Quote from Shotglass :

most likely... an additional car standing close to the track doesnt help much with safety and these days theres so many marshalls that a driver wouldnt be the first to arrive anyway

Yeah, i'd go along with that. And even if a driver was the first on scene, if he wasn't a fully qualified first aider chances are he'd do more harm than good.

I think in the past with fewer marshalls trackside and cars that would burst into flames at the slightest bump, it was an acceptable and note-worthy thing for a fellow competitor to do. But today they'd probably get a ten place grid penalty and a 10K fine fotr their troubles.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I haven't decided whether to do it yet anyway. To be honest it's the wrong time of year to be thinking about it given that I'd have to do most of the work in my garden, but maybe I'll get ready to do it in the spring.

Well there's your answer. First thing to do is build yourself a garden shed, that'll teach you all the woodworking skills you'll ever need

Quote from Shotglass :

technically he did stop
and its not like prost didnt do much the same to him the year before

Well yeah, but technically he didn't stop until Prosts Ferrari was firmly embedded in his nose cone and he'd pushed him through the gravel trap at 120mph kicking up a huge dust cloud. And in fairness, he didn't so much as check to see if Prost was ok but run off down the pit lane with a huge cheesy grin on his face .

Although he wasn't chuffed after the 89 incident, i think the 1990 shunt was more of sticking up one the FIA rather than Prost. If you remember back in 89, Senna continued in the race but was excluded from the results and was actually stopped from going onto the podium because he was deemed to have had an illegal push start from the marshalls after the coming together with Prost. Which all meant that he didn't get the points that he needed to win the WDC that year. Then in 1990 the FIA had said they'd swap the grid markings before the race. But then went back on their promise which meant Senna had to start on the dirty side on the track despite getting pole position, which also meant Prost was able to pass him off the line.

But having said that, Senna did stop on a number of occasions to help other drivers, which is something that doesn't seem to happen these days. Infact the last time i remember that happening was Eddie Irvine running to help Luca Burti after he burried himself in the tyre wall at Spa. But maybe todays drivers have been told not to stop and leave it to the marshalls and emercency staff ?

Quote from chanoman315 :

Well, i think Hamilton will never be like Senna, he was humble, good person, etc. When have you seen Hamilton stop his car to see if a driver is ok after an accident?

What, like when Senna stopped at T1 of the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix to see if Prost was ok ?

I've been thinking about this for the last few mins and, it may not be as easy to build it as you may think.

For a start, you don't really wanna be solely using nails , not on something that's gonna have very low frequency vibrations constantly pumped through it (they'll pop out in no time). You'd really need some proper wood joints, like a dovetail or finger joint at the very least, as well as plenty of bracing struts (bit like a bulkhead in a ship) and some top quality wood glue

Then there's the problem of cutting the circular hole for the speaker (as well as cutting out the joints). How you gonna do that ?, got any proper tools, or are you hoping to do all this with a junior hacksaw and a couple of sheets of sandpaper

There is loads of personal satisfaction to be had when you do build stuff like this, but like many things it's never quite as easy as we all think. If i were you i'd definitely be hunting down Al Heeley and asking for his help. Either that or keep an eye out for the auction house's if there are any near you, see if there are any nice amp's going cheap, you'd be amazed at the bargains you can pick up in those places

Oh, and, i'm not sure ply would be the best thing to use tbh, i'm no expert, but ply is only very thin sheets of veneer glued together, and it tends to split really easily (could be wrong on it's suitability for a speaker cabinet, but i wouldn't personally use it). Chipboard or MDF is probably a safer bet, but then as you say this only adds to the weight of the thing

Last edited by Mazz4200, Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:04.

The yacht varnish sounds like a good idea, it'd be practically indestructible with a good few coats of that stuff.

Out of interest have you any idea of the type of wood you'd be using ? if it's oak or pine or something with a nice grain pattern, putting a clear yacht varnish on it would look pretty cool (although i'd suggest using a wood dye/wood stain if you're using pine)

Would the wood you would most likely use affect the sound quality ?, would it sound a bit...woody ? (i'm thinking of any resonance going through it, i'm guessing there maybe more flex in natural wood, as apposed to the very rigid chipboard that most cabinets use, but it may not have any difference on the sound quality at all, i dunno ? and i can't think up any more woody word play lines either, so i'll shut up now)

Seems like God and buses have a lot in common - You wait 500yrs for one, then 3 turn up at the same time.

