Bullethead

That's good stuff, for sure. I always have several cans around the house because we have lots of wasps, hornets, and yellowjackets around here. However, I'd really hesitate to use it as a weapon except on a mugger. This is a deadly weapon able to cause permanent blindness and suffocation due to swollen throat. If I hit a dog with that out here in the boonies, it it would no doubt die before the owner could get it to the vet, assuming the owner was even home at the time. So while there are no official rules of engagement, I'd think it would be a lot easier to explain to my boss, the owner, and the cops that I used non-lethal force up to the last second. Long ago when I was in high school, I had a job reading gas meters. This was in a city but it involved going into everybody's back yard where their dogs were. Back then, I carried a "Phasor". This was a big can of real, old-school mace, not today's relatively wimpy pepper spray, and it had the range of wasp spray. I think the reason they outlawed mace was because it had the same lethal effects as wasp spray. In any case, I killed a dog with it, and that was the end of my job. Most folks live out in the country because they like their privacy and having a big, ugly dog around helps with that. And most killer dogs are just fine with their families so the owners often don't know just how dangerous they are, especially if they live way out in the sticks and get few visitors.

I'm going to have to try this career idea of being a tailgunner. It might be a good thing to do when I'm too sloshed to fly without crashing into something . The thing about being a "bomber" pilot is that you very rarely get bombing missions. Instead, you mostly do recon and arty spotting. I find this rather boring, but at least you can warp. So eventually, I got in the habit of ignoring such orders and taking some bombs to attack the enemy trenches instead. Bombing in most planes, however, precludes warping on ingress. First off, if you're ignoring your real mission, you're not following the waypoints and you can't input your own. Second, if you DO have a bombing mission, it will always tell you to be at some ungodly altitude like 16,324 feet. This only works for the DFW, which has a functioning bombsight for level bombing. Everything else has to bomb in a dive which is best done from a much lower altitude. So, to avoid finding yourself directly over the target at some ridiculously high level, you have to fly there in real time at your desired altitude. In either case, you CAN warp home, however, by SHF-w until you're on your last waypoint. Rolands, Strutters, and RE8s are fairly maneuverable so you have a pretty good chance of getting a shot with the front gun, although in the RE8 you can't see the target. If you misuse the Fee as a bomber, it's fairly maneuverable, too, but only really works in the horizontal. However, the pivoting front gun makes up for this to a large degree. DFWs and Hannovers are not maneuverable at all. In the Hannover, you can at least strafe during your bomb run, but in the DFW you can't see ahead so its front gun is fairly pointless. It's also not good at divebombing for the same reason, so it's best just to level bomb with it from has high as possible.

At least you lived. But seriously, don't dis the Fee until you've flown it yourself. In a fighter squadron, not a bomber squadron.

It was build in the 40s and served in the RAF as a trainer for radio operators.

