Ghostrider
Charter Member 2012

In Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the surviving Doolittle Raiders gathered publicly for the last time. They once were among the most universally admired and revered men in the United States. There were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942, when they carried out one of the most courageous and heart-stirring military operations in this nation's history. The mere mention of their unit's name, in those years, would bring tears to the eyes of grateful Americans. Now only four survive. After Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, with the United States reeling and wounded, something dramatic was needed to turn the war effort around. Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan for the United States to launch retaliation, a daring plan was devised. Sixteen B-25s were modified so that they could take off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. This had never before been tried -- sending such big, heavy bombers from a carrier. The 16 five-man crews, under the command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle, who himself flew the lead plane off the USS Hornet, knew that they would not be able to return to the carrier. They would have to hit Japan and then hope to make it to China for a safe landing. But on the day of the raid, the Japanese military caught wind of the plan. The Raiders were told that they would have to take off from much farther out in the Pacific Ocean than they had counted on. They were told that because of this they would not have enough fuel to make it to safety. And those men went anyway. They bombed Tokyo, and then flew as far as they could. Four planes crash-landed; 11 more crews bailed out, and three of the Raiders died. Eight more were captured; three were executed. Another died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crew made it to Russia. The Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to its enemies, and to the rest of the world: We will fight.

A good day to everybody! I recently found over at Flightsim.com Payakan's vere nice Heinkel He115B floatplane for FS8/9 and I took the liberty to convert it to CFS2. The He115 was involved a lot in the 1940 Norwegian German campaign and it filled sea-patrol, anti-shipping and anti-submarine warfare duties over the North Sea until the B&W131 took over. The only other He115 available for CFS2 is a quite outdated model from Alphasim's oldies. Unfortunately, the conversion did not carry over propeller animation for the starboard engine, as you can see from the attached screenie. The control surfaces animations are ok, while there's no cockpit nor bomb bay door animation. I could live with the latter, but not with a spinning prop and a dead one. If anyone can correct this visual problem, I am attaching the converted mdl, while the flight model and dp derive directly from Alphasim's He115 with only very few mods to avoid the plane from dropping down in the water when spawned by Free Flight. Included are my updated propeller textures, plus the propeller blade texture I repainted in Luftwaffe-style solid black (the original has Allied-style yellow tipped prop blades). I hope to come up soon with a wake and splash floatplane effect for this plane.

Misson, Sólo quería hacerle saber que no me he olvidado de hacer la parte del eje de pedestal. No puedo decir que voy a trabajar en este proyecto a una velocidad vertiginosa, pero la operación Mezzagosto está en marcha, y estoy usando las misiones pedestal como una base para "dar la vuelta" y convertirlos en misiones Axis-temáticas. La primera es una Vichy reconnoitre francesa del convoy justo después de entrar en el Mediterráneo ... Yo no quiero darte algo demasiado difícil para empezar, ¿sabes? In English... I just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about doing the Axis side to Pedestal. I can't say I will work on this project at breakneck speed, but Operation Mezzagosto is underway, and I am using the Pedestal missions as a base to "flip" them and turn them into Axis-themed missions. The first is a Vichy French reconnoitre of the convoy just after it enters the Mediterranean...I didn't want to give you something too difficult to start, you know? "title_string" = Funcionamiento Mezzagosto - Intrus dans la Méditerranée! "summary_string" = Ecoutez, les pilotes français! Un enorme convoy aliado ha entrado en el Mediterráneo, y es nuestra tarea para analizar la composición de este convoy y pasar la información a nuestros amigos alemanes e italiano cerca de Cerdeña y Sicilia. El convoy no está a su alcance por el momento. Las operaciones de combate pueden depender de la inteligencia, así que vamos a conseguir es correcta la primera vez!