Ludwig

I am using the Thrustmaster F-16 stick on the REALSIMULATOR Lightning base (hall sensors) The stick feels EXACTLY the same as that in the jet.

WOW... talk about an endorsement.... even I had no problems. What does that tell you? There were a couple of things... it would not map the keys initially but as soon as I looked online for help the first thing I saw was that DCS didn't always like the timing setting (forget the proper term) and I increased it one step and everything worked perfectly after that. I didn't anticipate using my Virpil throttle for the buttons.... but HEY... they all work as well. NO shortage of buttons. Mounting is screwy because they totally missed.... or didn't miss would be more accurate. The framework that supports the detent guide covers up the mounting holes. DOH! So I am thinking I am going to use magnets and lock it down that way and can still easily change it out to/from the primary position. Definitely quality gear and I am very pleased with it. The switches alone show the difference between Radio Shack and aircraft grade quality.

Yeah.... no more hydraulics though. All electric now. Our electric bill is over $600,000 a month. I usually change the weather to 0/0 when I reposition on the ground because it really screws up some folks.

I have to be the malcontent. I don't like it. The ultimate will be a dome projection which I still think is the best I have experienced.

Yes indeed they do... but the funny on the P-38 is the "critical engine" (a million jokes right there) is the down-swinging blade of the prop is OUT board. In the case of both engines turning the same direction, that engine would be considered the critical engine because of the change of AoA with climb compared to the upswinging blade. But if they BOTH turn outboard... then they are BOTH critical... they had the correct idea..... and it DID work.... read the stories about P-38 pilots that would get a hot Zeke in on them and they would go into a climbing left turn and maintain it until the Zeke stalled out. Couldn't match it with the torque of the single engine making the difference. The definition of Critical Engine is: "The failure of the engine that would most impact negatively the performance of the aircraft." They had the right idea, but they were both WRONG. The old.... "you only had ONE job...." gag. I actually had some hoonyock once look up in Wikil and tell me that it CLEARLY stated the most critical engine was the LEFT engine. I about fell out of my chair laughing. These guys take themselves SO seriously.

I see guys getting started (zero time) in their 50's. You have to realize that the aviation industry is EXPLODING as in ANYONE with an airplane is making money. These people are DESPERATE. Good grief, not only did they give ENVOY the highest pay scale among AMR non-AA (f/0 +6% Capt. +10%) but if you do NOT have an offer from AA in FIVE (5) years, then you go to MAX pay at Envoy as in 20 year pay. That's insane, but also a way to keep older guys that don't want to transition to the main carrier and start all over (it's a load, I was an instructor on the MD-80 for AA) Not hard to find this stuff: Airline Training Programs™ / ATP Flight School Industry-Transforming pay for Envoy pilots | Envoy Air

Looking at how clean the overall machine is.... sure that is glossy and is faster..... eeeeewwwww...... speed..... I have some time off.... (yay) I will look in the library (it is almost accessible now) and see if I have anything on this machine. I have read some fascinating articles about researchers studying black/white images and determining the colors from them and WOW what a science that is. I NEVER see what they are talking about, a totally different universe.

Hey Vonrd.... we are parked in the same hangar mate.... NO real help for you there.... but if you have the basics.... yessir.... they would stick your butt in a corporate jet and pay you handsomely. Commercial/Instrument/Multi-engine... they want to talk with you. Shadepiece.... A buddy of mine (Airbus Captain AA) took his son out and did the demo flight in a 172. The deal was $120,000 for training.... from ZERO to HERO.... exactly as has been described to us. That money goes to YOU to pay for your training. IF you have the PPL already, they knock $20,000 off the cost of your training. If you do not want the MEI (only need it if you were going to open a flight school and teach Multi-engine.) they knock off another $4,000 Talk with them, they will be happy to hear from you (believe me) The jobs are EVERYWHERE... they even want my old lardass. NOT DOING IT.... I played out all my rope a LONG time ago. I will watch the yougsters make all the dough. Cadet Program | Envoy Air

If you can get a medical, ENVOY will pay you to train and go from ZERO hours. IF you have your PPL it's worth $20,000 of the upfront money straight to your pocket, if you don't want the MEI that is another $4,000 Send them your information and let them explain it to you. Uhh... believe me.... they want you.

