Leaderboard

One of boredom and one of my life long Christmas gift.

They're ex-Hungarian airforce. It's on the edge of what was Papa airbase in the north-west of the country. The base itself was closed, malleted and then rebuilt years ago as a staging post for USAF Globemasters. Mr. Local farmer got most of his land back that had been confiscated during the communist period but with the added 'gift' of the unwanted residue of their ex-soviet clunkers. They're parked just off the remains of a taxiway to nowhere.

£12 grand for that wreck? Sounds like someone doesn't want the expense of scrapping the thing I'm more intrigued by the aircraft behind the Mig, two wheel main gear? About the only thing I can think of like that is the Viggen

Dear Friends, New player controllable aircraft or vehicles aren’t ready yet, but we have decided to release the update 4.504 that improves many aspects of the sim. The main feature of this update is the increased visual detail of the landscape at close distances, which is a graphics option. It makes the terrain bumps and unevenness, that were previously only calculated in physics, to be visible. Overall, this improvement makes the vehicle and aircraft movement on the ground look much better and natural. The second main feature is a nearly complete overhaul of the sound volume balance in the aircraft cockpits which was done with the help of pilots that have experience flying similar aircraft, resulting in a more realistic sound environment in the cockpit. There are many other important changes as well, for instance, many graphical effects were improved like large structural fires in cities and more detailed tank cannon fire effects. Even the grass now bends when you fire the tank main gun! The full changelist follows: Main features 1. The terrain bumps that were previously only in the physics are now visible at a short distance, resulting in a much better visual look of the wheeled and tracked vehicles and planes on the ground movement. The detail of this visualization can be adjusted or completely disabled and works at ‘Medium’ or better graphics settings preset; 2. The movement of all simplified ground vehicles (cars and tracked vehicles) also looks more realistic since the benefit from the new tech as well; 3. Tanks transmission modeling was made more detailed, increasing their maximum climb angle; 4. New RAF paint scheme added for P-39L-1 by Martin =ICDP= Catney; 5. P-39L-1 pilot got a new visual model, animation of removing glasses on the ground and donning an oxygen mask at high altitude. In addition, setting the country of the plane to the UK or USA in the mission file changes the pilot model to UK or USA pilot accordingly; 6. The ram air noise sounds depend on the flight speed, taking into account the position of the pilot's head in the cockpit (in the center, near the side, overboard) and the cockpit canopy state (open or closed). The volume of the ram air noise has been increased, giving more audio cues in a closed cockpit; 7. Airflow noise sound when stalling or at a high-G load has been improved; 8. Stall sound on Yak fighters was adjusted to be more informative at high angles of attack; 9. The volume of other sounds in the cockpit (the noise of the aircraft moving on the ground on the landing gear, the hissing of the flaps and landing gear valves, the background power grid noise, radio communications, etc.) is balanced according to the new volume of the airflow noise. Corrections were made to the sound volume of several engines as well; Tank improvements 10. New motion blur effect improves the look of the player controllable tank tracks if the ‘Cinematic Camera’ option is checked; 11. All Tank Crew module tanks got new gun and machine gun firing effects that depend on the muzzle power. If a gun has a muzzle brake, the effect has a corresponding shape. In addition, firing the main gun temporarily causes the grass nearby to bend down; 12. The "jitter" animation issue of aircraft and tank gunners when the player left the corresponding station has been fixed; 13. The tank turret stays in place when the player switches from the gunsight view to another station and there are no visible enemy targets for AI gunner to engage; 14. When giving an order to other tanks in the platoon only existing tanks are shown in the menu; 15. Only existing ammo types are shown in the commander menu when selecting the ammo for your tank; 16. AI gunners will correctly engage a target when several different targets were assigned by the commander one subsequently; 17. AI will load correct ammo as instructed by the commander; 18. Gunsight zoom on VR devices with canted displays and Parallel Projection mode works correctly; 19. M4A2 visors won’t look too bright in an external view; 20. The remaining .50 cal ammo is shown correctly when the M2 MG installed on the M4A2 tank is in the anti-aircraft firing position; 21. It’s no longer possible