Was ist Freiheit - What is Freedom?

Pressefreiheit? Freiheit hört dann auf, wenn diese Freiheit anderen verletzt. Pressefreiheit trägt auch große Verantwortung mit sich, und wenn die Presse ohne Verantwortung oder Gewissen handelt, dann ist es keine Freiheit mehr sondern Unterdrückung durch die Presse.

Freedom of the press? Freedom ceases when this freedom causes injury to others. With freedom of the press comes a great responsibility and when the press starts handlig without responsibility or conscience, then it ceases to be freedom and becomes opression by the press.

Dear Spammers

To all you spammers visiting these pages:

Do not bother! you will not get any extra publicity by posting your spamtrash here - there is no automatic post approval and there are almost zero clicks to be gained by posting a link to Louis Vuitton goods or sexually explicit pages.

So I am sorry to disappoint you all, but your time and comments are wasted.

The Sunday Rant

Isn't the world a horrible place? Terrorism, war, big business greed, weak and ridiculous laws, disease, environmental disasters on the increase, overpopulation, global warming... you name it, it's all evil out there.

Worst of all, I see way too many people giving up and complaining about lack of options...

In a democratic society I blame the non voters first and foremost. If you can vote but don't, then the blame starts with you for helping create weak governments. If you vote and then complain because the other side wins, you're just as bad. Democracy means accepting "defeat" and supporting the winner despite your grievances.

Corruption? It can be beaten. Name and shame. There's still waste, but I have seen small inroads in German politics - there are less personal gain claims happening under politicians because there's plenty of naming and shaming from the press.

Wars? They happen when politics fail. They needn't. But... The Kurds are out on the streets protesting that the west isn't helping enough. The Kurds are also out on the streets attacking the first mentioned Kurds. The Syrians and the Turks are holding back. Meanwhile we are asking ourselves: IS, ISIS, ISIL, good Kurds, bad Kurds, Shiite, Sunni, Ba'ath, Ayatollahs, Koreans, Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian, Mexican drug gangs, Brazilian land rapists?

Disease? Plagues? Bird flu, swine flu, human flu, mad cow. Now it's Ebola (which of the several strains is worse?)

Or possibly the worst plague: humanity itself. We're spreading faster than any disease and our "Maslow's Pyramid" is on the verge of being turned upside down (check this by googling and you'll see what I mean - the lowest tier of the hierarchy (breathing, food, water...) is going to become prime survival factor that will kill us off if we do not keep focussed...

What you negatives need is faith (no, not in the religious sense) in human nature and that we can overcome any problem. If WE don't solve the problem, then nature will. What's a few million years to the planet? Does the universe care at all, if we wipe ourselves out? Hell no!

Is there a cure? I think any half way intelligent person can come up with populist ideas (shoot the ba***rds) but we need some real intelligent problem solvers (not just IQ, but high EQ and MQ as well - i.e. emotional and moral quotients). We need people who are prepared to put the world first.

Yes, this is overly simplified. But dammitalltohellandgone, we NEED simple. Having travelled reasonably extensively, I know that nearly all "normal" people have the same needs regardless of coulour or creed. That means we need to have leaders who believe the same. We also need a set of scales to weigh up new ideas as they are thought of and we need to think if these ideas are good for all.

Is it too much to hope for leaders who always ask themselves what the people need and not what they think the people should think they need.

The biggest flaw is that there is no immediately visible way to give the human race a figurative "slap in the face" to make it stand back and take a deep breath.

Ah well. Enough rant for the moment. Looking out of the window I see the sun shining so I will grab my lunch, take it out onto the balcony, take a glass of wine and enjoy life. 

As Satchmo sung:

"...what a wonderful world"

Still practicing

A week or so has passed and nothing has happened - what a life!

Well, not quite nothing. I have been practicing painting my heads. I think I am slowly getting the hang of things, although at 1/16th scale, it's a devilish job getting the eyes looking anywhere near acceptable, let alone realistic.

But as the old saying has it - Practice makes perfect. Plenty of practice left for me! One of the things I had problems with was that the paints tended to dry a lot faster than I was prepared for. I now know what fluid retarder does - great. A worthwhile lesson, even if it was 30 heads (ish) too late.

So now I am also using a selfie as well:

Another lesson I am learning is that the eyes on the model are too white. So the photo serves to give me a pointer or two, and as you can see, I also have a couple of larger scale heads on poles. These two in this picture are 1/9 th scale. 

Keep following - you may be witnessing the makings of a half way decent modeller - if I should be around that long.

Getting Further Ahead

So, in my last post I described seven phases I wanted to try and follow up for painting heads. So how far have I gone then? Well, apart from having around fifteen heads nearing completion, I have a short sequence to show you:

...and after a further few hours of practice, this is where that officer is now:

Not perfect yet, but I feel I am getting there. I still want to add some stubble and I want to try to add some more eye-lining. Damn! These heads are tiny!

If you want to get a head....

It's not masterclass, but it is what I would call my first real success at painting heads.

There is more that I could do, but this is at least what I will allow myself to call a finished object. So as a reminder, here's my sequence:

1. paint the eye area white
2. paint the irises onto the eye
3. paint the pupil (I found that a 0.2mm technical drawing pen - such as the Rotring series - works great
4. paint the red areas like a mask around the whites of the eyes
5. paint the flesh
6. paint the hair
7. paint the headgear (if moulded on)

I think I will practice this some more and do a photo-story one day. Until then I leave you with my favourite farewell greet:

"Procrastinate!"

"Later..."

Another Short Story from One-Eye's Travels...

One-Eye’s Tale  Continues

We left old One-Eye snoring gently, face down in a bowl of pickled moles. Limp had gone outside for some fresh air, only to go limp from the numerous rounds. He woke up some time later to find a heavy dew had settled during the darker hours.

"Gerroffome, will you, Rabbi Goldstein!"

Shaking hands with his best friend, Limp signed the flower bed and strolled back into the bar to see where One-Eye had had gone. The other one was still there, but the left one was gummy and caked with sleep. Still, being a cheery cockney, he soon spotted old One-Eye and the pickled moles. Giving his best pal a dig in the ribs, he chirped, “Wotcher! Drinking again One-Eye? “

"Why thank you my dear boy! Barman! I'll have a pint of Uncle Elmersh number 5 pleash..." Now considerably refreshed, One-Eye laid his arm around Limp's shoulders. "Say, how's about we go do some water-skiing later, I know where we can get some water skis dead cheap - Candy's selling hers. They have never been used; she bought them a year or so ago, but got fed up because she couldn't find a lake with a slope. But I think I'd better have a hair of the dog, before we go and do the chores, Limp - after all, you have quite a few to do."

This totally threw Limp, after all, he'd been on laundry and washing up duty three weeks running. "Chores? What chores?" He said, somewhat indignantly...

(all together now...)

“Barman! I'll have a pint of Uncle Elmer's number 5 please - my wonderful friend here is buying. Oh, and a hair of the dog too."

Galland, a very worn and patchy looking Retriever, cocked an ear at this and rolled over to make a quick getaway, dislodging Speedy the Chihuahua from his warm "nest". Speedy just turned around three times as Galland made a dash for the dog flap, and settled down in a pile of faux beaver furs that some trapper (or was it a TV mogul) had left in the corner. No hurry for Speedy, after all - hair of the dog was no business of his.

Over at the bar, Fritz's third cousin Johann, thrice removed (...from his car - driving under the affluence of incohol) had just arrived in from the old country and was twiddling the knobs on the club radio set. There were some odd hisses and crackles, and then he tuned in to the marine network.

There was obviously some trouble on the water somewhere because a voice was constantly repeating "Mayday, mayday. We are sinking."

Being a polite and efficient Teuton, Johann pressed the talk button, "Hello, zis is Johann... vot are you sinking about?" There was a spluttering three seats down the bar, as One-Eye choked on a bit of mole. Well, it was actually a beauty spot on Sandy's cheek, but she didn't seem to mind much. Oh, we haven't introduced Sandy yet... Sandy is shandy Candy's randy sister, with the handy dandy mole.

She purred in One-Eye's ear: "Don't you think we should introduce Limp to Wanda?"

"Good idea Sandy! Hey, Limp - rather than lurk around in bars all alone, how's about us fixing you up with a date with old John Nuther's sister Wanda? You'll love that."

Now you ought to know this: Limp was a frustrated playboy, knew what, but didn't know who... always solo... "Yeah, that sounds cool. One-Eye. Interesting name... Wanda Nuther..."

...oh dear...

Let's Take a Look at Brushes

Paintbrushes! The bane of my modelling life! 

I know I am only just getting into some serious modelling, but it's not as if I have never done it before. In fact my first model was a P38 built with Dad, way back in the late 1950s and I have been on a war footing with brushes ever since.

In recent years I have collected more than just a few Revell "Deluxe" brushes because I had a model shop just round the corner. According to the German Blurb, they are made using Rotmarder hair. Might just as well be red squirrel for all the difference in quality I can ascertain. Although doing a Google translate tells me that that means sable hair. Sounds good.

