Does flying a real warbird for a living, dull your appetite for the virtual kind? What’s the hardest thing to teach a novice flier? How good are the RAF’s own training sims? These and many other questions are answered by James ‘Darkmouse’ Fielding, THC’s first ‘atypical simmer’, in the companion piece to yesterday’s feature.
As the chance to quiz a serving RAF pilot / qualified flight instructor with an abiding passion for combat flight simulators comes along once in a blue moon, this interview is the size of a Mil V-12. In Part I, splendidly forthcoming “atypical simmer” James Fielding talks about his path into aviation and provides a fascinating description of what it’s like flying Pumas in the busy, smoggy, peril-pregnant skies of Afghanistan. In Part II – set to appear at this time tomorrow – he tackles wide-ranging questions like “Would you rather tutor a student with flight sim experience or without…
Every Friday at 1300 hours, Tally-Ho Corner’s cleverest clogs come together to solve a ‘foxer’ handcrafted by my sadistic chum and colleague, Roman. A complete ‘defoxing’ sometimes takes several days and usually involves the little grey cells of many readers. Don’t be shy. All are welcome to participate.
Unlike the formidable Friday foxers, the Monday kind are designed with lone truth sleuths in mind. While Roman, my Chief Foxer Setter, would be very interested to know how long it takes you to defox the following brainteaser, he requests that the comments section isn’t used to share solutions or drop hints.
A is for Alphabetised wargame and sim news. Once a month, assuming I can persuade Austerity’s Blackburn Cirrus Bombardier engine to perform the miracle of internal combustion, I spend a day or two scouring Simulatia and Grognardia for stories with the potential to fascinate, startle, cheer, dismay or amuse. Those stories are then dehydrated, alphabetised and delivered, via articles like this one, to people who’ve got better things to do than plough through puff and platitudes.
Every Friday at 1300 hours, Tally-Ho Corner’s cleverest clogs come together to solve a ‘foxer’ handcrafted by my sadistic chum and colleague, Roman. A complete ‘defoxing’ sometimes takes several days and usually involves the little grey cells of many readers. Don’t be shy. All are welcome to participate.
Unlike the formidable Friday foxers, the Monday kind are designed with lone truth sleuths in mind. While Roman, my Chief Foxer Setter, would be very interested to know how long it takes you to defox the following brainteaser, he requests that the comments section isn’t used to share solutions or drop hints.
The fact that, outside of mods, Close Combat and Combat Mission never made it to the Pacific, has to rank as one of digital wargaming’s biggest disappointments. Anyone who argues that PTO warfare lacked tactical colour or wouldn’t have suited the engines, needs to spend time in the company of Heroes of the Pacific, one of Lock ‘n Load Tactical Digital’s £7 adjuncts. This week I’ve been satchel-charging bunkers, braving banzai charges, and punching perfectly round holes in beach-bound Buffalo courtesy of Early Access LnLTD, and it’s been a blast.