Here's my weapon: http://www.nrsworld.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=10103!SUNWE Beautiful, ain't it? Very sword-like IMHO. And it really handles like a rapier, with perfect balance. Just twist your wrist and you cover a wide arc. Mine's got the longest shaft they make, so the whole thing is nearly 4 feet long. It runs on four C batteries. Each zap uses no more energy than turning on a 4x C flashlight for half a second or so, so the batteries last a long time. A cattle prod is just a transformer that steps the voltage WAY up (and of course the amps way down). The high voltage is what makes it painful, but the energy is so low that it's not damaging (within reason). However, this thing was designed to be moderately painful to very large, thick-skinned animals, so it's EXTREMELY painful to smaller things like people, dogs, and geese. You'll feel it for a long time afterwards. It'll stretch a snake out straight and stiff, either dead or in a coma, at least if you get it on the head. I don't know if it kills them, but it doesn't matter because I cut their heads off immediately afterwards. Anyway, tempting as it may be, I would have to advise against using this to control your children. And yes, I've got all sorts of stuff to clean myself up with. You can get all sorts of strange substances on you out here in the country. It's not "energy", it's body language. Put yourself in the right mindset and your body conforms to it, which the other critter can see. From what I understand of Cesar, he does dog body language and his goal is to establish a long-term master-slave relationship. I do human body language with the goal of getting the stop over with as quickly and easily as possible so I can get on with the next one. Dogs have been around us long enough to be bi-lingual this way. So I'm thinking, "I'll only be here a minute, I mean no harm, but I'll really enjoy kicking your ass if you want to fight." It's no trouble for me to get in this mindset because I'm that way all the time. Driving for FedEx only accentuates it . This usually works. Honestly, most dogs are pansies. The vast majority of the time, dogs bark half-heartedly but wag their tail, like "I don't know you so I'm barking, but I really don't want to fight so let's be friends." When I see this, I don't get out the prod. I just say "hi" to them as I walk by, let them sniff my fingers if they want to, and no problem. There are also quite a few dogs that take 1 look at me and slink off under the house with their tails between their legs. A few dogs are belligerent, though, especially if there are more than 1 of them. These are the ones I have to really stare down and I have the prod ready. You can tell by their posture and tone of voice that they might attack, but they haven't made up their minds yet. I just try to convince them that the best they can hope for is mutual destruction. While I enjoy zapping such dogs to teach them a lesson, I try to avoid it because the owner might be through a window and have a shotgun handy. After all, even meth cooks order stuff online . So most of the time, we have a tense standoff and go our separate ways. But the real wildcard is if the owner comes out of the house to meet me. The dogs usually take that as their pack leader coming out to join the party, so they'll often attack as soon as the door opens, especially if it's a woman. And the more she hollers at them to stop, the more aggressive they become. And once in a great while, I meet a really vicious, killer dog. Fortunately, these have so far always made their presence known as I pull up in the driveway; they usually try to jump in the window at me. I don't even get out of the truck when this happens, I just put the package in a plastic bag and toss it out the window, trying to zap the dog in the process. Then I try to run over it as I drive away .

The day a dog kills me is the day I deserve to die. There's a reason dogs work for us and not the other way around. As long as you know that reason and are prepared to enforce it, you'll win, although you may require plastic surgery.

Most of them were quite elegant, weren't they? There were a few abortions to be true, but nearly as many as on land. Hopefully, someday OFF will have these AH and Italian flyingboat fighters dueliing over the Adriatic. The "Otto Prohaska" series really hooked me on that. I was hoping Stumpjumper would soon have such available, but given his unfortunate accident, I'm afraid we'll have to wait a while longer . But that whole eternal ghostly circle of WW1 planes..... There were all kinds of things in there, even obscure Caudron types and Austrian bombers that only reached the prototype stage (although killing some test pilots). And in the vid you linked, the checking of the rounds for imperfections that might jam the guns, by coal-oil lamp no less. Whoever made this anime, despite the porcine main character, really knew something about WW1. I must find and buy the full thing in English, that I know. Who knows? It might be as good as Cowboy Bebop . Still.... DAMN, I will never look at a contrail the same way again. That's not condensation in the exhaust of a 747, it's all of everybody's DiD pilots and their victims. Creepy, eh?

