Flyby PC

Thing about stuff that's unexplained, is that it's just that, - unexplained. Sounds stupid I know, but picture in your mind trying to explain to someone who'd never seen or even heard of it, exactly what fire was. Imagine for some reason you can't show him what it is. You've no matches so need to do it in words, and do it in a way where he doesn't think you're a complete nutter talking mumbo jumbo about invisible things that are a benefit if you respect them, but can hurt you instantly if you don't. Until you understand what it is and how you control it, fire is pure voodoo, witchcraft and wizzardry all rolled into one. If you manage getting him to understand fire, then try telling him what electricity is ....(and beware, you could now be burned for witchcraft!)

I'd go back in time without any hesitation, but not to see the war. I'd head straight for any building site where there were stonemasons working. The things they did that I could learn.... priceless. I'd then go back to Culloden with a machine gun. Actually, the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 would have been better. I'd liked to have kept Scotland independent and stopped Crommwel's rampant vandalism and wanton destruction of property. Dunbar once had a castle so fine which you could sail a ship inside the battlements. - Until Crommwel flattened it that is. I'd like to have seen that castle. WW1 would be a sight, but I suspect the chances of changing anything for the better in all that madness would be negligible. I do wonder what contribution the loss of all those men might have made to our modern world. Are we better or worse for all that sacrifice. Collectively we're better I'm sure, but so much tragic loss at the same time. A big factor in going back in time would be the ability to come back to the present. (And nip back again if I needed to tinker with things again).

Thing is, from his employers perspective, if this ATC can be so liberal about his protocols to let his son on the air, you have to ask yourself what other regulations he's formed his own opinion on too. In such a sensitive job, no employer could ignore such an obvious lapse in judgement. It's the lapse that's important - not what he actually did. It was a bad call - period. If he wanted to let his son read out some protocols, he might have been wiser to get it OK'd with his superiors -and the pilots. I can't imagine they'd object, but if he supected they would, going ahead without their consent was bound to be make matters a whole lot worse. It reminds me of another 'killjoy' incident I saw some years ago. I was walking through the Meadows in Edinburgh, near the hospital. There were loads of people about, and a father with his young daughter were sitting on the grass, with the wee girl picking some daffodils - (there were thousands of them). I'd guess she was only 4 or 5. Next breath was a passerby having a go at the kid for picking the flowers, saying they weren't hers to pick and she was stealing them. Poor wee lass dropped her flowers and run back to her dad in tears. I reckon the father would have taken the guy's head off if his kid hadn't been there. Meanest thing I'd seen for years. What a creep. Couple of nurses saw it all too and when I looked back they were picking up the wee girls flowers. Damage was already done though. I hope I never become so mean and humourless that I can't ignore a kid picking flowers in a park.

Outstanding work Jammer. First class. Embedding by the way, Open Bracket YouTube Close Bracket Install the full path / address to your link Open Bracket / YouTube Close Bracket [ - these brackets. You need to install the full Youtube address, all the www. gubbins, not just the last eight or ten digits. Don't forget the forward slash in the second youtube. Also, make sure the link is direct, and that 'related feature' doesn't appear in the web address. This means its a clip found by a search or which comes through your profile. Always link to the exact page. Bingo.

Anybody remember the US bank robbers armed with assault rifles and kevlar body armour? I'm not sure what the Police had, 9mm and shotguns I expect, but whatever thay had, they couldn't take them down. The robbers just walked down the street with impunity until one officer got close enough to put a round in one of the robbers neck from point blank range. I forget how they took down the second, but it was a pretty good illustration of the difference between handguns and high velocity 'man killing' assault rifles. (Not a bad advert for Kevlar too). I wouldn't the call this the best shootout, I'd call it the worst. http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

I don't know if it's because we're a small place, or just over-regulated, but I envy places like Australia, Canada and the US where recreational flying is a viable proposition. More flying, more pilots, more pilots more fun, more fun, more private owners, more money, more engineering backup, more money sloshing about, - in short, more of a flying industry. Only 'positive' from the current system seems to be the volunteer queue, which runs for miles already. I'd love to get a pilot's license and fly stuff for real, but that's very unlikely to happen. And as for mounting twin machine guns.... I think I'm in Somalia already, or a third world country anyway. Good old BBC wants live debates prior to the next general election. Everybody's invited - apart from Scotlands democratically elected government. Don't want any democracy screwing up the election do we? Sorry Admin. It's not the politics, but the biased broadcasting that gets up my nose. Its OT anyway, so scrub it out if you like.

You can see BBMF from your upstairs window??? - Let me know if you see a 'For Sale' sign on your house.

Ahem, back on topic... British Squaddie shot in the neck but back on duty in weeks. - http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/2010/02/03/T03021024/ I was going to quote the Black Knight from Monty Python's Holy Grail 'Tis a flesh wound', but I might be better to take a quote from Monty Pythons Life of Brian - 'You lucky lucky b**" rd!"

