Welcome - The Rookie Thread

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Ray
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Post by Ray » Tue Aug 18, 2009 11:42 pm

Gunner wrote:Now we know what a degree in Organizational Communication does for you! :wink:

I was just thinking...maybe you should use this emoticon 8) in all your posts. :D
Haha, yeah I guess I did learn something after all, there certainly were a lot of writing assignments! Almost forgot, 8) - there we go.
Teej wrote:Hey Tom Kopp here...middle initial J...back before the intarwebz I used "Tjk" a lot on the old BBS systems and such...and when we met in person people just started calling me "Teej" instead of "teejaykay"....
Friend of mine is an IT guy, Microsoft certified and who knows what all else - he's showed me some of the stuff he does at work and it looked like you kinda gotta know what you're doing, he was clicking and typing up a storm.

Photography is something I'd like to get into as well, have always enjoyed taking pics of stuff, mostly cars and airplanes, and then trying to edit with Photoshop. Would like a Canon 20D and a nice lense kit - wish it wasn't so expensive.

Always thought RC flying would be fun, some of the planes are so cool, especially the jets. About my only experience with RC planes is with a motor powered Sailplane that my dad built for me when I was about 12. Took him about 3 months to build it, took it out for the first flight - was a little windy and he really didn't have any RC experience, so I was pretty nervous.

So he launched it and up and away it went - he turned it around and as it's barreling towards us at a terrific rate he applied what appeared to be full nose down control deflection, sending the craft straight into the ground with a sickening thud - of course I ran to it with tears in my eyes, :lol: - thinking that maybe somehow it could be put back together, but there was no way. That was the last RC plane he or I flew, :lol:

Sounds like a pretty good running Camaro, stick a cam and some heads on it! 8) The LS1 is a great engine.
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Teej
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Post by Teej » Wed Aug 19, 2009 12:02 am

It's an LT1 ('95...LS1 came a few years later).

That's with heads and cam already. Stock motor turned 275hp. With heads, cam & exhaust I'm getting about 400 or so out of it.
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Ray
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Post by Ray » Wed Aug 19, 2009 12:07 am

Teej wrote:It's an LT1 ('95...LS1 came a few years later).

That's with heads and cam already. Stock motor turned 275hp. With heads, cam & exhaust I'm getting about 400 or so out of it.
Oh yea, that's right - the ol' LT1 - yea 400 is pretty peppy, heh.
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Teej
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Post by Teej » Wed Aug 19, 2009 12:08 am

Ray wrote:motor powered Sailplane that my dad built for me when I was about 12. Took him about 3 months to build it, took it out for the first flight - was a little windy and he really didn't have any RC experience, so I was pretty nervous.
Heh. Sounds like we might've had the same first plane...Goldberg "Electra" in my case (sailplane w/ electric motor).

I spent one week building mine. I was maybe 18. Through a stroke of sheer brilliance (not) I covered it entirely in black. The day after I finished building it I was bullheaded that I was gonna fly it that day (with literally no experience in RC but boatloads of time playing flight sims / games. hehehe). Of course...the winds were honking. Probably 20 gusting to 30, but I would not be deterred.

So I went out to a big open area in the middle of a public park, pointed it into the wind, kicked on the motor and let her go...and watched as it climbed to about 100' in the blink of an eye in the high winds. Looked more like 500.

Immediately realized this was a bad idea so I figured I would try to land ASAP. Slapped in some rudder and brought it around 180 and watched as it seemed to accelerate to mach 1 (probably 30-40mph) and quickly brought it around nose on and tried to bring it down to ground level.

I almost made it. Almost. Got down to about 5' and the wind shifted direction and the bird got flipped upside down.

Amazingly it just snapped off the vert tail and broke the motor mount loose. Fixed it that night and flew out several battery packs the next day. Heheheh.
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Ray
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Post by Ray » Wed Aug 19, 2009 12:40 am

:lol: :lol: That was the same one! Electra - rudder only, it didn't look all that pretty flying, yawing all over the place. Yeah flying that thing in some wind probably isn't a good mix.
Sierra
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Post by Sierra » Wed Aug 19, 2009 2:16 am

I'm a 48 year old vet (of the virtual skies) been flying online since 2003, started with the FreeBirds, and had the good fortune to get some stick time with the Virtual Tbirds, was a highlight for me. In real life I'm a Digital Media Producer, looking to do it for myself, along with my partner at Intor. Always loved jets since being in the Canadian Air Force 1980-84.
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Aristo
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Post by Aristo » Sun Jan 10, 2010 3:22 pm

22 years old. Living in Turkey. Two times drop-out, first while studying Chinese Literature, second while studying Italian Literature. Going back to University again to study History. Hopefully this time I'll like what I'll see.
Been flying virtually for the last 12 years, but now I realize that most of the time I was flying "arcade", so I'm gonna go ahead and say that I've been flying for the last 3 years, to spare myself the embarrasment. :D
Right now I'm discovering a whole new world in virtual aviation, and quite frankly struggling to take it all in one at a time :)

Aristo
"Yield not to evils, but attack all the more boldly."

-Virgil-
HotDog
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Post by HotDog » Tue Mar 02, 2010 9:37 pm

Hi All, I'm 52. Job is installing and maintaining voicemail systems for most mobile phone providers nationwide. Chances are pretty good if you have a cell phone your voice mail is on a system that my company sold them.

Been flying sims since the heady days of Falcon. Not AF, not 4.0, not 3.0 not even AT (I do however have all the old versions) but original Falcon. A buddy and I would load up Falcon on monochrome (Tandy) laptops, grab a serial null modem cable and park at the local hash house eatery shooting each other down until we couldn't see straight anymore. They thought we were nuts but we tipped good.

