Here's the original L0:MAC forum post of a flyable F-16. There may be more mods like this so I'll keep looking.

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums?a=t...06&m=785101026

EDIT: AHHA!!! I found a whole slew of them. http://www.lockonfiles.com is where they are at. Register there (it's free) and search for F-16 if you're interested. An F-16 cockpit still evades me though.

Lil update on flight training:

A-A radar modes and all that comes with them are very... oh how should I describe this... wordy? In other words it's slow going as I want to be able to understand what I am doing. I don't want to just memorize what buttons to press to do this or that so once I get up against real enemies I won't just freeze because the situation is different from training and I don't know what to do. I suppose from here on this is where the sim begins to raise its technical side!

[Dives back into the manual and tuts]

It's fun when you get it right though! :D

Falcon is great to learn, and better when it all comes together. I remember when I reached the point when I got that coveted SA (situational awareness), it's like a big 3D picture that builds in your head from all the information that gets thrown at you. Very satisfying!

Took me a good year to get there, though :doh:

I have it but i haven't played in a while. Mabye i should again... :hmm:

mmhmm :yep:

That fighter Ops in your sig looks siiiiick......:up:

Yeah I stumbled upon it by accident last night while looking for different mods for Falcon.

Last week when I first started to get interested in flight sims again I looked and looked and looked for any upcoming modern combat flight sims and I was surprised that I came up dry. After that I was afraid that LO:MAC and Falcon were (at least for the foreseable future) the last of a dying breed.

But it seems that Flight Ops just slipped under the radar, and by the lack of information out on the net about it and the lack of buzz so far, a lot of people, even those in the flight sim community have hardly heard of it. At least not yet.

The community over there is great and they have a TREMENDOUSLY informed forums. Seems like a few of the forum members that are frequent posters are within some branch of the military, both U.S. and foreign. With that in mind, it makes me even more excited about this sim because those people know their stuff and should know what's hot and what's not when it comes to military flight simulations. Also the devs appear to have a great working relationship with the USAF, many of the dev crew have had the chance to tour US bases and take rides in a variety of US military jets, so they are getting first hand knowledge right from the source. The Devs are involved within the community as well, posting frequently throughout the day on a variety of topics, not just related to their game even.

There is also a special section of the forums, which does cost some coin to get into, which gives you access to all sorts of cool stuff that everyone else doesn't get. Day by day updates on the project and how they do things, teamspeak discussions with various members of the military or naviation industry giving lectures on interesting topics relating to the game, their job, etc. I'm seriously considering popping for it, not to mention that you get a special discount for a TrackIR4 just for joining. I think it's $25 to join and then the discount for the TrackIR is $35, so if you are considering a TrackIR, hell you might as well just go for it, which I am considering ;).

They are making some pretty big promises, but so far I have faith. If you (or anyone for that matter that are interested in flight sims), haven't check out their page, check their features and FAQ section and hit up the forums. Just check my Sig.:up:

Finally starting to get the A-A radar down. Everything just sort of "clicked" tonight. Being able to realize that a paticular radar mode would be good for this or that while in the heat of combat is a good feeling. :up:

Definitly going to have to get a HOTAS setup or at least a joystick with alot of buttons though. I hate using the Keyboard for anything in the cockpit and having to use the mouse to click stuff in the 2d pit is to slow, at least in the A-A radar training mission it is. By the time you are able to lock on to a target (you can pause the sim, or "freeze" it and use the radar, but I want this to be realistic) using the mouse you are already dusted. Oh and that brings to mind, using the keyboard (or my gamepad's D-pad for that matter) to look around your pit is IMPOSSIBLE, it is impossible to dogfight this way as you can't keep track of where the bogies are while doing the other 1000 things. The Saitek comes with a hat switch that is hopefully going to be better, and I may splurge for a TrackIR, but I haven't decided yet.

I read a guy's post about this mission in another forum, and he had a good point in regards to the difficulty.
Paraphrased: The mission should have been against bombers or drones and not fighters coming at you hot and beginning the merge before you even have time to change views. It's your first mission against live targets. Why the heck should you be able to be shot down if it's a training mission, we'd kill off all our pilots before they got to the real show if that was RL. That mission doesn't even include the firing of weapons to return the favor!

But anyways not ranting against the game per say, just commenting.
Off to 20mm Cannon (Air-Air) training!

I'll post some screenies!

Air-Air Radar/Missile Training Mission photo overview!


Now that's a target rich environment.
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/3...itsmalljw7.jpg


Picked my target and he is "bugged"!
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/723...edsmallug3.jpg

Locked and loaded!
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/4...edsmallds1.jpg

Missile Away!
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5...elaunchac6.jpg

First Kill of many!
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/6...rstkilluv5.jpg

Flying high now, I see :up:

I love the detail on that Sidewinder, but to be honest I somehow don't like that AF cockpit - it's a lot smoother, but I just have a thing for the scratchier, more photo-looking pit of the SP heritage.

Yeah mate, I'm getting there. :D

I love the ordinance texture pack I picked up. Covers almost all the externals in the game, including fuel tanks. The Cockpit that I managed to get ahold of (it is not stock) is something that I like, I like how it is... "newer" looking than the stock pit. Because, bah, I don't want a used jet, I want a new one! Maybe by the time I get done with all the training hops I'll switch back to the original, by then I'll have put quite a few miles on my bird. ;)

EDIT: I'll post some more pics later, I'll put in a few with the stock pit as well so you can get an idea of what it looks like.

Some pics before I log for the next few days. When I get back I'll just edit this post and add the rest of what I have for training done. A-G radar and bombs! Merry Christmas!

My Plane and I, cruising along:

Hi Rez click HERE
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/3...myplanesk9.jpg

Keyboard command madness:
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/2...keysee5.th.jpg

Guess what I've been playing :88)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/Otohiko/f04.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/Otohiko/f05.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/Otohiko/f09.jpg

First mission in a long time and it went over reaaal well. Went on a SEAD strike; took out two radars and had my 2nd element bomb out the launchers, and on the way also popped two Mig-19s. The debrief reported that the SAM batallion was down to 2% strength after our strike! (playing Korea 2005 campaign, 1st day)

And oh, there's my comparison shot now!

Yep, I love the quality of the top one, but the 'scratchiness' of the old one still has me for some reason :p

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/723...edsmallug3.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/Otohiko/f09.jpg

Well, I've managed to find some time to log in. I'm at my Aunt and Uncle's house and everyone went off trooping to the nearest convienent store in search of ribbon candy and egg nog. I got stuck babysitting so here I am.

About that picture though, what I do like about that pit is the reflections on the gauges. That's really cool, and I never noticed that on the stock pit that came with the game. I assumed that the pit that I have now (which is payware) would have better than what stock had though. I'll have to check that out. I like the other pictures too, looks like you had a first good sortie of the campaign. I can't wait till I can so effortlessly tear it up like that.:up:

We should fly together sometime, CCIP. After I get back home tomorrow we can plan something.