I think it's nothing short of outrageous the way Park and Dowding were treated. Very shabby indeed. After the Battle of Britain, Dowding was retired, and Keith Park transferred to training. Leigh Mallory was an accomplished politian and instrumental in having both Park and Dowding removed. His own policies caused heavy casualties for RAF pilots, but he nevertheless made head of fighter command, and made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath for his efforts. His days of glory so to speak, concerned D-Day when allied air superiority was assured. Dowding and Keith Park not only held the line when the RAF was under extremely serious pressure, but after the Battle of Britain, Keith Park also put the backbone into the successful defence of Malta during it's darkest hours under similarly intense pressure. Without Dowding, there wouldn't have been a Battle of Britain. Dowding was the man with the foresight and vision responsible for the RAF having both the Hurricane and Spitfire at their disposal when they were needed, aided by the RDF radar stations which he also advocated and maintained, and without which the Battle of Britain would have been a defeat. The only saving grace I've read is that whatever was made of their efforts externally, both Dowding and Park were always held in the highest possible regard by the airmen who flew under their direction. I'm not 100% sure I remember correctly, but I seem to recall some issue over Dowding's statue, and that it wasn't paid for by the state, but by his own pilots, or his 'chicks'. Perhaps not the RAF's finest hour.

You need TrackIR Tranquillo. It's a motion tracker which maps your head movements to your viewpoint on screen. Bit expensive for a gizmo, - but extremely worth it.

Welcome Tranquillo. I'm no expert, but your computer stats are a lot better than mine so I reckon you'll be fine. 4Gb RAM sounds absolutely delightful. CFS3 doesn't like dual core, but I'm sure it won't slow you down if you're configured correctly. I'm XP S3, so I know that works, but haven't heard any horror stories about Windows 7 either. It's also a forum rule that anybody new who flys model aircraft from WW1 has to post lots of pics and YouTube vids for the rest of us to 'oooh' and 'aaah' at. You have to do it, or else there's usually trouble. (And don't be too depressed if you've tried out vanilla CFS3. - It does get a lot better).

I remember reading a book about Kim Philby, the spy. It said that spy catching is very difficult because of the way sensitive information is traded to obtain more sensitive information. It's not enough to catch them in the lift with top secret documents in a briefcase. In order to tell whether someone is a traitor, you have to weigh up how much information they've passed to the enemy against the weight of information they've managed to gain by exchanging it. If their account is in credit, he's a good spy, but if the account is in debit, he's either a lousy spy - or he's playing for the other side. I suspect it's similar when we look at strategic decisions taken in WW1. You need to weigh up all the bad decisions and compare them with the good decisions to determine whether the result portrays the War Office in a positive or negative light.

This is the UK. It's not unbelievable.

Just being pedantic, but as I understand it did fly over Flanders, - but only for a six week trial in 1916 amidst rumours of being a 'secret' weapon. Pilots liked it, but the War Office didn't for reasons already stated. It's really quite puzzling, particularly given the scandal in the UK associated with the Fokker scourge...., though in a small way it may have been a small part of the scandal (?). From Duxford Legends- Of the 125 Bristol M.1Cs constructed only the 35 sent to Macedonia and the Middle East in 1917 saw action mainly in the ground attack role where they ran rings round the opposition (on one occasion two pilots put up such a fearsome display of aerobatics that a complete Kurdish tribe defected to the allies). Five squadrons were equipped for active service with the M.1C in Salonika and operated against the Turks and Bulgars. The rest were used by Flying Schools where they frequently became the prized personal mounts of the Senior Officers and Instructors. Six others served with the Chilean Air Force from 1917 where one piloted by Lt. Godoy became the first aircraft to cross the Andes on 12/12/18. http://www.btinterne.../pages/M1C.html

If rationing came back tomorrow, heaven forbid, I wonder how different (or similar) the menu would be. It looks pretty tasty, - but I'd struggle with the quantities until I got used to it.

First carrier yes, but the first ever Ark Royal was built for Sir Walter Raleigh in 16th Century, seeing action in 1588 during Spanish Armada. The WW1 Ark Royal was the second to bear the name, and the current Ark Royal is the fifth. Converting ships to carriers was also done after WW1 due to the surplus of capital ships. The Courageous class carriers, HMS Courageous and HMS Glorious were former light cruisers converted to carry aircraft.

For me, whenever I play a console game, I feel that wherever I go in the game, a thousand people have already been where I've just been. With CFS3, and all its derivative add-ons, however long I fly it, I never think I've seen it all. People like the OBD folks are like pioneers, finding paths in the darkness to discover what CFS3 is actually capable of, good or bad. They show the rest of us the way, but even they don't know every path, - there are still things to see and discover, and sometimes what we think we know suddenly changes. Add just one more plane and everything has a new perspective... I don't mean it in a bad way, but for me, console games are the scraps which fall from the PC table. I'm not anti-console game, not at all, but it's a product. You get what you pay for and shouldn't expect any more. I read some time ago about the modern phenomenon of games, and how it was the biggest explosion in technology, research and development which wasn't driven by military necessity. Having fun is big business too....

