FastCargo

You do know those pics are taken at street level right by Google? It's basically an omni directional camera that sits on top of a car/truck. Nothing that's done there is technically illegal because it's taken from a public location (the street). I could walk down your street and do the same thing (take pictures). They are supposed to erase license plates and people. Now, there was an issue with wi-fi snooping, supposedly by accident on unsecure routers. You can research the internet for more info on it. Cell phone location is easy...it works on the old principle of triangulation. What the GPS does is get you close, then the cell towers use triangulation to get an exact location. GPS is not THAT accurate, that's why airports use WAAS to augment the GPS signals for approach work. As far as cell phone usage, what's the exact law? For us, cell phone use is legal except in school zones and on USAF installations (hands free only). I haven't heard of a broad 'no cell phone use at all in a moving vehicle' law yet, do you have one there? These are simply cases of technology outrunning the law's ability to keep up...a lot of that information has always been there (your name, address and phone number in a phone book), but now it's available quickly, easily, and globally. FC

I thought it was an exercise input. I was stationed at Beale AFB at the time, and so on the west coast, we were lagging by a few hours. My wife was off having spent the night at a sorority she was an alumni of and was doing some chapter advisory work for. I woke up, cleaned up, and drove into the squadron, having not turned on the radio or TV (I lived on base at the time). At the time, we were going through an exercise, playing various reindeer games. I walked in to go the morning brief, noticing, oddly, that it had started before I got there (I was early). I sneak in the back while the SQ/CC is talking, with what sounds like a scenario input, but it seems oddly disjointed. It wasn't until she made the comment of "We're not going to let these assholes try to cut the balls off our country" that I started realizing this was more than an exercise. Right after the brief, we all gathered around the TV in the squadron bar and kept up with events. They shut down all access to the base, and my wife called wondering what was going on. I told her to hang with the sorority and that we would be fine. It still seems surreal at times. FC

Y'all better be appreciative of what Dels has done here. This is nothing short of outstanding. FC

I'll believe it when I see it. Operating a modern fighter squadron is expensive. Unless they get a lot of business from deep pocketed players, this won't last long. FC

TA radar is. TA is a manual mode. The proper term you are looking for is Terrain Following (TF). TF is not implemented, neither the radar or the autopilot (though the AI does a pretty decent job of staying out of the weeds). Also, those videos are inaccurate - the first was filmed with a fisheye lens, so the FOV is higher than normal human FOV and the aircraft is flown deliberately near sonic speeds and at lower altitudes for the show. The second is an R/C model...so the sense of scale is off. If there is a weakness in the 'sense of speed' in the TW sims, it's the terrain. The more detailed the terrain (larger amounts of smaller objects are better), the better the sensation of speed. The TW terrain has always been a weak point in the sims because it is low resolution. It however, is not inaccurate in terms of rate of speed or distance covered. FC

From Kotaku.com As all stores located on Army and Air Force bases will no longer be allowed to sell Electronic Arts' upcoming military shooter Medal of Honor because an aspect of the game includes playable Taliban characters. The Army and Air Force Exchange Services has confirmed to Kotaku that they requested the game pulled from the 49 GameStop's located on bases in the continent U.S. The ban, an AAFES representative told Kotaku, also extends to all military PXs worldwide. In an email to employees, GameStop says the decision was made "out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform." "GameStop has agreed out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform we will not carry Medal of Honor in any of our AAFES based stores...," the email, obtained by Kotaku, reads. "As such, GameStop agreed to have all marketing material pulled by noon today and to stop taking reservations. Customers who enter our AAFES stores and wish to reserve Medal of Honor can and should be directed to the nearest GameStop location off base. "GameStop fully supports AAFES in this endeavor and is sensitive to the fact that in multiplayer mode one side will assume the role of Taliban fighter." The stores on bases contacted by Kotaku all confirmed that they no longer will be selling the game and referred us to GameStops in town to pick up the title when it comes out. Electronic Arts declined to comment further for this story. They have, though, made their opinion on the matter clear. The commanding general of the Army and Air Force Exchange Services confirmed told Kotaku that his decision was based on the inclusion of Taliban in the game and impacts all PXs located on Army and Air Force bases worldwide and all GameStops located on U.S. bases.

