Fjordmonkey

Ah, sweet find :D

Yep, those are fun. That shelter is a of a similar size but bigger than the older type we had. Our older ones were built for the F5, so while the Viper isn't really all that big, it was still a fairly snug fit. Here's an image of the older type shelters with a Jaguar in it. Quite snug: The door in those weighs in at about 25-30 000lsb and is hydraulically lowered and raised. About a foot or so thick. The newer type shelters are quite a bit larger, and can easily hold a Tornado with its wings spread. The door you see on the righthand side is a normal human-sized door, so that gives you a size-comparison. The door is still about a foot thick, but it weighs far more. It's also operated through wires and pulleys, and not hydraulic pistons like the old type.

Yeah, that would be grounds for an ass-chewing here. Hell, the very fact that they've filmed the shelters would put your butt in the sling here. There were things in the shelter that you weren't allowed to film or photograph, and there would be hell to pay if you did.

Nope, but I got a nice taste of jetblast from one of the jets. We had one apron that had a little crest to climb in order to get onto the taxiway. I was in the wrong place in the wrong time, and the pilot, one of the FNG's, went up above 90% RPM in order to get onto the taxiway. Needless to say, I got a nice jetblast-assisted flight. Landing left much to be desired, however :P

Yep, while on RS15, we pulled all the weapon-pins as well as the regular ones (Chaff/flare, undercarriage, EPU). When we deployed to Banak AFB for live-fire training, however, chaff/flare and weaponpins were all done EOR. On a normal flight, however, the only stores on my side of the jet was the AMA and maybe a captive 120, which didn't have any pins to pull.

Sadly, the PIDS-pylons didn't come into service until after I left, so we only had two buckets. The chaff-bucket on the right, flares on the left. I'm glad the flares were on the left side, though, since it was my job to pull the chaff/flare-pin at launch. The thought of having a 3000c flare getting ejected a few inches away from my face is a ****ton worse than having a ball of chaff :P

Nah, not that I noticed. For the most part we had little issues with the chaff/flare-system, apart from a few electrical issues that ment that the system dumped out 3-4 of each instead of singles, and we had one jet dump the entire box when a single flare was commanded. Don't think they ever found out if it was the flare-box or the countermeasures-system that was at fault, but the jet didn't have that issue when it came back from Phase.

I know what I'd say: THE F**K HAVE YOU DONE TO MY JET!?!? Much like I said to the pilot of 279 when he recovered to Banak AFB with a missing ventral-fin and quite a lot of shrapnel embedded in the skin after releasing a Mk82 too low. Had a hand-sized piece miss the flare-box by less than an inch, too. That could have been very nasty.

Impressive landing a Viper with 5 feet of missing wing, but that midair can't be good for MP2's carreer, heh.

In some cases it does, yes, but the systems and functionality behind the instrumentation is where the stonewalling really starts, as well as some of the stores. Either way, it'll be interesting to see just how, what and which systems we'll get on the DCS Viper. Much of my knowledge about the jet is specific to the MLU'ed Block 10 and 15's with the F100PW220E-engine we flew here in Norway, and while the OCU and MLU M1-jets I worked on are similar to the Block 50, there's a ton of differences.

What you have to realize is that many of us are still bound by oaths of secrecy about what we've learned through our military service. There's things about the RNorAF Vipers that I'm STILL not allowed to discuss, even though it's 19 years since I left the service, and despite our jets being 40 years old. Thus when someone say something on these forums, it's better to do a little research instead of calling someone a troll.

Umm, I'm pretty sure MVSGAS knows far more about the Vipers than damn near anyone else in here. You might want to go back through his posting-history before you call him a troll. Just sayin'

Well, we can hope, although hope is the first step on the path to disappointment :D Now where did I put that massive tub of liquid patience to slather myself with....

If that happens, the DCS-community will split quite nicey between those that die laughing and those that has an ABSOLUTE aneurysm out of utter rage :P It would be glorious :megalol:

Either an engine hotstart, or an engine that's been preserved. There's quite a bit of white smoke after the flames die down, so I'm guessing that's unburnt oil. Saw the smokeshow after we did an engine-swap on a Norwegian Viper back when I served, but we never had the massive fireball. Just a LOT of white smoke until the engine stabilized at idle.

Hmm, I need to check if our Vipers have actually gotten integral ECMs in the later MLU-tapes. They didn't have it when I worked on them back in 2000, but I've seen that some of the birds have gotten the new wings with the beercans on them. And the Penguin-missile? Yeah, no, those things weren't very effective in operation, speaking about the Mk3 which could be fired from the Viper. They were mostly phased out by the time I went onto the flightline, although we did load a captive one during training and once during checkout, just since it was on the official roster. The only thing they properly tracked was the sun and/or water, and had a very nasty habit of either maddogging into the wild blue yonder or go tits-up into the water after launch. The Mk2 Mod 6, fired from the missile/torpedo-boats were quite deadly, however, but those were taken out of service in 2008 with the Hauk (Hawk) class of MTB's and replaced with the NSM on the Skjold (Shield) class missileboats. Now, if we could get the NSM, though....That would be fun. Fat chance since most of the performance-data is classified.

Know what the easiest sign of a bad craftsman is? He's the one that blames the tools and not himself. Sure, the Tiger doesn't have all the latest bells and whistles like the 9X, 120's and whatnots, but it can still be a very nasty surprise to anyone fighting it. I've seen many cocky pilots in both the Hornet and Flankers eat it bigtime because they underestimated the little jet that could (and can). The correct tactic is half the fight, just as using the correct tool is half the job. Know your aircraft, know your tactics and know your enemy, and you'll come out on top more often than not.

It's hell when you have to tow the bird on the ground in the summer, and you're the designated Cockpit-man :P Hot doesn't even BEGIN to cover it, and that was in Bodø here in Norway. Can't even begin to imagine having to tow a Viper from one end of the field to the other at for example Nellis.

It still remains to be seen which version of the Block 52 we'll get in terms of which weaponry etc we actually end up with. Don't think I've seen any info on that.

Even so, the Viper is iconic in its own right, and it's a valid member of the stable in DCS. Plus you have to look at this from a business-perspective as well. The Double Ugly is an icon, but there's a bigger market for the Viper. I'll buy both, of course.

I'll take it :D

As much as I love the Viper, the Rhino has always been an aircraft I've liked. Would love to see one in DCS, preferrably a G for some proper SEAD-work. Of course, I'll take an E or hell, even an RF4C! Running Photorecon would be rather interesting :D

Is it so wrong to ask for both? :D

Now that's a beauty! Which kit is this? Hasegawa?

BURN THE HERETIC!!!! :P