harryleith

Merry Christmas everyone and have a great 2012!

I just built a new system, but couldn't justify the cost of an SSD yet. The Windows Experience Index benchmarks rate everything 7.6 to 7.9, except the drive, which only rates 5.9. Drive speeds are definitely a bottleneck. However, I'm not sure how much real-world impact it will have, with a good chunk of RAM and a decent card being more significant factors. (My new machine has 16Gb and a 560Ti card and plonks along nicley!)

RAZBAM are working on payware Buckeyes at the moment, so you might try them.

I had a similar issue with the SU-7/17/22 pack...

Continuing my series of video tutorials is my . This covers a few of the basic keyboard commands you need as a new pilot to get started in Strike Fighters. While it is set in Wings Over Europe, the keyboard commands are the same for all the Strike Fighters games, including the SF2 series.

I was astonished to find that Witty Wings does a SU-27 and MiG-29 in 1:72 diecast. Has anyone bought or seen any of these? There is only 1 distributor in Australia and he is several thousand kilometres away, meaning I will have to buy these from the pics online. The MiG-29 looks nice. I would prefer more generic markings, but this is the closest to what I want that is available here. Their SU-27 is not entirely accurate around the nose and cockpit, but looks pretty nice. So, any feedback on the Witty Wings series? Has anyone had any of these, or experience of the Witty Wings range? Comments on the nose issue with the SU-27? Are there alternative manufacturers of MiG-29s and SU-27s? I have seen a Gainscorp SU-27 and while the shape is better, the overall finish is more toy-like. I also found Century Wings with some nice aircraft, but I can't find a distributor in Australia. I would appreciate any assistance.

They arrived today and they are great! The SU-27 cockpit shape is a bit out, but not enough to spoil the overall effect. The MiG-29 is awesome! I really love that bird!

In Victoria. Thanks for the offer, but I placed the order this morning. It's only money...

I agree about reducing the size of your images, but to combat the limit I think you can also upload them to your gallery and link them from there to your post. Will that work?

I recently downloaded and installed the SF2 version of the Falkland Island/Malvinas campaign and I must congratulate the developers! It's great! I did a couple of missions tootling around in a Sea Harrier, but I got the surprise of my life when I hopped into an Argentine A-4 Skyhawks and went for a Strike mission over San Carlos Water. It was INTENSE! I first tried to fly the mission as profiled - which has you bumbling over the bay at 10,000ft. Needless to say I didn't last very long before I ate a SeaCat missile. Next time through I dropped to a couple of hundred feet and flew the mission that way. It was much better, and I hit my target, but the intensity of the AAA fire during the run was something else! Every ship had gun positions blazing away at me and SAMs were whizzing past. Most times I was hit or downed as I pulled off my attack run. I'm guessing this accurately replicates the intensity of the campaign. Nice work, people. Very well done! If you haven't tried this excellent mod - download it now! Argentine A-4Q Skyhawk pulls off an attack run on shipping in San Carlos Water in the Falkland Islands. RNFAA Sea Harriers patrol the skies over the islands.

Facebook allows you to "hack" your personal account to create the illusion of a much larger picture. Basically you use a large section of the image as your profile picture and hijack your photostream to put additional portions of the same image into. In the end they all join up to give the illusion of a bigger picture. This is one test I tried using a lovely image of the MiG-31 Foxhound. The template it is in is just a photoshop template that uses slices to cut the image up for you. It's easy to use - just Google for instructions.

After nearly 2 years playing SF2, I have just started playing WOE multiplayer with a friend. He is new to flight sims (the last time we played was Chuck Yeager's Air Combat) and we had some fun, but I found we were both just cranking around in the sky. He was in an F-4 and I took several aircraft, including MiG-23s and a Mirage IIIE. Due to keyboard limitations, I was playing without radar. We would close and merge, then crank around for another pass. I felt I should be doing something else, especially given the Mirage as a delta wing fighter has a big turning circle. However, when I tried the vertical, the twin engines of the F-4 meant he had more power, his AIM-9J Sidewinders were better than my AIM-9Bs and I got splashed. In this matchup I wasn't sure what to try. If I tried extending, he could just pick me off with Sparrows. I tried low and fast and waited till he ran out of missiles, then chased him around the sky until I got a guns kill. (AIM-9Bs, remember! They never did lock on...) I would appreciate any thoughts. PS. What are the limitations on multiplayer? I noticed a lot of stuff seemed to be simplified. No chaff or flares. My MiG-23 didn't have a radar, despite a radar guided AA-7 Apex under one wing glove! Not all the third party aircraft showed up, including the Mirage Factory MiG-29s I was hoping to fly.

