HumanDrone

Well, I can't keep up with two forums (fora?!) either, and I really liked it here. So I thought I'd pop in at least to say that it looks like WOFF 2.0 will be released next week. Winding Man says it's done, all that remains is for Avangate to set up the payment/download site. I sure hope y'all can keep up with both places, but if not, like I said, at least I've let you know. Best to everyone, and a Happy Thanksgiving to those in the USA! Tom

That is just too cool! If you are having the airframe inspected in such a way, I assume you plan to make it fly? What a wonderful endeavor! Wish i could help with plans, but I've got no resources that way - sorry. and best of luck to you in your search!

Hi all, You know, I need to get in the habit of checking the pilot maps more often, but this week I am in Oskarshamn, Sweden - I'm on a job. Since I live in Pittsburgh, PA USA this is extraordinary for me. Unfortunately I don't see any WOFFers on teh pilot's maps, but if anyone is in the area... I do keep up with the forums but have been very busy this spring! Best, Tom

Just jumping in from a long time away to add my best wishes and prayers, my good fellow. I'm with Mr. Wiggins, this stuff is far too prevalent and we are long overdue for some advancements and cures. God help you. Best, Tom

Thanks Widowmaker, and to that man for making the most of his opportunity. It's a shame people don't see any value in these; My mother has pictures from my youth but I don't know hen I can get down to Florida and help her through them - she'll never do it on her own. And I thought my sister was real tech savvy and could scan pictures, (pretty simple), but she can't, so if she gets the pictures she'll have to send them to me. Pretty wild.

I'll look forward to this! Maybe by then I'll have finished training... !

Fantastic! I recall that the oldest fellow in the US was invited to the Apollo 11 moon launch. He wa a dear old black gentleman, and he did NOT believe they were going to the moon. Speaking with Wlater Cronkite, he was emphatic: "I can see they're goin' somewhere!" he said, "But they ain't goin' to no Moon!" Yeah, Baldric, sounds like you me and Olham are around the same age. But I didn't get any moon cookies! But Mercury, Gemini, Apollo - those were the days! & Thanks Olham (it was the Super Connie, in that beautiful TWA livery), and everyone. It's great sharing stories and memories. Tom

