Caesar

Okay, since it was requested (and genuinely with no malice aimed at the Super Hornet), here's some tips on how to defeat the F/A-18F in close. My aircraft was the F-14B Tomcat (VF-1 Wolfpack "what should have been skin") with 2x AIM-7M, 4x AIM-9M, gun, 75% fuel, no tanks. The Super Bug was packing 2x AIM-9X, 4x AIM-120C AMRAAM, gun and 100% fuel but no tanks. I fought the Bug 3 times. First, make sure you get some good lateral separation between you and the Super Bug - don't go at him directly from nose-to-nose, or his instantaneous turn rate will get you. If he only needs to sustain a 9g turn for a couple seconds to get his nose to a threatening position, being too close in a plane that doesn't burn energy as quick will kill you. In all three instances of my engagements, we passed and were neutral with some space between us. The next thing was to select the right energy area to stay in. In my case, I choose about 450KIAS, which allows me to sustain between 7.5 and 8.5g with my Turkey Beast in full blower. Pulling 9-10g will burn your energy too quick. The F/A-18's phased array will give you warnings in a one-circle right around the same time your AWG-9 will begin to see the Bug. That said, I noticed in all instances with the Target-to-Self camera that my Turkey Beast would end up slightly behind the AI Bug's tail, but clearly not enough for a reliable shot, and with about 30-degrees off-boresight, and the Bug pulling harder into me. At this point, I pull back on the throttles to get the Cat to corner and burn the speed to about 380KIAS. Even if the Rhino is pulling into me, the F-14 is burning its energy slightly faster at this point and the nose will come 'round to at least allow for an AIM-9 shot. One-Circle, 8g turning fight In most instances, the Bug should reverse as you get nose on, which will leave him open for a safe Sidewinder shot. If you want to go for guns, your GE engines will out-accelerate the Rhino (real world and sim world), but bear in mind, he can out turn you instantaneously, and can force an overshoot quick. With his AIM-9X's compared to your AIM-9M's, that's a dangerous bet to play, better to end the fight with a Sidewinder to the tail than a bullet to the cockpit. Rhino reverses right into my nose Calculated pulls result in a gun kill If you start off in a one-circle, you can also force the Bug to do what you want to by expending one of your AIM-9's as if it were your Forlorn Hope. First AIM-9 will cause the Bug to break off his one-circle as you both get close to missile parameters. He will then turn back into you after having extended his circle by having to go tangent to you to fool the missile. This opens him up for a second missile pretty damn quick. Look close, and you'll see a Turkey Beast at 6o'clock Finally, should you decide not to shoot him with an AIM-9, or you don't have any left, keep pressing the initial turn, and manage your energy such that you get to where your nose is slightly behind him and pull in to threaten him by going to MIL power. He should start to run. If he doesn't (seen below), he might turn into you. Keep turning into the Bug and plug in the blower. Don't go for Max G, but rather probably 5g or so turn. If he keeps turning, you can roll and pull into a descending half-loop. This will put him back on your nose and within AIM-9 parameters. If you have no AIM-9's left, you'll probably keep iterating this to prevent the Bug from threatening you until the deck is right close, or he might break away from you, allowing you to regain energy and chase him down. In the instance I was in, I had some AIM-9's left and he wound up right on the nose. The descending half-turn On the Rhino's tail, turning with him Kill shot So, you can very well beat the Rhino in the Turkey, especially the B or D, probably not as easily in the A. The thing is going to be trading off either max performance or max g turns at advantageous points. In all instances, I initially started the one-circle fight nose-low to save energy once I found a good speed to fight the Bug at. 380-450KIAS seems to be the range where you're still in the fight. At slower speeds, you can still curl inside the Bug, but if you get too slow, you'll be spending too much time rebuilding energy, and will probably have to open yourself up to attack by flying at very low g or in a near straight line. 300 is the number to keep above. Below that, the Super Bug is going to outperform your Turkey until VERY slow speeds, where it doesn't generate vortex lift and the Turkey's flaps give it superior wing loading with superior thrust to weight. You probably won't get that slow before dying. Also, the majority of these fights ended at about 15K feet. Only the fight with the half-loop ended lower (13K feet). Hope this gives some ideas on how to kill the Rhino that's been giving you such problems!