Then I found Italeri brushes. Much better as far as I am concerned! And of course... I have Pelikan and other makes of brush in my collection. But when it comes to detail work, the single most important factor is to have a brush that keeps its point. The reason I now have fifteen Revell Painta Lux brushes is that the small point brushes (i.e. 3/0, 4/0 and 5/0) all "fray" after a few days of use. Take a look at this picture:

The brush in the middle is a Revell 4/0 and there are a couple more on the right. From right to left we have 2 Revell, 1 Pelikan "school" brush, 1 Revell standard quality, the much famed and frayed Revell Painta Lux and the Italeri brush. I'll get to the first one on the left in a bit...

Of all those mentioned (and many others) the Italeri brushes have been the nicest for keeping its shape, although the Italeri brush is starting to show its weakness in that the superfine tip is simply due to less hairs and that means less paint carrying. 

But then the revelation!

The brush on the left is a self-branded brush from an airbrush artists' supplier in Germany: Die Duese.

Now I have no claim to fame as an artist of any kind. I am just an enthusiastic amateur modeller learning the trade all over again, but these "professional" artists brushes are a pleasure to use and just look at the tip. I have used this company's brushes now for longer than any other single brush and that tip is as perfect now as it was the day I received it. 

...and the results show why I like them:

Incidentally, this is definitely a work-in-progress shot, so comments later please. ;)

These heads are 1/16th scale and after plenty of practice (about 30 heads painted and repainted in recent days) I think I am getting the hang of things - but let's wait until I have finished a few of these.

Incidentally - heads on sticks? Perhaps these could make a "Game of Thrones" type diorama?...

Nitty gritty bits - painting can be such a chore!

Painting models can be such a chore at times! Because I am currently building a 1/16th scale model, I am now discovering just how much detaail there is.

These shells, for instance, are just under three inches (7 centimetres) long and this means there's loads of space for the labelling that is applied by the munitions factory. At this scale, the detail is large enough to be read under magnification, so the modeller has the choice of applying fiddly transfers or just painting "pretend" text on the model. I chose to make my own transfers and you can really read the writing on the model.

And then there's the model figures! Zut Alors!!! C'est formidable! Take a look at these tank crew figures. At 1/16th scale a "normal" five foot ten crewman is 11 1/8th centimetres tall. These are the first model figures I have built with any effort more than mere lip-service. I am actually trying to do eyes better and add light and shade to the face. Darker lips, shadows in the nostrils and ears, hair, eyebrows... 

So please don't trash my efforts just yet - at 60 years old I am actually learning a new trade. Not particularly brilliant yet, but the models you see here are coming along and if you don't look as close as the camera does, the characters even tend to show expression. This one on the left here has a touch of Daniel Craig about him - even if I do say so myself...

Now this fellow here will eventually be carrying a machine pistol. But to tell the truth, I think he'd look better singing with the Village People. 

As for the chappie in the last picture... Looks a bit older than your average WW2 German tankie and seems to be carrying a lot of worry on his shoulders.

One thing not visible on any of these characters yet are badges and emblems... I amworking on them. I am making my own set of rank, unit, medals and honors transfers. I'll blog more one day about these. After all - I am such a raw beginner at the moment, that I would even think of calling my work good.

Let's just categorise me as an "Enthusiastic Amateur" for now

Here are my latest attempts. Hey, surprise! I managed to get a sneer on the right hand face and even teeth are visible on the left hand face. I even managed blue eyes... there are a few more in the background... brown, green and hazel eyes. 

One day I'll move on to larger figure models - maybe I should have starte on them first.

Oh well... "That's all for now, folks!"

Introducing One-Eye

You have probably all heard the old adage "There are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old and bold pilots". Well, our unsung hero, One-Eye is the living proof that all rules can and will be broken (according to Murphy). He's a character I invented to add colour to my tales of derring do as an armchair pilot flying my flight simulator. After a somewhat dubious career in aviation, One-Eye finally moved to Washington (the state, not the capital - although that is in a state!) in the top left corner of the big bit of America onthe map. There, in a fictional flying club, our hero stirs up the locals - most often by flying upside down under any piece of scenery he can find.

So without further ado, let's hear it from One-Eye...

(Oh yes, that name, well, one eye wus in the wars, things happened that you'd not believe...)

Enter One-Eye

Old One-Eye walked into the Emma Field clubhouse with a pronounced limp and ordered one for the road.

Li Wan, itinerant Asian sheep-shearer, who had just finished shaving the mutton down at the newly founded "Emma Meadows Mutton Arbor" was not a man to take no for an answer. He picked up his book of Japanese Noh poetry from the bar, stood smartly to attention, about faced and marched out onto the road, following One-Eye's order to a T.

