Tag Archives: Mayviation
Tuesday Screenshot – Rise of Flight
As the French country side rushes by below me, my world is momentarily peaceful. The only sound is the steady hum of my plane’s engine and the wind washing over the cockpit and past my weathered face. Leaning my head back I close my eyes for a minute and let the bright rays of the morning sun warm my chilled face. Grudgingly I reopen them and squint into the distance, as my eyes readjust to the brightness. Out of a broken cloud bank two black dots materialize. I smile as I have found this morning’s prey. Signaling my wingman, I begin a slow climb into the clouds above me. As I near the clouds the serenity of the morning is ruthlessly broken by bullets flying over my head and tearing into canvas around me. Twisting and turning in my seat I finally catch the chilling sight of two enemy planes on my tail just as I disappear in to the concealing but temporary safety of the clouds.
– Dan Pinkham
Flight Sims – Just How Realistic Are They?
Author: Commander Mike “Toonces” Loomis
Introduction
Rare would be the man who, as a child, saw a fighter jet fly overhead and didn’t think to himself, “I want to do that when I grow up!” Unfortunately, most of us don’t become fighter pilots. However, we have the opportunity through computer flight simulation to understand a bit of what goes on in that cockpit, flying 600 knots and pulling 6 Gs.
The enthusiast flies his first simulator, buys more and more hardware, controllers, accessories, and more computer power to run ever more complex software. At some point the inevitable question surfaces- how realistic are home flight simulators, anyway? This article seeks to address this question from an aviator’s perspective.
Battle of Coral Sea – A Carriers at War AAR
Developer: Strategic Studies Group (SSG)
Publisher: Matrix Games
Author: Sean Drummy
Carriers at War is a classic game, and I’m not even talking about the original from way back in the day, I’m referring to the remake by Matrix Games. Most wargames require a substantial investment of time to complete a scenario, let alone a campaign, but the brilliance of Carriers at War is how succinct and utterly merciless the gameplay is. Depending on how brilliantly (or stupidly) you perform a scenario the game could be played through in as little as five minutes before a decisive victor is declared. In many ways this is a very wise design decision. If I just spent an hour setting up my weapons loadouts and task groups only to find five minutes in my ships are spotted and then bombed into oblivion I may be a little disappointed (read: infuriated).
May-viation Mystery Plane – Farman, or Not to Farman?
Farman, or Not to Farman?
Author: Lloyd Sabin
I am not an aviation aficionado by any means but I know what I like. And I like early, exotic aviation. From lighter than air barrage balloons to zeppelins to early fixed-wing aircraft, I eat that stuff up. And I’ve found that the more obscure and weird they are, the more I like them.
Wargame: AirLand Battle – AAR
Developer: Eugen Systems
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Author: Jim Zabek
The closed beta has been released for Wargame: AirLand Battle and I’m having a blast with it. The sequel to Wargame: European Escalation, it builds upon the strength of the land units and adds a robust air power component. Gameplay resembles a tactical RTS, but the units are modeled after historical NATO and Warsaw Pact units. This provides a great mix of real-time tactical action with hard-hitting Cold War units. The beta has only released the multiplayer part of the game, and in this one I jump into a six-player game in the last available slot as the Warsaw Pact. I select an East German force just to see how it plays. While I did play Wargame: European Escalation I didn’t spend much time with the multiplayer game and this aspect is new to me.