Okay, got a few F-14B vs. X engagements - none of 'em involving Super Bugs, Bugs, or otherwise. I wound up nearly loosing, or rather exposing myself during the first two fights while reaching for the print screen button for the screenies! In all instances, the F-14B was loaded with 75% fuel, clean pancake, 2x AIM-7M, 2x AIM-9M. Enemy A/C were 100% fuel, standard air to air loadout. It should be pointed out that I always hit the DACT engagements at 75% fuel since it is actually more fuel than "combat weight" (60%) but with only 75%fuel and 4x AIM-9's, the F-14B produces about .99:1 thrust to weight, so once I open those GE engines, I burn it to 1+:1 right quick. First was a fight against the Mirage 2000C (TMF). I expected to fight the airplane similarly to the F-16, but got sloppy a bit. The thing is, this aircraft doesn't seem to sustain turns as well as the F-16, so apart from my initial overshoot caused by the screen capture button, he never got his nose on me long enough for a shot. This went from a one circle to a short horizontal scissors, to another one-circle, sustained, that got low. The Mirage didn't want to crash like the F-16 so abandoned his turn, making himself predictable, then began turning again. I followed and shot him with an AIM-9. If I had shot at him earlier, I'd have probably had him within the first one-circle. Second fight was against an F-15C Eagle (85). This one would have been pretty damn quick if I didn't want a picture of a gun kill. I entered a one-circle, and rather than worry about preserving energy, I just pulled into him, getting a tone before his nose was anywhere near me. I still had excellent energy, and would have actually pulled in front of him (which would have killed me). I botched the shot thanks to my screen shot processing (again), and a short scissors ensued, lasting one iteration. I was back on the Eagle's tail and shot him with my gun. The last fight was against an Su-27 Flanker. Now, bearing in mind that I faced a Su-33 earlier, I still treated the Flanker with respect, because I knew it wouldn't be bogged down by 6x AA-9's. Indeed, this fight was the fastest, only because we both burnt energy to get inside each other and ended up nose-on within the first few seconds of the fight. I shot two AIM-9's at him, the first one at high off-boresight, and it did not track. Second one was nose-on and hit him right behind the cockpit, killing him in a total of 37 seconds. Conclusions: Mirage 2000C doesn't sustain turns as well as F-16 and can be fought to a draw with the F-14B pretty easily and probably killed quick enough if you manage your energy better. F-15C was easy. Su-27, kill as fast as possible. If I hadn't shot first, he'd have had me probably within seconds of nose-on.

Just got back from a short TDY. Eric, Iranian Turkey shoots are A-OK with me (might love the bird, but in the hands of the enemy? No way, Baby!) - Might take my Turkey against a Bug, but it'll be a tough one if I'm flying the A. Will see.

F-4E Phantom II (78) vs. F-15C Eagle (85) Loadouts- F-4E: 4x AIM-9M, 2x AIM-7M, gun, 100% fuel, no tanks F-15C: 4x AIM-9M, 4x AIM-7M, gun, 100% fuel, no tanks In a 59 second fight with surprising results, I wound up killing the F-15 with the F-4E. Now, something to remember here is that I started with both aircraft passing each other at the merge with a bit of distance between the two. This was, like my Tomcat vs. Fulcrum, J-10 and Flanker, a matter of smart energy burning. One thing for damn sure is that the F-4 is a speedbreak compared to the Tomcat, but unlike the F-14B (or even the F-14A) is that it doesn't like to get its energy back up as quickly. In this case, I started probably at about 6-7g turn (one-circle), and at about 600KIAS at the start of the fight. As I turned into the Eagle, I noticed a scant few seconds into the fight that my stall warning came on almost immediately. I'm not even through 90 degrees of turn yet! Well, I backed off a bit, probably down to about 5g (no noticeable accelerometer in the F-4E, so I'm going off "feel") which still puts the Eagle about 20-degrees nose off, just enough to send a heater his way. His nose was just barely starting to get on me when I fired. He rolled to go tangent to my turn, and dropped flares, fooling the Mike. Problem was that I kept turning, and wound up at his 7o'clock, FOX 2 again. This one guided and blew off his wing. Rather than wait for him to hit the ground, I closed with the wreckage and gunned it to get Red Crown to clear me from the mission. Now, here's the thing - this mission ended in my favor, but had I decided to burn too much energy too early, the Eagle would have eaten me alive. The simple fact that the Phantom couldn't hold a roughly 6.5g turn without giving me grief (stall warning) illustrated that well. If I let my energy get below 450KIAS, he'd have had me, and if I hadn't taken the shot with the Mike early (if I were guns only) he'd have probably pulled inside of my turn (I was close to overshooting when I fired my first Mike) and then reversed, and shot me. This was an instance of luck, and knowing he'd have to fool a heater if I put one out in his direction, in spite of the fact that I was bleeding energy like a madman. Might try it with guns only, but I seriously doubt I'll survive...

