streakeagle

I would say neither... just an orange filter on normal daylight photos :P

I-75 is not heavily patrolled along certain long stretches. Lots of Florida is swampland anyway. Back in 2004-2008, I was driving back and forth between Atlanta and Tampa. Posted legal limits were in the 65-70 mph range, but I could do 80 mph in parts of Georgia and 90+ across quite a bit of Florida. Georgia had a substantial highway patrol presence between Atlanta and the Florida state line. They pulled people over in massive numbers... but never messed with me. I simply did the pace of the fastest group of traffic I could find and never hit any kind of speed traps. Before I joined the Navy in 1989, I-75 was hardly used at all from midnight to 4am. There were highway patrol / speed traps right as I got back to I-4/I-75 interchange, but no real threats outside of Tampa, especially going south. I would clear the known threat areas and then cruise between 100-130 mph for 2 hours out and back depending on weather conditions. The Firebird would start lifting at 130, so I had to back off on the speed if there was wind. Back then, the speed limit was still 55 mph, too. At the time, a lot of traffic did 75 mph. I was doing 80 and was passed by two Sheriffs who had to be doing 90+. I assumed they were heading for a call, but soon found them when I got off at my exit... they were at a donut shop! While I never got pulled over for doing the 100mph+ speeds, I did get pulled over for doing 90 in a 55 while coming home from USF. For some reason the officer guessed that I was an electrical engineering student and was sympathetic. He just gave me a verbal warning. Looking back, I can't believe my luck: no accidents, no tickets, no arrests, etc. Now, I feel uncomfortable doing more than 10 mph over the limit unless everyone else is going faster (like my return trips from Georgia). If only I had then what I have now: an mp3 player with a virtually unlimited number of great songs instead of a few 90 minute tape cassettes. But I still enjoy hearing all of my old cruising music when I am driving between Orlando and Tampa at 70-80 mph... in an Altima. My current 1981 Corvette has power steering and A/C issues that have kept it in the garage for most of the summer. The stock engine in my 1981 also gets horrible fuel economy and has much inferior performance to my 1980 L-82. Someday, I'll fix that and be cruising again with windows down, t-tops off... and my entire 6-700 CD collection in the form of a 64GB USB key :)

The $80 million luxury sub is absolutely amazing. USS Dolphin was only 165 feet long and nowhere near as comfortable. The fact that it is rated for 1,000 feet is impressive. However, no matter what the writeup says, there is nothing routine or safe about submarine operations. I can't imagine operating a sub purely for fun. The operating/maintenance costs would be staggering. But I guess if you have $80 million to blow on a sub, what's another $5-20 million per year to keep it operational?

One song I used to love cruising to late at night at insanely high speeds on the interstate was Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" (1986-1989 time frame in a 1974 Firebird Formula 350). Whenever I here this song, it takes me back to hours and hours of 100-130 mph cruising. Just plain lucky I never got caught? http://youtu.be/FaxjUUdGdH8 In the Navy around 1995-96, I found another song that I could here over the wind noise at high speeds with the t-tops removed: Stan Ridgway's take on "Ring of Fire". The pulsing deep base beat sounded great with my 1980 L-82 Corvette. My son loves Johnny Cash, but he loves this version of "Ring of Fire" even more:

There is one other option. There is now a flag that enables or disables the new view system fade-in. If you disable it, you are supposed to get the old system back, but that means you also lose some of the other improvements. I tried both ways, and I have learned to live with the new way to stay compatible with the future of SF2.

The user setting for horizon distance does vary the view distance, but even at the max horizon distance setting, you will probably be less than happy.

