David Hingtgen

Top speed is utterly pointless, as it's never achieved. Top speeds are CLEAN speeds, not max speed with a load. A Super Hornet won't even break Mach 1 in full burner with a typical attack load, and even the vaunted super-fast F-15 won't break 1.7 with its typical CAP loadout, the F-14's about the same. An F-2 with its gigantic anti-ship missles won't fare well either. The F-22 will blow them all away 99% of the time, as it doesn't lose any speed from external weapon drag. It can super-cruise with 6 AMRAAM's faster than a Super Hornet can go in max afterburner with the same load.

What Jemstone said. Anyways----Snakes on planes are a serious problem for planes coming from Guam. Brown tree snakes LOVE to climb aboard and thus spread to other Pacific islands--notably Hawaii. Hawaii and Guam literally have a task force trained to inspect planes before the leave and after they arrive, and to hunt down any brown tree snakes they find. They are also about the hardiest snakes there are, with no natural enemies. They're hard to shoot or drown and love to eat Hawaiian native endangered species. And they rapidly lower property value--nothing like a million-dollar home with snakes in the trees. (Which will of course be the movie's sequel, once the plane finally lands at the end of the movie).

Probably not, enamel vs lacquer. Try lacquer thinner if you can't get Mr Color Thinner. http://www.swannysmodels.com/Surfacer.html

Stickers inherently suck, even the best ones. Use decals! Is Anasazi working on VF-0 decals yet?

Korea's F-15K's are being delivered, but they're not operational yet. The Gripen has won a surprising number of orders. NOBODY is buying the Rafale, and few are buying the Typhoon. The Gripen is certainly the Eurocanard of choice. PS--anyone get their Gripen book from SAAB? It's been months since we last discussed it.

I'd vote for four.

Is there any line art showing the landing gear? We don't get to see it much in the OVA. Removing the animated sig/avatar is my first "high-level" use of mod power. It's rather intoxicating. And corrupting... PS--thanks for the pics though.

I actually think mine's defective based on how much buzzing goes on and all the other sounds contained within that buzz. However, since it will play games perfectly, I really doubt MS would replace it for "noise". MS responded to my email and told me to call them. As I've said, it's not just the volume, it's the specific noise itself that's so annoying. Even a person with a very quiet voice can have an incredibly annoying voice that's irritating just to hear them whisper---same with my 360. Honestly I think it'd be easier and quicker to just take it back, get a refund, and buy a different one in the future. Also, checking yet more on 360 drives, seems the new quieter ones have a much higher failure rate--basically they can't take the 16x loading speeds for long. Also seems they have a higher incidence of being really noisy (they're either really quiet or really loud it seems, with the old drive being in the middle)...

It's back in the box, going back tomorrow. None in stock in the entire city as of today, so I'll just be 360-less for a while. Maybe I'll try to snag one in June, get a totally different batch--and maybe there'll be another running change. I might just wait until there's some "newer ones are quieter" reports out there. I wonder if I'll be the first person to actually return a 360 for a refund. (I was the first person at BestBuy to ever return a Slim PS2, because it died after 12 hours) I haven't had very good luck with systems lately. Hopefully my DS Lite will be ok...

Even ignoring carrier landings, almost every figther jet period has a single center hook for emergency landings. Just saw a photo of an F-16 recently using its, and it was one heck of a spark show...

While we're talking F-14's, I finally downloaded the F-14D's NAVAIR, lots of interesting stuff---like the fact that idle on the F110 can be as high as 78%. That's really high even for a military engine. Also, despite being the primary roll control, stabilator deflection is limited to 7 degrees off of neutral. (looks like a lot more, but I doubt the manual's wrong) Max stab deflection for pitch is 33 degrees up, 10 deg down. Rudder deflection is 30 deg. Wing sweep modes are numerous and complex, as you might imagine. F-14D NAVAIR manual, 85 megs or so: http://www.patricksaviation.com/aviation_f...AIR_01-F14AAD-1

Yeah, but this time MS is trying a lot harder and spending a lot more money for the Japan market---they seem almost "desperate" to do well in Japan. Won't happen if the 360 makes more noise than the Tokyo subway...

