Ludwig

Last time I saw this stuff they were hitting 300 and I thought it was insane... this is triple insane...

WELL.... this will be taking up my attention for the next few weeks... I just was hired by CAE Parc Aviation SimuFlite in Dallas as an instructor Type check airman on the Phenom 100 and 300 so I have to bag both type ratings and go to work. Amazing software on this thing and a fair amount of thurst. When I pushed up the throttles it really put me back in my chair. It is a hoot to fly.

HEY.. that looks pretty good... WALMART has it for $452.00...... hmmm............ I will be interested to learn how you like this one.

WEll... crap.... I thought that was going to do it... I changed it.... nope... I changed it again in case I did something wrong.... nope. It seems to be a sign-in error.... message says email address or password is incorrect, and to check and make certain that the registration key is activated.

OK.... the new Spit and 109 are out..... and I go to the game and it tells me that I can't sign in (with it saved... and working for weeks) and to check to see if my license has been activated. I go to the website and sign in properly (with it saved, the same way... user/pw ) and check the license key thing... and it clearly says activated ... back to the game.... no bueno.... stumped.... thanks in advance to all those with knowledge of such mysterious inner workings. LL

I see the Spitfire with "invasion stripes" and I have to wonder if that is how it will appear in the game? Really? D-Day invasion stripes ..... ??? Not to mention that those stripes were ordered off the Allied planes within 2 weeks of the landings.... or approximately 6 months before Bodenplatte took place... more specifically... the top side surfaces were ordered repainted... referenced "Thunderbolt From Seversky to Victory" WideWing publications, 1st edition 11/1/94. The author goes on to reference the rarity of the photograph he displayed of a P-47 with the topside markings in place and challenged the reader to find wartime pics of aircraft with them since the envelope is so small. I started looking and was impressed that compared to other pictures, those with topside markings are not common..... and YET.... EVERY airshow seems to show mustangs and others with stripes... I *never* understood the fascination and chalked it up to aircraft owners trying to do something to make their aircraft more attractive.... Dude.... if you are flying a vintage warbird, and no one notices.... stripes ain't gunna help none. Bonus points..... did you know that there was a pilot in Manfred's Jasta named Bodenplatte? I always wondered if there was a connection. OH well.... FWIW..... the history books talk about this GRAND PLAN to support the Ardennes Offensive with this massive buildup of aircraft.... but according to Dolpho Galland he had been hiding away aircraft building up a large force with the intent to attack a bomber stream with totally overwhelming superiority in numbers for the purpose of inflicting enough casualties in a single mission to give the Allied bomber command reason to reconsider their attacks. Remember that Albert Speer was increasing fighter production each month until the very end of the war. Galland never expected to stop the bombing, but he hoped that he could deliver a single punch to the nose of the Allied planners to buy a little time and there fore increase his numbers further. Desperate times called for desperate measures. When it was discovered that these fighters existed, Hitler immediately ordered that they be used in a counter attack which resulted in the operation. It was not well planned nor executed and while destroying a significant number of allied aircraft, it principally only decreased the fighter population and allowed a few more pilots to be captured by American and British forces and possibly avoid being sent to the Russians. Even that failed to work when the USAAF turned over German pilots known to have flown in Russia to the Russian Army who sent them back to mother Russia for years to sit and wait to be released.

I have had 4 or 5 of these in the last week+ something about everyone changing something regarding security.... so someone must have cracked the universal code on something and now everyone is reacting. I have seen it from all types of programs.

Bf-109 G-14 and the Spitfire Mk IX.... I was hoping for one of the others.... but I guess you get what you get....

Well... well.... well...... seems..... just like old times...... and you didn't even let on last night.....

Hi Lipfert, I think we have talked on TS once or twice in the middle of a lot happening on CLoD.... Baron.... THANKS so much, really appreciate it.... fixed it perfectly....everything works as desired. Hook has been getting the 00001 errors.... really goofing him up so I am going to pass along the start from the folder idea and see if it helps him. LL

Doggone it... I remembered that and forgot to put it in ....No... I was a dumbass and bought the BoS from the website, which has caused all kinds of interesting problems.... such as this.

OK... I signed in to BoS a couple of weeks ago... and there was the massive update.... I made it through that OK .... I guess... the game loaded and played. So last night I sign in again... and this time is says I must upgrade my game. Now..... the BIG update happened all by itself.... but this time, no auto upgrade. I snooped around on the net and looked for the proper method, looked in my profile etc for help, so something about a launcher and tried to download 150+ meg something that didn't complete... it was checking my machine for something and never went on. IS there hopefully a painless way to upgrade this thing? thanks in advance, LL

yeah, no kidding... Happy Birthday man.... (kid) 32 is a great age old enough to know better and young enough to still do it.