I never cared for the shotguns. I fired both Remington and Mossberg while attached to submarines. I prefer rifle the most and I like the feel of the M-16 over the M-14 regardless of ballistic data. I don't like using any weapon that can eat my fingers during normal operation :P The M92 is a great range weapon: fire fast with great accuracy, but with a 0.45, you only need one hit per target to get the job done :) I have always preferred the fell of the 0.45 grip/weight/balance over any other pistol I have ever fired. If I was going to go NATO 7.62 mm/0.308 cal., I would very much like a modern AR-10 equivalent to my AR15A2, though it would be better if I went with the modern detachable carry handle to make it more practical for scope shooting. But my favorite way to shoot is with iron sights in a standing position with no support or sling... just the rifle and me. When I was shooting every weekend, I actually got fairly proficient on a standard 100-yard target, but of course nothing near the 5-shot group I could cover with a dime that my HBAR did with competition ammo and a bipod while laying prone. I really miss shooting. Since 2001, Operation Flashpoint has been my way of scratching the itch to shoot. But there is no substitute for the real thing.

I jumped the gun. At a glance, I thought it was Don Kilgus' 55-2894 416th TFS skin associated with his probable MiG-17 kill. However, your base template makes it very easy for me to consider making that skin. Thank you (and Sundowner) for the templates.

Where can I get the skin in the preview pic? I just released a mission that would benefit greatly from that skin :)

Templates are a necessity if you want to get anywhere fast. Otherwise you need to make your own templates by building layers from existing skins: something I have neither the time, patience, nor skill to do as well as the good skinners that can be found here. Find out who the author of the best skins are and shoot them an email if you can't find templates already available for an aircraft you are interested in.

I haven't fired a pistol or rifle since 2002. Far too long. From 1995-1997, I went to the range almost weekly firing 0.45 M1911A1 and/or 0.223 Colt Sporter HBAR (AR15A2). Those were good times :) In that same time frame, I also maintained USS Dolphin's M-14, 4 x M1911A1s, and Remington 870. The M1911A1s were replaced by M92F Berettas during 96 or 97. I also coordinated the ship's range shoots with the tender's gunner's mates. We qualified with all three weapons using their weapons and ammo.

I use TARGET to select the profile and start the game. Alternatively, you just run TARGET and select and run the config you want, then start the game. The key is TARGET must be running AND the desired config must be selected and running prior to starting the game. You will know things are going right when you here windows recognizing the new virtual joystick, keyboard, and mouse. Of course, you may also have to select the correct axes in the game prior to flying.

In the virtual world, you are fully functional. We wouldn't even know you were disabled in any way if you had not ever told us or posted photos. Now stay healthy and stay online I haven't had a Five Guys burger in a while. My wife went vegan to get her cholesterol under control and my son only wants Happy Meal toys, so that leaves me a little short on choices eating out

Another trick in this profile is that the engine start/stop is programmed into the throttle detent off position. When you move the throttle into the off position, the key is pressed. If you move the throttle out of the off position, the key is pressed again. So, since the game always starts with the engine running, you need to start with the throttle out of the off position. Then the engine will stop when you go to off position and start again if you leave the off position. I tried using the afterburner detent. It does work for the F-4 Phantom, but you can only reach about 67-68% at MIL instead of 70% and it starts at like 73% on the other side of the detent. Other aircraft have the transition from MIL to A/B at their historically correct positions, such as 80% or higher, so rather than edit countless ini files to match the detent, I am not using the A/B detent.

I just got my Warthog last week and stayed up late on the weekend to develop and debug a profile. It works good for me, but I haven't used it enough to know if I want to rearrange anything. PM me contact info and I will try emailing it to you. I am using one little trick I developed with my Saitek X-52 Pro: Drop Track/Acquire in sequence on the same button. This allows you to either add or delete a radar lock with only one button assigned. With boresight mode, I find myself needing drop track more, whereas normal search mode I need the Acquire button. This solution is slick :) I also use a Track IR, which has some influence on my button assignments. I use the default view (F1) key as the same key to re-center the TrackIR view, so I always make sure that is a readily accessible button. Overall, I mapped nearly every single key to some control on the Warthog, but it is overkill as I almost never use many of those keys.

