bradleyjs

You're right we do have a lot in common overall. That's good! Speaking of SpaceX, after 5 attempts they finally launched the SES-9 satellite at 1835 tonight. I can just walk out my front door and see it (for that matter all launches) here in East Orlando. They attempted an "experimental landing" on the barge but from what I saw on SpaceX's video feed it looked like another failure. Have a good one -- and am still checking the estimated delivery date for the Alienware 18 to arrive approx. 3/18.

StrongHarm, "Did I ever fly for the USAF?" - No, but to a small extent, Yes. I joined the USAF in 1983 and had a guaranteed job to be an Aircraft Maintenance Mechanic working on Fighter/Attack/Recon birds. I put on my "Dream Sheet" to come to Patrick AFB, FL (just South of Cocoa Beach, FL) and I was assigned to work on the O-2A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_O-2_Skymaster]. I subsequently assigned a plane of my own (even with my name on it!) as a flying crew chief. At the time I was getting my pilot's license and still working full-time while I went I to night school, taking 5-7 classes a semester, while still working full-time... It was tough way back then, but I did get a 4 year degree from Rollins College (BS in Computer Information Systems and Business Management in just 3 years flat). Being so young at the time it was a relativity easy set of goals - it just took a lot of hard work and little sleep, Anyway, I have logged more actual flight time in military aircraft than I do flying privately. And it was the USAF Instructor Pilots (IP) that let me fly the aircraft, shoot rockets at the range, land, takeoff, cross-countries (as far away as Dayton, OH and Davis-Monthan, AFB, AZ, also to include more than a dozen other TDY's [you're Navy so that would be TAD - my step-father was a Master Chief and taught me well about the Navy] back in the late 80's. I was given a big latitude by the IP's as they knew my goal was to be a pilot like them and they help every which way they could. I was truly blessed. I've also got some stick time in the OV-10A [i worked them in Phase Dock for 2 years prior to changing career fields] and the OT-37B over the course of my maintenance years. In fact, I re-enlisted over just east of Cape Canaveral at FL85 and then we did some similar air-to-air combat training with #2 and I was allowed to fly 98% of the mission [i spent a week reading the Dash-One - the USAF Flight Manual]. The IP then let me do 4 touch-and-goes at the Shuttle Landing Strip at KSC. It was a piece of cake - as the OT-37B was so easy to fly... Finally, after the squadron/group was disbanded in 1989, I had to retrain into another career field and chose to go into the Personnel Systems Unit to be the NCOIC of the Readiness Unit and we worked with used/maintained the classified computer systems (to include the old STU-3 encrypted phone) that was designed to perform deployments of personnel world-wide. I spent months sending airman to Operation Desert Shield (to include the entire E-8A JTARS personnel and contractors - they were still in dev mode out of Melbourne airport [KMLB] at the time). So, after Operation Desert Storm (which Space Command sent me with without choice - cause I was the only qualified person in the command that had the training and computer experience [the system was on a TEMPEST 286 daughter card that used Clipper as database compiled .exe code which derived from DB4]. It was a good experience overall in Dhahran, SA overall. So, I was never able to get my commission because they weren't looking for pilots back in 1989 - my package got reviewed 3 times (and I even had a LT General's endorsement) and finally went over the grand old age of 27 years, which disqualified me to apply again. After I graduated from Rollins in 1989, I started a masters in Computer Science at Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) and took several classes before I got too busy to and just had to handle the ODS/S deployments - I never finished that degree. In 1993 I pulled the ejection handle and left the USAF and was unemployed for only 3 weeks and had a job as a contractor [Rockwell / United Space Alliance (USA)] doing Software/Systems engineering with the Space Shuttle program (which I believe I iterated in an earlier post). Like your passion for building admin tools to automate the systems admin and such, I loved that aspect of my job. I still get to do it today as I support the Simulation and Training environment for the US Army IT infrastructure. Gotta love writing software - we're currently semi-restricted to only use PowerShell/PowerCLI (VMware) to do it - it's a very flexible language - as it really uses .Net as its base. I used to be a very low level 'C' programmer years ago, but needed to switch to 'C#' - which I love. As soon as I get the new AW18 as I will post an AAR - I just have to be patient for the time being ..... and it's hard !!! ps. Bahrain is so much better than SA - you can actually drink a beer there! Later and happy flying, Jeff

Great post FiestyLemur - thanks for sharing such good positive info, I was searching for how to do a clean install over Win8.1 and it seems overall the best course of action is to do a clean install. I'm in agreement. However, I plan to do the upgrade initially then test the crap out of it. If I don't like it, I will do then plan to do the standalone intsall of Win10 to get a clean install. Again, I was curious to find away to do just that today when I was searching for it - how ironic. Something that I forgot to mention in my earlier posts was my hardware rig: One dead 2011 Alienware M18X R1(both Radeon 6900s I [apparently] burned they seemed to burned themselves out while out while playing A-10C for hours). I did, however, put the computer into Sleep mode after each session that lasted @1.5 hours of training.... So, not sure WTF happened.... So, in approx 2.5 weeks I will have the Alienware 18 with the i7-4940MX Quad Core 4.4ghz, 2 Nvidia GeForce Gtx 970M w/6GB SLI 6GB GDDR5 each, 1 TB 7200 RPM SATA 6GB, 32 GB Dual Channel 1600 MHz RAM, plus a 4 year warrant, just in case. FYI, I do know Dell makes most thier revenue via their warranty program; every time time I buy one they call and badger me to get more support. So, I bought the 4 yr extended warranty and will probably need the support down the road - been there and done that over the last 9 years or so. Happy Flying (aka Training just like real pilots do)! Thanks, Jeff

