von Baur

Better human vs human play online. Even the best AI (and OFF has the best I've seen so far) can't match the challenge of duking it out with a thinking, adaptive opponent.

I've stayed out of this until now, mostly because I had little new to say. However, I recently remembered reading an article a few years ago that may bring the "artistic liscense" issue into sharper focus. There have been a few examples of "artistic liscense" being taken to ridiculous extremes put forth here (1000 Mark V's, Lou? I should think one or two would have been plenty. Besides, Beauregard would likely have been in the lead tank, and the Rebs did ok without them). Another popular phrase these days is "politically correct". Whether for "political correctness" or "artistic liscense" a high school somewhere here in the US put on a production of Mark Twain's "Huck Finn" some years back and chose to cast an African-American as Huck and a Caucasian as Jim. Whatever polite phrase you would like to use to defend such a move, it's a defacement. The work was written the way it was for a specific purpose and by changing such a fundamental element of it they've completely nullified its core. Nor should history be changed for convenience sake, or any other reason. Things happened as they did and to put forth any other view is a defacement. What is your opinion of the movie "The Red Baron", itifonhom? Obviously, the producers felt that the story of a high-born man who took up the glamorous profession of cavalry officer only to find horse cavalry hopelssly outdated (to the point of nearly being killed), then being stuck in supply, only to find himself ultimately becoming one of the most celebrated and arguably best-remembered figures of WWI wasn't exciting enough. So they exercised their "artistic liscense" and created an earlier meeting between von Richtofen and Brown, over-did a historically supposed romance with his nurse and ultimately made a near-mockery (IMO) of a life that was probably more interesting than any accurately made movie could come close to portraying. If you use the reasoning to defend your sticking with the title then you must use it to defend that piece of cinematic drivel as well. BTW, "Casablanca" was originally named "Everybody Comes to Rick's". Of course, Ronald Reagan was also originally cast as Rick. If I'm not mistaken, even the Mona Lisa was named something else by da Vinci and "Citizen Kane" wasn't that film's original title, either. Changing a title isn't such a bad thing.

Who was the pilot? Austin von Powers? Shagadelic, meine liebchen.

Target Ware's "Richtofen's Skies" had this modelled (working) in one of their German two-seaters.

And he didn't hog the glory for the USA, he shared it with the world. "One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for MANKIND!" More than head and shoulders above the crowd .

Lou, just so it's not a Biblical two weeks (...ten thousand years is as but a day to Him...).

You just needed something worth talking about.

Well, I don't know who they are, but #11 and #15 look as thought they'd just sat on a pickelhaube. And #5 looks like he put it there.

My son just posted these on his Facebook page: The first is the US Army Commendation Medal and the second is the NATO ISAF Medal. Me one proud papa. And the best part is that he'll be winging his way back to the States by the end of the month. So add happy pappy to that.

Well, technically the pivot point was the main spar so the leading edge would actually move in the opposite direction, which would give the appearance of changing the aoa at the wingtip. But the wing root would not change at all, leading or trailing edge. And not to take anything away from the courage of these pilots, but don't forget that these planes were the apex of technology of their day. These were the same Type-A pesonalities who would volunteer for the F-22, the JSF, or even astronaut training today. The thrill of the experience will always outweigh the risks for those people.

I belive the leading edge wires were fixed and only those going to the trailing edge moved.

I'd heard eight, at first (Immelmann, Boelcke, and others in that era). In late 1916 or early 1917 (just before MvR got his eighth, IIRC) it was doubled to 16. Then it was raised again in 1918, according to some sources, to as high as 30. *edit* I believe you're referring to the term "Kannon", the German equivalent of "Ace", Gepard.

Yes, Olham, I've lost quite a lot of faith in the History Channel lately. Lou, your post brought to mind the "Twilight Zone" epsiode that starred Agnes Morehead, later to become known as Endora on "Bewitched". And starred may not be the right word, as it was really a one-woman show. She played an older woman, alone in her house way out in the boondocks (American slang for 'miles from nowhere'), when her home was invaded by tiny aliens, played by terribly unconvincing toys only an inch or so tall. She did her best to fend them off but their superior technology eventually won out and she was killed by the creatures. Not a word was spoken throughout the episode until after she'd been slain, at which point the aliens finally said something like, "Mission control, we're getting out of here. And mark this planet as too dangerous to return to. The inhabitants are gigantic. We only barely managed to survive." And then they zeroed in on the spaceship and it had American markings. Rod Serling at his best. Holy crap, if this gets any more off-topic we'll be discussing ballet and Mongolian cuisine. GREAT PICTURES, OLHAM!!!