I have wanted to get a Warthog, but I simply don't have the money, especially considering that my Saitek X-52 Pro still works 100%. However, I can't pass up this price. My Saitek X-45 works 100% as well, but I got the X-52 Pro for $100 when it retailed for $200 and never regretted it. Hopefully, this will be a repeat of history where an unnecessary upgrade turns out to be an excellent decision. Now I need some overtime to cover the difference :P I really hope I don't get a lemon as many have. I still have a spare B-8 stick grip that was meant for helicopter control sticks. Instead of the threaded mil-std pin connector of my F-4 B-8, it has an open hole with wires dangling that may prove to be adaptable to the TM Warthog stick mount. Then I would have the flexibility of using my full F-4 stick or a desktop B-8 :)

The Warthog is as good as I could have hoped it to be (so far). However, despite all the gains in weight, feel, and precision, I really find no difference in my ability to fly/fight in the SF2 series, Aces High, and Steel Beasts Pro PE. Other than having an authentic dual throttle setup, for the money, the X-52 Pro gives you almost the same thing for a lot less money. If you take money out of the equation, the Warthog has a few more buttons/hats while the X-52 Pro has a few more axes and better ergonomics. I think the Warthog will certainly shine best in DCS A-10C, but I don't have a nice enough computer to bother buying that yet. It is also a better setup for LOMAC/FC/FC2. Even at $350, I don't think I should have bought the Warthog given that my X-52 Pro still works as well even after years of use. But the throttle is perfect whenever I get around to building my own pit, which will largely be F-4 based and be built around my B-8 stick. I never could afford the couple of F-4 throttles that popped up on eBay over the years.

In reality, the quality and/or quantity of the people, be it infantry, armor, aircraft, or ships, almost always win over technical superiority. There has to be a major technological advantage with adequate numbers to overcome superior training/tactics. Usually, when there is a "turkey shoot" in air combat, whether it is over the Marianas in WW2, Korea, or the Bekaa Valley in 1982, there is a lot more going on in favor of the victor than a particularly good airplane or missile. Some computer simulated combat with AMRAAM to validate its value prior to going into production showed that great pilots win no matter what aircraft or weapons they are given, largely due to an uncanny ability to maintain "situational awareness" no matter what is going on. Of course, lesser pilots benefited greatly when given agile aircraft with great avionics and AMRAAM. In the case of Israeli performance, not only are they good at air combat with whatever they have available to fly, but they are good at propaganda as well. It can be hard to assess performance accurately when the information needed is being provided by the people being judged. It doesn't help when Israeli opposition either says nothing or makes claims as or more outrageous than the Israelis. I have read some Soviet assessments of the MiGs versus F-4s from Vietnam to Israel. But where the US is willing to admit they made mistakes and suffered unacceptable losses, the Soviet reports do nothing but praise their aircraft and criticize the F-4 and/or the poorly trained crews that failed to fly the MiGs properly. Whereas, the assessments I have read of the MiG-21 versus the F-5E and MiG-23 versus all major western aircraft from the F-4 and Mirage to the F-15 and f-16 seem far more honest/sincere. No one has ever set up a lab where we can perfectly compare equipment in a way to provide fair data for flight sims. The fact is, mass production never produces identical products. Any two aircraft or missiles may have very different characteristics, perhaps performing significantly better or worse than the brochure data. The great thing about the SF series is you can easily change it to match your preferences if there is some aspect that really bothers you. At this point, so many patches and upgrades keep coming down the line, that I would rather stay stock just to keep it simple and not worry about which files didn't get updated correctly due to mods or broke mods due to updates. I still drop some stuff in for fun, just not the gigs and gigs of stuff that is available online (though I have downloaded and burned to DVD quite a bit of it). In the latest SF2 patches, the Soviet equipment is performing much better than ever. MiG-23s are very much a threat. I can get comparable results with AA-2 Atolls as to AIM-9s per comparable versions. Later Atolls work plenty good :) AA-8s are absolutely the way to go if you can get into firing parameters. AA-7s seem to perform comparably to AIM-7Es, which is a pretty fair way to model it given what I have read online and in books. I have lots of stick time flying MiG-21s and MiG-23s. I can very much beat F-15s if I know where they are coming from, but agianst AIM-7F/Ms and AIM-9L/Ms with no decoys, there is no room for mistakes.