For some of you, this might be old news. For those of you who never heard of it, Super Mario Crossover allows you to play Super Mario Bros. with characters from other games, such as Mega Man, Link, Samus (Metroid), Simon (Castlevania), Bill (Contra), among others. Been playing it for a little while today, gets the nostalgia going and answers the question: how would (x) do in Mario Bros? Link: http://www.explodingrabbit.com/games/super-mario-bros-crossover

Does your trigger have two detentes? I use my trigger for guns, but it has two "buttons" in one - pulling the trigger to the first detente does nothing, second detente fires the gun (while I was breaking the stick in, the first detente was gun, and it'd just shoot for no reason, so I switched it). If so, you could assign first detente to missile, second detente to gun, just make sure you don't pull all the way back if you want only a missile to go off, or that you don't have missiles selected if you want to shoot your gun!

Glad to hear they got him. Hopefully learned his lesson.

Had a couple fights today: First was a CF-5A vs. MiG-21PFM Both aircraft were armed with all-aspect short ranged missiles and guns, full fuel. The fight started with both of us entering a sustained high g one circle fight in a slightly descending turn. I managed my energy better to get nose-on, but I was at a poor angle, and didn't take the shot. He passed and a horizontal scissors ensued. Both aircraft are highly comparable, and both of us were turning at almost identical rates, with the MiG-21 just barely getting inside my turn for the first two iterations; no where near enough for a shot. The third iteration I had cut throttles to point the nose at him, and it worked. The fourth also saw me inside his turn, and it was here that he tried to run after I reversed inside of his turn. He reversed, and then we went into a rolling scissors, which flattened into a vertical scissors. I decided to try a little trick, stepping on the rudder to force my nose to slice into him. Didn't work as well as hoped, and he rolled through the bottom of the scissors, but I was able to snap my nose back towards him. He had run a bit and was now climbing to come over me vertically. The position allowed for a good shot with the AIM-9, and I took it. One MiG-21 down. Second fight was ACEVAL/AIMVAL style in an F-14A Tomcat vs. a CF-5A. This fight was over very quickly, with an initial sustained one turn fight, with the sudden nose pull I had used on the MiG-29 and J-10A. The F-5 saw me and tried to pull into my turn, but I rolled with him and pressed the advantage. Guns on the F-5. Third fight was what I expected to be the most difficult: F-14B Tomcat vs. Su-33 "Sea Flanker" I knew the Flanker was more maneuverable, so I'd have to play the game of turn rate vs. available energy - like fighting the J-10, if I was too fast, I'd not be able to turn with the Flanker, and if I was too slow, the Flanker's better slow-speed handling would probably cost me the fight. In this instance, I had 75% fuel, 2x AIM-7, 4x AIM-9, no tanks. The pancake was otherwise clean, and the Sparrows don't ruin airflow like the Phoenix pylons. The Flanker, however, was heavily laden (I did not realize this when I set up the fight). Carrying some 6 AA-9's and 2 AA-8's with full fuel, a more fair fight would have been if I had loaded up my Turkey with 6 AIM-54's and 2 AIM-9's. The fight was actually very quick. In this case, I wasn't aiming for total energy conservation, as mentioned. I started the fight in a more aggressive 7.5-8g turn, keeping some energy, but also trying to bleed a little to sustain about 410kts or so rather than 500. The Flanker was turning initially at about the same rate as me, but as I slowed, I turned in a smaller radius without sacrificing turn rate by keeping the plane in the blower after the initial energy burn. I pulled the Tomcat a little high as I started to see my opportunity open to curl onto his six. Once I was at around his 8o'clock region, the Flanker initially reversed direction, which caused me to unload - 6o'clock, time to shoot, but wait, he's pulling back left. I'm still easily on his tail and follow him. My nose gets right back to his dead 6, and I take the opportunity. I'm not looking to gun this guy, FOX 2! Flanker pops flares, but keeps flying in a predictable direction - the Mike isn't fooled and blasts off his right wing, at the same time igniting the whole plane. Fight was over in 1 minute and 50 seconds.

