor. Hence, my un-appreciation for such things. It's unfortunate but I'm not going to sabotage your community by forbidding it or pulling our content. I have no vast illusions and I'm not trying to lure anyone. If you guys want to use the services here great. The door is open since it was never closed. I think we can be more flexible with your needs, provide more services, have a higher search index (explains the traffic count) and do it all in a cohesive manner but those are my opinions and it's why they make chocolate and vanilla ice cream. I've enjoyed having you all here and have done what I could when I could free of charge with no strings attached. As far as membership is concerned you guys have to decide what you want to do. Pick a leader. Start posting information that traffic wants to see. It's your community and ultimately I can't do everything. I handle paying the bills, handle all the equipment and technical issues, and take care of the day to day which provides the things you guys need for your community to flourish. Anything else you'd like for me to do to help you in your quest please let me know. As for my response the OP I quoted made it sound as if I was sitting on my hands and solely responsible for the state of affairs the OFF community is in. I wanted to set the record straight.

Frenchie ... I just posted a topic about this exact thing a few days ago. http://combatace.com/topic/89231-cessna-ground-speed-check/ It was an excerpt from Brian Schul's book. Read the above link for the full story.

I don't remove content unless specifically directed to by the forum leaders but in this case since it appears to be a thorn I've removed the sub-forum. Now Dutch is going to be pissed when he never receives a reply to his question so Dutch see JFM for the information. Sorry to hear about Kelsey and his dry fruit. E

On a dismally overcast low ceiling morning at JFK a British Airlines crew were about fourth in a long queue waiting to take off in our larger Boeing aircraft. The JFK ATC allowed a B737 on a local flight to take a short-cut and start his takeoff run by joining the main runway from a taxiway causing us to wait for him to take off and clear. "How do you like them apples?" The B737 keyed up over the radio as he started his takeoff run. Boeing aircraft had a warning horn for major problems that you can test. Half-way along the B737's takeoff run, 'someone' held their cockpit mike to the horn and pressed it as they tested it. The B737 abruptly stopped takeoff with full reverse and full braking and shuddered to a halt, tires (tyres) smoking. A few seconds later we heard a voice come over the radio from another pilot in line: "How do you like them apples?.." Karma sometimes bites you in the arse sooner than you think.

Because my Braille translator is out getting fixed. Could you be more specific about what I'm blind and incompetent about? Without slogging through my almost life ending drama from five plus years ago that caused a blackout for twelve days things since haven't been the same in this forum. Our uptime before and after that incident was and is flawless and I've repeatedly offered to be involved in the re-migration and help anyway I can. I hate more than anything that every other post here is a link to SimHQ with little to no content but what can I do? If the guys that hang out here weren't so incredibly awesome I probably would have closed the doors long ago. They and my commitment to the aviation community are the only reasons the doors remain open. I have and do stand ready to be involved at whatever level the community needs to which as of today I thought was simply to be left alone and free of my involvement. I have never given up on any of you and my PMs and this forum remain open exactly for that reason. If the WOFF community decided to come back they'd be welcome with open arms as if they'd never left and their moderators still retain all their abilities. I look forward to a constructive review of my inabilities. -Just me E

The A-10 is one incredible piece of flying armor no doubt.

