HomeBoy

When I first got OFF, it took me two or three days to realize I needed to click that "Window" label! Sheesh!! I felt REALLY stupid when I finally realized how to do it. I haven't stopped hating that CFS3CONFIG thing since. A close second is the horrible joystick controller interface. Boy, I gotta stop letting posts like this set me off like that! I'll go take my meds now.

Check here: http://snomhf.exofire.net/trackIR.html In fact, everything I have written can be found somewhere at the site: http://snomhf.exofire.net

10,000'

So, if I have an SE5 loaded with both bombs and flares and I want to fire off a flare (for example), I would: 1. Select Next Weapon (Backspace key or Button 4) until flares are selected 2. Fire the flare (Enter key or button 3) Correct? So then, what is "Select Weapon" (Shift-S) used for then? Sorry if I'm confusing this further since I am unable to test this at the moment.

Hmmm. Taking what UncleAl is saying here to heart I thought maybe I should rename "Select Next Weapon" as "Arm Secondary Weapon" or something like that. However, as I recall, some planes (Sopwith Camel for example) can load both bombs and flares in which case you truly would be "selecting next weapon." Sounds like further experimenting is necessary to decide if these commands are incorrectly labeled. Bottom line, I'm certainly willing to change the command card to reflect reality. I'm going to watch this carefully before I decide to change anything. Thanks for that observation.

BTW. if you're interested, here is the thread my "One armed bandit" friend Ross did when he was building his stick. He is a remarkable guy. I can only imagine the pity party I would have if I suffered such an injury. But not Ross. He is a true inspiration! http://www.ch-hangar.com/forum/showthread....ight=tripehound

I thought you might be amused by a bit of a tour of the HomeBoy Laboratory. (Sorry this is pulling this thread a little off topic perhaps). I've always thought of myself as kind of a cross between Sid (from Toy Story) and Dexter (Dexter's Laboratory). I'm suffering a bit of downtime at the moment as I've sliced the end of my thumb pretty badly with a razor knife working on my latest project. It's not that bad really but I have this giant bandage on it and it's definitely affecting my flying. It's been bleeding like crazy and I'm sure once I get that under control, I'll be able to switch to a regular bandaide and will be able to resume. I figured I'd just show you the lab while I wait to heal. Feel free to express all sorts of sympathy! :yes: First, the project I shed literal sweat and blood over: A friend of mine sent me this thing. It's called "The Claw." It is designed for FPS games (which I don't even play except for Call Of Duty 2) and I have no idea what I'll do with it now that it's done. The thing had horrible buttons on it and the circuit and associated software were equally horrible. I pulled out all the electronics and replaced it with a CH Throttle Quadrant and put an extra two-way hat at the thumb position as well as replaced the four thumb buttons with a four-way hat, the index finger button pair with a two-way hat, the middle finger button pair with a two-way hat. I was able to clean up the ring finger and pinky buttons well enough to make them work so I used them. The nicest feature of this thing is I can use the CH Control Manager to program it so it is the ultimate in programmability. Maybe later I'll crank up Call Of Duty and give er a whirl. Maybe I should install this Rainbow6 game that I never even took out of the shrink wrap and see what that's like. Here I am in the shop displaying my masterpiece: The FrankenForce stick. It's an old CH Force FX stick that I've gutted and replaced with two joystick circuits: Logitech Wingman Force (which gives me the Force-feedback) and a CH FighterStick which gives me all the buttons and great CH Control Manager programmability. Here is a lefty version of the FrankenForce like the one I use. I sold one to Condor as well who is also a lefty. I sold one other one and have two spares out in the shop somewhere. I should probably get rid of them but the Force FX stick is so hard to find anymore that I hang on to them. My wife will tell you I hang on to far too many things! Here was a fun project. This belongs to a friend who lost his right arm in a motorcycle accident and we designed this monstrosity so he could fly IL2 using his left arm. He did most of the work, I built the lefty stick for him and mounted a throttle arm gadget on the side of it. His name is Ross and lives in Teignmouth, Devon England. He is a wonderful guy. I wanted so bad to visit him while we were there but he just lived to far from where we were to make it happen. Maybe some day. This is something I called the "FighterRunt." It's a CH FighterStick with about 3/4" segment sliced out of it to make it fit better for someone with a smaller hand. This is my CH Pro Throttle in which I added a second controller board which gives me Rudder, Aileron, and Elevator trim and a couple of other axes (e.g. Mixture, cowl flaps). I put some high dollar pots in for my trims and get really sweet trim controls with it. This is one of my favorite contraptions. Here was a fun project. This is a P51 trim wheel unit that I built for SkyPig, a squadmate in Aces High. He built a P51 cockpit in his home and hired me to make this trim unit for him. It worked great. Here is SkyPig trying out his new trim controls. This is my little part time business: theLeftyHOTAS I use right-handed CH controller handles and convert them to left-handed. Here is a batch of them just before sanding and painting. I have sold about twenty five of these since starting the business about four years ago. I have sold these things all over the world. Ok, that's enough. Sorry for the length of this post, I got a little carried away there I guess. Enjoy!