F-14B Tomcat vs. J-10A Loadouts- F-14B: 4x AIM-9M, gun, 75% fuel, no tanks, clean pancake J-10A: 23mm GSh-23, 100% fuel, no tank Because the J-10A doesn't have its missiles for some reason, I flew the DACT three times. What I found seems to reflect what open-source documents say about the J-10A - it has better instantaneous turn than the F-16, but not as good sustained turn rates. Knowing this, I knew I would have better chances of survival, or indeed killing the J-10 if I could force him into a drawn-out turning fight. What I didn't realize was exactly how much of a flying speedbreak the J-10 could be. Two of three engagements ended up with missile kills on the J-10, the third with a gun kill, and the third engagement was the shortest "true" engagement, lasting 1 minute, 49 seconds (second was solved with a quick heater to the face). The first engagement was the longest, by far, and ended up with the J-10 in my 5 to 7-o'clock quadrant three times, never long enough to have been able to take a missile shot (if he had missiles). During the first and second engagements, I went against my gut and decided to do a hard two-circle, the first time having what would have been potentially detrimental effects to my fine Grumman war machine. Because I plugged in the burner, I wasn't turning as fast as he was, and he pulled inside my circle. The energy I saved was burned pulling quickly into the vertical to try to reverse. It worked, though he probably could have called a snap shot on me. We continued through both vertical and horizontal planes, but I kept my energy up enough (>310kts) so that he couldn't ever directly threaten more than a second or two. After about the third time he got nose-on, he took a snap shot, which I performed a high g barrel roll to evade, followed by an inverted pitch-moment-coupling maneuver that was actually unintentonal, but left me inverted at the end and caused him to overshoot. Time to extend! I brought the Tomcat into a descending loop to gain energy and get some distance. The J-10 performed a moderate nose-low spiral to come down to my altitude, only to have my Turkey rocket past him into the vertical. I continued the high loop, as the J-10 brought his turn to an ascending turn; I cut throttles towards the top of the loop trading airspeed for g until I was close to the bottom, plugged burner in to sustain g and was now level with the J-10 on my nose at the bottom of the loop. Set up the heater, FOX 2 and BOOM! Sheared off his vert stab. DACT #2 started similarly, only this time, instead of plugging in the burners, I decided to cut throttles, yank the Tomcat into an absolute max g turn, got my turn inside of the J-10's, then unloaded a bit (his nose still wasn't threatening at this point) and shot him. Kill #2. DACT #3 was the first one that I did where I actually followed my gut instinct and went into a one-circle, sustained turn fight. Just like the Fulcrum, and as predicted by the open-source docs, the J-10 wasn't just yanking on his stick like in the first two engagements, but was instead trying to pull more "g" than me, and he didn't sustain his turn as well as the F-16. This higher g burnt his energy, and I performed a calculated 8.5-9g turn after my sustained 6.5g circle that had gotten me aft of his wing line. This put my nose right on the J-10. Unlike my blunder against the F-16, I went to match speed with the J-10 and brought the throttles to below military power. The J-10 initially tried to break left, but I followed him without problem. He leveled. 20mm, 6000 rounds/min SELECTED! GUNS! ZZip! Off goes his right wing! The pilot literally rode the aircraft into the ground as it spiraled in a tight corkscrew to the desert floor. So, what can I take away from the J-10 fight? Don't do a two-circle, especially if he has heaters! The second DACT turned out in my favor because I decided to burn my airspeed very quickly to get inside him, but probably wouldn't have worked as well in a 2v2, or if I were carrying other stores. Looping vertically seemed to work well, as did a sustained one-circle turn fight. Also, the J-10 required a lot better energy management, since if I had too much, the Turkey wouldn't make the corner. If I had too little, I'd leave myself exposed. I made sure to unload a bit in the first fight, costing angles, but in the end probably keeping myself alive. Unlike the MiG-21 or MiG-17, the J-10 doesn't like to get into a scissors, so trying to beat down his energy to a point where I had the advantage was out of the question - it'd have left me as a wide open target. This engagement was far more satisfying than the Viper was, going off and killing himself. J-10? Anytime, Baby!