File Name: 650404 F-100D Probable MiG Kill File Submitter: streakeagle File Submitted: 18 September 2011 File Category: SF2 Series Add On Missions and Campaigns Four F-100Ds of the 416th TFS, call sign Robin, were tasked with RESCAP on April 4, 1965. The flight had just started orbiting when they crossed paths with two MiG-17s almost head-on. During the resulting dogfight, one of the MiGs was fired upon repeatedly by Robin 02. Capt Donald Kilgus could see hits on the tail, but lost sight of the MiG in the clouds. The gun camera had failed and no one was able to see what happened to the MiG. So, the USAF only awarded a probable kill. After the war, the VPAF admitted to losing three MiG-17s in air-to-air combat that day. This was the first and last time F-100s tangled with MiGs in Vietnam. Most likely, this was the first United States air-to-air victory of the Vietnam War. Robin flight was on RESCAP and had just started orbiting . /*****Sources******************************************************************/ A. USAF "Red Baron" WSEG Report 116 Event III-2 Detailed account. (very detailed, most accurate) B. Osprey Combat Aircraft 89 F-100 Super Sabre Units of the Vietnam War by Peter E. Davies, pg. 21. (general account) C. MiG KILLERS A Chronology of U.S. Air Victories in Vietnam 1965-1973 by Donald J. McCarthy, Jr., pg. 23. (photo and call sign) /*****Design*******************************************************************/ After extensive testing, this mission uses the following design decisions: Written for a stock SF2V install, no mods required. The stock environment does not permit multiple levels and types of clouds/haze. So the only the haze and cirrus layer are modeled. The lead F-100D and second pair are on a SWEEP over the Thanh Hoa area. The player is tasked as an ESCORT for the lead. The initial aircraft positions reflect WSEG Report 116 Event III-2. The F-100s are in an orbit at the Objective over water, south of Than Hoa. The mission starts when the lead MiG is first detected by the F-100s. The player and the other pair of F-100s are modeled as a separate flights with the same callsign. This permits historical positioning of the aircraft and differing missions. The player is flying as Capt Don Kilgus, Robin 02 (Rambler 01 of the 2nd Rambler flight in the game). The MiG-17s have been broken up into two flights. This permits historical starting positions and target objectives. Outcomes are typically close to historical results, but depend greatly on how the player flies. The MiGs tend to run away when being tailed. However, if not pursued, they will get a good firing position and score kills. /*****Playing Tips*************************************************************/ The mission begins with the enemy nearly head-on at 12:30 o'clock and closing fast. The first thing the player should do is jettison all ordnance and break into the threat. The F-100D has less power and is less maneuverable than the MiG-17. Do everything you can to keep your speed as high as possible. Do the following to make this mission challenging and realistic: ONLY USE THE NORMAL IN-COCKPIT VIEWS: <F1>, <F2>, and <F3> Do not use map <M>, target <T>, padlock <F4>, or any view target <F8> keys. Doing so provides the player with exceptional situational awareness. The player unrealistically always knows everyone's location. This extra knowledge allows a skilled player to possibly kill both MiG-17s. Be proficient with the POV hat, look up <NUM 5> key, and zoom view controls. Due to the way the game renders distant targets, spotting MiGs is very hard. MiGs that are not very close cannot be seen at all when zoomed out. Learn to zoom in and scan the horizon for small moving dots. This will be frustrating and the spotting distances may seem unrealistic. The end results are exceptionally realistic. The player may frequently get lost or disoriented. Like real pilots, level out and/or use check turns to find your way back. It will take skill and luck to spot MiGs. It requires even more skill and luck to get one or more kills. Of course, TrackIR makes this whole process much easier and realistic. Play the mission several times following these restrictions. Once used to it, the player will learn two skills critical to real pilots: 1) Visual scanning discipline to focus and pick out distant contacts. 2) Situational awareness to mentally track planes not within view. Good luck! Click here to download this file