StrongHarm, Sounds like we have a lot in common. I am a MSSSQL DBa as well, in fact I been migrating a database ftom 2008 R2 Win2008 R2 legacy system to Win21012 R2 2008 R2 database instance the last few days and it's been a bitch due the transaction log corruption that I encountered. But, got it all squared away today. And we are VNware environment which is very flexible - snapshots can really save your ass if you screw something up. My passion is software engineering that I use to make my sys admin duties far more automated - been doing that for almost 30 years. So, you got the Area 51 desktops ... Ive had three top of the line Alienware systems for the for the ... Oh 9 years now and they've treated me well the years. I do believe that DCSWORLD A-10C app broke my video cards this past weekend. After reflection, I didn't notice the GPU fans running at high like they normally would after only a few mins of swimming. But, what the hell, it was almost 6 years old, so I needed a new anyway. Just curious, what branch of the service were you in? I was USAF Actve duty for 10 years stationed out of Patrick AFB, FL since 1984. Not too long after ODS, I punched out and three weeks later, I was a software engineer/sys admin for Rockwell intl/United Space Alliance for four years before moving to Orlando to work as a computer engineer as IT contractor ever since (19 years now). Btw: I was stationed at Khobar Towers during my deployment - too bad those terrorists blew a small part of it away. Most of the casult were from our para- rescue squadron. I'd already been a civilian for several years by then. Thank you for sharing your story with us/me - keep up the good fight and happy swimming. Ps. I plan to post my successful status once I get my new Alienware 18 (which I maxed out with the options that Dell offered) when I get it setup and tested. Just curious, what year did you get your pilots license? Have a good one man!

This is sounding better and better. Starting to feel rather impatient now ... damn dell for taking 3 weeks to build the Alienware 18 -- you'd think it would take less than a week...

Very good, and thanks for condolences - much appreciated. So, I guess my plan is to reinstall it and test for a week or so, benchmark it, and then upgrade to Win10 and then re-evaluate it. Based upon what you guys have told me thus far, it's Ok to do the upgrade. Ps. I've never used Win 8.1, only Win7 - which works perfectly. I'm a System Admin/Software engineer + Private Pilot + Desert Storm Vet. I don't spend too much time on desktop systems - that's why I'm asking for your expert opinions. Thanks to all!

Well so far nothing but good new - that's so good to hear!

Yep know all about that - thanks for your input.

I just ordered a new Alienware 18 (with all the latest hardware they offered) and it comes with Win8.1 and am looking for some feedback as to upgrade to the latest Win10 free install. I've read some older posts that say it is slow in performance and other posts that say all is good. My 5+ year old Alienware 18 died this last Saturday while training in the NTTR and somehow it killed both my Radeon 6900's. So, now I'm waiting for up to 3 weeks for delivery.... killing me... arrrgh. What's your input me? Keep 8.1 or upgrade to Win10?

I got the update late yesterday and all seems stable.

What button do you press to bring up the checklist?

You have to click Buy and then you will see serial number item. I copied and pasted it -but it did send me an email as well.

Ah, but the ME is working just fine. I've create a very simple 3-ship to fly from Creech AFB to Groom Lake and it's working just fine. The ME is a study within it's self - but it works non-the-less.

It seems to about the same as v1.5 - but being that Las Vegas is a bit more populated it lags just a little bit, but, overall really good. When you fly near Groom Lake it seems to be about the same. v1.5 was very smooth overall.

Ok, sounds fair to me.. thanks for the clarification. I will just have to wait - been patient for 6 years now -- what a few more months :)

I updated it via the DCS_Updater.exe and with the parameters of v2.0 and it worked. Then when I loaded it up it said there's no terrain and it installed NTTR. Finally, I pasted in the key that was given to me - and voila it was done. So, you're saying that only the "Instant Missions" are the only thing that currently available?

I installed v2.0 over the top of v1.5- all works fine. However, I can't "Create Fast Missions", is that just not working in this Alpha Release?

Roger that Don B - will try and thanks.

My problem is .. that's it's been years since I've had to program the A-10C HOTAS with my custom setting (with out my rudder pedals) that I frankly don't remember what I had done before. But, now that I know what the keys are (Z, X) I'm going to add a modifier to the stick as I had before to keep my hands on the stick and throttle (HOTAS). I've always continued with the various upgrades and new releases but I really haven't spent too much time simming over the past few years. Been really busy working and just don't find time for anymore until now that v2.0 NTTR was finally released. I'm an original A-10C Beta customer and have just been waiting. Plus, being much older now, I tend to be more forgetful these days with such things. I'm ex-USAF, Desert Storm Vet, and Pilot from the early 80's/90's and just love this sim as it's so realistic. Been a simmer since the early 80's when MS Flight was just v2.0. Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

Thank you! I have been searching in the controls and just can't find it. I used to have Thrustmaster Rudder pedals years ago - but my wife won't let me have them under the dining room table - as this is my "man cave" now. The other room had to be converted to an actual bedroom.... such is life.

I don't have any rudder pedals. I only have the Thrustmaster A-10C HOTAS...

Just got DCS v2.0 and NTTR -- been waiting almost 6 years for it - Yeah! However, it been a long time behind the stick and all of my custom mapping are all now set to default. I know how to activate the nose wheel steering - its just that I don't remember how to control the nose wheel. I remember that I had some sort of modifier set with the pinky "trigger" (if you will) and the aileron axis. Can someone please advise me how to set that back up or tell how to use the default keys at least. I can't find any reference to the nose wheel steering in the Controls section of the Options.

I enjoyed it too - thanks.

I have to move the Cyclic to center it right after un-pausing and it fixes the issue.

I have the same problem with my TM HOTAS ... anyone got a remidy?