That's very true, Javito. The most extreme examples being the Pyramids and other ultra-ancient structures. I heard a saying once that, while not intended to make exactly that point, still sums it up rather nicely. It goes something like this: "When you get to feeling that you're very important, stick your hand in a bucket of water and remove it as quickly as you can. The hole that's left will show how much The World will miss you when you're gone." We all end, but everyone and everything else goes on. Olham, what really upsets me is the way that people don't even wait for things to break down any more before they replace them.I don't know what the standard is now, but a few years ago auto manufacturers were offering insanely long warranties...something like four or five or more years, I don't remember, but only for the original owner. It was a gimmick. They knew they'd rarely have to stand behind them because people rarely kept their cars for more than three years. Personally, I fix what I can, I find new uses for things that I've finally replaced, and about the only time I throw anything away is if it's absolutely broken beyond any repair. Heck, my 'new' (to me..it's probably more than ten years old) lawn mower is running with the seat and one front wheel of my old one. Just an aside on the ancient structures. I don't often watch the shows about ancient aliens but I happened to catch part of one the other night while waiting for the show I wanted to watch. They were talking about the 'fact' that if the Pyramids were filled with a particular gas, due to its shape and its being made of stone, it would generate a microwave beam that would shoot out into space and could supply power to an alien spacecraft. It was mentioned that this procedure can't be duplicated even with our technology today, which proves that it was an alien technology to begin with that is still far superior to ours. The 'expert' finished by saying, "Why else would they have built these things out of stone and in that shape?" Maybe because that's the best building materials they had, and it's the most stable shape to build?

"If it ain't broke...". Of course Lou's reaction is not too surprising considering that here in the USA there's a tendancy to replace rather than repair. Not picking on you personally, sir, just noting a general attitude that doesn't set well. Let's face it, lots of people here trade in their cars (which they bought brand new) before they've finished paying them off. And everything is disposable, from razor blades to diapers. It's no wonder our landfills are full and our bank accounts empty . The truly amazing thing is that so much of it survived two world wars. Very fortunate people, the locals. And another great job by Olham.

From one Tom to another, If you can't assign a slider or a wheel using the stick's software there might be an easier solution. Simply assign the incremental lean and enrich commands each to its own button. Then, as you increase your altitude, lean your mixture until your engine just starts to cut out at which point you quickly enrich it a few notches. I used that method for a couple years, until I got my current stick which allowed me to map it to a wheel, and it worked very well. I've found that, generally speaking, you should lean it around 4,000-5,000 feet and again between about 7,000 and 9,000. I've rarely gone above 11,000-12,000, so the second usually keeps me in good shape to that altitude. But the best and probably most realistic way to know when it's time to adjust your mixture is simply to keep an eye on your RPM's. Note what it is when you set your throttle and when you see it running a couple hundred lower, it's time to make an adjustment. My father, who flew B-17's and B-24's in WWII as well as flying until the late 1960's, told me that that was the common method because each plane (and indeed each engine) behaves differently. The one real drawback to that is that if you set a flight to start at 10,000 feet or above you probably won't be able to lean it sufficently before it cuts out entirely, so you'll want to set any QC missions to start at 5,000 or below. As far as the sticks having so many buttons, sliders and wheels, use what you can to compensate for anything you see as a deficiency of flying on a computer instead of real life. The rest, leave alone. Welcome to yesterday.

Well, maybe not that Snipe.

Who was the pilot? David Copperfield?

