Caesar

F-14B Tomcat vs. MiG-29A Fulcrum, guns only 1v1 DACT...Gotcha, Baby!

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Dave, go right ahead. Hell, I probably should have just sent this to you to begin with, come to think of it. EDIT: Noticed the same issue with the VF-111/Miss Molly skins too. If you will to update those, again, go ahead.

That depends on what you want to do with it. For the most part, the HUD can be modified by opening your aircraft's AVIONICS.ini file and fiddling around with those entries. I haven't done a hell of a lot of HUD modifications, but as an example, I wanted a different gun pipper for an airplane a few years back, so I made a .tga of the new pipper, threw it into the aircraft's Cockpit file folder, and then put the entry into the AVIONICS.ini. If you're looking for ideas, you can always just check out your existing aircraft's avionics; just make sure if you're adding/changing parts of a HUD you have the corresponding .tga's or other files in your aircraft's Cockpit file folder. Hope this helps.

Yep, just checked - 11 had been listed in war reserve in mid 2010 (half of 'em "A" models!). Not a chance, Baby! It is good to see that the Eagle is continuing to come through as we enter the next decade of the 21st century though. I recall reading reports that the plane would be completely gone by the mid 2010's (~2015-2018), replaced by F-22's (with the Strike Eagle anticipated to last longer). That prediction fell on its face. With this new proposal, it looks like the Eagle might be headed to the 2020's+ - good longevity. EDIT: I do wonder about adding an IRST capability to the F-15? Not sure how much better the chances would be for long range detection, but that might help out against a stealthy plane too!

I was thinking that myself; bigger nose, huge radar - what if you updated a Turkey with an AESA? The thing is, it would be possible with the few -B and -D models that are left in war reserve, but the logistical support, the re-training personnel to upkeep 'em and the few pilots that would fly and operate them make it seem to me that the F-14's in war reserve are going to stay there forever, or be put to the torch eventually. Sad but true. Or maybe sling an Upgraded Early Warning Radar to a series of hundreds of balloons. That sucker can see really tiny stuff really friggin' far away. Then we'd actually be flying radars!

Sorry to hear that. This is a tough job market; one of my buddies who got his Masters in Business Administration last year still hasn't found work! Hopefully you'll find a new secondary.

Can't believe it has been that long! I was about five and a half and I still remember seeing it on the TV. Time flies!

Damn, missed it! Well, a belated Happy Birthday!

The Iranians used the AIM-54 against fighters to good success - probably because their targets didn't know they were being shot at (and so were not maneuvering when they were hit). Then again, RADM Gilchrist has a good unclassified outline of the AIM-54's performance in his book TOMCAT! The F-14 Story, including against maneuvering targets, in one instance, a QF-86 which was shot down by an AIM-54A while performing a 6G defensive pull. He adds that "This was also considered a benchmark achievement since, up to this juncture, a hard maneuvering turn had always been a successful defense against air-to-air missiles." (p. 41)

Jedi, SEAM wasn't limited to the F-4. I'm not sure how many planes were compatible with SEAM, but I know early model F-14A's were (Ref: F-14 Tomcat, J.P. Stevenson, 1975 p.87) before the arrival of the AIM-9L. There is actually a light on the ACM panel which reads "SEAM LOCK". It wouldn't surprise me if there were other aircraft that had SEAM compatibility, but as it has been pointed out, SEAM became unnecessary with the arrival of the all-aspect Sidewinder. I'll have to try this out in-game when I set my computer back up in zee new apartment!

Quick question for all you Wild Weasel historians: I've seen a lot of WW patches with the YGBSM (You Gotta Be Sh*tting Me) motto written on the bottom, but I noticed on some patches, there is a line which precedes YGBSM which reads: "WTFAIDITB" Thinking about the possibilities, am I right to translate as: "What The F*** Am I Doing In This B*tch?" or am I totally off base? Thanks for your time and replies.

Think StreakEagle is right - I was thinking of Allied Fighters; considering it would have fought on both fronts of the European side of the war, and was a scourge for bombers as well as fighters, on top of number of aces and overall allied a/c lost, that's probably a higher scorer than either the F6F or P-51.

If I had to guess, either the F6F Hellcat at 5271 aircraft shot down, or the P-51 with 4950 - that is if you were to trust Wikipedia, which I don't. I would not be surprised, however, these two being high performance fighters which flew in WWII against large quantities of enemy aircraft.

As one might expect from me, some Turkey shots... Tomcat Sunrise No Kill like a GUNS Kill! 'Specially when the bandit blows up 1200' off the nose... Killin' you from 149 statute miles to 250 feet, Baby!

Congrats on the release! Gonna take her for a spin!

Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday!

I like the assertions being made about the F-35 and this new plane, when neither are in service and the only one here with much of any intelligence (which he can't share) on the F-35 is JSFAggie, maybe FC as well. And is it just me, or does that thing's nose and vert stabs look like they came right off of the F-35? (Just an observation, and yes, I know, both Eastern and Western aviation industries have "copied" each other many times in the past.) Thanks for posting the shots, though!

It's kind of sad to me...at Thule, we ran into NCO's that fell into the "2d Lt" category of that chart, and 2d Lt's that had to, by necessity, drive themselves to be "Major"+ by that chart. Of course, we also had some NCO's (esp. my NCOIC, our KOM, and the STAN/EVAL NCOIC) that fit the "Sergeant" category of the chart too! Those NCO's were worth well more than their weight in gold.

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All versions of the F-14 used both spoilers and the horizontal stabilizers for roll control, until the wings reached a certain sweep degree. After that point, all roll control, as well as pitch control, was provided by the horizontal stabs. Ref 01-F14AAA-1 para 2.21, dated 15 May 2003: "Roll control is effected by differential stabilizer deflections and augmented by spoilers at wing−sweep positions less than 57º (62º in aircraft BuNo 162611 and subsequent and earlier aircraft incorporating AFC 717)." The F-14B and D NATOPS read similarly at para 2.23, only that those aircraft lock down the spoilers at 62º rather than 57. So, as previously stated, all F-14's use both spoilers and differential horizontal stabs for roll control; later model A's, B's, and D's just lock down the spoilers at higher sweep angles than older A's.

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RIP Leslie. I just wanted to tell you both, good luck, we're all counting on you

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