I am the opposite of YAP: could care less about whether the cows are standing in the fields or there is a party at the end of the ramp... the "story" to be told is in the geometry of the real life encounters. The AI is very sensitive to speed, altitude, and angles. I can get very different results just by altering the start positions, headings, and speeds. My goal is to get the setup so close to reality that playing it out using the same decisions as the real pilot(s) gets similar results... at which point, you can see how it might have come out differently. I am slowly making my way through the Red Baron reports. I would like to make a proper master mission covering April 4, 1965 where you can fly in any of the key flights: the F-105s that got bounced, the F-100D RESCAP flight of this mission, the F-100D CAP flight that encountered MiGs, or The F-105s that made it all the way to the target, but lost one to ground fire in USAF account, but more likely to a MiG-17 by VPAF account. The problem is, that no matter how well I time the flights, it would be pure luck if any of the historical encounters even took place. Whereas in these little missions with forced start conditions, you get an idea of the problems faced in each specific encounter. Something that was never really apparent to me from prior studies is how bad the weather/visibility was during a lot of the air-to-air encounters. Whether playing out various dogfights with board games in the 1980s or flying in flight sims, I never choose more than scattered clouds. But the Red Baron reports make it clear there was frequently a high overcast cloud layer above 20,000 feet with broken to overcast cloud layer somewhat lower between 3,000 and 10,000 feet. Additionally, it was also hazy, which cut down visual detection and identification ranges. I am sure there were plenty of encounters with better weather, but so far, all of the ones I have been studying had similar conditions despite occurring in different years and months.

Absolutely amazing. Now what happens if you put a wall just like that one on the same track and the two walls collide at the same 500 mph speed? Something has to give!

Gepard was trying to say that the Atoll is even worse than an AIM-9B in the game, which he would argue is unfair since the design was nearly identical. Right or wrong, TK tends to favor western assessments of Soviet equipment over Soviet assessments. With no real solid reference, it is more a matter of personal opinion. It is my opinion that the observed build quality of Soviet equipment (such as tanks, MiGs, and ships) and the publicly reported combat records favor TK's assessment. A Mirage III cannot turn tighter than an F-4E, with a very significant difference between sustained rates as observed by Israelis.

I have rudder pedals... what I like are authentic controls. CH throttle has never appealed to me. CH pedals were too close together. While I don't really care for the F-16 style stick, the quality of the hardware in terms of accuracy/precision is top notch on the Warthog with plenty of data to prove it. The throttle setup is the other great component. If and when I get a setup that can play DCS:A-10C, the Warthog stick is by far the way to go. Too many have sent their Logitech sticks back and replaced them with CH sticks for me to even think about trying them. From wiring problems in the throttle to precision problems caused by deadbanding in the firmware, the Logitech sticks have some major unresolved issues. There are certainly some nightmare stories out there my Warthog owners as well, but the overall design and software are solid, seems to be more of a quality control problem. So, as long as I don't get one of the nightmare lemons, I may actually end up with a stick I like better than Saitek. Previously, all of my HOTAS have been Saitek. I loved the X-36 USB. The X-45 has problems due to the centering spring, but the X-52 Pro got it right 100% for me. As I already have my preferred F-4 Phantom B-8 stick, a nice realistic throttle would be what I really need, and the Warthog throttle is an excellent match for it. Similar to the F-15A throttle, which also had a B-8 stick grip. If only SF series sims could use the dual throttle to its fullest.

If you delete the tga, it will be perfectly transparent... no reflections of any kind either.