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I for one hate the updates and just wish they would go away already. Stupid updates. Umm... guys? Guys? Put down those chairs, will ya? Don´t you do anything stupid now... guys? :chair: :D

That wouldn´t happen to be a certain Mr. Zahn, would it? ;)

Both the F-15 and the F-18 have been developed by McDonnell Douglas.

Are you saying North Jersey smells? :D

Oh, really? He´s one of the top scoring panzer aces, having killed in excess of 150 enemy tanks and an unknown number of other armored vehicles. That puts him in a line with aces like Michael Wittmann, Johannes Bölter or Kurt Knispel. He´s also one of the very few recipients of the Knight´s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (for extreme battlefield bravery). That guy has quite literally been through hell and back, which just makes it even more astonishing when you see what a humble and unassuming person he is today. My grandparents passed away just recently, and they wouldn´t tell a single thing about the war just until their last few years, and even then it took them several sessions to speak about certain things. My one grandpa was fighting in Russia, and he was wounded several times, yet always thrown back into the grind. He said their biggest fear was becoming POWs, because the Russians weren´t exactly known for treating their prisoners too well. Of course he did become a POW eventually, and he never talked about that in detail other than saying it was sometimes even worse than the war itself. He actually managed to escape together with four other guys when they were all transferred to another camp, and they started to treck west until they reached Germany. It took them a little over two years (!), walking only during the night and sleeping in shifts during the day while hiding somewhere. Getting caught would have meant instead execution on the spot, and they endured this for more than two years. He said they were so incredibly hungry, they ate everything from tree bark to bugs. Totally boggles your mind. During his time in the camp he learned about the "Einsatzgruppen" and how they rampaged behind the front line, but he shrugged it off as propaganda. He said no honorable soldier would behave like that, it was just totally out of the question. Only later, back in Germany, he learned that all those atrocities were actually true, and he said he felt both ashamed and betrayed. Ashamed because they always treated the civilian population with respect, bought food from them (stealing from them was actually punished quite harsh) and paid them for working in the rear areas. He said they were just innocent civilians, harming noone and how they actually greeted the German troops as liberators from Stalin. He was sick to the bone when he learned how the Einsatzgruppen actually indiscriminately rounded them up and shot them just a few weeks after the main line moved through. He said it made no sense whatsoever and accomplished nothing but turning friendly people into hating enemies. He felt betrayed because he was fighting in an honorable way for a country that did all these dishonorable things. He was mad at Hitler for betraying him this way, for taking away his pride and his honor. It was the lowest point in his life, and he said he has never been more ashamed to be German than when he learned about these atrocities. He was actually very upset with me when I decided to serve. My other grandpa was fighting the Americans in Normandy (not on the very beach itself though) and was actually captured during what later became known as the Falaise Pocket. He too was wounded several times, one wound in particular (a gunshot to the abdomen) was so bad, they were sure he would die. Somehow he pulled through though, only to be sent back to fight again. He said fighting against the Americans was kinda strange. Their soldiers were overly cautious and rarely took a risk. Instead, when a dangerous situation presented itself, they just poured in material until every last bit of resistance was drowned in that mass of material. I remember my grandpa saying "our tanks ran out of ammo before the Americans ran out of tanks". He also said that the lack of aerial support by the Luftwaffe was a serious kick to their morale. The word was "if the aircraft is silver, it´s American. If it´s green, it´s British. If it´s invisible, it´s ours". He said he knew the war was lost when allied pilots had enough time at their hands to target even single individuals walking along a road in the countryside. When he did become a POW, he was surprised at how well he was treated. He wouldn´t have expected it, especially since they were fighting until the very last moment. He said they did suffer from hunger during the first few weeks of their captivity, but they all accepted that as normal, given the overall chaos and the large number of troops imprisoned. Later on he was sent to a camp in the US and worked on a farm during the day. He said it didn´t feel like being a POW at all and he was actually kinda sad when he was sent back home. Yup. There are no winners in war.