F-14B Tomcat vs. F-16A Blk 15 Fighting Falcon DACT Loadouts- F-14B: 4x AIM-9M, gun, 75% fuel, no tanks, clean pancake F-16A: 4x AIM-9M, gun, 100% fuel, no tanks This fight started similarly to the MiG-29 fight, with both aircraft entering a one-circle engagement. I figured that rather than just yank for a two-circle, where we'd both end up nose-on, I'd rather try for sustained turn rate to match him. It worked well for the first 20 seconds or so, but unlike the Fulcrum, who went nose-high/high g, the Viper went nose low, moderate g. The result was a descending spiral with neither side gaining much of an advantage until I began to slide into his six in a 7g turn at about 550kts. I turned this into a max g turn to get on his tail, and should have shot him then and there - by this point I had more energy than him, and was approaching fast. I selected guns as the Viper driver decided to pull into the vertical. He was around 450kts to my 550, and it was then that I had the horrible realization that I was going to overshoot. I pulled for all I had, probably doing a 9.5g yank for about three seconds, but I had already overshot. The Viper quickly performed a high yo-yo and was quite literally dead six. I didn't have much room to maneuver, since we had gotten down to about 5k feet. That energy that I still had wound up saving my bacon, as the Viper began to slide back, and was unable to get a missile solution on me. The fight went neutral, and I tried to press into the vertical to force him to do something. I was being careful not to press past 6g at this point, since I was trying to maintain some energy to work with. Both aircraft went vertical, then we turned into each other, at roughly the same turn rate, nose to nose. No shot, rolled back into him and he came out a bit wider. Screw the gun, I'm bagging this SOB! FOX 2! Wouldn't you know it, he deployed flares and the Mike went for 'em! He pulled back into me and we got into another nose-on-nose situation; I figured I might as well have another shot, I still had 3 heaters left. This one had no chance, the closure was way too fast. By this point, I was bleeding energy, and both of the aircraft were hanging around 4g turns trying to rebuild some speed. The Viper extended, then turned back into me. I got my nose on him, FOX 2 again. One of these damn things HAS to hit! Nope. Flares again. Now I'm ticked, because I know he's got 4 heaters, I've got 1 and I might yet just have to gun him. This turned into another slow turn where neither the Turkey, nor the Viper was gaining on each other. We're literally on the deck (<500 feet), and by now, I've got my flaps down, curling inside the F-16. Problem, we end up nose to nose, no shots, he hits the burner and extends some as I continue my turn. I'm still on the deck, and he's gained a bit of energy. I pull the flaps back up, seeing he didn't want to get into a scissors, and having them down added drag and burnt energy. The Viper is now in a better situation, slightly above me, with more energy, and 4 heaters. He decided to cash in on his good position, at the same time made a fatal flaw. I'm about 200 feet off the deck, and he yanks for all he's worth into a diving attack (not pure vertical, actually quite horizontal, not unlike a low yo-yo). The Viper driver realizes too late that his jet isn't going to make the pull and crashes, lawn-dart style, into the desert. This particular DACT didn't go as well as I had hoped, but then, the F-16 is not an easy opponent. Ideally, I'd have shot him down at range with an AIM-7 or AIM-54, but that's not the point of DACT. In this instance, it was also the Viper, not me, that decided to drag the fight low - he initiated the descending turn, and continued to follow down to fight in the dirt. In the end, it cost him the fight. At the end of the DACT session, I think I had about 6000lbs of gas left, so we nearly ran each other out of gas (if the AI could run out of gas).

