streakeagle

I didn't need any credit. Google MiG-21 7701 and you get a whole lot of photos and history. The book I have did help tie down the loose ends. Not only an amazing and famous paint scheme, but MiG-21MF 7701 has a long, interesting history.

I refused to take the Chief's test since the results simply didn't matter. My EAOS was well before results would be out and even if I could have made chief, I wasn't staying in. The command advancement staff tried to tell me to take the test OR ELSE. But I played my Ace: the Captain of our sub. He had already agreed to let me leave in peace rather than fight over a protocol that was utterly meaningless for the Navy or me. Of course, I got a NAM in the mail months later after it was meaningless. The only times a medal counts to me are: 1) when it is awarded in front of the people who knew whether or not you deserved it. 2) when you wear a full dress uniform and you can show off all of your chest candy. They didn't even send me the actual medal, just the piece of paper saying it was awarded to me. And they wondered why I was so unhappy with the Navy in general and with that command in particular. ... but I'm not bitter Everyone I ever served with who stayed in made Chief or Senior Chief. A scarce few made Master Chief. Most retired almost immediately after reaching 20 years as the stresses of submarine life and the current political-economic situation simply make Navy life to painful to want to stay for 30. I am proud to have served and even more proud of those I served with, but getting out at 8.0 years was simply the right choice for me. Congrats to all those who made Chief! I hope they get used to having their spines removed over the next 10 years

That is an awesome skin in real life and looks really good in the game, too!

I had all of the air combat board games and miniatures rules. Air War was complex and detailed, but flawed. Air Superiority was much better: easier to play and more realistic. Combined with the Air Strike and Desert Falcons supplements, Air Superiority had a comprehensive planeset. But the ultimate was when Speed of Heat was released, making the official rules more realistic than my own custom set I had created and expanding the plane set to cover pretty much every jet that flew from WW2 to the present. I recently moved to Orlando and finally threw all of my old games away. But I have one new one that is better than all of them: http://www.airbattle.com/Birds_of_Prey/Welcome.html It evolved out of Air Superiority, but its 3d movement system is as realistic as it can be and even easier to use than Air Superiority/Speed of Heat.

Even more info from the web: http://www.hobbymastercollector.com/HA0140Mig-21MFStressTeam.html Czech "Stress Team" Official name was "Letecké středisko inspektora letectva a PVO AČR" / "Flying centre of Air Force and Air Protection Surveyor of Army of the Czech Republic". Later renamed "Letecký zkušební odbor" / "Flying Test Department". The team was officially formed 1.3.1994 (director was Chief of Air Force GenMjr. P. Štrůbl) at Čáslav AB. December 1994 the unit was relocated from Čáslav AB (because there already were a lot of regular air force squadrons located there) to Plzeň-Líně AB. In January 1995 the unit was renamed as "Letecký zkušební odbor" (LZO). Commander of the unit was pplk. Josef Rada, former commander of the 9.sbolp on Bechyně AB, most of the unit’s pilots were from 9.sbolp as well. Unit’s aircrafts - MiG- 21MF - 4307, 5209, 7701, 7711 (all silver except 7711, and from 11.slp Žatec AB), 9410, 9412, 9414, 9802 (all in green-brown camo and from 1.šlp Přerov AB), MiG-21UM - 0165 and 3756, MiG-21R - 1501, 2149 and one L-39ZA number 5013. The main objective of the unit was developing new tactics, training procedures and the application of these to fighter units. Very soon the unit was assigned the task of displaying the Mig-21 at various air shows so they were known as the Czech Air Force "Delta Team" as well. The "Stress Squadron" was canceled soon after the crash of MiG-21 MF (7711, pilot Mjr. Luboš Kubát) and MiG-21UM (3756, pilot Mjr. Miroslav Holak and technician Roman Kovařík – who was onboard against Czech Air Force rules!!!) over the town of České Budějovice on 8.6.1998. The collision occurred because of bad weather while arriving from an air-show.

From "Mikoyan MiG-21" by Yefim Gordon and Keith Dexter: Czech Air Force MiG-21MF '7701 Grey', 4. SSLT, 1997 7701 Black MiG-21MF 967701 built 22-6-73, delivered 6 to 10-73, first unit 6. SBoLP E, 9. SLP, 9. SBoLP, silver overall. Painted in 'Delta' aerobatic team colors in 1992 (black overall with white/red/blue arrows on upper surfaces and 'LS' on rudder) 11. SLP, 82. SSLT, damaged Pizen-Line 9-1993 in collision with MiG-21MF '4421' but repaired, 11-1993 moved to 4. SSLT, 'Stress Team' Caslav between 6 and 9-1994 stored at Pizen-Line 21-7-1997 to LZO Ceske Budejovice, painted in experimental three-tone disruptive grey scheme with low-visibility insignia as '7701 Grey'. Moved 1999 to 41. SLT, withdrawn from service 21-3-2002 and put in storage at LZO Ceske Budejovice where noted 2005. So there you go :)

They actually show this paint job being applied here: http://www.211squadron.cz/foto/how/index.html Is it possible that this aircraft is from the same unit as the website? 211th Tactical Squadron? Definitely a 1997 paint job and very famous from all of the web photos I have seen. Ahh, that website had details: 7701 finished its career with the 211th, but since the paint job was so popular they decided to show how it was created. It was serving with LZO when painted in the splinter scheme, which fits with the entry in the biography above: 21.7.1997 flight to LZO Czech Budejovice. That is probably as good of an answer as you are going to get without talking to Czech people.

I found some very specific information on this aircraft here: http://techmag.valka.cz/let_l_mig21_3g.htm Mikoyan MiG-Gurjevič-21MF, 7701 Manufacturer: Race No. 30 "Znamja Truda", Moscow Serial number: 967701 Year: 1973 Biography: 22.6.1973 made ​​with camouflage paint the same year flight to Czechoslovakia to the 6th sbolp at SO LOK was stripped of paint in May 1988 passed the 9th slp in 1991 at the 9th sbolp after the year 1993 remains in CR from March 19, 1993 at the 11th slp from September 1993 at the 82nd sslt in September 1993 damaged in collision with 4421 after repair in 1994, he joined "stressové flyers" in Caslav from January 1995 at LZO LZS-1 in Líních painted black with all accessories in the national colors on the upper torso the rudder and the letters SS symbol F in "Team Delta" with the numeral III from June 1996 to July 1997 out of service in the 51st LOZ Line in 1997 got a wing with olétanou camouflage 21.7.1997 flight to LZO Czech Budejovice from 26.8.1997 to 29.8.1997 equipped with a new three-color camouflage of segments <---This is the paint scheme you are intereseted in! from 1998 at the 4th zTL, adapted for carrying container, SM

In some directions, there are significant reflections, but if you look to the left, you can't even tell there is glass in the canopy frames. I have never liked the idea of tinting, frosting, excessive scratches, and over-emphasizing glare in flight sim 3d models. I want to see what is outside when I fly, not observe the "weathering" skills of some 3d modeler

I am less concerned about the plane. That guy went through quite a bit to become a fighter pilot, and now this one incident could mean the end of his career. I hope there was some kind of failure so that the pilot gets a free pass from the review board and continues to fly. It always kills me to see someone lose their combat flying career for merely being human and/or unlucky.

When an F-4 unit converted to the F-16, no doubt, they were excited. The F-16 was cutting edge. More maneuverable than even the mighty F-15. But we didn't buy the F-16 because it was the best solution. We bought it because the preferred solution, the F-15, was too expensive to replace all of the F-4s. The top unit in Vietnam was the 555. They didn't go from F-4 to the winner of the lightweight fighter program. They were honored with the F-15. Countries that has budgetary limitations bought the F-16. Those that had money, bought the F-15... now extend this to the present. The F-22 IS the modern F-15. The USAF attempt to build a fighter that could go undefeated in air-to-air combat for as many years as the F-15 has. The F-35 IS the F16... the other plane that the rest of the world is buying because it is smaller and cheaper. Will pilots flying F-15s that are falling apart from age and dishonest subcontractors be happy to get F-35s? Of course. But only a chosen few will get the F-22. That is my point, which has nothing to do with how much better an F-35 is than an F-15 rather than how F-15 pilots would feel getting F-35s instead of F-22s, as the F-35s were meant to replace F-16 bomb trucks and F-22s were meant to replace the Ego drivers' rides.

I never realized that F-4EJs never got slats. They should be the "cleanest" F-4Es flying with less weight as well. Should make them faster with better acceleration and climb performance. The only major losses should be turn performance and stability at high AoA.

TK will let anyone do just about anything if they offer the right price. First Flight The Wright Experience did some things with TK's engine that SFP1 was not doing at the time and still not doing now. Among them was a dedicated wind-tunnel based flight model in place of TK's fm. IIRC, it has a mission recorder, too. If I had it installed right now, I would verify that feature. This project appears to be more of a YAP style user modse turned payware rather than the truly commercial grade product that First Flight represented, so I don't expect any engine changes or radical breakthroughs.

Smile for the gun camera, before 20 mm impacts at 50-100 rounds per second

There is nothing in the game to allow you to switch positions. You could create a custom view that allows you to move to another fixed position rather than simply sitting in the main cockpit, but you won't be very happy with the results.

In the F-15/F-16 pair, it was called the hi-lo mix. The F-15 has the twin-engine higher capability / higher cost aircraft of the pair. The F-16 was the cheap single-engine workhorse. In the F-22/F-35 pair, which do you think the F-35 is? So, if you are a top ranked unit flying the previous top ranked aircraft, going to the "lo" cheap aircraft is a step down when the F-22 is already on the table.

