Joe Kurr

Been to Volkel today, and had a great time! The weather was hazy in the morning, and sunny in the afternoon. Haven't had time yet to sift through all my pictures, but here are some already: #1. the Dutch 313 Special Tail turning towards us after take-off #2. Norwegian Special Tail F-16AM taking off from the parallel runway (06R) #3. Czech JAS-39C Gripen thundering into the sky #4. One of my favourite helos, the Czech Mi-24V, doing a low-level flyby #5. Two Italian AB-212s entertaining the crowd #6. German Tornado IDS rolling out after landing, with thrust-reverse still engaged More to come, the hazy morning conditions were perfect for afterburner shots!

Did not attend yesterday, but I will be going next week, the 13th. I saw some pics already on the Scramble forums, and it seems like you had a great day, despite the less-than-perfect weather.

Mjoy behaves like a normal joystick, so it should work in Win7. You can have the mjoy module provide the axes and sliders, and keep the keyboard-interface in the stick intact so you can still program the buttons on the stick. But in order to build an mjoy module, you need to have some basic knowledge about electronic components to place them correctly, and you will need to program the AVR controller yourself.

Sounds interesting, I'll see if I can come up with something to re-create the hud with the information passed by those objects. The stick is on hold at the moment, mainly because of a very busy work schedule for the guy working on it.

Although I'm not flying RC planes myself (yet), I like to visit RC events now and then. Two weeks ago I visited the RC Heliparts Scale meeting 2010 in Hulten, Netherlands (near Gilze-Rijen airbase) Here are some pictures of the models that were displayed there: #1. Alouette III (turbine) in RNLAF SAR markings #2. EC-135 (turbine), what a sound! #3. Alouette III (turbine) in RNLAF Grasshoppers display team colors, complete with smoke system #4. Mi-24 Hind (turbine) - one of the day's highlights #5. UH-1 Huey (electro) If you like them, you can find more here

That first video is a combination of an F-16 at Volkel airbase (which didn't crash) and onboard footage of a Hawk trainer (which did crash). The F-16 landed safely after jettisoning both external fuel tanks. I have seen pictures of the moment the bird (a starling) enters the intake. The pilot was still waving at the airshow crowd, so he never saw the bird coming. And even if he did, he would have had no chance to avoid it.

Hey, I think I know that Yak, this is what it looked like back in 1998: The owner back then told us he wanted to build his own airfield and put the aircraft back in the air. Looks like he didn't succeed...

Just downloaded both and had a look inside the packages using 7-zip. It seems the "J" version is Japanese, the other one has several other languages.

You can see the number of your post if you hover your mouse over the number on the right (#6 for this post) So this post is #970791 :)

I have used both. Currently I use my G940 as side-stick, because I haven't opened the stick yet to see how it is connected to the base. My Cougar has an extension, so it has the proper length to be used as center-stick. It is even rotated about 20 degrees to correctly line up the buttons with my hand. (this is Lightsniper trying out the center-stick) Personally I find the center-stick feel more natural, maybe because the MiG-29 and Su-27 both have a center-stick.

Correct. Several planes do this, I've seen it on the Gripen, Typhoon, Tornado and C-27J. On the fighters it's caused by negative G (flying inverted, mostly), the C-27J loses fuel when flying knife-edge.

I'm leaving for Farnborough tomorrow, so expect a photo report next week :)

For my solo aerobatics routine: Blue Man Group - Klein Mandelbrot (from the cd 'Audio', not the live version) When flying low through the Caucasus mountains: All of AC/DC :)

No problem, the title is in Russian, so might be unreadable to some ;)

Stands out quite nicely against the background. If this is stealth, I wonder how bright other aircraft are.

The video title says Adler, so yes, that is Sochi Airbase :) (which is now called Adler Aerodrome)

The Seafury is nice! Looks like you were in a good spot for the flightline.

You mean this one? :)

I use a Velleman K8055 board, which accommodates five on/off switches. To make it work with Lockon (and FC2) I wrote a small application which reads the switch states from the board. My export.lua then connects to this application via TCP to get this data in the LoExportBeforeNextFrame function. At the moment, I use four switches, for engines on/off (left + right), flaps up/down and gear up/down. These functions all have two separate command codes (for LoSetCommand) so if a switch is down, it will always be sending the 'down' code to Lockon. I can for example put the gear switch up while starting my take-off roll, and the gear will go up as soon as I rotate. I do however have to manually reset the switches when I crash, or when I am set to take off from the runway instead of the ramp.

#37. The Wingwalkers came in while the commentator was telling a story about Barnstormers #38. What would be going through the girl's minds? #39. Nice lines :) #40 + #41. The Norwegian DC-3 Dakota flew a very nice display #42 + #43. While the DC-3 was still flying, this Morane-Saulnier started its display #44 + #45. Mass-takeoff for the Balbo formation at the end of the show I don't have any decent pictures of the Balbo itself, since the lens I had on my camera was too big for this kind of formations. But a mass formation with 24 warbirds is a very impressif sight (and sound!) #46. A Spitfire leaves the runway as the Buchon is coming in to land #47. This Spitfire was parked along the taxiway (overheated engine?) while the Mustangs come in overhead #48. It can get quite hot in the cockpit with this kind of weather #49. After the show the two Dutch DC-3s went back to Rotterdam One thing is certain: I will be back next year!

