Skull Leader

It's been many moons since the "average" carrier air wing had two Tomcat squadrons in them. Rather, they became the exception to the rule. CVW-7 and 8 have continued that tradition (7 has since switched to Super Hornets, while 8 is carrying the final two Tomcat squadrons as we speak), but with the arms downgrade of the 1990s it eventually became more common to see ONE Tomcat squadron on carrier decks instead: -Airwing 17 (AA Tailcode) lost VF-74 BeDevilers to disestablishment, but VF-103 Jolly Rogers remained -Airwing 5 (NF Tailcode) lost the VF-21 Freelancers, but kept the VF-154 Black knights -Airwing 2 (NE Tailcode) lost the VF-1 Wolfpack but kept the VF-2 Bounty Hunters -Airwing 11 (NH Tailcode) lost the VF-114 Fighting Aardvarks, but kept the VF-213 Black Lions (and eventually lost them to Airwing This isn't all of the airwings, just the ones I could think of off the top of my head. Other airwings were disestablished all together ( some with the retirement of the last of the Forrestal-class carriers, and later some of the Kitty Hawk class carriers) What's more, the average number of planes per-squadron has dropped to 10. When VF-103, 143, and 11 all came back, they were sporting 10 planes each. When VF-31 and 213 left Oceana for the deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt for their final cruise, they took 10 planes each. VF-213 left two airframes in Oceana (gave them to VF-101 according to a Northrop-Grumman tech I spoke to at the Airshow). I got pictures of one of them, and I don't think it was a flyable airplane any more. I don't know why they dropped to 10 aircraft per-squadron, but I'll wager it was a maintenance issue. On their final Tomcat cruise, VF-103 had one plane that was a perpetual hangar queen (AA113 I think) and had another one that had an engine blow up while it was in tension on the catapult (no deaths, fortunately, but the plane was a writeoff I think). They were really having to rob Peter to pay Paul to keep those things in the air.

Someone didn't send that memo to the USN. 352371[/snapback] Amen to THAT. How can you call it a "more capable" airwing when half of said-airwing is busy hauling fuel for the rest of the squad? Average sortie over Iraq: Tomcats hit the tanker twice, THREE times tops (being in the air for 8-9 hours at a time you eat a LOT of fuel up) Super Hornets hit the tanker as many as 5-6 times... that much less time on station (there IS a silver-lining, I suppose... SH pilots could tank up in the air blindfolded, they do it so much)

Looking at all of those reviews on EBgames, I'm glad I bailed on FFXI when I did... at least I can remember it fondly, but it sounds like things have seriously gone tits up. I will agree with the statement that FF should've remained OFFLINE. (that said, a lot of people who give both good and bad reviews there need to learn to support their arguments.)

Not a fanbase in the sense that you're thinking, rather the fanbase that believes they've yet to be given a real reason to upgrade. Not everyone blindly follows Sony (or as in your example of Windows) without knowing that systems true capabilities or limits. For example, I know that the PS2 is not graphically as capable as the Xbox is, but a) I don't have HD Tv, so the higher-end Xbox stuff wouldn't help me if I had one, and b)It doesn't have to be the highest-end machine to be a seriously quality gaming machine (which the PS2 is). If the PS2 had any superiority over the Xbox (and I believe to a limited extent, it did), it was in 3rd party support. The variety and size of the PS2 gaming library completely owns the Xbox one. It goes back to what I was saying before the 360 came out... I'd much rather have a library FILLED with a lot of "really good" games over a much smaller library with only a couple of "absolutely must-own" games and then a ton of pathetic sports games. it's BECAUSE it has that large library that makes it inherently likable. That's just a personal opinion, and again I was only trying to point out that not all of the Sony fanbase are drooling feeble-minded donkeys who can't think for themselves. If the Xbox360 truly had something worth leaving Sony for, they would've done it. -Is the X360 an excellent gaming machine? My play time on one has been serverely limited, but so far yeah. -Will it dislodge Sony as the dominant gaming force in Japan? I seriously doubt it. We'll have to see how well the PS3 performs before it can truly be determined

I don't think there's any reason to write off Nintendo, for whatever it's worth (and I personally won't be trying it), they're just trying to freshen things up with a new concept or two (Nintendo has always been fond of introducing new media into the gaming experience, for better or worse) back on topic though- I will be interested to see what happens when the trend is reversed and the PS3 is released in the US, if it will have as poor a showing here in the US as the X360 had in Japan (I'm thinking not... I'm predicting the PS3 will come out of the proveribal corner absolutely smokin'). Goes to show that MS may be capable of producing a fine game machine, but it takes more than an early product release to dislodge a diehard system fanbase. The PS2 still has plenty of life left in it, and plenty of innovative games will likely hit the shelf for it between now and the time the PS3 rolls. Micronuts did another no-no by pretty much axing their ENTIRE support of the original X-box before the 360 has a firm software base beneath it. No more titles planned for it, no more consoles produced, nothing... what's out there is what there is (although to be fair, that's quite a lot)

Who are you trying to convince, Dean? Yourself? or everyone around you? If you've only invested 40 days into FFXI, that's not very much. Let's see how you feel about things after you've been playing it for a YEAR. -Jeremy (who liked FF11, but then again, is easily amused and not hard to please)

I fail to see why a TV variant of the F-15 hasn't made it to the mass market. The 2D Thrust vectoring on the F-22A is highly successful, and they've been messing with 3D Thrust Vectoring on that F-15ACTIVE for a while now... I'm guessing cost?

smokes serious pole. Hikaru and Minmay I can live with... Misa, I'm indifferent on, Roy and Claudia? YGBSM...

Cross posted the same article in the X360 thread... I certainly don't think this is what Microsoft had in mind for their opening-day in Japan.

Quoted again for great justice Agent ONE: Ramming fanboys mercilessly in the ass, so you don't have to!

Sounds like Japan is weighing in to the X360... and numbers are lower than they were for the first Xbox? So much for making that "big" first impression Microsoft was hoping for in Japan... LOL, they probably have consoles lining the shelves, while we have parents sacrificing each other to unholy gods of darkness to find one before Christmas here... sweet irony!

heh, all they did was moved the A to where it belongs (trust the USAF Chief of Staff to come up with a winning idea like the F/A concept for the raptor)

I don't know much about F-15s, but I'm guessing it will be like the F-15I with the newer GE F-110 fighter-derivative engines in it

LOL, I bet there's an "AOL" stamp somewhere on the bottom of those things. "You deserve a better internet...." (you're right, I do... so get the f@#& out of my way while I go find it...)

Only did a brief stint as a RDM when I first started working on secondary jobs, but it worked out fine for me... you must just be stuck on the a-hole server. (and I'm sure prices are inflated all across the boards)

UAVs will probably develop a niche, but I don't see them going "mainstream". It's just not as effective as having a brain and a set of eyes and ears "on site" to make the call. Electronics can be jammed or otherwise fooled. When you have eyes and ears to compare that data to, it's a little bit better of a system I think (although pilots can still be fooled). It will still be a long time before our military tries to go the stealth/mac plus route and remove pilots from the picture. In other news, I just picked up a 1/48 Testors/Italeri AC-130 kit... damn this thing is HUGE... (and I thought the 1/72 scale kit I had was uber-large)

I never had any problems linking up with a party in FFXI. The key is to not be an annoying jerk. What's more, once you're in a party, don't get sand in your vagina if something goes wrong. No one is perfect. That was the A number 1 reason why a lot of people on the ifrit server got axed from parties. If we didn't do things exactly their way or attack only VT targets (and then do it just right), they threw a bitch-fit. I can't count the number of times I'd be passing through the deserts by the ocean and see these people yelling out begging to join parties (long after I'd moved on). Lots of whiny bitches on the Ifrit server... I remember that. That was the biggest irony when I first went for Dk. Knight. Everyone told me that I would be pretty much shunned from any party due to the DK's set of skills (they have the serious ability to deal out the hurt, but can't really tank for anything). I actually had people asking ME to join their parties instead of the other way around. I never saw what the big deal was

I'm so getting one. How long back did you order yours, David?

