FastCargo

Congrats! You never forget your first solo...you start hearing all these new noises you never heard before! What airport in Northern CA...I've flown a LOT around that area. FastCargo

If he's in the desert...there are already plenty on station... :) FastCargo

And THAT's what I meant...the USN can keep their F/A designations... :) . FastCargo

Example of surviving (and winning) a double disadvantage fight: While in my 1993 WOE campaign in a F-8FN (French Navy), guess what I get jumped by - I get lucky though...he blows a bunch of his airspeed attempting a rapid nose track convergence to the left. Meanwhile, as you saw in my shot above, I stay near corner speed and head downward to keep him near the top of my canopy. What eventually happens is that his AOA is so high, and he's so intent on staying INSIDE my turn circle, vs getting ON my turn circle, that he can't gain airspeed, and his nose is stuck aft. I realize he's new enough that I unload while keeping the left turn...letting him try to converge his nose, then do a 'rope a dope'. I barrel roll (using rudder, aileron, and a whole LOT of pull) and suddenly generate a TON of angles on him to the right. Pretty desparate move...if he was smart, he would have simply quarterplaned upward, waited until I spent my energy, then gunned me from above. Instead he attempts to continue his turn to the right, doing a quick gun shot (surprise!) and then sliding below me, with full elevator deflection (yeah, THAT close). I continue to roll right in a full barrel roll to end up behind him, blowing all my energy...but... Again, I'm now spent on energy...but I have a shot (and in this case, a kill). If this didn't get him...I was going to do a hard descending turn left and down...and RUN! Taking on a Su-27 in an F-8 is suicide if the Su-27 is a decent BFM guy. Note the airspeed of Su-27 just before he dies. I'll put money that guy after his initial convergence pull on me, he never got above 250 knots in the rest of the fight. Why? Because he was stupid! He did the typical new guy trick of thinking I've got a hot fighter, I can just pull and pull and pull.... And I wasn't too smart either...I decided to fight a Su-27...what I should have done in the initial encounter was pull hard toward him to make as much of a head on pass as I could...then assuming he waited until after 3/9 line passage, decided to turn, I could have unloaded and blown through...give myself max time to escape. This was fun though! FastCargo

There is no F/A-22...puti! :) FastCargo

Folks, please don't misunderstand us. We're not bragging, or trying to be cool, or anything like that. What we are trying to do is apply real world experience to the discussion. The USAF and other services learned some very hard lessons in Korea and Vietnam...namely, that technology isn't enough, it's how you train. So as much as you hear about military spending debacles, failures of tech, etc, etc. be aware that the operators do get it done. If a system has limitations, we either fix them, or change our tactics to minimize them. We constantly evaluate the state of our training and change programs to fix them. It's the new blood, the young 1Lts, Capts, Majors (in the pilot field) who constantly challenge the status quo and make a difference to adapt to new threats. Also, when we train against other countries, if we're getting training, the countries imitate the main threat we face. If we are helping them train, then we imitate the threat. Example: In 1995 I played with the Canadian CF-188s up at Bagotville CFB in Quebec. We were helping them work on their intercept procedures. I was in a B-1B...but I wasn't playing one in the field. I was playing a 'threat bomber' using specific 'threat procedures' and techniques. Another example: People make a big deal about the Indian exercise with Su-30s against F-15Cs. What you don't hear about is the ROE the Eagles were using. They were most definitely NOT flying as USAF Eagles. That kind of training doesn't do as much good as flying against what you might actually face. So when you hear the results of an exercise...context is everything. Unless you know the exact ROE, results can be meaningless. No one is harder on our tactics and our machines than ourselves...sit in on a fighter debrief and you'll see what I mean. FastCargo

If you think about it, a cluster LGB is sort of a contradiction in terms. An LGB is meant for pinpoint destruction, a BOOM at the weakest point. A cluster bomb is an area attack weapon...the more area covered, the better. Now, though with the SFW in combo with the WCMD, we can have a little of both. FastCargo

There's an old joke cartoon around somewhere. B-2s retirement ceremony, a general is giving a speech. Which gets interrupted by a B-52 doing touch and goes. Substitute F-35, and A-10 respectively, and the cartoon still works... :) . FastCargo

This has killed more than a few weapons systems. Not that it wasn't better, but it wasn't better by enough, or that the overall cost of the infrastructure change to support the new system was not cost effective. The F-20 comes to mind...a better CONUS ADF aircraft in overall competition...but the F-16 could be adapted for far cheaper, and the logistics tail already exists. The T-46...great replacement aircraft for the T-37...but not by enough. Every time a T-38 successor has been designed, it's ended up being a slightly better T-38 at twice the price...again, not cost effective. FastCargo

Let's see... I can't dance, but I can fly a plane well...which frustrates the wife no end. I barely have the hand eye coordination to play sports, but can knock tin cans off a bench at 50 yards with a handgun. Can barely fix stuff around the house, but can rebuild almost everything tech based from PSPs to cars. FastCargo