Doesn't that apply to us all? Surely everybody here has come within an RCH of having their tail of years snipped off at the buttocks more than once? I can't imagine anybody reaching even early middle age without more close calls can they can remember. Car wrecks, sports, drug and/or alcohol overdoses, freak accidents in daily life, you name it. Or maybe I've just had a rough life. Still, I think the reason I'm "on the threshold" is because of my Cajun grandma, who was as fey as they come. That's supposedly a generation-skipping thing and all. Plus, there was a bit of Louisiana voodoo surrounding my birth, or so I've been told. But as a rational, if often drunken, 21st Century man, I put it all down to parallel universes and other such things readily explainable by modern physics. If photons can bump shoulders across the boundaries of universes to create interference patterns when there's only 1 photon here, why can't your eyes, which react to photons, see into the other universes under the right condistions? Either that, or I hallucinate constantly, which is also readily explainable . HOLY CRAP!!!! Italian anime . Seriously, this is classic. And who would have put a bunch of Italian and Austro-Hungarian flyingboat fighters into that eternal circle, but somebody really into the obscurities of WW1. Damn, that was chilling! Thanks for sharing . Reminds me of a song..... An ol' cowpoke went ridin' out one dark an' windy day Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way When all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed steers he saw Tearin' through the ragged skies an' up a cloudy draw Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel A bolt of fear went through him as they thunderd 'cross the sky He saw the riders comin' hard an' heard their mournful cry Yippee yi oh! Yippee yi yay! Ghost riders in the sky Their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred, their shirts all soaked with sweat They're ridin' hard to catch that herd by they ain't caught it yet 'Cause they've got to ride forever through that range up in the sky On horses snortin' fire. As they ride by hear their cry Yippee yi oh! Yippee yi yay! Ghost riders in the sky As the riders loped on by him he heard one call his name He said, "You wanna save your soul from Hell a-ridin' on our range? "Then cowboy change your ways right now or with us you will ride "Tryin' to catch the Devil's herd across these endless skies" Yippee yi oh! Yippee yi yay! Ghost riders in the sky

The Austrians even got their hands on a few EV/DVIII planes, although apparently none got beyond the evaluation stage in the rear before the war ended.

I figure it's because they make your digestive system emit bangs. I know that another traditional Brit dish, "bubble and squeak", causes my guts to make exactly those noises

I really enjoy flying Pups. No bad habits at all, able to do all sorts of crazy turns at ridiculously low speeds, very easy to land, etc. I feel invincible when I fly it. However, it does have a few of drawbacks...... 1. It's rather flimsy. Don't get too wild with it at high speed or you might break it. It's not as easy to break as a Nupe or Albatros, but it does happen occasionally (especially if you've taken wing damage). Fortunately, you can hear it creak ominously, which is usually sufficient warning to back off. Also, it doesn't need many hits before its performance is seriously degraded and not very many more will do fatal damage somewhere. So it's rather important to use the admirable maneuverability to stay out of the way of Hun bullets. 2. Very low firepower. Only 1 gun, and it fires very slowly. You'll rarely see more than 6 rounds in a 1-second burst. Problem is, Albatri are rather tough birds. Thus, you have a choice of saddling up and hosing them over a long period of time, or trying for precision shots into their vitals. I prefer the latter because when I follow Albatros #1 too long, Albatros #2 gets me on me, and the Pup can't take any punishment. I find it best to try for short-range, high-deflection snapshots into the engine, radiator, or pilot, rather than following a target all around. If you get good at this, you can fly with only 75% ammo or less, because you'll be getting 2-3 kills per sortie with only 100-200 rounds. 3. Low speed and weak climb. These mean that if an Albatros wants to play with you, you have to fight. It also means that most of your fights will begin with Albatri swooping on you from high above. The Pup has more macho at 16,000' than the Albatros, but you're very unlikely ever to get near that height to find out. Anyway, at the beginning of a fight, the Albatri will be way faster than you after their dives, and you're totally unable to follow them up in zooms. So stay in the horizontal mostly just concentrating on being hard to hit, until the Albatri blow their E to a level where you're all over them.

Just like any other airliner, you were aboard for the duration. The emergency exits no doubt were there with the idea that a survivable crash would probably leave the only cabin door inoperative, just like car doors are usually stuck after a wreck. I suppose that after a crash there'd be a splinter of wood or something lying around that a survivor could use to cut open the exit if he didn't have a knife. But I think the best case scenario would be if the fuselage came to rest on its side, because most folks with broken bones would find it hard to climb out through the roof, even if they were overloaded with adrenaline. That's what I did. Growing up, all I wanted to be was a military pilot, but by the time I was old enough, I knew enough to think that pretty much all the main advances in weaponry since WW2 were designed to shoot down airplanes, and that there was no good place for them to hide anymore, what with dopler radars and such. However, things on the ground hadn't gotten that much more dangerous, relatively speaking. So I opted for the trenches rather than the sky, only to get stuck initially with what was widely considered the most dangerous job in the military--field radio operator, with a life expectancy of 2.5 seconds in combat . But I survived, so I figure I made the right call

Yeah, those are better than what I had--I can work off them. Thanks muchos. Now I just need the dimension so I can scale the thing. I can't find all the necessary dimensions, either.