Looks like the props are turning backwards.

I am surprised that someone didn't hop on this sooner.... but I suppose they did and just didn't have a lot of press. I had never heard of these... but imrpressive stuff.

Yes 135 has the 1500 hour rule but also correct they are finding ways around it. The companies are taking pilots with 1200 (old school) not sure how that works but I hear the word waiver bandied about a lot. FlexJet is sticking to it, I just trained a girl that had 1200 and I asked her why she wasn't appying and she said she put in to Flex and they immediately said No. I was surprised and she sheepishly told me the next day (because I gave her the old "Make them say NO" speech.... Flex called her the next day and said... WAIT.... when you get 1500 call us. Intersectional politics in hiring is alive and well and she will be snapped up in heartbeat. My record for checking out low time pilots is a girl from Houston that had 168 hours TOTAL TIME and she is type rated (crew) PIC in the jet (which her boyfriend owns) She wanted to start logging PIC.

GOOD GRIEF.... the dam has burst.... Spitfire cockpit, Bf-109 cockpit, Mosquito cockpit.... there goes your life savings........

yeah in the late 70's into the 80's there were about 200 guys for every job opening. If you wanted to make it you just had to shut up and do it. If you didn't want to... that was fine there were 199 behind you that would be happy to take your place. Training contracts are still out there, a great many of them can't be enforced and others are quite proud of their record of attaching the costs of training and getting it back if someone leaves early. It is a whole different world now, I never thought I would hear the things I hear today. We flew because it was the only thing we wanted out of life... and today I hear "If I could make this much money doing something else I would, I am only here for the money."

FWIW, I had a 25 year old guy with 588 hours TOTAL time. He was hired to sit right seat on a Phenom 100 (EMB-500) he is not a required crewmember because the owner operator is Single pilot typed so anyone can sit in the right seat. No medical, no license... i.e. a paying passenger. They are paying him $100,000 a year. He will log time (don't ask don't tell) and improve his skills and time and then be in position to get get typed in the jet in the future. EVERYONE with an airplane is making money right now. IT has to be seen to be believed. A friend of mine went and got his G-650 type ($100,000 type rating) and he is making $8,000 a day and that is NOT the top pay. Captains flying the Phenom 300 are making $2,000 a day contract flying. AMR ENCORE is paying $120,000 sign on for someone with NO license at all... go from ZERO to HERO in 4 years using that bonus to pay for your training. If you already have a PPL they knock off a big chunk of cash... I THINK it is $20,000.... if you have the MEI they knock off another $4,000 This will not last forever... and the guys in it right now are .... well... a lot of them are acting like this will be the way it will be and better. Nope.... it is cyclic and it will come back down... but right now.... it is a gold strike.

No, I have not tried anything yet. I remember that one of these sims you had to delete the files in an upgrade folder or something similar to that. I will try to see where these files are and the status. Thanks for the help.

Well right now I can't even get DCS to run.... it brings up the little window and I sign in and it goes to a black screen and no further. Locks up the computer and I have to crash it to get it out. I did get the latest update about 2 days ago unless something has happened since then.

Man.... I never had any of the guys on my side do that stuff. I always get the one with 7 acts of cowardice. Snaggle and I played "Bridge Too Far" campaign from start to finish Multiplayer and it connected flawlessly and ran smooth, I don't recall ever have a problem with it and that was back with the magnificent 28,800 baud modem. I remember when the vehicles had the "Bee dance" bug... but they got that solved. They can keep making them, I will get them. I should think North Afrika would be next. I thought I read once that they were looking at doing the Pacific, that would be a hoot. The way things are making a comeback..... Tamiya has begun re-releasing the 1/12 scale Formula One cars from the 70's and 80's and OH MY! the prices.... YeeeeEEEEEEOUCH ! Beautiful kits are magnificent race cars. Italeri got in on it as well with the Rennault Re-20 turbo. The detail is incredible.