Terrific list! I´ve read most of the books on your list, and you made some damn fine choices! :thumbup: What did you think of "A Higher Call"? Did it make you misty-eyed as well? Oh, and I didn´t know you are interested in the area of Infantry and Armored warfare. In that case I can make some suggestions as well: Dead Center: A Marine Sniper´s Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War by Ed Kugler Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills by Charles Henderson The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War by Frederick Downs NAM: The Vietnam Experience 1965-1975 by Tim Page Bullet Proof by Matt Croucher By Tank Into Normandy: A Memoir of the Campaign in North-West Europe from D-Day to V-Day by Stuart Hills D-Day: The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor They Fought for Each Other: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Hardest Hit Unit in Iraq by Kelly Kennedy Tigers in the Mud by Otto Carius Speaking of "Tigers in the Mud", did you know that Otto Carius is still alive? After the war he became a pharmacist and opened up his own pharmacy in 1956. Guess how he named his new business... Tiger-Pharmacy! Yup, I kid you not. Best of all, he is still working there to this very day, although he did officially sell the pharmacy in 2011 to a friend of his, who is also a pharmacist. You can just walk in there, shake his hand and buy a copy of his book right then and there. He will even sign it for you free of charge. And now here is the real kicker: You can even order the book from him directly via email. He charges 21.40 Euro for the book itself plus shipping and handling to wherever in the world you want it to be sent to, and not only will he sign it, he also puts in a personal dedication if you wish so. But wait, there´s more: If you order now, we´ll also throw in this... umm, sorry, got carried away there... ;) However, there actually is more indeed: If you order directly via Mr. Carius, he doesn´t ask for advance payment or credit card details or whatever. As soon as the order comes in, he sends the book out, accompanied by a good oldfashioned invoice. Can you believe it? He was once asked about this practice, and he just said "I trust my customers to be people of honor, and I have yet to be disappointed". So yeah, anyway, check out the website of his pharmacy: www.tiger-apotheke.de It´s all in german only, but it should be easily navigable anyway. If you want to order from him directly, he asks to write an email (english is fine) to either kontakt@tiger-apotheke.de or helmut_goeddel@yahoo.de in which you state the number of books you want, what kind of personal dedication you want (if any) and of course the shipping address.

I just got done reading "Dumb but lucky" by Richard Curtis, which was good, but sometimes a bit repetitive (the author couldn´t stop telling the reader that he thought he survived through sheer luck). Not P-51 per se, but a true WW2 story and a MUST read: A Higher Call. The first book in my life that actually made me cry. Of the books I have read within the last few months (I read A LOT, usually several books a week), these are the ones I can recommend (in no particular order, and some may already have been mentioned): Snake Pilot: Flying the Cobra Attack Helicopter in Vietnam by Randy Zahn Stealth Fighter: A year in the life of an F-117 pilot by William O`Connor SR-71 Revealed: The Inside Story by Richard Graham Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed by Ben Rich When Thunder Rolled: An F-105 Pilot over North Vietnam by Ed Rasimus Palace Cobra: A Figher Pilot in the Vietnam War by Ed Rasimus Apache Dawn: Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned by Damien Lewis Apache: Inside the Cockpit of the World´s Most Deadly Fighting Machine by Ed Macy Viper Pilot: A Memoir of Air Combat by Dan Hampton Fire Strike 7/9 by Paul Grahame A Nightmare´s Prayer: A Marine Harrier Pilot´s War in Afghanistan by Michael Franzak Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach (not an aviation book per se, but related and damn entertaining nevertheless) Once A Fighter Pilot by Jerry Cook To The Limit: An Air Cav Huey Pilot in Vietnam by Tom Johnson Yeager: An Autobiography by Chuck Yeager Lockheed SR-71 Operations in Europe and the Middle East by Paul Crickmore B-2 Spirit Units in Combat by Thomas Withington 100 Missions North: A Fighter Pilot´s Story of the Vietnam War by Ken Bell Feet Wet: Reflections of a Carrier Pilot by Paul Gillcrist So yeah, that list should keep you busy for a while. When you´re done with it let me know, I also have a couple hundred classics everyone interested in aviation should have read, plus a whole bunch of books written in German in case you understand it (mostly WW2 memoirs by pilots, grunts and tankers).

This is actually the first time I heard about trailers being towed behind tanks. As far as I know, that has never been doctrine of the German army. It´d be kind of pointless too, because in the later days of the war there wasn´t even enough fuel around to top off the tanks themselves, nevermind a trailer... Maybe the commentator is confusing it with the Russians? They (to this very day) carry extra fuel on the outside of their tanks. The idea is to use this fuel to get to the combat area and then jettison it before the shooting starts (much like drop tanks in aviation). The German army has never done a similar thing though. Luckily I know some tank crew veterans from back then, I will ask them about it and get back to you guys.

The one single thing that made the biggest difference for me was the Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS. Can´t even imagine flying the A-10 without it anymore.

