RAF_Louvert

. Olham, you have hit on one of the core problems in your last post Sir. We do allow our elected officials to get away with anything and everything and then blame them for it. And, IMHO, we do so because, for the most part, the average U.S. citizen does not want to be bothered with having to deal with anything beyond his or her own little world. This condition is the primary reason my country is going to Hell in a hand basket. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there aren't a lot of good folks around here, there are. But we have become so used to having someone else "fix the problem" that we don't dig in and help the way we used to. Instead, we immediately look to Uncle Sam to take care of it. And then we are angered, shocked, and dismayed when it doesn't happen the way WE think it should, or at a cost that is going to affect our own little world and cause us some personal discomfort. You only have to look at the drop in volunteerism over the last five decades to see a blatant illustration of how we, personally, don't want to be bothered. While it's true that many will pitch in to assist during some short term crisis, such as a flood or a hurricane or a forest fire, it is only for that brief moment, and then it's back to business as usual. If anyone here in the United States of America wants to see the real problem with our country, they need only go as far as their bathroom mirror. If you truly believe there are things desperately wrong with your country and you want them to change, then by God go do something about it! Work for change, help a neighbor in need, vote corruption out of office, start a new political party, look to your God to guide you, do what you believe in your heart is right and just, find your way in a nation that seems to have lost its own. Change starts with the individual, not the society. You want the dream of a great and good society? Then go out and live the dream everyday, and don't give up just because it's hard or it didn't change in a week, or a year, or a lifetime. It took nearly a century to build Notre Dame Cathedral and involved tens of thousands of laborers, artisians, and craftsmen commited to the task. How long and how many people do you think it should take to build a strong, just, vibrant nation that can survive the test of time? It is easy to criticize and not work to find solutions, but it changes absolutely nothing. How about we all start rolling up our sleeves, digging in our heels, and putting our backs and brains into fixing what is broken. .

. Absolutely beautiful work as always Olham. I will be adding both to my collection. Cheers! Lou .

. Yes Flyby PC, there are some strong similarities in the two documents, and it has been argued over the years that the Declaration of Arbroath was one possible source that Jefferson used. It is quite certain he looked to ideas expressed in both the English Bill of Rights of 1688 and the Magna Carta when he drafted the U.S. Declaration of Independence, (and the Virginia Constitution), and there are also phrases taken directly from the Virginia Declaration of Rights written by George Mason. The idea that freedom is THE basic, God-given human right goes back eons, and fighting for and defense of such freedom has gone hand-in-hand with the belief. If you would like yet another earlier example of the core ideals expressed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, here is an excerpt from the Plakkaat van Verlatinghe, (Dutch Declaration of Independence), written in 1581: "As it is apparent to all that a prince is constituted by God to be ruler of a people, to defend them from oppression and violence as the shepherd his sheep; and whereas God did not create the people slaves to their prince, to obey his commands, whether right or wrong, but rather the prince for the sake of the subjects (without which he could be no prince), to govern them according to equity, to love and support them as a father his children or a shepherd his flock, and even at the hazard of life to defend and preserve them. And when he does not behave thus, but, on the contrary, oppresses them, seeking opportunities to infringe their ancient customs and privileges, exacting from them slavish compliance, then he is no longer a prince, but a tyrant, and the subjects are to consider him in no other view. And particularly when this is done deliberately, unauthorized by the states, they may not only disallow his authority, but legally proceed to the choice of another prince for their defense. This is the only method left for subjects whose humble petitions and remonstrances could never soften their prince or dissuade him from his tyrannical proceedings; and this is what the law of nature dictates for the defense of liberty, which we ought to transmit to posterity, even at the hazard of our lives. . Now then, Duce Lewis, about that knighthood Sir...gosh...I mean...aw shucks, I'm speechless... .

. This is wonderful Macklroy! Please share all of your great grandfather's entries with us as time allows. I live for this kind of firsthand account of Great War experiences. BTW, the town name you have noted as "illegible" is likely Étampes, which lies about midway between Paris and Orléans. Cheers! Lou .

. I agree with the others excellent comments here. It is very hard to pigeonhole exactly how I feel about war "sims" in general. I will say that with OFF I find a great WWI aerial combat sim that is very immersive while not dragging me all the way down into the mud itself: A sort of idealized version, if you will, of what it must have been like, with enough of the "reality" to make one actually care about one's virtual squadmates and self. The devs of this particular sim honestly got it right, IMHO. I for one do not want a sim that will bring me so close to real life tragedy that I can feel the pain and suffering that goes along with that experience. I have already lived through enough real life tragedy to know only too well how it devastates everyone involved. .

. Wish I could help Winder, but I lost all of mine in my recent HD crash. P4 is sounding more intriguing and exciting every day. Sweet anticipation. Cheers! Lou

. Duce Lewis wrote: "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) It is time that our government of the people, by the people, and for the people, became just that once again. I love my country, been proud to serve her, and am truly blessed to call her my home, and I am both sad and angry when I see where we are allowing her to go. I would remind all citizens of the United States of America to recall July 4th, 1776 and to remember the opening words of our own Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." Lou .

