Erik

After I wrote that I started looking at the approach plates, etc. You are exactly correct that one eight does have ILS/DME but no precision approach equipment. So without knowing the condition of the AP or AT at the time it can only be concluded they were hand flying with the help of the ILS and PAPI systems until proven otherwise. I'll be curious to hear the final moments of the voice recorder to see if there was ever any indication from either the left or right seat that their flight path was too low as would be indicated and that with their weight they were too far behind the spool to successfully hit the GA button. Without the request being heard in the tower it makes me think they were flying into a black hole and short of the terrain avoidance warning they were caught looking for the PAPI in a condition where it was never visible to them. Speculation all but wise your operation department have restricted access to that approach. More may follow that lead. Stay safe out there.

NTSB: No Engine Failure in Fatal UPS Plane Crash Reported this afternoon by the examiners who recovered the flight recorders from the fatal crash of the Airbus A-300 Cargo Jet that landed short of the runway in Birmingham Alabama that no engine failures were reported at the time of the crash. Other indications reported that everything was reporting normally. With the recent crash of the Asiana flight into San Francisco it leaves one to wonder at what point does a pilot stop flying the aircraft. Is it possible the automated landing systems are being too heavily relied on to accomplish the most critical of flight conditions? The auto throttle and vertical glide slope might appear to be another culprit in this most recent fatal crash. Landing at the alternative runway due to closure of the primary runway leads to the obvious. Were they flying the correct instrument approach. Did they fly through the vertical glide slope or was it even active/available for the shorter runway at Birmingham? Only the facts will tell and right on the heels of the Asiana flight it appears not an hour too soon. I firmly believe Captain Sullivan was successful in conducting a water landing after the bird strikes in New York because he flew the aircraft to the ground. Never stop flying the aircraft, once you do it's already too late it's ahead of you. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the those families who are affected.

I don't care how you cut the first image it's impressive. Whether you look at the side slip of two boat widths or the concussive displacement shockwave from the guns, it's impressive firepower.

Look at that fireball, that looks like one of the cruise missiles ignited while being locked into the hull, the chain reaction would be incredible. Anyone know if this was the vessel that test fired the BrahMos super sonic cruise missle back in March? Incredible loss but this could have been an all hands loss if it had happened underway. S! to those that lost their lives.

That's got to be one of the best bar stories ever, from both sides of the story.

I think I got all the requests that were made while I was busy with rebuilding the library of files. If I missed you please PM and let me know, otherwise things should be all set for everyone. Thanks.

Everything should be back on-line now. I haven't found any files that I've lost, however the images or screenshots aren't back in place yet and I'm not sure when I'll get to those. It took three plus weeks to get the files back and each file had multiple images so it may be faster to ask that the authors upload new screenies of their files and while you're there check that your files are actually downloading. Either way I'll get to this and thanks for all the support and help getting things back on-line. Erik

Put in a quick fix to remove the small pop-up PM window until a fix can be implemented by the developer. I have submitted a support ticket and I will advise when the original functionality has been returned. Thanks for reporting this. Erik

Did I have a request from you? Let me know. Erik

That is correct. File notifications are sent every time a file is updated and with the rebuild of the file content a lot of them have been updated, but not changed.

I moved it but I can't promise it will stay the final word will have to come from MigBuster, as he may have had it there for a reason.

You guy's totally missed the bumper stickers on the new Japanese Cruiser. "We brake for Gawdzirraw" and "Nuclear reactors made in Fukushima" and slyly the Autobots emblem. Way to go Japan!

The files are all back online and functioning normally now. There should be no further interruptions with downloads. Some of the file authors have already started to fill in there screenshots which I greatly appreciate. I will get started on recovering the images some time next week after a short break from the file system. Moderators and Authors can edit, change, move files as they wish from this point forward. Thank you for your help and patience.

From the looks of your marker I think you're lost and you're trying to get directions home. You can't fool us.

Thank you for your service to this country. Please abuse the shit out of us, it's the least we can do. Have fun and remember if you hear EJECT EJECT EJECT it's probably too late.

In the menu next to the Downloads is a Member Map. It's really easy to use and it would be nice to see where everyone is from. So far there are only 4 from the US and EU is kicking our butt, so let's get with it and have some fun. Yes it's us against them and the pond in the middle is the dividing line.

