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Post by shred on Apr 22, 2013 17:50:04 GMT -5
My hobby is a tad unusual, I'm a glider (aka sailplane) pilot and an air spotter. I've been into aeroplanes ever since my Grandfather took me to watch Church Fenton air show back in 1982. The sight of the Red Arrows was incredible, I guess that was inspiration for a lifetime. In my teenage years I joined the Air Training Corps at Church Fenton. I lost interest after a while as I never got to fly with them. My thoughts of being a pilot went on the back burner for sometime after that, but the interest never left me completely, and after a while I visited my local gliding club, discovered how reasonable the prices were, took an air experience flight and was immediately hooked and became a member. I now have a solo endorsement from the British Gliding Association, it's the best thing I've ever done. The view is incredible, as is the sense of freedom. The airfield I fly from was once an RAF bomber command airfield and was host to big four engined Handley Page Halifax Mk3 Heavy Bombers like this: Missions were extremely hazardous German night fighters had upward firing cannons whilst Halifax bombers had no downward firing guns for defence. A number of 578 squadron crews were killed in action. Same spot as it looks these days. I'm lucky, I fly for fun. Sadly I wouldn't be able to do this if it hadn't been for the legacy of the vast number of wartime airfields constructed in Yorkshire for the RAF's Bomber Command. Any questions about Aviation ? Aviation history ?
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Post by Admin on Apr 22, 2013 18:07:47 GMT -5
Cool Hobby
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Post by shred on Apr 24, 2013 3:36:58 GMT -5
Cheers, you should try it sometime, it's very liberating
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Post by shred on May 5, 2013 15:45:06 GMT -5
Here's me at the controls of a K21:
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2013 10:34:27 GMT -5
Here's me at the controls of a K21: Very cool hobby shred! Of course, not the same as the real thing, but one of my favorite past times in the colder months is Battleground Europe, also known as WWII Online. It is not an MMPORG so much as one of the few Virtual Battlefields out there in the market. All the units are live players, except for some basic AI town defenses. My squad from the old days contained and was lead by quite a few folks from the UK, and the interaction on teamspeak was fun. The action takes place over the UK and continental Europe, starting in 1941. Anyways, I know that Battleground Europe is still considered one of if not arguably the best combat flight sim out there; and of course you have to watch for bofors and 88s and everything else some zoom and boom action here as well The game map scale is 1/2 the actual size of Europe.
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2013 13:14:26 GMT -5
My old desktop couldn't handle it when they upgraded the graphics engine for WWII Online, so I dropped out of action over the past few years, as other important things took priority.
Once I have my new desktop in place, I will be doing little to no online forum stuff like this anymore. Free time to fritter on the internet, which is limited like many others due to life, will be given back to the game. I try not to spend too much time on the net or gaming in the summer months anyways, but of all the branches and sides I enjoy playing Allied Air;
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Post by shred on May 7, 2013 5:07:30 GMT -5
Back in the late 1990's I bought European Air War for win95 and Janes AH64 Longbow for DOS, but I didn't have rudder pedals at the time and the simulations were quite hard to get to grips with.
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Post by shred on Jun 15, 2013 4:16:31 GMT -5
Falcon 3.0 was ace. Still got it somewhere. In fact, my Brother still has the original F16 Fighting Falcon game for his Amstrad CPC464 excellent game. Perhaps the hardest flight simulation I ever tried was "Flight Simulation" by Psion software for the Spectrum. www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0001797Even now, it's VERY difficult.
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