Lt. James Cater

Wow! I've never even gave that a moment's thought. I'm having a similar situation with drop tanks for my F-15 squadron. At the moment we have 8 for 14 aircraft. Good thing recent missions have been nearby.

Screw that punk! Anyone remember the manuel for the original Falcon back in 1987 IIRC? This idiot is the kind that probaly considers it a Holy relic.

The FASA studio closing hit me hard. I'm still dedicated to the MW4 series. Especially Mercenaries, which gave me my introduction to online gaming and being a member of a gaming community.

The really good thing about the AIM-9B is that the Soviets duplicated it for the Atoll. As far as my use of the B goes, i estimate that i have had a kill rate of less than 10%. My opinion of it's use differs from Scouser. Against a fighter sized target moving straight and lever, inside of 2 miles seems to work well. 1.5 to 1.2 miles will usually get you the hit. Be advised, your aircraft should also be either straight and level or in a very shallow angle from 6 low. Once the range gets to a mile either go to guns or manuver to be able to stay at least a 1-1.2 miles behind the target(provided it's still straight and level) If it breaks, good luck on the rest of your fight! I've had greater success with the AIM-7 using boresight, but the envelope is pretty tricky. Much depends on the heading and speed of the target. When firing from 6 o'clock, i prefer to be 500 to 1000ft lower than the target at a range of 3 to 5 miles. With face shots, i've fired from as far as 12 miles with 5 miles being the absolute minimum due to the minimal time you'll have due to your closing speeds. A neat tactic in the case of the latter is to drop the nose and go full burner in order to give yourself sufficient seperation to turn back into the enemy and re-engage.

Looks good. Judging from what i read about it, it looks like they solved what was the worst thing about the T-72 and it's derivatives. It's vunerable ammo racks. Lots of knocked out T-72s could usually be found with their turrets blown clean off. Hope you guys have good sales with this tank!

Didn't bother with the article seeing as i've been putting up with that kind of stuff for years now. Metallica really was something special for the first 5 albums (Yes, even the Black one!). But i haven't been able to stand 99% of the stuff they've done since. The only thing i respect about Slipknot is that a few of them come from Thrash/Grind backgrounds. Before i forget, Morbid Angel and Emperor beats them both hands down easily. Want insane Progressive stuff? The Dillinger Escape Plan's "Calculating Infinity.

My usual thing with software is to wait a while and see what everyone else has to say about it. Without a single exception, every single person i've met that ran Vista said it's a dog. I'm going on Amazon in a while and am picking up a spare XP copy for emergency backup.

Damn, thats what i feared! It's to the point that i'm so worried about my wingmen that the temptation is strong to send them home sometimes rather than see them get shot down. I'm of the same opinion as SidDogg. Unless they are in top notch aircraft they are pretty much doomed.

I'm wondering more about my Squadronmates. I remember scrambling 12 Huns to defend against an incoming Soviet strike on our base and 10 of them got shot down with only 3 getting kills. Or one pilot in an F4 unit who not only killed one of our own during a CAS with a cluster bomb, but crashed during another CAS, and managed to pull the trifecta by killing me with an AIM9 on another mission.

The question i asked was rather stupid since i asked before looking at the PSU. I assumed that the PSU was similar to a module in which you simply disconnected the cables and that's it. Little did i realize that the cables don't detach from the PSU, but originate in it. Sorry all for the waste of time and space.

If really pressed for time and you are on your way home, just ESC and that's it. If anything, i NEVER use autopilot unless i'm close to base and need a break. One question about Uber AI (for WOE)...Does it dumb down the enemy or does it improve the guys in your squadron?

It'll never happen! Over at Mektek, people still hope for the day when M$ either gives up and lets someone else have a go OR that Mechwarrior 5 gets released. Considering all the crappy games that are out, there this is a true blow to lovers of quality.

The funny thing for me is that i almost always go North at altitude. It was to the point that i could pretty much judge when and where the SAM was coming from. The three big sticking points of constantly staying low is 1-Exposure to triple A, 2-Ordnance envelopes, and 3-Excessive fuel use.

I've never minded it that much. Always reminds me of watching the 'Memphis Belle" documentary when i was a kid!

