Ludwig

Colonel Kidd of the 6th Michigan giving his opinions on the 1863+ exploits of the Michigan Cavalry. He has pretty high impressions of Custer and Sheridan. Seems to think that Stewart and Fitzhugh Lee were overrated. <snort> Gunther was a hoot. I loved seeing him here in DFW when he came through which was fairly often. I loved his rendition of Hartmann trying on Hitler's hat while they were waiting to be brought into the luncheon. He was a crack-up.

You wouldn't want the Honda Jet.... MASSIVE disappointment. The Phenom 100 is considerably better in the same class. I have had a dozen HJ pilots come through and to a man they were very pleased to put it behind them. I thought the HJ would be a kickass platform.... Honda just doesn't do bad things. Well.... back to cars and bikes.

yeah the tutorial helped me... I wish i had watched it a lot sooner. My old Track IR was messing up... wouldn't stay calibrated.. and seemed to go batwhack just when I was ready to shoot.... ohoooo that made me mad. SO... screw it.. I bought a new one. I got 15 years out of the first one... and THEN I saw the tutorial. You know... the part about flashing lights... I moved my FUNHOUSE pinball table into the game room and it was directly across from the flight sim. Well.... turn off the pinball table and the old Track IR worked like new. @#$@#.... and the new one arrived the next day. SO... I have a spare for someday when it really does crap out.

Snaggle just found this one for me and the F-16 as I need a throttle that is correct. https://fox2.wwsimstore.com/STORE I think a very reasonable price, and will probably be copied/improved by someone in the near future.... so buy the reasonable one now... and then when the better more expensive one comes out.... heh heh heh.... here we go again.... (Fortunately... it is out of stock... so I don't have to make a decision)

is this a monitor or a TV used as a monitor? I hear good things both ways

The same thing with the Mustang and the P-47. Mustang looked great, but the P-47 would out turn it. Hellcat is just murder. I am REALLY wondering WHO is going to want to fly the Japanese side against the Hellcats. You have the wonderful maneuvering airplane... it just OOOoooooozed maneuverability.... but no one would turn with you... just helpless. Not too far from the Dr.I.... you can't catch a cold with that thing...but it turned so tight. Think back to being buzz-killed by Spad VIIs and there was nothing you could do about it. Welcome to the Zero. (yeah I know about all of the variants, the later model fighters from other manufacturers.... Hellcat. Game over.) 19-1 ???

I use the Virpil with the deck mounted stick and the first time I moved it, it felt so much like the real thing that I was really blown away.

Since this is the beginning of a new year and everyone is making predictions and resolutions I thought i would call on the collective talent here since you guys pay attention to this so much more than I do.... what do you think the future (say 1 year) is going to have on TVs and computer Monitors??? I am wondering about both.... one of those MONSTER 83"+ TVs so I can see the puck during the hockey game all the way from the couch and new computer monitors... is anything new coming down the path? I see the prices going all over on the BIG screen tvs... seems they come out and the prices go down without too much time going by... but that is just a general observation from walking in SAMs Wholesale or Costcos since they are always right up front. I see around $2,100 for the top models they offer. So... what would be the features to require and to avoid? For computer monitors... they pretty much seem to be what we had a year ago is still going strong. The curved screen looked interesting but I don't see that it caught on very much... and I don't see them getting any bigger with the same performance that we already have now. Let me hear what you think.... and THANKS in advance. LL

Tripped over this one today. Saw a few old friends in there. A buddy of mine at work was a C-21 IP and the USAF FINALLY just let it go. The sim moved out for one of ours (largest motion simulator facility in the world) and he was recruited into our program. There was a Happy Hooligans MANG C-21 in there that brought back memories. The He-111... probably Hispano Suiza but you never know (wishful thinking) but the thing about that machine is the chord of the wing is ENORMOUS!. You walk underneath the wing and it just keeps going and getting lower and you realize that this was a bad idea because you will have to crawl on your hands and knees to get out from the trailing edge. I have never seen another plane with that ratio of chord to wingspan. T-6 gives me a headache... but you had to get through that to get to the Mustang. Loud, slow, uncomfortable... but those are the traits that got me the time in it because the new owners got tired of it really fast.

Really nice stuff. Seemed to me... to be out of order. The Awards ceremony was with him still wearing the white cloth bandage but the earlier clips he was wearing the string bandage which was the last of them. After he was wounded he was not the same man, it showed in his writing and in the reports of the pilots and staff around him. Easily understood. The clock was ticking and it was a race to see if he would survive or not. That would be tough to face every day, particularly when so many people looked to you to decide and lead.

HAH! 300' takeoff roll.

Thanks guys, that nailed it.

OK, been through a lot of videos about mapping the TRACKIR centering command onto my throttle in DCS but not getting a clear answer. Anyone please point me in the correct direction. Thanks

Was ist den Los?? Wo ist Hauptman Ludwig?

I've got it, all the German fighters. I would really enjoy being there with you guys. Save me a seat I will escape eventually.

I bet I can guess your kind of CHEESE..... I need to get free of work so I can go with you Klaiber.