I decided last night it's going back to the store, regardless. I can't risk Microsoft getting mine and saying "it's not so loud that we'll replace it" and getting it back just as noisy as it was! Also, I've seen at least a few reports of replacement 360's simply being refurbished ones, with other people's stuff still on the hard drive! I don't pay 400 bucks to get an older one with a dirty case and a HDD full of junk. I'm going to go to all the demo kiosks in the area today and listen very closely, and see how mine is. If mine sounds way different, I will see if I can just exchange for a different one. If it's close, then I just plain can't stand 360 noise and will get a refund, and hopefully within the next 9 months there'll be yet another minor revision or something to make them quieter. Please Japan, write letters to Bill Gates saying that the 360 is too big and loud to buy so they have to redesign it if they want JP sales...

I'll try to remember what I could--the site he usually posts (and that I go to) has like a 3-week limit for searching for old posts, so I couldn't find anything he said earlier. But I certainly recall him (and several other people) disliking the J quite a lot, mainly because I was quite shocked that they did---I thought the J was supposed to be a lot better. I know there's an issue with field performance for some reason (basically I think they consider the new powerplant installation inferior for STOL), and the one thing I really specifically recall was with the electronics---basically, the computer demands the plane be 100% serviceable to fly---it won't let the tiniest thing "go". There was a report I think of something like the toilet's exterior vent door was open,(pretty close to inconsequential) and the computer knew it, and refused to let the plane take off----when they were trying to get the hell out of there while under fire. Sure it might have created a minor pressurization problem or something, but not nearly as bad as getting shot at on the ground. Basically, the computer is so finicky that you can't jury-rig anything any more, and the plane has lost its ability to always fly no matter how bad things get. But all of the above is just what I remember/gather from various posts from a few people, but mainly 1 or 2.

Well after my last 10-minute DOA 4 session (about all I can stand) I shut off my 360 and sent an email off to Microsoft. I just can't take the drive noise. However, I know from "life experience" that it's probably in the pitch range that 99% of people won't hear a THING and think I'm nuts. It really sucks that after 6 months, I finally find one----but can't play it because the drive is so irritating. It's not the VOLUME of the sound, it's the sound itself. It's kind of in the background of the drive's buzz---a shrill whine, like a dentist's drill or a leaf blower. Not loud, but there, and at the exact pitch that just goes straight through your skull into your brain, that'll give you a headache. It would suck most of all if they say there's nothing wrong with it, then I have $400 system I can't play. I dredged up the dedicated 360 thread to ask people to comment on how their 360 drive sounds: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...ndpost&p=389920

Question for everyone who has one, especially a recently manufactured one: Would you describe exactly what kind of sound the drive makes when playing games? Because I really can't stand mine, even though mine has the supposedly quieter Samsung drive. I'm THIS close to calling MS and b*tching about it to try to get a different (quieter) system. The fans don't bug me at all, but my drive makes a BUZZ that is louder than any other drive I've ever heard. It's like when my CD-ROM is burning a disc---but louder and much higher pitched. In addition to the constant BUZZ, there's frequent random changes in the noise--it doesn't just hum along steadily, there's all these almost chips, rattles, shrieks mixed in. really can't think that's normal or EVERYONE would be complaining constantly. The two types of 360 drives: http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/Xbox_360_DVD..._Comparison.htm Mine is (impossibly) the quieter one...

There are approximately 1 trillion C-130 variants, including all the unofficial mods and "doesn't official exist" non-variants in black paint. The most outspoken "doesn't like the J" guy I know is one who flys the Spectre. His "Tales from Kandahar" are always interesting.

AVSforum, while probably the best place to get info on specific TV's due to sheer membership (if you want to know how a TV is, there's probably 10 people who own it and have posted), is like Gamefaqs for the level of flame wars and personal vendettas and company fanboys that inhabit it. Tons of good info, but you've really got to sort through the junk and super-biased info. Decided last night that I am going to buy a new TV stand, mainly so I can put my 360 behind a glass door and have it blow its exhaust on the dresser and not my GC cords. I will buy one big enough to take 30in widescreens (future proofing), with a completely open back for both cords and the 360's afterbuner... Seriously, I need to get a thrust gauge and see how much power a 360's hot exhaust has, probably equal to a small R/C ducted fan...

