JediMaster

Sorry, I don't get it.

What's out?

Why can't people be CLEAR?? I'm so confused!!! Is it...a bunch of screenshots?

Yeah, nothing like mass chaos for no purpose whatsoever.

Personally, my beef is with that 2nd picture. You call that a ladder??!? The plane may be fine, but I'd be scared of that narrow, dinky thing collapsing while climbing in or out of the cockpit!

You'd think after all these years of testing someone would've raised their hand and pointed out they could make a better ladder for another few bucks...

BTW, as a plane that hasn't had much foreign press compared to Western designs, as an outsider I seem to recall the problems with the LCA have been two-fold. In addition to the standard technical difficulties all new planes face, especially one that is breaking new ground for the builders as the LCA is, hasn't there been a ton of political crap it's had to deal with as well? Changing requirements, uncertain funding levels, lackluster political support by some, overzealous support for problematic areas by others, that sort of thing? If so, I'm frankly amazed they were ever able to get the project this far. Sounded more likely to implode under its own confusion while the imported planes had (relatively) easier times of it.

Yet Abe Vigoda still lives! 91 and counting...rock on, Fish!

TBH, I was uncomfortable watching Clark on New Year's Eve the past few years because he was so frail I honestly worried he'd collapse on camera.

I will always remember him most from Bloopers and Practical Jokes, as most people my age would.

The Jedi Master

The idea of getting a candidate that's going to be spot-on with domestic AND foreign affairs is just ridiculous nowadays, so you might as well pick one.

I have 2 daughters and couldn't imagine having a 3rd child, one or another! So tiring!

How bizarre that the B-52's first flight was the 40th anniversary of the Titanic's loss.

A sad day indeed.

Like any other big cargo? Take the wings off, stick it in a large ship, reassemble it at the far end. It wouldn't be worth it for a short stint, but for an extended contract...

When the shuttle would decelerate overhead here the boom was hardly damaging. It would at worst rattle a plate or two. Now at the landing site, where the orbiter finally went subsonic and was at its lowest altitude, it could be rather jarring especially if you were outdoors. However, totally average cars and trucks had no problems with broken/cracked windows or anything like that. I forget exactly what altitude it would be at when it dropped below Mach 1, but I believe it was ~40,000 ft or so. Lower altitudes would certainly enhance the effect, of course, and it's possible that a cumulative effect (if say planes caused booms many times a day over a given area) could cause damage, to say nothing of waking anyone who's sleeping, day or night (forget keeping babies asleep for naps!).

That said, I know in an emergency it should be allowed.

I was a having a devil of a time with the Walleyes in my A-7E campaign myself. Stupid things seem to miss more often than dumb bombs!

Yeah, while the 2003 conflict used some of the same aircraft and surface vehicles, there were also many different ones. The other thing is frankly the red air side would have little. It went from being a minor threat in 1991 to a nonexistent one in 2003. Want to fly nothing but ground attack? I can see why that would be a lot of work for little return.

"What's on the television then?"

"Looks like a penguin."

"No, no, no, I didn't mean what's on the television set, I meant what PROGRAM?"

"...funny that penguin being there, isn't it? What's it doing there?"

"Standing!"

"I can see that!"

"If it lays an egg, it will fall down the back of the television set."

"We'll have to watch that...unless it's a male."

"Ooh, I never thought of that!"

"Yes...looks fairly butch."

"Perhaps it comes from next door?"

"Penguins don't come from next door, they come from the Antarctic!"

"BURMA!"

"Why'd you say Burma?"

"I panicked...Oh, intercourse the penguin!!!"

"It's just gone 8 o'clock, and time for the penguin on top of your television to explode." *BOOM*

"How'd he know that was going to happen?"

"It was an inspired guess."

FC, is it one of those things like using gas with higher ethanol content in cars? You carry the same amount (in gallons) of fuel, but you burn it faster and can't go as far without a refuel? Is that the efficiency you refer to?

I hate ethanol because it didn't make the price of gas any cheaper yet it means I burn it faster.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just that as a rule of thumb, used fighters don't last as long as new fighters, so you replace them more often.