Speaking of the insanity of flying...... While at IWM Duxford a few years ago, against my better judgment I got talked into taking a ride around Cambridge in a Dragon Rapide. Sure, it's a nice, classic plane, all wood and canvas and flying from grass, but it's OLD and I've seen enough modern planes naked to not trust even new ones. The 1st cause for concern was boarding the plane. Seats were assigned by how much you weighed to get the balance right, and there were a number of women present who were strongly enjoined not to lie. I think they did anyway. The pilot then did some calculations with pencil and paper (no doubt estimating the real weights of some of the women) and lined everybody up in order of boarding. Entry was at the rear and seats were filled from back to front to keep the plane from nosing over. I ended up on the port side just behind the wing. The pilot was the last person to board. The 2nd cause for concern was the emergency exits. These were in the cabin roof and consisted of circular holes in the plywood decking, over which was just a sheet of canvas. The inside perimeter of this canvas was marked with a dotted line that said "Cut here for emergency exit." Unfortunately, nobody's allowed to carry knives on planes these days..... Anyway, off we bumped and eventually staggered into the air. The view outside wasn't the greatest because the window was some sort of transparent plastic sewn into the fuselage side, and it was somewhat yellowed and foggy. Also, it was streaked with oil. And you dind't want to lean over towards it very far anyway, because the fuselage side was just a few skinny wooden stringers covered with canvas. Besides, my attention was fixated by a set of slack wing bracing wires which were vibrating madly in the wind just outside. These were big wires, maybe 3/8" diameter, 2 of them side by side, so I assumed they were important for holding the wing on, but they obviously weren't providing any support. In fact, their centers were moving up and down over about 8" so fast they were just a blur. I was worried they'd fatigue, snap, and come whipping into the fuselage with me. Besides this, the #1 engine was running a bit unevenly, and its cowling bore greasy fingerprints as evidence of hurried adjustments before our flight. Surprisingly, things went rather well for the 1st few minutes. We climbed up to about 1500' then took off to do a figure-8 around Cambridge and some other nearby town. But then the inevitable happened. We'd made it around Cambridge and were heading for the 2nd town when the #1 engine suddenly emitted a loud BANG and puff of white smoke, after which it just made worrisome grinding noises like you hear in OFF when fighting Brisfits . When this occurred, we happened to be passing the end of the Duxford runway about 3 miles out. I give the pilot credit for quick reactions. Instantly, he whipped us into about a 3G turn (I swear I head the airframe creak) to line up with the runway, then dove us toward it while gunning the remaining engine. We came in low and fast to the threshold, then flew along a few feet up for about 1/2 the runway until we slowed down enough for a 3-pointer. Then we taxied back to the boarding area on 1 engine. That was the end of flying that day for the Dragon Rapide. My parents were sitting on the starboard side so hadn't noticed anything amiss. In fact, they didn't think anything bad had happened at all until I told them. They though the BANG and hard turn were just turbulence. I, however, kissed the ground when I got out of the thing...

Damn, that's very good! Congratulations! Drinks on me . You're obviously more ambitious than I am (I picked a monoplane for my 1st attempt) and do better work than I've got so far. Very nice engine there, especially. Did you find separate drawings for it, and if so, where? I'm having a Hell of a time finding good drawings of a Le Rhone 9J. The more, the merrier. While you're waiting for the proper time to really get into a plane, I suggest you begin now building up a library of parts you'll use a lot, such as MGs and rotary engines. MGs at least are fairly simple compared to planes so are good for teaching the basics of the Gmax interface and methods.

