Hauksbee

Live ammo?

...and got the marks to show for it!

Well said. Well said, indeed.

From your lips to God's ears! Here's the other half. Bear in mind that this was all done back in 1982; 27 years ago. Looking at it now, I wonder, was my drawing ever THAT crude? Ah well. If you see echos of 'The Blue Max' in here, you're right. But I was annoyed at the lead character in 'Flyboys' rather stealing my thunder at the climax. I tell myself he read a copy of FFT back in the day.

Here's the first half of the story.

Here's the starter kit. Due to the 8Mb limitation on any one upload, I'll do this in three pieces.

Ah, Jaysus! Are y' goin' to drag the olde-phart out of a well earned retirement to tell tales of comics glory to young whippersnappers? Looks that way. OKOKOK! I'll dig out a copy and if I can get the old kerosene-fired scanner to work... I must confess, my avatar is not by me, however much I'd love to claim it. That's a steller piece of art by Jack Davis that graced the cover of 'Two-Fisted Tales', published by EC Comics in the 50's. As I recall, there was a WWI aviation story in that issue, but it was not drawn by Davis. I'll get the scans posted later today.

...and she'll treat you like her pilot: the engine will quit unexepectedly, she'll stall over and over, and you'll go down in flames.

The ol' Catfish does have a strong point here. Perhaps the next cover art should feature German pilots sitting listlessly next to their aircraft, too weak to fly because of the blockade.

"Well, the list is long, but distinguished." Goose, Top Gun

I love it when someone can shine a light on the broader picture.

Which we are, to varying degrees...and rational, to varying degrees. This a most dificult form of discourse; when you can't see another person's expression, or hear the tone of voice. Much meaning, and intent, can get lost.

Aha! Where did the word come from? Does it signify anything beyond just being from Liverpool?

What, exactly, is a 'scouser'? [i've led a sheltered life. (lol) ]

I recall seeing this [History Channel?] and the heart does a tremble when he steps out. But I had always thought that terminal velocity for a falling human was around 120 mph. Is the higher speed because of thinner air?

I've been doing 3D work since '94, and I do admire your touch with 3D Max/G-Max. You d'man, Stump!

If you miss a stop in Massachusetts, I will spend all my time in Multi-Player until I track your sorry butt down! True, there's not a lot here on the South Coast of Mass. to attract a worldly Brit like yourself; just miles of rolling countryside, rugged coastline, beaches, tons of lobster and cold beer, but hey!, Sitting Duck is just up the road in Boston., Surely we can cobbled together something entertaining?

A tale well told. You had me sweating too.

"Life is what happens when you're making plans." Woody Allen

If you can assign subjects, and funnel the relevant information to me, I can put it in literate [if not literary] English. [30 years in advertising]. I've got the time and it would be a pleasure to help put the word out. I stopped in at the local GameStop store yesterday to ask if they had OFF. Blank stares. I explained what it was. Nothing. One of the less comatose slackers pushed off from the wall and went to the computer. I told him that it wasn't necessary to look it up seeing as I already had it, and that I was merely curious as to why it didn't seem to appear in any stores. He kept pecking away and then announced "It's not even in our computer. But then, we're not much of a PC store". Amen, brother. That alone would put me on board, so let me know when you have a subject ready.

I find the toughest part of getting used to TrackIR, is when you just want to take a look at what's on the screen, left or right of your guns. The trick is to move your eyes, not your head.

Any idea of what, exactly, is going on in the bottle to create the spoilage? What agent could thrive in all that alcohol?

I discovered the same, but by using the square bracket [+] keys to move forward and back. But I always opted for 'far back' because I could see more sky. However, as I get closer to having TrackIR fine-tuned, this is less of an issue since I can rock slightly forward and back in my seat to get the same effect.

Good point. Happy Canada Day!

About rudders in turns: here's how my instructor explained it to me. In a turn, it's definitely a function of aileron, left or right. However, imagine the diameter of the circle your plane is describing. In a left turn, for example, your right wingtip is moving faster than the left wingtip by virtue of being farther away from the center of that circle, so the right wingtip wants to get ahead of it mate, which rotates the airplane around its vertical axis. That causes the nose to drop and the plane falls inward. The cure is to apply some opposite rudder to keep the nose up. I've never tried your method of using the rudder as the primary way to turn, tho' I imagine that, like a boat in the water, it will bring you around. But if there's somebody on your six shooting, ailerons are the way to go. I'm using a Logitech 'twist' stick because my beloved Sidewinder disappeared somewhere in a move, and I find it so frustrating that I check 'Auto-Rudder' in the Workshops. In a diving left turn, the stick has to move on two axes, and I find that keeping that constant while adding 'twist' is damn near impossible, and I'm all over the sky. Auto Rudder cures that. However, in the few Multi-Player sessions I've been in, I seem to have full rudder control again. I guess Workshop settings are determined by the person hosting the game, so a set of floor pedals are definitely in my future. Which ones remain to be determined. One place where your rudder control is invaluable is when you want to fine tune a shot. Assume your target's in a gentle right turn. You're swinging in from behind to get on his tail. The two of you are flying two different circles that have to intersect. Assume again that's he's staying just a bit off to the right of your gunsight. Instead of increasing your bank [which changes your whole circle] just tap some right rudder and the nose swings over and take the shot. Another place where the rudder is invaluable is in strafing ground target. You can fly a straight line [like down a road with trucks] and by lightly tapping the rudder left and right you can hose the area and stay on course too.