Buzzard 72

Howdya log in on the Teamspeak server????

My pimp travellin' rig: Not really! I like this better...

I only play PC version...does that count?

My cousin is tranferring to a "Predator" unit in Las Vegas, quite a change from flying A-10's, but at least his coffe will be hot and available...I've discussed the proverbial achilles heel of the UAV program with him and he acknowledges that it is the primary concern (in as much as he can really relate) for operability of these RC planes. Like has been said above they will never be able to assume the multitude of responsibilities of different combat conditions and adapt tactics in a split second. The other thing to consider with automated UAV's is they will be buggy. They will have a pattern of pre-programmed responses and a limited capacity for storage of every possible ACM or A/G condition. Take for instance something as simple as altitude and speed, a pilot in an emergency will attempt to envelope the A/C under given conditions as where the UAV won't even have the electronic thought cross it's program nexus. It may be able to get maximum performance @ cornering speeds but ultimately it will be predictable at some point as all AI becomes. As to the Tomcat, a favorite of mine, I can see where the decision to move towards a fixed wing A/C of much simpler design was ultimatley going to happen. While the swing wing look and concept is appealing it just doesn't create enough of an advantage to warrant futher exploration...canards however, particularly retractable canards might be something to look into. Personally I think the advent of stealth technologies are of prime importance. Good ACM is about initiative and surprise, like any form of combat but more so I think even with ACM. The stealthier the plane the better opportunity for control of the engagement...my $0.02

Less precision delivery avionics and equipment means more fuel, better performance aeronautically (in theory), or the option for a wider array of onboard ECM, etc.?

A little article: TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LAND Russia and Syria sign major weapons deal U.S., Israel upset at Moscow's new alliance Posted: January 28, 2005 1:50 am Eastern By Aaron Klein © 2008 WorldNetDaily.com Russia and Syria this week signed a major weapons agreement in addition to the energy and trade deal the two countries reportedly reached Wednesday, prompting American and Israeli officials to privately voice concern over Russia's assistance to countries accused of aiding the insurgency in Iraq. Russian president Vladimir Putin and Syrian president Bashar Assad signed a military cooperation agreement that enables Russia to upgrade Syria's military and sell Damascus advanced arms. Among the first weapons transferred is the sale of an advanced anti-aircraft missile system mounted on armored personnel carriers, according to sources. The system is highly effective against low-flying aircraft and cruise missiles, and the mobility offered by the carriers renders the new missiles difficult to detect prior to launch. A deal in the works may also provide Syria with advanced surface missiles capable of engaging multiple targets at once. Assad was in Russia this week to discuss ways of strengthening ties with the former Soviet Union and to request debt-forgiveness. Putin pledged joint business ventures, including projects focusing on the development of oil and gas resources in Syria, and agreed to write-off 73 percent of Syria's $13.4 billion debt to Russia. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, who participated in talks with Assad, said Moscow is ready to cooperate with Syria "in every direction," including facing "new challenges and threats" in the Middle East region. But U.S. and Israeli officials have been urging Russia to limit the scope of its new military pact with Syria and have expressed concern the weapons could be passed to Hezbollah or to insurgents for use against U.S. forces in Iraq. Insurgents have been spotted crossing the Syria-Iraq border, and the U.S. says it has substantial intelligence Syria has been providing fighters with funds, weapons and intelligence information. Several detained insurgents have confessed to receiving Syrian support. Israeli officials have an added gripe. Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin reported last week Israel is upset its own technology may be incorporated in the systems for sale to Syria. A source in Jerusalem said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon became alarmed as intelligence reports accumulated showing Russia not only is interested in selling hardware to the Syrians, but has been using as bait supposed secretive, growing technological and scientific ties with Israel. One report reveals the Russians had offered similar proposals to the Iranians and in so doing were blatantly breaching one-by-one weapons agreements and understandings achieved with Israel over the past five years. The new weapons deal with Syria underscores fears Russia has been aligning itself with regimes working to destabilize American interests in the Middle East, particularly Iran, which intelligence indicates is the primary state sponsor of the Iraq insurgency. Russia has been the main provider to Iran of nuclear technology and facilities. Moscow claims its nuclear cooperation with Tehran is confined exclusively to civilian nuclear plant construction, such as a previous deal for the construction and supply of Iran's Beshehr reactor. But sources say Russia has embarked on a government-sponsored nuclear and missile technology transfer program that could provide Iran with the ability to produce nuclear bombs in one to three years. They say Russia still is contemplating providing Tehran with rods that are able to enrich uranium, a deal that was first reported last September. Earlier this month, Russia reportedly installed a mobile radar system to protect the Bushehr nuclear reactor, and similar systems allegedly are in the works for other Iranian nuclear facilities, with a site in central Iran being fitted for the system. The portable units are designed to detect low, medium and high altitude incoming missiles, and would complicate any attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Sources told WND operators of the Beshehr plant arrived earlier this month at a nuclear training center in Novovoronezh, Russia, where they have been receiving instruction on facility operation. Iran has been directly connected to violence in Iraq. An agent of Iran's elite Jerusalem Force was arrested this week in Iraq's Diyala province carrying money and planning attacks against U.S. The Iranian agent reportedly revealed during interrogation the location of a group of other Iranian agents working with them and admitted to having smuggled the group and their weapons through the Iran-Iraq border, avoiding security controls. The arrest followed the confession last week of Col. Muayed Al-Nasseri, an insurgent leader and former head of Saddam Hussein's "Army of Muhammad," who told U.S. interrogators Iran was the principle financier of the insurgency in Iraq. The U.S. has been attempting to formulate an appropriate policy to temper Russia's alliances with Iran and Syria. According to officials familiar with the talks, the U.S. has offered Russia different possible compensations in return for severing nuclear dealings with Iran including financial packages, agreeing to the Russian import of nuclear waste from Taiwan, South Korea or Japan, and even having NASA contract certain services from the Russians. But the offers were not effective. One source said Bush is being pressured into warning Russia in a summit next month with Putin that relations with the U.S. are dependent on its cutting ties with Iran and Syria. "Russia is trying to gain a foothold in the Middle East by lining itself up with Syria and Iraq," said the source. "This is part of a new global order being oriented after September 11 and with America staking out its position in the war on terror. U.S. policy on Russia needs to be updated to reflect this." Whooppeee!!!!

Why....all of them, because I am excellent.

I check hyper lobby pretty regular in the WOV room. I need to to do a different install as my modded version won't allow anyone to play...but once that is done it should be ok.

NOT. Great vid though.

Manual landing and I love the A-6(even with it's quirky dirty flight). The Tomcat is a breeze to bring in as is the F/A-18(though visibility is less than optimal). Even landed a Thunderchief on a carrier!

Usually full takeoff, ingress, egress, and landing(this is especially fun with carrier ops I love carrier traps!!!). Often times I alter the flight plan(though this tends to screw with supporting elements that aren't much help anyway...) to make my approach on bridges/runways on the as the bridge/runway layout(lenghwise). For some reason the planning map default rarely does that... Also there are plenty of times when the flight plan has me over enemy territory for DAYS. I almost always Cycle up my waypoints after mission completion to '8'. Also by flying all the way in I can get a better idea of enemy aircraft location miles before I'm there. It seems that if I 'ALT N' and fast forward I get jumped(85% of the time).

Yep inventory is down to 20. Doesn't matter much anyway, USAF has had plans to replace that bird for a few years now. Unmanned long loitering stealth bombers(the pilots bane). What's funny is the press here in the states making jibes about strikes against Iran and how without the B-2 that's on hold...

This does seem unusual for losses of this sort. Especially a B-2! Personally I think that our pilots are flying alot more training sorties than they use to. Not to mention actual combat sorties. More hours =more wear and tear.

Yeah the Thud is kinda like a drag racer funny car of jets....

Yeah, Dark Blue World was a good fly flick, with a great(if tragic) ending. Don't care what anyone says Topgun is Cat's ass! I hate Tom Cruise but Val Kilmer is the best! Iceman forever! The Right Stuff was great...ya got a stick of Beeman's? Apollo 13 Iron Eagle...that was crap. What they really need is a good movie about Thud's in Vietnam. Haven't seen Tora, Tora, Tora for years.