I'm working on it. I don't have an ETA sorry, I've had to hand touch all 11,000+ files over the past couple of weeks and I'm finally down to a few hundred. I'll get there if it kills me, which is a bet you all may lose.

https://combatace.com/index.php?app=core&module=usercp&tab=core&area=displayname If that doesn't do it send me a PM with what you want it to be. You will only be changing your display name which is what we see on the boards, your log in name will always remain the same. Thanks.

Yes. To everyone else who PM'd me or sent me an email I think there are about six or seven of you, I haven't forgotten you. I've been busy with the downloads and I will get to you just as soon as possible. Thank you.

Updated.

Hello -- I can't duplicate this report. Can you send me a PM and show me what you mean and how the truncation breaks the actual link. I've tested this with short and long links and haven't found what you're on to. Thank you.

This is done automatically by the system. However each person has the option to choose when and how they want to receive notifications. Those options are found in your settings here: http://combatace.com/index.php?app=core&module=usercp&tab=core&area=notifications This has to be done by the recipient because they are the ones being notified. Thanks.

So as you all have probably figured out by now we had a serious issue develop. Three weeks ago while awaiting a fix for the file server I awoke one morning to find a response to my support ticket. In brief, they had fixed the problem by reformatting the drives on the file server. The assumption was this was a clean machine with no data on it other than the operating system, etc. In fact the drives contained the almost 1 terabyte of data known as our downloads. I'm still working with the data center to come to a resolve regarding this, and in the meantime I've been repairing our files. Three weeks of living and breathing downloads, three weeks of living hell. I've received many emails and correspondences some of which I haven't even replied to yet. Thank you all for contacting me and yes I know the downloads are offline. Let's get into the meat of it. This is where we stand today. FILE STRUCTURE - 100% FILES RECOVERED - 100% ( I still have a few hundred files to fix but they all are in tact) SCREENSHOTS RECOVERED 15% (I haven't worked on this yet or found a simple solution, TBD) FILESYSTEM - BACK ON-LINE If you are a file Author please feel free to update your file with screenshots or just check your files. If you have a problem or question please let me know and I will be glad to help. This will help me out tremendously. FILE SUBSCRIPTIONS -- If you have a membership I believe I credited everyone for a month and I know we're really close on that. If you feel I owe you time please let me know and I'll make the adjustment. If you started a subscription while the file system was offline I will be restarting all those after writing this. So everyone should be square, but if I overlooked something please speak up. The last thing I ever want to do is short someone or not be responsive to your concerns. I'm not sure when I will get around to recovering the screenshots, the files alone took three weeks and there are multiple screenshots for each file so I can't even imagine what it's going to take to do those. As mentioned if the author's get around to it first it would help with my workload. Dave, maybe you can reach out to some of the guys and see what they can do or spearhead an operation. I would have never thought this situation could ever happen and I sincerely apologize. I planned for every contingency except one having my disks formatted and as this is the first recovery I've ever had to make from our backups I'll be implementing some changes to those also to aid in recovery should this happen again. That said I've spent our entire working budget on restoring the files and upgrading equipment so I need to heal financially from this as well. Spending the time on the downloads that I have has kept me from other work so all in all things are just grim. It's a huge mess and we're on the road to recovery. Here's to tomorrow and a good night's rest. All my best; Erik

Unblock 109.190.84.***, trying permanent blocks... Removing rule... DROP all opt -- in !lo out * 109.190.84.*** -> 0.0.0.0/0 DROP all opt -- in * out !lo 0.0.0.0/0 -> 109.190.84.*** ...Done. Unblock 109.190.84.***, trying temporary blocks... iptables: There are no temporary IP bans iptables: There are no temporary IP allows ...Done. It was loaded by the system as a blacklisted IP which uses common RBLs to determine the networthiness of an IP. I don't think it's an overzealous way of doing things I think its a way to prevent spam. I would suggest, since this is a common practice nowadays, to get the IP removed from these lists. You can use a service like mxtoolbox.com to check RBLs or google "search an IP on RBLs". If it happens again I'll have to whitelist the IP, but since I was unclear who we are talking about you or your friend (your IP doesn't resolve to that IP) I didn't want to arbitrarily just grant carte blanche without knowing. Thanks.