Rhino104

Surprised you didn't say the F-14 Viper....

BE ABLE TO REWIND REPLAY TRACKS!!

Very nice gentlemen! Great flying with you guys at VFAT this year! Rhino-VBA#1

It replaces the F-15. If you guys like these, you won't believe whats being put together right now...

Princess Elizabeth is actually a C model, so it still has the Merlin in the nose.

Jim, thank you for sending your beautiful plane over here for the show. Don't Beasley and Shipley do such a good job flying them? I hear she is on her way to Chino so Steve Hinton can make sure her body is ok? She is so beautiful, even with her battle scars still visible. Made it so much better for the weekend. Here are some shots for everyone to enjoy. And my Raptor shot. If anyone would like the hi-res versions of these without the watermark, send me a PM. Would be glad to send these to you guys.

So they broke the treaty, and now there is a war? Sounds like a good scenario to me!

This thing makes Battlefield 2 look like Super Smash Brothers on the N64. Jesus Christ that was good......

Thanks a bunch Skypat! Great work as always, and thanks for the Vista fixes from one of the insane Vista users!

I'm wondering if the trim problem has something to do with the engine nozzles being directly tied in with the elevators? There are so many nooks and crannys on that thing that I can't even begin to imagine what they are and what they do. Regarding the "my country is better than yours thing", it was never my intention to come on here and say "America pwns all others and you all stink." I just take a great pride in what we have come up with, and since I was at this particular show, and I couldnt help but think that hey, we've got something now that can rival what the Russians have with super-maneuverability. I never intended this thread to get hostile, just a little poking and having fun was all I was trying to accomplish. A flame war was not what I wanted to start. I just get a little defensive when people start downing our country. It seems like there is enough Soviet/Russian glorification in here, I wanted to show we had some pride in our air force as well.

Uhh, I consider myself an average American and consider that type of narration pretty common at airshows over here. Also, remember that it was/is narrated by a member of the ground crew. They have a ton of pride in what they put into the air. Whats wrong with being proud of what you're putting in the air? Still don't see how its over the top. I guess that makes me "OTT patriotic". Damned proud to be a RESIDENT and TAXPAYER of the United States of America. Maybe when Romania or the Russians create a 5th generation fighter you can be just as proud.

Sorry, dont speak German. Perhaps you could "remind me" on here in english.

I'm not contradicting myself at all. And yes, I am an F-22 fanboi, I am an American military fanboi. I guess you could just call me patriotic. I am very proud of that F-22 and the American ingenuity and manpower behind it. Yes, there still are Americans on this forum. Posting this video was more to show that hey, we can do this too now (super-maneuverability). Again, I hope that this thing never has to be used in anger, but if it is, I feel comfort in the fact that we have the best trained and educated pilots in the entire world, with the best technology possible at their fingertips. That alone makes for a pretty stone-cold killer.

Yea that manual is 5 years old. I did not know about the Mig-31 system.

Another great thing about the Raptor in the BVR scene, is that the Raptor's computers and radar systems are all data-linked to other Raptors and AWACS, and vise versa. What one Raptor sees 500 miles to the east, a Raptor just taking off or in another area can now see with out even talking to that pilot, it is put on one of his MFDs. Last time I flew the Su in Lockon I didn't remember seeing that, so there is one leg up for the Blue team.

I knew by posting this all the Su and Mig Fanbois (yes I will use the word because it is appropriate here) would come out, defending their great aircraft. (There, I said that too, I agree that the Su's and Mig's are pretty good.) You have to think of this though, in America, the FAA restricts our airshows A TON over here, so the pilots and demos are limited by that. The demo that you saw, had to go through rigourous certification flights before it was even seen by the general public. The Sukhoi and MiG demos you guys see, the pilots are putting their jets out of control and way outside the envelope, and they are also STRIPPED DOWN of any weapons pylons and probably have less gas as well. The Raptor can do all of these maneuvers with a full gas load and full weapons load, and be in complete control with the onboard flight computers. Are the Su's and MiG's fly-by wire? The point is, this is not even close to what the Raptor brings to the table in an A-2-A BVR or Knife-Fight or even an Air-2-Ground scenario. Remember, this is replacing the F-117 and some of our F-15 fleet. The Eagle will still be around for quite a while! That, and, it is still invisible on radar. But then again, someone will come up saying that the Russians have some new radar that can see it, we shall see about that. Don't forget also, that this thing had about a 97% kill ratio at Red Flag this past year. The only one that "died" was when one of the Raptor pilots pulled up about 3 miles directly in front of an OPFOR F-16 who didn't even see him on radar. If I had to chose my knife in a knife fight, it would be this thing. However, to break a perception that all Americans are are war mongering fiends, I will say I hope that we never have to use this thing in anger. Regarding the "Hollywood" like show, hey, its America, we like that kind of thing. The music was put together by Hollywood producers and they had a full production truck behind the crowd doing this. (They had 2 massive jumbotrons on either end of the runway showing incockpit shots, and other things.)

This is from the Raptor demo at GML 2007 about a week ago. Pretty freakin awesome if you ask me. http://www.airshowbuzz.com/videos/view.php?v=a090713b

New Tom Clancy franchise being developed by Ubisoft’s Bucharest studio for next generation consoles and PC. ------------------------------------------ SAN FRANCISCO – September 25, 2007 – Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced the creation of a new Tom Clancy franchise being developed by Ubisoft’s Bucharest studio for next generation consoles and PC. The first air combat brand from the Tom Clancy universe will launch in 2008. Full Article HERE. Anyone care to comment?

It is of the belief by Kato that he can get everyone on the same mod, even with those who use the F-15s with different models. There is info on this, Laud, in the VTB thread regarding VFAT.

1: The Virtual Blue Angels 2: 6 F/A-18A Hornets, 1 F/A-18B Hornet (back-up jet), and 1 C-130T Hercules (Fat Albert) 3: Approximately 1 hour 4: Virtual Blue Angels 2007 Model - Replaces F-15C (Example Below-Not yet Publicly Released) 5. Nathan "Rhino" Truninger westernate@gmail.com 6. USA GMT -6 We will likely not be able to participate in the rehearsal unfortunately due to an airshow conflict on the rehearsal weekend (9th-11th), but will be ready to go for the weekend following! Looking forward to seeing everyone in November!

"JB" and "Merlin" bringin the HEAT!

Correct! "Merlin" will also be staying on next year as the No. 5. It will be his 5th year on the team. Not too many guys can say they've been a Blue Angel demo pilot for 5 years. I think they have about 2-3 spare A models sitting in Pensacola, so they can grab whatever they need. With regards to getting C models, they WERE supposed to get them next year, as a couple of squadrons were upgrading to Super Hornets at the end of this year. However, what I've heard is that since the wing structure issue was found with the Super Hornets, production kind of stalled a bit while Boeing fixed/fixes the issue, and with the order needing to be finished to Australia on contract time, they may not get them until 2009. I can tell you one thing, they NEED new airframes. I think they get a maintenance failure every week on at least one of the jets, if not more. The maintainers though, are the best in the business and make sure the show goes on!

Dude those are some AMAZING shots! That one of "JB" sucking water up off the bay there is money! Looks like you were standing on a highway? Whats your camera and what type of glass are you using?

Correct. I believe the intent is to make them look like something they arent...

At least you got your butt kicked by a somewhat attractive girl eh? Not all is bad. I dunno Black Shark and a Snickers bar vs. getting my butt kicked by a cute Russian girl. My my tough decisions!