Thor77

I've visited my first airshow of 4 this season in Maribor, Slovenia. Part one: Civilian aircraft click on the pic to access the gallery

Beautiful video!

I am trying to get my friend on skype but I miss him all the time - he's Russian but lives in USA and he always visits MAKS with VIP tickets - when I finally catch him, I'll let you know.

just got the Press Accreditation :D

The features that resemble the Su-27 are elegant lines, how the spine transforms into fuselage, highly swept wings, big engines at the back between the twin tails, pancake design,... There is clearly a Su-27 spirit in her, but yeah, it is a whole new plane

I remember seeing a tail-less design in the background of one of the videos from some Sukhoi press conference

trust me - those guards have a look that can kill - I saw a guy stepping over the wires and when he met the guards eyes he jumped back as he would just find out he stepped into a minefield :D

just watched the trailer - at 00:24 Hind is firing from the left side of the fuselage; talk about accuracy :D Anyway a good friend of mine and his wife, a news correspondent for countries of ex-Soviet Union were in Georgia during the conflict. She was one day on the border line, during the cease fire, with a group of other journalists. Georgians at one time opened fired on them from their backs - luckily noone got hurt, but imagine who would be blamed, if somone got shot ;) Wars are nasty and there's bad things happening on both sides...

Well I gave you some tips at ARC already (aka Seb) but to answer you this one - if that is the grandstand on the crowd line, then you are some 100-125m away from the runway - assuming crowdline is 50m from the runway... it is also interesting to note that there are no fences at the crowdline - only loudspeaker towers and the wires connecting them, and between each tower an army guard or two...

Thank you for your help, Bodo! If I do find some extra time to start creating some music, I will PM you for sure.

Civil rules are: -IFR - Request start up -VFR - no need to request - inital contact with ATC is usually request for taxi

cool thing is also, if you're flying MP, your teammates will see your active markpoint if you select broadcast to all function

Man I love finding targets of opportunity with my TGP :D

nice stuff I used to play keyboards in a band but lack of time is preventing me any serious musical involvment at the moment... And I'd have to learn how to record drum samples for my work...

As far as I know, UBs are not equipped with them.

Ah, been to Zagreb twice in the last couple of months... And it will be cool to see A380 upclose - I don't visit ILA or LeBourget/Farnborough salons but I keep seeing them overflying us on levels and of course at work on radar screen...

As lots of people here, I am simming for most of my life... I guess my first sim was A.C.E. on ZX Spectrum. IIRC my first sim on the PC was F-19, followed by F-117. In the later years more of them followed like Strike Commander (loved the story), Falcon 3, DI Tornado (LOVE IT), DI Hind, DI EF-2000, TFX, Aces over Europe, Red Baron, Top Gun, US Navy Fighters,... to Il-2 (from beta to 1946 and yeah, lost the girl as well during the best simming times), Flanker 1, 2, LOMAC, Flaming Cliffs 1,2, DCS BS and A10 and Rise of Flight and to top it off, when I don't want to utterly destroy something but just enjoy the true essence of flight, Condoar Soaring Sumlator - glider sim made by my friend nad in my humble opinion, still the best glider sim out there...

I do change it quite often, but this image stays now for quite a while

soosnik: great what if!!! love it! pilotoasso: as Laud said, airbrush in modelling is as TIR in sims - once you get it, you wonder how you managed all that time without it There's a number of things wrong with Zvezda's kit - too wide front part around canopy, engine bulges transformation into spine is not the best, tail stinger is a bit off, shape of engine intakes and main landing gear doors are wrong, front wheel mudguard is missing,... but all these mistakes aside it builds up really nice and without much hassle, and you get a boarding ladder and very nice figures of seated and standing pilots.

On this day, 50 years ago, Castro's forces defeated the CIA-led invasion forces in the Bay of Pigs, Cuba. Sea Fury FB.11 '541' was one of 4 Sea Furies taking part in the fighting and was flown by Lt Douglas Rudd, credited with one B-26 kill in the conflict. The idea to build this aircraft came up, when I was on holiday in Cuba last year and coincidentally stayed at Playa Giron when the 49th anniversary celebration was taking place. And the pic of this bird today with fake "MiG" camo

The shortcomings of the Zvezda kit are well known but nevertheless it still looks cool and builds really nicely. I've decided to spice things up a little and posed her in-flight, with all the manuevering surfaces deflected and the landing gear partially retracted. Here she is.

yeah I know that... I've seen many things happen so far, yet that was the rudest things happened to me. Regarding my stance towards US presence at MAKS - yeah it's kind of cool to see US fighters at Zhuk but, you can see them at major Euro shows as well, while all the newest Sukhois and MiGs are pretty much domain of the MAKS.

I've read a RIA/NOVOSTI article a couple of months ago that both prototypes will be displayed in static and flying display. and why shouldn't it be flying? It was 15th or so test flight when it was already displayed to Putin ;) But I do expect, if it will fly, a limited performance display, similar to Su-35BM in 2009. I am not sure why do you think it would not land at Zhuk? Both prototypes are now being tested at Zhuk. I am not too thrilled about USAF presence to be honest - They had F-15s, KC-135, C-17 and B-52 on display at 2007 airshow and they were the only aircraft guarded with Kalashnikov armed guards, while ironic as may it seems, all the latest Sukhois and MiGs didn't have the guards. And while I leaned over the fence to have a better angle to shoot the B-52, one of the US crew members almost punched me for "trespassing"... On the other hand, while I was at NAS Oceana airshow in 2005, the crew let me climb into the cockpit of a B-52H. Vekkinho, sure no prob. Where are you from?

sometimes, things get outside the tower as well ;) Kenan - maybe your ground crew consits of Dalmatians and Montenegrans ;)

been there in 2007 and 2009 and I will surely be there this year as well (PAK-FA being the main reason)