Wow, what a delightful stroll down memory lane! Thanks for all the great stories! Here's some of mine: I wanted to be a pilot from an early age. When I was 3 or 4 years old we went to the airport to see my grandmother off in a Lockheed Constellation. That was back in the days of outdoor "observation decks" at the airports. The 4 engines would start, with that marvelous burst of smoke and flame, and as it turned away from you to taxi, the prop wash, hot and reeking of fuel, would blow over you, and it was great. I would run up and down the hall at home with both arms spinning like propellers. I even had a toy airport, and when I got old enough for a bicycle, when the other boys were pretending they had motor cycles or race cars, mine was a "P51-D Mustang" (always said in full). I even copped a set of decals from a model and festooned the bike with them. I built models, almost always airplanes - my beloved P51, some WWI (after learning about Eddie Rickenbacker), a Lancaster "Dam Buster", a Bf-110 with all those antennas, even a 1/72nd scale B52, which hung from my ceiling. And for the moon landing, I was almost 14, and had built the 1/100th Saturn V from Revell (36.5 in tall, almost a full meter for you metric types!), and also their large scale Command/Service Module and Lunar Module, and I simulated every stage of the trip as it happened. And I did the model rockets,too; by the time I was a senior in high school, i was designing my own, juicing them up for greater altitude. By the time I got out of high school, my parents had split in an awful divorce that pretty much left us destitute. But I'd been in Air Force Junior ROTC, and had secured a full 4 year scholarship with a guaranteed slot in pilot training. Too bad that I was a little too close to home, and lacking significantly in maturity - I ended up dropping out of school and resigning the scholarship to get married two years later. Now we have been visited by Grace and we'll celebrate our 40th anniversary next year, but suffice to say that I too fly vicariously (and as a passenger, for business, quite a bit!). But back to the models, in my junior year of high school someone gifted me with an airbrush and compressor. This kicked my modelling to a new level and I turned out some really beautiful aircraft - an F-111 Aardvark that I'd seen at Nellis AFB (and I got to spend some time in the simulator, too!), which looked (with aftermarket decals and setting solutions), well, if I do say so myself, like the real deal- no ugly decal outlines! And when I began dating my beloved, with us still thinking I'd be a pilot, I customized a Northrup T-38 "Talon" and created a diorama with her standing next to the plane and me in the cockpit, canopy raised, arms uplifted in victory after my first supersonic solo - even had the oxygen mask dangling from the helmet, a pretty good trick in 1/72nd scale! Crazy that a few short months later I'd be scratching out a living as a newlywed - we both look back and just shake our heads at our immaturity. But it's all good; we raised 5 wonderful kids and I eventually got to finish my degree (the hard way, but I've gone on enough). I really only came to deeply appreciate WWI in the last few years as I guess I finally lost some of that youthful bravado and began to really consider what guts t took to do what these men did - some of those crates don't look much more substantial than "Lawn Chair Larry" and his weather balloons, and they have these beauties up 15,000 ft - good night! You get older and you think of those things - when I was younger I surely wanted to go into space, but then as I was headed up the Florida coast once, at 35,000 ft, I looked down and saw the humongous Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral -and it was so small! And Shuttle launch pad, barely visible... and then I look up into that deep and infinite blue and realize what incredible courage and resolve a body must have -especially the first ones. And heading for the moon, three guys in that cramped little command module, so very far from every other living thing. Think of it! And then you're on the surface of the moon in a craft that so small that it requires you to stand beside your fellow astronaut! The upper stage is hardly bigger than a bathroom, and yet you will fly back into lunar orbit in that beauty! Well, life is crazy and I barely have time to fly, but I hope you all enjoyed this as I enjoyed yours. My current lair holds a number of die-cast aircraft, and a balsa-and-tissue Bf109 with the markings of Franz Stigler (all I did was the airbrushing). I have my Snoopy WWI Flying ace montage, aircraft instrument coasters, that clock that looks like an altimeter, and always a vintage military aviation calendar, but several plastic kits languish in the workshop. Maybe someday... Thanks again to all for the great stories! Tom

I'm alwasy glad to see a new WOFFer in the air! Welcome back!

That's just it. No matter how good these sims are, 1920 x 1080 pixels can't possibly duplicate real life visual acuity and distance perception. There's always trade-offs in our hunt for immersion and realism. And in the end, it's for our own enjoyment, so i don't sweat the small stuff. Criminee, I've been known to go on "bombing orgies" in CFS3 ETO, just reload the bombs and make another pass. Good practice! Have fun! Tom

Oh, if only I had the time to get Sgt. Heza Pantswetter up to the front! Your story just whets my appetite to get in the air again. As you, I have been trying to fly without aids, although for these first few circuits I've had the TAC on. I think I'll wrap things up in the workshop and go for a spin! Thanks for the good story! Tom

We seem to have a stack of old machines sitting around at work right now, I don't know why. I'll see if I can find anything for you. But it my have to wait until Monday. I'll be crazy busy tomorrow. My daughter had her first child late Wednesday night, so I was off today, and have a real cruncher lined up tomorrow. Best, Tom

Well, I suppose that you are correct, Olham, but with some helpful new information. This time I started WOFF without TrackIR and went to the workshops. The jiggle of the scroll bar was gone, and I was able to bind the precision slider to the mixture, as I have it in CFS3 ETO. Odd, though, I thought "why not go after what Beard said and put the trim on that little finger wheel that is also on the throttle? Here it is odd again. The formerly jiggly scroll bar won't scroll, even though it has room to do so (i.e. it doesn't go from the top to the bottom of the window, but has about 20% room at the bottom). The window lists buttons 1 to 34, and that may well be all I have (glory, how any do you need?!) but I can't find that wheel. So I have some looking up to do before I tell Pov & the crew; the more info I provide, the easier it is for them. This is aside from what may be "cheating" a bit. Trim was fixed on these planes if it even existed, correct? So if I set it once, to be a purist, i should not touch it for the rest of the flight, I suppose. And, of course, I'm speaking of elevator trim, as I suppose we all are. But that is what got it for me: Going into WOFF workshops without TrackIR running stopped the odd behavior of the button status window and allowed me to bind my mixture to the precision slider. Hope it helps others! Best to all, Tom

