Good day to you VTB's and friends, I just wanted to drop in here to offically introduce myself and just say hello to everyone! First off let me just say you guys did an awesome job on the Movie! Everything from the flying, lighting, music, timing and camera angles was spot on. It has really inspired me to better myself. I'v been a big fan of the Thunderbirds and flight simulators for years, I can not even remember where it started anymore. Games that I can no longer even remeber the names to. I can remeber playing the first falcon series, flight simulator, Wings, F18 Hornet, Janes ATF, Janes F15, Falcon again.... it goes on heh. The problem? None of my friends seem to like or play flight simulators. Funny how that happens huh? So for awhile now, the internet has been my only salvation. Recently though, I got a very lucky break. I work at this computer company called Alienware as a Comp Tech, and let me tell you, we have a few people that do ALOT of research on games. One of them had heard about my search for a new flight simulator and recomended LOMAC. I had taken a breif look at LOMAC before, but was alittle disapointed in the lack of a flyable F16.
I have always been a big fan of the F16 and the Thunderbirds ever since my grandmother took me to see them at an airshow when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I can still remember laying on top of our family Van on that clear blue afternoon and hearing the roar of those Pratt & Whitney engines as they thundered overhead. So after taking another look at LOMAC and reading some reviews, I decided to give it a try. After ordering from amazon it was time to take a look around the web for an F16 based mod for LOMAC. Can you guess what I found? heh. Glorious red white and blue Thunderbird jets! Ever since then I have been obsesed with practice, to hopfully make the team in the near future. I first thing I needed was a pair of good rudder pedals. I had taken a good look at the ones everyone seems to use, the CH pro peddals. But I found them to be unavalible in my area. The Saiteck Pro Rudder Pedals however were actully easy to find, so I decided to take a chance on those. The HOTAS I had been using was the Cougar by Thrustmaster. I found this to be an awesome stick, and I still think this is the best flight stick on the market. After I bought it I spent about three days just looking at it and feeling its weight. There is still no better feeling then when your bare hands touch the cold metal of a Cougar. But a funny thing happened, this game, and the manuevers I as attempting to do, made me want more. After reading everyones reviews and thoughts on the matter, the FSSB from Realsimulator started to look like an awesome item. So I took another chance and decided to order the FSSB R1. After three days of waiting my box of joy finialy arrived, and after a VERY simple and hassle free installation ( I was very surprized at how little trouble I had putting this thing in, I give a major thank you to the designers ) it was time to try this baby out! WOW, let me tell you, you have not truly flown a flight simulator unless you have tryed this before. This mod is amazing, no centerplay what-so-ever. You can feel every input to the controller though your hands, everything is so persicse! Needless to say, I could not be happier with it.
Now after a few days of building I finially got my pit done, and I must say it came out better than I had hoped for my first try. Nothing to fancy, but it gets the job done great. Hopfully I can get some pictures posted soon ( still needs paint . Jezzz what else?.... there is just so much to ask and say. But I will save my technical questions for another post ( as this one is starting to get abit long already I hope to jump on Vent sometime soon with you guys and do some flying, but at the moment it's practice, practice, practice!
So keep up the great flying guys! and I hope I can meet up with you sooner than later!

Thunderbirds Lets Run Em Up!