Good times...

Other hobbies include camping, my V-Rod and my 92 Vette.

Found you guys researching Falcon 4.0 and alternatives. I have to say you folks really do it right around here. Thanks for letting me play along.
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Post by VGE_Blue » Wed Mar 03, 2010 8:20 am

Hey I'm actually new to the Lock On formation scene but I've owned the game since its release.

But a little bit about myself. I'm a 20 year old general contractor who was lucky enough to move into my first house by the age of 18. I used to lead a team on FSX until I came over to help a friend out on this side of the virtual world with his team, the Virtual Golden Eagles (which just for clarification is not the previous GE team many think we are).

Cheers!
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Ray
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Post by Ray » Wed Mar 03, 2010 10:53 pm

Very cool - welcome to the forum guys.

I know a lot use FSX for formation work but I really believe Lock On is the better platform for online formation flying.

FSX is a blast though, especially with VATSIM.
HotDog wrote:A buddy and I would load up Falcon on monochrome (Tandy) laptops, grab a serial null modem cable and park at the local hash house eatery shooting each other down until we couldn't see straight anymore. They thought we were nuts but we tipped good.
:lol: That's awesome.
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Post by VGE_Blue » Thu Mar 04, 2010 12:11 am

Ray wrote:Very cool - welcome to the forum guys.

I know a lot use FSX for formation work but I really believe Lock On is the better platform for online formation flying.

FSX is a blast though, especially with VATSIM.
HotDog wrote:A buddy and I would load up Falcon on monochrome (Tandy) laptops, grab a serial null modem cable and park at the local hash house eatery shooting each other down until we couldn't see straight anymore. They thought we were nuts but we tipped good.
:lol: That's awesome.
FSX is good for airliners and general aviation but it was never made for military fighter jets, Lock on, on the other hand is great for military and formation flying, but only if the person hosting has good enough bandwidth. :D
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dudeman750
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Maybe it's time

Post by dudeman750 » Fri May 07, 2010 12:48 am

Hello, I'm a 37 year old juvenile that's been addicted to gaming since the old boot disk days in the early 90's. I've played a lot of sims, from arcadish stuff to space stuff, but never anything like what you guys do (and what I am trying to now learn). I have been a field service engineer since the early 90's. I travel around the eastern US calibrating and repairing quality control equipment, mostly optical stuff. Optical Comparators and Vision Systems are my thing, but I mostly do the Vision thing. It's like a fancy microscope with a PC and video camera, high magnification and some of them measure down into the millionths. It's an alright gig.

My other interests have always been building and modding computers, overclocking anything that can be overclocked, and generally being a geek. I enjoy STAND-UP jetskiing, modding and racing back when I was a bit younger. Still have 2 very fast ski's. Fast motorcycles, have an FJR1300, and 2 Hondas. I used to be into weight lifting a lot, but took a few years off and now just getting back into it. Trying the P90X thing, and it SUCKS!

Been working with the VTB since November. Seems like a great crew although I don't know them all very well. I got a crash course from them leading up to VFAT, and since then been practicing and cussing a lot. I think I'm going to be around for the long haul so I thought I'd drop a line about myself so if you run into me you can kinda know me.

My callsign has always been Dudeman, because I never shook off the teenage use of the word "Dude" and "Man". I started a combat team on an unknown game called Wings Of War. I run a site and forum for that and ran a dedicated server for 5 years until recently. Our team was dominant for several of those years until people started floating away. Luckily this coincided with finding out about what the VTB and many of you others do. Now I'm hooked.

The funniest thing is this... Twoahhhh! ;)

Took me 2 months before I found out what that meant.
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Baxter
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Its about time I got on here

Post by Baxter » Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:14 pm

Hey guys I'm Erik or Baxter as I'm commonly known. Comes from my days playing college football I looked like the guy who knocked up the quarterback's sister, so I got the nickname of Ron (that was the other guys name) when the movie Anchorman came out that was extended to Ron Burgundy, and then in flight school it deteriorated to Baxter. But for my first 2 years of college everyone thought my name was Ron, I just never corrected them, thought I'd see how far it went. Oh well. So I've been simming since my family got its first computer that could run a flight sim, which turned out to be EF2000, I loved that sim. I'm sure if I saw it today my eyes would bleed but that was the coolest thing ever. I did all my training in college and ended up finding a way to the airlines with very low flight time. I did a stint working on a fishing boat up in Alaska fishing for salmon in Ketchikan for a summer and then made my way to Memphis to fly for Pinnacle Airlines. I flew the CRJ for 4 years and then decided to take a break for a year or two. I've just passed my one year of not flying, and to be honest I don't miss the being gone part much, I do miss the flying, but I've found plenty of that on the internet as it turns out. This is more fun, but it's hard to make into a career. I'm back in school doing the online thing to finish the degree I skipped out on to go fly for the airlines and flying sims, it's a good life, but can't last forever. I'd really like to get on at Compass Airlines before the year is out, if they'll have a beat up Pinnacle FO fly their shiny new jets. This looks like it could be fun and I'm looking forward to it. Thanks for the opportunity.
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Lawndart
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Post by Lawndart » Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:24 pm

Welcome to the forums Ron... Uhm, Baxter... BRICK! :lol: (Let's see how quickly that can deteriorate).

Great to see you sign up here!
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dudeman750
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Post by dudeman750 » Wed Mar 28, 2012 7:44 am

Wow, has it been 3 years already? Time flies!

Hey VTB how's it going guys?
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