JFM

Climbing out of Kahului.

Color shot with New Mexico in foreground.

Joysticks and controllers… I think that one is a Buffalo.

Good luck having a conversation on a deck full of radial engines at idle and full throttle. 😆

Okay, it's not available on Steam yet but now it *has* been released on Good Old Games. https://www.gog.com/en/game/b17_flying_fortress_the_mighty_8th_redux $13.49 USD. No online requirement. I have a few games on GOG, works fine.

Was supposed to be released today but at the last second they delayed it. Of course, on various fora this delay has caused a scheissestorm of "I'm not buying it now!" hissyfits and conspiracy accusations that might need Mike Lindell's involvement 🤣 So, the wait continues. Here's a vid that shows what we can expect, at least visually. You can see most of the graphics work went into the UI and B-17 interior. Exterior still looks very rough. However, they revealed today that they are indeed working on the B-17 exterior. Here's a screenshot they posted: Price on Steam is $14.99 USD.

I know this was posted months ago but somehow I didn't see it until now. 😃 Although rendered nicely, constructively, among other things, WAY too much flak. At least as regards the 5" bursts. Photos of the dive bombing attack on Yorktown show far, far fewer 5" flak bursts. The CGI above shows a volume of 5" bursts more like that seen/photographed during the torpedo attack, a couple hours later. I mention this because I often see exaggerated flak in CGI stuff. Hopefully Combat Pilot (and Task Force Admiral) don't make that mistake! Yorktown being dive bombed, as photographed from Astoria. Val crashing ahead of the vessel, bomb splashing in wake, Val overhead forward. I see two 5" bursts. Other more distant views of this attack that feature more sky (i.e., more altitude above the vessel) show a few more 5" bursts, but overall about (I estimate) 1/10th of that in the CGI depiction.

Getting hits.

First, probably already ragingly obvious, but I'm not an expert in this area and glad to be wrong, because that's how we learn. 😃 But I don't think Arizona was regarded as an inherently "wet" vessel, and I don't recall comments to that effect as I've read about, for instance, British Royal Sovereigns. (I'm looking for some, though, and will post any here.) Although, over time her (AZ) secondary battery was raised because they were too wet, but it seems that was a function of them being too low in the first place (just saw in a book: "...[they] had proved to be wet in heavy seas and were too low to allow accurate and effective firing"]). Scharnhorst had bow upgrades as mentioned and considerably more sheer but that vessel still seems to have had a lower freeboard than Arizona, but that might be an illusion caused by Scharnhorst's longer forecastle--Scharnhorst was some 170 feet longer overall than Arizona. But there's no doubt over decades that freeboard, sheer, and bulbous bows increased in size. Arizona Arizona after modernization. Note raised casemates (mostly obstructed by sailors in this view). Scharnhorst Japanese carrier Ryujo, infamous for her too-low freeboard. Even after reconstruction, it was still too low.

Her bow wasn’t lower than any other US BB of her time. I’ve not read they were particularly wet vessels, but I have seen pics of her shipping lots of water in heavy seas. That third pic is of her stern, and it looks really low at that angle. Although I’ve seen pics/vids of Iowa’s that had their fantails nearly flush with the sea when sailing balls-out.

Any of the following: MSFS2020: MilViz FG-1D Corsair IL2: Me-262, P-51B, C-47. FC3: Albatros D.II and RE8 ROF: DH2 WOFF: DH2, BE12 The MicroProse B-17 Flying Fortress: Mighty 8th Redux is being released early access on 23 Jan. I'm sure I'll be involved with that for a while--until they release B-17 Flying Fortress The Bloody 100th.

I saw several PH posts on Facebook, which is normally a cesspool of politics and celebrity scheisse. Three more Arizona pics. 😃

I want to use words that would probably get me banned, so I'll just say awesome! The Big E pics are unbelievable.

Okay, grabbed those three and am now looking for the workshop scenarios.

So, based on that quote, no accounts of SBDs actually doing it, just that they “could have.” I’m trying to learn though, so I’ll search around for such anecdotes. Meanwhile, thanks for the pdf, I’ll check it out. 👍

Whoa! I know nothing about Arma 3, but if there’s a mod or DLC to fly those babies, I’m in! I’ll go grab Arma 3 for a start right now.

Is there a documented incident of that ever happening, a successful trap by a gunner with a dead pilot? That’s not a challenge against your request, but in fifty years I’ve just either never read about that happening or don’t remember reading about that happening. Considering it, any gunner who did would have to have had some pilot training to fly and land on a carrier.

I'd like a "back" button instead of an "are you sure?" button. Sims have SO many "are you sure?"s buttons to click for everything--what are we, three years old? Maybe it's the ADD or age talking but, YES, I'M *$%*#@* SURE, I CLICKED THE *$%#@^% THING, DIDN'T I?! I understand people can misclick but that's where a "back" button would come into play--or does that require NASA-level coding or something to accomplish? Over the years/decades/thousands of hours flying sims I've made a dozen misclicks, maybe, but the total time I've wasted clicking "yes" to the ten billion "are you sure?"s is egregious. (If I've ever clicked "No," I don't remember doing so.) I can understand perhaps at the end of a mission if an inquiry popped up asking if you are really ready to exit--i.e., the mission is really over--but for everything? It's too much. Also, fuel leaks. In every sim I fly, a hit to the fuel tanks drains the entire tank. Therefore, they must have it coded so every tank is hit/damaged at its lowest point. In planes without self-sealing tanks can you have a tank be damaged, say, near its top, so only some of the fuel leaks out? Props. Make them damageable by gunfire/shrapnel. In various sims it's BS that all enemy gunfire sails right through their planes of rotation--why did they invent interrupter gears then if no bullets ever hit them? There are beacoup photos/films/anecdotes of props being/having been struck/damaged by enemy gunfire. Like to see that modeled. Victory markings. Be cool to have a setting to have them auto-applied to default skins in a campaign that correspond with your victories as they are attained. Which leads to... Flags. 48 stars on US flags--seems obvious, but I've flown sims that have had 50 on US flags. And can we have an option to use the rising sun Japanese flags instead of just the white flag with the single "meatball"? I know some people in some countries are offended by the flag with the sun rays but many are not. Personally, I am not. I have not studied it in depth but from what I've seen there is no law banning its presentation, something that prevents flight sims from using the swastika (although with Wings of Prey, once they verified you lived in a country where the swastika was not illegal, the swastika was "unlocked" and visible--and neither before nor since have I thrust my right arm up while yelling Heil Hitler!). I don't know how it's "okay" people can fly Japanese planes and simulate aggressive Japanese attacks/invasions/expansion by invading/bombing/torpedoing/shooting the crap out of everything, but 16 red stripes on a piece of cloth is somehow "not okay." Historical accuracy does not embrace historical ideology, no matter how hard society today works at being upset by things that went on almost 100 years ago. If so, there should be no PTO warfare sim at all then. Jeez, lots of "get off my lawn!" tone in those comments! 😄 I'll leave them anyway.

Also, from the cockpit, when you slip a plane the prop sound changes dramatically, as does the overall wind noise. Love to hear this replicated in a sim.

I’m all for that spotting stuff—as long as we have the option to turn it off, so I can.

And now comes another 50-page post about what we see in our tea leaves! 😀

With all those whirling props! Look at that at about 4:06, a plane enters the shot from the left. It appears he takes hits and loses parts off his empennage and twirls out of control. At first I thought it was from strafing behind him but I really can't tell where it came from. But see if I'm seeing things.