At the T junction, he turned right and disappeared into the sunset. That was the next nearest neighbouring waterhole in Lillawaup.

Meanwhile, back at the clubhouse, old One-Eye peered round the bar before looking at his companion again. "Well Limp, here you are, probably the worst dive this side of 14/32...."

Limp (His name is pronounced L I M P) turned to One-Eye, "What's a nice place like this doing in a guy like you? Ah well, never mind. Tell me some war stories, One-Eye..."

"Oh, the wars.... Not as pretty as they used to be... no sense of humour these days. Can't even raise a smile, never mind a... Oh, never mind! It's just grab the cash, shake hands and off to Hollywood. They're only in it for the mink coats.

"No, Limp, I shall tell you something far more interesting. Tell me, have you ever been shaws hunting?"

Limp thought for a moment - a puzzled frown on his face, "No... can't say I have. What's 'shaws'?"

"Why thank you, kind sir. Barman! A pint of Uncle Elmer's number 5, if you please. Cheers!" One-Eye took a generous swig, belched and turned to his somewhat confounded companion.

"No, Limp, I have many other tales to tell. War stories ain't for the tender ears of the listners here." He took another long pull from his glass of 'Chateau collapso'. "Anyway, whun I was in the wars, it wuz against the Yaps. Cunning blighters, them Yaps - laid the most amazing and inventive booby traps and ambushes, they did. Even though they wuz on the other side, you just had to admire their cunning...

"Ah, they may have had some cunning stunts up their sleeves (I'd better say that now - it might be a bit more embarrassing later), but we wuz far more inventive in the end. Invented the most effective counter measure you could possibly imagine - Yap poison!"

Now this really was interesting to Limp, even if old One-Eye's pronunciation was already a bit affected by 'Elmer's number five'. "Are you sure you mean Yaps, One-eye? I've heard of the Japs, but never Yaps. So what's Yap poison?"

The glint that came to One-Eye's one eye reached full intensity faster than you can say 'Antidisestablishmentarianism'....

"Barman, another pint of Uncle Elmer's number five, if you please!" He turned to Limp, "See what I mean? The old Yap poison still works. Cheers! Now, where was I? Oh yes!

"Barman, I'll have a plate of pickled moles please... No, not the ones in vinegar! The ones you have to pick lead out of. You know, the lead shot that Fritz doesn't bother cleaning out, after he sends the skins to the tailors to make those moleskin suits he wears...

"...before he went on holiday to those newer shores."

The barman set a plate of freshly grilled pick led moles on the bar in front of One-Eye and Limp. "Hey, One-Eye," he said, "Fritz has gone to Russia for the orthodox Easter festival. There's no seaside where he's going... so, what shores, eh?"

Quick as a flash at Twickenham, One-Eye responded: "Another pint of Uncle Elmersh numnumbenumbum fiyev, pleash. Hic! Now, where whash I? Oh yesh, the warsh...

"Now you take dear Candy over there. Everyone else doesh. Lovely lass, but easily undr.... er distressed! She went to Hollywood recently and gave hershelf to some Hollywhatsit film producer. Not just the shelf, but quite a bit more... all on the promise of a mink coat.

"Silly lass. Got taken all the way to the cleaners. (Or was it the bleachers? Something American...) Anyway, she was so depressed by her weekend in the lights, that she even tried to commit suicide by jumping from the top of Trump Towers.

"She didn't succeed, of course... got lost half way down and had to stop at reception to ask the way - silly watsers!"

Limp, as usual, took the bait, "Watsers?"

"She'll have an Elmer's Shandy and I'll have another pint of the usual, thank you. Barman! Mighty gentlemanly of you, Limp"

.
.
.
.
.

To be continued, when One-Eye recovers....  

Well, I missed the "Glorious Twelfth"...

...but I can get a bottle of grouse anytime. Although my preference is for Black Grouse as opposed to red.

Anyway! Enough of that and on to the blog. As you will see, I have extended the range of this here blog to include other things in my life. There is still only the one "EagleSkinner" but there are other things to blog about - and who cares if no one reads my tails.

First off for today's post is the fact that I have recently been building a King Tiger tank - the 1/16th scale kit sold by Trumpeter. Heavens! That kit has almost 2000 pieces to assemble and I have been at it for ages already and am nowhere near finishing.

Here in this first shot are just a few of the "swag" items I picked up at the modelling show that was held a few months ago in thePanzer Museum in Munster. There's all sorts of little items there: bolt croppers, hammers small and large, tool boxes, sleeping bag rolls, jerry cans and much more. All to be processed in due time.

I have also started to make some tank crew models.