External stuff is mostly stock footage (there is an external scene with me in it) most of the cockpit stuff is me in Red Flag. I think that scene you mention is during TF testing. FC

Actually what I keep thinking of lately is Strike Commander would be that much easier to make... FC

Actually, the loiter thing is cool to...simulate A/R tracks. FC

Altitude and airspeed assignments...interesting...VERY interesting... FC

For some motivation: http://combatace.com/uploads/1283782929/gallery_12105_63_27898453.wmv FC

Okay, that's just funny right there! FC

Got this in the mail today, I used to have this way back in the day when I was a kid. But it got destroyed back then and wasn't interested in finding it until recently. It's basically a concise history of the T-Birds from the beginning until the T-38 era. It's a reprint of an article from Replica in Scale magazine, January 1976 issue. Includes 3 view diagrams of all the paint schemes, flight suit evolutions, formations, maneuvers and concise history. Even includes the paint schemes for the support C-119 and C-130 and the 'Lizard' F-4s. Streakeagle, I know you have one...has anyone seen an electronic version of this book? FC

Yea, that's why I was looking for this book. I hadn't seen a book on the T-Birds before or since that had those nice 3 view diagrams set up perfectly for a modeler. FC

Final note, and this has been discussed before reference the 'sensation of speed'. The problem is one of resolution and FOV. The default view of most of the cockpits is so that the instruments and HUD can be read on an average resolution computer screen. The problem is that the FOV to do this is about 2/3 to 1/2 of the FOV the human eye naturally sees. Because of this 'zoomed in' effect, ground rush is significantly slower than it should be. To get a truer sensation of the proper FOV, zoom out. As a technique, I zoom out until the canopy bow takes up about 1/2 of the lateral length of the screen ie: Left edge of screen - 1/4 screen - Left canopy bow - windscreen - Right canopy bow - 1/4 screen - right edge of screen. You'll find that will give you an increased and more representative sensation of speed without resorting to arcade trickery. FC

Wrench, The scaling issues shouldn't matter really, because the units don't change. The only difference for the most part should be the comparison of the real world distance vs the map counterpart (ie a target that is 100 NM away in real life shows at 63 NM in the sim, but the aircraft should still cover the 63 NM distance in the appropriate time that it's real world counterpart would cover 63 NM). Mainly what the 63% affects is fuel usage and total time airborne, since you're not traveling as far as in real life. Also, just as a test, I did a timed run in an RF-111A, 6000 MSL, 480 GS (using the enhanced HUD info available in Debug mode). On a target that showed on a 25 NM ground map scope...it took just a tick over 3 minutes to get there. This was verified on my watch and on a kitchen timer. I'm not seeing any sort of sim slowdown at all. I'm running on an Intel T8300 (2.4 GHz dual core), 4GB RAM, Win7-64, NVidia 8600GT, SF2 at June 2010 patch. Hardly a fire breather, but runs well enough. FC

Ed, sorry man, but you're wrong. 390 Knots GS - 30 Knots GS = 360 Knots GS = 6 NM per minute. 10 NMs should have taken 1.66666 minutes or 100 seconds...not 101 seconds. Okay, you can smack me now. FC

Your math is WAY off. Lets assume you meant you were at 12000 ft MSL, 400 knots IAS/CAS. For a target that was 20 NM way. Assuming that the CAS/TAS difference on a standard day is 5 knots per 1000 ft, that means you were doing 460 TAS. I'll even give you a fudge factor and make it an even 480 TAS. Assuming no wind, that means your ground speed (GS) was 8 NM per minute (easy math). That means for a 20 NM target, it would take you 2.5 minutes to get there. If you were trying to do it in 0.3 minutes (about 20 seconds), that means your GS was 60 NM per minute, or about 3600 Knots. You would have to have been traveling at about Mach 6 to make it in 0.3 minutes. Now, you could argue with me, but considering I've flown at Mach 1.1 at 300 feet in real life, and I can do these kind of speed calculations in my sleep because I did them ALL THE TIME, I'm pretty sure I have a little credibility on the subject. FC