And the answer to that is: So What? The airwar's job is to destroy the enemy's capacity to threaten our ground forces using air assets, and to support our ground forces and overall politcal objectives. I don't care if that means we destroy every single aircraft on the ground and the F-22, F-15, whatever ends up boring holes in the sky because there is nothing left to shoot at. I don't care if it means the first targets in the air are cargo resupply aircraft, AWACS,J-Stars equivalents, and tankers. I don't care if it means the enemy's air war ends because we blowup their main C&C bunker with a MOAB. The F-22 is not stand alone system, it's part of an intergrated system that's designed to defeat an enemy's ability to make war from the air. There's a reason the F-15 hasn't faced a decent opponent until recently...because we're good at the air war! That's why the F-22 and soon the F-35 exist. And why future systems such as UCAVs are around. And why we train, Train, TRAIN. Because it's about turning the enemy into hair, teeth, and eyeballs. It's not about looking good at airshows, it's not about what something might do in a knight's of the sky, mano e' mano, gun only match. It's about sneaking behind your enemies back, and giving him and his buddies an AMRAAM enema and vanishing. Period. Will it last forever? Heck no. There are always future developments. Hell, advancements in computing may make all manned fighters obsolete. The airborne laser may be improved and start swatting aircraft from the sky 'Star Wars' style. But not at the moment. FastCargo

1. Ace Combat X - PSP 2. Metal Gear Portable Ops - PSP 3. Burnout Legends - PSP 4. Syphon Filter Dark Mirror - PSP 5. Pilot Academy - PSP 6. Need For Speed Most Wanted - PSP 7. Star Trek Tactical Assault - PSP 8. GTA: Liberty City Stories - PSP 9. Race Driver 2006 - PSP 10. Quake - PSP FastCargo

Could you make a duplicate of the terrain directory? Then just tweak the particular .ini files? I'm not sure...I'd have to look. FastCargo

Typhoid, Excellent post. Flying with guys who have either flown the F-22 or flown against the F-22...the story is the same from both sides. It's weird...usually new aircraft never live up to the hype. The F-22 seems to be exceeding expectations, a rarity. Maybe I should have gone to TPS after all... FastCargo

Mmmm...no. FastCargo

They might...I saw the Iron Man trailer...he definitely gets the yellow/red armor, races some F-22s, and Black Sabbath was singin... :). FastCargo

Based out of Memphis, currently on the A300/310. If I read your location right, I've been up to your neck of the woods many a time in an A310 and DC-10. FastCargo

This might be good to post in the air combat section...assuming the values would work in any other sim. Couple of questions though: 1. Are the values for airspeed in KIAS or GS? 2. I'm assuming these are level bomb drops? FastCargo

Definitely a 'Sundowner' then. As in 'Be gone before sundown...'. FastCargo

Awesome job on the PC-9 and the coming USAF reskins...nice job guys! FastCargo

Okay, some further notes. Basically, what you're trying to do in this situation is setting yourself up in a classic or rolling scissors, more than likely a rolling. The idea is keeping your lift vector on your opponent, using rudder and roll as necessary to cause him to overshoot. You use 3 dimensions to minimize your travel distance, while lengthing his. If you head downward, you now are in a defensive spiral. The advantage here is that you can use gravity to keep your speed up (without getting fast!), to maximize your pull toward your opponent. Hopefully, he won't realize he's accelerating and will end up overshooting in front of you. The disadvantage is that you can only do this for so long... FastCargo

Mur, The answer is...and I hate to say this, but 'it depends'. There are a ton of variables involved with every dogfight...and a change in any one of those variables can drastically change what you should do. Let's assume worst case, he's in prime weapons employment zone, his overtake is controlled, he's ready to shoot, and you're in a double-disadvantage aircraft (high wing loading and low T/W ratio compared to your attacker). Okay, first point: You Are In Trouble. Let me say that again - YOU ARE IN TROUBLE! G-limits, flap limits, speed limits are no longer relevant...your only job at this point is to survive with all your body parts and hopefully most of your aircraft. JINK! Using your rudder and stick to stagger around the sky like a drunken idiot. Unload, go negative, slam the rudder back and forth. Give it a second or two for each input...just enough to change your vector. It takes time for the computers to compensate for the change in velocity vectors, and by the time the computers in the attacking aircraft compute your new path, you can jink in another direction. However, this won't work for more than a few seconds as the attacker realizes you aren't really changing your flightpath. Then you can start doing something called an orthogonal pull. Basically, unload, rotate your lift vector 90 degrees to his wingline, and then pull hard. As soon as he rotates his wings to follow you and tries to commit his nose, unload, rotate another 90 degrees (either direction) and pull again...you will probably have to head down to keep your energy up. Continue to do this while the situation still exists. Hopefully, while doing this, he ends up not controlling his closure and either has to pull away to gain spacing, or shoots out in front. Things to note: Stay at or near corner speed. Putting out boards and ripping to idle MIGHT save you from him...or will leave you a slow sitting duck. Also, being at or near corner gives you maximum nose track (building angles) with minimum turn radius (increasing closure and the possibility of overshoot). Watch your altitude. There is only a limited amount of sky available. Watch him! You need to see what his nose is doing to figure out how to counter him. Be ready on expendables if he fires a missile. FastCargo PS More to come on this subject...just need some time to put something a little more informative.

I know my UCAVs will open doors to attack...so it's definitely possible. FastCargo

I've always been a night owl. The condition is aggravated because I fly for FedEx (overnight freight). Also, even when I'm home, I tend to wake up in the middle of the night...so I usually go downstairs for a bit, get a drink, drop in here, then hit the sack again. FastCargo

Good luck with that. You may find it a bit difficult...missiles tend to only be added in pairs. And dual rails application can get complicated. FastCargo