FastCargo

Here's the breakdown: Initial flight screening - approxiatemately 40 hours to get your private pilot license - usually flown in a Cessna type aircraft - approximately 3 months. Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training (JSUPT) - almost 200 hours total - broken down into about 90 hours in a T-6A and 110 hours in a T-38C - 1 year. Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF) - about 30 hours in the T-38C - 3 months. These are the preconditions needed to be qualified to start the F-16 course. Completion of said course will take an additional 6 months. At the end of that time, you will be a basic qual F-16 pilot. Then you will report to your unit, where you will get additional training to become mission qual, usually an additional 3 months. Total time, from start to a fully ready, deployable F-16 pilot as a wingman is 2 years, 3 months...assuming no breaks in training. FastCargo

'Best fighter' is a subjective and ever changing target, and can depend on many factors. FastCargo

Question: Did you fully patch your SFP1 install first? Did you get the latest weaponspack? FastCargo

FastCargo

And that would be MY wing.... FastCargo

Try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacDill_Air_Force_Base "Upon MacDill AFB's transfer to TAC , the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing was reactivated on 17 April (1962) and assigned to Ninth Air Force. Initially, it's only operational squadron was the 559th Tactical Fighter Squadron. The mission of the 12th TFW was to be prepeared for tactical worldwide deployments and operations. Until 1964 the wing flew obsolete Republic F-84F Thunderjets reclaimed from the Air National Guard." Also, before that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergstrom_Air_Force_Base "The fighter wings at Bergstrom were deemed no longer necessary, so the wing was transferred to Tactical Air Command on 1 July 1957 and redesignated as the 12th Fighter-Day Wing. It was inactivated on 8 January 1958." So, the 12th was basically inactive until 17 Apr 62, then activated and had the 559th under it, flying F-84Fs until 1964. FastCargo

I can help as well. Having just finished animating the landing gear in the T-38, I learned a LOT. It's a fairly tedious process, involving proper linking, reseting xform, and in some cases, frame by frame keying. FastCargo

Don't make me come up there and smack you! FastCargo

Guys, Does everyone know that 'two weeks' is a joke? 'Two weeks' is the standard answer given when there isn't a definite release date. The joke originates (if I remember correctly) when a real game company gave that as an answer to the 'release date' question...and it ended up being months (or was it years) later that the release actually happened. So, here, 'two weeks' equals 'whenever the hell it's really done'. FastCargo

I think I'll go with the full manual option. I've never liked the 'open and close' at a certain speed, even on the ground. I'd rather let the pilot have full control. Too bad there isn't a 'you dummy, you just lost your canopy' parameter for those who want a convertible. :) As far as the 'front seat, back seat' option that was the plan...seperate models for either seat. Either that, or just make a separate cockpit and inis and let the user install them at their option. Most of this is a big maybe...I still have a LOT of work to do just to get the external model to look right. FastCargo

T-38C instructor pilot (and Airbus A300/310 pilot) right now. I used to be a Bone pilot back in the day. FastCargo

What, you mean like this? Beale was my last active duty assignment back in 1999-2001. Man, if they made the T-38 instructor pilot a reserve job at Beale AFB, I might have never left...flying 38s in ACC is WAY more fun than AETC! Jug, if you're a grad of the Colorado School for Wayward Boys, you're probably interested in this photo and how it came about. I'm a 1990 grad, and for my 10 year reunion (Oct 2000), I decided to take a 2 ship up to C Springs and do a flyby for the football game. So, right after we fly over the stadium, I send my wingie out to route, pass the jet to my front seater, and start snapping shots. This was one of the best ones. That was a blast of a reunion. Interestingly enough, Class of 1980 was having their 20 year at the same time, so it was interesting comparing stories of then and now. Appearantly, a lot of them couldn't make the 10 year because of Desert Storm deployments...so there was a lot of interest in making the 20 year for them. Beale was a blast...even got to play in the spacesuit in the chamber (I was a T-38 only guy...no Deuces for me). Interesting watching a beaker of water boil right next to you...then playing 'Michelin Man' trying to reach the ejection handle... FastCargo