This is another one of those gems that needs to find it's way into the Knowledge Base OvS is putting together. Thanks much!

I am a shooter. I wish I was a hunter. I always seem to find myself in a mess of my own choosing. After it's over with I kick myself for not flying smarter. I have the utmost respect for the hunter who always works the advantages and is in control at all times of his situation. This is a great thread. Thanks Olham for putting this up. You guys are amazing! I consider it a privilege to be around such students of the art (I know that's a bit sappy but I really do mean that!) :blush2: -hb

Thanks for the tour and the great presentation OvS! Really nice!

Still pretty hayseed but a bit better quality than the first one. I have to tell you that I am really impressed with the OFF flight model with respect to stall and rudder control. The guys got that right. I have tried and tried to perform a proper hammerhead in MSFS (the last three versions anyway) and the ones I'm doing in this video with the Fokker D7F is far and away better than what I can do in the Extra 300 in MSFX. This is not just a fun game, it's darn good simulator as well! FYI: I found this video of Gary Rower doing a sweet looking hammerhead in a PT-17 Stearman (at the 1:10 and 2:20 marks). Now that's how the pros do it!

Just FYI: If you ever want to find anything I've done OFF related, you can find the command card, my video settings, etc. on my website. Just find one of my posts and look in my signature.

Hi CS, Yes, your joystick configuration is stored here: c:\Documents and Settings\your-login-name\Application Data\Microsoft\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\mine.xca You can simply make a backup of this file and restore it whenever you want.

Wow! This is truly remarkable. Thanks for that CS!

Great observation Bullethead! I too have noticed the AI never use the very valid Lufbery. Coming from an environment where there is no AI (Aces High), it was sadly considered "dweebery", "rookie", beginner to use this maneuver. The Lufbery is just as valid as any other ACM. Love your advice on how to use wingmen commands too. I'll have to try out your idea. Thanks!

Sorry about this guys. I just got a little too embarrassed about the video and deleted it. I didn't think it was ready for prime time. I'm going to redo it and see if I can't make it a little more professional.

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Oh man! Sorry to hear that Widow. Sounds like it's time for carbonite.com. I installed that on my wife's computer (the only important computer in the house ) It's great peace of mind!

Isn't it also true that CFS3 must be version 3.1 in order to install as you describe? If you have 3.0, you have to first install CFS3 and update it to 3.1, then install OFF. I can imagine that you would get an error of some sort if you are prompted for CFS3.1 disk and try to use CFS3.0. I don't know this from personal experience since my copy of CFS3 is 3.1 but that is what I understand. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

It's gone! Sorry to everyone who responded that I had to turn away.

I got in a bit of an R/C reminiscence mood this morning (it's been almost eight years since I held a transmitter in my hands) and was looking through some pictures. Thought you might find this fun. Phil Kraft designed a radio control plane and published the plans for it in the May-June issue of Radio Control and Model Aircraft World in 1966. It was loosely based on the Eindecker EIII but took lots of liberties to make it fly well (ailerons, no wires, etc., etc.) The one in this picture is a Great Planes kit that is even more modified from Phil Kraft's original design but was a wonderful flyer. In fact, this was one of my absolute favorite planes to fly. Sadly the one you see here I eventually carried home in a bag (in fact, one of the guys at the field walked over to me after I buried it in the ground and said "Paper or plastic?") Hope you enjoy! PS, yes, I changed my avitar! Being an ole LAF'er from RB3D, this seemed appropriate.

Just so you guys don't think I'm just ignoring you... I received an email early this morning saying he wanted both these items. I am waiting to hear back from him as I promised to give him first dibs.

