MadDogMcQ

That's an economic way of doing it Cosmonaut and I've done similar myself with other manuals, but I found that the paper is not supported well enough with two just holes and they are very easy to damage compared to the excellent grip of the spiral binding. Another benefit of spirals is the fact that you can have it close to hand on the desk without a huge folder being open.

Hahaha, me too! God knows how I'm gonna sneak it into the house unnoticed.

Couple of Wallpapers Here's a couple of wallpapers 1920 pixels wide. They're virtually the same shots, but one was taken with "normal" graphic settings and the other was taken with HDR set. Hope you like. Tom.

My colour manuals are now for sale - MINT CONDITION as you would expect. I'm looking for £35. No offers. Postage free to UK Mainland. Please bear in mind that these are printed on HEAVY SILK paper (about 200g) and they are all bound with plastic-coated STEEL wire - not plastic. Beautiful collection. (Photos at the very start of this thread) Tom

Just ordered a pair from Amazon UK - Can't wait for them to get here!

As is your right mate. Sensible response. :thumbup:

TB, I gave you the reference for printing the "Realistic" manual but I did in fact have BOTH the manuals printed. It's the GUI manual which has the khaki background and has 162 pages. The large "realistic" manual has the blue background and has 383 pages. Sorry if I caused confusion. Tom

But it's a Russsian aircraft Fakum! As long as you understand the purpose of the instruments, it's just a case of learning the Russian name for each one.

Can't believe they're even considering a B&W manual in the first place! Only a few days ago I was flicking through the tremendous manual that came with my Falcon 4.0 box. That was worth the price of the original game on its own!! WTF has gone so badly wrong that manufacturers can't include a decent printed manual?

Thanks for the replies ppl. Lot to think about there.

That's a good idea Drummer. If a few dozen people commited to it, I bet the price could be whittled right down by verbal negotiation.

Hi guys, Please don't get me wrong - I know that it is on the pricey side and not everyone can afford to spend a lump of money on this sort of stuff, especially during a recession. The way I looked at it was that I wouldn't think twice if a piece of hardware came onto the market that would benefit my enjoyment of a sim over a period of years. In addition to the benefit of being able to sit down with a set of manuals, there's also a certain amount of "pride of ownership" I guess (not dissimilar to the Lockon Enhanced Manual). And the only expensive bit is the difference between these and the cost of the black and white ones. Finally, you don't have to have it printed on heavy silk either (although it is nice) LOL! The HUGE (3-volume) manual cost me £49.

EDIT : NOW FOR SALE......... If you're going to invest a great deal of time in this sim (and let's face it, time is the greatest investment ANY of us can make), then surely it's worth spending a few extra bob on having nice colour manuals and being able to sit down with a cuppa while you inwardly digest the incredible amount of information contained therein? I simply uploaded my PDF manuals to http://www.fileprint.org/uk/index.php and specified the quality of print and the weight of the paper. Within a few short days, the manuals arrived on my doorstep SUPERBLY printed and presented! I then took them down to my local Staples Store and they bound them with steel-wire spiral binders so that the books can be opened at any page and laid flat on a desk. Because of the number of pages in the "realistic" manual, I split it into three books. Chapters 1 & 2, Chapter 3 and Chapters 4-9. Staples finished each one off with a tough plastic front cover and a heavy guage card back cover. Don't ask me how much - just upload your files, choose the quality and the price will appear. It's not exactly cheap, but it is fantastic quality! And no, I don't work for them :). In fact, there may be other companies who are much cheaper. Might be worth shopping around or simply contact your local printing company asking them for the cheapest way to print a colour document from a PDF file. Tom

No prob Razor. When I get home tonight, I'll send an image. Basically, it's a black leather-bound affair and will be quite pricey due to the fact that it's such a rare find. When looking on Ebay, don't forget to include Ebay.com so that you pick up on any US sales of the manual.

Hi Guyz, When I bought my Abit NF7-S based PC with a Radeon 9800 512Mb video card, it was the dog's dangly bits and I invested in 2 gigs of pricey Twin Matched Corsair PC3200 DDR400 memory too. For years, it has run superbly well and took me through my Falcon and Lockon years. Recently though, the vidcard failed so I chucked a HD3850 into it but realise that it's about time to put the old girl out to rest. What should I be buying for about £2k?? I ONLY want the machine for Lockon and BS. Please be specific with your recommendations. Many thanks! Tom

When Digital Aspirin released their LOMAC ENHANCED MANUAL (by the sadly departed Nic Cole) I bought one. It's a fantastic bit of kit, over 300 pages including a brilliant Mission Editor section and can sometimes be found on Ebay.