I am looking into SEAD and I have been searching for a good primer - you know, SEAD101! So far I have come up short. What I am looking for is a general guide, not something for a specific aircraft. Basically I am looking at the general attack patterns for different threats and with different ordnance. I have seen some stuff about hi-lo-lo-hi patterns and using terrain masking, but nothing where it has been systematically approached. (I remember someone recently publishing an article on Combat Ace about this very issue, but I was looking for some more primary sources) This is an example of something useful outlining general tactics for gun attacks against ZSUs. I found it in a manual for an old Macintosh game. ZSU-23/2S6 To counter the ZSU-23 (and by extension the 2S6), the A-10 exploits the systems’ reaction times and the “dead time” while the shells are in flight. Approaching at low level, it pops up to 170 meters (500 feet) at a range of 2 km, acquiring the target and lining up in roughly 1.5 seconds. It then fires a 1.5 second burst and breaks down and away to 30 meters (100 feet). The ZSU-23 has a reaction time of the roughly 4 seconds, starting from the time the A-10 unmasks during the pop-up. By the time the ZSU-23 opens fire, the A-10 has already completed its run and is beginning its break. By the time the ZSU’s shells reach the predicted intercept point, the A-10 has already re-masked. Of course, it takes a lot of training to acquire, track, and shoot a very small target in 3 seconds or less. Against the more powerful 2S6, the pop-up range would have to be extended by as much as 1,000 meters. In a typical SEAD attack, the A-10 approaches the target at about 30 meters (100 feet) and 300 kts When using the IIR Maverick, the pilot flies an attack profile broadly similar to that used with the GAU-8, except at much greater standoff range, perhaps 8-10 km (4-5 n.mi.). As soon as the missile is launched, the pilot dives back to 30 meters, ducking behind whatever cover is available, then proceeding to the next target waypoint. He may then use terrain masking to approach the target from a different angle before repeating the pop-up attack. I was just astonished that there wasn't more online about SAM threat envelopes etc. Maybe i wasn't looking very well! I was also looking for information about how Anti-air defences are structured or used. I remember reading about building a layered air defence by using the different engagement envelopes of different systems together. IE. using an SA-8 as short range cover for an SA-6 battery or whatever. I remember seeing wonderful diagrams with the overlapping threat bubbles of the systems showing how they worked together. Anyone have any suggestions for sources?

I got rid of the spare computer I had which ran the second install of WoE for multiplayer the other day, but then I hatched a cunning plan - I would use my iMac as the second machine for in-house multiplayer! So I installed Boot Camp and WindowsXP and got it all set up - and it works like a charm! I spent another fun afternoon flitting from machine to machine alternatively shooting myself down. (I really must find someone else to play multiplayer with locally!) Has anyone else had experience running WoE on an iMac? It hated Sun Virtual Box (couldn't handle the graphics) but with Boot Camp everything is native and it seems to chug along just fine.

I agree. If you can get a joystick, do it. It just isn't the same on keyboard. I just use a cheap logitech one and it's fine. I would suggest a twist rudder joystick - it makes all the difference in turning.

I am in dire need of a second opinion after getting whupped in SF2: Nato Fighters last night. I was in a single mission with a 2-ship flight of MiG-29s and we ran into a bunch of CF-5A Freedom Fighters. My wingman got pasted by their first volley of AIM-9s, while I managed to dodge and turn into the attack. This was before we even knew they were there, coming in slightly high at 10 o'clock. They overshot past me and I turned in behind them and after some fumbling about, downed one and damaged another. I then got a tally on another CF-5A about 6000 feet above me and climbed to give chase. I let loose with an AA-10 AlamoC in two separate attacks, both of which missed. In the mean time we had popped above the cloud cover and his mate - whom I never saw but had worked around to my 6 o'clock - gave me a sidewinder enema and it was 'goodnight, vienna!'. MiG parts all over the landscape. It was a frustrating fight and I went to bed very perturbed and with my flying confidence badly shaken. I had never felt in control during the entire engagement but I just couldn't figure out what I did wrong. Sure I target-fixated on the third guy, which was why I got waxed, but I just felt I had to work too hard to chase these guys around the sky. Am I being unrealistic to expect to come out the victor in a four on one engagement? Should I have cut my losses and bugged out? I know you weren't there, but I value your opinions. What lessons would you suggest I take away from this one?