Part 2: #18 + #19. TFC's newly restored Bearcat #20. Finally an F-4U Corsair without Red Bull markings #21 + #22. Although it's a regular visitor at other European shows, this Ju-52 is always a nice sight #23. The P-51s started to get a bit boring, after flying the same figure of eight time and time again #24. Fortunately this B-17 'Sally B' came in to stir things up a bit #25. The P-51s left the B-17 on its own for too long, resulting in the loss of two engines #26. But in the end all was well again :) #27 + #28. The 'Russian Hour', with a Yak-3UA One of the highlights of the show was a Polikarpov I-16 'Rata' #29. The gear has to be manually retracted, which takes ages ... #30. But when it is finally up, the I-16 can go quite fast #31. Unfortunately it didn't show its full potential, only some lazy turns an some rolls #32 + #33. Forward visibility while flying the I-16 is poor, but on the ground the pilot is completely blind #34 + #35. Here are some British biplanes, can't remember what types (I'm more into jets than props...) #36. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight can't miss this show

Last Saturday I visited the biggest warbird show in Europe: Flying Legends at Duxford. It was an experience like no other. Since the flying programme didn't start until 14:00, I decided to visit The Fighter Collection and take a look in the museums. At the TFC office I met Bev, and had a nice long chat with her :) A bit too long, because in the end I was only able to visit the USAF museum, so now I have to go back next year to see the rest. Taking pictures in the USAF museum is nearly impossible, the building is literally full of aircraft. If they want to add more in the future, they'd have to expand the building... #1. Right where I came in I had my first encounter with an SR-71 #2. An F-111 was shoved under the balcony in the back #3. This A-10 could be photographed relatively well #4. As was this F-4 #5. The F-15 outside has a lot more space :) After this quick visit I went back to my spot along the fence to see some flying activity (arriving visitors, pleasure flights, etc) #6. This Royal Army Gazelle came as quite a surprise #7. People were taken on sightseeing flights in Tiger Moths #8. At 2 PM eight Spitfires roared into the sky opening the airshow programme #9. Low and fast, right in front of the crowd, what a sight! #10. Six Spitfires passing in formation #11. Although the sun is in your face for most of the day, it can result in quite nice backlit pictures #12. When we were looking the other way, this Seafire came in low #13. While the Spitfires were coming in to land ... #14. ... The Seafuries took off I can go on like this for quite a bit more, because of the shear number of great photo opportunities and the number of aircraft. Below are some random shots of the show. #15. A Buchon (Bf.109 with a Rolls Royce Merlin engine) #16 + #17. I had never seen a Skyraider before, here were three!

And finally some from Saturday. Due to wrong camera settings and changing conditions, my Saturday pics were a bit disappointing. Here are some that I thought worth publishing. 1. P-51 'Damn Yankee' taking off 2. SAR Demo with an AB-412SP 3. This French C-160 was used as support for the Patrouille de France 4. French Alpha Jet Solo Display landing after a nice display ... And then it started to rain ... 5 and 6. The Czech JAS-39 Gripen takes off from a wet runway 6. After landing, a lot of smoke came out of the APU compartment 7. The Belgian F-16 demoteam left for a show elsewhere, this is the spare aircraft blowing the runway dry 8. Always an impressive sight: a low hovering AH-64D 9. And then the sun came out, just long enough for the KDC-10 refuel demo 10. 'Hitec' had to cope with some clouds again 11. After his touch and go, one of his smokewinders caught fire for a moment 12. Touchdown, deploying the chute 13. Touchdown of the restored Hawker Hunter. It lost its drag-chute a moment before this picture was taken 14. Patrulla Aspa fogging up the runway 15. Two Spanish heli-pilots saying 'Hi' 16. The Czech Mi-24 demo coming in for a hover over the runway 17. Turkish Stars NF-5 back on its former home-base, almost scraping its tail over the ground

Nice videos Sawamura! Looks like you were right next to me on Thursday, but I didn't see you. I finally had time to review my photos, here are some from Friday. The weather was poor, so not many action shots unfortunately... 1. The new AW-139 helicopter for the Dutch police 2. The Polish MiG-29UB was parked on static, because both airshow-qualified pilots were on QRA standby 3. A common sight on Dutch airshows is this Skyline Aviation L-39 Albatros 4. The 'Orange Lion' of the RNLAF F-16 Solo Display Team was parked on a special place, right at Display Center 5. AH-64D kicking up dust as it flies over a recently built taxiway 6. Czech Air Force Mi-24 pulling away after a touch and go 7. The RAF Typhoon roars into the sky for a stunning display 8. Bad weather has one advantage: Lots of vapour! 9. AH-64D flying through the smoke caused by explosions on the ground during the Air Power Demo 10. F-16 Demoteam pilot 'Hitec' scorching the newly-paved runway with his afterburner 11. Coming in for a touch and go 12. Patrulla Aspa put up a very nice display 13. Another F-16 solo display, from Denmark 14. One of the airshow's highlights: the USAF C-17 West Coast Display Team 15. Climbing away steeply for a breathtaking display 16. Blue sky at last! 17. Crossover break 18. Another first appearance: the Finnish NH-90 demo 19. Patrouille de France taking off for a very short display (aborted due to low cloud base) 20. Not a very common sight in the Netherlands: a Vickers VC-10

Sniffer, were you the Polish guy I met on Thursday (at the fence) and Saturday when walking from the bus to the crowdline (after waiting half an hour before they cut open te gate lock)?