Heck

Glad to see a skin artist of your talent taking this on, Wrench. I'm hoping that you'll do a Battle of France version as well, because the update to the Battle of Britain terrain adds targets all the way to Paris, which opens possibilities of some Battle of France missions, or a campaign in the future. It would be great to see an earlier skin as well as your Vichy. I tried painting the entire bitmap of this aircraft, as suggested above, but it doesn't cover the gun. I had to settle for a decal, but even that only changed the color slightly, making it closer to the khaki green used by the French. I've never posted my skins, because they're not up to the standards of the community. I quickly discovered that I can't paint to save my life, so I had to settle for cutting and pasting a camo pattern on the bitmap using a photoshop filter called Camo 101 (I think), and then changing the colors using Gimpshop to the rgb values found at Simmers Paintshop. My decals are all cut and paste images found on the net, so again, they're not up to standards. I'll be one of the first to download yours when it's finished. The French used three versions. The A-1's had four guns; two cowl, two wing. The A-2's and -3's had six, so those are the versions you'd be representing. When it comes to the tail codes, -2 series were numbered in the two hundreds, -3 series carried numbers in the three hundreds. I know you've probably already seen the sites I've found, but if you need some links for the earlier paint schemes I can post them for you. I love the Hawk. Thanks again for taking this on...

WOV 5.01g WOE 4.76g WW2, Korea, FE (merged) 9.86g About 20 gigs total. Had a Mid East version, but put it on cd to save room. My hd is only 33.8, so I guess I'm pretty devoted to this sim...

Hi, Gambit. Fubar512 created a new sound for the jets called Jetpit. It varies with airspeed, softer, and lower pitched, when you're going slow; louder, and higher pitched, when you're moving fast. If you pm him, maybe he could do the same thing for the windloop sound in FE, or explain how he created the file, so someone else could give it a try. I think it probably could be done. As far as tip vortices, I don't think the aircraft of the time could generate them, although, I could be wrong. I don't think they could get into the speed and g range where they could generate them, and if they did, the wings and rest of the bus would have parted company long before they appeared. Again, I'm not that versed in aerodynamics, so I could be wrong. I did see a real Camel (130hp Clerget) turn in just about its own length once at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, and it didn't generate any tip vortices. Heck

The file you've opened is the campaign ini. You need to extract the WOVCAMPL1_DATA.INI, which is in the MissionData.cat, found in the Flight folder. When you extract it, you'll find all the squadrons in the campaign listed. You can change the type they use there. After you modify it, just make sure you move it into the Linebacker 1 campaign folder. If you don't have it, you'll need the cat extracter, which you can find in the downloads here.

One point many historians seem to miss in making comparisons between these aircraft and their relative combat effectiveness is that there were still many 109e-1's flying as late as September, or even October of 1940, which skews the numbers, because the e-1's had only four rifle caliber machine guns. And many aircraft flying during this period were just beginning to be retrofitted with pilot armor. Galland mentions in one of his recollections that his Me 109E was fitted with an armor plate behind his head in early 1941, at his mechanic's behest, and the plate saved his life when he was hit by a Spit V. His aircraft had an armored seat, but originally, for whatever reason, lacked the armor plate covering his head, which was attached to the canopy. So these aircraft were by no means standardised in their equipment during the battle. I think you can feel free to change them in any way that feels right to you, and you won't be far off the mark, so if the 109 feels too weak, I'd bump its armor until it feels right. You'd need to add some more squadrons to equip one with E-1's, so it's probably not worth the trouble to add them, because of the way the game has to deal with equipment, but they were there...

My personal F-86e in Korea is "Check Six Baby!" It features an appropriate semi-nude redhead kneeling, looking back over her shoulder. A Vargas girl I found. My first attempt at painting on a skin, I think it turned out pretty good. Love the F-86. She's such a pretty bird.

I'm doing some French Hawk 75 schemes and am trying to find a site that explains the underwing markings on these aircraft, such as, X8-81, or U0-40, etc. I can't seem to find any site that details the specifics of these codes. On some aircraft the second set of digits matches the last two digits of the individual airframe, ie: U0-40 was the 140th Hawk received by the French, but in some cases it doesn't match, ie: X8-83 was actually aircraft 184 according to the tail number. I'm confused. Does anyone know of a site that explains system of coding? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Heck

Thanks, Erikgen, and Christian59. I was confused because some of the pictures I downloaded off the net were of the same aircraft, and one profile would place the codes under the wings, while the other would not, so I thought it might be just an artist's thing, whenever they were missing. I'm bookmarking that site you gave me, Christian59. So I can check it out in detail later, after a bout with some real world plumbing problems. Thanks again to both of you for your quick responses. This is the best, most responsive, and helpful flight simming community I've ever had the pleasure of being associated with. Heck

Your WOV terrain repaint has always been my personal favorite. No offense intended to any other terrain modders out there, but it's just damned beautiful to fly over. It just has a feel to it that I can't really describe. You go to an exterior view of a Mytai phantom, or one of Easykill's D25 Thuds, and it puts you there somehow, I don't know how. Great work, Deuces.