That's the problem when guys reach that high...they become politicans instead of leaders. And God forbid you have the cojones to tell it like it is. I remember when I was in the Bone, the WG/CC of Barksdale (mid 90s) basically told ACC that because of all the McPeak cutbacks, they could not support the SIOP. He was gone in a week. So much for trying to get support from above. FastCargo

Yea, as I said, I haven't optimized some of the parts yet. And I REALLY would hate giving up some of the curves that highlight the lines of the aircraft. It runs fine on my rig...but I have a pretty decent system. The 3 view diagram on Wikipedia is wrong. That's an F-5B (and a badly drawn one). The plan is to release the T-38A, AT-38B, and T-38C, all with working cockpits, proper weapon pylons (AT-38B) and specific weapon racks/luggage pods. Also, I plan to release the skin templates for all varients. I MIGHT do the F-5B as well, because most of the changes would only take minor tweaks to the max file. Note I say MIGHT. And this is a BIG maybe...I want to release a rear cockpit option, so you can see what I see. It depends how much trouble I have with the cockpit and trying to integrate it. This is why the scheduled release date is a YEAR from now. FastCargo

Thanks for the comments so far guys. For capun, I knew I could set the canopy animation as manual, just I didn't have a template ini entry to build from. I don't know which aircraft I have that have a manual opening canopy...so the airspeed solution was a 'quick and dirty' way to test it. As far as ground stability goes, the symptom was that the aircraft would simply crash anytime it touched the ground. While trying to figure out why my ailerons and elevators wouldn't move but my rudder would, I discovered (slightly embarassed cough) that the TW series doesn't like mesh names with spaces in them...which includes anything involving the gear. So after getting rid of some 'spaces': Perfectly stable...will make testing easier! Plus I now have tested my shock animations...woohoo! For Julhelm, here ya go: I haven't optimized some of the meshes (the engine box and fuselage). Also, the wheels were built out of spheres, so they are pretty poly heavy. Some of the optimizations have had wierd results, so I'm waiting until later to tweak them a bit. I hadn't planned on getting the model into game quite so quickly, but I realized before I started texturing that I needed to check all the animations and getting into game quickly was the only way to reliably check that. Plus, it's been a BIG motivator to actually see it flying around... The F-5B and T-38A are superficially similar...hell, even the offical USAF website is using the wrong 3-view diagram for the T-38 (it's an F-5B). They differ (externally) in the following: F-5B has square cut intakes...the T-38As are bent down. F-5B has small LERXs, the T-38A has none. F-5B has leading edge flaps...the T-38A does not. F-5B has more robust landing gear (it could take off from grass)...no way a T-38A could do that. There are some internal differences as well...but those are the biggies. FastCargo

Hey guys, First aircraft project of which some of you have seen teasers. Don't get TOO excited...I expect to be at release by Christmas...2008. So don't ask for updates either! On to the screenshots! Debating if I'm going to implement this...moveable canopies. Tested here as airspeed dependent. (Aircraft is not ground stable yet...that's why the wierd angle). I may just leave the animation in place and let end users put in the ini entries. You will be able to see the engine faces but barely for the A model...which is true in real life. The C model will be easier to see. Will probably not make spinning blades. The real aircraft has stator vanes at the front that mask most of the spinning parts. Classic lines...ignore the decal. I'm using the F-5A as a basis for testing...using the layouts to get an idea on how to skin, decal, etc. Has animated nozzles...just have to tweak the ini entries a bit. Has decent detail on the landing gear, and full animation, including shock struts and nose wheel steering. The model is sitting at just under 22000 polygons. My goal is under 25k for the entire external model. If it starts cresting that, I'll start taking out some detail. Still have to put on little bits (antennas, pitot tube, etc) plus figure out how much to put in the cockpit area. I've run into a snag already with the 'bubble' that sits around the cockpit viewpoint, which cuts out some stuff I wanted people to see...plus makes a 'rear cockpit' view harder to implement. That's it for now...I'm taking a break! FastCargo