Quote from zeugnimod :

Sorry to break your plans but I don't think Vettel would be a happy No. 2 driver.

Dunno tbh, he seems such a genuinely nice bloke i can't really see him complaining too much, especially since my car will be the quickest car ever in the the whole history of all Formula 1 and all other motorsports in the whole history of the known universe, and forever more, so.... maybe i'll have to let him sleep with Suzy Perry too, and give him free copies of Little Britain on DVD.

If i was to have a team run the way i'd like it then it would most resemble a mixture of McLaren and Williams. So i doubt Alonso would want to drive for me Even though (like many here) i think he is the most complete driver on the grid at the moment, and it wouldn't be a problem for me to work with someone i don't like (been doing it for most of my working life) Alonso simple wouldn't fit into my team, and i don't think he does enough out of the car to justify his wages. And if he started any of this childish backstabing nonsense he'd be straight out the door. So no, no Alonso for me.

I'd take Kimi any day of the week, but, he's already won his championship, so i'm not entirely convinced of his motivation these days. So, on reflection, probably not Kimi.

Kubica ?, he's quick, no doubt about it. But that voice, it's enought to send the most wide awake and alert engineer into an instantaneous coma, so unless i was sponsored by Red Bull or Nescafe Expresso Coffee or something, the extra expense of keeping the rest of the team awake would be too much. Seriously though, i don't think Kubica would really fit into a team that i had built. He's not my kinda guy (without making that sound uber gay)

As for the rest. I'd definitely have a clear No 1 and No 2 driver setup, so it'd have to be two guys that would be happy with that arrangement. As i've said before i'm a huge fan of Hamiltons driving style, and one way or the other he would bring in loads of 'air-time' for the team. And as far as i can tell he's the hardest working driver in F1 when it comes to off-track stuff and you've got to keep the sponsors happy. So i wouldn't be upset to have Hamilton as my No 1 driver.

The No 2 driver would have to be a good foil for Lewis, i.e bring balence to the team, be good to work with, not complain too much, perhaps be good at the technical, set-up side of things (although a good test driver could do that last part to) So maybe Massa, Heidfeld, Glock or Vettel. But with the future in mind, i think i'd have Vettel. With perhaps Alex Wurz as a test driver.

And maybe bring in Rubens when he retires to give Lewis some of his know-how, and to tell him straight when he's being a prat.

So thats No 1 Hamilton, No 2 Vettel.

As for the name of my new team, well it's obvious, either Maserati, Alfa Romeo or Lotus. And Suzy Perry would be my personal pit girl and masseuse....and also my lover

Quote from ColeusRattus :

That's not very surprising, is it?

To be honest we could be here all night discussing the various aspects of flight sims. Needless to say FS is good at what it does, and an FSX 3d cockpit is a very nice place to sit and fly. But even all through it's version 7 and 8, X-plane and FS were very comparable in their end results. (X-planes short comings were solely down to the actual modelling of the aircraft themselves and not the aero modelling) But this new version 9 seems to have stepped up a notch

Quote from ColeusRattus :

I have to admit though that despite the better feel of X-Plane, play FSX more often. Now the emphasis here is on "play": the missions are just great fun compared to the "take a plane and an airport and head in a random direction" which wears off for me quite quickly.

It's the other way round for me. I got bored of the missions pretty quickly, but find i get far more enjoyment of doing everything by the book, including flight checks, navigation, tuning the radio's buy hand, ATC communications, even start-up and shut-down procedures. But i will say if you're into the missions you should check out Just Flights Cargo Pilot, and Airline Pilot add-ons.

That's good to hear.

I did try the feedback in FSX with one of my wheels, and other than take off and landing it was pretty tame, didn't really add anything to the 'flying feel' but i'd hope X-plane would be much better.

I've got an old feedback wheel lying around somewhere, will have to see if i can somehow mode my yoke with the motors from it.

Oh another thing, before tonight i hadn't tried X-plane since version 7, but at the time i felt it was'nt quite good enough to drag me away from FS (hate flying with 2d panels). But this new version 9 is soooo much better, it's almost a different game...er sim

Quote from xaotik :

According to wikipedia fans, are able to either blow or suck depending on which side of them you stand - a fact that has been amply demonstrated.

Seriously Oxo, if you don't win the forums funniest personality this year i'm gonna find a shotgun and personally drive down to York and blow Kevs kneecaps off for you

Just had a go of the 9.21 demo. Took forever to download, took ages to set up the joystick, didn't change any of the graphics settings, or any other settings for that matter, but, i've got to say i'm impressed.