As for those Turkish F-4s, they've been upgraded several times now to make them still worthy, so it's not the same as a used car there. Not unless you needed to replace the engine, transmission, dashboard, and rebuild the suspension when you got it, that is! To stay worthwhile you need to invest in them constantly and older ones might require more costly upgrades than newer ones.

The best bet is "slightly used" planes, things like early model Gripens or Typhoons that are being replaced by late models and sold off by their countries to keep the force sizes right and help fund the all-late model force upgrade. With F-35s coming out soon there will be a flood of late-model F-16s and Hornets out there as well as the existing early-model supply already there.

The bottom line is you pay for a certain capability one way or another. What mission capable rate are you looking for? What missions will they do, and what requirements on range, time, and force on target are you looking at? I can see that from one POV NZ is playing it smart by saving the money now so that when they think they DO need them they'll be able to get them fresh without concern about existing supplies matching. Of course, that means they're starting from ground zero and it will cost more at first. Planes, weapons, spares, support equipment, training for air and ground crews, etc. So from the other side of it they'll be starting in a big hole which means there will be a big gap between the decision to "go" and IOC.

Also, you pay a contract to the PMC and that's it. No benefits/pensions/healthcare/etc long-term to pay for, no worrying about getting them jobs, and so on. Naturally not worthy of a long-term and/or large-scale fight, but as said for smaller things it can make sense.

That is my point. You don't buy a 10 yr old car and expect it to last 10 years when you also expect a new car to last just 10 years. While transports and bombers can last generations, fighters can't. At least not and stay capable of pulling 8Gs or more. Of course you can rebuild them for a lot, bringing your final total up to like 75% of the cost of a new plane for what is effectively a new plane. Like the USMC's H-1 program, where it was deemed more effective to build over half of them new than to just upgrade old ones.

As always, it depends on what NZ wants to do with its planes. If it's antishipping primarily, just arm the P-3s better. If those are too slow, buy some P-8s.

BTW...is that Buick really American? Or was it made in Canada or Mexico? I don't consider it "buying American" just because the CEO lives in the US. There are cars like the Camry that are more American than many so-called American cars.

I just hope it also doesn't experience a precipitous drop in SECOND month sales.

This should impel him to fix this up and get that F1 expansion done. Although TBH as much as I'd like the F1, an NA expansion would make more sense. If NA sales are doing that well, make expansions and DLC for it, not the older titles. I don't care myself, merged means they work everywhere.

The idea that a used aircraft would have to serve as long as a new one isn't logical. If you want ones that will last for decades, you buy new. But if you want to save money now, you buy used, then replaced them sooner (within 20 yrs) when perhaps the latest 4.5 gen fighters show up on the market only slightly used as F-35s/Typhoons/Rafales replace them.

No one buys a used car and expects to get 10 yrs out of it when new cars have trouble getting 10 yrs!

Yes, and then you have people who see nothing wrong with the unchecked world population explosion, and in fact want to eliminate all attempts to slow it. Of course, those do often tend to be the same people who think we'll never run out of fossil fuels and that their emissions aren't all that bad, so...

Well, quite a few modders have left over the last decade. I've got many planes in my gen 1 installs that aren't really SF2 standard made by departed modders. It's a shame, but there you are.

How about the Air Force Administration Achievement Award Ribbon? AFAAAR. That would make sense.

Or perhaps AFPPA...AF Paper Pusher Award.

Ok, I think Sid should be placed on moderated posting until he watches the film again!

"They bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say let 'em crash."

It sounds like Il-2 actually. The romantic thing is a nice dig at Cliffs of Dover. He should've stuck with DX11.1, though, as DX12 is unannounced. The ground school thing was a bit too far as well, he gives away the joke too soon.

Back in the day, the first Jetfighter had mandatory carrier qual missions you had to pass to play the campaign. He could've said something like "unlockable campaign after finishing 10 hr training module" or something.

Sounds more like something deserving of a promotion than a medal. But I guess a medal is cheap, doesn't require more pay like a bump to E-7 does would it?