About 9 or 10 days depending on the international date line... I ordered and received (today Tuesday 28th) the F-16 TQS. Not bad from China in that amount of time. First look, opening the box.... really nice stuff. WELL MADE and from quality materials. Not ALL metal, but no plastic. Rock solid. All I have to do now.... is put it together. OH BOY..... watch the video.....

I played the "Bloody First" which I was looking forward to because it was a new one.... but unfortunately, it is the 3D version of this series and the GUI was painful. They had the right idea.... but should have left it alone and stuck with the original format. Someone should take all the hard work that they did with this version and change it back to the original. I know... akin to changing a Honda to a Subaru.... but a shame for it to go to waste. I would call this one pretty much unplayable. The rest of them in the new format including the NEW TACTICS are all good. That NEW TACTICS or MODERN TACTICS... I forget.... that moves at a FAST pace... things are popping around you so fast it is really hard to keep up. Firepower/lethality in this is SO much greater, it reflects it. You go to move a unit and it's already gone. Someone is going to do this on Ukraine.... one of these days and it will be really interesting. You know... that those crazy guys over there are still shipping models. I am really impressed that they are hanging on and hanging in. I get DORA WINGS and ICM models and I cut off the postage labels and put them inside the box with the date and Kiev stamped on them.

That story on the F-86 being pushed was in the TimeLife series of books. The reason I became a pilot was my neighbor after we moved to a new house was Col. Harry Lester and he flew the F-86 in Korea and successfully ejected through his canopy and survived. His flight helmet was in the Wright Patterson museum back in the 60's. He gave me his resin model of his F-86 and the rest was history. I was about 6 at the time and never looked back.

Good for you! I really enjoy the system and don't mind beating up on the AI. The new one I had never heard of "Modern Tactics" is HUGE. The map is probably DOUBLE teh size of the normal maps. It goes FAST. Everything has misslies, airsupport, off board artillery, Seen a lot of modern Soviet armor, you can load and unload troops and probably towed weapons but have not seen that yet.... but the HUGE map.... was not ready for that.

Trivia: CLOSE COMBAT was one of the first Microsoft games that REQUIRED WINDOWS to be played. I *REALLY* wanted this one because it was akin to Avalon Hill "Squad Leader" for those of you over the age of 50. So they have made several games from supporting companies, independent companies (ATOMIC Games comes to mind?) but after about 4 or 5 of them it went dormant for a lot of years. Then when everything became DLC they popped up again with some new games on the same format. SO... STEAM has the whole kit and kaboodle on sale. It was $259.00 for a long time and I thought about getting it, but I had a couple of the games already and that soured the idea. SO today out of boredom killing time before work I checked again to see what I might get singly and there it was 85% off... and I got all the games I was missing for the price of one. This is a most excellent system and is easy to learn, GUI is intuitive and the part that separates it from the rest... is one.... it is not turn based... this is on the fly commanding. Two, it is morale based so if you don't have leaders, or expect these guys to fight to the death they will give you the #$% and leave. Does an EXCELLENT job of frustrating the #$% out of you and uses real LOS and does a reasonable job on the side of the AI. Snaggle and I played this back in the early 90s and enjoyed it a great deal. So if you like infantry armor squad level tactics this is a really good deal. I got the four games I did NOT have for $45.00 (PS I had to install WINDOWS on my 486 Dx33 to play the original and give up DOS... a decision I still question.)

I had a girlfriend that was heavy into that ... feng shui the whole thing. She would put her crystals out under a full moon to "recharge" them. It was challenging.... but she was LOADED.

Got the tracking number so 2 days from order to ship is pretty good and they are using FedEx.