britgliderpilot

There will be a new Mission Editor for Black Shark - that's not a secret :) Changing weather in missions . . . . would be cool, certainly. Don't know about that one, but don't hold your breath for it. There's a long wish list for features of the new mission editor, think only time will tell how many of them are included.

But . . . . . this time you get ATI drivers. Which WORK with Lock On ;)

Impressive . . . . but . . . All his base are still belong to the 1/6.5th Su27 guy :P 3.5 metres long and twin turbines. No clever soundtrickery needed ;) Fantastic bit of kit, though - the sound of both electric and glow models gets on my nerves, but that thing . . . . . The future's electric with a soundbox, obviously!

Yeah, an E6400 even at standard speeds will certainly outperform your current PC ;) New case and new PSU required, yep. What rating on the PSU depends what graphics card you might end up getting . . . . For a 7900 series or an X1900 series, 450W will probably suffice. For Nvidia's DX10-capable 8800 powerhouse, add another hundred watts. For ATI's new DX10-capable card, add another hundred watts on top of that . . . . But then we're on to graphics cards, which is a different (if no less vital) question - depends heavily on budget and timing.

They've out-done themselves this time . . . . I mean - a FOOT-LONG graphics card?

ATX just refers to the shape and size of the motherboard - that's all. IIRC the vast majority of desktop motherboards are ATX. Google should reveal a bit more. Should only be relevant if you want to re-use the same case. edit - Google says . . . . . that BTX was a new layout that Intel was proposing, and which seems to have now flopped. No further development on it after September 2006. And the Dimension 2400 apparently has a Micro ATX motherboard, so watch out if you want a new motherboard that'll physically fit into the case . . . . As regards the processor - I've got an E6400, and as of now it is running perfectly happily at 2.5GHz and is lapping up the Black Shark beta :) Others have had more success with overclocking this chip - 2.6 to 2.8 on standard cooling seems to be fairly common. If you're going to be waiting a while for your new PC, you might want to get one a little further up the range - the higher-spec Core 2 Duo CPUs should overclock just a touch better.

Last time I visited HoverControl it was all written for FS9 - has that changed? Is FSX worth buying, then?

Heck, it's older than I thought . . . . Didja mean decades? :P

On his birthday?!? What kind of sadist are you!? I think you meant to say "Don't get TOO drunk". There is of course a fine line between a good night out, and waking up in a gaol cell in Tajikistan with a headache, a pair of pink wellingtons, a goat, and a 2009 calendar. Wouldn't want the second. By the time you'd got back to civilisation, you might have missed the Black Shark release!

With Flaming Cliffs they separated the gun trigger, and the trigger for everything else. Spacebar is now for guns, bombs and missiles are Enter. It's in the readme somewhere.

Meh. A gun's no use at all if you're in transit to or from the battlefield. I'd rather the helicopter was THERE with 330 rounds, than somewhere else with 1000. Chances of them being needed to hang around are rather more than them being asked to kill something - especially if they use a different weapon to blow stuff up most of the time.

Because you don't supply an openly hostile country with materiel to keep their air force running - it's just daft. Even if you assume they're outdated and they can't use Phoenix anymore (for any one of a number of reasons), it's still a better idea to make sure they can't leave the ground than take your chances with them in the air.

Could be. Be interesting to find out. Hardly seem to see complaints about the Su27 and MiG at altitude - but that could be down to any number of reasons. Will take a look at the dev notes at some point and see if they offer any insight into the non-AFM aircraft. I can't remember if this is the right curve or not - my brain's fried at the moment - but still, for the casual observer, displays the kind of benefit you can get from variable geometry intakes as opposed to fixed geometry . . . .

Gosh, what a useful capability that must be :D

I thought the non-AFM aircraft had a rather simplified version of relating thrust to speed and height - mostly by tables? Not sure why - perhaps I'd got the idea the AFM aircraft were the only ones to calculate thrust on the fly. If the first case is true, then depending on tabular format merely requires you to ensure that the thrust values are correct for speed and height where a variable geometry intake is used. Hopefully can be done in a relatively straightforward manner - somewhere I've seen an equation relating pressure recovery over a shockwave for a variable geometry intake. I'd be surprised if it was missed first time, actually - got more info/links on the way the F-15's dealt with at the moment?

It's to balance the study into removing the guns from Eurofighter. Which, for the record, has ended up (after all the R&D into concrete shapes, countless reports, and several tons of paperwork) . . . . in guns still being fitted to Eurofighter :P Bureaucracy! It's fantastic. Britain without the Red Arrows would be ridiculous. What would we do for Jubilees, Grand Prix, airshows, and impressing tinpot dictators?

Who are you? I'll put a tenner each on "The Stig" and "James Bond". When will the mystery be revealed? :P Oh . . . cool movie, too.

It's not something I've ever heard much about, and for some reason I've become interested in it. Most Russian military aircraft (including the Ka50, of course) are famously fitted with ejector seats that can safely extract them from crippled aircraft anywhere from supersonic speeds at 50k feet, to stalled upside-down at an airshow. . . . . . . but what happens then? It's all very well ejecting from your Sukhoi and landing safely, but if you land in the middle of the tundra miles from anywhere, it's not really been THAT successful yet. What were arrangements for retrieving downed pilots, either in wartime or on training missions? Were arrangements in place in Afghanistan? How about more recently in Chechnya? Anyone know anything on this subject?

Wasn't originally designed to be a jack of all trades, though - the original plan was for a lightweight air superiority day fighter. A thread at F-16.net discusses some F-35 canopy stuff, look here: http://www.f-16.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=6618&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=1d0f1392b4ecd05d79c3d764995992c2 This bit was scary, though: Whoa.

Out of interest, since I don't know the location of airbases in Russia - from where would a MiG-29 fly from that it would be intercepted by a CF-18?

Interestly, we use the word variometer in the British gliding world - think the power guys still use the term VSI. Odd. Might be something to do with the fact that all our aircraft are German, of course :P

It should have nothing to do with the fighter in particular - it's a G-LOC model issue, rather than a flight model issue. The "getting tired after pulling high G's" feature is great - but there's still plenty of discussion as to whether it kicks in too early ;) That lighting mod looks rather interesting - anyone got a link to it?

Been looking for, but can't find, the photo of the single F-16 with a centre stick. Some kind of flying laboratory - still has the sidestick fitted, but they added the more conventional central stick for experimenting. Worth a look.

If I recall correctly, ED WERE handing out flyers at MAKS or similar with "March 2006" printed on them. This then worked it's way back through rumours etc to become an "official" release date. I remember being surprised at the time that they thought it would be out so fast . . . . . think someone was a bit optimistic.

It took me a while to spot the eyes painted on the engine intakes, but I think it's a fantastic touch . . . . the thing looks like a crocodile! And I'd still prefer to fly the Ka50 :P