I tried OFF way back in the early days when references to it first started showing up on Wings of Valor (the gathering place for Red Baron fans) and the TargetWare forums (I was quite serious about their very promising Richtofen's Skies mod) . While I was impressed with the graphics, I felt that the flight model was inferior (which I'd come to expect of most flight sims associated with Microsoft), and in any event, my computer at the time wasn't up to the task, so I dropped it for a long time. But my campaign flying in RB was much like you describe, Olham...shoot down as many as I could and let my squadmates fend for themselves. Oh, if I noticed one getting hit by an enemy and I wasn't already engaged I'd try to protect him, but mine was the only 6:00 I truly cared about. And I got quite adept at hitting "Esc" and "Abort mission" before my pilot died, allowing me to chalk that one up as time spent and a lesson learned, but no real harm done. I don't remember how many hundreds of kills I amassed that way, and I didn't even try to keep track of how many squadmates never returned. Phase 3 was nearing completion by the time I returned...with the hardware upgrades to make it playable...and when I decided to get off the QC's and fly a campaign I made up my mind to "keep it real" and do everything I could to bring as many back alive as possible. I agree that the feeling of seeing your whole flight behind you as you RTB is far more satisfying than coming home alone with a half-dozen kills. And sometimes, when I'm a man short after a scrape and he finally shows up when we're almost home, I actually feel a sense of relief. Anyone who hasn't tried focussing on the survival of your flight (within the parameters of accomplishing the assigned task, of course) should do so.

It's always impressive to see VTOL jets do their thing. The first time I saw a Harrier showing off was at Pope AFB in the late 70's. My first wife and I were having lunch at the snack bar, which was at the base of the control tower, when this absolutely awful roar arose outside. We looked out and there it was, settling onto the runway about 250 yards away. I swear it was louder than listening to RF-4's run up their afterburners prior to takeoff less than half that distance at my first base. Fuel consumption makes this practice pretty much a "training, show or as-needed only" option, though, and I'm sure catapults and arresting cables will be the normal order of business. Still, very cool.

I've often wondered, rjw...just what is the best recipe for cooking and serving a clay bird?

Very cool. A man living his dream.

Wow! Lots of Pennsylvanians here. DonL, I have an uncle who taught school in Germantown for his entire adult life. And I was born and raised in Bloomsburg, not too far from you, eric. I have only been to Gettysburg once, on my sixth-grade trip, back in 1966. Unfortunately, I was so young that it mostly meant a day of no school. Honestly, the only things that impressed me then were the electric map and the little wax figures that were molded in the vending machines as you watched. Those machines have probably been replaced, by now. Nice to know the map hasn't. Some day I would like to go back, now that I more fully appreciate it. As far as modern weaponry goes, I saw a show on The History Channel in which one of their historians said he's often heard people say that a few machine guns could have changed the outcome. His response is that, with all the opportunities the Confederates missed due to the state of battlefield communications in those days, couple of good sets of walkie-talkies is all that would have been needed.

OOPS!!! Re-reading this, I just noticed that I had misspoken myself earlier. I said, "...I highly recommend using a force feedback stick. I've only every had one and I found myself stalling on a regular basis with it...". What I meant to say was that I've only ever had one that wasn't force feedback, and that's the one I kept stalling with. Sorry. Rugbyfan, several people had created substitue sound files for Red Baron. One was a Sam Kinison scream for the headshot, which cracked me up. But another was your requested flatulence to replace the G-force sound. It actually took me a couple of runthroughs until I realized what it was.

I realize there's little to no regulation on ultralights here in the States, Lou. And I know you can buy kits for them, as you can for many experimental aircraft, which you can build yourself and then legally fly. But I don't think that popping together a Revell-on-steroids is what Flyby was talking about. He referenced the early days of flight, which to me means prior to government regulations, when anyone could say to himself, "I've seen one of those airplane things before. Hell, I've even got a picture or two of them somewhere around here. How hard can it be?" go to his barn and come out a week later zooming around to the amazement of his neighbors. The closest analogy would be the fellow who supplied the Italian count with all those comical creations (though some were based on actual designs, successful and not) in "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" (I can't even type it without the music starting up in my head...surprised it can make its way through all the voices). That's the kind of thing that would be impossible these days. **editted after seeing carrick's comments** Wow, carrick. I didn't realize that about California. It would seem the window is closing for flights of freedom.