Being 'part of the food chain' has nothing to do if you're normally on the menu...it's a matter if you're edible and can provide nutrition. Being on land or in the water provides no exclusivity on being eaten or not. FC

The version you see there is pre-targeting pod capable. Dels and I discussed the idea of 2 cockpit versions..one pre pod and one post pod. Up to Dels if he wants to make a post-pod version. It does look like it has the FMS and NVG mods though... FC

Ah....memories! FC

Oh for the love of God...really? FC

The only thing I can think of is making the gun a separate weapon station (ie mount a 'gunpod' that is invisible). FC

Yahoo News By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer – Fri Sep 3, 5:08 pm ET DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A UPS cargo plane with two crew members on board crashed shortly after takeoff Friday outside Dubai, officials said. The state news agency WAM, quoting the General Civil Aviation Authority, reported that the "bodies of two pilots" had been found at the scene, but UPS did not confirm that. The plane went down inside an Emirati air base near a busy highway intersection about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Dubai's international airport. WAM said the crash occurred in an unpopulated desert area, suggesting there may not have been casualties on the ground. Smoke rose from the crash site, which was shielded from the highway by walls. Migrant laborers from a nearby camp gathered along the roadside to watch. UPS spokeswoman Kristen Petrella said the Boeing 747-400 — which has a wingspan of 212 feet (64.6 meters) and length of 232 feet (70.7 meters) — went down at about 8 p.m. in Dubai (12 p.m. EST). Flight 6 was en route to the UPS hub in Cologne, Germany, she said. Petrella said the plane had two crew members but the company has not confirmed any casualties. Two U.S. aviation experts said the plane had taken off and then turned around and was returning to land when the accident took place. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the media. UPS, an Atlanta-based company formally known as United Parcel Service Inc. and the world's largest shipping company, dispatched an investigation team to the scene. A Dubai-based spokesman for the General Civil Aviation Authority, Ismail al-Baroushi, said an investigation was under way, but it was "too early to speculate" on the cause of the crash. National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz also said the U.S. agency will send a team of experts to Dubai to assist with the investigation. A witness, who refused to give his name, said he was sitting on the balcony of his home when he heard a "big boom." "There was fire and too much smoke," he said. In October 2009, a Sudanese Boeing 707 cargo plane crashed in the desert outside Dubai after taking off from Sharjah airport north of Dubai, killing six crew members. Emirati regulators have banned the plane's Sudanese owner, Azza Transport, from operating in the country. There are about 300 747 freighters in service, carrying about half the world's air cargo. UPS planes have been involved in four accidents since 1985, none fatal, according to an aviation safety database. The most recent involved a fire that broke out in the cargo hold of a McDonnell Douglas DC-8 en route from Atlanta to Philadelphia. Smoke was billowing from the plane when it landed, but the three pilots were able to evacuate safely, said the database, maintained by the Flight Safety Foundation of Alexandria, Va. In 2005, pilot error cause the nose gear of a McDonnell Douglas MD-11F to collapse during a landing in Anchorage, causing $10 million in damages to the plane. Prior to Friday's accident, five major airline accidents have been linked to Dubai Airport since 1973, with no fatalities, according to the database. The most recent was on March 12, 2007, when a Biman Bangladesh Airlines Airbus A310 with 236 passengers and crew members aborted a takeoff. The plane came to rest at the end of the runway with a collapsed nose gear. ___ Associated Press Airlines Writer Samantha Bomkamp in New York and AP writers Michael Casey in Dubai and Joan Lowy in Washington contributed to this report.

Interesting. I'm not sure how feasible that would be. We're taught to more than likely expect an aircraft break up during a ditching situation. Unless I had no other option (ie no landing strips available within 15 minutes) I'd probably shoot for an airfield somewhere because there would hopefully be fire and rescue support. FC