Skull Leader

They were flown by the marines I think, actually... but yeah the official designation for US Kfirs was the F-21

The Israeili airforce got good publicity from both of the first two movies for the flying scenes (for those that don't know, It was all Israeli aircraft in the first two iron eagle movies... the US didn't approve of a script containing a teenager beating national security like that, and wouldn't back it)

My whole issue with that was that they tried to pass off the A-4 (whatever variant they used) as "... smaller, faster, and more maneuverable"... not to be biased, but when was the last time a Skyhawk outran a Tomcat? Smaller and more able to turn on a dime, sure, but in a straight out run I'm pretty sure the Tomcat would ride down that skyhawk every time.

Kinda raised an eyebrow here too... never heard of an A-4 "Mongoose" (unless it was some sort of special variant I just hadn't heard of). "Skyhawk" or "Scooter" is all I've ever heard.

It's amazing how stratified opinions on this movie can be. Some people actually saw a story to it, while others saw nothing but mindless eye-candy with some occasionally catchy dialogue (like myself...I'm particularly fond of what Sephiroth said to Cloud: "Tell me what's the most important thing to you, Cloud... will you give me the pleasure of taking that away from you?" or something like that), but there was no substance or development... here we have three new badguys showing up with no explination of their origin, only that they're tied to Jenova and Sephiroth somehow. Finally claiming "ultimate revenge on the planet", they do their damnedest to have a "reunion" with their mother (Jenova) that will somehow bring about the end of the world. It's not hard for someone who's played and beat FFVII to theorize that they were somehow born of Jenova while the lifestream was battling the meteor or another convenient time. However, to anyone who hadn't played FFVII (and more power to those lucky souls), they'd be pretty much clueless. Geostigma I could understand: it was the vehicle for showing that Genova's influence on the lifestream had made things impure. That was the ONE concept introduced in the movie that was explained reasonably well.

Yeah, Vincent could shape-shift, but I don't see any indications that it was him (he rather transformed into a kind of werewolf more than anything). Vincent told Cloud in the ancient forest that he had been busy keeping an eye on Kadaj and his gang. He even mentioned going out to save Tseng and Elena from the northern crater. .... so I guess it COULD be Vincent, but it seems to me that he would've been awfully busy. What's more, the wolf appeared next to cloud after he "died"... and since none of the other living companions appeared in this other state-of-being, I don't know if Vincent would've been able to be there or not.

The black wolf is a metaphor for Cloud's self-imposed sense of lonliness. How can you not understand Aerith's constant interludes? They're trying to show that she's still an active part of the life-stream and that she still resides within Cloud's conscience. It all comes down to divine intervention, and if you don't understand that, I don't know how else to explain it. The water is yet another metaphor... this time for spiritual healing. In many religions (Christianity probably being chief amongst them), water is seen as the ultimate form of spiritual clensing (this is what happens when someone is baptized... just like Denzel was at the end of the film). That's why it healed the geostigma and Kadaj, an entity of pure evil, was repulsed by it. When Aerith and Zack appear at the end of the film, that's just part of the way the writer showed that Cloud was able to let go and "live in the now" with his friends. This is used in movies on a constant basis. This certainly makes it the most ironic Final Fantasy... Cloud believes he is on his own through the whole affair practically when his friends are practically throwing themselves in harm's way to help him. I always thought he was a retard for this... and Aerith played along the whole time Aerith: "You'll be ok now, right?" Cloud: "Yeah, I'm not alone anymore" me: "YOU STUPID@SS FANNY-BANDIT!!! YOU NEVER WERE!!!" Zack has his own anime that tells his story. My God... you just caused me to "geek out" about my least favorite final fantasy. I'm gonna go smash my balls flat with a large rubber mallet now.

Cool, aren't they? They aren't the youngest jets on the block, but they still turn a head or two! Snodgrass likes his knife-edge passes nice and low, the man's pure dynamite!

You know, if it's only people like YOU advocating "family values", it's no wonder this nation is going to hell in a handbasket. You're the one packing the sandwiches. Besides, am I mistaken or was one of the rules of this place to NOT discuss politics? Also, I'm still waiting for proof that you've done all of this (military service, your masters degree, etc). You've not mentioned any names or places. Probably safest that way though, can't be caught in a lie if you don't try to back it. I question these because you in no way, shape, or form conduct yourself as someone who can claim right to those categories.

Probably just reinforcing some of the most important things in life

You were supposed to get one for Castlevania. 334735[/snapback] LOL, I changed my mind.

A few more pictures... most of these were taken with my 35mm SLR (I'm not cool enough to own a DIGITAL SLR yet...). Also, my paintshop pro skills are not yet at the level where I can effectively clean a photo up, but I want to learn! First up: Dale Snodgrass beating up runway 5 in a low pass after the heritage flight on saturday The VFA-106 "Gladiators" Superhornet demo, pulling vapor (and now what EVERYONE wants to see...) The VF-101 "Grim Reapers" demo plane doing a high-speed knife-edge pass The Tomcat starting to "clean up" after a mock carrier landing .... he then climbs in full burner into the sky! (I know, the picture is dirty as hell!)