I used to fly RC aerobatic competition. I was not very good but I always seemed to score well on the Hammerhead. The modern term "Hammerhead" replaced the original term "Immelman" and the term "Immelman" is now used to describe the half-loop with a roll at the top. Talk about confusing! So, when you read WW1 literature that speaks of an "Immelman", it is really referring to what we now call a "Hammerhead" or some people call a "Stall Turn." I like UncleAl's description of how to do a Hammerhead. That's pretty dead on. I flew an Extra 300 in competition which does a very pretty Hammer and here's how it's done in competition: 1. Develop full speed in straight and level flight 2. Pull up into a perfectly vertical line. 3. When the plane gets to the desired altitude or begins to lose energy, chop the throttle while keeping the plane perfectly straight. 4. At the exact instant the plane stalls and begins to tail slide (falls backward just as UncleAl describes), you goose the throttle (full throttle then back to idle very quickly) and simultaneously go full rudder in the desired direction of turn (usually in the direction of engine torque; left in the case of the Extra 300) and providing just enough aileron control to keep the plane from rolling at all. If you've done this properly, the airplane will rotate around as if it has a pin through the canopy and is rotating around that pin (it's a beautiful thing to watch) and then heads straight back down on the exact line it went up on. Most planes (such as the Extra) will waggle their tail just a little bit as it heads back down. That is a true sign that a stall actually occurs. Judges watch for that waggle and usually won't give you full points if they don't see that. Now, a "Wingover" is very similar to a Hammerhead except that with a Wingover you don't stall at the top. The plane skids around and actually flies sideways very briefly before heading back down. Guys running smoke do that a lot because it produces a very pretty U-shaped trail which looks great at airshows. An attempted Hammerhead in which there is not stall at the top is technically a Wingover. In fact, when I lost points on my Hammer, I would sometimes see on my score card "WO" which means the judge didn't see a clean stall and therefore called my attempted Hammerhead a Wingover. The planes in OFF don't really have the power to do what I've just described but you can do it with some dive to build speed and take a lesser angle on the vertical line. I've tried it with a couple of the faster planes in OFF and the results are pretty good. In fact, I can do a better Hammer in OFF than I can in MSFS or Aces High.

Since I bought TrackIR 5, I have my old TIR4 which I used for about three years. It is in perfect condition. I also have some old CH Pedals that I've converted to USB that have been sitting around since forever and would make a very nice step-up from a twisty or keyboard. (Description of the pedals follows). I was going to put these items up on ebay but got to thinking how perfect they would be for someone playing OFF. I figured I'd like to keep them in the family, that way I could deal with questions about configuring them in the game, etc. I'm not looking to make any money on these, just would like to help lessen the blow to the TrackIR 5 purchase a little bit. A donation is mainly what I'm looking for on these so just make me an offer. I'd like to see them find a good home. I will sell them separately but I'd rather just drop both of them in a box and send them to a single address. I'd rather not ship them outside the US. I hate to say that as I know a lot of you are outside the States but it is such a hassle shipping international that I'd rather not do that. So, if you're interested, drop me an email (please don't PM me) at: mhf99 AT yahoo DOT com. About TrackIR 4: I will include the reflector clip (mounts on a baseball cap) with the unit itself. I will not include any software (unless you want me to) because you can just download it from www.naturalpoint.com and choose either version 4 or 5 of the software depending on your preference. Not much more to say about this except that it works perfectly and is in excellent condition. It's just been sitting here on top of my monitor for the last three years. About the pedals: CH used to make a set of GamePort (pre-USB) pedals that had only a rudder axis (i.e., no toe brakes). These do not slide like the Pro Pedals do but rather use the "toe brake action" as the rudder. That is, you pivot the left pedal down and move the rudder left, pivot the right pedal down to move the rudder right. Also, the pedals are very close together (because I suppose they were originally intended to be used for car racing games). I have converted them to USB by taking apart a Logitech Attack 3 joystick and wired them up to use the X Axis (aileron roll) as the rudder. It's a bit strange in the sense that when you play a game that you want to use them as rudders, you will choose the device "Logitech Attack 3 USB" and select the "Axis X" or "Joystick Roll Axis" as the rudder pedals. That's really the only thing odd about them as they work just fine. Here is a picture of them: Here are instructions for setting them up in OFF. I've included these instructions so you can see what's involved and how they look inside the game. I am happy to help you set them up of course but if this looks like more trouble than it's worth, I wanted you to see the process before you contact me.

What's funny is I put in quite a bit of effort to get RB3D working, got TIR all tuned up for it, etc., etc., etc.. Then I discovered OFF and have done nothing with it since. At first I was thrilled to resurrect that great game but OFF made me drop it like a cheap date.