Salute To Bg

[Pooka]

~S~

Thany you BG for inviting me to join the Danger Dogz many years ago, and thank you for showing me that friends are really out there of the web.

The trip to London, Duxford, all those Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and Sundays we wasted together, I would do it all over again.

We'll carry on mate, but it won't be the same.

Pooka

[Jabo]

~S~ Jim, like Pooka, I want to thank you for press-ganging me into the DDz - I still have that shilling somewhere. I little thought that the group of reprobates I met in the Red Lion four years ago would become some of my closest friends and constant source of good-natured banter and welcome support when times get tough. So thank you Jim for putting the DDz together and for letting me be a part of it. As Pooka said, the DDz will carry on but without you at the helm it'll never be quite the same again.

~S~ m8 and here's to blue skies and the song of a Merlin...

Jabo

[Streak]

~S~

I'm still very grateful to have been taken in be such a great bunch of ummmmm.......fellows.

Thanks for always being patient through my nubishness and up till now. I will remain a proud member of the Dogz as long as we're around.

[Painless]

~S~ Sir Jimbo,

Way back in 2005 when we did Joint-Ops intermediate Pilot School together you were a larger than life character. Now you have created a larger than life squad which reaches way beyond the normal bounds of a gaming community.

Here , thanks to your "Canine Creation" I to have found many excellent friends who I am always glad to spend time with in the real world whenever the chance arises.

I personaly owe you a huge debt of gratitude for all the thousands of hours of fun online and the chance to talk to guys who I would never have got to know without the DangerDogz.

Thanks for being all that you are Jimbo, I will always miss you sir !

~S~ Painless

[FoolTrottel]

Salute Jim,

Had someone told me a few years ago, that in a few years, I was gonna go visit the UK for a flight show, and meet up with a bunch o' geezers I would have met via the Internet.... I'd have called him/her ravin' mad...

Me to travel to the UK on me own? Geezers from Internet? No friggin' way! And have blasts of good times there? And be part of a one-in-a-million group that meets online multiple times a week?

Oh no, but, yes, there was you Jim, you kindly invited me to join the DD's... (or was it 'dragged me in to ... ' ... 'set me up to...' ) ....

Thanks Jim.

What Pooka said... what Jabo said ... It will not be the same...

[Crash]

Thanks for everything Jim, I really wish that I had done the online stuff a lot earlier and by delaying taking the plunge I missed out on a lot. The Dogz has become a way of life for me and I really enjoy the company both online and when we meet up at Duxford.The Il-2 scene will loose a lot when you go, but you have made a big impact and made a lot of people happy. Once again Salute BG.

[BadAim]

When I joined the Danger Dogz I had little inkling that I was headed into some of the hardest times in my life, or that I had joined the group that would play a major part in getting me through it. Through a failed business, bankruptcy and so many times when I thought I just couldn't go on, Jim and the Dogz have been there, and not in just a small way. See, you guys loved me when I hated myself, you were happy to "see" me when I couldn't bear to look in the mirror. I'm a good actor, so most of you guys probably never new any of this, but it's your genuineness that kept my feet on the ground, and my head in the game, so many times when I'd have just rather given up.

This all is in no small measure due to Jim Smith, a man of immense character and a great leader. Men of character attract men of character, and I believe that this is the single biggest reason why the Dogz are such an exceptional group. Few outside our group would understand, but that's OK. They don't need to, we do.

I Love you, Jim. I Love you, Dogz. Thank You.

Chet.

[fruitbat]

I would just like to add to all the above, Thank you so much Jim, for getting me involved in the DangerDogz.

I have made so many good friends from this group that you've created, and like FT, never really imagined meeting up with strange blokes from the internet, but what a pleasure it has been.

It was a privilege to have met you last year, and i really glad that i did.

I have enjoyed the many times we've talked, and you've oft been in my thoughts other the last few months.

The DangerDogz is a legacy most people wouldn't understand, but to us its amazing, a social group spanning continents, which on top of, we get to play a game which we all enjoy.

But for me, i guess the best part is the social aspect. I've likened it to going down the pub with your mates and chatting, but in your own place and flying to boot.

Thank you so much for all you have done, I will miss you Jim,

Kev.

[DD_Fenrir]

From an innocuous Ubizoo post to caterwallin at some drunken fellow geeks in a Cambridge hotel, Jim I hold you entirely responsible!

Thankyou for responding to my tentative questions on SEOW those years back.

Thankyou for your gregarious attitude to the timid interloper.

Thankyou for asking "So when you gonna put 'DD' in front of your name and get rid of theat bloody [bD], Fen?!"

Thankyou for your hours and hours of hosting for all of our pleasure.

Thanks for the laughs and the introduction to a company of fellows whom I feel privileged to know.

Thanks for the endless times I've stayed up a bit too late just shooting the breeze.

Thanks for reminding a cynical young man that there are still gentlemen out there with heart, courage and determination. It's an example I shall endeavour to emulate.

Jim it's been an honour and a pleasure. My warmest and sincerest regards to you, Sir.

