Rambler 1-1

It's been a long time, but here's another: It felt good to be back in my Tomcat. It had been a while, and there always seemed to be something keeping be from a proper sortie, but not today. We were tasked to do a fighter sweep over the mainland in support of a supply drop for a ranger squad or something. I didn't pay attention to the fine details, all I knew was that we were supposed to head way inland and draw any patrolling fighters away from the C-130s that were dropping whatever along the coast. It was a bit of a hush-hush flight, seeing as our presence over the mainland could be seen as an outright invasion, but we had to support our remaining men on the ground. The Air Force couldn't take this mission because they'd obviously be detected on the way in; I guess it was the Tomcat's first, last and only ever stealth mission. We were off the deck of the Nimitz by 0600, just the two of us. No Phoenixes, just four 'winders, four Sparrows and EFTs for each of us. It was a rather long mission, with no refuelling, but was still within our range. After takeoff, Silver and I kicked back to enjoy the transit. about 50 miles off the coast, Silver piped up. "Ram, we got a couple contacts, not twenty miles in from the coast." "You sure they're not the Hercs?" "Positive. Too small." "All right." I switched over to Unicom. "Red crown, Showtime lead. Bogeys, eleven o'clock, seven zero miles. request clearance to identify." "Showtime lead, cleared to identify, weapons red." Looks like we wouldn't be shooting at them yet... Shortly after, the C-130s reported that they were approaching the coast. we were closing on the bogeys from behind as we called feet dry, they were 20 miles north of us or so. The Hercs were to come ashore in that area in another ten minutes. I called my wingie. "Tiger, let's catch those bogeys before they do anything stupid." "Roger that." The afterburners kicked in and we accelerated quickly. The air became smooth as we passed the barrier. We were closing fast. "Silver, still got them locked?" "You bet. ten miles and clos- wait! they're turning towards us!" All right. "Red crown, Showtime lead. Bogeys engaging, requesting weapons green." "Showtime lead, negative. Weapons red. Cleared to identify." Ass. "Ram, they're here..." The small, silver specks appeared on the horizon, closing fast. "Tiger, wax those two." "Rog" It was strange that there were only two, usually the MiG-17s travelled in packs of at least... four. I pulled up as the MiGs went past, but continued straight ahead. "Ram, what are you doing? they've passed us!" "Give me boresight." Unicom again. "Red crown, bogeys confirmed hostile. Engaging, weapons red." "Showtime lead, Red crown... cleared weapons red." "Fox one! Fox one!" Now... where is... THERE! My wingman had no trouble getting behind the first two. One burst into flames from Tiger's AIM-7E-2s. I was more interested in the one behind him, though. below me and to my left was a third shiny MiG-17. "Tiger! Break right! Check six!" he tore off his attack to the right as I rolled into a split-S. The MiG followed Tiger, turning to his right. This is too easy. My AIM-9H growled, ready to go. "Dammit! DAMMIT! I can't shake him!" Tiger's voice was strained by the G-load of his wild jinks. "Hold on." The MiG was following his wild jinks. Wait for the right moment... "TIGER! BREAK LEFT NOW!" The MiG had screwed up, rolling too far left trying to follow Tiger's jinks. If Tiger would pull across his nose, the MiG would be in firing position for a split second, but he would have to fly straight and level, and Tiger's Cat would be out of the 'winder's firing envelope. "Are you CRAZY? He'll have my ass!" "JUST DO IT!" Tiger banked hard left, the MiG levelled. I fired. The Sidewinder leapt off it's rail, snaked a couple times, then tracked straight up the MiG's exhaust trail. "Splash one!" I pulled up off the attack, and Tiger followed. We were looking for the other MiGs. "Ram! Lookout!" As Silver yelled, I saw the MiG above and behind me, to my right. I peeled off in a diving right turn. "Tiger! I'm waxed!" "No problem." I couldn't see what Tiger did, but I can only assume it was pretty damn good. Soon, my RWR started to pick up. But... MiG-17s don't have radar! "Ram, hold still and yell if you get locked." "What?" "Fox One." Oh boy... I pulled up hard left, and looked up over my shoulder to see a white smoke trail intersect an exhaust trail, then turn into a greasy black column of smoke. "Splash two!" "Uhh... thanks" "Showtime lead, Red crown. Mission complete." "Ram, I'm bingo. Cover me." "Rog." I checked my gauges. "I've still got some fuel to play with." we climbed back up to angels ten as I followed Tiger out. he was a good ten miles ahead of me, roughly at the shoreline when I saw the last MiG. "Hey Silver, up for one more?" "no." "Too bad! I'm rolling in!" "ok, but don't stay for long. We're almost bingo." The MiG was at every disadvantage. He was low and slow. Or so I thought... I pulled an immelman and looked up to see him below me. But he was climbing. FAST. Silver and I both saw the green tracer at once. "Ah-" "-s**t!" The bullets were coming up towards us... slowly. I was pulling up to try to bring my nose down on him for a head-on shot, but... wait... In a moment of brilliance, I pushed forward on the stick. The inverted nose went up, and we were pushed into our straps with negative Gs. The bullets, which would have his us if I had continued to pull back, passed neatly behind us. "sunuva..." I quickly went into full burner and finished pulling through my loop. The MiG was high and slow, but had nosed down and was coming back around in a left turn by the time I hit the bottom of my loop. Knowing it wasn't a sparrow shot, and that I'd never be able to wax him for a 'winder in this situation, I switched to guns. I rolled sideways left and lift-vectored to 3-Gs. The pipper disappeared below the HUD, as did the MiG, which was peeling towards me. It was the high-deflection shot from hell, and I fired. I let a half-second burst off, and eased off the turn. The MiG re-appeared on the other side of my canopy, missing a wing and trailing smoke. Splash three. "ok, you got him. Let's get home before we have to swim." I arced up and away, turning back towards the carrier. The Cat was light with such little fuel, and always did do nice victory rolls. I couldn't help myself, and as I looked back at the smoking crater, I muttered: "Anytime, baby." "The high-deflection shot from hell"

What do you expect for engaging an egressing Tomcat? Well, I'll tell you what you'll get - death by Vulcan Cannon. Anytime, baby.

