MigBuster

ok........ For those interested in the spirit of this thread, and for those whose "speculations" have been a little too "out there"... ...here is the OFFICIAL statement from FreeFalcon. There is really not much to add: FreeFalcon Fans, It has been my honor and pleasure to be associated with FreeFalcon these past few years and to serve as head of FreeFalcon. It is with reluctance that I now feel it is time to close the doors to FreeFalcon. Steve "Hustler" Wooters and myself have been in close consultation with each other other the past year and a half and we both feel the time has come where FreeFalcon has nothing more to contribute to the community. The, time, energy, and costs to maintain the website and server no longer serve the communities best interests. Our development process has been active but we have reached a point where we have been unable to move forward in a way that would provide the sort of meaningful advances that we know you want and expect. Theater development while productive also lacks from significant progress because there just aren't enough active contributors to FreeFalcon dedicated theaters. Code development has for all intensive purposes been halted because we lost our current source code and were unable to develop a replacement to allow us to keep our current theaters and to fix existing shortcomings in crucial areas like stability, multiplayer, refueling, and AI. Lastly, the lack contributors to core material like models, skins, flight models, terrain tiles, campaigns, and data besides make for a very slow process. On the bright side, FreeFalcon can lay claim to be one of the oldest and longest active development teams in Falcon history and took Falcon to new heights that perhaps the creators would have been proud of. Many people have contributed to FreeFalcon over the years I would be remiss if I didn't name and compliment at least a few of the truly bright stars; perhaps first and foremost among the group are Steve "Hustler" Wooters, Dr. Fred "Baldeagle" Balding, and Ron "Red1" Nair. Founders of FreeFalcon who started with a dream and made all of us dream even bigger. There have been a large number of contributors that sit on that next tier of stardom; "CCC", Tom "Saint" Launder, Jim "JimG" Garwood, Tom "T-Rex" Perkins, Michael "Speaker" Bradley, Clayton "Aragorn" Noel, Alex "Red" Vallone, Stefan "Biker" Biker, Matheus "Seifer" Ribiero, Robert "Pumpyhead" Lozada, Jon "Nightfalcon" Xedis, Benny "BenBen" Wegmann, Jay "Bird" Ricardelli, Jean-Marie "Topolo" Langeron, Dave "Dewdog2" Wagner, Dave "WaveyDave" Cuthbert, Stefano "Qawa", Bob "Welshmadman" Owens, Brian "Ram22" Thomas, Dave "Demer928" Emerson, Balazs "Molnibalage" Molnar, Tadeusz "Polak" Zukowski, Carlo "Khronik" Lafontaine, Rufus "RP" Parsons, Thomas "Lee" Lee, Hannes "Noname" Wagner, Eyran "Peled" Millis, Winston "RadicalDude" Young, Ataberk "Hailstorm" Portakal, Mike "Toonces" Loomis, Cemil "Eagle611" Ozturk, Stephan "Derstef" Willmes, and of course the "Snakeman" who paved the way for theater development for all forms of Falcon. It would also be unfair to overlook the contributions of our many beta testers, with whom I have worked with only a handful and can only provide a short list of those capable souls who flew many an hour in the pursuit of excellence; Dave "Dewdog2" Wagner, Patrick "cptmtge" Harkins, Frits "Snail" Vanvorst, Stale "TheNorwegian" Almenningen, Jojo57, Thorston "Tom" Buss, Roberto "Ipergallo" Bagnasco, Balazs "Molnibalage" Balazs. My apologies to the many others whom have been omitted because of my short tenure in a long lived organization. What can I can say? It had to end sometime. We had a very good run, had a lot of fun, and made a some good friends along they way. I hope FreeFalcon was able to provide you with something to enjoy, something to dream about, and something that engaged you for at least a short time and in doing so made your life just a little bit better. What does the future hold for free and open development of Falcon as it heads into its 2nd decade? Put your eyes on BMS, once and perhaps for all, development rests with this very talented, smart, and energetic group of people who have made it their mission to continue seeking excellence and I hope you all will support them as they take the Falcon community to the future. Best Wishes, Anthony "Ranger822" Thomas Hope this puts everything into perspective, and - thanks to Ranger822. It was a s**t-load of fun working together. Aragorn.

in the video at the start

I think its roll rates ok - seems faster than Cessna's I've flown - but it might keep rolling to much after the stick is neutral (will need to check when i can). The later Lightning F.mk6 does have cannon - they only lost them for a few marks - you should still be able to take out fighters with the Lightning but it needs to be employed differently against agile opponents. You will find the same with the Mirage 3C, F-4B/C and other interceptors of that period - where simple horizontal turning wont be of much use in most cases - and is often suicide against the MiG-17s for example.

Hilarious http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rYaZ57Bn4pQ

You need to be careful and ease off - TK has implemented some of the stability issues that some of the jets had - although you could debate that all year long how it compares. Anyway the Lightning gets better with version - notice how the F.mk3 has a bigger tail to help with the stability for example. But be aware its high level bomber interceptor really.

Depends on the Jet and the foe - sounds like you are pulling to hard - most of the jets in SF2 are not good at turning. For example dont try and get into turning fights with MiG-17/19 if in an F-4

Quite a significant reduction unfortunately and the loss of the Yak-44 for AEW

Not good news - but I hope that they help BMS out because the only way the goals will be met is if everyone pulls in the same direction.

boom boom

A track IR is infinitely better the wider your monitor is - or 3 monitors in Daves case - if you have a smaller monitor its not as easy to use - but is still brilliant IMO because you can easily look head down at instruments (and zoom in) and look around without thinking about it.

Hang in there James - luck has to change soon - on the bright side at least you can walk - something I cant do at the moment.

Nice setup - looking really good

I would say that your main issue would be control - at over M1.0 I would question the pitch authority of those tiny elevators - Chuck Yeager found a similar thing (IIRC) - hence why fast jets have all moving horizontal stabs so you can still pitch up and down. Obviously the airframe does play a big part in getting faster - the MiG-17F had a burner but was limited to ~M0.96 - the thing pitched up near the M1.0 and had trouble going over it. (well according to Y Gordons book)

Best ever - I think a remake in CGI would just make it too unrealistic though

Wow - that's unbelievable

Somethings missing basically - what F-16s are you using? - where did you download them from? Can you get a shot of the files in the F-16 folder?

Do you think that France is not prepared to put the money into the forces?

If you go for Tir go for at least a Tir4 - that was very good. Not easy to get though - when i sold it on ebay I had people trying to bribe me a few days into the auction and the end bid was nearly as high as a new one cost!

Welcome DCS and FSX are both at the start of development regarding the way they look to be going - Falcon 4 is being developed still. However if you are interested in the Vietnam conflict and that era then don't hold your breath that any of the above will provide what you need - you mention the content thats available for SF2 that has been created over the past 10 years. Well someone has got to do all that again for the above sims - and TBH their focus seems mainly to be post 1983 (there is an F-100D, F-104, A-7 in 3rd party dev). But then SF2 has this: Also if its clickable all functioning 6DOF cockpits with accuracy - they take forever to do - DCS has only got the A-10C and the choppers, Falcon has got the F-16C B50/52 - (and an FA-18C on the way) - however its not only the development time for these - who out there with a job has time to learn more than 2 pits like this - when you want to fly different jets then FC3 and SF2 are perfect - you still get a 3D accurate pit and unique FM - but can switch between the jets easier and spend time on tactics and action. Thirdwire have started porting the titles onto mobile Operating Systems (Android, iOS, Windows 8) and is trying a freemium type business model - so for the time being the current Windows version looks stagnent - and cant say it will come back if the new revenue streams produce more money. Even the Windows 8 version might just be a cut down arcade game like the other mobile apps. If they stop there then so what - I have First Eagles 2 that hasn't had a patch in years - but its a stable game and you can just add mods to it without the fear of having to lose those mods when you need to upgrade to another patch. I think I'm running SF2V with the Gold mod add on and my own mods at about April 2012 so I get populated Carrier decks and carrier groups and it seems to be okay - even though I don't like some of the later changes that were made. SF2/E/I are at Nov 2011 which was a stable patch - and SF2NA is merged with another SF2E at the latest patch. So the positive thing about SF2V not being developed (if thats the case) is you can add all the mods you like to the game and not have to worry about the next patch breaking everything.

Seem to be a lot of Gazelles in service still (well according to wiki) - you wouldn't feel too great flying at those guys in a flying greenhouse at 90 kts. But as you say the forces should have a bit more protection! The news is showing Rafale and Mirage 2000D footage also

A-G http://www.simhq.com/_air/air_055a.html A-A http://www.simhq.com/_air/air_061a.html F-14/15 radars and general manual http://www.thirdwire.com/man/sf2/Strike_Fighters_2.htm Knowledge Base http://combatace.com/forum/268-thirdwire-strike-fighters-2-series-knowledge-base/ Keys layout http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB3w/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6892 F-4/F-15A radar and Vector RWR tutorial http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB3w/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2343

And this time its a Ford: http://www.naval-technology.com/news/newsus-navy-name-third-ford-class-aircraft-carrier-enterprise

Happy Birthday Samuel - enjoy

How could they! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20997144