In WOV i'm pretty much a bomb hauler. I've done my share of SEAD but not full time like a Weasel pilot does. However, i'm always thinking on how to get in and out of certain areas despite the defense. My view on SEAD... First off for everyone, get the SAM map that is in a thread of mine from 13Aug08. Probaly the only half decent thing i've ever done to contribute to this site and it will go a long way towards helping you stay alive. Studying it will let you know exactly what you are seeing on your RHAW. Knowing SAM is knowing life itself. Go North enough times and you can almost feel EXACTLY when and where from the SAMs will come. Put yourself in their shoes. If you saw a potential target on your control screen, how would you react? Sounds silly as hell but it works. Where you are going after the defenses determines just how bad things will get. Hanoi naturally is the worst single place with Haiphong a close second. Hanoi has no fewer than 10 SAM sites within shooting distance of it's center and enough triple A to keep you up at nights wondering exactly how you are going to survive your tour. If you want to make it you are going to have to do something to improve your odds. Taking out one or two of the Fan Songs at some of the more distant sites should help a bit. Close in SAMs are a pain but long launches are the killers. Chances are that you might not see the SAM go up and by the time it's nearing you it's at full speed and guiding. Going low for brief moments is something that is basic but overlooked. "Getting Red" is what i call it. Going down until the Altimeter warning light (and naturally the numbers at lower left) are red. Go really low, 500 FT is too high. You have to go lower, below 300 is fine. Don't stay there though, just dip and climb enough to break lock with the SAM radars. As far as the mission goes, the primary targets are your only reason for being there. PRIMARY! Knock them out as fast as you can. The first you find, give to your wingman and go after the second. As soon as you hear confirmation of a successfull attack find another Primary for him to hit even if you have to give him your own (provided he hit and you didn't). Don't dawdle. Time is life. The longer you stick around, the more chances you give the enemy to shoot you down. If you achieve your objective and still have ordnance and are bent on making them Commie b*****ds pay for all that shooting at you, try dropping it on the closest Fan Song to your egress route. Be warned, the areas around SAM sites are infested with AAA but it's better than catching a 6 O'clock SAM. Be advised...ALWAYS THINK OF YOUR WINGMAN! Once he's dropped all Clusters, make a decision weather you want him to strafe ground targets. Once he is Winchester the hard choice begins. Keep him around while you try some more? Or send him home? Depends on time and place IMO. That's all for now. I'll post some more later. Hey! Everyone one else who goes North should try to give some form of advice!

PM sent. See you all tommorrow!

Remember this...He did it on his very first combat mission!

I'm doing a series of sorties now to see if i can make a WOE SAM map using that very same Mirage Factory RF-4C. the above quoted is pretty much what i do. I was pretty much done with the missions last week but my HD failed before i could back up the files into an External and so i have to go back out and do it again. BTW, this is some seriously hairy stuff. In three sorties i got shot down twice by ground fire.

I've become a real Western Digital fan in the last few months. The external HD i use is a Passport and it has really been a help. I also just finished replacing the Hard Drive on my ancient Dell 4400 with a WD Caviar SE. 500GBs that only cast me about $70 It took a whopping 20 minutes to pull the old one out and voila, in with the new. Tommorrow, a fresh install of WOE and transfer all my planes from the external HD. Go with Western Digital, you won't regret it.

I looked for mention of this but couldn't find it. I thought of making a SAM map for WOE like the one i did for WOV a few months ago. Naturally, i needed a nice plane to do it in and so decided on an RA5. I took off and flew a route that ive done many times before. One thing i thought strange was that not a single radar was coming up on the cockpit RHAW despite knowing that several radars had to have been tracking the Vigilante. As i came near where i knew two SA6 sites were at i thought it really strange that i had no activity at all. Sure enough, the sky suddenly exploded at that was all she wrote. As it turned out, both SA6s and an SA2 site fired at me. Yet the whole time i never had a hint i was being tracked. It happend before too. I was shot down in an F-4 with zero warning i was being tracked or locked. All i knew was that one second i was flying, the next i was done. I know there's a fix for it somewhere but can't find it. Any hints? In the meantime, i'll keep trying with various aircraft that have RHAWs. Sooner or later i'll finish the map and post it here.

Going low works about 95% of the time. I've been nailed on the floor myself so i know what you mean. However, a number of recent recce missions i've been doing in WOE leads me to believe that the past SAM engagement was an unusual occurence.

The moment the first radar begins looking at me is when i turn on ECM. What makes it very important is the decreased performance of SAMs. When you are at altitude, there is no hiding. The only thing that matters is reducing the enemies' ability to kill. A few minutes ago i had a mission where no fewer than 19 SAMs fired at me. On about half of those, ECM made a big difference to my survival.

A while ago i took an F-15 up to 50,000ft and went across the river again. This time i was getting radars on the scope. About 5 places i went either over or near enough to have the enemy shoot at me but nothing happend. Playing a hunch, i turned towards an area that had activity but no air base. Sure enough the tracking signals began and i soon got a valid launch at 9.2 miles range. It was an SA-6 and yet again i was curious to see the effects of ECM on it so i didn't evade and continued straight and level. I was carrying two pods and thet did have a noticible effect as no fewer than 4 missles were badly effected but since a SA6 battery fires so quickly i knew it was a done deal. I now know what plane and tactics i'm going to use to do the job with the fewest losses possible. I'll continue tommorrow afternoon.

I used to live walking distance from the ditching site on the New Jersey side. There are ferry services in Weehawken and Hoboken that can get to that spot damn near instantly, as well as 2 marinas right there also.

Between Osprey and Squadron/Signal you can never go wrong. Anyone in the NYC area should visit the Compleat Strategist on 33rd st in the City. Damn near ever book Osprey put out is available there.