The graphics are good, very good, almost on a par with FSX, if not better in some areas. The 3d cockpits are great, although can look a bit flat at some points (i.e the radio stack looks 2d) and i don't think it's quite as clickable as FSX, but it's easily good enough to fly with, and there's no clipping when panning. On the whole, FSX just shades it, but X-plane is a worthy contender.

The sound is great, much better than FSX, and it's got real ATC sound samples which really adds to the atmosphere, (although i didn't have time to interact with ATC myself it should be at least as good as FSX).

But the flight modelling is something else, the plane feels so much more alive in your hands, it makes FSX feel so wooden and lifeless. You can really tell FSX use's canned effects to mimic flight physics, whereas X-plane uses real world aerodynamic modelling. I don't know if X-plane supports force feedback, (not that i've got a force feedback stick), but it would be utterly joyous if it did, if you've got a top quality feedback rig that is...

One thing that did bug me though was i couldn't get it out of window mode. Dunno if this is all you get in the demo, but not being able to pull it up to full screen is a bit of a pain. And it only gives you 10mins before it disengages the stick and pulls up a" please buy me" box in the middle of the screen.

All in all i definately think it's worth getting, although i'm not to happy about this 'having to pay again for each new version' thing. Anyone know if you get the 9.3, 9.4, 9.5 etc updates for free, then have to pay for each version 10, 11 etc. Or do you have to pay for every (point).4, .5, .6 ?

Time to start clearing all the unused crap from my HDD's me thinks

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I think Alonso's probably the better all-round driver. Remember though that Alonso won his championships by driving smart, not pushing for points he couldn't achieve, always aiming for the best position his car could get. Whereas Hamilton's biggest fault is that he tries to beat everybody at every race.

Someone's gonna have to say it, so it might as well be me.....What we're all saying here is, Alonso is more of a Prost character, whereas Hamilton is very similar to Senna

Some of our younger viewers may not realise, but back in the day, a lot of the criticisms Hamilton has been receiving recently were thrown at Senna when he first joined F1. And here's an admission. Back in the day, i soaked up all the negative press Senna was getting, and i didn't actually like him, i thought he was a bit of an arrogant, self righteous cock. In time i changed my opinion of him though, so at the moment i'm holding my judgement on Hamiltons personality, but loving his hard-charging driving style. He a true racer in the strictest sense of the word, and far more exciting to watch than anyone else on the track. And for that reason alone i think he does deserve to win the WDC this year.

Quote from zeugnimod :

And only less than 200 points behind position 6.

You said you could make the top ten, so i guess you were right....git You've got no chance of 6th though

Really really stinky race for me, and only 20pts separating 6th, 7th and 8th now the last race is gonna be a nail-biter.

Hyper, if someone does come forward and claim to be Vitellus Racing, how will you know if they're telling the truth.....scrub that, it's me, I'm Vitellus Racing, honest

Quote from Bean0 :

The FIA have gone truly mad now...standardised engines and gearboxes from 2010 are looking likely.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php ... item.php?fes_art_id=36308
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php ... item.php?fes_art_id=36316

Got mixed opinions about that one tbh.

In theory it could actually work, but thewn again it could become just a more expensive version of A1GP.

Mind you the FIA have a long history of suggesting all sorts of hair-brained ideas that never see the light of day. This sort of thing is usually used to stir up the teams to come up with alternative solutions to problems that don't necessarily exist, other than in Berni and Maxi's head.

On a lighter note, i heard that Bernie now wants Max to stay on as Prez for another 10yrs, instead of retiring when he's supposed to (i.e about 3yrs ago)

Thanks for that

Doesn't look too bad either, almost on a par with FSX.

I have heard that some of the planes are pretty ropey, which considering how X-Plane works, is a bit of a shame. However, it's only $40 USD at the mo, so i think i might give it a try again. (not tried it since v7.3) But those 70gb's worth of scenery files is a bit of a worry, can't afford that kind of space on my pc atm.

Anyway, i think i'll download the demo and give it a bash.

Maybe not, but Hamilltun was flying this morning, even Hikky was quick. But i was most impressed with Boreday tbh, he was up with the big boys in 1st practice and well ahead of Vertle.

Wow, i'm suitably impressed, looks better than FSX in those pics.

How are the 3d cockpits, are they fully clickable ? any chance of a pic or two ?. I'd like to see how they compare with FSX, as it's the main reason i've not moved over to X-Plane. Dunno why, but i really hate flying with a 2d cockpit.

