Helo & Flightsim Screenshot Thread!

[HunterICX]

Originally Posted by Chock

yes, the hurricanes are there, FSX has much more realistic weather capabilities

Chock

I really need to consider a new PC!

[Seeadler]

Originally Posted by Chock

yes, the hurricanes are there, FSX has much more realistic weather capabilities

I will make a testflight this evening into the hurricane to see how it's ingame:hmm:

[HunterICX]

Originally Posted by Seeadler

I will make a testflight this evening into the hurricane to see how it's ingame:hmm:

make some screenshots of it

[HunterICX]

Woohoo...dropped my bombs ontop some AAA guns
and flying towards home in formation..no auto pilot no TC. very nice

I am the one in the back.

[Kratos]

very nice matey but did you land the mudda ?

[HunterICX]

Ofcourse I only had to swirl in circles for 6 times as when I asked to the tower for permission to land they considered Extra safety precautions and that took some time.

Me:this is Six, permission to land
Ground control:GO AROUND SIX , I REPEAT GO AROUND!
*Six is comming in*
Medic staff and firefighters towards runway 2 AT THE DOUBLE! this is not a training drill!
this is HUNTERICX going to land!
:rotfl:

[sqk7744]

Classic Stabiz!!! - positive rate, gear-up, VNAV

* So who's waiting for you at FSDO, the FAA or USCG ?

[Chock]

Two screenshots from a 'Luftwaffe jets' review I'm working on at the moment:





Chock

[Skybird]

Look look, a flies-straight-like-a-line-Starfighter! Do you fly it or does it fly you?

[Chock]

That thing has just about the most insane FSX flight model I've ever come across, if it's even anywhere near close to what the real thing was like, then it's no wonder the Starfighter got all those uncomplimentary nicknames, such as 'flying coffin' and 'widowmaker'.

I got it up to 93,000 feet a few minutes ago, but it then went into an unrecoverable flat spin, tried everything to get it out - dropping the gear, dropping the flaps, opening the airbrakes, pumping the elevator, opposite rudder, holding the stick full forward, holding the stick full back, cutting the power, hitting the 'burners ets, etc - nothing worked, and it dropped all the way down to the deck - kaboom!

It's a complete death trap at low level too, with really marginal aileron control, especially with any turbulence around.

Still it's not as bad as the early model Starfighters with their downward-firing ejector seats - I'd love to meet the genius who came up with that one.

I used to think that the 60s and 70s Luftwaffe pilots must have been a bit crap after all the crashes they had with the Starfighter, but flying that one in FSX has made me change my mind!

Chock

[Skybird]

A very controversial plane. The German Luftwaffe trained 2000 pilots on the F-104, of which every 20th was killed (116). 916 planes were bought, 296 got lost: that is one third. Reason in Germany were changes in the avionic systems which was a complete package by Grumman and then was tied open again by demands of the German LW, and last but not least for political reasons (namely bragging) more machine were bought in a very short time than the LW could reasonably maintain. Interestingly at the beginning the military advisors and testpilots recommended not to got for the F-104, but to choose for example the Mirage-III or Ligthning (which also crashed quite often, I think). All of these professionals than had to leave their offices, when the "Oberschnösel" Franz-Josef Strauss decided to ignore all advise by the experts and to buy the Starfighter , and more of them as were militarily needed, and could be fully maintained. - The results are known by now. I would rate the history of the F-104G(erman) as a desaster. One third of the planes were lost - although no war took place.

Better take this one: elegance and agility in flight:

[Chock]

Although the F-104G does seem like an odd choice by West Germany (which it was in some ways), the Mirage was only theoretical at that time, and they were not to know it was going to be the successful aircraft it subsequently proved to be, plus I think it's kind of hard to see the Germans approving a French plane.

We have to also consider that the Starfighter deal was very much about support for European, and indeed German, indigenous aviation production too. After all, the 'G' in F-104G did actually stand for Germany, as it was (supposedly) specially developed for that market, intended for large-scale production in Germany. As part of the deal to buy and license-produce the F-104G, two consortiums were created, which included Messerschmitt, Dornier, Heinkel, Siebel, Focke-Wulf, plus Dutch firms Aviolanda and Fokker. Other consortiums in European nations also producing the Starfighter were formed for much the same reasons too. and this did help them to stay in business.

Although it was clear that the US were hoping to make inroads into European markets and bolster what they saw as the defensive front line of the Cold War, it's also true that European companies in the consortiums gained considerable technical knowledge and expertise from the deal, and is one of the reasons why later consortiums such as Panavia and Airbus were able to challenge Boeing.

Of course all that is no consolation to the Luftwaffe pilots who died whilst using an aircraft that wasn't really well suited to the low-level nuclear strike role. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that the Marine wing of German aviation which also used the F-104 did not suffer attritional losses any different from all the other forces which used the Starfighter, the loss rate in the Luftwaffe was very bad compared to other users of the type. It was determined by such Luftwaffe luminaries as Johann 'Macki' Stienhoff and his colleagues, that geographical diffferences aside, much of the reason for the Luftwaffe's problems with the F-104 were down to unsuitable training for the Luftwaffe pilots of the F-104.

However, another factor was that Lockheed would not approve the F-104G to use the Martin Baker ejection seat which the Luftwaffe wanted for it, instead insisting that the (decidedly inferior) Lockheed C-2 ejection seat be used. Coupled with the (then) unreliable performance of the Starfighter's J79 engine, it's not surprising the Luftwaffe had some problems with the F-104G.

Changes they implemented addressed a lot of the problems, but there was little that could be done to combat inherent features of the F-104 which made it unsuitable for Euopean use, such as its inability to withstand long term exposure to the elements, being only really suited to dry US weather in places like Arizona and such.

The US pilots did break a lot of records with the F-104 (speed and altitude among them) but they too lost a lot of pilots on the thing, and when the US tried to use the F-104 for combat in Vietnam, it performed miserably, with huge losses, eventually ending up with it being withrawn and only used by a few ANG units and NASA as an occasional chase plane (which it was actually good at).

Certainly not the best aircraft ever built.

Chock

[HunterICX]

Flying with kratos:

[Kratos]

Yea!! Hunter its a mad arena.was worried for a few minutes there

[HunterICX]

Comooon Kratos,

Mine's always itching :rotfl: