MigBuster

Issues with CH Manager; well it works okay for me and luckily I had put on BMS & DCS before SF2 because it worked fine in both. SF2 was not recognising any CH commands even though they were listed in default.ini. I had to manually remap them in game, but they have stuck since. Whether they need to be run as admin in win 7 compatibility mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=56&v=-y8PWzXlvYQ

Not aware of anything - will need to do some searching.

Gonna be interesting - I expect Chris Evans to do a good job with the BBC Top Gear - though these guys will still get a big draw.

SF2I for me

ooohhh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqRKzI59eRo

Aircraft including 18 Spitfires and six Hurricanes have flown over south-east England to mark 75 years since the Battle of Britain's "Hardest Day". The event recalled 18 August 1940, when Bromley's Biggin Hill and other South East military bases came under attack from the German Luftwaffe. It became known as the "hardest day" as both sides recorded their greatest loss of aircraft during the battle. with video http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-33966632

Careful Nesher - don't want journos getting ideas for their next F-35 blog

YGBSM http://www.janes.com/article/53660/syria-reportedly-receives-mig-31-interceptors-from-russia The Syrian government has received six MiG-31 'Foxhound' interceptor aircraft from Russia under a deal that was said to have been signed in 2007, a regional media source has reported. The aircraft recently arrived at Mezze Airbase on the outskirts of Damascus, the Turkish BGN News agency reported on 16 August. Syria was reported to have ordered eight MiG-31 combat aircraft as part of a wider defence deal with Russia in 2007. Although this deal was confirmed at the time by the head of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), Alexei Fyodorov, it was later denied by Anatoly Isaykin, director of state arms export bureau Rosoboronexport, who in 2010 described the sale as "a journalistic hoax". Neither the Russian nor the Syrian authorities have so far commented publicly on the reported deliveries. The MiG-31 first entered Soviet service in the early 1980s as a long-range, high-altitude, and high-speed interceptor. Although relatively old, it is still a highly capable platform that features some of the latest sensor and weapons fits. In particular, the MiG-31's NIIP N007 S-800 SBI-16 (RP-31) Zaslon or Zaslon-A electronically scanned phased-array fire-control radar (NATO codename 'Flash Dance') affords it an impressive beyond-visual range capability, enabling it to see airborne targets out to a range of 108 n miles (200 km; 124 miles) in a clutter-free forward sector, or 48 n miles (90 km; 56 miles) to the rear. It is capable of tracking 10 targets and attacking four simultaneously. Coupled with this radar, the MiG-31's R-33 (NATO codename AA-9 'Amos') or R-37 (AA-X-13/AA-13 'Arrow') long-range air-to-air missiles afford it a highly potent beyond-visual range (BVR) air-to-air capability. According to IHS Jane's World Air Forces , Russia has approximately 200 MiG-31s in service that it is currently in the process of upgrading to keep them operational through to the 2030s. With the exception of Russia and now possibly Syria, only Kazakhstan flies the type. COMMENTUntil the arrival of the MiG-31s in Damascus is confirmed, it should be treated with an element of scepticism. With the regime of Bashar al-Assad finding itself increasingly hard-pressed on the ground, it has to be noted that a state-of-the-art high-altitude interceptor is probably of limited use right now. The delivery has been linked to Western proposals for a no-fly buffer zone to be established over Syria, but while the MiG-31s would certainly give NATO planners pause for thought, their small number and single basing location would mean that they would likely be destroyed in the early hours of any alliance effort to establish air dominance over the country ahead of implementing such a no-fly zone.

Although they were not conceived to play this kind of role, F-22 Raptors have emerged as some of the U.S.-led Coalition’s most reliable combat assets in supporting coalition planes during air strikes in Syria and Iraq. At the beginning of July, U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor jets had flown only 204 sorties out of 44,000 launched by the U.S.-lead coalition against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Little more than a month ago, the multirole stealth combat planes deployed to Al Dhafra airbase in the UAE had dropped 270 bombs on targets located in 60 of the 7,900 locations hit by the other aircraft supporting Operation Inherent Resolve. Even though the largest number of air strikes is carried out by other assets, it looks like the role played by the (once troubled) F-22 is pivotal to ensure the safety of the other aircraft involved in the air campaign: the Raptors act as“electronic warfare enabled sensor-rich multi-role aircraft” escorting strike packages into and out of the target area while gathering details about the enemy systems and spreading intelligence to other “networked” assets supporting the mission to improve the overall situational awareness. “We are operating regularly in Iraq and Syria. The F-22’s advanced sensors and low-observable characteristics enable us to operate much closer to non-coalition surface-to-air missiles and fighter aircraft with little risk of detection,” said Lt. Col. J. (name withheld for security reasons) in a recent 380th Air Expeditionary Wing release. “We provide increased situational awareness for other coalition aircraft while simultaneously delivering precision air-to-ground weapons. This allows us to reduce the risk to our forces while mitigating the risk to civilian casualties, one of our highest priorities in this conflict. It is a true multirole aircraft.” In simple words, the F-22 pilot leverage advanced onboard sensors, as the AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array)radar, to collect valuable details about the enemy Order of Battle, then they share the “picture” with attack planes, command and control assets, as well as Airborne Early Warning aircraft, while escorting other manned or unmanned aircraft towards the targets. As happened when they facilitated the retaliatory air strikes conducted by the Royal Jordanian Air Force F-16s after the burning alive of the pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh captured on Dec. 24, 2014. Needless to say, every now and then they can also attack their own targets using Precision Guided Munitions: two 1,000-lb GBU-32 JDAMs (Joint Direct Attack Munitions) or 8 GBU-39 small diameter bombs, “which have been successfully employed against key ISIL targets. [The SDB] is extremely accurate from very long distances and has the lowest collateral damage potential of any weapon in our inventory.” Therefore, although this may not be what the F-22 was conceived for, the U.S.’s premier air superiority fighter is excelling in a new role: making other aircraft more survivable in contested airspaces like Syria and Iraq. http://theaviationist.com/2015/08/15/f-22-kinetic-situational-awareness/

