Leaderboard
Popular Content
Showing content with the highest reputation since 02/19/2024 in all areas
-
Well after 3 weeks or so of dicking around I am at a state of completion. Flying and driving working great for the games I play so far, some games require separate ports for telemetry so attention there is important. I took the extra effort to put plugs at the steering wheel, stick, and both pedals. Saves a lot of weight on platform and took the cramped in feeling away for me to be able to install just what I needed, for flight or race. Made a dash to replace wheel when flying it also hold my important instruments for WW1. Butt kicker is below the seat and seat pad has 8 vibrators as well. The wind fans I thought were dumb till I tried them ,there actually an awesome effect when in VR. Anyone want to try it your welcome to anytime.3 points
-
For anyone who didn't know, this year has been a shit-show for me, literally from Day 1. On January 1, 2024, I suffered a minor heart attack about 4:30pm. Just sitting at my computer desk, messing around with one sim or another. Then I was suddenly drenched in sweat, and had invisible iron bands tightening around each arm. No chest pain at all. I got up, walked around a little, trying to cool off and think of what the hell was happening. After a long night and morning in the ER waiting on testing to confirm the heart attack (at first the blood tests showed no indication of the enzymes present after your heart has issues) and a room to become available for post-stent insertion observation, I was instead air-ambulanced to Mayo in Rochester, Mn. Turns out the stent they wanted to use could not be inserted due to near complete blockages. Two of them. They were concerned that another heart attack was imminent, so they added a balloon pump device to assist my heart (which Mayo in my home town of Mankato did not exactly place correctly, something Rochester had to fix before my surgery.) This device is rather sensitive, so they deemed road travel to Rochester inappropriate and ordered the helicopter. After the mid-morning stent procedure went awry and I awoke from anesthesia, I found myself on a gurney wrapped in blankets with my heart POUNDING ... felt like I'd just run a marathon. My gurney was being wheeled outside to a waiting helicopter. The pounding heart didn't ease up. My complaints to the aviation EMT's/Nurses (all 10's by the way, they were three good looking gals!) were met with only "It's just the pump doing it's thing". Okay, cool. What fucking pump? I was oblivious to the presence of a machine hooked up through my femoral artery. I found out about that after I arrived at Mayo in Rochester. Much fussing about and many blood draws and chest X-rays later (this is how they determined by femoral pump's balloons were in the wrong spots, causing the excessive pounding sensation I felt), they settled on the necessity for a double bypass. Asked if I thought it a good plan, all I could say was "I bet it's better than the alternative, let's go!" Two days later, and after having had the femoral pump's balloons re-positioned properly (and wow, what a difference that made! I could still feel it doing it's thing, but it was a far more mild thumping than the hard pounding I'd been enduring for two and a half days!) it was time for the Big Show. I was wheeled into an industrial room that reminded me of a cool, clean slaughter house, then thumped and bumped onto a new table, and had IV hoses plugged in. And that's it. I knew nothing of what transpired during the next several hours. I woke up in a new room. Different nurses, and lots of things plugged into me. My gal Meghan was teary and bleary but right there beside me. I hurt everywhere, but when I tried to reposition a little I felt my chest move (felt it seperate, and I just knew it wasn't supposed to do that) and a wave of pain swept over me. Okay, so no using my arms to move myself, lesson learned. Started to take stock of what all I had going on... Something called a 'wound vac' was noisily sucking gunk out of mu chest through various tubes, with several more exit tubes leaving my upper stomach area. Nobody mentioned I'd have four extra holes in my gut. My left arm was covered in gauze from wrist to elbow. No idea why, but it hurt to do much with it. A nurse mentioned my kidney function was good, that's when I realized I had an exit tube down there, too. A new room and four days later, I was being wheeled out of St. Mary's Hospital, center piece of the famed Mayo Clinic facility in Rochester. I felt pretty good, despite the various pains from my incisions and procedures. The only issue I had on the 90 mile ride home was a nose bleed that didn't want to stop. Even though it's been years since Meghan needed one, she had a tampon available, still in the wrapper. I looked like an idiot, but the tampon did exactly it's job and helped contain the flow of blood. Yes, I have a picture, lol. A couple weeks go by, then I started cardiac therapy. You know, get the heart and chest ready to get back into real life and working. Very slowly at first. By now I was getting antsy and wanting things to move along. After my first couple sessions of cardiac therapy, I was pretty certain I needed to reign myself in. Then Mother Nature did it for me, gifting me a good case of the flu. Not Covid, tested for that several times (both at home and via drive-up testing) and always negative. Still, not fun. It was a mild case for me, except for the coughing. And man, did that HURT. Chest full of garbage and trying to gently cough it out just doesn't work. Broke my chest plate apart coughing, I could move either side up and down from the other with a simple press of my finger. And yes, it hurt like hell. About ten days of that and I finally kicked it. Back to rehab and starting all over. So now I'm within a month of taking my Federal DoT physical to get my ability to drive commercial vehicles back. and to get back to work and maybe earn a little money to replace all I've spent in the last two months. On the good side, I've spent well past my deductibles and out-of-pocket amounts. So my health care for the rest of the year is nearly free! (well, nothing is ever free, but I'm going with it.) And for what it's worth... I'm happy to still be here. I'm not done being a pain in the ass to those who see me as such. I'm also not done respecting and being respected by my friends and acquaintances. And I'm pretty sure my best photo has yet to be shot.3 points
