Rambler 1-1

Just call me Dave Bowman. "Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?"

Every pilot's favorite tableau. Don't you think you ought to lead him a bit more then that, though?

I think it's bait for the terrorists. The minute some suicidal plane comes flying towards it, it'll come to life and save itself, and then go off to save the world. Or something.

I've heard that the gearboxes in a Tu-95 over the Ukrane can be heard all the way from Siberia. Neat footage, though. The Tornado seemed to be putting on some AoA as the vid went on, maybe the bear was climbing.

I sure didn't. I wanted them to win, but I thought Detroit had them for sure, looking at some of the games.

you forgot to say "sold!" and then bang your desk with a hammer.

you guys are awesome. Will the 3rd party wonders never cease?

You guys who live around military bases are no doubt used to seeing the more common military jets droning around, but way up here we get next to no non-civil traffic. The snowbirds come through about once a year, we get a PC-9 trainer a couple times a year, and very rarely a CF-188 shows up. The usual fare is a lot of 737s, Dash-8s, Cessnas, and the occasional 727. So you can imagine the shock I went into today when I heard the whistle and whine of four P&W JT-3 engines and looked up to see a big 707-307C with full flap on, smoking like a chimney, going right over the city on approach to our humble little runway 34. You can imagine again the shock when it went over again, slower and lower on another approach. By the fourth fly-by, it was starting to lose it's luster, but I pulled over to take a good look, and saw, on the side in big letters, NATO*OTAN. I rode out to the airport with all speed, and pulled up to the flying club just as the big sucker came to a stop. It was a real NATO plane, a lowly cargo and training 707, but a NATO plane nonetheless. after me a little crowd formed, and we watched as the ground guys tried to adjust the Air Canada offloading ramp to level with the door. One of the pilots, a Turkish Major, I kid you not, came out to talk with us civilians. The plane was from Geilenkirchen air base, just east of Cologne, and they had just flown up from New Orleans and were heading off to Cold Lake in a couple days. They had about half a dozen pilots on board, and each one had flown an approach, hence all the fly-bys. It many not be that exciting to most of you guys, but this was a serious event for us, because it was the first time that a proper 4-engined jet landed at our airport AND the first NATO plane that had ever landed there. The guy beside me took some pictures with his cell phone, and I had him email them to me for proof of this somewhat historic event. Taxiing in... Parked and offloading. Exciting, huh?

say bye-bye to airframe lives...

I've got a 1985 Honda XL350R. I bought it almost a year ago and it was a basket case. My dad and I fixed it all up, got everything working as it should, and now it's my daily driver and only (motorized) wheels. It's fast enough to be fun, but nice and small so I don't kill myself. Cheap gas and insurance, too. I hope to move up to a used SV650S or FZ6 as soon as I can afford one... @ Atreides, there's an '07 GSXR 750 with no lights or fairings for sale over here, it's only $2,500 and would make a nice track bike. (LINK) @ Dave, I had no idea you were a backroad blitzer!

wow, this sounds a lot like the crash of the orginal Comet, going down in the middle of the sea, fishermen seeing a bright flash of light. I have a few ideas about what happened here, but I'll see what the pros have to say first. What a terrible thing to happen. Just goes to show that no matter how modern a plane can be, it is still at the will of mother nature...

looks like all the other modern fighter/bombers that people have been drawing ever since the Raptor came out. I haven't seen a good, innovative rendering of a fictional plane for some time now. And the Falken from Ace Combat doesn't count as innovative just because it didn't have a canopy. That's just silly.

what were you riding? An F4i? That's still pretty quick. My XL350R tops out at 100 kph, then complains about it all the way home.

It's still alive? and the answer is... SYNTAX ERROR

i'm enjoying the 30+ degree weather (30 degrees celsius! it's not THAT cold here!) and the freedom of being able to motorbike solo. Also studying for year-end exams, writing a couple of essays and doing LOTS of yard work. And sleeping. Don't forget lots of sleeping.

...still waiting for my new computer. I swear this one has alzheimer's, just running the internet and it informs me that I don't have enough virtual memory so it has to shut down other programs, even though I have the max RAM for this thing. As soon as I get it, though, I plan on putting a healthy chunk of my well-earned cash towards some high-quality TW games.

look at Bien Hoa Airbase (Airport), and about 100 meters west of the airport icon, on the taxiway heading towards old USAF bunkers, is an SU-27. There's also a DC-3 type plane on the runway.

I always liked the Y-wings and the TIE interceptors the best, but the Naboo starfighter isn't half-bad looking either, with it's art-deco style swooping lines. The X-wing always remended me of a Delorean for some reason, probably the angular lines and legendary status. That being said, I still think the nicest looking star wars ship is the Republic Gunship a la episode 2. It's like an Mi-35 mixed with an AC-130. It's so ugly that it's pretty.

Every fighter affectionado loves to hate the editors of redflag. Did you notice that on apporach, F-18s coming from the sun magically turn into F-15s landing into the sun? wow!

hey, just 'cause I said I like the SU-27 in that splinter camo, doesn't mean all those other planes are ugly. Some planes (the Skyraider, Warthog and Phantom, for example) are so ugly that they're pretty. The A-5, the TSR-2 and the Concorde are beutiful because of their clean, sleek lines. The Tomcat, Falcon (or viper, whatever), Rafale and others have such nice lines that they are simply irresistable. The P-40 (P-40K especially) and the P-51 are hot in a "muscle car" sort of way, and the Spitfire stands alone as just plain old gorgeous from any angle. But as it stands, Beauty does lie in the eye of the beholder. And right now, I'm beholding that A-5 pic as my new desktop!

cheap joystick is better then no joystick. @ Atreides: I'm not even gonna say it. Here's an example of Rambler keeping the CA forum clean and on-topic.

I believe the engines in the MiG-19 had a TBO of 100 hours or something, so they were real maintenance hogs/hangar queens. I've never had much trouble with the MiG-19 in Phantoms, in fact I'd rather face one of them then a MiG-17. Above 450 knots, you can almost turn with him, and if you just use the default Phantom climb and dive attacks, they're easy fodder. I also noticed a while ago that the TW MiG-19 climbs pretty quick, one once accelerated from 350 knots at 1000 feet or so to mach 1 at 10,000 feet in a minute, catching up to me in a feat that I can not call realistic. I consulted the MiG_19Sdata.ini and a reliable internet source (wikipedia) and I think the TW MiG was 300kg or so too light. I naturally added 325 kg for good luck against them in the future. Suppose the pilot is fat.

You bet! It's the only way to drive! With those stupid automatics, you're just guiding the car, not actually driving it. Also, all (respectable) motorcycles are standard (ie clutch and shifter), and I'm an avid motorbiker. The person below me firmly belives in the old adage "Two wheels good, Four wheels bad!"

...and because your full name there is a little too long for a callsign.

well, I've been using $3 garage sale special joysticks for my whole life, my current one is a Logitech Attack 2 Wingman. I had a nice Attack 3, but eventualy it would only let me bank right. When my current stick dies, I'll go out and find another cheap one. Hooray! I can't vote, though, because I use my keyboard as my throttle quadrant/rudders. Kinda like a HOSAT setup, with my left hand on the keyboard using the arrows for throttle and rudder (and "0" is my airbrake) and my right hand on the joystick with all the weapons commands. Works pretty well.