The FlightSim Hangar

I stumbled across a view excellent videos done by Jay Leno and his show Jay Leno’s Garage. Great video and sound quality, but most importantly Jay asks excellent questions and the camera work is equally good. I really enjoyed the camera man’s scanning of all the small details, most notably in the bomber videos. Jay does a great job asking the questions that most laymen would probably wonder and his love of machines really comes through. Enjoy.

Ted Aviation

I’ve been playing through a bomber commander and a squadron commander campaign in B17 The Mighty Eighth. I like to do AAR’s to relive these battles, but being an older game, B17 can be hard to capture screens and film because the cameras are so limited and there is no track recording (like IL2) or instant replay (like MSFS) available within the game. I don’t like to write too much (I’m lazy) and I prefer just a sentence or two and a picture or movie to go with it. Occasionally though I grab a truly extraordinary shot, not in technical terms of cinematography or anything like that, but in terms of capturing a meaningful moment within the game.

B17 is simulation of the daylight bombing raids over France and Germany during WWII, but the mechanics of the game are mostly about crew resource management. Basically do as much damage to the enemy as possible and bring as many men and bombers home as you can. Don’t do enough damage and you are reassigned. Casualty rate too high? Reassigned. If your crews survive a few missions you really start to pull for these guys and missions become more and more tense. When you do a squadron commander campaign you are managing twelve bombers and their crews, and six go out on missions at a time.

So here we are over Germany. We’re being attacked by 109’s or 190’s. A fighter attacks #6 and some tracers whiz by the left wing. The tail gunner is returning fire and the gunners from #3 are assisting by firing at the fighter as well. You never see the attacker as he makes his pass and zooms away. It’s hard to see in this reduced size version of the film, but what happens is a tracer hits somewhere between engine #1 and #2 (there is a fuel tank there) and ignites the avgas. The result is a catastrophic rupture and explosion of that outboard wing. The B17 is mortally wounded and immediately falls out of formation. B17 TME doesn’t have the superb visual damage models that we enjoy in today’s modern sims, but the number crunching behind the scenes is very robust. What probably happened to this bomber is that the wing outboard on engine #2 departed the plane and the aircraft started a steep descending spin to the left. In the words of a crew member from the movie “Memphis Belle”, “Bye bye C-Cup.” The crew had plenty of altitude to escape the plane, but the spiral might have placed tremendous G forces on them and made it hard to get out. The result was 7 POW’s and 3 KIA for that bomber.

I find it interesting how this game can make me feel. I see a fiery explosion and the 17 dropping out of formation and my reaction isn’t “wow”, “cool”, “great effect”, or anything like that. It’s almost always, “crap”, “jesus”, “oh no”, or something to that effect. And I look for the chutes. I always look for the chutes. Why? Whether the crew member is MIA, KIA, or POW its all the same to the game. You lost that crew and it counts against you to your superiors. So why count the chutes? Because that is what the real guys did. They counted chutes and made their reports. They hoped for the best for those that weren’t coming home and were thankful that it wasn’t them. And when I think of it objectively outside the game it seems silly and pointless. But I always count the chutes every time one goes down.

The original color version is more spectacular, but I wanted to mute it and make it more period authentic by converting it to B&W.

Ted B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th

My friend Jason recently purchased FSX and we have been having some fun flying together (sharing a plane) in multiplayer mode. I haven’t been flight simming much lately (for various reasons) and Jason’s recent entrance into the hobby has renewed my interest again. I picked up the Mohawk Tour again and have been getting some of those flights while learning the nuances of the 1-11. She’s a great plane, but a handful and does not like any inattentiveness, especially on final approach. As long as I pay attention to her we do fine. I’m going to try talking Jason into downloading David Maltby’s excellent freeware and see if we can share the plane in FSX. There will certainly be plenty for both of us to do. Heck, maybe I can get him to join Mohawk VA and fly for me on VA Financials (hint hint).

Here are some recent screens of Mohawk activity.

At the gate at Buffalo-Niagara International (KBUF). Scenery is Mach 1 Design Group KBUF.

Banking left somewhere over upstate New York.

Banking right somewhere over a metropolitan area, probably NJ/NY.

On glideslope into Newark International (KEWR).

Spoilers deployed and reverse thrusters engaged after touchdown at Newark International (KEWR).

The touchdown at Newark International (KEWR). Cool bridge and some large port cranes in the background.

Pushback from A1 at Greater Rochester International (KROC). I love Mach 1 sceneries because of the little details like freeway overpass signs.

Engine start (close up) at Greater Rochester International (KROC).

Engine start at Greater Rochester International (KROC).

Nine thousand feet over Boston, being vectored in by approach control. Downtown is in the distance with Boston-Logan International (KBOS) beyond that. Fenway Park is just off the tail and below the skyscrapers. Terrain is Ultimate Terrain US with FS Genesis for the mesh.

Ted Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004/FSX/Acceleration, Virtual Airlines

Note: I always try to avoid negativity on this website. There is so much positive stuff to post about it isn’t hard. Occasionally though there are criticisms that need to be made so consumers are well informed.