to hit the M4A2 turret by pushing the AA MG down and left to the limit when firing; 22. The free T-34/76 STZ (1942) tank turret switches to manual turret traverse when the generator is not working; 23. The free T-34/76 STZ (1942) tank field of view when looking through the gunsight has been fixed; 24. Free T-34/76 STZ (1942) and Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.L tanks have their turret traverse speeds reduced the more they are tilted, just like Tank Crew tanks; 25. SU-122 SPG mass has been corrected according to the latest data found (30900 kg); 26. Commander's machine guns (KV-1s and M4A2) won’t ‘stuck’ when trying to swivel them looking through the sights in VR mode; 27. The graphic effect and sound of a machine gun or tank gun firing won’t stuck when the tank is blown up; 28. In Quick Mission - Duel, tank settings are correctly applied; 29. The 1st and 3rd missions of the "Last Chance" German tank campaign were optimized to be playable on 3.0 GHz processors (without time compression); 30. The vertical adjustment sound of the PT4-7 and PG panoramas (KV-1s, T-34UVZ-43, SU-122 and SU-152) was removed since they can be adjusted along this axis separately; Aircraft improvements 31. Pilot AI won’t dive into the ground after receiving a command to attack a ground target if there is no ammo; 32. Fighter pilot AI won’t open fire too far away in a ‘face to face’ attack; 33. A rare issue that could make an aircraft to levitate above the ground or sink into it up to 1m depth (it happened more frequently on Arras map) and therefore cause damage to it has been fixed; 34. U-2VS wing damage when touching the ground during taxiing has been reduced and the landing gear damping settings have been corrected. Now it is possible to land and take off on an unprepared field with a bit of luck; 35. U-2VS formation and landing lights functioning was corrected; 36. Pe-2 series 87 top turret camera corrected in VR mode; 37. Torn off A-20B bomb bay doors behave in a physically correct way; 38. A-20B bomb bay doors will be torn off during an emergency landing (landing gear up) only if they were opened; 39. A-20B cockpit view won’t shake when the mission starts; 40. P-51D level autopilot won’t turn off by itself at the start of the mission in the air if the fuel tanks are full; 41. Visually inverted MC.202 propeller pitch has been corrected; 42. The P-39L-1 antenna won’t ‘hang’ in the air if the tail section is broken; 43. Audio and visual effects when hitting the outboard cannons and bomb and rocket racks were corrected for IL-2 (all modifications), Bf-109 (all modifications), FW-190 (all modifications) and MC.202; 44. IL-2 mod. 43 gunner and rear fuel tank armor has been corrected; 45. An issue that could cause the aircraft with a repaired wing to move instead of stop when applying the wheel brakes has been fixed; 46. Pe-2 series 87 surface material won’t visually change when moving away from it; 47. A-20 cockpit glass won’t visually change when moving away from it; 48. P-51D-15 spinner was made less shiny; 49. Visual artifacts on the Bf 109 E-7 cockpit glass were eliminated; Other improvements 50. The visual image of the sea surface was improved up close (the blackness on wave crests, shadows shake, reflection and glare when the camera was directed downward very close were corrected); 51. Fixed an issue that caused ships and aircraft on the sea surface to be unaffected by the movement of the waves; 52. Fixed an issue that prevented the submarines from moving when the waves were high; 53. Fixed a rare issue that could display a black screen when switching to F11 free camera; 54. F11 camera movement was made smoother; 55. An incorrect factory building roof in Stalingrad that glowed at night has been corrected; 56. The visibility range of large fires (static effects City_Fire, City_FireSmall, VillageSmoke and their new cyclic versions) has been increased to 100 km; 57. Settlement fire effects in Career, Quick Missions and tank campaigns won’t periodically disappear and reappear or ‘flip’ when you move the camera around them. These effects now illuminate the surroundings as well; 58. Three factory chimney smoke effects for mission creators were added: Chimneystalk_smoke_white, Chimneystalk_smoke_grey, Chimneystalk_smoke_black; 59. The “DummyGroundExpl” explosion effect set in the mission has been restored; 60. Visual mission effects AmmoExplosion and AmmoExplosion_Big have corresponding sounds; 61. House_smoke effect starts correctly, without an overly intense and dark first phase; 62. Сyclic settlement fire effects City_Fire_Loop, City_FireSmall_Loop and VillageSmoke_Loop won’t visibly disappear and reappear or ‘flip’ when you move the camera around them, greatly simplifying their use by mission designers and reducing the resulting performance impact; 63. German and French translations of Last Chance, Breaking Point and Wind of Fury campaigns were corrected.

