Nick Tselepides

Here is another screenshot of the Wellesley from a side angle. Over China Lake NAS in California, during a "Cannibal Queen" Steven Coonts flight.

Greece won over France and eliminated it from The Euro 2002 Cup and last night Athens was celebrating until 5 am--cars honking, fireworks, dancing, parties, the lot... I saw the match on TV and the Greeks certainly played better than the French and deserved to win. Note that I am not much a football fan, and very rarely watch it, but it was worth it...

My post is mainly addressed to Americans here. Over the past 2 weeks, Athens has been full of groups of young American girls---18-20. I have seen them walking around and even talked to one of their teachers. I noticed two things: In one group of about 50 from the Carolinas and Utah, most of the girls were fat and short. The bous looked fat too. In another group of about 35, from Arizona this time, the girls were okay in weight, but also short. The boys looked fine here, but not taller. Greek girls pass them by hafl a head in height--most of them, and are better proportioned. Now I remember that in the 70's things were not this way--the girls lokked better and taller. What is happening? Has the diet changed and caused this transformation? Is it regional?

It is as I suspected all along--a diet thing, resulting from McDonald's plus lack of exercise. In Holland, the girls were strong, tall, but not fat--15 years ago when I was there twice. Germany the same. France, where I went twice in the 2 past years, the girls are average height, and slightly fatter than they were 20 years ago, but the majority is still thin. Russian girls, plenty in Athens since 1992, are tall and very beautiful when young. When they marry, they deteriorate as all women (and men) do. In England, they seemed fine--the majority--with rosy cheeks and giving the impression they were still being milked by mother--but horrid clothes. In the Czech Republic, pretty, thin, but many cases of bad teeth--and all married people, men or women--have lovers after work, at 3 or 4, before they get home at 6 or 7 pm--but they keep the marriage for the kids. In Poland, very pretty, blonde, and underloved--their men do not seem to care much to get a girl. They drink like fish. The men seem to have changed everywhere too. In Greece, in the 70s and 80s and earlier, men chased girls all the time, eveywhere, in the street, on the bus, at school, at work, etc.... In the past 10 years, they do not, and girls have a hard time finding a boyfriend. Same in France. In Germany, it was always that way. Last year I was teaching a class of 22 very pretty Greek girls (only one was not a real beauty in this group--the married one) and they often asked me to bring them boys from another class I had in a nearby school, where my group was 23 handsome young men. "They don't talk to us, sir" was their usual complaint. The boys would often say "they play hard to get, sir". A breakdown in communication is what that usually means. But a diet problem is serious. It means the average public health standard is going downhill, and if it is not checked, the nation deteriorates, both physically and mentally, as the two go together here.

I hope he gets better soon, Pete, and pray for you.

A flight of 3 Sqn Mirage IIIO's over Malaysia in March 1981. At least 40 such good quality pictures of Australian Mirages in all sort of schemes can be found in "Air Action" issue 16, April 1990....Best MirageIIIO for FS2004 is that by Garry Smith--he has 10 different a/c for download...

ALPHA Sim has released their former payware Phantoms (RAF and US) as freeware downloads--go get them before they are taken off the list. They are excellent.

************************* You might do this Sunday on a whim. The last good flight you had was months ago. You check the usual places, get in, strap and sign for chocks away. You pat your horses release the brakes, and off you go. High among the first clouds, you know you never heard the blonde below who screamed at you Take me with you, I am not a nun. You only heard the call of metal and the smell of oil, the calls of wings abducting you. If shooting enemies with hate in wars before Now you think you'll never shoot again at anything. Early summer, no matter---you fly and fly by eye, by instrument, by tooth and nail, by heartbeat, flesh and bone. The horse that brought you high runs on gold, and gold is mined for you alone. Let down, the airstrip beckons you. Let down and let the sky be blue. Think of the blonde and whisper Love me Love me all the way home. The last good kiss you had was years ago. ******************** Firday, June 4th, 2004 Poem by Nick Tselepides

Pete, I got your email. and my email is working--as I also got emails from others... Thanks for the book, shipmate. Email us a pic or two of little kittens for us...Tania asked me to ask you for her...

The Sea Vixen cockpit, and "Red Bull" a/c seen through a Vampire canopy. The navigator sat to the right and rear of a pilot in a small prison cell and was 995 a goner in case of an ejection, the poor geezer.... Note how the cockpit is WWII style, resembling that of a Firefly or Typhoon. Still, the FAA managed things okay with this bird--- a very potent all-weather fighter of the period capable of taking on 4 MiGs with four Firestreaks in 4 seconds press-tit time ( the time it takes to press the button four times) and lighting big fires up their tailpipes if need be, though this kind of event never came to be, but came close a few times. An old man's love for an old airplane is like a young man's love for a woman.... The Sea Vampire at bottom, with two Hawks down below, was the Sea Vixen's predecessor in the FAA, another De Havilland twin-boom job, with more chances of escape for the navigator....

ALPHA Sim has released their former payware Phantoms (RAF and US) as freeware downloads--go get them before they are taken off the list. They are excellent.

Firehawkordy, Go ahead and send it through Pm. Navychief: Glad you liked it--more will be sent to you later. BTW, did you send me the book?