The USAF "rewards" great combat units by assigning them training jobs. When F-15s were replacing F-4s, what famous unit from Vietnam became a training unit? Triple Nickel It even kind of makes sense that your combat proven best be the heralds of the next generation of fighter planes and fighter pilots. Unfortunately, the F-35 is kind of a step down from F-15s. The F-22 would be a higher honor: smaller more elite group that took the place of the F-15 as opposed to being the F-16's low budget replacement.

Be careful adding gpus to store bought PCs with integrated video chipsets. A lot of PCs are sold with the smallest, cheapest power supply that will get the job done with the hardware originally installed in it. Any decent gaming gpu may eventually kill the power supply. You also have to look at cooling issues. Cheaper PCs usually have smaller cases with less ventilation. If you are lucky, the case will be plenty big enough to fit a decent modern card and will have places to add more fans. <rant> I have a desktop PC my wife's employer gave to her. It is much newer and faster than my aging Athlon 64 3800 gaming PC. But it is in a smaller case, has room for only a single slot gpu, and only a 300 Watt power supply. If I put $100 into a new power supply, use an old case I have laying around, put $230 into an odd 6850 single slot gpu, and buy a Win 7 64 Home license for $120, I would have a decent PC compared to what I am using... but is at 3 years behind the times and at $450, I could buy a much newer better bare bones combo and end up with a far superior PC. Some day I will get an up to date rig so I can fully enjoy my existing sims and be able to fly the latest ones like Rise Of Flight and DCS:A-10 as well. </rant>

When the Luftwaffe, then flying F-4F Phantom IIs, absorbed MiG-29s and their pilots, the first thing they did was ground the MiG pilots so that they could learn to fly ACM the western way. The MiG-29 pilots could not understand why they were grounded, so a mock fight was conducted between an F-4F and a MiG-29, both being flown by the best of each sides pilots. The F-4F smoked the MiG-29. Even with the 20+ year difference between the service entry dates for the two aircraft and the resulting technology and performance advantages, pilot quality, training, and experience are still more important than the plane. I read the article describing this event in a Smithstonian Aviation magazine in a Navy Exchange magazine rack.

I have seen an entire TV special about that. Fortunately, satellites provided a far more practical and effective solution aside from the humongous cost of lobbing even the smallest payloads into a decent orbit.

nVidia has had their fair share of driver issues including driver changes that resulted in brand new cards burning up. So, I wouldn't restrict the advice to ATi products. Unless you are suffering catastrophic problems that a new driver specificially fixes, I wouldn't update drivers for the sake of updating UNTIL there is some history of what has happened to those who have done the same. I have been using ATi for a very long time: Radeon 8500/9100 128MB Radeon 9000 128MB Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB Radeon x800XL 256MB Radeon x1800 512MB Radeon HD4890 1GB None of those cards ever failed and I have had only a few annoying driver issues. The main problem I have experienced is that much later drivers add some new feature or bug fix that I want, but break some critical backwards compatibility with older games I still play. I know for a fact, nVidia drivers have done the same, so don't give me some fanboi story about ATi drivers being crap compared to nVidia. It is useful for both ATi and nVidia to remain competitive. It ensures consumers continue to get better products for competitive prices.

I remember my reaction to seeing Star Wars when it first came out. I was in the 4th grade. 1. Darth Vader and Storm Trooper in opening scenes. 2. R2D2 and C3PO. 3. X-wing fighters. I learned to draw all of the above and made my own paper models of R2D2, C3PO, and X-wings. I love being Storm Troopers and X-Wing pilots in Star Wars Battlefront 2, almost enjoy that as much as combat flight sims and OFP/AmrA2.

My son fell in love with Star Wars at about 2-1/2. I also taught him to play Star Wars Battlefront 2. But he has always loved clone troopers and battle droids more than anything else. So he prefers Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. He also fell in love with Hoth thanks to Battlefront 2: Snow Troopers, AT-ATs, and AT-STs. But the most memorable scene to him was Jango Fett getting his head lopped off by Mace Windu's light saber. This had a direct effect on his play time with the figures: someone isn't truly dead until you pop their head off. It has taken a lot of work for me to keep up with all of the heads, arms, and legs he likes to pop off of his clones and droids.

The Mirage looks all too well in USAF colors. It could easily have served with Air Defense Command. In those colors, it kind of looks like a delta-winged F-104... Which leads to the inverse: what if France had flown F-102s, F-104s or F-106s instead of Mirage IIICs? With similar intakes, the F-104 would look good in the Mirage paint scheme with "Starfighter" across the nose :)

It should be very clear why most true all-weather interceptors had a crew of two until digital technology automated most of the RIO/WSO workload. Even with night vision, thermal imaging, and hi-res terrain-following radar, dedciated night/adverse weather aircraft still get a crew of two :) The alternative solution employed by both sides in the Cold War was to uses a single seat, but bypass the pilot completely with automated ground-control intercepts. The pilot could operate the radar and get a fire control solution while ground control steered his aircraft based on their radar tracks of the target and the interceptor. It is a great solution with decent sensors and weapons as long as you can avoid a furball.