MigBuster

Classic - reminded me of this also!

Personal preference really - Sets 1 & 2 sandy terrains, Sets 2 - 4 all Will probably change some of Iceland from this http://combatace.com/files/file/13865-sf2na-runway-lights-and-textures/

The aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower was finally in sight. The pilot of the F/A-18 Super Hornet hurriedly flipped switches and pushed levers. The aviator in the backseat leaned forward, straining to see the flight deck floating in the distance. The jet's right engine had locked up, its landing gear had jammed, and the main fuel tank was almost empty. At nearly 350 mph, the Super Hornet hurtled over the warm waters of the North Arabian Sea last April. The pilot had made some tough decisions that day; several hadn't gone his way. Now he was out of options. He had one chance to land. ___ The two-seat Super Hornet had launched off the Eisenhower's flight deck 5-1/2 hours earlier. It was one of several jets from Virginia Beach-based Strike Fighter Squadron 103 tasked with providing close air support - a show of aerial force - to aid troops on the ground in Afghanistan. The pilot guided the jet through dark rain clouds over Pakistan. After escaping the storm system, he moved toward a KC-135 Stratotanker, an Air Force fuel plane in the skies of Afghanistan. The 600-mile flight from the Arabian Sea - a familiar journey for Navy fighter pilots after more than a decade of war - requires that Super Hornets make at least two midair refuelings. With the flip of a switch, the pilot extended a refueling probe from the jet's nose. He moved into position behind the tanker, toward a fuel line that dangles behind it. The pilot carefully steered the probe into a basket at the end of the fuel line. The midair connection was a success; jet fuel began flowing into the Super Hornet's tanks. After eight minutes, it had taken in about 14,800 pounds of fuel. Suddenly, they hit unexpected turbulence. The fuel line rippled violently and wrapped itself around the basket and probe. The pilot eased up on the throttle to back out of the connection. Instead, the hose detached from the basket and began spewing fuel. Gas streamed into the fighter jet's right engine intake. Worse, the fuel basket was stuck on the probe, meaning it could no longer be retracted. The jet - flying over a war zone, hundreds of miles from its home ship - would not be able to refuel again in the air. The mission had abruptly changed for aircraft No. 206: Now, it was about getting home. ___ A warning tone sounded, and caution lights lit up the cockpit. Sensors told the pilot something was wrong with the right engine, which had ingested the fuel. The pilot made some quick calculations. He had 15,500 pounds of fuel in his tanks, enough to return to the Eisenhower and make six passes at the ship. Landing in nearby Kandahar was a more prudent option, but that likely would have meant several days or more awaiting repairs. The Eisenhower's air wing commander had decided earlier not to put a maintenance detachment in Afghanistan - a cost-saving measure that pilots perceived as a signal they should attempt to divert back to the ship whenever possible. The pilot and his backseat weapons-systems officer agreed: The situation wasn't serious enough to land immediately. They broke away from the group to begin the long return to the Eisenhower. By the time they realized much of their fuel was unusable, it would be too late to reverse course and land in Kandahar. ___ The jet had flown more than 400 miles, two-thirds of the way back to the carrier, when the aviators noticed another problem. The pumps that move fuel from reserve tanks on the wings into the main tanks are automatically disabled when the refueling probe is extended. The pilot had been staring at that probe and the attached basket for more than an hour but failed to realize its effect on the fuel pumps. He knew the hulking metal contraption sticking up from the nose of the jet was putting extra drag on the aircraft, causing it to burn more fuel; he figured the 3,000 pounds of gas in the wing tanks would more than make up for it. The aviators didn't panic when they realized that the fuel pumps weren't running. The pilot would try to use gravity to move the gas. He began "slipping and cross controlling" the aircraft - a maneuver to tilt a wing up a few degrees while still flying straight. Alternating the tilt should move fuel from the wing tanks. But the maneuver also burns more fuel. They didn't know it yet, but even with the tilt, not enough gas was flowing. ___ The Super Hornet was about 140 miles from the ship - most of the way home - when a voice from the Ike's tower crackled over the radio with a question: "What would you call your usable fuel?" "Thirty-seven-hundred pounds if no additional fuel transferred from the wings," the pilot replied, then let his own words sink in. He had been counting on at least 4,500 pounds, but more than 1,000 pounds of fuel remained in the wings. Only about 10 or 20 pounds was transferring each minute. It was at that moment, the pilot would later tell an investigator, that he first realized they were in serious danger. Seconds later, the voice of Rear Adm. Michael Manazir broke into the conversation. The commander of the Eisenhower carrier strike group had been monitoring radio chatter. He had heard enough. "I want you to send 206 to Masirah right now," Manazir said, referring to the jet and an airfield in Oman. Attempting to land a jet on a moving aircraft carrier is difficult under the best conditions; having a damaged plane attempt it with limited fuel would be too risky, Manazir would say later. If the pilot failed to land on the first pass, he wouldn't have enough fuel to divert to shore, Manazir said, calling it a "Hail Mary." The Super Hornet, now just 11 miles from the Eisenhower, turned toward Masirah, more than 280 miles away. ___ Twenty-four minutes later, a new set of warning lights lit up the cockpit display: "R STALL," "R ENG" and "R ENG FLAMEOUT." The right engine - the one that had been showered with jet fuel - had abruptly stopped working. The pilot radioed the carrier. The officer in the tower told him to jettison an empty fuel tank, then walked him through emergency procedures. The engine was locked up and wouldn't restart. With just one engine and 1,400 pounds of usable fuel, landing in Masirah was no longer an option. The tower ordered the pilot to turn back toward the Eisenhower, 46 miles away at that point. The pilot made the turn. He continued dipping the wings, hoping to capture fuel from the reserve tanks. Then, without telling his backseater or the ship, the pilot made a fateful decision: He engaged the plane's auxiliary power unit in a desperate attempt to restart the right engine. The engine didn't crank. Without realizing it - as the ship came into view on the horizon - the pilot had drained the sole source of reserve power he needed to lower his landing gear. ___ The officer in the tower read instructions over the radio for an emergency, single-engine landing. Without the right engine turning to power the hydraulics, the plane would have to use auxiliary power to put down the landing gear, the officer said, unaware that the pilot had already depleted it. The pilot followed instructions and pulled the landing-gear handle, but the wheels didn't come down. The jet was 11 miles from the ship. The tower told the pilot to remove and reinsert the circuit breakers, but the trick failed to restore auxiliary power. Then it told him to try once more to restart the right engine. No luck. The pilot frantically repeated all the emergency procedures and pulled again on the landing-gear handle. This time the nose wheel came down, but the two in the back didn't. He checked his fuel gauges. Just 700 pounds of fuel left in the main tank. Every second mattered now. The tower officer had one last idea. He told the pilot to accelerate to 350 mph, hoping the speed would cause the right engine to rotate in the wind and provide enough hydraulic power to drop the back wheels. The pilot pushed the throttle: the left engine roared, the right began to rotate slowly. Finally, the landing gear popped out. "Three down and locked," the pilot radioed, and immediately prepared to land. A landing signal officer on the flight deck told the pilot he was coming in high but was lined up to land. There was no room for error; this would be their one shot. The jet was less than 2 miles from the ship when it ran out of fuel. ___ The left engine flamed out without much warning. The digital cockpit displays went dark. The $41 million fighter jet nosed downward, rolled right and began to fall from 1,200 feet. The backseat aviator, unaware the pilot had lost control, leaned forward to see how far away the ship was. Suddenly a violent thrust blew him into the sky. The pilot had pulled the ejection handle without giving him a warning. The jet - with nearly 2,000 pounds of fuel trapped inside - plunged into the sea. Both aviators blacked out, hanging limp below parachute canopies, before hitting the water and coming to. Disoriented and bleeding after the ejections, the men cut themselves free from their chutes. The rescue helicopter arrived quickly. It returned them, finally, to the Eisenhower's flight deck. ___ About the story: This report was based on an investigation into the April 8, 2013, crash of an F/A-18 Super Hornet. Names and other identifying details were redacted from the report, which was obtained by The Virginian-Pilot through a Freedom of Information Act request. The report cited questionable decision-making by the pilot but did not recommend disciplinary action. http://www.stripes.com/news/navy/2013-f-a-18-crash-out-of-fuel-out-of-time-and-one-chance-to-land-1.277698