Santa has already been though. Happy christmas to me from me. lol

Meeting The Backroom Boys - #2 It has been pretty quiet around the Chapel over the last few days, I think that a lot of the pilots must have gone home for Christmas, so as there were no souls in need of my spiritual guidance (I would guess that they were all probably letting the “spirit” guide them now anyway!) I decided to take another trip up to the airfield to see who was about. I jumped into the Jeep I have on permanent loan from the Car Pool, the Priory’s work can keep me out pretty late and the taxi service around here is virtually non-existent. (Some of the Cab Companies won’t even come to some of the venues I find myself in! Doing the Priory’s work certainly can be tiring at times.) and headed off to the Airfield. The short drive takes me across the town square, down to the junction with the main road. Looking over to my right I see that the “Downed Pilot” seems fairly quiet today also (note to self….good time to go and see Brenda me thinks). Anyway, I turn left on to the main road and head up to the airfield. Driving around here is not the safest of occupations let me tell you. The American chaps will insist on driving on the wrong side of the road, the Brits are fine, we all understand which the correct side is. No matter how many times we discuss it with them, they still insist on doing it (now please forgive this impression but you will have to go with me a bit on this one, stand up straight, chest out, salute and bark out loud as if on the parade square, “Our Way, The Right Way, The American Way”). I understand that they did try an experiment to drive on the correct side of the road once in one of the Southern States, although only doing large sixteen wheel trucks first was never going to work in my opinion. Driving onto the Airfield, it all looks pretty quiet; I can see a few of the planes have been parked up for the Christmas period. I can see old Llocky working on my beat up FW190. I must pop over and say thank you. If it wasn’t for him I don’t think that I would get much flying time in at all. I noticed a Jeep parked outside the Control Tower and a light on at the top, I guess ATC must be operational. I decided to drive over and go and see who was about. I knocked on the Control Room door and went in. I have never ventured to this nerve centre of the airfield before. I was not sure what to expect, although I don’t think I could have ever been ready for the sight that befell me. Sitting behind an arc of screens was a man dressed in a Hawaiian T-shirt (loud colours and jazzy patterns), a red and blue striped tank top (sleeveless pullover), tan coloured, knee length shorts, socks and sandals. His hair was black and shiny (possibly gelled/greased/oiled), with a neat parting down the middle. “Hello” I called out, slightly apologetic, trying to get his attention. He looked up a bit startled. His attention was then immediately transferred back to a screen on his desk. “Victor One Nine Six Whisky Lima, please be advised that normal approach is required for runway Two Zero Zero”. Just at that point a Spitfire in the markings of the Royal Canadian Air Force came flashing past the Control Tower, wing tip smoke on and inverted. The Controller looked up briefly, uttered something about the Provinces and returned his focus to his desk. “Hello” I tried again. This time he raised his head from his desk and looked over in my direction. I was greeted with a thick New York/Bronx accent, “Yea, Wadder ya want? I ain’t here for not for nuffin’ you know!” (Which, I believe went some way to explaining his dress sense) “How do you do” I replied, “Friar, Friar-one is my name”. He came back at me with “Oh it’s you” whilst nodding his head, as if all that had gone before, now made sense. “And you are?” I nervously enquired. He removed the gum that he had been incessantly chewing, stuck it under his desk, stood up and offered out his hand over the top of this screens, “Chuck, err, Charles Stickenoffski”. The formalities at this point, seem quite normal and were running true to protocol, except that Chuck was offering me his hand at approximately two feet to my right. This quite threw