I really thought that this topic would have been a lot more popular, but with time and tide all things move along and some that should be seen and heard simply are not. April 21 is an important date in history... and easy one to remember for me being a Native Texan because in 1836 Texan forces under the command of Gen. Sam Houston defeated vastly superior numbers of regular Mexican troops at the battle San Jacinto. The murderous coward that was Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna would not be found until the next day hiding among his own troops in the uniform of a private. It is however another event that took place on this day which is the reason for this writing. April 21, 1918 Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen was to fly his last mission of the war. He was shot down and killed famously as I am more than certain everyone reading this already knows well, in the Somme Valley in the pursuit of a Sopwith Camel flown by a new pilot Lt. May while being pursued by Capt. Roy E. Brown also in a Camel. (This is done totally from memory so please forgive any technical errors) Credited with 80 aerial victories, this number has been assailed as has most everything in the last 200 years by "writers" and worse.... "experts" which have studied the subject and force fed their OPINION as fact on the subject. In the end, it doesn't matter. The First World War was an absolutely horrific event... for which their can be no explanation, ever. Wholesale slaughter of human beings most of whom simply died from disease in the trenches or from being in close proximity to so many other diseased humans in camp. Manfred's death, the source of a never ending argument as to who can take credit for his demise was seized upon by Roy Brown claiming that he had brought down the "Red Baron" and then trying to be humble. Why was Manfred's plane painted red? So many have read this subject, studied it... quoted it but did you ever know how it came to be? Because one of the London newspapers offered a bounty to the pilot that brought down this scourge of the Western front's skies. Manfred was so distraught over the personalization of the war to his persona that he immediately instructed his crew to paint his aircraft a bright red so that when he was killed the correct person that killed him would get the credit and the prize. The other pilots of his group were so upset over this that after an ENORMOUS amount of protest, they immediately went out to have their machines painted as well. Initially, the idea was to have them painted red as well but Manfred put a stop to that by forbidding ANY aircraft other than this to be painted red. So... every other garish color that could be found was used... and you of course know the rest. Furthermore, if you built model airplanes as a kid (good for you!) or are still building them (even better for you!) you already know that his aircraft was not completely red. Only the wings were painted red on one of the machines (he flew several in red coloring) and none of them were the high gloss RED that you see at airshows and (gak, even worse) Hollywood. Some aircraft were more red than others and the exact coloring/markings of xxx/17 his final aircraft are unknown though some of the actual aircraft survives to this day. I remember that the crosses were found... someone had saved them as a relic, and I think there was some other fabric Sadly after his glorious career in the air, he ended up dying in the cockpit uttering the final word "kaput" heard by observers who them promptly dragged his lifeless body out of the machine and stripped it leaving his corpse almost naked (no one took his underwear) lying face down in the mud. Souvenirs were pulled from the aircraft itself as well and it was left in probably better condition than Manfred himself. Manfred was not the only Richthofen on that flight that morning, his younger cousin Wolfram was flying his first sortie and when it was reported that "Richthofen" was missing, it was initially thought that it was Wolfram that had not returned. Manfred had the habit of awarding himself a small silver cup each time he achieved and aerial victory. These were kept and displayed at the family home in Silesia (Schweidnitz) which if you go looking for it on the map you won't find it because it is Poland now and has a Polish name. Supposedly, when he reached 60 kills silver was becoming so scarce and expensive that he stopped the practice. Unfortunately the family home was ransacked by Russian soldiers during WW II and nothing remains to this day. I have earnestly followed this story and tried to learn if anything was ever recovered but only rumors exist it would seem. Some items were removed before the house was plundered that survived, but I have never heard of any of the silver cups being located. I attempted to find the home in Poland when I was nearby, but did not make it that far. I also attempted to get to the "pyramid" marking the spot where Hans Joachim Marsaille's body and aircraft crashed, and actually got to within 30 miles before being advised that it was not wise to go any further. Americans not being particularly welcomed in that area. Manfred was not particularly known as a skilled pilot, rather as a dead shot. He was never compared in the skills of flying with the likes of Bolke or Voss but his marksmanship was quite remarkable. Manfred did not achieve his first aerial kill as a pilot, but rather as an observer/gunner on either a recon or bombing mission. Also, he reached out with his left hand to point at something to indicate to his pilot and lost the tip of his finger when it was nipped by the prop. (OUCH!) Sorry...don't remember the aircraft type. SO...actually you can now say that he was responsible for eighty-ONE confirmed aerial kills... but since of the way the rules are.... you know.... Even in death, he was still plagued with attention as his body was removed from the grave where he was buried by British troops at a military cemetery in Bertrangles, with full military honors. When the war ended he was moved to a different military cemetery by the French. A few years after that his younger brother Bolko wanted to bring his remains back to Germany and be buried with his father and brother (Lothar had been killed in a plane crash after the war) but the German government got involved (pre-Hitler) and wanted him to be buried in a State funeral in Berlin at which von Hindenberg himself attended. Well.. that lasted until after the second war and there was a big deal with the current occupying forces of Berlin and he was moved again to a cemetery in Wiesbaden in 1975 where any one that went in and out of the USAF installation there could easily travel and visit the grave (which you can still do) If you have never done so.... for anyone... military or famous or political... it is an interesting feeling that one encounters when standing so close to something that really happened, someone that really lived and died and did all those things that you read about. It makes no sense, but it is your senses that seem to notice it the most. Around the world, I can tell you that on this day every year, pilots sitting somewhere... in hotels on overnights, in a pub, a bar or a saloon will hoist a beverage in his memory. It was not what he wanted, but was thrust upon him. I have read his book in English and in German.... German is better. You get the feel of the man and you can understand his frustration as time goes by as he is writing it. He is a dead man and he knows it. He never fully recovered from the wound he suffered when he was hit, grazed as it were by a bullet from an observers machine gun. He was never the same after that happened and became more bitter and depressed as the days passed. He had already flown multiple prototypes and his first combat ready assigned Fokker D.VII was due to be delivered to him in a matter of days. Think what he could have done with that machine.

