ST0RM

No worries H. Honestly, thats not the worst I've seen. I've had a few close calls where I was weightless for a bit. -Jeff

The A-4 is not an FSX native model. Simply a portover from FS9, so I can support your not liking it. It's old and shows it's age. The new Virtavia A-4F looks very promising. Can you elaborate on what you did not like about the A-7? I does have a higher than normal learning curve with the INS and engine management, but as with any high-end add-on, thats expected. I'm interested to hear your thoughts. -Jeff

I own all of the A-7s from Razbam for FSX and DCS is in for a treat. They are some of the best models out there. The VC is super detailed and very functional. Using the INS takes some learning, but is well worth it. Even engine management is modelled. I cant count how many times I've cooked my engine in the TA-7. -Jeff

The AWACs pilot did not stop his forward movement after contact, hence the immediate disconnect when it was apparent the inner limit would have been breached. Words from the Okies was that the tanker autopilot did kick off causing it to settle, so the E-3 had to push over and away. More words was that a crewmemberon the E-3 suffered a broken back because they werent strapped in during A/R, as is the procedures. This was a hot topic all week. Flying with unqualified students, this showed them how quickly a situation can go from good to bad. -Jeff

Nice photo Grandpa

At $15,000 per hour to operate a KC-135, this is well outside of Thirdwire's budget and quickly dropped from any future add-ons for the sim.

Nice clouds and lighting, but otherwise a very plain video. No actual ACM and the annoying beeping of the VOR in the background. Looks like he was in a D-model from the lack of MFDs in the tub. The MC light came on because he killed the engines and therefore lost the generators. Standard.

The last drivers specifically mentioned an increase for the 400 series GTX cards. I didnt notice, but see an end to the drivers crashing during play. Any news on these and its use with the GTX 460M? -Jeff

This file http://combatace.com/files/file/9268-mirage-factory-f-4e-phantom-arn-101-for-sf2-series/ The Mirage Factory F-4E ARN-101 has the TISEO. -Jeff

I made the decision purely on the trailer, to not watch this horrible Hollywood fiction. There are som many great stories that could be told and portraid on film, but I'm glad that they arent because they would be re-written to appease the PC police.

If thats brand new, then sure. My intent was to say that they cant just toss in any model and expect people to scoop it up. Their FSX model was a FS9 portover with tweaks to get the VC working correctly. Not much else. And so they charged full price for something that wasnt worth it. I hope they succeed, truly. I just hope they dont repeat what happened earlier. -Jeff

Needs more dents and paint chips ;)

Hmmm, well they had better figure out their Harrier first. It's still a mess. The FM needs more work on the V/STOL modes and I know that several people are having issues with the weapons delivery function. Nice to see some new jets being added fairly quick. -Jeff

Adding a bit here, but 18 F-14As were rebuilt as D-models. So the glove vanes were still there on those. They just didnt work. As a side note, I hope IRIS seriously updates their model. It's an FS9 portover with the model being tweaked to FSX standards. Much of the avionics were left untouched from FS9. -Jeff

At least you got to see it. Thanks for sharing with the rest of us. -Jeff

Day 1 of the war for me was more than I expected. I was a Lt jg, newly assigned to VA-46 'Clansmen' flying the A-4E(67). For my cherry ride, the skipper decided to have me lead a 4-ship strike on an Industrial Complex on the Vietnamese coast, approx. 50 miles south of Haiphong Harbor. Being south, and on the coast, one would think that it was an easy target. Nope. It was well within the threat rings of the numerous SA-2 sites around the area to the north. Plus the thousands of AAA pieces that dot the whole country. This was not going to be a walk in the park. Being junior and very green, I took the liberty of discussing the loadouts with our Weapons Chief, KB. He recommended a mixed load between all four Scooters. I was to carry a pair of Mk.83 1000lbs bombs, along with 4 Mk.82 w/fuse extenders on outboard TERs. My wingman (the Skipper) would be bringing a pair of AGM-45A Shrikes, plus 4 Mk.82 slicks in case I missed. 3 & 4 would be allowed to roam and hit targets as necessary. Kind of like the German Luftwaffe term Frie Jagd or to free-hunt. They carried CBUs and rockets. Since the drive out to the target was within our unrefueled range, we each carried a centerline aux tank. We'd hit a tanker coming off target and recover aboard the ship. The catshot was normal, although my adrenaline was pumping pretty good. After all, I was carrying more destructive power than a B-17. Forming up at FL150 (15,000ft), we cruise silently across the water toward land. Just before our decent to the IP, we check in with the Red Crown destroyer. NSTR, or Nothing Substantial to Report, so we press in. 20 miles out from the coast, our RHAW gear starts chirping, alerting us to the southern most SA-2 site. Time to start the music, so we turn on the ECM systems. That bought us some time, as the chirping ceased. 12 miles from the target now, the RHAW gear begins to alert us again, but this time, from two Fan-Song radars. I immediately lock up the closest radar and order my wingman to take it out with the Shrike. He calls "Shotgun" and the -45 is off toward the radar. 7 seconds later, it's off the air. No suppressing anything. It's dead! Still closing toward the primary target, I order the second pair of A-4s to start their own hunt for ground targets nearby. They peel off and start hitting some of the gunsites around the southern edge of the harbor. Meanwhile, the Skipper and I are 5 miles from the complex, with one more SA-2 actively pinging us. I lock him up and he fires his last Shrike. At first I thought it would miss, but a long 9 seconds later, it too goes silent. Now it's my turn. I roll the jet inverted, picking out the building I'm to hit. It's a long building, running North/South. To increase my odds of hitting it, I decide to roll the Skyhawk back toward the south and will set up my run from the south, going north. A minute later, I'm where I want to be, 3 miles south of the building and in a 45 degree dive. Throttle back to 65%, pop the boards, center up the building in the sight...bomb away at 5000ft. Retract boards, throttle to the stops, climb and jink away to the East, looking over my shoulder for AAA or anything that can kill me, all the while keeping an eye on the target. To my dismay, the Mk.83 falls short about 300 yds and only seems to scare...well no one. Going against the lessons from the many smarter men who have come before me (Lt. Cater, Jugs and FC), I opt for a second pass. This time, I set up for an opposite direction drop. That way my egress will be toward the south and to safety. As I climb back up toward the north/west, the Skipper calls out that he's caught some flak and his jet is smoking pretty good. No sense in keeping him around, I release him. A quick call to Red Crown on the secondary frequency, informs them that a damaged Scooter is headed back toward the ship, and alerts the SAR dudes in case he has to ditch. Amazing how your brain can function and perform multiple taskings when it's needed, all while flying a jet in hostile airspace. At my designated point and altitude, I again roll the jet into a left turn, 45 degrees nose low. I check my switches to make sure I'll be dropping everything on this pass. I'm not that stupid to risk a third pass. Throttle to 65% again, pop boards, center up the building, but putting it a bit farther below the sight this time. Glance at the altimeter, 5000ft, pickle all 5 bombs, pull, retract boards, full throttle and start a roll toward the south/east. The jet is super light now without that extra weight. It's responding nicely. Watching over my shoulder for threats and the target, I see all 5 bombs hit in a nice stick. And I get a secondary oil tank along with the building. But, not to go out without a fight, I feel a couple of thumps in the right wing, bringing me back from my mini-celebration. I look over and I've got a few holes in the outer right wing. No leaking fluids and no fire. Close call. As I begin the flight back to the ship, 3 & 4 check back in and inform me they are "Winchester" and they form back up on me. Since we aren't fuel critical, we bypass the awaiting KA-6D tanker and catch up with the Skipper as he limps home. It wasn't hard to pick him out. His trail of smoke could be seen for miles. We all recover aboard safely (I caught the 2-wire) and watch as the last A-4 recovers. Debrief, then chow. It's Sunday, so it's Sliders and Fries. -Storm

