TempestII

I'm afraid my second DiD pilot has bitten the dust (death by SA-13 again:this:) I had so many fired at me, I ran out of flares & had to resort to flying at about 150ft trying to avoid them. My flight didn't really help either as they were quite far behind & only had 1 HARM between them. So Flying Officer Ethan Cambell's final tally was 20 A2A kills & 12 A2G in 8 combat missions. I'll go for the 1986 NF4+ again for my next campaign but I'm not sure who with yet. @ Cliff, isn't DiD a challenge enough without flying the widow-maker? I don't think I'll try it anytime soon but good luck with it.

OK, this is going to be a fairly long post... 5th mission on the 23rd October 1986. Had to intercept some MiG-27s on a C.A.S mission but the nearby F-15Cs killed them all when we were still 30 miles away. However, having plenty of fuel left, I led the flight north following the Eagles to steal some of their targets. It turned out that more MiG-27s with MiG-23 escorts were about 40 miles away so my Hornet flight went full burner to catch the MiGs before the F-15s got them. Well, here are the results... I got 2 kills while my flight got another 2. It was enough to get me promoted anyway. 6th mission on the 24th Oct was a C.A.P, nothing all that interesting happened other than one of my squadron members making Ace. 7th mission was great. I decided to take the whole squadron (-1 wounded) on a fuel tank strike. As we approached the target, I told flight's 1&2 to engage ground while 3&4 went A2A. As they distracted fighters & flak, I killed the fuel tanks with cluster bombs. With that completed, I used the rest of my A2G ordinance on SA-13s. And I was rewarded... Unfortunately, 2 Hornets were lost with our Sqn Leader captured & the other pilot K.I.A

My campaign with my new pilot has started well. Plt Officer Ethan Cambell flying the CF-18 with 421 Sqn has completed 4 missions in the 1986 NF4 campaign with 15 A/A kills and 1 A/G. Although the Soviets forced us to move airbases after the 3rd mission, the 4th one was very successful. The SA-13s are still causing problems though. I've had too many near misses for my liking with only flares & tight turns saving my backside.

Dammit! Those SA-13s have ruined my day! I knew this mission was going to be bad, mostly because it involved flying across most of Germany (my last mission wasn't this long & I only just made it back then due to low fuel...) It first went wrong when 2 MiG-21s intercepted us as we entered Soviet airspace, meaning my flight had to drop tanks & engage. My wingman took a hit but survived intact, while I got 1 MiG & the other crashed. Then, a bit further in, we flew a bit too close to some S-300s & SA-13s. As my RWR had a field day, I told the flight to break as I went from angels 10 to about 500ft as quick as my F.3 would let me. 2 F.3s were destroyed pretty much immediately by the S.A.Ms. My E.C.M & chaff fooled the S-300s but just as I eased off & began pulling up, my Tornado was ripped apart by a dam SA-13. I did manage to punch out but because I was over Soviet territory my campaign's over I reckon I'll try a CF-18 next.

Oh right. I've just had chance to do 2 missions. Pilot Officer Harry Smith (No. 5 Sqn) 1st November 1986 Mission = Intercept over Nuremberg Flight Name = Gopher Flight Contents = 4 Tornado F.3s Flight Time = 50mins Result = Success Kills - 2 Tu-22 Blinder-A (Primary Targets) 1 MiG-21 Fishbed-L 5 Sqn MIA, KIA or POW - 0 Score = 1100 Final Remarks - Allied S.A.Ms destroyed 2 MiG-23 Floggers who attempted to engage Gopher flight when en-route to target area. Pilot Officer Harry Smith (No. 5 Sqn) 3rd November 1986 Mission = Escort Tomahawk flight to Preschen Airbase Flight Name = Viper Flight Contents = 8 Tornado F.3s Flight Time = 67mins Result = Success Kills - 2 MiG-23ML Flogger-G 1 MiG-23M Flogger-B 1 MiG-21MF Fishbed-J 4 Fuel Tanks at Preschen Airbase 5 Sqn MIA, KIA or POW - 1 F.3 destroyed by SA-13 with Fg Officer Townsend & his W.S.O killed Tomahawk losses - 2 Tornado I.D.S's destroyed by Soviet A.A/S.A.Ms Score = 1900 Final Remarks - Due to Soviet fighters attempting to engage Viper flight en-route, fuel tanks had to be jettisoned earlier than expected. Unfortunately, this led to a late R.V with Tomahawk flight. Plt Officer Smith was forced to divert to a closer Allied base on the return journey due to fuel issues. Plt Officer Beamish's F.3 was damaged by the blast from an SA-13 on the return journey. (The destroyed Tornado was one of Tomahawk's) BTW, good luck to every DiD pilot still alive.

I'm probably starting a bit later than some of you, but I've decided to see how the Tornado F.3 fares in NF4+. I've just had to do some practice missions because I don't usually fly on the strict parameters DiD demands (my video card fails so I can't see anything further than a mile away). Still, I'm going to give it a shot:salute: 5 Sqn, Tornado F.3, NF4 (SF2E) Pilot = Pilot Officer Harry "Hunter" Smith. BTW, whats the furthest anyone's got in a DiD campaign so far?

First couple of military P.C flight sims: A-10 Cuba (still got that installed) Combat Flight Sim 1 F-22 Raptor (a copy of a friend's copy so it never really worked) For Playstation: Air Combat Ace Combat 3 I must admit, after playing Command & Conquer Red Alert around 1999, I kind of ignored flight sims in favour of R.T.S until about 5 years ago.

Awesome aircraft! Will this now become "the largest fighter in the world"?

The MIGs probably thought it was their lucky day... ...while my escorts arrived too late to be any help! Still, the Bone didn't give in without a fight & took plenty of punishment.

I've downloaded a few aircraft (eg Vulcan, Victor, B52) which have internal weapons. However, I when I fly them, the bomb bays don't open when I press 'fire' and therefore no ordinance is released. The only method i've found which opens the bays is Ctrl + J, which is pointless as all anti-ground weapons are jettisoned and don't explode. Is there a button which opens bomb bays? Or is there any other way to drop internal weapons? Please help.