Hauksbee

I've been running into Brisfits on several different sites lately, and find myself wondering how good it was as a fighter. These days we'd probably call it a fighter/bomber. How fast was it compared to contemporary single-seaters? Was it maneuverable? Did you stand a snowball's chance in hell if your gunner was taken out?

How interesting. 'Must try it.

Definitely a good looking lash-up, but do you fly with the joystick off center, or move over when you're in the air?

Glad to hear it! You must have been very, very good this year.

Much as I try to keep the desktop organized, there's wires and cables all over the place. If I put on my headphones, there's the TrackIR wire running to the computer, which forks and runs up to the camera perched on the monitor, plus the wires and audio jacks from the headphones to the computer in case I need TeamSpeak. Then there's cables from both monitors, and the two small auxillary speakers on the desktop...not to mention the joystick. Every other day I spend a half hour (sometimes more, sometimes less) sorting them all out. Has anyone here evolved a way of keeping all this spaghetti untangled?

I am so deep in Christmas Coma that I break out in a cold sweat every time I see RAF_Lou's posting. Especially since I know he's right.

I've yet to see anything that comes close to "Fire In The Sky".

Simplicity has much to recommend.

The question title says it all...how does one pronounce Breguet?

Cool! Now I know what to look for. What kind of joystick has three wires coming out the back? Looks very heavy-duty.

A powered USB Hub! Didn't know such a thing existed. 'Must get one tomorrow. Thanks.

Aha! Olham's back from vacation. He's our resident expert on Albatros.

I see the Kaiser's hand in this!

Indeed. Sounds good. I'll check Wal-Mart today. If not this, then perhaps zip-ties. Thanks, guys.

Four missions! Seven kills? Rock on!

There's a handle-shaped thing attached to a push-rod that seems to control ailerons. The push-rod, I understand. But the handles...whats with that?

Welcome, Ataribaby! Welcome to the totally unforgiving skies over Flanders. Welcome to the learning curve, and it can be a b*tch. When I got my copy of P3 OFF, I was going through a period of fascination with the Airco DH-2. When I saw a DH-2 in the line-up I was thrilled. Now I get to tangle with some E.III's. Right off the bat, I stalled it, stalled again, stalled it all the way to the ground. Tried the E.III. Same thing. Tried the Sopwith Camel. Stalled, stalled, then spun it into the ground. I was beginning to suspect that this was not going to be a fun game. Until I settled in to the SE.5 which is stable and easy to fly. But most have very squirrely flight characteristics and everything is horribly underpowered...until you get to the later period of the war. It can be a shock if you came from WWII sims (as so many of us did) where you had hella' power and wings filled with machine guns and cannon.

While I enjoyed the clash between Alec Guiness and Sessue Hayakawa, the rest of it was an exercise in getting the audience to feel "Oooh, wasn't it awful". Of course it was, but if that's what you're after, why not get right to the 'awful bits'? Which happened after they had left the river and were pushing the railway up into the sweltering, claustrophobic, bug infested jungle. Where the going was harder, food was even more scarce and beatings more frequent. By the river, they had fresh water, bathing facilities and even, on occasion, got fish added to their rice and near-rotted vegetables. Once inland, most of that went away. Comparatively speaking, building the bridge was remembered fondly (but only just...) While figures vary (often wildly) about 16,000 Allied prisoners died, in addition to 90,000 Asian forced laborers. 90,000? I don't recall seeing them in the movie. It drives me crazy when Hollywood decides to make a big, splashy movie about some historical event and then let the scriptwriters turn events on their head. ...and Nicholson's death. At last we get to see Nicholson wake up and see what he hath wrought. He has this epiphany that says, "You're a bloody collaborator!" and he should have just stomped the detonator. But no. A stray bullet kills him and he accidently falls on it. Sentimental nonsense. As if that wasn't bad enough, the truth of the matter is that the bridge was used from 1943 to 1945 when the Allies finally bombed it. The following paragraph or two is excerpted from a website that promotes tours to the area. About a hundred thousand conscripted Asian labourers and 12,000 prisoners of war died on the whole project. Although the suffering caused by the building of the Burma Railway and its bridges is true, the incidents in the film are mostly fictional. The real senior Allied officer at the bridge was Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey. Some consider the film to be an insulting parody of Toosey.On a BBC Timewatch programme, a former prisoner at the camp states that it is unlikely that a man like the fictional Nicholson could have risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel; and if he had, he would have been "quietly eliminated" by the other prisoners. Julie Summers, in her book "The Colonel of Tamarkan", writes that Pierre Boulle, who had been a prisoner of war in Thailand, created the fictional Nicholson character as an amalgam of his memories of collaborating French officers. The destruction of the bridge as depicted in the film is entirely fictional. In fact, two bridges were built: a temporary wooden bridge and a permanent steel and concrete bridge a few months later. Both bridges were used for two years until they were destroyed by Allied aerial bombing. The steel bridge was repaired and is still in use today.