I just saw this... what a crack up... how many of those odd albums I had.... Switched on Bach, Court of the Crimson King (that was a REAL shocker) I was surprised I didn't see Michael Oldfield "Tubular Bells" which came out (and I had it) WAY before "The Exorcist" used it for the them to their movie. Hokey smokes... you got sick of it because they played it about every 20 minutes back then. I liked the back side of the album Opus One finale as I heard it on the local rock station and went out and bought the album. I had no idea about the Exorcist thing and I kept hearing the tune... I thought... wow... that album must be getting really popular... it was not until I was forced to go to the movies (hate them) on a date that the movie was ... guess what that I realized what I had been hearing. I think I bought my last "album" back in college in the 70's and it was all Deutsche Grammophon recordings of Mozart, Wagner, Liszt, Beethoven, Handel, Brahms... you know... the long hair guys. I had a couple of friends that were audiophiles and they went absolutely BAT-##$% when "Napster" was in bloom and they tried to download every song ever written/recorded. So, I got anything I wanted from them after that. Oh wow... I just saw that... Al Stewart "Roads to Moscow" I was in my room in highschool and had the radio on working on something... and I heard this song... ok... song... and not paying attention I heard "General Guderian stands at the crest of the hill" and I thought... WTF??? what did I just hear? No way... someone would write a song with that line in it... and I paid attention to the rest of the song.... yup... had to hop in my Fiat 850 Spyder and head to the record store in the mall. I remember the guy at the register said in answer to my querry.... "Al who?"

graphics are nice, but when do you have the time to really notice them? I guess when you are watching the replay.... I am really impressed with Assetto Corsa.... there are many many more tracks and cars than in iRacing... and the only thing that iRacing has going for it is..... online racing. Now that AC has ramped up the online racing into an easy format.... well... it will be product loyalty from here on out... IMHO. Piper vs Cessna, Ford vs Chevy.... it is what you like but the one argument that cannot be ignored is cost. Once you have purchased the game, there is really no reason to spend any more money. I have seen a whopping ONE (1) race in the last month that would have required me to buy a mod car... a hypothetical F-1 Ferrari..... and of course... no one gets anything Ferrari without $$ involved. The question is... why bother? I own the "Porsche Pack" and I have bought a couple of old GT car sets, total investment about $40.00 for 4 sets. I have over 100 cars to chose from and I don't know how many tracks... so many that I have not even driven at least 1/3rd of them.... I would guess 30+ That is just what I have downloaded... didn't pay a penny for ANY of those and there are many many more.... but why bother when I have not even driven all those I have now... much less been able to learn them to produce a decent lap time.