DACT/BFM: F-14B Tomcat vs. MiG-29A Fulcrum Loadouts were as follows - F-14B: 4x AIM-9M, gun, 75% fuel, no tanks, clean "pancake" MiG-29A: 2x AA-10, 4x AA-8, gun, 100% fuel, no tank Fight started at the merge at about 15,000 feet with both fighters turning into each other, generating a one-circle fight. I plugged in the Tomcat's blowers and the Fulcrum did the same. I initially came into the turn a bit hard, at 8-8.5G, and realized I would bleed away my speed way too early, so I dropped the turn to the typical 6.5G, saving me energy. This resulted in a sustained 6.5G turn at about 400KIAS - the GE engines did not have to work as hard with the Tomcat having about a 1:1 thrust to weight ratio in the configuration I had selected, and had decided to turn into the Fulcrum nose-low, by comparison to the Fulcrum driver's decision to go nose-high, while trying to sustain higher G earlier on - he was bleeding energy. This became immediately apparent to me as we got through about the first 30 seconds of the fight, and I was gaining on him, still pulling 6.5G, now correcting to nose level as he started to go nose low to regain energy. I knew I'd have to exploit my position of advantage soon, so I went from max performance to max G turn to get my nose on him. Pushed the Turkey to a quick 9G yank, getting my nose on the MiG, and causing him to reverse. At this point, I'd have called a missile shot on the Fulcrum, hell, I had 4 heaters with his name on 'em, but this had to end correctly. Because he initially reversed, I let the plane unload and rolled toward him. For a short time, he flew in a straight line, probably trying to regain speed. In real life, the Fulcrum driver wouldn't have been able to see me, thanks to the huge headrest and poor visibility from about 4-8 o'clock, and it seems like he reacted similarly as he might have in real life, initially pulling hard left. I had more energy than him, so followed, then he reversed again, and began bucking the plane - burning more energy and loading up positive, then negative G. He did about two iterations of this, and I took a snap shot with the Vulcan cannon as he began a dive, knocking off part of his right wing. It was here that he decided to only dive and run, but to no avail. His dive made him completely predictable, and I fired another short burst, igniting a fuel cell behind the cockpit. This was the death blow, as his aircraft spiraled in. By the end of the fight, I still had more gas in my jet than he did at the start of it. Pretty straight forward example of energy management deciding the victor. Total fight time was around 2.5 minutes.

F-14B DACM vs. Su-33 gun kill

Welcome Back!

@ Eric - The reversal works pretty well (as mentioned illustrated in black aces high, but it was done vs. a MiG-29, not an F-4!), though I found it depends heavily on the energy state of the Fulcrum - sometimes he'll reverse and put his nose right on me! Ever try to get the MiG into a rolling scissors? Usually the AI doesn't handle that as well (at least I've noticed); of course I "cheat" by using flaps...then again, No rules in a gun fight! DACT with an F-16 (EDIT: result was a missile kill with an AIM-9M) Returning to Base

Normally either the engine sound of a pair of F110's or TF-30's, since I don't usually listen to music during the mission itself. If I'm ever screwing around with music and captured video, something along the lines of Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, Dio, or other heavy metal bands (the same on the few occasions I do listen to music during the mission). Think I did a Falcon 4 one to "Whiskey in the Jar" by Thin Lizzy.

After no less than three months in waiting (commissioned while I was back at Thule, AB) I've received my brand new Albion-mark sword - the Albion "Talhoffer." Named after the 15th century Fechtmeister Hans Talhoffer, and designed after the swords of his Fechtbuch illustrations, the Talhoffer is an Oakeshott Type XVa hand-and-a-half longsword. The XV and XVa blade design was in use in Western Europe from roughly 1350AD to beyond 1500AD, and was clearly influenced by advances in armor development. XV/XVa blades are of a rigid, heavily tapering diamond cross section and balance very close to the hands for exceptional point control - especially maneuverable and useful to punch into the gaps of plated defenses, while rigid enough to pop the rings of mail that might be found in those gaps. The Talhoffer is an armor fighting design if there ever was one - simply looking at the clubbed-ends of the cross and the mace-like pommel one can assess the blunt-force strikes that can be made by blows from the hilt, and I can say from a bit of handling that it is an extraordinarily maneuverable weapon, able to deliver quick cuts and terrifying thrusts with its blade. Because of its tapered design, the Talhoffer's Type XVa blade does sacrifice some cutting capacity; the Type XV/XVa is not as good a cutter as a Type XVIII or XX, which are a bit wider and flatter, but anyone who would think that they'd be safe from a hew delivered with intent from an XVa like the Talhoffer is a fool. The edge is sharp enough to cause deep lacerations, and a solidly delivered cut could well be expected to de-limb an opponent. As I swing the weapon it makes such beautiful song, slicing the air - that's really the only way to describe it. Even as an armor fighter, as I've written in my web log, the longsword is a fairly lightweight weapon. The Talhoffer, at 46 and 3/8 inches in length weighs 3 pounds 5 ounces - just about average weight for historic specimens. More than 3 feet of its length is blade, and although rigid, does have a little flex to disperse impact from another weapon, quite unlike the Tuck, a weapon that might be considered a rod with a cross, and which has no cutting capacity. I'll have to wait until probably late spring to be able to do serious test cutting and thrusting, thanks to the crap-tastic winters in central New York, but just the minor handling at this time is satisfactory. It takes its place as the first "true" sword I've owned, alongside the more modern firearms of my collection, and stands as a standard for the handling characteristics of a properly made, functional weapon.