Generally you right click on the shortcut or exe file for a program, then select properties -> Compatibility tab

14th August from Bunyap

Have just finished the latest from Dan Hampton (Ex F-16 Weasel pilot), but this book is about the Weasels over Nam and the Vietnam war in general. It is extremely well researched, as you can imagine he has access to some exceptional sources, so I found this educational despite what is already out there. Also has some relatively easier explanations of the Weasel ECM gear used.

Got as many as you - too long ago! Spent many a year playing this on the Geetar...........

They show two extremely rare privately owned aircraft: the sole flying examples in the world of a Sea Vixen FAW2 (G-CVIX/XP924) flown by Simon Hargreaves out of RNAS Yeovilton and Seafire Mk.XVII (SX336/G-KASX), flown by John Beattie. http://theaviationist.com/2015/08/13/sea-vixen-seafire-air-to-air/

Welcome Alex and hope you enjoy your stay here. We have lots of ex and serving forces members, although not too many journos ( probably not admitting it ). Lots of info and downloads available from the many years gone by to keep you occupied.

Good book on the Misty FACs of Vietnam http://www.amazon.co.uk/Misty-First-Person-Stories-Vietnam/dp/0759652546/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1439490232&sr=1-1&keywords=Misty+F-100

Devblog here: http://devblog.sim155.com/ In hard difficulty level, when you attempt a vertical landing on a pitching, crowded deck, managing your throttle, nozzle position whilst monitoring the windvane you get an idea of just how skilled real life Harrier pilots are. It's tough but that's the point isn't it? Playing with TrackIR or a VR headset should help in this mode so I'll post on this once those features are added.

Have done a new install of 10 - everything appears to work as on 7 so far - touch wood! Was really looking for any performance improvements.

Mudspike have published a preview of CAP2 which it seems is the follow on to the early 90s sim CAP on the Commodore Amiga which was really good for the time. Ok, let’s do a quick experiment. We’ll need a measuring rule, a bucket and (optionally) a towel. I’m going to list some things from a new PC flight sim coming out in 2015 (yes you read that right, this is like ‘Bigfoot Found In Walmart’ breaking news) so let’s set up the experiment: Place the towel on the floor. Position the bucket beneath your lower lip. Here’s the features of this new flight sim: AV-8B Harrier II with 3D clickable cockpit using TrackIR and HOTAS support. Single Player emphasis, with Multiplayer Co-op available, including drop-in play. Dynamic Campaign engine. Flight and Naval Strategic fleet battles. Carrier Ops. Wingmen, Helos, Civilian traffic in shipping lanes. Realistic campaign map set in the Straits of Hormuz using 250,000 sq km satellite imagery and modern graphics. Dynamic Campaign engine. Yes, I just said it again. Ok, now let’s use the ruler and see how much drool just entered that bucket. I’m betting a good couple of inches, so feel free to use the towel now and go rehydrate. We haven’t had the chance to get our hands on this title as yet, but Sim155 reached out to Mudspike and we set up this short Q&A to see what’s up: Q1. What’s the balance between single and multiplayer content in CAP2? Is this primarily a Multiplayer game? I’d say it is 50-50. For single player there’s a collection of training missions, single missions then an open ended dynamic campaign. For multiplayer there’s quick start dogfight, fleet defense/attack and fleet vs fleet. In addition any player in a campaign can invite players to join in a mission and take the place of AI controlled wingmen. Q2. What’s a good comparative title for CAP2, it seems similar to Gaijin’s Apache Air Assault – is that a fair comparison in terms of sim fidelity and gameplay? Fun and action more than hardcore simulation? I’d say we lean more towards a simulation than AAS. CAP2 has a strategic element in campaign mode which I don’t think you’ll find in many titles. Q3. I’m old enough to have played Combat Air Patrol on the Amiga 500 (great game btw), what would be the main advances Ed and the team have been able to feature in CAP2 on today’s more powerful hardware? Glad you liked it! With CAP I developed a 3D engine in 68k assembler as we didn’t have GPU’s. With a CPU running just over 7Mhz you could see the impact of just a few extra polygons. Now we’re pushing millions of polygons per frame we can draw pretty much anything we want. Terrain in CAP was limited to a few blue water polygons, CAP2 has over 250,000sq km of geo accurate terrain. Shaders allow us to render complex atmospheric lighting, water, shadows and post process effects. Reference material is one of the biggest differences between developing CAP2 vs CAP. Back in the 90’s I wrote to the DoD asking for material on CVN-71 and actually received info & pictures a few weeks later. Today you’ve got a thousand images/movies/schematics available in seconds so things have changed massively. Thanks to Ed and the Sim155 team for taking the time to answer our questions. We can’t wait to find out more, especially on the dynamic campaign side. For those that loved the gameplay fun of Strike Fighters and IL-2, this looks like a really nice ‘fidelity middle ground’ with a mix of tactical fleets mixed in. Awesome. More here http://www.mudspike.com/combat-air-patrol-2-preview-interview/