busdriver

Here we go. This is a screenshot beauty pageant of sorts. Anybody (including recipients of previous BC/RS giveaways) who might like a copy of Volume 3, post a screenshot from any flight sim you play. This flight sim screenshot should be something you think would look good wallpaper on your monitor. What's at stake? I'm giving away 3 copies of Black Cross Red Star Volume 3 Who can participate? Anybody that would like a copy of Black Cross Red Star Volume 3 What if you previously received another volume I gave away? Feel free to participate in this contest How many screenshots can I post? Use your best judgment When does this contest end? Soon...soonish depending on the participation Thanks in advance.

Happy Birthday you old goat. Hugs & Kisses from another old goat.😘

Our friend Christer is finishing up Black Cross/Red Star Volume 3 so I'll be giving away 3 copies. Being an old guy that CRS (can't remember shite) I've not yet determined the contest. If you've received another volume of BC/RS in a previous giveaway you are ineligible. This is just a heads-up post.

The first YT video, at the 1:17.:38 mark, the guest Justin Pyke provides an explanation accompanied by a diagram. That's a good find @Ludo. 👍 The A6M Naval Carrier Fighter

Just to add to the confusion. The first A6M2 Model 21 Zero-sen fell into Allied hands in China on November 26, 1941. On a reinforcement mission (to serve as escorts for G4M1 “Betty” bombers operating against the British forces in Burma and Malaya) from the IJNAF airfield at Tainan, in Taiwan, to Saigon, two A6M2s of the Tainan Kokutai strayed from their formation and encountered fog at low altitude. Zero-sen construction number 3372 (tail code V-172) was flown by PO1c Shimezoh Inoue, while the other fighter (tail code V-174) had FPO2c Taka-aki Shimohigashi at the controls. En route to Hainan Island to refuel, the two Zero-sen pilots had drifted apart from the primary formation and now found themselves in quite a predicament as they were running out of fuel and their aircraft lacked radios in an attempt to boost the A6Ms’ range. Relying solely on their compasses for guidance, Inoue and Shimohigashi pressed on until the dense fog lifted, whereupon they spotted a lengthy beach near a town that appeared to be suitable for an emergency landing. Within minutes they had both landed on the beach on the Leichou coastline, where the pilots and their aircraft were captured by Chinese troops. Although Inoue’s fighter was virtually unscathed, Shimohigashi’s Zero-sen had suffered extensive damage upon landing and had to be written off. Inoue’s A6M2 was later repaired by US engineers at Kunming airfield, in China, with a section of the forward fuselage just aft of the engine cowling boasting a new improvised covering that featured specially designed ventilation/cooling slits. Chambers, Mark. Wings of the Rising Sun: Uncovering the Secrets of Japanese Fighters and Bombers of World War II (pp. 53-54). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition. It took ~6 months to get the airplane off the beach and up to Kunming and reassembled. The 23rd FG's evaluation says they didn't have the facilities to do a detailed inspection. But they were only able to get 2075 rpm, clearly rendering their comparative performance numbers invalid. Without knowing whether somebody knackered the reassembly of the engine to the airframe (taking an undamaged carburetor apart and putting it back together), the USAAF guys reported a problem with negative g engine cutout. Some folks will say, there are no reports of A6M2 pilots commenting on this ergo it wasn't an issue. Sure we know about Spitfires and Hurricanes having this problem because we read and speak English. But how many memoirs of Zero pilots exist? If a pilot knows about the limitation he flies in a manner to negate the problem. It seems to me that highly experienced (and superior) IJNAF pilots would know not to unload or pushover, rather they would fly like Hurricane and Spitfire guys. My point is that with two different captured A6M2 Model 21s there are two different reports about the negative g cutout of the engine. What I would like to see is a contemporaneous document saying, oops we f*cked up and reassembled the carburetor incorrectly. I would like to see something other than anecdotal evidence from 20+ years after the fact. Y'all got anything like that? FWIW, the list of repairs for Koga's airplane.

Define soon. I'll be filing for Social Security in Nov 2026 (70 y/o). 😉 FWIW you can estimate the flight time from Buin to Cactus as 2+ hours at the A6M's nominal endurance airspeed of 115 KIAS (132 mph, 213kmph). The Zero carried 183 gallons of fuel and constant practice eked the average fuel consumption out from 35 gallons per hour to just eighteen, Saburō Sakai himself attaining under 17 gallons. Saburō Sakai explained just how this was achieved: To conserve fuel, we cruised at only 115 knots (59 mps) at 12,000 (4267.2m) feet altitude. Under normal full-power conditions, the Zero was capable of 275 knots and, when over-boosted for short emergencies, could reach its maximum speed of about 300 knots. On our long-range flights we lowered propeller revolutions to somewhere between 1,700 and 1,850 revs per minute, and throttled the air control valve to its leanest mixture. This furnished us the absolute minimum of power and speed, and we hung on the fringe of losing engine power at any time and stalling. Smith, Peter C.. Mitsubishi Zero: Japan's Legendary Fighter (p. 154). Pen & Sword Books. Kindle Edition. Any way you look at it, a 1:1 scale map could be problematic for the typical combat flight sim enthusiast. I'm hoping for time warp like we had in...

Flogging a camera and notebook along the front near Arras...just before Bloody April begins.

Do you perform brain surgery on mosquitos in your spare time? You are one talented sumbitch my hero.

@TheNappingMan you sir are a bastige. I went shopping for an aileron roll and I got these instead. I assume it's my old age. Okay you three four guys @Feldgrün (sorry mate CRS when I posted originally) @TheNappingMan, @javelina, and @golani79 PM me, I'll need your names and postal details so I can reach out to Christer.

If you'd like a copy of the new BC/RS Volume 2, embed a video, link, or completely SFW picture that will make folks smile, laugh, chuckle, smirk, or otherwise entertain. I'll give this up to a week depending on the interest. Thanks for playing.

The whole series is impressive. The books at just under 400 pages are a little heavier for their size compared to Schiffer or Motorbooks titles. The pages have a matt rather than glossy finish which makes them much easier to read IMO. Christer typically includes about five pages of source material, and then another twenty pages of notes/footnote references, but he omits an index because of the number of pages it would require. He does include a QR code that you can access and download the index if you wish.

Thanks for sharing. He made me chuckle with his comments about 12 hours of mission planning and up to 4 hours of debriefing. Ummm things have changed a lot since I was living that dream. Back in the Jurassic era maybe 4 to plan and no more than 60 minutes of debriefing.

I'm waiting for my copy of this just-released title. Currently have this title (highly complex to this old man) scattered across my gaming table.

Well, thanks to you and @Chief_Mouser 🫡 I've added several Kindle editions of books about the BPF and FAA. For us Yanks, several of Hobbs' titles are very reasonable at the moment.