JediMaster

Kazakh didn't buy them, they inherited them. When the USSR broke up they were stationed there, and like most of the former Soviet republics they kept them. Some sold their planes on the market, some sold them back to Russia, but some like the Ukraine and Kazakhstan merely made them into their own air force.

The sticking point is maintenance. As long as Russia provided spares support at reasonable pricing they could keep using them. My feeling is that they did because of the importance of Baikonaur and the KAF has had no problems keeping their planes running well.

When the new facility, on Russian soil, is finally finished and the agreement with Kazakhstan over using Baikonaur expires, the dynamic might change. Right now, Russia is "over a barrel" with Baikonaur and has to do almost whatever Kazakh wants that isn't unreasonable, a situation I'm sure they're eager to change ASAP.

Sweet!

No, but I've had my Momo for years now and have no trouble with it. Well, occasionally I have to disassemble the pedals and reseat the throttle pot to stop spiking, but that's it.

I admit I'm disappointed there's no options in the "nicer" category. The Momo is just under $100, but the G27 is over 2.5x more. Where's the one that comes in between $150-200? I might go for that.

As for buttons, I rarely need all the ones the Momo has anyway.

Wow, the humps on the SMT give it an almost Flanker-like profile.

Actually, I can think of two states that applies to: Texas and California. Neither are the USA, they're just what they are!

Disclaimer: due to parts of the internet passing thru rifts in the space-time continuum, the passage of time you perceive as "two weeks" may or may not be equal to the passage of time perceived by any other user of said internet.

Of course, most of the people in the media now don't remember the days pre-1990 when this stuff was so commonplace there was no reason to report it, any more than the national news reported every single murder in the country every night. For the ones now, this is a "big deal".

I haven't been able to find almost any. Maybe 2 or 3. I only fly coop missions, none of that force-on-force silliness.

Believe me, this is the easy part! When they become mobile, that's when the fun begins...

You can play as the Germans in MP in many WWII shooters. Also in Red Orchestra even when playing offline.

Their MiG-27s are like Jaguars or Tornados...they're ground attack with limited self-defense A2A abilities, not fighters. They have no radar!

43 MiG-31s...I wonder if they're in service still? That sounds like they'd be the largest operator of the 31 aside from Russia itself.

Both the MiG-21 and A-4 were referred to as "tailed deltas." Others included the Su-9/11, Su-15/21, and Gloster Javelin.

I remember watching it as a kid, but I really remember little of it other than the sound/sequence of the main cannon firing and the guy that looked liked Captain Smith's shabby brother in charge, determined not to hit any icebergs in space and continue the family tradition...

I still can't believe it can be worthwhile if it's browser-based. I mean, that's got to be low-res.

Yes it is quiet.

I'm personally very frustrated with the LOMAC community. With the release of FC2 I was hoping to see a new wave of MP missions released after years of stagnation in FC, but instead all I see is a huge amount of "for our squad only" MP missions created. WTF? Seriously. What do you care if other people use them? I can understand not wanting to hear feedback on them, that's fine. It's this "mine!! You can't have it!!" mentality that irks me. No one has the time to join multiple squads and some of us don't even have the time to join one.

Babies love keyboards!

There aren't too many of the older sims that are A) easily available and B) easily workable on modern systems.

I know EE: Comanche Hokum is on Good Old Games aka GOG, that's a good helo sim/game especially with the 3rd party mods released over the last 10 years.

As for other games I've played recently, I could literally fill a thread.

RTS: Sins of a Solar Empire, Company of Heroes, Rise of Nations

RPG: Mass Effect 1 and 2

3rd person: Ghostbusters, SW: The Force Unleashed, Alien Swarm

FPS: OFP: Dragon Rising, Borderlands, Chronicles of Riddick, Far Cry 2, FEAR 2, Crysis Warhead, Stalker Call of Pripyat, Alien vs Predator, Bioshock 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Arma2: Operation Arrowhead, Serious Sam HD, Wolfenstein, others I can't recall because there's so many!

Racing: Race 07, Dirt 2, TOCA 3, GRID

I loved his bit about the rash of people getting sick from undercooked meat leading to restuarants mandating that things can only be cooked medium or longer.

"So just because 10 or 20 people die I can't get a good burger? Nowadays people are constantly sanitzing this and washing that and sterilizing everything. When my friends and I were growing up we swam in the Hudson River with raw sewage, and we never got sick. Know why? Because we swam in the Hudson River with raw sewage!"

Oh, certainly. I remember the first time I flew one was in NATO Fighters I think, one of EA's Jane's titles in the early 90s. Nimble little thing!

Another military officer sacrificed on the altar of political expediency and vivisected by the media based on partial and incorrect facts.

Yes, the 460 has gotten rave reviews, unlike its bigger siblings the 470 and 480 which have received "well, they're pretty good". Had it been out when I replaced my 260 I might have bought that instead of my 5850 since it costs less and seems to be as fast if not faster. Oh well.

A lot of the older sims only let you play as one side. In fact, the most famous is Falcon 4 which has had a healthy online community for 12 years!

Most study sims featured just one plane, so one side was a given. Longbow, F-15, Fleet Defender, Falcon, iF-22, iF/A-18, F-22 Lightning, Comanche...I'll stop now. In fact, I remember the ruckus when Jane's F-15 came out with MP that was totally worthless...nothing but H2H, no coop, and you're in F-15Es! It would be as if Il-2 only let you fly Il-2s vs Il-2s.

So when's this game coming out from EA Sports? They already showed it on South Park...

"Microsoft...we'll make you distrust 1.0."

Well, except for Win 7, the first OS in a long time I can remember from them that was fine OOTB. Well, unless you consider it just Vista Fixed Edition, in which case it's not really 1.0.

The Gripen is a gen 4.5 fighter for the price of a gen 4. However, I think it's safe to say with the Blk 60 E/F upgrade the F-16 is also gen 4.5 now.

The other negative is it has US -sourced parts in it, so if you're in for a penny go in for a pound. In other words, if you can get a Gripen you can also likely qualify to get the F-16 and it has a proven combat rep that the Gripen does not.