britgliderpilot

There are good reasons for such videos not existing. They're pretty similar to the reasons why BS isn't out yet :P

Some of the HUD symbology on the Russian aircraft has been made more realistic with FC, which probably accounts for the size of the aircraft datum. No, there's no way to make it bigger. The radar modes have been changed significantly, as well. And yes, it's still possible to play FC on a LAN, despite the deletion of the LAN-specific code :)

Hey, maybe they can actually work stuff out on the fly on the Charles de Gaulle? ;) And if it's all done on profiles on the American carriers, then I imagine someone with glasses and a calculator developed (shock) a NEW profile for a Rafale visit . . . it's not exactly like they just decided to land there one day on a whim . . .

There are switches I still don't know the meaning of . . . . tooltips will be your friend! The good news, of course, is that the Ka50 has been designed to be set up before combat and flown through HOTAS - as a single-seat attack chopper it would be impossible to fight in otherwise. There are a couple of switches or buttons that might have to be used while in combat . . . but let's be honest, we'll cheat and map those to HOTAS as well ;) I do feel sorry for the people who might try and fly this sim with an ordinary joystick, though. Actually . . . . let me rephrase that. You can fly the Ka50 with an ordinary joystick. It's just nearly impossible to use any on-board systems at the same time, pretty much limits you to rocket and gun runs. Oh, and the "MFD" is only used for navigation. It's a magic bit of kit, very powerful and versatile if you want to use it to the extremes . . . but to be honest, switching it to moving-map mode is usually function enough.

Basically, it depends on the flight time. Over a short period of time, an INS will be more accurate (assuming you have your exact start point), but they do drift. Once the accumulated error exceeds the potential error in your GPS system . . . . you reset the INS from the GPS position :) Modern INS is very, very good - but the fundamental problem is that they accumulate any error in the system and drift off. IIRC GPS can get down to single-figure metre accuracy these days. Much less on land with LAAS systems broadcasting corrections, but that's not a possibility at sea. And I too think the Rafale is a magnificent-looking aircraft . . . . it's just a real shame about all those big pods and tanks they have to hang on the bottom for the pesky business of blowing stuff up. Spoils the lines a bit.

Oh, I sincerely doubt that . . . . trust me on this, It's Not Ready Yet! I hope she's got permission if she's got a beta, though.

OK, just to clarify . . . . In which cases are we talking about helmet mounted SIGHTs here, and which cases are we talking about helmet mounted DISPLAYs? Helmet aiming is becoming rather more widespread, but it was my understanding that the helmet-mounted display with flight information (as on the F-35) wasn't yet in general service.

Well it's a long story, but to cut it off at the beginning . . . . The Rafale DOES have canards ;) Incidentally, one of the reasons for the French leaving the Eurofighter project in it's early stages was their different requirements for the aircraft . . . one of which was carrier capability. You'll notice that the other Eurofighter nations don't have carriers. The Typhoon's canards are now placed in such a position that they'd seriously hurt visibility in carrier ops - bit of a problem. And adapting it for carrier use would be expensive and semi-pointless. The F-35 can do the job perfectly well.

Dude, I think we all now know that you think there should be turbulence online as well as off - the message has got through now ;) Now please stop reminding us! I'm sure the devs will look at it if it's possible . . . I seem to recall a perfectly valid reason for leaving it out last time around. And let's be honest . . . while it'd be nice, it's not the MOST important feature in the world.

It's entirely possible. The Alaskan Eagles have all kinds of upgrades fitted . . . AESA and helmet cueing for AIM-9X are just two I can remember.

Change "only" to "especially", and you've got it ;) It gives you a very quick, easy, and cheap visualisation of any yaw on the aircraft . . . which can be important in any aircraft. It's especially important in gliders because we want to be as efficient as possible - flying cockeyed is inefficient and will decrease our glide angle. Which is bad.

Yeah, but try diving from 45k feet without overspeeding. . . . . but that's given me an idea . . . . Reckon NASA might let me borrow Endeavour? :D Fastest glider in the world, after all . . . . even if you would need a 100 knot thermal to soar it . . .

Well it wouldn't be as much fun if it was easy now, would it? ;) There's a vid on YouTube of a guy doing it in 1:07 - I got mine down to 1:12 and I simply can't believe there's another five seconds in there . . . .

I thought that was the Red Bull Air Race . . . you know there's a series, right? It's in London on the 29th. Think I'm going. There's a Red Bull Air Race mission in FSX. It's fun :D

Both iTunes and Windows seem to have magically forgotten that I have a DVD burner in my PC - but I downloaded some freeware that can both see and use it. However, aforementioned freeware cannot of course burn iTunes playlists . . . . Might this be anything to do with Starforce? Any suggestions for a cure?

:D

Ahhhhh, now I get it . . . . well the obvious answer is that it's not an Extra 300 at all. The wing-walking team use Boeing Stearmans - I've got some photos from their display at Duxford somewhere. I can only presume that an Extra 300 was at the same show and there's been some confusion with captions somewhere along the line . . .

Extra 300: Extra 300L: The Extra site only has details on the L-model now, I think they stopped making the original.

In a perfect world, yes. However . . . the world's not quite perfect and there are further complications involved, only some of which I understand. Bottom line is that it will very nearly hover without yaw input, but not perfectly. But hey, there's an auto-hover mode anyway . . . . Also remember that no helicopter will transition to a hover just by returning the controls to neutral, and maintaining a hover generally requires constant control input . . . . as you'd expect when you're balancing ten tons of helicopter on a single point ;)

As far as I know . . . . an Extra 300. The variant with the low-mounted (as opposed to mid-mounted) wing is the Extra 300L . . .

You haven't seen them do a four-ship pass with two aircraft inverted, then :s

Some of the early RAM compounds were toxic, yep. A photograph of a jet engine can't give you much in the way of intel. If you know the details of the alloys used, the ceramic coatings, the cooling systems, the precise shape of the blades . . . . then that's the real espionage gold ;) I saw two models of jet engine blade in production a couple of years ago - the same engine, but one with straight 2D designed blades, and the more modern one with blades shaped in 3D with variable chord and twist along the span. They claimed a 5%+ improvement just for the modern shape . . . . . which is quite a lot.

That . . . . and some things that would have to be monitored by the pilot in older aircraft are now monitored and action taken by computer. Only flashes up on screen if it's really wrong.

A Vulcan? Flying? In England? :D:D:D:D:D:D Post pics. Post lots of pics. In fact . . . . let me go examine my bank account, it might be worth a trip to see a Vulcan . . . . for the second "you'll never see this anywhere else" shot of the summer . . . Both flyable ;)

It had turned into a discussion of Global Warming. . . . . which IMO is something that should locked and subsequently deleted in real-world conversation, let alone on a forum about flight sims . . . . ;)