Every C-130 pilot I've seen comment has hated the J. They consider them inferior and that Lockheed basically F-d up the entire design forever, eliminating a lot of things the C-130 is known for. A LOT of operators/countries really want H's etc, or even to rebuild A's and B's! They do NOT want the J as it will no longer fulfill a lot of the roles they bought the 130 for in the first place.

The Su-30MKI already has "western" avionics, in the form of ones based off of the Rafale. You won't do a whole lot better than the best France has to offer. It's FAR superior avionics-wise to any other Flanker. And 98% of aircraft out there. PS---F-14D currently scheduled to arrive in Bloomington at noon on Thursday, I still plan to drive out to see it.

From what I've read, it seems most HDTV's are designed to "look best on the showroom floor" so they spend multiple frames re-sampling and "tweaking" 480i inputs etc to catch people's eye. It makes no difference at all watching a movie or something so most people have no idea it's happening. But for a game, the controllers (and you) will effectively be "behind" the game, since you see it on screen a moment later than the PS2 actually rendered it and expects button presses to match. Straight upsampling/converting etc can be done in well less than a single frame, it's just that almost every HDTV is set NOT to do it that way, but to instead do all their well-advertised tweaks and sharpening first, which takes a frame or two. Or 15 in some cases. Some are just so fast at it that even with all that done they still do it fast enough to not make a difference, but others seem to spend a quarter-second "refining" the image before displaying it.

Toshiba had a great CRT reputation until the 2004 models--I've had several Toshiba's to that previously, it was always "Sony or Toshiba" when you wanted a new TV. 2004/2005 had a big drop in quality for CRT's--they outsourced all CRT production to a new factory, and a lot of issues cropped up. Consumer Reports dropped Toshiba from near the top to near the bottom for 2005 CRT models. THAT is why I'm wary. Only the flat-screen stuff is actually made by Toshiba---their CRT's are actually made by someone else now, with the Toshiba name slapped on. (I do go around checking for the "Made in" stickers on TV's, trying to determine which factory they came from---so many companies get stuff from the same factory--if there's problems or quality stuff coming from one factory, it'll show up in most everything that factory makes, regardless of what brand it's sold under) PS---mike, the "lag issue" is AFAIK only when 480i is played on a HDTV--- upscaling the signal to 1080 is what delays it. Have you experimented with a standard PS2 signal to your TV? Like say the MegaMan collection on your DLP, I'm sure you'd detect the slightest lag with that. PPS---actually played DOA 4 for the first time last night. Spent 10 mins trying to figure out how to turn off vibration (there's NO mention of it in the 360 manual that I could find, finally found it in the in-game dashboard--can't access it from the startup dashboard) Anyways, I think the 360 is VERY loud and annoying. I'm going to have to move it further away from the TV (thank God for wireless controls), I have to turn the volume way up to drown out the 360's whining. And roaring. Very strange--most all systems "hum" smoothly and evenly but the 360 changes--roaring one second, whining the next. The sound doesn't really quiet down when it's not actively loading. Not a whole lot of variation, but enough that it's always changing so that you can't really get used to it. Also found out that it seems most of the ventilation holes are cosmetic---ALL the heat and air comes out the back. And boy is it a lot of heat.

Squadrons often do schemes from years ago for special occasions----a bunch of F-14 squadrons did 1970's colors recently. No reason why UN Spacy squadrons wouldn't do te same. There could be a lot of "retro/vintage 100th anniversary colors" in 2040...

Despite what people might think, black and white are among the hardest colors to match. Paint it all. Or strip it all. Don't have 2 different whites on it.

Quick note: I'm playing it as I'm a huge RPG fan and liked the first a lot, but will not be reading this thread until I finish it. I hate spoilers, and already know way more than I wanted to. (Darn Wikipedia, I was looking up some Chain of Memories stuff but they put KH2 spoilers in the same section)