You have SF2I & SF2E I presume not the first gen WOI & WOE - because there is a big difference.

The Campaign engine will generate some things automatically like transport type aircraft and recon missions. Campaigns post 2012 might also generate AWACs and maritime recon - someone would need to comment on this though. Most of this info on the parameters should still apply Campaign Notes.pdf

Sorry not sure what you are asking here - SF2 already has shooting (its a combat sim) what in particular are you asking for?

Even the A-7A had a Radar, Datalink, IFF, CADC & weapons release computer

How did I miss this! http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-26882664 Ukrainian authorities have rejected a bid from a man calling himself Darth Vader, who wants to run in the presidential elections.

Mostly fly the A-10A myself - although the P-51 is very easy regarding switchology so good to start up. I really like the flying through the hoop missions and I have done mostly those since it took 35 mins to down a 190! If i ever get a better connection I might do more online

hmm - well if it doesn't work here are your options: You can ring them and be told to upgrade to Win 8 or Pay them 5 million pounds for another years support (See UK Government)

What version of the AA-2 are you using? - the default Heat seeking AA-2A? If so you need to be almost right behind the target - you may need to move the nose up and down a bit to get a lock growl. Even with a lock the hit probability will be about 10% with this.

So it worked after install - but after the 2011 patch it stopped working. What errors do you get? What happens when you try to launch the game? What are your specs? - can you post dxdiag output?