Just received this last night from a friend: In one of the lighter moments of World War II, the Spitfire was used in an unorthodox role: bringing beer kegs to the men in Normandy. During the war, the Heneger and Constable brewery donated free beer to the troops. After D-Day, supplying the invasion troops in Normandy with vital supplies was already a challenge. Obviously, there was no room in the logistics chain for such luxuries as beer or other types of refreshments. Some men, often called “sourcers”, were able to get wine or other niceties “from the land” or rather from the locals. RAF Spitfire pilots came up with an even better idea. The Spitfire Mk IX was an evolved version of the Spitfire, with pylons under the wings for bombs or drop tanks. It was discovered that the bomb pylons could also be modified to carry beer kegs. According to pictures that can be found, various sizes of kegs were used. Whether the kegs could be jettisoned in case of emergency is unknown. If the Spitfire flew high enough, the cold air at altitude would even cool the beer, making it ready for consumption upon arrival. A variation of this was a long range fuel tank modified to carry beer instead of fuel. The modification even received the official designation Mod. XXX. Propaganda services were quick to pick up on this, which probably explains the “official” designation. As a result, Spitfires equipped with Mod XXX or keg-carrying pylons were often sent back to Great-Britain for “maintenance” or “liaison” duties. They would then return to Normandy with full beer kegs fitted under the wings. In typical fashion, the British Ministry of Revenue and Excise stepped in, notifying the brewery that they were in violation of the law by exporting beer without paying the relevant taxes. It seems that Mod. XXX was terminated then, but various squadrons found different ways to refurbish their stocks. Most often, this was done with the unofficial approval of higher echelons. In his book “Dancing in the Skies”, Tony Jonsson, the only Icelancer pilot in the RAF, recalled beer runs while he was flying with 65 Squadron. Every week a pilot was sent back to the UK to fill some cleaned-up drop tanks with beer and return to the squadron. Jonsson hated the beer runs as every man on the squadron would be watching you upon arrival. Anyone who made a rough landing and dropped the tanks would be the most hated man on the squadron for an entire week In his book “Typhoon Pilot”, Desmond Scott also recalls Typhoon drop tanks being filled with beer but regretted that it acquired a metallic taste. . . Makes me want to crack a cold one right now and fire up OFF!

An F-80 painted black is a Yak-7? How cheesy.! I love the digital age where you can order up any plane (or monster) you want..

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Lenovo's attitude ( and others of the same ilk) stems from the fact that profit margins are so razor-thin on electronics, that customer service, repairs, and honoring warranties would result in a net loss on that particular item.

Well said. The 'amen' was in response to Wayfarer's comment on "Porco Rosso", but somehow I didn't include the quote. That I just fixed.

Amen.

Tonight I followed an ad link on our main page here, and took a look at a trailer for "Heros In The Sky". Suddenly, in all the flash and snazzle of the air combat, an F5U zipped by. I don't see HIS as being my cup of tea, but was wondering if any of you have come across this plane in any other flight sim... and if so, how did it fly?

Yes, but has anyone here ever seen it in another sim, and, hopefully, flown it? (I imagine the flight model would be very hypothetical) Nice model there, Monty CZ. Though I suspect that it, and the F5U, would have terrible downward visibility