Typhoid

you put a hand grenade under the computer desk and............. I did manage to get a carrier to sink once. But only after an inordinate amount of ordanance. The problem, if I recall from TK's explanation, is that to make it landable for aircraft you can't sink it. So if you do make it destroyable (actually easy but I don't recall which parameter it is) you can't use it for carrier ops and land on it. obviously a non-starter for me.......

Jug, very well said indeed. "Far harder as an older, wiser person to send your son." boy is that true!!

an export version of the F-22 would be a great idea. How they will decide what technologies to include for which partners will be a "real interesting process" to say the least. We should even export it to the USN....... The program has been horrendously expensive because of the fleet cut to a very un-economic production level. Expanding the airframe numbers through foreign sales will help drive down our own costs per plane as well as helping our allies. If we don't figure that out pretty soon, the foreign market will be filled with Typhoons, Rafales, Super-Flankers, etc.

A Fagot is (was) a Mig-15. I missed that in the article. Where did it refer to a Fagot?

swift-jet? cute..... bring it on my friend!!

"And its not so much that taxes really ever need raising, " he gets it!!!! right down the supply side economics of John F Kennedy!!! I've long suspected that you had closet-conservative leanings on occasion..... "My health is fine as long as I have the medicine to keep my body from eating itself." tough way to stay on a diet!! and you really trust Hillary to take care of you?

wow. President? I think I'll be heading for one of those "undisclosed locations" real fast......!!!! Thanks guys!! pretty good for a no-politics forum....

"Following those lessons pretty well. I'm treating this like my race to the white house class last fall, as opposed to yelling on facebook groups Thats what I'm saying, both sides routinely call the other fascist/communist. Sadly most people only have a vague idea of what any of it means." I don't like using such terms anymore, particularly liberal/progressive or conservative, for the simple reason that the terms no longer mean what they used to. That leads to different sides of the debate viewing and interpretting the terminology in very different ways. I like to instead focus on the policies being discussed and their political, economic and social impacts. Then use labels only after defining them carefully. I, of course, make an exception for the environmentalist whacko nut case warming hysterics and the econ-fascist carbon profiteers..... "The other year I was taking this economics class on globalization " I'll bet that was unbiased........ (try defining THAT term!) "and was predicting a huge depression." (based on what? why?) absolutely have heard of the Tata and other various projects. All have potential to use less energy and energy in different ways. These various alternatives have to be economically and technically feasible in order to work and provide the utility the consumer is looking for. Otherwise, they will fail no matter what the lead government commissar wants to believe and mandate within whatever governmental system there is. That is hard reality and proven repeatedly over time. "I'll put up with the taxes for a UK/Canada/France/Scandanavian healthcare system. " I'll be cancelling you out at the polls..... best of luck and hope your health improves

which gives you all the market power of perhaps - Texas....... The Euro is just the currency, by itself it has no market power. but if believing that gives you some comfort...... Our economic recovery from a very brief and minor hiccup is already started. We didn't even have a downturn, just a reduced rate of growth (unless you were in one of the sectors that clearly crashed) the future, however, is not real bright based on the lack of economic understanding by EITHER political party and slate of candidates presently on the table. depending on what gets passed and who all (at all levels) gets elected we will hit a significant recesion in the next couple of years. How soon and how bad will depend on the electoral results this November. Sadly, there are only a handful of congressional and state level candidates across the country that appear to have any understanding of basic economics, and the resulting policies and laws will result in some very bad times ahead. meltdown ahead.....

what drive do you have it installed on? the above link is to his E drive. If the install is on your c drive; replace the e with c. for starting it; try this. in your main folder there is the WOE (or whichever) exe file. double click on that and have fun! assuming that works, create a shortcut there, rename it and park it where ever you want it.

wanna bet? the old saying that when the American economy has a cold, the European economy gets pneumonia is still true. energy is the key. cut it off and we all go down, including the suppliers.

now, my friend, don't get your dander up..... As I recall, all I called anyone was McCain a Democrat. Hardly, I would think, fighting words. speaking of calling one side a fascist - which side is it now who calls which other side that on a regular basis? what was it that Rep Robert Kennedy Jr. called me? oh yea - a traitor who is comitting treason and should be shot for environmental crimes against humanity. (what was that ammendment in our Constitution about Freedom of Speech again...?) lesson one - don't take any of this, or any politician, too seriously. lesson two - keep a very healthy and active sense of humor on all of this. lesson three - don't take yourself very seriously

nice work. I've got a mission pack for this mod partly built but without the supporting stuff you have developed. If you don't mind, I'd like to complete my mini-project (when time permits) using your's as a template/model for how to build these. Great layout!