Olham; Thanks for that, I really appreciate all that effort, but I've been there, done that. Something's screwy; when I'm on that screen, there is a scroll bar alongside the button list under the input device (numbered 1-16 in yours under the text T.16000M) That bar is "jiggling" up and down and won't scroll. If I try to bind the slider to a mixture axis, all I get are beeps. They stop a bit after after I stop moving the slider, as thought they are trying to catch up with cached keystrokes. Sounds like Beard might be having the same problem trying to put his trim on a slider. Burning Beard, did you put your mixture on a slider? I was going to use the "precision slider" on the top of the throttle near my thumb. Or is that where you want to put your trim? Thanks to both of you, Tom

Whew, I'm just an additional problem. I also have the X52 + combat rudder pedals/toe brakes and no one seems to know how to do the mixture axis thing - I can't find it on the engine controls in the workshop, no button responds in the button list when I slide the "precision slider" (on the throttle by my thumb), but when I slide it I get the beeping noise described by Tamper for a while and then it quits - starts again when i move the slider, and then quits again shortly after I stop, as though it's "catching up" with multiple keystrokes. Thanks to Olham's posts (and others), I did the unbind/rebind thing and I have no problem with the toe brakes, my TrackIR works just fine, but that mixture thing - in CFS3 ETO it works, I can kill my engine just by sliding the mixture full rich or full lean, it affects the rpm/engine sound, etc. But not here. So I beg thee, dear von Baur, did I just miss something on the list, or ???? I think I'd have the ideal WOFF setup if I could get past this little issue. Not to barge in on Firecage's thread, but from the sounds of it, what would help me may also help him. Thanks, Tom

Interesting, corsaire31. So it is Celtic! And so is Welsh, etc. I never knew. It sure looks like Welsh in that song (very pretty, thanks, Olham!). I guess I should know, claiming to be a ruddy Irishman, but it didn't look like Gaelic to me... Glad I stopped by, at least for a touch'n'go! We shall keep this airfield active!

I have a friend who grew up in Cornwal; closest I ever got was a few days on the Isle of Wight (working...). But Holey Moley those were some impressive waves!

Thanks! Although sometimes I feel that "more responsible..." translates to that old saw, "Every time something goes wrong, I'm responsible!" I didn't get a raise, but the opportunity for bonus went way up, and was achieved. So at least there is that much. Things are tough everywhere! Thanks again, Tom

I've unfortunately got into a more responsible position at work; and to set a good example I don't pop up non-work sites, or at most do so at a minimum. I used to be able to check in and make a 1 liner now and then, but now it's only in the evenings,and I'm not on the idiot box every night. I'd love to see everything come back here, but with my posting rate it's never going to happen! Still, the eye candy here is nicer, the BOC is here, it's just plain nicer here. I even managed to update my siggie banner for the debut of WOFF. I'm flying when I can, still in training and wondering why I can just barely keep up with Capt Owen Triggers. But real life is busy too, with projects in the shop for the new granddaughter on the way (and it looks like she may be early!), I've had some car issues, some travel, and I'm trying to design a facelift and updated roof lines for the family homestead (we need to re-roof and re-side...) Keep up the faith! I never check one place without the other.... Tom

I always enjoyed his posts, I hope he comes back around.

If we had to wait much longer, it was Ctrl-Shift-K anyhow... (bad WOFF inside joke)

Me too. Nicely written and (sadly) as true as can be. Happy New Year, everyone, as we mark the centennial of the beginning of it. I'm going to fire it up for the firts time and see how it goes..

How'd I miss this thread? I can't add much to what has already been said, but I particularly like von Baur's observation! I hope everyone had a blessed, peaceful and healthy Christmas, and hope to "see" you all here in the New Year!

Safe trip, sir! As was siad, it's noit the same without you around!

!I'm a little late to the party, but I promised a round of good fresh Guiness at the next gathering! Belly up, men, gather 'round, it's Christmas Eve and we have a new member! Welcome Duke!