This was my 5th online race and the 3rd on this weekly series on Assetto Corsa which is different than iRacing because it is FREE.... no charge is good ! Any of you interested in getting back in a race car and don't want to have t buy the store each week, this is a great way to go. The racing is getting better FAST... and I think it will rival iRacing very soon. That group has more drivers because it has been around longer, but the number of people signing up on AC... and the fact that you get pick up a race almost any time at no charge is tough to beat. Shaun Cole of SIMPIT is hosting a weekly race series that is using the Porsche Carrera RSR 3.0 and this is week 3. Jake (aka Snaggle) and I have been racing this one and we thought we would put up a video here for you so see the quality of the graphics and racing. Shaun is the host and he will try for about 10 laps to catch a yellow #17 Porsche in front of him while talking and answering questions during the race... he gets quiet when it gets close... Guess who is driving the Yellow #17 car??? yeah... that would be me. I ended up 7th and he took 8th. Have a look, hope you enjoy it.... LOTS of fun... and you can't beat the price. https://youtu.be/OBgHcYzkBkU?t=984

Well folks, this is the best work I have ever seen... CLOD patch in the works, 4.5 can't imagine what 5.0 will be if this is 4.5..... talk about setting the bar high..... amazing stuff This was uploaded today ( Aug 23, 2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJJoVCgZqqs&feature=youtu.be Edited by Brit to embed the most awesome video!

I had an f/o that was a backseater on the blackbird and his stories were really amazing. The distance, the speed, the radius of a turn at 2,000 kts are all crazy stuff so far out of the realm of the rest of aviation and then look back at when the machine was designed and built. What have you done for me lately?

HAH! Butzzell.... I still have 2 copies of Blitzkrieg and they still work! Hey Raz... good to hear from you again... I will 2nd the opinion of the CLOSE COMBAT series mentioned above. Jake/Snaggle/Gordon man of a thousand faces and coffee cups and I went through ALL of the CLOSE COMBAT series in multiplayer back in the ... mmrrmmerrm mummmrrrr well before the turn of the Century when they were new, and enjoyed them a great deal. The new versions are good if not better. I personally completed "Gateway To Caen" and enjoyed it a great deal. We hooked it up at least once multiplayer and it worked...so no worries there. www.MadMinutegames.com is a group that did the American Civil War second Manassas and is simply THE BEST $10 you will ever spend. Get it, enjoy it. When you get good, go to the HITS (Headquarters In The Saddle) and you can see nothing but from your saddle... HAH-HAH.... NOW all those arm chair generals get a dose... because it is MADDENING. You are TOTALLY dependent on what people tell you and hand drawn maps that are of questionable value, add to that Generals that do what they think best (regardless) and you have a complete mess so trot your ol hoss up to the ridge and see for yourself... too bad nothing is happening there... it's all down in the woods. They went on to produce "Scourge of War" Gettysburg which was then followed on with Antietam. If you have ANY interest in this type of REAL TIME simulation with troops that might or might not show up, run away, get lost or charge right into the middle of the wrong place to be... this is a MOST excellent series. ALL good. We have played this one Multi-player and they mean MULTI as in I think up to eight players? I know Jake/Snaggle/Gordon and I were in one with AT LEAST 4 players... may have been six. It worked well. Commands are issued by you clicking until you decide you want to make it more real and then it has a built in courier system which is quite clever. It works... your officers may not. Send a message and tell Ewell to take that hill... "if practicable" and maybe he will. Orders down to the Regimental level and you can command from the Regimental level up to Marse Robert himself if you are so inclined... or the "goggle eyed-snapping turtle" if you like. The SOUND makes it... it puts you right there, nicely done. It works at an increased speed... you didn't REALLY want to fight the ENTIRE 3 days in real time... but it still takes hours if you pull a big one. How big? Well.. from a regimental scrape to the whole magilla. TAKE COMMAND 2nd Manassas for $10 gets you started, Scourge of War is much improved, same basic idea, same folks, but better system and more options. Heck, the battlefield alone on SoW is so accurate it is worth it just to go "walk" the battlefield. I really liked this entire series. OH... Butz.... I sold off my AH, GDW, SPI, et all collection years ago when ATA went bankrupt and we were all out of work (again) but I kept my copy of SPI "CAMPAIGN FOR NORTH AFRIKA" just because it was so ludicrous, I could not let it go.

Was that Danny Sullivan driving that? I remember a "spin and win" a LOT of years ago in the month of May. Nice job giving the yellow guy room and still out running him.

I have recorded some video from CLOD during a session on a multiplayer server. They have the realism set and no outside views. Does this mean that I cannot get outside views when watching the video? None of the commands work when viewing the saved track. Sure would help me out if I could look around and see where the bombs are landing.

I remember that the Kates we had in Harlingen (circa 1981) were a T-6 with a BT-13 tail section. It was pretty clever for 1969. The glass work was pretty amazing as well.

If that is the same Dauntless... it sat on the ramp in Corpus Christi for a few years. No one wanted to fly it because it was slow and unattractive. The CAF would let anyone with a T-6 check out fly it. Then someone finally realized that (at that time) it was the last flying SBD anywhere and they started taking care of it. I hope there are a few more of them around now... they jack up the serial number and restore everything else around it. Back in the early 80's we could not even get someone to give us $50 for a ride in anything, just to help pay for gas. Times sure change.