Tailspin

Typhoid...that first piece was hilarious. Sadly it is also spot on. The nearly religious zeal of those who have fallen for Obama's dog and pony show is beyond rationalization. Obama's campaign is like a beautifully wrapped gift with nothing in the box. The combination of electing Obama (based upon his campaign rhetoric) with Democratic control of Congress will be like giving a crack-head a credit card and expecting him pay the rent. The second is more clearly definable evidence of what we are talking about. The FOX news revelation, IMHO, just supports the notion that newscasters are just paid actors following the script.

There are very few real Conservatives in politics today. These days, in terms of general "60's" ideology, the conservative Democrats (what used to be known as Southern Democrats) are "mainstream" Republicans and the Radical Left are "mainstream" Democrats. I used to be a Democrat...then I got older and wiser...and maybe more than a little jaded. To borrow Stewart's term, "Dreamerica" is just that. An impractical, already discredited, pipe dream of the Radical Left fraught with socialistic and communistic ideals. Note: Before anyone gets all excited, no reference to Marxism is intended or implied.

The damage is actually due to the very low compressibility factor of water. It transfers nearly all of the explosive force of the warhead to the ship's hull, breaking the keel.

I showed a picture of one of those to my wife. She prefers my Romanian SAR-2 (semi-auto AK-74).

You can't put the mag in backwards on my Colt HBAR...at least not with GI mags. I just tried it. Won't even go in far enough to get stuck. Since the curve on two 30 round mags wouldn't match, the only possibility I can see where that picture is real is if she had a 30 rounder clipped to a 20 rounder with the 20 round mag inserted in the weapon...unless its some aftermarket mag thats different than GI mags or the HBAR commercial lower is different than the model she is using.

When the Berlin wall came down I remember asking my Uncle who flew B-52s for SAC in the 70's what he thought about the end of the Cold War? All he said was, "All those ICBMs are still in their silos." I agree. The Cold War never really ended.

There is nothing dogmatic about it. Its called the Constitution. :yes: The drug dealer law as written was designed to confiscate the property of drug dealers. The idea being that said property was obtained with illegal and obviously untaxed income. That law was quickly "expanded" by overzealous LEOs into the idea that police could confiscate the property of drug "users" such as the vehicle of an owner that was caught with a single joint in the car. A clear abuse of the law and the powers given to police by such laws. Same for cash. I don't know about you but $5000 isn't much money...about what you might need for a few weeks vacation. The Govt. is telling me I basically can't take the cash necessary because I am a suspected drug dealer if I do and we can confiscate it until you prove otherwise. The counter point I was trying to illustrate is that abuse of power by Law Enforcement Organizations is much more common than people realize. And FYI...48 of the 50 States in the US have concealed carry laws that allow anyone who meets requirements and obtains a license to carry a concealed firearm on their person in public. Guess what. Violent crime in those States has dropped considerably. Fact is the areas with the most restrictive gun laws have the highest incidences of violent crimes. Crooks aren't stupid. They know where to find the most vulnerable victims. As for reliance on police protection...well we have a saying here. "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away."

Man, looks like I'm going to have to finally break down and add another HDD so I can get back into WWII again. Good stuff guys!

Yesterday I was watching CNN (not really watching just happened to "land" there for a few minutes ) and McCain was live at some town meeting somewhere. This left winger posed a "question" in the form of a long rant about the evils of the Iraq war and McCain's unrelenting support for the same. The McCain friendly crowd started razzing the questioner, McCain interceded on her behalf insisting she had the right to talk and let her finish. When she finished her anti-war rant/question, McCain began to give his response....CNN broke away before McCain finished his first sentence. Unbiased? No way! Call me paranoid but I believe the TV "News" is scripted in every detail down to the facial expressions of the talking heads. The unsuspecting viewer is fed exactly and only the information the "ownership" want them to get and its delivered with all the bias they can get away with...which is usually a lot because most folks aren't aware they're being conditioned to respond a certain way. They're all guilty. Fox is the same, just leaning the other direction.

Congrats Laton! Spend all the time you can with your children. They'll be grown up and on their own before you know it.

Mike, the Gundata.ini is located in the ObjectData.CAT file in the Objects folder. You will need the SFP1e extract utility located HERE . You'll also need the latest Gun Data Editor located HERE . You can either change the gun data in the Gundata.ini or the Gun Editor but you must "save" the new data with the Gun Editor. This will create a new GunData.DAT file which is the file the sim actually reads. You don't have to repack anything. Just put the new Gundat.ini in the Objects folder. The newly generated Gundata.DAT should already be there. Sound more complicated than it really is. If you have any problems just ask here and I'll try and help you out. The cartoon actually came from my Dad's WWII era Bombardier School class graduation book. The "funnel" the "cadet" is talking into isn't the intercom...its the urinal.