This was after a couple of months (above) and still later (below

It turned out to be quite crowded inside that hull! Looking at the size of the figures in comparison, I imagine there were more tank crew injuries caused by banging around in that big tin can that many other types...

Even the turret must have been awfully tight when they had to heave those shells around. Then the noise and movement when the gunner fired! If you were fool enough to be standing behind that breech when the gun fired, you'd end up just a tad bit squidged!

These last two photos above are the most recent I have on the camera - but there's been progress since then - I'll keep you up to date in future posts.

Totally Off Course (of course)

I haven't really ever been on track with this blog, have I?

Well today I have one or two cross-links to music videos - I really can recommend these for the sheer cleverness of what this guy does.

Oh - and I may plug a laugh or two as well...

Still here, but I've put the brushes away

Just to let you folk know I am still alive, even if not actively painting planes anymore.

That's all for today.

Vanity Publishing Anyone?

Hi there, long time, no see...

Let me see if this 'embed' thingy works:

Open publication - Free publishing - More munster

The Passing of an Era

What do *****, *****, *******, *** and ***** all have in common? Along with a few others?

They're all reasons why I have fallen by they wayside of flight simulation, Just who or what is hidden behind those asterisks shall remain my secret - or else I risk accusation of being biased and bigoted.

But there is one Big Name in the marketplace I can mention safely. Microsoft. Sadly they have discontinued further development on Microsoft Flight. Not that I, as a beta tester, nor hundreds of other beta testers, told them...

Microsoft were trying to lure in more users (er, perhaps the word should be gamers?) and they were hoping to get a bigger ROI. They have always had an "evil eye" open on the flightsim community because so many third party developers were making money out of the franchise.  Microsoft saw that market as a lost opportunity and decided to lock those 3PDs out of Flight in the hope that they would make "the buck".

Unfortunately Microsoft's marketing equates to Atari's when the C64 was the best selling home PC... Like Atari, Microsoft had the better product, but their marketing sucks - they just couldn't attract enough new meat to enjoy their new semi-flight-simulation. They were targeting Flight at the gamer market, but hey, let's be serious... what gamer wants to fly planes around pretty pretty scenery and have no action (apart from possibly the risk of being rammed out of the sky by some numty who thinks mid air collisions are fun)?

There was absolutely NOTHING in Flight that attracted gamers.

More to the point, Flight didn't even do much to attract the hard core simmers.

A lose-lose situation from day one. Without third party access to the software, the only people creating content was that small team of 30 odd programmers in Vancouver. They were hampered by MS' policy too... copies of realworld aircraft and liveries are limited by MS' legal department and those 3PDs who were able to model real world aircraft were not being given access to the game. So all the user was getting were some very basic airplanes.

As for all those who said the game was so incredible... all I can say is "Emperor's New Clothes". Much as they had improved the terrain modelling, aircraft dynamics (not that I really saw that much over FSX ) and graphic artwork for the 3D models, they stripped the core of the game down so far that even terrain autogen tiling was really bad. Worse than FS8 I dare say, even though the tiles were indeed prettier. There was no real improvement in landclass tech - they different LC were still brutally sharp edged.

Yes, there wore some wow features. Micro-scratched canopies are amazing! Some of the "missions" were even fun. But then again, others were so unrealistic as to be game killing. 400 ducks in a Maule? Not even a few illegal smuggling runs could counter the boredom and repetitiveness of the Flight "Jobs".

If you were to have visited one of the German Flight Simulator conferences in the past few years, you'll have noticed that grey haired and/or balding heads were in the majority. As I said before - kids don't want the tameness of Flight. They want to "Crush, kill, destroy". And as for the real simulation fan... well, the vast majority were simply not attracted by kiddygames...

Microsoft totally ruined a profit making Franchise when they stopped work on the Flight Simulator series. All in the name of Mammon and the Shareholders. They cut off their noses to spite their faeces. Flightsim was never a big winner, but at least it turned a profit and kept the ACES team in work. So what if it wasn't a big profit?

Ah well... I am well out of the simulation game. For now. I have a new venture that I can work on, so we shall see what we shall see.

And finally I must also condemm the "community". There were so many trolls foul mouthing each other and everyone else, that the whole Flight affair degenerated into a "Big Dick" contest. It has been just such a crying shame to see the community get ripped apart by conflicting feelings.

So in the end, we may even have a case of Microsoft saying "well if we can't have it, then nobody shalll"

Good night.

So What Else is New and Exciting?

 From my previous post, you'll be thinking I have increased pace with my livery designs. Well, you wouldn't be far off the mark. Take a look see at these two ideas...

I am playing with ideas about starting up for myself. All my job applications so far have resulted in comments like "Great CV, but overqualified for this role. For "overqualified" read "Way too much life experience" - 58 is not an attractive age for employers. Ah well.





So what to do?

Well some while back - 2010 - I was approached by a real world airplane owner and asked to design a livery for his Marchetti SF260. I was only too happy to move from painting flight simulator models to real planes. The result turns out to be rather pretty - first the artwork:

Now the real thing:

Georgeous, isn't she?

Anyway... a couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail "Do I do airliners?" Two shakes of a lamb's tail and hey presto:

So what to do with all this talent? Go back to the beginning of this post and take a look at the two logos. "I Design" - liveries for trucks, boats, planes...

A New Adventure for 2012

Hi there, it's me again!

So what's new? Well, one thing I haven't blogged this year is the fact that I decided to learn to ride a motorcycle. Officially, that is! Oh I have been riding on and off since I was about 12 and we kids used to play around in the local "Chalk Pit" on a "Noddy Bike" - to the uninitiated I mean a Velocette motorcycle as ridden by English policemen in the 50s and 60s.

You know, I never really bothered with a driving test - in my day we were allowed to ride a 250 cc bike. Later the various laws dropped this down to 125, but I have had a string of 125 cc machines over the years. Let me see now... My first owned motor was one of those 50 cc Honda things with the engine inside the rear wheel. Then, during my Army trade training, I owned a Lambretta LI 175 scooter (which was duly reamed, ported, polished and did almost 90 mph!)

On my first posting in Germany, I did actually buy and rebuild a box of bits, which turned into a Triumph TR6 Trophy - but being limited to "L" status, I only ever got to ride that on Army training areas...

Later, in Cyprus, I went mobile on a Suzuki TS 185. Fun! The only way to survive the green lights on Archbishop Makarios Avenue in Limassol was full throttle and even wheelies to get well ahead of the nutters...

There was an interlude with a Suzuki 125 cc twin in the late 80s - for half a year ish. And then, when I moved to Greece, there was a Honda "Monkey Bike" and then in 2003 I progressed to a BMW C1 scooter - which I still have and love to bits!

In January this year, I decided to kill the piggy bank - well, I have been putting money to one side for many years - a fiver here, 20 Deutsche Mark there, a bottle full of loose change, the collection from deposit bottles returned, a tax refund or two... The original purpose for this slush fund was actually to learn to fly and get my PPL - but have you seen what it costs to keep a PPL current?

So... I visited a few motorcycle showrooms and bought this:

...no... I hadn't passed my test, but I bought her anyway and then booked lessons.

Surprisingly, the training went well and I passed first time on April 20th. I've now taken some advanced driver training too and I am approaching a 3000 Km total on the clock.

The question is... grey is soo dull! What could I do to pep it up? Well, if Germany win the Eurpean championship, then maybe this:

Or even this:

And then, as a crowning glory, I even considered doing same to my car:

Of course, the Italians wouldn't like that, now would they? I even had a reserve scheme if Greece should surprise us:

OK - see you next post!

Well well, "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"

I am still here, kicking this blog around, but every time I come back it's "All change" - and still it's the same.

Just a very short post today, but  it'll do to keep things alive.

Emperor's New Clothes

The most sickening aspect of Flight is the large number of people who are saying the scenery looks so real. Better than FSX. As good as Google Earth.... These people are suffering under the "ENC syndrome" in a big, bigger, biggest way!

I ran both Flight and FSX (Megascenery Oahu) side by side today. Megascenery Oahu is a photo-real scenery for FSX. You only have to look once and you see how Flight really is NOT so wonderful. In the pics below, Flight is on the right.

All I hope for is that the Fligh-Blind gushers just stop, take a deep breath and come back down to earth. Yes, Flight has stunning scenery, but it is in NO WAY photoreal, nor even approaches Google Earth.

My Own Review of MS Flight and the Fooferaw Around its Release

Many, many words have already been said about Microsoft's return to the computer flying game genre. Many, or even most, of these words have been so full of vitriol, you'd have thought that Microsoft and the flight simulation community are at war - albeit one-sided and coming from the flight simulation community...

Microsoft have just done their thing, based on their homework and it really pees me off, when I see the hate that is being poured on Microsoft.

Oh... didn't I mak a few caustic remarks about MS myself? Yes indeed! I am just as guilty of MS Bashing as many others. I make no excuses, nor will I try to explain why I feel my approach is different to the rest of the hate mail aimed at MS.

So for the uninitiated: what the dickens am I on about?