I have a fondness for Soviet aircraft, and today I took a break from flying modern jets and went retro with a MiG-17. However, flying these early aircraft isn't without its hair-raising moments. I was in a high-speed dogfight with some A-4 Skyhawks and F-8 Crusaders when my MiG became unresponsive. I had forgotten the MiG-17 has a disturbing habit of locking up the controls at high speed, meaning you can't maneuver and just fly along in the direction you are going until you can slow down. I understand this is caused by the flow of air over the control surfaces which at high speed were just too great for mechanical linkages and pilot strength to move. Western aircraft had hydraulic controls to avoid this issue. Consequently, my angling for a stern gun-attack turned into an embarrassing overshoot as I sailed blithely along in a straight line, madly trying to bleed off speed with my air-brakes. The F-8 tried, but with shells whistling past the cockpit I finally got some control back and barrel rolled up and over before breaking into a hard turn to force an overshoot. Not a lesson I will forget in a hurry!

Thanks guys. We added in a bunch of Mirage Factory aircraft (MiG-21, MiG-23s, F-14, F-16, MiG-29s, Mirage III) but only some of them show up in multiplayer. I'm not sure why. Thanks for the tips. I'll let you know how I get on...

I just discovered (pardon the pun!) the Discovery Wings series produced in the 1990's. As far as I can tell, It was never released on DVD - worse luck. Thank goodness for youTube which allowed me to watch a few episodes, like this wonderful version exploring the MiG-23 series. If you haven't heard of this series before, check it out. Maybe one day it will make it to video...

I have been hunting these down online and found several episodes for download. It has been chewing into my download limits. If they sold them, I would buy them - until then, this will have to do. The quality isn't good enough for TV, but good enough for iPhone... MiG-23 at Rapidshare http://rapidshare.com/files/398855380/Mig-23.The.Swing.Wing.Solution.part1.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/398855381/Mig-23.The.Swing.Wing.Solution.part2.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/398855408/Mig-23.The.Swing.Wing.Solution.part3.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/398855490/Mig-23.The.Swing.Wing.Solution.part4.rar Su-25 at Uploading.com http://uploading.com/files/55f33mae/Wings_-_Sukhoi_Su-25_Frogfoot.part1.rar http://uploading.com/files/mc8ddd61/Wings_-_Sukhoi_Su-25_Frogfoot.part2.rar http://uploading.com/files/22ce7fbm/Wings_-_Sukhoi_Su-25_Frogfoot.part3.rar http://uploading.com/files/1d34cca2/Wings_-_Sukhoi_Su-25_Frogfoot.part4.rar http://uploading.com/files/d7319mf6/Wings_-_Sukhoi_Su-25_Frogfoot.part5.rar http://uploading.com/files/bm327f75/Wings_-_Sukhoi_Su-25_Frogfoot.part6.rar http://uploading.com/files/8c4fm285/Wings_-_Sukhoi_Su-25_Frogfoot.part7.rar The Sukhoi story http://rapidshare.com/files/397381049/Wings.Of.The.Red.Star-The.Sukhoi.Story.part1.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/397380405/Wings.Of.The.Red.Star-The.Sukhoi.Story.part2.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/397380895/Wings.Of.The.Red.Star-The.Sukhoi.Story.part3.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/397380698/Wings.Of.The.Red.Star-The.Sukhoi.Story.part4.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/397381013/Wings.Of.The.Red.Star-The.Sukhoi.Story.part5.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/397381062/Wings.Of.The.Red.Star-The.Sukhoi.Story.part6.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/397380561/Wings.Of.The.Red.Star-The.Sukhoi.Story.part7.rar Wings of the Red Star http://www.fileserve.com/file/Gn9cJTV/Wings.of.the.Red.Star.part1.rar http://www.fileserve.com/file/b7K6ybz/Wings.of.the.Red.Star.part2.rar http://www.fileserve.com/file/H5AACy7/Wings.of.the.Red.Star.part3.rar http://www.fileserve.com/file/nMAzQMS/Wings.of.the.Red.Star.part4.rar