Fjordmonkey

I got to do that at Bodø MAS here in Norway back in 2000 when I did my mandatory military-service. Great fun. The best parts is when you're in a hardened shelter that opens westward when it's -10c and a nice bit of wind and snowing sideways, since the HAS becomes a natural wind-tunnel. Was damn glad we had good coldweather-gear, heh, and that the only piece of skin exposed was the area around the eyes (no goggles, but both helmet and mask with intercom).

Preflights when it's -20c is also great fun, especially at 7am in the morning. Then again, you've got the world's best heater in the shelter with you....

Even worse when you do the postflight outside of a hardened shelter, and the bird is butt-first to the wind. Even with the damn mask on, you come out higher than a damn Blackbird.... Some days I really miss working on Vipers *sigh*

Definately a product on my "To Get"-list! Love the Pony, and look forward to tossing her around in the skies, regardless of which skies that might be.

In the cockpit of an F16 it's on the right side, and labeled "Nuclear Consent" :P On our jets here it's usually locked with a locking-wire, and cannot be moved. Could quite possibly be the same thing.

What's the strange apparatus surrounding the jet nozzles on that bird?

Glen was one of my favorite artists out there, but sadly passed away in 2007. Have been on the lookout to get hold of some larger versions of these images for use as desktop-images. Good stuff none the less.

My favorite: Any Su-27-family aircraft in the Two-seater version. Few, if any, two-seat aircraft is as beautiful as that. MiG-31 comes a close second.

It's sad to hear this, but sadly it's a well-known issue for me. While I don't know anything other than what you've told, what I can say is that even though he is your father and that family is important, it's also important to think about what's important for you. At some point, taking a long, hard look at the situation and relationship will be needed, and when that time comes, my advice will be to look at all aspects of things on a pro/con-basis. Basically weighing the good vs. the bad, and then taking it from there. Many will probably find the reduction of family/blood-ties into a simple pro/con-case strange, but I've never put much stock in family and blood-ties. Just because someone happens to be your father, mother or other family, does not mean that they should be allowed to use that as an excuse to behave as pure and utter muppets towards you. Communication is needed, though. Without it there might be things said and done that will never go away, and that can have a life-long impact on the relationship. My father and me will most likely never speak to eachother again (long story), and, while sad, that is sadly how it will be until one of us passes away. Some rifts are just too much, too big and too deep to heal, and it's important to realize and accept that once all other options are explored. My final advice is to at least try to talk with your father about this. Preferrably on what I call neutral ground (a park, over dinner in a restaurant etc), so that none have a "home field" advantage, so to speak. It's also important to try to see things from the other person's perspective, since there's always at least two sides to every story. Don't know if I made any sense, but those are at least my thoughts.

It's always more of a question of when then if with women :P I'm trying to figure out how to tell my better half that I'm going to spend $400 on a flightstick/throttle, but haven't found anything that would save my hide from the blistering response from The Dragon :P

@Subs17: Will do! As soon as I start working on mine, there will be pics of the process. @Gadroc: Good point there. I popped the bottoms off both the stick and the trottle, and yes, there will be an insane amount of wires coming from the stick, and internally in the throttle. A thought that struck me and that I'll look closer at is using an old Printer-connector (Centronix) between the stick and the throttle, and an Ultra320 SCSI flat ribboncable for the insides of both sticks. The former should give me around 50 individual strands to work with, and then latter should give me about 80. Of course, I could just pick up a premade ribbon, but I'm also thinking about using the things I have available. The buttons is a good point, though. Will have to test each one to see if they even register on the 836X before installing them in the stick/throttle. Have taken some images from how the set looks inside now, and will have to study them before actually making up my mind on how to proceed. Depending on how large the 836X actually is, it should fit in the front of the main Throttle-axis. We'll see, though :D

Excellent! Might pick up the hall-sensors needed as well just in case. As far as I know, I'll need two for the stick axis, and two for the throttle (one for the throttle-axis and one for the antenna elevation-wheel). Think I'll stick with a single-chip setup. Will need to take the stick/throttle apart when I get home from work to take a look on the pins, although making the thumbstick into a four-way hat might not be a bad idea either. Will bear investigation. Got any places here in Norway that's good for parts? Not too fond of mucking too much around with the pin-outs, so I'll most go for the 836X. What did you use for the external connectors?

So then! Since I've recently bought LOFC2.0 and only have a shitty Logitech-stick to use for both LOFC2.0 and BS, I've dusted off my old nearly-unused FLCS/TQS-set from Thrustmaster's Yonder years. Now, as many of you know, this is an old-school pure-analog stick-and-throttle set, originally designed to work with either a gamecard or a special 8-bit ISA-card directly from Thrustmaster themselves. Needless to say, this is a very bad combination with my new AMD-rig and Windows 7. So the thought struck me, yet again, to mod the old clunker into a USB-set, using Leo Bodnar's Universal 12-bit Joystick-controllers. Namely the BU0836X. At €45, it's much easier to pass the Wife-unit's inspection than a €300 TM Warthog-HOTAS, and the punisment for spending the €45 is most likely VERY much less severe as well. Even though I wouldn't mind putting a Warthog-set on my desk... But before I order the controller, I thought I'd check in with you other Whirly/Jet-heads that are far more knowledgeable than me when it comes to modding things. So here goes the question-list: Has anyone actually converted an FLCS/TQS into a USB-set, or are anyone familiar with the BU0836X and know of any issues that needs to be addressed? Can I still use the same pots and switches, or will these need to be swapped? The stick and throttle has been used less than 2 hours, so there shouldn't be a lot of wear on the current pots/switches. Should I go for one chip in each, or use a cable between the throttle and stick? Pro's/con's with each setup? I'll most likely end up getting the conversion-kit anyway since I'm curious about it, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm about as good with electronics as I am flying the KA50 (which means to say that I'm very good at messing up in horrible ways, with the occational good result much to my own and the world's general wonder).

I love that sound. Reminds me of working on the RNoAF F16's during my military service here. Especially fun when they slam the throttle to the detent. First the tweet, then an insane roar as the engine spools up. Aahh, the memories...

I'm thinking that this might be part of the feed-mechanism for the M39-guns on the F5.

Right on both :P Your turn!

Hehe sweet. I love how the Su-15 looks, and the silouette of the tail reminded me of it. Lucky guess, pretty much. Well, here's my riddle: What's this?

Su-15?

The A400M first flew on december 11th, and Airbus is doing final assembly on prototype #4 these days. The program IS, however, 3 years behind schedule (and the gods know how many € over budget), but it's flying.

Well, we saw what happened in the KC-X program recently. The A330-based EADS/Northrop Grumman-aircraft was selected, Washington went nuts and Boeing sued, the competition-rules changed, and now EADS/NG have pulled out since the competition is now tilted in favor of Boeing. Even if the A400M is a better aircraft that the C130, it won't matter much. I severely doubt that we'll ever see an A400M in US-colors due to the politics involved.

Definately not a fake. The aircraft in question was LN-NFV. NRK is the State-owned TV-station here in Norway.

It's a Mark 24 homing torpedo-Mine, nicknamed Fido. I think :P

I know WHAT it is, but I don't know the name of it.

I'm thinking british, and twin-engined. No idea apart from that.

Damnit :P And yep, Namelos nailed it.