Blood Bowl arrived yesterday. Rise of Flight showed up today. I’ve been anticipating both games for awhile. Both games have their own forms of copy protection/DRM. I installed Blood Bowl and was able to authenticate and license my game immediately and was playing five minutes later. Painless. I can play the game whether or not I’m connected to the internet. Perfect. So far no bugs or crashes. The only problem I have is that I’m getting my ass handed to me regularly by opposing teams.

I installed Rise of Flight. I launch the game. It asks me to register so I click on the link. Crash to desktop followed by the opening of a web page. Uh oh. I go to the website and attempt to register. 404 error. Big uh oh. I try a few more times with same result. I go to Simhq.com which has been promoting RoF for months and where Jason at 777 studios has set up lines of communication on the forums about RoF. Multiple threads all saying the same thing. “We can’t register/play our games.” 404 errors. Emails coming back undeliverable. Blah blah blah.

RoF is developed by neoqb, a Russian company. The game was released in Russia weeks ago and people are playing it. They knew the North American release was happening this week. Their form of copy protection/DRM is that you have to register your email, password, and forum name on their website and then they authenticate your game. In addition, you have to always be logged in to their server/connected to the internet to play, even if it just single player. Not painless. Not perfect.

I understand the need for companies to protect their IP’s. I understand the argument that I am purchasing a license to play a game and not purchasing the game itself. Company of Heroes uses a similar CP/DRM, but the major difference is that I cannot ever remember not being able to use my game because of a problem on their end. And I’m OK with all of that. What I am not OK with is spending $40 for a coaster, which is what RoF is right now and what it will be every time either my internet goes down or their servers take a dump. The best part is that assurances were made prior to this mess that this exact scenario was unlikely to occur because they were anticipating everything.

If you are thinking of purchasing RoF you might want to wait and see how this plays out. You certainly aren’t missing out on anything by not getting the game today or tomorrow.

Now, I’m off to play Blood Bowl because I can.

Ted Blood Bowl, Commentary, Rise of Flight

Rise of Flight, the WWI sim by developer neoqb, will release in North America on 6/17. Jake and I already have our preorders in from Gogamer.com and have been anticipating this title for a little while now. I haven’t been able to get into a WWI sim since the excellent Red Baron by Dynamix, released way back in 1990 on the Amiga. That title also had some RPG career aspects that I enjoyed besides the flight simming.

Here are a couple of videos of RoF courtesy of youtube. It’s looking really good, with complex damage and physics modeling, including weather and atmosphere. The recommended system requirements are pretty steep and I wonder if I should install it on my XP or Vista partitions.

Ted Flight Simulation, Rise of Flight

Jake finished up his latest skin this week. He’s been working on a 109 and a 190 skin for our squadron to use in Forgotten Skies. I’m pretty sure the real 14./JG5 didn’t fly 109’s, but some of our squadmates do in FS. Skin is available at mission4today.

Ted IL2 1946

This would be my first ever patrol in a Type VII boat, my only other experiences in SH3 coming in Type II coastal boats. U45, the type VIIB assigned to us has three times the torpedoes, over twice the range, and almost twice the crew. She also has an 88mm deck gun which can be used against smaller unarmed targets. In all likelihood we would be returning to port due to excessive fatigue before we ran out of fuel or torpedoes. We could return early if we ran into a convoy, but one can only hope. I was mentally prepared for a sixty day cruise.

We departed on 01SEP39 from Wilhelmshaven and I decided to shake out the crew with a long cruise to our designated patrol grid of BE61, several hundred kilometers to the southwest of Ireland. There is a known shipping lane through that area, and although not a convoy route I hoped to bag at least one ship in my assigned grid. If not, we would be free to hunt where we chose after twenty four hours on station. I ordered a plotted course north near Norway and then west around the Faroes before turning south well west of Ireland and out of range of any patrolling aircraft. After nine days we reached our grid.

Submerged

Heavy Seas

After twenty four hours and without any sonar contacts I ordered us to move further north into BE37 where we picked up a sonar contact on 13SEP. She turned out to be a small tramp steamer, the SS Jussi, plying the known route. We dispatched her with one shot near the bow, causing her to flood and sink.

The tramp steamer SS Jussi succumbs to a bow shot.

I order a plot along the known merchant route east-northeast towards Cork, Ireland where, between 19SEP and 24SEP we sank five more ships for 6500 tonnes. A tugboat and a fishing trawler do not make very tantalizing targets, but they are flying British colors and they are all used in the war effort so they must be stopped. It livened the men up when we put down a coastal freighter, a small freighter, and a coastal tanker. Knowing that we sank ships carrying steel and crude oil did much to make us feel we were doing our duty.

The tug MV Abeille No. 5.

Survivors of the trawler MV Sindonis are given rations and water before we submerge.

The small freighter SS Varangnes goes down.

The coastal freighter SS Adrian engulfed in flames as the fuel tanks erupt.