Tom

~S!~

[Friar]

Salute Sir,

Like most of the other guys here, it was you that responded to my post in the zoo about wanting to join an on line group, even though you did enquire if I wore green tights with the rest of the merry men!.

You were my first on line line kill, flying where you are still often to be found, low, slow in an Il2 dropping bombs on Russian tanks.."WTF, what are they doing there!" Jim, Jim, Jim......

It was an honour to have you, Helen, Pooka and Joanne visit my home last year.

Cheers

Friar

[Zooly]

I'm pretty hopeless with sentimentality but I too would like to thank you for the hosting over the past few years and the fun and games but above all I would like say that I'll miss you BG and I feel that I am a better person for knowing you sir.

I think what you have here are some of the best people I have the honour of knowing and without a doubt THIS is your legacy (albeit a virtual one), a ragtag group of people with the love of a flight sim brought together in friendship by a great man.

Salute sir, I will miss you.

[BluBear]

Jim, I've not known you even half as long as some of these other fine gentlemen. But the short time that I have and the banter that we've shared will stay with me. I can still hear your distinctive Scots-Canadian twang now as I type this in silence!

I'll never forget when I first saw a tartan painted spitfire, a man that flys dressed like that deserves the utmost respect indeed!

Thank you for bringing so many of us like minded and equally crazy people together.

The DangerDogz to me, like so many others, is more than just an online flightsim squad, it's a bloody institution.

Blairgowrie, I salute you!

[Sweper]

I´ll quote the message I PM´d Jim nine days ago.

"Hi Jim!

After things calmed down, I got sober again, my headace reduced a bit after 4 days of sorting my pic´s from Duxford, I just want to say thanks you for dragging me in to your fine squadron mate ! What a nice bunch of weird and wonderful chaps i met at Duxford! I really missed you over there Jim. Thanks!

Sven"

[B16Enk]

Salute Jim!

Our Patriarch who has assembled what can only be described as the best family possible, who continue to enjoy the camaraderie on line and offline in person.

I too remember clearly when I was first invited to join the Danger Dogz in a session, and what an honour that was and remains to be today.

My biggest regret is the paucity of time I have had recently (well for bloody ages if truth be told) to enjoy the wonderful gang of lads that we are.

Your selfless hosting, great wit and cracking sense of judgement finding just the right guys has surely resulted in a permanent testimony that epitomises you and your values.

So pleased that I too have had the honour of your company, and that of Helen's, and you are often in our thoughts and that of the kids too.

[delta7]

S Jim

You created a fine group. You opened it up to all and made everyone welcome. There were no airs and graces just good comradeship. Even when I left the group you were always kind and graceous in our correspondance and when talking on air.

I regret missing the chance to see you when you visited Scotland but unfortunatly it wasnt to be, Im sure we would have shared a wee dram and had a good craic.

Heartfelt best wishes from your old country

Dave

[[rgmw]largie]

~S~ Jim

Can't add much more than that that's above, except to say that the Dogz are a credit to you and that I have always been delighted to see the warmth you have extended, equally, to everybody, whether on their first night online, a frequent flyer or when returning after a long layoff. I'm sure that this is what has done so much to build the atmosphere that the Dogz work within.

It was a delight last year to meet you, Helen, and all the other Dogz last year at Duxford and I'm sure that that trip will be carrying on for many years to come,.

Cheers mate.

Dave

[DD_Bongodriver]

This is a great group I got invited to, I hope I get back in the saddle when rl flying calms down a bit, just sad to hear Mr BG won't be with us, my first impressions on one of my first co-ops was he is a kind sounding man, warm and welcoming.....I think it was BG who said I had a massive piece of equipment too.....so he won a new friend for life here

Bongo

S

[DD_Arthur]

Well now Jim, if I remember correctly we first ran into each other about four years ago on a Friday night after you posted an open invitation on the Ubizoo boards to attend some coops you were willing to host for the community. I didn't know what coops were then. When I flew online it was dogfight servers on hyperlobby. Talk to strangers over the interweb!? That'll be weird but I bought a cheapy headphone and downloaded teamspeak. At eight o'clock that evening, lo and behold, a voice. A voice with an accent that went bewilderingly from Canadian into lowland Scots. We flew a lot that night. It was great fun. It was more than that, it was brilliant. There was only one call of "twenty seconds!" too. I seem to remember Jedi and Snacko turning up, possibly FT, and a few others who fell by the wayside. From the established Dogz Sid was there and Friar and Badaim too I think. Only found out later you were auditioning with a view to extending the empire!

Then a few months later when I realised that the fun and laughter of a group of pan-Europeans meeting their North American cousins and sharing a common interest could be had several times a week. It just had to be done. The first coop I flew with the Dogz I was wingman in a P38 to Erco whilst Smash flew around us inverted. A professional pilot and a high school kid in middle America, some five thousand miles from where I was sitting in the comfort of my own home. And the evening you managed to get Tail-Drag to fly with us? A real, veteran Hellcat pilot, a veteran of Okinowa. How cool is that?