me I have to say. A feature of Chuck that had previously gone totally un-noticed by me then struck me like a dull blow with a frying pan to the head. I was standing next to the coat stand and Chuck was wearing the thickest pair of glasses I think that I had ever seen. I moved slightly to my right, took hold of his hand, which re-centred his focus on to me, shook it warmly and said “Pleased to meet you”. “Yea what ever”. He let go and sat back down at his desk. Put his hands behind his head, his feet up onto the desk, and promptly began to topple backwards, just saving himself in time. He stood up, pushed his arm out in front of him, shrugged his shoulders and adjusted his shirt collar, and looked around to make sure that it was only me and him in the room. “So Friar, word on da street is you’re one of da good guys and can be trusted, is dat true?” “Yes, I can be trusted” I replied, (secretly thinking that I may just about to be given some more material for my next publication) “Is there something I can help you with?.” “Yea, first off, call me Fetch, it’s what da bro’ from the hood’ call me”. “Fetch?” I asked. “Yea Chuck Stick….?” “Oh…..” I paused, then got the joke, “Right, Chuck Stick, I see, very good” and did a very silly mime of throwing a stick. Chuck looked at me as though that was not the first time that he had seen that done. I coughed nervously. “So what is it that you would like my help with?” He beckoned me around to his side of the desk, the array of screens certainly looked impressive, Sky Sports, NBC Football, Playboy Channel, Nickelodeon and one small green RADAR screen. He gestured for me to sit down, again looking round over both shoulders to make sure no one else could hear. “You see Friar...” he was interrupted by the crackle of the radio, “Pffft hayhayhay bling-bling-blong haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa broooo haaaaaaaaaaaa Did I tell you about my new girlfriend?” Chuck rolled his eyes, pressed the Push To Talk button on his headset and said (without even asking for a pilot identity) “Psycho, you are clear to land runway Two Zero Zero, Tower out”. Not wanting to be disturbed again he turned off the radio. “Shouldn’t you leave that on” I said whilst nervously pointing to the blips on the RADAR screen. “Naw, they’ll be fine” he replied. “You see Friar” he began again; as he spoke he removed his glasses, leaving his eyes in a squint. He rubbed them and slowly they went back to normal. “I got dis ting for Brenda, you know, the barmaid down at da Downed Pilot”. “Yes, I think I know of her” I replied, not wanting to give too much away. “Well, it’s like this Friar. When I go down there for a drink, and she pulls me a pint of your fine English Bitter,” his face turned skywards and held a wistful expression, “the pint that swirls like the wheat in a golden English meadow, the luscious creamy texture that slowly massages the back of your throat as it slips effortlessly down” Chuck then closed his eyes and slowly licked his lips as if to savour every last drop (that last sentence was sponsored by the British Beer and Brewing Society) she gives me this little wink, and well, I just go weak at da knees. But then when all you fly-boys come in I don’t get a look in. I not sure if she even remembers dat I am there. What can I do to get her to notice me Friar?” “Well” I nervously started, “Well, I have heard that Brenda is a very popular girl and keen to join in with the staff from the airfield, although I must warn you that I think she can turn nasty, a bit violent. I did hear that one of the motor pool mechanics described her as a “slapper” so if you do get close, watch your face.” I rose from the chair and said “Leave it with me and I will see what I can do. It’s been nice meeting you, and perhaps your keep a runway clear just for me when I attempt an approach?” “Friar, the way you come in, I’ll keep the whole friggin’ airfield clear!” I waved good-bye and left the Control room. I climbed back into the Jeep and headed off the airfield and back home. As I drove my thoughts turned to Brenda, well actually two things came to mind when I think of Brenda……Brenda and a pint of Spitfire. © Friar-One January 2007