The contacts dried up after 24SEP and I ordered a course around the west side of Ireland to a known convoy convergence zone. We had plenty of torpedoes and fuel left, but the men were starting to show signs of fatigue after 30 days.

Map of operations.

We picked up a contact on 01OCT in AM52. After several hours of setting up our position I raised the periscope to see the SS Astronomer, a 10,000 ton merchant. This was our moment. I set up a three shot salvo with a fourth torpedo ready in reserve. Three degree spread on the salvo. As she was so big I felt safe using magnetic detonators instead of impact so I set the depth of run to two or three feet under her keel. We let loose the fish and after thirty seconds or so sonar picked up a detonation. Far too early! The torpedo must have detonated prematurely. I quickly loosed the fourth torpedo being held in reserve. This one must not get away. I watched through the scope as the second torpedo detonated just under the stack where I estimated the engine room to be. The third torpedo missed, but the fourth hit and the Astronomer began to list and after a couple of hours sank beneath the waves.

The SS Astronomer takes a hit.

The men were tired, but with calm seas and 6 hours of darkness to shroud us I ordered our external reserves to be loaded. We submerged at dawn and resumed our patrol of the area. After no contacts were found for two days I ordered us home by the same northern route. We arrived in Wilhelmshaven on 10OCT40

Ted After Action Reports, Silent Hunter 3 & 4

Silent Hunter III is a submarine simulation focusing on U-boats of the German Kriegsmarine (Navy) during WWII. SH3 was released in 2005 by publisher Ubisoft after development by Ubisoft Romania. At the time it was met with generally favorable reviews, but screams of agony from the user community. Numerous bugs and steep system requirements that brought even modern systems to their knees at the time of release were the biggest complaints. Four years later, the user community still strongly supports this game with handfuls of free mods and add-ons available. In short, it has become the definitive submarine simulation, and not just by default.

Of the major mods available I like to play with the Grey Wolves Expansion v3.0 and combine it with the add-on SH Commander v3.2. I’ll try to convey the depth of added simulation the Grey Wolves Expansion brings to SH3. The manual for all of the additional content, with appendices is over 550 pages long. The astounding news is that you don’t need to read much of any of it to be able to play SH3 with GWX, but it contains valuable tips and information as well as interesting history about this part of WWII.

SH3 Commander is an add-on that allows you to customize your commander careers a bit and also adds things like names, cargo, and crew stats to the ships you sink. In short it adds the little details that spice up the somewhat vanilla career mode in the default game. You can play GWX without SH Commander and you can play SH Commander without GWX, but using both combined is absolute immersion for me.

SH3 can be difficult to find now because of its age, but I’ve seen it for $5 on sale at some places. I know it is available via digital download from outlets like Steam and D2D, but I’m not sure if these versions are compatible with the GWX add-on. Best to do your own fact finding.

I’m going to start posting some After Action Reports (AAR’s) for my patrols and careers with SH3. I’ve also archived some current and past careers under the WWII Simulations/Silent Hunter III pages.

Ted Silent Hunter 3 & 4

First mission sent us to Brest harbor to bomb the U-boat pens. Weather over target was fair with 5/10 overcast. One squadron of P47’s and one squadron of P38’s escorted us all the way to target and back; however, we avoided enemy fighter coverage zones completely and were only threatened by moderate and accurate flak over Brest. Bombed from eighteen thousand feet. 2LT Spafford couldn’t get sighted on the pens, but scored good hits on the factories to the west, while avoiding civilian areas to the north. Pilot 2LT Kipniss and Navigator 2LT Sulla both received substantial wounds during the flak barrage. We patched them up and brought the plane home without incident.

Ted After Action Reports, B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th

B17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty Eighth (B17 II) is a flight simulator and RPG centering around the daylight bombing raids of the Eighth Air Force between 1943 and 1945. The game was developed by Wayward Design and released in 2000 by publisher Atari. In the Bomber Commander (BC) portion of the game the player controls one B17 Flying Fortress and tries to complete a 25 mission tour, keeping at least one crew member alive and healthy enough at all times to make it to the end. In the Squadron Commander (SC) portion of the game the player controls twelve B17’s and tries to complete 25-30 missions while bombing targets considered “strategically important.” The main difference between the two portions is that in SC portion the player recons and chooses which targets to hit, which bombers (6 out of 12) to send, and what repairs to make to the bombers that do return. The SC portion the game can end if the player’s command is taken away because of insufficient bombing results, very high casualty rates, or too many targets chosen that are not considered high priority targets.

I have played many missions through many different bomber commander careers in B17 II and have made it to the end just once. And I had to fudge to do that. Most critics and fans agree that the game is extraordinarily hard and weighted against getting to the end of a tour. My new style of play will be to start a BC campaign at the beginning, December 1, 1943, and play with a crew until they finish their tour, are killed, or captured. At that point I will start a new crew and continue from the date of the last crews’ final mission. This way I will get to fly every mission in the game. If I keep enough interest in this style I will attempt the same style with SC campaign.

Mission statistics and details will be kept on the B17 II page.

Ted B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th