Did you see the embarassing Naval heritage flight on sunday? They tried to pass one of those "Sabres" off as a Fury! (still wearing USAF markings and all). I wonder why the corsair didn't fly that day? Or better question still... WHY DIDN'T THE TOMCAT PARTICIPATE!? Seriously... on both days, the Tomcat was pretty much taxiing to parking as the heritage flight started. On Saturday it was the Corsair, a Legacy Hornet, and a Super Hornet. On Sunday they replaced the Corsair with Dale Snodgrass in his Sabre (it wasn't a fury... I don't care how hard you try... and the announcer went as far as to call it a "Sea Fury", which I'm pretty sure is a different aircraft all together) You won't often find me giving game point to the boys in blue over the navy, but the Air Force had a MUCH better organized heritage flight (although the presence of a USAF prop-fighter might've made it better). The United States Navy needs to go to AMARC and donate about 5 naval phantom airframes to the Collings Foundation (the ones in charge of the QF-4Es on the airshow circut), so that we can see navy phantoms at airshows again (even better, paint 'em up in squadrons that don't exist anymore... do a VF-114 or VF-96 F-4J, and do an F-4S in VF-301's heater/ferris paintscheme... maybe an old F-4B or N in VF-84 markings. Here's a few of MY shots from Oceana (can't wait to see yours, Shin!). The QF-4E popping the chute after the Heritage flight on saturday: A VFA-11 "Red Rippers" Superhornet (it still has the CVW-7 tailcode on it... that's strange!) VFA-131 "Wildcats" Legacy Hornet demo plane VF-32 Squadron Commander's plane after the Fleet tactical demo on saturday Lastly, the VF-101 retro paintscheme bird after the Fleet tac demo on saturday (this plane did the final Tomcat demo EVER on sunday)

Hmm, the original final fantasy III finally ported for american audiences? I may just have to get a dual-screen after all

At some point, somebody made a mock-airshow advertisement in Japanese...(I'm guessing it would be for the day the UNS Macross was launched). It showed a picture (CG or painting, can't remember) of the Angelbird Valkyries in the vertical... I'd love to find that picture again!

The Macross II Soundtrack was broken up into two CDs. One was commonly available in the US, while the other was not (got both eventually). That's probably one of the better songs on the soundtrack.

In your opinion.

You could also buy wingmen in the original "air combat" (Ace Combat 1)... you assigned their duty before the mission and then never heard from them again (except as a tiny blip on the radar that did nothing) So long as the basic gameplay isn't changed, I think I'll be ok with whatever else they alter. I too would love to see more cold-war era aircraft ('saders, floggers, Jaguars, maybe a naval phantom or two (F-4B/J/N/S... gunpod phantoms ROCK). and Ditto on the Mirage F.1... it's the only Dassault aircraft I've ever liked. ... and where, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, are flyable Harriers!? Working out the game mechanics for them wouldn't be THAT hard... and I'd love to take a Sea Harrier on an anti-ship or ground attack mission.

Dan Worren is one of the few RT cast members that actually did a good job in my opinion. I would not at all mind him doing the english-dub of Roy Focker. He's about the only one though. Cam Clarke is one of my favorite american voice actors, but he just isn't right for Max... needs to be someone with a deeper voice. Although (and I could be wrong, I can't remember), if he did the voice for Quamzin ("Khyron"), he's pretty well suited for that. Everyone else pretty much needs to go.

yeah, I wish SE would've taken a moment to realize how bad it looks to go and use an older FF for their tech demo... I hate FFVII almost as much as Agent One hates M7 (must be something to do with "7"). The world at large has been waiting for more word on the newest FF game (or even better, why not just let the franchise die a peaceful death before it gets COMPLETELY run into the ground?) ... why oh WHY couldn't they stop at 6? They've strayed so far from the formula now that it can be difficult to see why it's called a member of the "final fantasy" genre. -Jeremy (Who firmly believes if it isn't pixilated SD characters, it isn't final fantasy.. that may not be the exact term for it, but you know what I mean)

LOL, of course, true to Macross Plus fashion, no one would be able to pilot it either!

It's a nice thought DH, and believe me I would love to see it, but it could never happen. The mounting lugs for the F-404 and F-414 are in different places. Boeing convinced the engineers at P&W, or is it GE, I forget to change the lug configuration and spacings in order to keep such a thing from happening. I mean come on do you really think the navy would be as shot in tail with the Super Hornet if they could just re-engine the existing hornet and get a much better fighter? 332246[/snapback] Bah! Here in the south we weld new motor mounts on engines for cars that weren't supposed to get 'em all the time! Grab yer weldin' torch and get to work! About Snodgrass: I'm pretty sure the Navy would have 8 Bravo tomcats to give him, but virtually every D at AMARC is listed on 72-hour turnaround (the active war reserve)... I don't think they'd give those up so quickly. Then again, I could be wrong. The F-14A I take care of at Tulsa is still a completely flyable plane (engines and all) and IT'S still listed on the 72-hour turnaround list (it's engined, flyable, and near a runway), but we still have it. I guess we won't know until it happens!

There is a doctored version of the picture running around that claims Snodgrass had his wings clipped for that maneuver. I met him at the Little Rock airshow a few years back and he denied that anything ever happened after that picture (indeed, he went further up the command chain long after the photo occured). In airshow terminology, what he's doing in that picture is referred to as a "knife-edge pass" (putting the airplane up on the wing), and it's one of Snodgrass' signature maneuvers. He did several in his F-86 at the show.... many much lower to the ground than he is to the sea in that picture. Seeing him and Ed Shipley in tight formation doing those passes was just amazing!

looks like she was owned by "teh Shatner"! One of the original pimps, man!

I could post it some more....? (kidding!)