"The field this year is an embarassment." sadly...... I am encouraging all of my fellow Republicans to cross over, vote for the Democrat in the race, and elect John McCain.......

there is a huge difference between the relationship between Wright - Obama and Hagey - McCain. Hagey was not McCain's pastor for 20 years and McCain refused the endorsement and immediately disavowed those comments. Quite a bit different. "look at the kind of environment our elections have been in." and just who has caused that? but on one level I do agree with you (shock!!) in that one cannot and should not attribute everything of what one raving, lunatic, racist piece of gutter trash says to be what someone else believes. What each candidate says themselves generally provides plenty of ammo to the other side.......

Great story!!! I can just picture that as you wrote it!!

thanks! reading that while eating lunch, I just pushed a sandwich through my nose......

in fleet use the normal loads were 2+2+2 or 4 AIM-7 and 4 AIM-9 a combat load would depend on the mission. With an SNA regiment inbound 4 Phoenix and 2+2 reasons are weight and drag impacting range/endurance as well as the noted problems in trying to bring back 6 Phoenix (have to dump 2 if not used) the loadouts in the posted models are correct.

some great lines in there. I like "the voters have stolen my nomination"

ruffled feathers? from a sea story? not me!! I have heard and told one or two of those over the years...... always good for a good yarn. Keep them coming!!!! however, lets do run a couple of the numbers for clarity/reality sake. First off - carrier speeds in the range of 45+ knots are pure fantasy. Trust me on this one... Max speeds of even the nuke boats is only in the "mid-30's" and the conventional carriers were just a tad less. The numbers can be run by the boat engineers who take gross displacement and max horsepower and compute stuff. All of the legends about fantastic cv speeds were just that. Legends with large doses of adult medicinals to help grease the tales! I don't recall ever seeing anything above 32. In actual flight ops the ship would manuever to achieve a desired WOD. Not just blast into the wind at max thrust. Any OOD who went outside of the normal parameters would be toast served up by the Air Boss to the CO in short order!!!! Normal sea breezes are around the 15-25 knots as noted above. The ship would manuever for WOD in the 25-35 knot range. Anything more makes aircraft spotting difficult and life very hazardous and short for the flight deck crews. So the ship would actually be maneuvering to maintain that optimum WOD and down the centerline on the angle. On occasion, bare steerage (2 to 3 knots) might be called for. So closure on the ship is going to be entirely dependent upon the natural wind and ship speed, but the ship will be maneuvering, again, to maintain the 25-35 knot WOD range. So with say a 20 knot wind speed the ship would be making, maybe, 10 knots to put 30 WOD. Taking the 70 knot approach speed of the U-2 and subtracting the 30 knots of WOD and ship speed you end up with about 40 knots of closure. That is still mind-wrenching to the rest of us tailhood types, but certainly a leisurely approach and still far and away from the "hover into the spot" that Tony Lavier was spinning to you all. As a frame of reference, in the E-2 we came aboard at 105 approach speed, minus the 30 gave us a 75 closure. I recall the Phantom being in the 145 kias approach (don't know for sure) so with the same numbers that closure would be about 115 knots closure and engagement speed (the engagement speeds for the wires and barrier are a whole other discussion). Not to mention, that we would sometimes fly from anchor which we called "FlanchorOps". I did that several times, one of which was a fairly tense (at the time) sea story for another time. At any rate, enjoyed the yarn.

very nice!! Great job!!

you mean "hovering" over the flight deck spot? what's the approach speed of the "glider" and what is the carrier's WOD? not possible to hover into the intended spot.

Wow!! Slit S-ing out of 3 SAM shots!!!!! Outstanding article and great story!

HAHAHAHA! hilarious. Not recommended for Carrier Qualification!!

awesome and far more relevant to current events than I can tell you. I'll be out of town for a week so won't be able to do much with this right now, but looking forward to some North Atlantic action! too bad the Norway terrain is broken, these would make a great combination.