Microsoft released their latest game to the market at the end of February 2012. It is called "Microsoft Flight!" and is being marketed as a game for anyone interested in flying. Please notice that four letter word: GAME. First and foremost, Flight is a game where you can score points, gain experience and even attack and crash into other planes when you are flying online. It is initially being offered on the Microsoft Live / XBox pages as a free download for which you get the completegame engine, scenery and terrain meshes for the Big Island of Hawaii and two aeroplanes: the Icon A5 float plane and the Boeing PT17 biplane.


Currently MS only offer just a few payware extras for the game - you can buy the rest of the (major) Hawaiian islands scenery (which includes the Vans RV6A Kit-plane) and two more planes - the Maule and the P51 Mustang. I think the total runs to around 20 dollars for the Hawaiian Adventure Pack, 15 dollars for the Maule and 8 dollars for the Mustang. Yes - there is a big price difference for the extra aircraft - Microsoft have taken a new approach in that they offer planes in Standard or Deluxe variants. This means that if you want a virtual cockpit, then you will have to buy deluce aircraft models in future, because the standard aircraft will not have a cockpit for you to "virtually sit in".

The picture above shows the Flight "marketplace" screen on www.microsoftflight.com I must remind you here, that you are looking at my page, signed in through my own Live ID. Anything you see will be slightly different.

If nothing else, then one thing that MS is good at is presenting themselves. The page is slick, attractive and clear. Whether I personally like that is not open to discussion. Once you have downloaded and installed the game, a new icon is added to your Windows games library. If you take an enlarged look at the small picture on the left here, you will see that Microsoft have chosen to depict Flight, the game, through the use of a very obvioulsy cartoon-like image, while in the web page window above, the aircraft are shown almost photo-real.

This little icon is probably the single biggest giveaway to the whole background behind the vitriol that has been aimed at Flight, the people behind it and Microsoft.


Yes. I am being serious here. Although I am looking at the situation from a wider perspective than you may be thinking. Most of the MS-Bashing has been by either the MS Flight Simulator franchise marketers and developers and their supporters and followers. i.e. everyone who likes to buy addons or install freeware addons for their flight simulator. And before you start to sharpen your quills, bear with me for a bit.

In developing Flight, MS chose to go a new way with their approach to PC flying (I say that as opposed to flight simulation). When the game was announce, they also told the whole world that all third party developers were going to be shut out from creating content for this game. Oh yes, there was an offer to allow some development if that developer signed over all copyrights to Microsoft and also gave them a swingeing cut of the turnover. I am not privy to the exact numbers, but the copyright signover is "bad enough".

So... Flight is now to be an MS only product? With a childish cartoon plane as an icon? The "big names" in the franchise scen were not long in starting a call to arms. Oh, it may not have been a real "call", but the tone of commentary from virtual airlines, developer shops, marketplaces, forum owners and the like was generally downbeat against Microsoft's Flight. True, most did state that FSX still has years of life in it and that FSX and FS9 products will continue to be developed and sold or given away as freeware, but the tone that came from the top tiers of the old FLIGHT SIMULATION community was generally negative.

...and it was THAT, dear reader, that sparked off the lower end of the community family to start spouting vitriol at MS. Just about every single Flight basher hates Flight because they will not be able to add planes, scenery, weather, ground features, terrain meshes of their own. And "...oh my God, what about all the stuff I have already bought for FSX - I will not be able to use that in Flight..."

The forums were overflowing with such pitiful comments by the worst kind of flightsim community member - the low IQ, selfish brat mentality that stands there, fat bellied and with a wide open mouth screaming "I WANT NOW!"

There were even a few "Forum wars" started and some fligh simulation community members resorted to low punching at the serious flight simmer. It wasn't just a case of calling Microsoft "FS Nazis" and many other bad-mouth terms... even forum managers and admins would get flamed as dictators if they "dared" to restrict a forum member's "freedom of speech".

Yes - I am digressing slightly from the main theme, but I want the reader to understand the "forum wars" side of the vitriol that has spiralled around Microsoft's Flight game. Would you believe that this even spread to the Microsoft beta forums? No? Well I was accepted as a beta tester for MS Flight and started to take a closer look at the game from January 4th this year (2012). There was even one betatester who was so "against" whatever anyone said pro flight that he resorted to swearing of the worst possible kind - even I was referred to as parts of the female reproductive anatomy because I dared to say that I found his manner offensive.