PS... I know.. I know... watch the roll rate on the 109.... it is WAY faster than what you get in BoS. Shame on them... debilitating a fine machine.

Watching as I am typing... lets see who noticed... what was the difference between the 109 #1 and #2 take off... did anyone else notice? 5:12 (large amount of whiskey involved here... it could be just me but these things bug me.) Also can tell you if I had pulled a stunt in the 190 with the gear up 5' off the runway... the owners would have thanked me and said don't ever come back..... period. You just don't do that stuff. I have watched how many WW II vintage airplanes turned into scrap metal since 1981 doing that stuff. Yeah, I did stupid stuff too but I am old and out of the game now so I get to bitch.

wish the devs would take note of this video as to how easy the aircraft handle on the ground. It is just NOT that difficult. YES you need to pay attention, and have some pedal time... but once you have that it is not nearly what you experience in the sims. I have NO idea why they make it that way. Could be too hard to correct? Could be they want to make it difficult to make it more accurate (??) I have no clue, but it has been not even close in any flight sim I am familiar with in the last 25 years.

WELL... I am stunned.... BLOWN away. I got the Vol. 2 of the above book on Inside The Victories of MvR today and just got home from a long day playing pilot and I had no idea what I was in for in the form of this second book. I TOTALLY bought into the theme that the family of MvR set up his trophies and collections in the family home and was opened as a museum to the public in 1933. It stood there until the Russians came through Schweidnitz and everything was looted and gone forever. I could never understand how that could happen. Sure, wartime, gasoline, securing vehicles... but surely they could have packed up SOME of these things and saved them. But... I never heard or saw anything about them. Even with the advent of the mighty internet I thought SURELY someone would stash away something and it would appear... but Nope. Well... cancel that. The Potsdam treaty after the war gave some of Germany to Poland and the home of MvR was Schweidnitz which became Swidnica Poland. The houses were still there last time I looked, but the stone memorial across the street was there but unattended and the memorial plaque was LONG gone. It seems the Poles had no favor to show towards the family or the memories. Probably kicking themselves now because they would have made money off the tourists. Anyway... it's late I will cut to the chase. Yes... the trophies exist, the cups, and who knows what else. Uniform parts, medals, no telling what all... because it seems that the story was a hoax. When it was obvious that the Russians were going to be occupying the area "the fat one" Goring himself saw to it that vehicles and help were provided to move out the materials from the museum. It seems that the family has been selling off the pieces to very private collections for more than 50 years now and pieces and parts continue to resurface. Some of the most recent pictures of these pieces are from 2008. There are several pictures of smiling collectors holding the miniature silver cups (described as a shot glass) that MvR awarded himself and the double-sized cup for the 10th, 20th, 30th, etc. They confirm that after 60, the tradition stopped for whatever reason. The popular myth (I will never trust one again) being that Germany was too short on silver and the other argument being that Manfred just got sick of it. I believe the latter. Reading his book in German was different than the English translation was to me anyway... and you could sense his frustration and attitude that he knew death was waiting for him and not far away. One picture shows both Manfred's and Lothar's Ehrenbechers being held in one pair of hands.... incredible NO date... so I can't say with any authenticity of when the picture was taken. The author states that eight of the small cups were known to be in the USA as of 2008 and that the reason the Baroness went along with the ruse was to prevent every collector and faker hounding the family. The items from Hawker are incredible. His bible removed from his body, his scarf, other pieces were known to have survived and are in the hands of private collectors. Images (color) from as recent as 2013 of the 10th and 11th (10th was Hawker) cups. It says that the bible or scarf or both were sold by the family to collector that owned the cup. It is going to take a long time to sift through this.... but I honestly had no idea about this. If you guys knew about this... you are way ahead of me but I had never, ever seen so much as a picture of one of the actual cups. Turns out that they were simply silver shot glasses from the local silversmith and the shop owner added the date at the request of Manfred. It does go on to say that when Manfred stopped, Lothar kept going and expanded things. From what I remember reading, Lothar was the real killer. Maybe because he came along later with better planes, but he really cut a swath through the history books.

Elmers Glue.... just don't get it wet.

I wonder about the translation, I had the German version and it should still be in the boxes but I have snooped most of them and can't find it. There was a table at the back of the book that listed the information but after looking at this book (above) it is incredible how much detail was apparently out there and just needed to be compiled. It has pretty much everything short of what they had for breakfast that morning. Thanks for the links.

I got this one and just ordered Vol. 2 because of the questions earlier about aircraft damage. I had a copy of the Rote Kampflieger in my library and I really thought that it had the list I referenced but I can't find it now. I was amazed at the number of aircraft that it listed as burned, well more than half and I took that to be the case. This book however has to be the definitive version because the amount of information is crazy. Doesn't mean that it is 100% accurate, but I would have to think that it is closer than anything else I have seen to date. It tells you pretty much everything about the day, the aircraft, serial number, pilot name age rank it just goes on and on. He is quoting MvR from his account on every one it seems. From a cursory look, I only saw one mention of a victim burning on the way down.

The game is cheap.... it's the new VR Helmet, computer and collective/cyclic that are going to be ugly. I'm a prude, have to setup separate from the fixed wing sim.