MaverickMike

I just returned from what was definately the most exhilarating flight ive ever flown. Again in NF. Im flying the CF-18 hornet for 439 sqd and was tasked with a CAP over hamburg. arriving on station red crown sent my flight of 4 to attack another flight of 4 su-17 which we took out relatively easily as there seemed to be no escorts. Suddenly out of nowhere came a flight of 4 mig-29s led by a major (cannot remember the name)who whas an ace. I quickly positioned myself off the tail of one that went straight for my wingman and took him out with 20mm.(I had expended all missiles at this point on the su-17s) My wingie reported that he was hit so i sent him home. no 3 scored another mig kill and called winchester. no 4 then also scored a kill. That was three of the four down with only one loss. However the enemy flight leader was still around so i sent my remaining flight members home and stayed to look for him. After around 10 mins I found him trying to take out a flight of Harriers that were providing CAS to the ground assault that was in progress. it took a few minutes to get onto his tail and as soon as i was in gun range i opened up. However i just could not seem to hit him as he was jinking like a madman. Suddenly a sidewinder flew past my aircraft and took him out from a german f4 arriving late into the fray!!! Couldnt believe it. Anyways after noticing that i had no ammo left i turned for home, then, again out of nowhere a flight of 2 Mig-31s showed up!!! One was taken out by the german f4s whilst the other got on my tail. I dove for the weeds and pushed the throttles to full mil power but this guy was simply relentless. He followed me all the way home firing all of his heaters at me. I managed to avoid them all and a few bursts of cannon. I truly thought I had bought it at this point because I also noticed my fuel was alarmingly low after chasing the major earlier. Trying to think of a way i could get home safely I decided to carry on towards home and hope he would give up. He didnt. Arriving at my airbase he was still on my tail so i decided to rely on the AA fire to take him out. I slowed down to around 200kts and flew over the airbase at around 300ft agl. Sure enough he followed suit still trying to take me out. Luckily one of the vulcans took him out and i let out a deep sigh. I managed to land the aircraft safely and looking at my fuel, had 120 pounds left. WHEEW!!! Anyways just thought id share this with you guys as your on the topic of immersion. Let me tell you, while flying at under 100ft at 550kts i think my house could have fallen down and I would not have noticed . I have a few screenies from this mission if anyone would like to see them? Mike

Clash of the Titans

Close call. Caught a flight of 8 hunters making approach at their homebase and killed them all except 1 because i ran out of ammo

My menu will involve a visit to your BBQ. That menu sounds like something out of a Gordan Ramsay menu Mike

Just got my tickets to the 2009 Air tattoo in Fairford. Just wondering (as its my 1st time) whether any other members have been and whether it is worth the ticket prices. Really looking forward to it though. Mike

Just had a real shock. Flying CAP in SF2 and i downed this mig after a head to head. I couldnt believe my eyes when suddenly the fire on the aircraft went out and it started turning back for more. Unfortunately it was too close to the ground to recover from the dive and crashed. Wish id taken a shot of the mig trying to recover but i was in utter shock

I recently read online somewhere that its possible to tie a running program to use one core of a dual core machine, instead of letting the OS switch between the 2 cores. Apparently the program will run quicker and smoother. Has anyone else heard of this? If anyone has any info regarding this please could you let me know? I would like to try it myself Mike

F-15A going into orbit. (ok not quite!!!!)

RIP. Its hard when you lose people. Especially people that you know well. I recently lost two friends after a motorcycle accident in Thailand. Would'nt say that we were close friends but it was still hard nonetheless Mike

RIP Ill never forget a few years back while my parents and I were driving on a road that overlooks a deep valley in North Wales I could hear a jet engine thundering around very close but could'nt see it anywhere. Coming to a part in the road that is pretty close to the edge of the cliff I was looking out of the window and could'nt believe my eyes when I seen a Tornado flying below me!. It must have only been around 80-100ft to the valley floor and there I was looking down on a Tornado screaming through the valley. Rather peculiar experience watching it from above I must say Mike

Escort flight which turned hairy. The destroyed Hunter took 2 AIM9-Bs before i took it out with a few bursts of 20mm.

I have the Nvidia GTS 250 1GB. Its not the best card on the market but so far ive found it great value for money Mike

Back to the screenies.... 1st special ops sqd f100d on CAP

Just tried running this in my SF2/V/E merged install and it didnt work. Im running vista 64bit. Put the files in the flight folder of the mod folder and if anything my fps went down. I was running evrything on unlimited and have the SF2:V mega pack installed. I had a little fiddle and put the ENB series files into the main install directory and it worked a treat. From 10FPS to 25-30FPS. Looks fantastic gotta say Mike

Hi I was just wondering if its possible to have a ramp start in campaign missions. I know its possible to do in single missions but is it possible for campaigns? Cheers Mike

A10s of the 706th TFS out on close air support, Iraq, 22nd February 1991

I can answer the vista questions. I got myself a new rig a few weeks ago and it had Vista 64bit on it. So far no problems in the gaming department. TBH i dont think you will have a problem playing anything on that system. Mike

I can see a little bright orb of light in the centre of the door downstairs. Spooky!!

If your willing to spend around $200 on a processor id recommend the intel core 2 e8400. Had this on my new rig and im very impressed with it. Usually go with AMD as i found the single core processors to be quicker but with the dual core ones i wasnt very impressed.

Slightly off topic but have you guys considered splitting the downloads section into 1st gen and second gen categories? Mike

Ahem. Rescued by Sqd Ldr Nicola Robbins again!!! C5 i think you have created a superhero!!

My wingman/woman Sqd Leader Nicola Robbins claims her 10th kill of the campaign. This mig would not leave me alone and just as i thought he may have been in gun range the sqd ld comes to the rescue with a winder...

back to topic. didnt need any proof!!!

Tornado f.3 of RAF No.5 Squadron returning from CAP over Eastern Germany November 1986. (With 2 kills )

Showdown:Air combat A new series has started over here in the UK on discovery channel that I have found really interesting. Its called Showdown:Air Combat (Fridays 10:00pm GMT). The program recreates some of the most compelling aircraft dogfights in history by re-enacting them. Its hosted by Major Paul "Max" Moga who himself is a pilot flying the f-22 raptor. He follows the two dogfighting aircraft in a chase plane and describes the action step by step. So far two episodes have been on. Mig-15 Vs f86 sabre during the Korean war and yesterdays episode featured the zero against the f-4f wildcat during the guadalcanal campaign. Both have been really good and informative to watch, full of facts about each aircraft. one that stands out from last nite is that a 'clean' zero weighs roughly the same as an external fuel tank for the f-22 Next weeks episode features the p-51 vs the me-109 which should be good. Just thought id share this cool program Mike