Jim, for myself it's been four great years of evenings laughing, learning, swearing, drinking, joking. Often crying with laughter. In that time my eldest sons discovered girls and often brought them home to introduce them to their father, often to be found wearing a funny hat and shouting "Break, break!" at his pc. My dear wife; "I knew about the motorbikes and the wandering about at night but where did this thing with 'planes come from?" And of course meeting everyone at Duxford. That was the icing on the cake for me Jim.

So, as Friar would say, 'In the spirit of the Dogz' it's au revoir Jim but not good bye. The sky is blue my friend and the glass is half full.

[Sid]

Jim

I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise for the stupid comments I make after having had only one drink and the completely unnecessary burping after two drinks, whether it be during co-ops or when meeting face to face.........only I'm not going to apologise. I don't need to.

Being one of the Dogz means I can be the real me. Being one of the Dogz allows me to really relax, to chill and enjoy my favourite hobby in the company of friends that accept me as I am. I haven't enjoyed myself so much for years. Thank you for allowing me in.

Your advice and support have helped me and your courage and dogged determination have inspired me. A person's legacy, I really believe, is not measured by what they do - it's measured by how they make you feel when you think of them. I think of you as a gentleman, a comrade and a friend.

~S~

[Jediteo]

One of the greatest virtues of man is the bringing joy to others, and surely the countless hours of fun we have all partaken in is nothing but a reflection of our leader. Salute Jim, for giving us all years of enjoyment and a sense camaraderie.It has indeed been an honour to spend my time with you, and the Dogz. Salute. I can only echo the sentiments stated earlier, you truly are a Good man.

Teodor

[Knight]

~S~ BG - Jim

I know ive been absent from the pound, but ive always been around lurking, im just sorry ive not been around, you helped me out a few times talking about things and i wish i could of done the same, Always enjoyed flying by your side in those co-ops and maybe one day we will again.

Finding things to say is quite hard, but hopefully the thought of us all, thinking of you and wishing you well in everyway possible will bring you some happiness and a little smile to your face

Knight out.

[Stingray]

BG:

Several years ago I posted on the UBI forums looking for some people to fly with, you quickly sent a message... something about beer drinking and sheep... and possibly some flying... and I knew that DD was the place for me. I don't fly much these days, but I know I will pick it up again someday when I have the time. The DD battle of britain that we did a few years ago is probably the best online memory I have (aside from when I was 14 and discovered internet porn), I also fondly recall some of the DD aerobatics practices with MerDog, Bojan, and the rest. I'd like to give my heartfelt thanks for putting your time and energy into giving this pack of strays a home.

~Salute~

Stingray

[DD_Brando]

Dear Jim,

I felt really honoured to be invited into your private air force after my first UbiZoo coop session. I still feel that sense of belonging even though various parts of my family's life have changed and I've had to surface into real life a little too much for comfort. Just as it is for you and Helen too - something we have to do even though it grieves us immensely. In my own clumsy way I just want to say that you are a true fighter, boss; and a real example of how to take it on the chin and keep on keeping on. Thank you for the inspiration. Peace be with you.

Ross

[Rico]

Well, all these years ago I bought this really great game called IL-2 and installed it. I had trouble figuring out where to play it, so I checked the Ubi forums. I was excited to find this thread inviting all comers to join in on weekly Coop missions. Thus did I meet BG and a whole host of amazing people he called friends. For a couple years after that I just had a ton of fun playing mission after mission with a great bunch of guy. As good as I could see everyone was, you really stood out BG. Time after time some one would forget to lock their tail wheel and run into some one else, or they'd stall taking off from the carrier, or who know's what. BG would call "10 seconds!" and the free for all would ensue. What really impressed the hell out of me is how you never seem to get mad. I know you had to be gritting your teeth when start after start, some one would do something silly to hose it up. Plenty of times it was the same person a few times in a row. I could almost sense you grinding your teeth, but you never let it show in your voice or in how you handled it. You'd call the 10-seconds and everyone would laugh and carry on as they engaged each other. I always thought that was such a brilliant way to handle it because no one gets mad, they just have a lot of fast fun out of it. To me, that really said a lot about my friend. It said that you're a guy who doesn't get upset about little things, that you're an intelligent guy who knows how to ensure his friends are having fun, and more than anything, it says that you're a guy who truly cares for his friends and puts them first.

It's said that a man should be judged by the quality of friends he keeps. I'm not sure it says much about you, old buddy... =) But thanks to a friend like you, I sure look like a complete stud!

I'm sorry now that I had to take a bit of a break, but it's only served to remind me of how extordinary the community is here. Most if not all of us are here because Jim took the time to reach out to us and bring us into the fold. I think the topic speaks for itself. Look at all the friends and look at how much they love you and how completely awesome they think you are. My sister once asked me what I thought success was. This is it, man. You are a complete success in every sense of the word.

I'm very proud to have you as a friend, Jim. God bless you. We all love you.

[PapaBear]

~S~ Jim I have not had the privilege of knowing you for long, but from what I have heard and read you are a truly remarkable man. Thankyou for welcoming me into the DOGZ a few weeks ago, it will be a pleasure to fly with such a fine group of people. Thanks again for starting this online gathering and allowing me to meet some really amazing and friendly people (DOGZ) at duxford this year, it was a weekend to remember.

Kindest regards from the emerald isle.