The P-40 was not "heavy" due to it's engine. The plane was heavily armored(especially for the time it was intorduced), I believe had or quickly had armored self sealing fuel tanks and so forth. In addition the Alllison engine used by the P-40 was lackluster compared to contemporary radial powered planes, the Riech really pushed the performance for inlines with the DB series engines in the 109. They even used later inlines in the 190D-9 and that plane was F-A-S-T for a piston at that time. As for the debate: both engine types had their purposes. The great advantage that a radial had over inline is that they were air cooled. So groundfire was not near the issue in regards to engine damage due to collant leaks. HP wise they were comparable, I think radials tended to get the upper hand in torque but not necessarily in horsepower. Radials were by far more common in use during WWII. As far as I know not one fighter plane used HO motors. However, inline or V's lend themselves to more modification along the lines of superchargers, turbo induction etc. than radials and are more fuel efficient. The only other advantage I believe that a radial has over inline is that high rpms are less traumatizing. So, it's really a toss up. Some really fast badarsed planes used radials from heavies on down to fighters. One of my favorite light bombers that was hella fast was the A-20/Boston MK III and it used radials. The P-47 ,in my opinion, was a better plane than the P-51 in many respects (mass diver, great high alt performance, massive ordnance capability, had a surprisingly tight turn circle for a bird that big, lot's a fire power, 8 .50's is madness, tough as hell [bob johnson wouldn't have got home otherwise]). Horrible climb rate Then you have greats like the P-38, dual counter oppossed Allisons(which seemed to be a better performing model than the P-40's plant), Fast, reliable, long range, 4 dueces and a 20 mm, good ordinance carry ability. All the Spit planes as well as the Tempest. Take your pick.

I'd love to hook-up more for co-ops(I'm less interested in straight dogfight). I tried hamachi, but i took it off as it was not agreeing with my settings and had disdabled my ability to connect with Hyperlobby(I prefer to play here). I'd sure like to see a dedicated server for WoV that connected through Hyperlobby. I have a question...is it possible to have a clean install AND an add-on install? Probably not huh? Unless a sectioned off part of my hard-drive?

I agree, I flew just the other night with a fellow WOV/WOE junky. He hosted and it was fun. Better than the rote missions that you get in campaign....

Gonna +1 Caesar on the sword debate. The katana certainly is an excellent weapon(when made properly) but it by no means is the be all and end all of swords. Sadly european swords are viewed as being 5 lb sharpend bars of steel by the general public(and who can blame them...they are swords after all). Fortunately European swords have not gotten wrapped up in esoteric nonsense that unfortunatley tends to drown the facts concerning just what performs how well. Hollywood certainly hasn't been a help. Two words....HIGH lander. Concrete pillar and a "2000" year old katana(mind you the katana probably didn't exist until about 1400 in the form that we know it today and it really didn't hit it's stride until about 1600 or so). Not to mention the numerous horrible "Ninja" movies starring thr honorable Sho Kosugi. Anyhow, european swords, by comparison are every bit as good...wait for it...if not better than old katana. Why? More homogenous steel of better over all quality. A longer tradition of sword making. Numerous types, both focused and multi capable. The katana was a stangnant design that reached absolute design perfection...for the type of sword that it was. The basic design was layed down about 700 AD. Frankly it really didn't change much until the 1600's when the nature of it's use became more of a duelling weapon and less a battlefield weapon(the tachi and the katana though similiar are in many respects different). Aesthetically the katana has a subtlety that attracts the eye. It's both colorful, extreme, sedate and mutlifaceted. That makes sense for a weapon that was considred "the Soul" of the samurai. European history and development was certainly way more pragmatic about weapon development than Japan. There was an aesthetic, but by and large the primary consideration was not intangibles. That was how well it could be used to kill your enemy(bloodthirsty isn't it). The rapier gained popularity over the typical cut and thrust sword because it was able to kill more efficiently by the thrust that the cut (try 3 feet of steel through the brainpan sometime...) when used in "civilian" quarrels. It was not a battlefield weapon. It was Europe's version of the katana. Americas katana was the duelling pistol. Anyhow, the katana is great(not really my thing, but great nonetheless). It isn't any better or worse than most swords types given to us by our predecessors.

Great vids!

The wingmen in the flight are nothing more than errant children and are akin to herding cats to get to attack targets successfully. I do manage to get thme to though (oddly). I don't let second element off the leash until we are 10 miles from the objective. They are a genuine pain to get to recall though and that's usually when there's an issue and one gets downed.

Man, when I get some money....I'm gonna have the most awesome flight sim cockpit in HISTORY man.....

And a wife that didn't hate flight sims

Ghostrider, you might want to think about actually posting the pic on the forum, this rapidshare is not user friendly...

I think there's alot of guys that want to be where you were stationed.