So your solution is to once again give police powers you know they're going to abuse? How do the police know who to stop? I suppose if you "look" guilty to them then you automatically forfeit your presumption of innocence? Its bad for police to assume something because of skin color but OK if you are within a certain age range, wear your hair or dress a certain way, go to certain clubs or taverns, or live in a certain part of town? Why not just let the police come onto the subway and search all the working class folks on their way to work every morning? They may have a knife. Basic human rights are just that. You don't get to pick and choose when and where they can be ignored...or at least you're not supposed to. It has been proved time after time that too much power in the hands of Govt. will lead to the abuse of that power.

I don't know of any Govt. run ambulance services in my area...and they will send you or the responsible party a bill even if they don't save your life. What is the difference in paying for a fire call and paying for an ambulance ride? I don't see a problem with privately owned and operated Fire Departments...especially in rural areas with inadequate tax bases to pay for the proper equipment and training.

Mike, you can add armor to the engine. Add the following lines to the Engine section of the aircraft's Data.ini. HasArmor=TRUE ArmorMaterial=STEEL Armor*RIGHT*.Thickness=6 Armor*LEFT*.Thickness=6 Armor*REAR*.Thickness=12 Armor*BOTTOM*.Thickness=6 SORRY, THE BOARD IS TRYING TO READ BRACKETS AS BBCODE SO REPLACE THE *'s WITH LEFT AND RIGHT BRACKETS ACCORDINGLY. These are the values aren't that strong. They were originally added to help reduce the number of forced and "dead stick" landings by the AI in the original FE. Made the engines tougher to allow more damage to be done to the rest of the planes. The result was more shoot downs and less force downs. Of course you can experiment with your own set of numbers with this too. There is another method of reducing overall damage that Peter uses with his new FM downloads. That is reducing the bullet weight in the GunData.ini. He has them set to 60% of the original values. This works pretty good and is less time consuming as it covers all aircraft at once. If you go this route remember you have to update the changes by saving them with the Gun Editor, or you can download Peter's latest FMs. He includes a modded GunData.ini and GunData.dat file in the download. However installing these files will overwrite any previous mods you may have done to the GunData.ini so back up your current files if you have modded them already. This works with stock data.inis so you'll likely have to readjust your StructuralFactors.

If you'll look in many of those areas, Indonesia and Africa specifically, you'll find Muslim extremists and Al Quaeda right in the middle of it. The enemy is clearly defined....as are their intentions. They offer no quarter and should receive none. The rest of the world needs to wake up and smell the coffee. While we "wait and debate" the enemy only gets stronger. History has apparently taught us nothing.

Well I've changed the horizon distances to the pre-EP values but the "blue band" was still present...just not as close. I added Polak's horizon (got a different keyboard so the Z key works now ) cloud mod and the blue is now a grey. Looks better. I've got to upgrade this old machine of mine.

Well, Peter, I've finally found some spare time to try out your new FMs and most everything else and I'm impressed! The AI, both enemy and friendly, is superb! Probably the best I've seen in any sim. My flight mates are out performing me. In fact in one mission the #4 man got all four kills! I have tried the reduced bullet weight before and was not convinced it was the best way to go but it appears you have got it figured out. It also appears you have got the damage model sorted out too. No more easy maneuvering with only one aileron. I haven't tried the campaigns yet (need to get all the planes together) but I'm sure they will be just as enjoyable. You've definitely taken First Eagles to the next level. Great job!!

Just volunteering for service, any service, anywhere, is Heroic in my book. God bless you all!

In that case you could probably get by with 20 meters between planes.

Extract the WWI_AIRFIELD.INI from the terrain.CAT. The take off spacings are there. Currently set a 15 meters apart. Since the Gotha's wingspan is 23.7 meters you'll need at least 25. This may cause problems with larger flights as the outer planes might collide with some ground objects? If that happens you could also try staggering the lineup by adding to the -200 value and reducing the side to side spacing. Problem is the AI take off faster than the player so you'd still have to hustle to get off. Haven't tried any of this so it may or may not work.

Hello Topo. Welcome to CombatACE! Sorry, I'm not an online player but we do have some members here who are. I'm sure someone will come along soon to help you out. TS

Chris Cornell. ...oh yeah, Paul Rogers too.

Lets try a little common sense here. So, we've got photos of the left booster venting gas...in the same joint as the right one? Lets see...same design launched under the same identical conditions as the other one and its leaking too? What a revelation!!! Also consider that the photo of the left booster is AFTER the main tank exploded. That booster being subjected to a huge explosion and the resulting change in aerodynamic stresses after it was blown off and still burning also suggests (to me anyway) any comparison to what might have been going on prior to the blast is invalid. Some people just don't understand basic science. Thats about the goofiest "conspiracy theory" I've seen yet. Also, as I understand it, those seals were designed to reach maximum effectiveness under the pressure of the fuel as it burned (thus the occasional venting seen before as noted by MAK069's friend). The conclusion that the cold weather affected that ability makes perfect sense. IMHO streakeagle sums it up pretty well. "NASA procedures and safety were warped by the political/economic need for flights. Essentially, given key decisions involving risk assessment such as extremely cold weather on the launch pad or external damage to the airframe, the people making the decisions did not receive or ignored negative feedback from knowledgable engineers in the quest to stay on schedule and given the historically good success rate the shuttle enjoyed."

I wonder where the "buck" will stop on this one?