-
3 points
-
I don't even know how to that. I tried saying, "Calm down" once and, boy, did that NOT work well at all.2 points
-
2 points
-
When you did a Red Flag with old 104 drivers as OPFOR in the days before you carried telemetry pods most dogfights debriefs were exactly that. He who yelled loudest won the fight. Rage quitting and drinking heavily were factors so that would, indeed, be realistic.2 points
-
2 points
-
Was browsing through a thread at the GB forums and came across this gem, should bring back some memories for the '46 alumni. https://youtu.be/_da6rvvIUs0?si=1gkzeptXu7N87Gif2 points
-
2 points
-
Couple of updates and additions... You know what to do, Ill also put these in the vault custom_photoIAR81b.dds custom_photoP40E1.dds custom_photoSpitIXc.dds custom_photoIAR81a.dds custom_photo SpitIXe.dds2 points
-
I bow to you sir. I was looking at the same gig awhile back but the room I was going to put it in was taken by my daughter when she decided to move to Austin and work for me. That is one sweet rig and I am properly happy for you and jealous. I might even be a little hateful toward you out of immature envy on my part. Feel free to call my out if I go too far.2 points
-
Watched a couple episodes tonight. I would say Episode 6 approaches the emotion and complexity of Band of Brothers. The episode mixes in a group of men going onto forced R&R after a very tough mission side by side with men who have been captured and are prisoners of war. The scenes cutting back and forth between men trying to recover from what they experienced along with men trying to survive behind enemy lines was stunning at times. Having american pilots being marched thru a german town and be attacked by locals who referred to them as american terrorists was hard to watch, but likely accurate. A complex and moving episode.2 points
-
While I was doing some browsing on Pinterest looking for some WW1 skinning ideas, got myself sidetracked, I came across this site http://thevintageaviator.co.nz/ and then spent another hour going through it. Some very interesting stuff on the site, well worth the read if you like WW1 birds.2 points
-
2 points
-
2 points
-
2 points
-
2 points
-
Glad to see they addressed all those complaints from AI pilots about getting jumped by Live Pilots all the time..... "Improved routine for detecting an enemy attacking a group of AI planes from blind spots;" And for Navy "Fixed a problem with AI pilots pulling away from a frontal attack too early;" ......That's what she said2 points
-
1 point
-
Depends on how you clear your wife’s data. I value my life, so my wife’s data remains…1 point
-
Does this fix work when my wife won't let me reply in an argument?1 point
-
1 point
-
1 point
-
It’s a good one, until you put a tire in the wrong place, get turned around, and all that aero that’s supposed to keep you sucked to the ground doesn’t do shit anymore. LOL!1 point
-
After cold starting the F-16 in DCS a few times I decided to simulate the crew chief running through the ground checks like I had them do in real life. Seriously, sitting in the pit for 12 minutes waiting for the INS to align and count down to 6 is an eternity when you are impatient and have the mind of a 12 year old. I could usually get through all the other checks in 4-5 minutes so you just had to sit there. I'm waiting for DCS to add the real life 2 hour debrief after each mission. That should be fun!1 point
-
Nothing like seeing a show in a small venue....two rows back. Was a great show.1 point
-
...that might be due to the fact that I shamelessly plagiarized Chuck's Guide...1 point
-
1 point
-
That is a good looking setup. And kudos on the cable management. Clean and orderly... My usual tends more towards the other guy's unit you pictured, though that one is pretty ugly!1 point
-
H3 maybe should have got the P3 but can upgrade to SFU gearbox $200 per motor I don't think I use it enough to warrant H3.1 point
-
Maybe the red button on the side of the butt shaker seat mount, is the emergency stop for the butt shaker, when you get the 'oh-oh' feeling that you might be starting to 'turtle' from all the shaking. Great rig by the way!1 point
-
Inquiring minds want to know if the big red button is the anti-puke button or the eject button1 point
-
Great pics....looks like a fun trip. Well deserved break from medical mayhem!1 point
-
Keeps them on their toes. Just remember to turn into the fight. If we see an attractive woman and the wife asks if I think she's pretty I just reply, "Hell yeah. She's so hot I'd do her on the hood of the car while you were locked inside blowing the horn." I get the eye roll, slap on the arm, and then topic is dropped. I may not have won the fight but I did make a landing I could walk away from.1 point
-
1 point
-
I'm just so happy that in the middle of heart attack and medivac with a helicopter--just living off a pump--you still had the presence of mind to check out the hotties. Respect.1 point
-
1 point
-
Good thing it comes with a seat belt, would hate to see Biker flopping around on the floor after he got tossed out of that thing1 point
-
This latest patch was the big unifying patch. No more beta version in addition to the standard version. Very few people were using anything but beta. But unifying versions is a very big change. It took me two days to d/l the patch. Haven’t had a chance to try it out yet.1 point
-
1 point
-
1 point
-
1 point
-
1 point
-
Going to try to join in tonight's flight. Haven't flown WWII in a while. I'll try to make sure everything works ahead of time. Give the Quest 2 a test in IL2. I haven't installed OpenXR Toolkit or Open Composite yet, so we'll see how things go with just SteamVR.1 point
-
1 point