I laugh every time I read this. Enjoy. "This is an expanded excerpt from Brian Schul's book Sled Driver : Flying the World's Fastest Jet. There were a lot of things we couldn't do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact. People often asked us if, because of this fact, it was fun to fly the jet. Fun would not be the first word I would use to describe flying this plane. Intense, maybe. Even cerebral. But there was one day in our Sled experience when we would have to say that it was pure fun to be the fastest guys out there, at least for a moment. It occurred when Walt and I were flying our final training sortie. We needed 100 hours in the jet to complete our training and attain Mission Ready status. Somewhere over Colorado we had passed the century mark. We had made the turn in Arizona and the jet was performing flawlessly. My gauges were wired in the front seat and we were starting to feel pretty good about ourselves, not only because we would soon be flying real missions but because we had gained a great deal of confidence in the plane in the past ten months. Ripping across the barren deserts 80,000 feet below us, I could already see the coast of California from the Arizona border. I was, finally, after many humbling months of simulators and study, ahead of the jet. I was beginning to feel a bit sorry for Walter in the back seat. There he was, with no really good view of the incredible sights before us, tasked with monitoring four different radios. This was good practice for him for when we began flying real missions, when a priority transmission from headquarters could be vital. It had been difficult, too, for me to relinquish control of the radios, as during my entire flying career I had controlled my own transmissions. But it was part of the division of duties in this plane and I had adjusted to it. I still insisted on talking on the radio while we were on the ground, however. Walt was so good at many things, but he couldn't match my expertise at sounding smooth on the radios, a skill that had been honed sharply with years in fighter squadrons where the slightest radio miscue was grounds for beheading. He understood that and allowed me that luxury. Just to get a sense of what Walt had to contend with, I pulled the radio toggle switches and monitored the frequencies along with him. The predominant radio chatter was from Los Angeles Center, far below us, controlling daily traffic in their sector. While they had us on their scope (albeit briefly), we were in uncontrolled airspace and normally would not talk to them unless we needed to descend into their airspace. We listened as the shaky voice of a lone Cessna pilot asked Center for a readout of his ground speed. Center replied: "November Charlie 175, I'm showing you at ninety knots on the ground." Now the thing to understand about Center controllers, was that whether they were talking to a rookie pilot in a Cessna, or to Air Force One, they always spoke in the exact same, calm, deep, professional, tone that made one feel important. I referred to it as the " Houston Center voice." I have always felt that after years of seeing documentaries on this country's space program and listening to the calm and distinct voice of the Houston controllers, that all other controllers since then wanted to sound like that, and that they basically did. And it didn't matter what sector of the country we would be flying in, it always seemed like the same guy was talking. Over the years that tone of voice had become somewhat of a comforting sound to pilots everywhere. Conversely, over the years, pilots always wanted to ensure that, when transmitting, they sounded like Chuck Yeager, or at least like John Wayne. Better to die than sound bad on the radios. Just moments after the Cessna's inquiry, a Twin Beech piped up on frequency, in a rather superior tone, asking for his ground speed. "I have you at one hundred and twenty-five knots of ground speed." Boy, I thought, the Beechcraft really must think he is dazzling his Cessna brethren. Then out of the blue, a navy F-18 pilot out of NAS Lemoore came up on frequency. You knew right away it was a Navy jock because he sounded very cool on the radios. "Center, Dusty 52 ground speed check". Before Center could reply, I'm thinking to myself, hey, Dusty 52 has a ground speed indicator in that million-dollar cockpit, so why is he asking Center for a readout? Then I got it, ol' Dusty here is making sure that every bug smasher from Mount Whitney to the Mojave knows what true speed is. He's the fastest dude in the valley today, and he just wants everyone to know how much fun he is having in his new Hornet. And the reply, always with that same, calm, voice, with more distinct alliteration than emotion: "Dusty 52, Center, we have you at 620 on the ground." And I thought to myself, is this a ripe situation, or what? As my hand instinctively reached for the mic button, I had to remind myself that Walt was in control of the radios. Still, I thought, it must be done - in mere seconds we'll be out of the sector and the opportunity will be lost. That Hornet must die, and die now. I thought about all of our Sim training and how important it was that we developed well as a crew and knew that to jump in on the radios now would destroy the integrity of all that we had worked toward becoming. I was torn. Somewhere, 13 miles above Arizona, there was a pilot screaming inside his space helmet. Then, I heard it. The click of the mic button from the back seat. That was the very moment that I knew Walter and I had become a crew. Very professionally, and with no emotion, Walter spoke: "Los Angeles Center, Aspen 20, can you give us a ground speed check?" There was no hesitation, and the replay came as if was an everyday request. "Aspen 20, I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots, across the ground." I think it was the forty-two knots that I liked the best, so accurate and proud was Center to deliver that information without hesitation, and you just knew he was smiling. But the precise point at which I knew that Walt and I were going to be really good friends for a long time was when he keyed the mic once again to say, in his most fighter-pilot-like voice: "Ah, Center, much thanks, we're showing closer to nineteen hundred on the money." For a moment Walter was a god. And we finally heard a little crack in the armor of the Houston Center voice, when L.A.came back with, "Roger that Aspen, Your equipment is probably more accurate than ours. You boys have a good one." It all had lasted for just moments, but in that short, memorable sprint across the southwest, the Navy had been flamed, all mortal airplanes on freq were forced to bow before the King of Speed, and more importantly, Walter and I had crossed the threshold of being a crew. A fine day's work. We never heard another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast. For just one day, it truly was fun being the fastest guys out there."

I don't disagree with any of that. Personally I've been surprised just how much I don't need to get to a desktop with the release of Dex for Samsung 8. All my personal stuff is now mobile and secure behind two bio-metric locks. Short of someone killing me and injecting my severed body parts with saline, things should be good.