It's strange to think that with the coming of Internet, people seem to take the phrase "Freedom of speech" so literally. Yes, we are allowed to have an opininion, but inciting violence, hatred, prejudice and such is NOT freedom of speech. That is simply criminal behaviour and the plankton that surfaced in the flight simulation community has succeeded in only one thing - they have made the whole flight simulation community look bad. All because a flying game has joined the genre as a standalone entity. Flight is not intended to replace Flight Simulator programmes. It is merely a game, where users can hop into an aircraft, buzz around the scenery, killing "gold coins and hoops", earn "points" and generally play at flying.

If the new Flight users want more, they will soon be asking questions and wanting to know what alternatives there are. When they come to the Flight Simulation community for help, they are likely to take one look at the scum floating on top of the pond and turn away for life. And while I am on the subject of scum, it has no place on our dedicated flight simulation pond.

Now... let's actually take a look at the game...

Nope, it's definitely not a simulation, although when you turn off the "helpers" it is quite a blast to fly low level through the Hawaiian scenery, upside down and to be amazed by the prettiness of the landscape.

The colours are much richer than in FSX and the scenery really does make an excellent first impression that will last for the game player. Oh yes - that is a deliberately biased statement. It doesn't take long for the flight simulation cognoscenti to spot the fact that MS have reduced the level of detail of scenery tiles and landclasses. When you climb higher over the landscape, the knowing pilot will soon spot a certain checkerboarding of the landscape and at dawn and dusk, you can see that streeghtlighting effects on the roadsreally looks nasty (and not just cheap).

(In the screenshot above you can see repetition taking place. If you actually GoogleEarth this area you see a biiig difference to the real world)

But those feelings are based on experiences gained from what is possible in a true flight simulation. Microsoft have really screwed back on details so that the game is not a system hog - which was the biggest single problem with the Flight Simulator series - you always needed up-to-the-minute "power" computers to really enjoy computer flying.

Microsoft flight cuts away the unnecessary frills and lets you enjoy some pretty damn good flying straight out of the box! And at a very reasonable price for now...

Let's just do a small comparison by flying around Honolulu in FSX and in Flight. The Flight version costs $19.99 US. In the following four screenshot pairs you will see me flying around Honolulu in the Vans RV6A in Microsoft Flight and in the A2A Accusim Piper cub in FSX. Which looks prettier? That is up to the beholder. Personally I prefer my FSX Honolulu, but then again I paid $60 US for Flight Simulator and then I paid extra fro the Piper Cub and Accusim. Oh yes, the scenery was extra (Mega Scenery - Oahu). I also have FS Global meshes loaded to give me more realistic appearance to the terrain shape. Active Sky has been added to improve the way the weather is presented and then there is another addon or two (XGraphics and Flight Environment) for the various clouds, water, lights and goodies that make FSX look just a bit more real. All in all I think I may have as much as $500 US worth of FS addons affecting the way Hawaii looks in FSX. Here are the pictures, you judge...

From those four picture pairs, it doesn't actually take much to recognise that "my" FSX outclasses Flight by light-years. But even a low budget FSX usercan see that the Flight city landclasses are typically FS9 or even older (just look at the road grid style in the last pair). The Flight water looks pretty, but the "addon-adjusted" FSX water simply washes the flight stuff away... Street lights in Flight are painted onto the roads - and in a far worse style than even in FS9. In my customised FSX I actually have streeghtlights that are above the ground.

This does not mean that Flight is terrible. Not by a mile! Microsoft have improved a few things so that when you are flying low level up various canyons (as an example), you will be stunned by the rock faces...

But... if you are a flight simulation enthusiast, then sadly you will be disappointed. Flight does feel sterile after you have flown a highly modified FSX with traffic, AI aircraft, animals and watercraft...

One of my "wow" moments while testing Flight happened while taxying at an airport and suddenly realising that the trees were blowing in the wind. Very etherealistic ;) And then I discovered that FTX / Orbx have now introduced exactly this effect into their scenery addons. And to go one beat further, in the FSX addons, you now have leaves falling from the trees in autumn.

All in all, Flight is a pretty newcomer to the genre "Flying on a PC" in the sub-set "games" You can't even think of comparing it with FSX really, because the Flight Simulation side of the genre just has so much openness and extendability, that there is no way Flight can compete.It doesn't even begin to try. It is just another flying game that is politically correct for the "younger minded". It is not a war game and there is no "combat" element, so it won't appeal to the World of Warcraft faction...

...well, it might... already there have been reports of Fight users flying along, minding their own businesses, when WHAM! Someone rams them from behind and send them spiralling to the ground... Yes - I too, have been rammed by some ninja plankton who seemed to think it was totally hilarious to do that.

Ah well.

All I can say here is that Flight is here, you can use it free and forever (yes yes, within the limits of two planes and only Big Island) and at that it is worth a try.

I may add to this write up later - let's see if I get scummed up... ;)