harryleith

HMAS Melbourne with two Checkertails Skyhawks on the cats.

I promised myself I would buy one of these as soon as I heard they were going to be released. It arrived this afternoon. I regularly fly the A-4G Skyhawk in SF2 and I prefer the early grey/white scheme to the later two-tone grey camouflage scheme. The Skyhawk was still in operational service when I was a Navy Reservist and I remember them very fondly. Here is the Hobby Master A-4G. Here is my A-4G in SF2 launching an AIM-9 Sidewinder.

I downloaded the Su-17/22 Pack for SF2 and have been flying them, testing them out. Imagine my surprise when I had a go at the Libyan Air force Su-22 and discovered I had a hitch hiker - or is it just a really unsuccessful supersonic trainer design? I looked through the .ini file and found a second system_pilot listing for a KH-23 system, but commenting that section out seemed to make no difference. Anyone got any ideas? Having this guy hanging out the bottom of my aircraft is just plain strange.

I was having a play last night at making an RAAF skin for the TW expansion pack Vampire, based on the RNZAF skins released a week or so ago. It was all going great until I got to the serials. I wanted to create a set of serials reflecting the RAAF naming convention for this aircraft (A79-XXX), but I wasn't sure what font to use. A web search turned up a TrueType RAF font (RAF_PW_ATH) which I found in several places but wouldn't work in Photoshop on my Mac. Are there alternative similar fonts I can use, or a better version of that font? What does everyone else use for RAF and Commonwealth aircraft serials and markings? This is my RAAF Vampire skin so far.

Thanks for the replies, and for the detailed workflow. I actually installed Photoshop on the PC and it worked with the font, so I created a set of 10 serials for the aircraft. They are not accurate for any unit, but I got a valid serial range from adf-serials.com, a site i had never seen before. This aircraft isn't really accurate, as the RAAF operated F.30 and F.31's, and the single-seaters all had a prominent equipment bulge just forward of the cockpit - but real enough for fun. Thanks again for all the help.

...and I fixed the backwards Kangaroo on the boom, too!

The Read Me was silent on this issue, but there was a KN-23.lod kicking around loose in the Aircraft folder. In the end I deleted the entry in the .ini file for the extra pilot rather than just commented it out and he seems to have gone. Whoever he was - I hope he was getting danger money!

I love the A-1H Skyraider and while I was playing about with skins I created some personalised nose art. Hawkeye has been my callsign since the heady days of Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. Just thought I would share it.

I was saddened to see this article about the loss of a true hero. If you don't know him, Major Winters and his men were immortalized in the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers, from Steven Ambrose's excellent book of the same name. He was the commander of Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne. From what I read of him he was a great leader and a humble but courageous man. My own fascination with the military is based around wondering if, under the same circumstances, I could be the sort of man typified by veterans such as Richard Winters. Gen. George Patton aptly said "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived." Major Winters dies

Ivan Peirce died last month - the last Catalina pilot from the Double Sunrise unit. I wrote a piece in my local paper, but it isn't online. Read the article in The West Australian newspaper. For those who don't know, the Double Sunrise were a unit flying Catalina flying-boats out of Crawley in Western Australia over a 6000km route to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to maintain secure communications after the fall of Singapore in 1942. The aircraft were dangerously overloaded with extra fuel, and all the guns, hull insulation, heaters and other luxuries were removed to give them the range needed. It was often freezing - Mr Peirce said you would lose exposed skin if you brushed against the fuselage. RAAF aircrews were seconded to the Double Sunrise - so called because they saw the sun rise twice during their marathon flights - which was operated as a civilian air service under the auspices of Qantas. Crawley was also home to the RAAF Catalinas - the Black Cats - who conducted long range anti-submarine patrols and mine laying operations. After the war the Double Sunrise Cats were taken out past Garden Island naval base and sunk with explosives. Wikipedia has more information about the Double Sunrise flights.

I had been playing around with this too and bought it for 50% off - $15. I thought I had a bargain, but the next day it was 80% off at only $6! I didn't get mad - I just bought the $6 one as well and gifted it to a friend. Now we both have it and can dogfight! Wings of Prey looks like everything Heroes over Europe should have been but wasn't. Happy flying Streakeagle!

It's not a stupid question. I wrestled with this for ages, including reading the article linked above. However, after a lot of practice, I usually put metal on target without too much hassle. You get an eye for it. Stick with it! Of course, you can do something to increase the odds...

Strike Fighters 2 and CombatAce has been a big part of 2010 for me, so while I was making my traditional Christmas cards I thought I would knock one up for you guys - turned out to be two! So please have a very Merry Christmas, holiday season or end of year wherever you are around the world. RAAF F-18's perform an unusual intercept over our northern border. The scope shows no IFF.

This is what every growing boy wants in his stocking this year...

File Name: RAAF Macchi Trainer for SF2 File Submitter: harryleith File Submitted: 18 December 2010 File Category: SF2 Series Add On Aircraft This is a reworking of the RAAF Macchi MB-326H Attack/Trainer based on the mod by Charles. I have just tidied it up for SF2. All credit goes to the original design team who created this aircraft mod. This is a complete aircraft with three skins: A camo scheme, RAAF Grey scheme and the Fanta Can scheme of the Roulettes aerobatic team. The M134 Gunpod and Macchi Fuel tank are included. Click here to download this file