Just use a proper weapon to do the job... :D

Swastikas per se are not illegal in Germany, but the distribution of them is. We have a section within our criminal code (§86 StGB) that makes it illegal to distribute and/or use or display certain symbols (like the swastika, the SS-runes etc.) in public. Note that it says "in public". In my very own house I could put up swastika-wallpapers in every single room and then decorate it with SS-posters if I felt inclined to do so - the authorities couldn´t do a thing about it as long as I don´t start to distribute said wallpaper and posters or display them in public. Also, please note that §86 of our criminal code also contains paragraph 3, which basically states that said symbols may in fact be used, shown and distributed in public as long as it serves educational purposes, happens in an environment of art or science, to report about historical or current affairs and various other things. The full wording of this section of our criminal code can be found here (in english): http://www.iuscomp.org/gla/statutes/StGB.htm#86 Under the German criminal code, computer games are - for whatever reason - not considered to be an art form like books or movies for example, so you may not use swastikas in a game if you plan to distribute said game to the public. Quite a few countries in the EU have similar laws, so if ED wants to sell copies in these countries, they have to remove the swastika. If you - as a private person outside of the jurisdiction of German law - decide to offer a repaint containing a swastika, you can do so if you wish as long as you don´t do it via official ED channels. I, as a German citizen, cannot offer a repaint with a swastika for public distribution, but can make one for my own personal use (or just download yours, which is fine as well). Hope this sheds some light on the issue.

Just choose the one that is physically closest to you, since it will probably be the fastest for you. So if you are in Italy you should choose the German server. Other than that there are no differences though.

I´m currently reading "Snake Pilot" by Randy Zahn, a book about Mr. Zahn´s tour of duty as an AH-1G pilot in Vietnam. If I were to sum up the book in only two words, it would be "Holy Shit!" :shocking:

Well, he may have met this guy... :D Cookie for anyone who catches the reference

According to all the books I´ve read so far: Yes, they would start the turn. Would you, as a tanker crew, stray deep into enemy territory just because the fighter jock back there can´t get connected? Since your frame of reference is the tanker, not the horizon, it shouldn´t really matter to you what kind of maneuvers it flies, you just stay in formation with it. Just to prove my point: P.S. If you need a training tool for aerial refueling, try this sophisticated simulator: http://www.airforce.com/interactive/refuel/ :D

If you think refueling is hard you just need to practice some more. Luckily for us, the USAF provides us with this excellent training tool: http://www.airforce.com/interactive/refuel/ :D

Well, the first time I heard the PC will die was back in the early 90s, when I got my shiny brandnew 386 DX 40 with a whopping 8MBb of RAM and an expensive 3,5" floppy drive (because clearly, 3,5" floppies would be the future). Now, 20 years later, I still hear the PC will die rather soon. Also, about ten years ago it was a hard fact within the simming community that there would never be a hardcore sim like Falcon 4.0 anymore, because nobody would be able to afford the development costs. Yet here I sit today, in front of a pc, flying around in the DCS A-10C using things like the TM WH and TrackIR. Just ten years ago that stuff would have blown my mind. So yeah, I take all those predictions about how the pc will die rather soon with a HUGE truckload of salt.

Do you happen to sell the rights to the pic so we can print our own huge ones for the wall? *hint hint* ;)

Seems like our CVs would look quite alike. ;)

For the approach a setting of ~40% is recommended, but you can set it anyway you want really. It´s not an exact science anyway since you have no gauge indicating your speedbrake setting (with the exception of your good old Mk.1 eyeball that is). In order to deploy them 100% you need WOW (weight on wheels) with at least one of the main struts. So even if you have approached with your speedbrakes all the way out you can (and should) raise them even further once you have touched down.

Hmm... this is nothing but 10 minutes of A-10 landings, and they ALL land with speedbrakes deployed.

Nah thanks, I´ll just elect to not read your postings anymore. Can´t be bothered to figure out who said what.

Great pics! You can really feel the speed and the motion! In the first pic it seems as if the backseater is doing the flying, and the A-10 is in dire need of a new paintjob. ;)

Die meisten (ich eingeschlossen) nutzen die Ruder von Saitek. Die gibt es einmal als "Pro Flight" und einmal als "Combat"-Version. Der Unterschied ist mehr oder weniger nur ein optischer, die Combat-Version hat halt Pedale, welche mehr nach echten Pedalen aussehen, das war es aber eigentlich auch schon. Von der Bedienung und taktilem Feeling her sind beide gleich. Preislich gehen die so bei etwas über 100 Euro los, die Combat-Variante kostet einen Ticken mehr. Ich habe meine aktuellen jetzt seit etwa acht Jahren im Einsatz und kann nicht klagen. Robust, präzise, und funktionieren noch wie am ersten Tag. Alles super. Achso, und zumindest bei DCS sind sie auch Plug´n´play, mit einer einzigen Ausnahme: Man muss die Bremslinie invertieren (per Häkchen in den Game Options), sonst bremst die Maschine voll obwohl man die Pedale nicht berührt und löst die Bremsen umso mehr, je weiter man in die Pedale tritt. Also genau umgekehrt von dem, wie es sein sollte. Letzeres betrifft aber alle Pedale, egal ob von Saitek oder nicht. Amazon-Links: Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals Saitek Combat Rudder Pedals

I don´t have anything to add to the discussion, but pii, please learn how to quote properly.