True story about an unfortunate name choice.

Back in the early 90's the British Government changed the policy regarding the second tier higher educational establishments throughout the country. So, all the 'old' Polytechnics could now become fully fledged Universities in their own right, and therefore seek greater funding etc. Without haste one such seat of learning in a large city in the North East of England set the ball in motion in an attempt to rival the reputation and much loved 'Red Brick University' already well established within the city limits. The best brains in said establishment were immediately put to work on transforming it from a grotty-little-backwater-half-arsed glorified college into a place that would become a centre for academic excellence and known the world over for it's friendly welcoming atmosphere. But, what to call this new pinnacle of acedemia ? Obviously they couldn't call it the University of said city, that name was already taken. What they needed was a name that was both memorable yet demonstrated class, intellect and a place that demanded respect. This name was duly discusssed at all levels throughout the establishment and eventually a most agreeable name was selected. So, with all the formalities, funding and various planning permissions granted, the next move was to inform the powers that be that this once great and noble city was to have a new shiny University to rival it's brethren.

In order to qualify to become a new university an application had to be made to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) an organisation well known for it's use of abbreviations as a quick and simple means of identifying individual establishments. The various forms were completed by our venerable newcomer and sent off to the UCAS organisation. A few weeks later the confirmation of the new university status was mailed back to our eponymous heroes. And with the confirmation details, they also included the abbreviation to which said new univeritsy would be known throughout the world and for the rest of time.

City University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Needless to say the name was hastily changed to what we now lovingly call Northumbria University.

Quote from tristancliffe :

I taught myself to land in the original Falcon, by flying above the runway at 40,000ft agl, diving vertically downwards, pulling out of the dive and landing in one move

Oh, and I wouldn't claim to follow a realistic landing procedure. My landing starts about 0.5 miles out rather than 10 (ish), and I don't do things in the 'correct' order. Maybe that's why I'm rubbish in a pressure situation

Yeh reality fanboyz FTW

I've completely forgotten the different settings in the game, but me thinks you tain't got them on the hardest level The biggest problem i always had was bringing the nose wheel down too quickly after landing which would instantly crumple and make lots of nasty scraping noises and sparks and stuff. Although it's a great way to stop quickly if needs be. Bit of a bugger trying to taxi back to the apron though.

Falcon 4 is at it's best when set to the hardest levels, you should try it. There's nothing quite like starting a full length mission and spending the first hour and a half pressing every single button in the god damn plane just trying to get the bleedin engine started

Quote from mrodgers :

I haven't even ever seen an indian,

Huh ? don't you have any corner shops in America ?

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Guy Fawkes was from York though. His old school is across the street from my house.

Great

Cheryl Cole's Mum and Dad live about a hundred yards from my front door....err, so yeah...lets go put lighted fireworks through their letterbox...err, i mean through Gordon Browns letterbox, that'll show em, him, that'll show him... Grrrr..

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Instead of ranting in here we should all be preparing home-made explosives and blowing the shit out of government buildings.

Whoops, did I say that out loud...

Erm, my memories not what it used to be, but wasn't it in York that some farmer sprayed several tonnes of cow shit all over his local council offices a few years back ? Cool dude

Now this is where things start getting a bit muddy.

Unfortunately the modding community havn't really taken to AF with much gusto. Many preferred to keep working on the original, which by all accounts is much easier to work with than AF. So other than new skins and a few campaigns there ain't much out there, and as for freeware, don't hold yer breath.

Having said that, have a look at the forums on Frugal's World http://www.frugalsworld.com/modules/news/ (although i had to uninstall my copy about a year ago to fit FSX and Arma on me HDD's so i'm outta touch with the Falcon 4 scene these days) But if you do find anything fancy, let us know.

Now onto other matters. I've been having a look at X-Plane 9.2, i've not tried it since 7.something, and this newest one sure does look nice. They've even got some nice swanky FSX 3D cockpits, and it's only $40 sure is tempting... but that 70gb file size sure will make one hell of a big hit on my system. Anyone got a 100+ HD going spare ? i'll give you a fiver for it


[edit] You managing to land ok Tristan ? It must have taken me about 732 attempts and many many hours of practice before i got comfortable with it. But even then, after a long hard mission i'd still get that "oh bollocks i have to land" feeling and a sharp intake of breath everytime the runway came into view...damn good stuff if you ask me

Last edited by Mazz4200, Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:57.