I can't 3d model, so I have to ask. We don't have a G6 Schmidt, but the F4 could pass for one if it had these. It could certainly pass for an early G. Many F4's actually flew with them. The big MK103 tubs supplied with the Butcher bird don't work, and the 20mm was the much more common installation. Most 109's in 1944 and 45 flew with these, and the Germans actually stripped them off in some squadrons so these fighters could escort the bomber attackers. A nice to have item, now that Wolf has released his WW2 collection. If someone could take it on, it would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Chop the throttle and throw out the speedbrakes, Maverick! He'll fly right by ya! Iceman out.

Got to agree with you about the Thud. One of my all time favorites. My favorite part of a mission is cranking into a climbing turn in full burner coming off the target, and looking back over my shoulder to see how many spans of the Dragon's jaw my team and I have dropped into the river. Especially if there's ZU-23 tracers chasing my tailpipe. Great sim, great stuff. I do find I often have to break the old rule, "one pass, haul ***," quite often though, because my bombing accuracy still sucks. If this were real life, my call sign would be "Go Round."

Thanks, Capun and team. On a middle of the road system such as mine, I have always been able to utilize what the A-Team releases, and I appreciate that. Some of the models out there I can't use even with the ini tweaks to use high polygon models. I know other people would tell me that I should just go out and buy a new system, so that I could utilize them, but I can neither afford that, nor is that what TK has expressed as his intention with his sims. So, I have two things to thank the A-Team for: First, for releasing interesting aircraft that I can use; and, second, for keeping the spirit of what TK has stated as his intention for his sims, which is to include people like me, rather than exclude people like me. Keep them coming.

You need to make some changes to the gear section of the data ini. But, since I don't upload any changes here without permission, I'm officially asking now. No, bouncy, bouncy, blow up. Remember, deck crews called her the Passionate Pachyderm, because the pilots were constantly throttling up the engines during landing, which sounded to deck crews like an elephant in heat. One pilot actually named his aircraft this. I had 160 knots on the clock when I hit the deck at 65% power... http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autom...si&img=2937

I was flying it in hard mode. Didn't even know you could land it in normal. Just sent you a pm with my changes. Hope it helps people who like to fly in hard mode. The a/c is great work.

My Viet Nam collection of airplanes just keeps growing. Great work, A-Team! Waiting for this now, as well as Easykill's 105-31. Thanks to all. Love the bug eye cockpit!

... the sim would accept these lines in the VIETNAMSEA_TYPES.INI: UseAircraft=TRUE AircraftType=F-4d_static instead of: UseGroundObject=TRUE GroundObjectType=CGN-9 ... then we could use all the static aircraft provided here in the VIETNAMSEA_TARGETS.INI to populate the airfield tarmacs in sim generated missions, rather than just in user created ones. Then, with the SimHq speech mods, Bennus' music, and these in place, I would be in Wings Over Vietnam heaven... Ah, well....

Posted this same thread at Thirdwire. Going over there to check it now. You're right, Buff. I should ask him directly. Just hard for me to ask something of someone I know has as much on his plate as TK. He's given me more than I ever imagined when I picked up that first copy of WOV...

Many years ago, I read a book by an author named P.J. Carisella, called, I believe, "The Day the Red Baron Died." If I remember correctly, it contained a diagram drawn by British doctors at the time which showed the path of the fatal wound. It struck him in his lower right ribcage, traveled upward, struck his backbone, deflected, and exited his upper left ribcage just below his left nipple. It actually lodged against a wallet he carried and was recovered by the British, according to the book. The book convinced me that it was a ground gunner who killed him, probably Cedric Popkin, because many ground observers said that the Red Triplane flew on for quite some time after Brown's Camel fired its one quick burst and sailed out of sight. The Baron would have had to have been in a steep turn, or Brown would have had to been at a lower altitude for the bullet to have struck the Baron this way if fired air to air. It took him a few moments to die, that's why many ground observers on both sides of the lines said he appeared to crashland, when, in fact, he struck the ground at about a thirty degree angle, crushing his face. And it was because of this misinformation that his friends and compatriots in JG-1 spent an agonizing afternoon and evening waiting for word from the British that he had been captured, but when the news came, it was the worst. Why was Roy Brown given official credit? According to Carisella, politcal pressure to award the kill to the newly formed Royal Air Force, because it was considered fitting that they should vanquish their most famous and formidable foe. Brown's report is reputed to have said, "I fired at a red triplane, that was observed to crash by Lieutenants Mellersh, and May." As Carisella pointed out, neither pilot, being heavily engaged, was really in a position to see, especially May, who was at low altitude, and high speed, running for his life. Carisella claimed, right, or wrong, that many a confirmation of a kill during the war was more of a gentleman's agreement than an actual confirmation. I apologize for the graphic nature of this post, but I think we sometimes forget the men we're talking about and what they suffered. This one was a hero, whoever killed him. A hero who continued to fly in combat after a grievous head wound in July of 1917 that never properly healed and caused him chronic, and often debilitating, headaches for the balance of his short life, which ended in a few final moments of agony over the Somme Valley. A hero, who, according to the books, told the Kaiser himself that the man in the trenches can't go home, how can I....