This is an option if you have limited disk space and want to move mod folders to another disk or partition. Obviously bear in mind that if you are moving them from a SATA 3 SSD to a SATA 2 HDD then things will be a bit slower on the HDD. 1. Go to your mod folder (C:\Users\<>\Saved Games\ThirdWire) 2. Backup the game folder you are about to mess about with! 3. Copy (don't cut) the folder for the game you want to move, then paste it on the new location on your other disk / partition. 4. In the new location you can either remove or rename options.ini and version.ini. Here I have just renamed them: 5. Back to the original saved games folder now - just remove everything apart from options.ini and version.ini so you are left with: 6.Now to do the actual redirect open up the options.ini file and scroll to the bottom: [Mods] ModsEnabled=TRUE Directory=C:\Users\<>\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Israel Editors=StrikeFighters2 [screenShots] Directory=C:\Users\<>\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Israel\ScreenShots Format=JPG Change the paths to the location where you have moved all the folders to: [Mods] ModsEnabled=TRUE Directory=F:\SF2\StrikeFighters2 Israel Editors=StrikeFighters2 [screenShots] Directory=F:\SF2\StrikeFighters2 Israel\ScreenShots Format=JPG 7. then save and test the game.

Okay - so you merged your SF2 games into 1 to save space - but now when you run one (for example the SF2 Israel exe) you no longer have a separate game like you used to e.g. you can select missions and campaigns from the other games you have merged. Here's how to have it so it runs like the original standalone game. 1. Go to the mod folders - by default at C:\Users\<>\Saved Games\ThirdWire\ 2. Go to a terrains folder - C:\Users\<>\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Israel\Terrains . 3. Backup the terrains folder in case you screw this up!! 4. Create a new folder called Terrains if its not there already! 3. Now simply create new folders for each terrain for the games you don't want to show up in your install (we DO NOT touch the IsraelME folder in this example) So if we are in israel Terrains folder then we create folders for: desert GermanyCE icelandna VietnamSEA Then in each of these folders create a new empty text file and call it the same as its parent folder: desert.ini GermanyCE.ini icelandna.ini VietnamSEA.ini NOTE because this is Israel we don't create or change IsraelME because that needs to work You should end up with: (Note i have manually changed the folder icons here via properties customize - not required though) So when I run the game I now only see stock campaigns & missions for Israel.

If proof were needed that another sim always does something else better!

I could never get rid of it on the HD5770 I used to have - the 7770 is a newer mid range series card so should be slightly better. There was a lot about it at TW at the time - tried any of this: Smoothvision HD Anti-Aliasing changed from "Use The Application Setting" to 2x level and box filter. Smoothvision HD Anastropic Filtering changed from "Use The Application Setting" to 2x per-pixel sample Catalyst AI set to "performance"; surface format optimization enabled. Mipmap Detail Level set to "performance". Wait for vertical refresh set to "Always On". Anti-Aliasing Mode set to "Multi-Sample AA"

Nearly got me - took a few watches to see how fake it was!

Its coming along nicely Recent satellite imagery showed Tehran is building a fake U.S. aircraft. New photographs prove that Iran’s Nimitz class mock flattop hosts several (fake) planes, including some CAG birds and a Jolly Rogers F/A-18 Hornet. Iran is not only working on a mock American aircraft carrier. New images posted on Facebook show that the USS Nimitz class ship being assembled in an Iranian shipyard on the Persian Gulf most probably for propaganda purposes (do you remember the F-313 Qaher stealth jet?) or as a movie prop, now features also some embarked planes. Noteworthy, along with some F-5 Tiger aircraft (serving with the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force but not existing in a carrier-variant) parked on the flight deck of the fake Iranian carrier there are also some fake F/A-18 Hornets. One of the two in special color scheme sports the unique livery and markings of the legendary VFA-103 “Jolly Rogers”. The Jolly Rogers are one of the most famous squadron in U.S. Navy. They currently fly the F/A-18F Super Hornet adorned with Ensign Jack Ernie’s skull-and-crossbones on all-black tails, their symbol and probably the most recognizable one in Naval Aviation (to such an extent you can find it in Disney’s “Planes” cartoon). The reason for using CAG (Carrier Air Group) planes in special colors makes Iran’s mysterious aircraft carrier’s flight deck slightly more realistic but the question remains: why did Tehran spend so much money to build such a huge model? As mentioned before, it might be a prop for an upcoming movie (about an Iranian airliner shot down by a U.S. cruiser in 1988) as reported by some media outlets; still, considering the effort in building the mock up it is also possible that the ship will serve for more military purposes: for instance testing new technologies and/or training warplanes to attack a U.S. flattop in the Persian Gulf exploiting its vulnerabilities. In either cases, just a waste of money… from http://theaviationist.com/2014/04/02/iran-fake-aircraft-carrier/

Happy birthday sir - enjoy the day!

Yes SF2NA changed the game quite a bit regarding campaigns - so will have extra lines of code you can use - some of it you wont need to use - but check another 3rd party SF2NA campaign to be certain. Obviously if you try it with the SF2V exe and it works then you will know for sure - the stock campaigns have a lot of the new code missing. Your best bet is just to get one jet to appear first before changing loads of things at the same time - did you have a look at the LBIII campaign because that would be the closest to what you are after?. Have you also seen the info in here http://combatace.com/forum/268-thirdwire-strike-fighters-2-series-knowledge-base/