I seriously doubt that was really Madonna. I imagine she's got bigger things on her mind than next-gen gaming. It's an Xbox hater I'm pretty sure.

I guess we'll see how that pans out. History has proven that most Air-superiority fighters adapted for the strike role far outperform Strike aircraft trying to be the other way around.

I remember downloading the F/A-18E shortly after it was first released... the model needed some serious fine-tuning still. Getting to vary the loads on the wings was pretty cool (even if you couldn't do anything with them) Well, I rather thought the F/A-18 was designed as a replacement for the A-7 (maybe I'm mistaken?)... byt I really have to wonder who would be getting the more raw end of the deal. The VFA Squadrons flying Super Hornets? or the VMFA squdrons flying the F-35... (in case you can't tell, I'm not a real fan of either aircraft, althought the SH is aesthetically starting to grow on me... even if it can't outperform a Tomcat)

I saw it and I don't consider my life much more enriched by it. Pretty graphics and kickass music... lousy story though.

Well, they were called the "Tomcatters" back when they were still flying F-4 Phantoms, so if history holds true, their name won't change (some squadrons DO change their name with new aircraft... VF-33 went from being the "Tarsiers" to the "Starfighters" when they switched to tomcats, and VF-24 went from "Fighting Checkertails" to "Fighting Renegades" around the same time). Felix on the tail? I could see that. I have a harder time seeing NAVAIR allow them to have black radomes. (at least on the CAG and SqCO jets). I suppose it's possible, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I'm amazed VFA-102 Got away with that 50th anniversary scheme they've been wearing on the CAG jet of late. Then again, since they're in CVW-5 (stationed out of NAS Atsugi, Japan) they're further away from the influence of NAVAIR. Also, the CAG is FROM VF-102 I think... so he may have had some say-so in that. It's the CAGs that are determining how squadrons in the airwings handle their paintschemes. The new CAG for CVW-7 has declared that VFA-103 will go to cruise with the Boeing-applied markings and nothing else (which sucks for the linejets, they look like ass). Knowing that, it should come as no surprise that the CAG is from VFA-143 (103's new sister squadron). The two squadrons have been rivals for a long time. The VFA-143 Pukin' Dogs have already gone as far as to threaten 103 that they would sell the bones of ENS Jack Ernie on ebay! Jack's been VERY closely guarded ever since... Another note of interest for CVW-7, it appears that VFA-11 Red Rippers may be RETURNING to that airwing. Rumors have started flying that CVW-17 (which VFA-11 traded spots with VFA-103 for) will be disestablished. This would retire the famous "AA" tailcode (often seen with a lightning bolt through it). If this were true, it would mean that CVW-7 (tailcode "AG") would be the first airwing to feature two F/A-18F Squadrons AND a F/A-18E squadron all on the carrier at once. The VFA-81 Sunliners would also be CVW-7 bound apparently. Bear in mind, these are just rumors and there are obviously a lot of loose ends that don't make any sense, but airwings on BOTH coasts are going to be shaken up on a regular basis until all NAVAIR units have switched over to the Superhornet. (edit: bear in mind, the USMC did NOT invest in the Superhornet. They will continue to fly F/A-18C/Ds until their replacements come online... and I hope the F-35 tanks before that day arrives)

This pleases me greatly.

I haven't heard any rules regarding the nose... nothing like I've heard with the rudders anyway. There HAVE been instances where the Pizzabox has been painted, but I don't have any photo-doccumentation just offhand. I don't know why they're being so anal about it.