Oh Hell, I must have crossed that line a long, long time ago. I've been surrounded by ghosts since childhood, so I take that as normal. What bothers me, though, is when Elvis drops by every couple of months. The bastard cleans out my fridge

Deserts are the best places to live. No humidity, a field of fire so vast you need arty to cover it all, and damn few people to mess it all up. And all of it covered with spectacular rock formations in brilliant colors you never see elsewhere. Even the sky is in HD big screen. If you've never lived out there, you have no appreciation for what the sky really looks like, day or night, rain or shine. Plus, there's the so-called American prong-horn "antelope" (actually a thing unto itself), jack rabbits, coyotes, Indian pueblos inhabited and ruined, the capital city of the Navajo Nation, Spanish missions, Roswell, the grave of Billy the Kid, and all kinds of other good stuff. They don't call it the "Land of Enchantment" for nothing. I'd rather live in the adjacent parts of Texas, but New Mexico's a close second. I suppose these places seemed more like home to Germans, even down to the language of some of the locals. But there's too much snow up there for me C&H was the best comic made since Li'l Abner. I have most of the whole series in books. When I fly OFF, I always think of Calvin running through the house with a toy flying saucer yelling "SPACEMAN SPIFF IS GOING DOWN!!!!"

I suppose this is a big more on-topic, even if it's from the RAAF in WW2.... Oh the starting of the Beaufort is a most peculiar art No matter how you prime the bitch the best she'll do is fart And sometimes in the mornin' when the dew is on the grass You're tempted to insert the choke up Pratt & Whitney's ass See oh see oh everybody come Come and see the Beaufort boys a-sitting on their bums Trying start their engines amidst the mighty roar Of the Liberators that were started long before

Obviously, sir, if you think the south's aversion to yankees all comes from the 1860s, you are sadly misinformed, or rather uninformed. The north-south division was brought over here by the colonists--it was just the same old English vs. Scots feud taken to a different arena. As such, the north has always treated the south like England has treated Scotland through most of recorded history, and continues to do so down to the present day. And the Hell of it is, you yankees don't even realize you're doing it, or if you do, you think we should realize its for our own good and just bend over for it. But this ain't the place to get into such arguments, and there are far more pressing problems in the world to argue about anyway. So let's just agree to disagree on this and go back to flying OFF.

I don't mind talking about mine; they're all going to die soon anyway .

Howdy- I'm unable to collapse or weld together vertices from 2 separate extrusions on my model and would like some help here.. I'm making the upper pyramid of struts over the cockpit of a Bristol M.1C. What I've done so far is to extrude the forward and rear struts separately from their lower ends where they join the fuselage (thus both struts are still part of the fuselage object). Then I moved their upper ends together where they meet near the centerline above the cockpit. This is shown in the attached pic from the perspective viewport, marked by the red arrow. Specifically, what I want to do is shown in the wireframe pic. I want to combine vertex A with vertex B, and also combine vertex C with vertex D. However, neither weld nor collapse is working for me. When I try collapse, nothing happens at all. When I try weld, I get a message saying no weldable vertices are within the threshold, even though they're right on top of each other. I've even tried deleting 1 or both of edges A-C and B-D before trying this, but that didn't work, either. So, how do I combine these vertices? Thanks in advance.

Again, much obliged! Drinks on me

They're all licking their wounds from the Verdun counteroffensive and the Somme, and also too smart to fly in crappy winter weather. So you're basically out to dry until about April, when the next round of Flanders offensives kick off.

How do my pilots die? Usually horribly, stupidly, and pointlessly You really need another box on the "pick your several leading causes of death" question. The thing that kills me most is trying to fly while pretty well drunk That's why I have so many collisions, which includes those with the ground that weren't caused by spins or enemy fire. But looking at other folks' answers, I'm really surprised to see so many folks getting killed by flak. I have my flak set at normal and in all the time I've flown since BHaH came out, I've only even been nicked by a flak burst once. "Archibald, certainly not!" I moon the gunners in the midst of intense flak barrages to show my contempt for their aim. Now, AAMGs are another matter entirely. They've gotten me a number of times, but not nearly as often as me flying into so something. This is because I try hard to avoid getting anywhere near them.