Thats cool to put a face to the voice. Yep, I cant see anyone else as Optimus.

My former SF2 time has been filled by FSX online flying. Formation flying, multiple carrier traps/cat shots and multiplayer missions are what I missed from my sims. FSX gave that back. Sure it's got issues, and you cant truly have combat, but with some imagination we have some great events. FC2 and soon FC3 will probably fill my combat niche. At least I know where I stand with those sims. -Jeff

One thing I found was that the campaigns will act really weird if you delete stock units from the SquadronList.ini and replace them or renumber them. I had to add new units at the end to preserve what the game engine knew and how that corresponded with the stock decals and their numbers. Jeff

In the early 90's, most of the C-130s at Duke and Hurlburt were green. The gunships were the only grey special mission aircraft there at the time(they were Euro camo'd until late 80's). The MC-130 Combat Talons were also Euro green camo'd until the first MOD 90 aircraft came to the 8th SOS in 1992. To even confuse you more, the 8th and 16th SOS each had a slick c-130 used for pilot proficiency flights (touch n go) that were also green until they got painted grey to match the others. I was stationed at both Hurlburt and Eglin for 10 years, so I saw them go through a few different paint schemes. -Jeff

None of the gunships have carried tailcodes since Vietnam, and it was "FT" and "AH" back then. Duke was home to the AC-130As as part of the AFRes. They were all over Ghost Grey (FS36320) but faded very quickly to a lighter shade. Hurlburt Field was home to the AC-130Hs from the 16th SOS and in the early 90's, the 4th SOS stood up with the AC-130U. Both wear a split camo pattern of Gunship Grey up top (FS36118) over a lower wavy pattern of Light Grey (FS36375). The F-35s over at Eglin are part of the 33rd Fighter Wing, but split amongst AF, Navy and USMC squadrons under the joint wing. The F-35As carry the "EG" tailcode, while the Marines' B-models carry VM vertically on the rudder. No C-models from the Navy have arrived to stand up VFA-101 as of yet. The F-16s are not part of the 33rd, but assigned to the 46th Test Wing across the base. They wear "ET" and a white band with red diamonds on the tail for the 40th Flt Test Squadron and "OT" for the 85th Test/Eval Squadron with white/black checkers. Dave may have done some of the test Vipers already, but am not 100% sure. Ask him. Good luck!

Here is another funny one:

Since the C-17 schoolhouse is here, we've discussed this many times over the past week. Nothing official of course, just other crew guys passing info. But more ridicule and sarcasm than anything. This was hour 18 for the crew after returning form an overseas base. Fatigue, and most likely complacency, are to blame. And yes, there was a 4-star onboard at the time. Easy to armchair QB it from here, but wait until the final report comes out. I'm sure it wont be pretty. But, nice job on the landing and stopping!

Ok, chiming in on this. You guys keep drawing me in. Brain is 100% correct. Our passion for this series and the quest for the perfect sim has clouded our vision. But we're just 1/3 of the problem. The other 1/3 comes from the newbs who either do not want to help themselves or simply do not understand how to and go running to TK about every little glitch that is usually a fault of their own. The last 1/3 is from TK himself in that he has compartmentalized the series so much, that we just dont have the chance to assist in fixing things anymore. No matter how awesome they've been, mods have been one of the root causes of the huge division between us. He cant keep up with the mods and we cant keep editing the mods to keep up with the patches. I guess you have to find a patch level that works for you and go with it. The hopes for that perfect sim will only worsen the perceived feud. -Jeff

Any tips on getting the AA to work? For some reason I cant get it to take. Ditto on your whole comment. -Jeff