Would love to hear about it sometime!

I've not had much an issue with the F-15C, but then again, I'm usually flying an F-14B and those two are very evenly matched (works both ways, I'll normally beat an F-14B if I'm in an F-15C, too). The Flanker, Viper and Fulcrum can be a PITA without question. I've found that I can get the better of an F-16 easily enough if I beat him down on energy, but those F/A-18's just keep turning! End up having to keep the energy high and give up angles 'till they make a mistake. In the case of the screenie, the Bug got low, and I pulled a max performance turn to point my nose at him. Luckily we were both low on energy and he tried to run, but I was out-accelerating him. Got in range and zzzip! Haven't tried against the F-22 or Mirage 2000 yet; will have to post when I do!

Happy Birthday!

F-14B and F-15C meet up on patrol. Something is going to be going down in flames in very short order against a setup like this... Wichita 105 showing off a compliment of AIM-54, AIM-7 and AIM-9 over SEA in early 1975. EDIT: From zee NFWS 1v1 scenarios I've been randomly making - "You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" (actually I have to admit, it took me a while to gun that Bug...)

Gettin' sick of the snow myself; we've taken on more than 100" of the stuff this season.

Copy all. Yes, I had to install in a very strange order, do .ini modifications, a whole mess. Guess what I'll do is make another back up of zee mod folder and then do the install as you recommend. Thanks!

My parents got hit last week with a somewhat nasty trojan very similar to the one you describe. I countered with HijackThis! followed by MalwareBytes and it killed the malicious program, found and destroyed the trojan, and some 900 of the fake files it created. Said program disabled AVG, so I had to go around with the more serious tools. The computer is back up and running. EDIT: Is the fake program found in the "ProgramData" folder, with a three-letter filename, and a new icon on the desktop, kind of looking like a blue orb on a gray base? If so, that's the same fake program and Trojan.

I had a general question on this patch: I'm screwing around with PayPal so I can buy Expansion 2, and obviously will want to patch the game up to the new standard when I get it. My question is: Is the EXP2 and Patch install the SOP of "install fresh copy, expansion, then patch" or can it be applied to an already modified game? Reason I ask is that I bought SF2V after I got back from Thule, which auto-patched the game to 2010 standards, and when I did new installs of SF2,E, and I (which I bought before I went to Thule), I had to do some major fooling around to get Vietnam merged (separate installs, then manually move the Vietnam files to the merge, which took a while and a lot of trial and error to get working right.) If it is, that's fine, it's just a bit more pain to deal with, but if I can do the expansion and patch without a new install that'd be pretty cool. Thanks for any replies!

File Name: TF-30 Turkey Feathers for VF-32 & -41 File Submitter: Caesar File Submitted: 22 January 2011 File Category: SF2 Series Add On Skins This is a modified F-14A-005.bmp file for the excellent VF-32 and VF-41 MiG Killers skins for the new TMF F-14A and F-14A(82). The original skins appear to have been based off of the F-14B templates, and have the General Electric F-110 "Turkey Feathers"/engines that don't match up to the TF-30 nozzles. Just drop the new F-14A-005 skin file into the VF32-89 and VF41 skin files to replace the initial F-14A-005.bmp and go flying! Anytime, Baby! Click here to download this file