Still haven't found the video I was looking for, but this is pretty sobering....

Definitely not fake, but just as unbelievable....if not more. Sorry guys, you'll need to go to YT to see it. (Embedding declined). -It's worth it though.

You'll probably kick yourself USAFMTL, but prior to it's big crash, the Sim Outhouse boasted some stories from a Canadian WW2 veteran who flew as a tail gunner in a Lancaster. His Web name was Grandguy. In one mission, we was engaged by Me262's, and the neighbouring aircraft to his own was shot down. He engaged one of the fighters but found his guns jammed, had to re-cock them manually, and by the time he was ready to fire, there was only time for a very short burst. A second story he related was during one take off, the aircraft seemed to take a long time to take off, and when it did, it seemed to be flying over airstrip facilities. He thought little of it, but the pilot told him after the mission that in addition to braking, the take off could be kept straight by the engine revs. The pilot had been testing the theory, and had come dangerously close to colliding with the control tower and killing them all. A third story I remember was during his gunnery training in Canada, flying in Fairey Battles. They were taken up in threes to practice their gunnery, but the Battle had a space in the floor where the recruits could stick their heads out the floor and look out at the scenery. When it was Grandguy's turn to have a look out through the floor, he held on to some rods to stop himself falling out. At once, the aircraft started to buck violently, and the pilot began swearing. That's how Grandguy learned where the control rods were in a Fairey Battle. Sadly I heard Grandguy past away last year, and his stories were amongst the mass of data which was lost. I'm sure you'd have enjoyed a conversation with him, he was quite a gentleman.

Sounds a bit abstract, but I blame TV. Mass anaesthesia which reduces life to mere existence - and we are even forced to pay for it. If you think about flying, the actual thrill of it, the speed , the height, the excitement, and compare that 'rush' to what you actually experience in a typical flight, - the whole business seems such a missed opportunity. I want to see everything. I want to see what countries and cities look like from the air. I want to watch the ground approaching as we come in to land. We fly, but have no perception of what it's actually like. What has happened to peoples' curiosity? Why do we collectively settle for such grey lives? We have more opportunites now than at any period in history, but we withdraw ourselves away from anything exciting or stimulating. We eat processed rubbish, we build crap houses, we drive cars which all look the same. Where will it all end? When we achieve a state of absolute indifference?

I agree. It's very odd for Concorde to be 'obsolete' when there's nothing capable of replacing it. It is a step backwards.

Yep, that looks great Jammer. You've a good eye for a good image. I only mentioned it because once upon a time I had acres of footage recorded in widescreen, but couldn't crop the sides to make it fit the 4:3 ratio which Youtube wanted at the time. I had loads of really good captures, but dumped the lot because I thought I couldn't use it. Then I found Virtualdub.... Here's a couple of screenies - The right hand image is your output, and you can fix it's proportions to whatever you like. The other image is the null transform cropping option. Like I say, Virtualdub takes some getting used to, but I bet you'll love it.

Been on board the Concorde at East Fortune air museum, and it was not surpisingly a little cramped, but the cockpit did look very dated. If I remember correctly, there weren't many digital guages, but lots of switches that went click etc. As I understand it, Concorde flight crew had quite an esprit de corps, and by common consent, enjoyed their time on Concorde. One ex pilot told us that every time Concorde went supersonic, the passengers always cheered. The also said despite her thirsty engines, her speed meant journey times were shorter, and in terms of efficiency, the cost in fuel useage per passenger was comparable to other jets. Shame to see Concorde mothballed, especially in such tragic circumstances. When I was in London, you could always tell when Concorde was coming in to land, because it was significantly louder, but everybody was proud of Concorde, rather than hostile to the noise. Regarding the fuel tanks, I believe a maths teacher at school was on the design team for the fuel tanks. I'd be lying to say he was my teacher, but sister got him. Back on topic, - had a quick browse USAFMTL, and look forward to reading it when I've got more time. More of the same definitely gets my vote.

Wracked by brains trying to enter into the spirit of the thread, but what occurs to me is how limited your options were in WW1. Not just in aircraft design, but typical deployment. (It might be my own shallow knowledge too). I also agree that the Hurricane was just as much the thoroughbred fighter as the Spit, but maybe just not as pretty. When called to action however, it was the Hurricane which trully 'did the business'. I like Hurricanes, almost as much as Mossies. I ok with the Halberstadt D.II comparison, it was an early fighter deployed with considerable innovations, superseeded later in the war. The big difference the Hurricane was a battle winner on an altogether different scale, and punched well above it's weight. Even when withdrawn as a front line fighter in Europe, it saved Malta in it's darkest hour, and went on to clobber armour and shipping in the Med with considerable distinction. I'm ok with the Mossie / Brisfit comparison. That's a good fit I reckon. I'm pretty sure the pilot would land his Bristol and tell his observer, "You know, I still want to go faster...." I don't know much about the Lavochkin 7 in it's IL2 context, but it was a bit of a beast in reality. More than a match for the FW190 - which is really saying something.