Check out the KB, I put in what files you need to get the pit to show. Aside from that (and a cockpit viewpoint fix), there's nothing else that needs to be done. @Fubar, I know there's a new MF Tomcat on the way, but I just couldn't wait any longer! Besides, I love the A-model.

Typical... I finally get the MF F-14A all set up in SF2, and then they come out with a new model. Oh well. TOMCAT FOREVER!

FC, of your land is currently scenic oceanfront, it will soon become scenic ocean bottom. However, if your land is up a hill somewhere, you'll find yourself retiring on the new waterfront!

The Cat came back... I fixed the pit! thanks TMF, it's still as awesome plane as it was back when I first used it in SFP1!

For the Mirage Factory F-14A, you need: F-4E_GAU1.bmp F-4E_GAU2.bmp F-4E_GAU3.bmp F-4E_GAU4.bmp F-4E_GAU6.bmp F-4E_Radar.bmp F-4E_rwr.bmp F-4E_HUDGlassTop.tga F-4E_HUDReflection.tga F-4E_cowl.bmp F-4E_reflec1.tga F-4E_reflec2.tga F-4E_Mirror.bmp F-4E_Attitude.bmp F-4D_GAU5.bmp F-104_RADARMODE.tga F-100D_Attitude.bmp F-100D_GAU1.bmp F-100D_GAU3.bmp Now, to go find them...

It hit 5 degrees Celsius here last evening. I took advantage of it by taking my motorbike for a midwinter's ride, because it was forecasted to drop back to -2 and -3 today. You can imagine, then, my shock when i woke up and looked outside to see this: HOLY CR@P! HOW LONG DID I SLEEP FOR? It usually doesn't hit double digits 'till mid- march up here! This is CANADA! We're supposed to be freezing our butts of, buried in snow, and be happy about it. What's going on? after a check of the interwebs, I concluded that it was indeed still just January 16. I don't know if this is a record or anything, and I don't know if there's warmer-then-normal temperatures all over the place or just here. Anyway, I thought I'd just point that out before I go for a nice long, mid-January motorcycle excursion.

still Money For Nothing by Dire Straits.

Just watch: during the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the entire Juan De Fuca plate is gonna drive 40 meters east, and Vancouver is gonna become the next Atlantis. :yes:

it topped out at 15 degrees today, but there was a killer lapse rate. I went up a good, twisty road not 2000 feet above my home altitude, and there was ice and snow abound at a mere +1. I had to turn back before my fingers froze! and I'm just dreading all the BS that I'm sure is inbound about how this is due to global warming because of all the pollution that Canada apparently makes... Widowmaker, I hope you're enjoying it, 'cause we want it back!

I found my new favorite mount! unfortunately, I only have this one pic, I was having too much fun to stop and take a picture while landing on mountaintops in the alps, flying the Grand Canyon route and hopping around the northern oilfields and thousand islands. LOVE this plane! yeah, yeah. I know my graphics aren't stellar. No driver for my card on Windows 7 yet, so it's kludged together for now. Anyway... Bonus points if you can name the plane.

great, now let's see you land it!

What a beaut!

well, those lists have made mt combined install seem totally inadequate. I've just been bombing around with the stock planes, and mods for them. Eraser, how big is your HD?

Has nobody mentioned "The Russians Are Coming"? That's one of my favorites of all time! Not really a stereotypical cold-war movie, but it is based around a bunch of Brits fearing a Soviet invasion. It's just so... good! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060921/

I enjoyed that movie. It was just plain old fun to watch. And it had TOMCATS fighting ZEROES! That just blew my mind. "Where does Nimitz get off naming a ship after himself?"

Damn, that actually looks good! Perhaps a little excessive for the A-team (shooting down jets from a parachuting APC?), but at least they kept the characters, catch phrases (I hope), intro and the van the same.

I always find myself flying for the US Navy and Air Force, if not the RCAF, depending on how I want to blow sh!t up. Lately I've really focused on mud moving, and MiGs are something to be avoided, only engaged if necessary and If I have every advantage. My inner coward, I guess... There aren't any squadrons I really prefer, except for VF-84. Jolly Rogers forever! I can't wait for an HD Tomcat...

I can just hear the alpha particles bouncing off that A-5's skin....

Starfox... 'nuff said.

Has anybody done an Area 88 skin for the new MF F-8? or even the TW one?

hockey joke inbound!

Happy New Year! Well, I still have 35 minutes left of 2009, but that's close enough. Hope you're all enjoying 2010 so far, and let's hope it continues to go well!

Very nice, Spinners. I think Dief the Chief just rolled in his grave, along with the Arrow...