Navychief. You look just as happy as the kittens--my wife loved the pic and wants me to put up a picture of our cat here. You certainly have many cats and a Cat to take care of, too. Nick

I have this problem with LOMAC: When I start the game and play the 2nd or was it the 3rd training mission with A-10 (the one about the use of the cannon), when I press Ctl+Q and I take over, the minute I try to fire the PC reboots by itself. ame thing on the Sukhoi-25 Take-Off training mission--I tried to take over the PC rebooted. I uninstalled and reinstalled the game twice--same thing happened. I also tried using the patch given for the US version by PC Pilot magazine recently--the game did not work at all. In the end, I removed it from my hard drive. My cousin also had the same problem with it-- I have a Gigabyte K7 Triton 400 (KT400) motherboard in AGP8X standards and a GHZ Athlon XP2200+ CPU with 512 RAMP, with an NVidia GForce4 Ti-4200 AGP8X 128mv DDR videocard. IL-2FB plays without any hitch on my system, and I do know that that game needs a high-end system. My question is: 1. Was the game deficient from its initial commercial release? I have version 1. 2. Has a later version come out? 3. Have any of you had similar problems?

That was fumy, Chief. Listen: if you go back to serve the USN. there won't be much work to do and lots of fresh air--no below decks, no engine shop, no bunks, no cat noise.... Economize on film too, as there will only one a/c to photograph for us in these forums. I would not mind serving on board one of these with you in company.... There is a good side to everything after all. And as this would cost the taxpayer less, we'd spend the extra money on wine, women, and song.... Good inspiration, Pete. Keep it up.

Thanks GhostDog. I fixed the problem by getting the latest video card drivers--that worked. So if anyone has a similar problem perhaps getting the latest frivers from their Video card maker will help. Now I play the game, but still cannot arm the cannon on the A-10 by pressing C. I assigned some commands to my joystick, and all work okay. But I noticed I have to re-assign them each time I start that game. Is that normal or is there away of saving them once and for all?

Just for those of you, who like some I know, who are a little averse to the rotary wing , Click on link and then click on the fly in Chinook button under the pic! You will get a good laugh. http://www.chinook-helicopter.com/fly_a_chinook/flight.html Cheers

Thanks Cowboy Todd-- Very informative. Cheers

Many FS links here--all kinds of stuff. http://membres.lycos.fr/simulpassion/link.htm http://escadrille.free.fr/Fichiers.php?Typ_List=FS ============================ http://escadrille.free.fr/Livres.php?Typ_List=FANA Many good French magazines here, search the links for Fana, Avions, ect--you can save the cover art. http://site.voila.fr/sfp1skin/pa.htm

Tonks has takenthis pciture, probably from an RAF VC-10 tanker aircraft. These are GR.1A's. Note the pristine condition of their finish, and the newer 2-greys camouflage of the a/c in the middle.

Did you know that RAF Buccaneers won most, if not all, of the low-flying exercise competitions in Fallon Nevada, Red Flag, Germany, Corsica, the North Sea, and elsewhere, beating all other aircraft? It is true. Their competitors: F-4, F-15s,Tornadoes, F-16s, Skyhawks, A-7s, Mirages, Jaguars, F-14s, FA-18s, etc etc...

It seems that Mike Stone has released a Westland Walrus for FS9 and it also seems to have caused some controversy, as usual with this man, in some forums. Those interested should a look at the following thread and the one page just before it. http://www.shackletonproject.co.za/phpbb/v...php?p=5619#5619

For all of you who like formation flying and naval jets, have a look at the following great photos: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/228532/L/ http://www.airliners.net/open.file/218188/L/ Also of interest: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/559685/L/

I received this in the email today: Hi Nick, Just thought you might be interested to know that we are doing a Fairey Gannet for FS2004 as one of our projects. Have a look at our website and join our forum if you would like to, have a look at what we will be doing, here are the 2 links one to our website and one to the forum. http://www.freewebs.com/aviation/ http://clannger.proboards30.com Kindest Regards Gerry They are also doing a Wyvern, and I am very pleased indeed. The Project Team is James Eden Aircraft Modeler Gerry Flores Aircraft Texture Painter Dave Booker Aircraft Research & Master Flight Testing Brian Withers Aircraft Flight Dynamics Brian Gibbs Aircraft Research & Flight Testing And the aircraft are: The Fairey Gannet The Westland Wyvern The Miles Messenger The Auster All Aircraft will be for Microsoft Flight Simulator FS2004, All in G-MAX and will have as many animated parts as possible to please the eye . ;) And I, who have been waiting for years for these, esp. the first 2, am in paradise.......as these guys are filling my no.1 and no.2 needs in FS at last. I have already signed up at their forum and will be sending them photos and decals for the repaints from my huge library...they deserve all the help one can give...

:P The Fairey Gannet, on HMS Ark Royal--a cranky but great to fly plane, as its pilots all said... It is my dream to make a plastic kit of this one day....and to see a good one for a flightsim game.... And of course, the Sea Vixen big, heavy, with its navigator closed under that bulged opening hatch to the right of the cockpit and seasted lower than the pilot. This is an FAW.1--the FAW2 had extensions to the booms beyond the leading edge of the wings which had extra fuel.I have made the FAW 2 mark already, using the old Frog 1/72nd model and Modeldecals items, and won an award with it at the Athens IPMS Modelling championships back in 83... Both from HMS Ark Royal's sixth comission. ;) Come to think of it, the FAA shut up its navigators in tight spots either by flaws in design or on purpose, or even through sheer lack of ergonomics. The Gannet has the navigator shut up in the window bulge you see just in front of the roundel marking--poor sod. Note the orange color of the centre-line--usually redder in most photos.