. Greetings All, My OFF kite is airworthy once again! Two new Western Digital 640 GB Caviar Black SATA hard drives, a new Diablo 900 watt power supply to push everything, a reload of XP Pro 64 bit and all related programs, a fortnight of tweaking and fine-tuning, and my flying box is bigger and better than ever. I also had to repurchase HitR as my download link had long ago expired and I did not have a back-up of the program, (my own stupid fault), and despite Pol's efforts Avangate would not renew the link. But I figure our ever diligent devs can use the extra cash for P4. Started a career as an American volunteer with the Lafayette Escadrille in the Alsace in April of 1916, and with the new improvements flying in the mountains is even nicer than it was before. Sliders currently at 5-3-3-4-3 with TrackIR profile set to "smooth" and I have beautiful, rock solid graphics even with a dozen planes in a furball above the Bitschwiller-lès-Thann. No twitches, no stutters, no jaggies; just loads of eye candy and fun. Me so happy. Cheers! Lou .

. Greetings All, Now that my flying computer is back online, I had the itch to do a custom skin for my current campaign pilot, Sgt. Albert Larsson of the Lafayette Escadrille. We are currently flying Nieuport 11's in April of 1916 and our "insigne de l'escadron" at this time is the crescent moon and star. Sgt. Larsson, upon his first flight in an N11, commented on how the nimble little craft swoops and soars just like the sparrow hawks he used to watch growing up on his family farm. This prompted the young flyer to find an illustration of said bird of prey, and he came across an excellent James Audobon example in one of the magazines of the day. He set to painting it onto the sides of his craft, and then added a double pair of blue stripe to the top plane as well. His squadmates commented on how "tre magnifique" his bus now looks. Cheers! Lou (Man! Do I love this sim.) .

. Dej, I'm putting my money on your Morane-Saulnier Type L guess. .

. Oh yes, lots of interesting wildlife up in those mountains...hee, hee... .

. Olham wrote: Olham, I run a nVidia GTX9800+ 512mb card and I can usually run at 5-4-4-5-5 unless I am in the Alsace, then I have to drop terrain and scenery to 3 and 3, likely due to the sheer number of trees in that region. I can always run clouds at 5, but I don't see any difference in the clouds until I drop all the way down to 2 so I generally run them at 3, (even though they don't seem to pull much in the way of resources). Thanks for the welcome back everyone. Cheers! Lou .

. Outstanding, Mike! And a great choice of music as well. .

. That is a very good looking Phalz WM, first-rate work as always. And you are just bound to succeed flying for the Kaiser with a name like that. .

. Another outstanding video Jammer. Well done. BTW, how do you manage so many flamers? Cheers! Lou .

. That silver Tripe is a beaut, Olham! And I feel your pain on trying to run those angled stripes on the wings of the Sopwith, (Strutter is even worse BTW). That's why I chose to do the layout on the Tripe the way I did a while back. Go inboard more and run the lines straight front-to-back and you avoid the distortion. Cheers! Lou .

. I've used this resource to do a search of last names which will at least get you the full name of the individual. You can then google the full name along with keywords such as "British War Medal", or "Western Front", or "Royal Flying Corps", etc, and you will often get results that have the information you are looking for. I did this with some of my family surnames to see if I might have had distant relatives who served in the RFC/RAF in the Great War. .

. appraiserfl, I believe JFM's work is currently available at RZM.com for $26.99, (after the internet order discount): Miller's MvR Book .

. This morning after being on the road all week I was looking forward to some enjoyable OFF flying time, but such was not to be. Grabbed a cup of coffee, sat down, fired up my computer, and it would not recognize the hard drive at all. Tried and tested everything and came to the realization that my Seagate HD had gone west. I know a lot of people like Seagate products but this is now the second HD of theirs I've had that went bad after about a year of use. So, I have ordered up a pair of Western Digital 640 GB Caviar Black SATA drives, (I have never had a Western Digital product failure), and at $69 each I figured I may as well put in two so I can place the page/swap file on the second HD and improve performance. I am also moving up to a 900 watt PS at the same time. I of course will have to start from scratch and reload everything which means all my campaigns are lost. However, the loss I am really sorry about is all my paint files for the OFF planes I've done. All those hundreds of bits of clip art are now gone and I will have to start from scratch. Ah well, c'est le vie. .

. "Everybody's at it..... Snipe, Snipe, Snipe, Dumbledor..." AAAAAAH HA HA HA HA, AAAAAAAH HA HA HA HAAAAA HA! Flyby, where the hell did you find that video?! I laughed til I cried. WM should use it in his signature block. .

. You are more than welcome Creaghorn. Glad to know the tip worked well for you Sir. .

. Great pics Olham, I've never seen either of these before. And notice that very high gloss finish on the wings in the second picture, almost like a mirror. Thanks for sharing Sir. .

. Many thanks for the concern and advice folks. I will keep you all posted on my progress with this. .

. An outstanding read appraiserfl, and here are a few more of my favorites: "Wind in the Wires", by Duncan Grinnell-Milne "Heaven High, Hell Deep", by Norman Archibald "Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps", by James McCudden "Fighting the Flying Circus", by Edward Rickenbacker "The Way of the Eagle", by Charles Biddle "With the Earth Beneath", by A.R. Kingsford But then, there are just so many great accounts. .

. Just read this thread. Great pic WM, and fun tales of your childhood. And let me add the following, everyone. I think it's high time we stopped picking on poor old Widowmaker about his Snipe. I mean, to keep sniping at his love for the odd craft is just cruel. It's as if we all go off on a a snipe hunt everytime he brings it up, and there's no end to the sniper tactics we engage in against him when he even broaches the subject. It's like a bunch of Wesley Snipes action characters all homing in on the same target. Why, it's nigh pernicious it is. To snipe snipe about snipe and snipe is nothing more than snipe snipe snipe and snipe, to be perfectly snipe about snipe. .