Here is the current build, any thoughts or suggestions?

Case   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139013

HD    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145912

RAM   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231937

Motherboard   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157540

SSD    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147373

Processor    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1080332-REG/intel_bx80648i75820k_intel_core_i7_5820k_3_3.html

Card      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121899

Gentlemen,

         Several people have expressed interest in not only recruiting, but also some sort of organized event. Thus, several questions arise. First, what type of events should I put together? Training sessions entailing complex methods, combat ideologies, tactics, weapons system...etc? Or, more of a fun mission in which people commit to getting on an doing some legitimate sorties? Second, how often would we like to do these events? Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly? Perhaps schedule a training event the second week in a month, then apply what we learned and do an actual combat sortie the last week of the month?
         
         Pand, Flame, Primus and I have been in communication here and there, throwing around some ideas. As of right now, I am volunteering to head the DCS ''Squadron'', as I have the extra time and interest on my hands. Thoughts? Ideas?

I had mention something along the lines of a ''Learning-Sim-Sunday'' for DCS to Pand, anyone else interested? If enough people are interested it may be worth putting together.


- Cooper 

This thread is aimed at supplying instructional videos to teach one the A-10c's systems, weapons, navigation...etc. More so for people who are brand new to the module as I am currently.

I personally find it easier to learn the A-10C by watching other people do it, this is also particularly useful for non-HOTAS people when configuring your controllers. Not only does it give a better reference most of the time, but you can also go step by step until you understand everything. From my perspective (brand new to A-10c) it is easiest to watch 10-15 minutes worth of video, then stop, go in game and apply what you just watched until you have learned the given subject. Everyone has their own method, this seems to work very well for me.

I will update the threat with videos I come across as time progresses. 


                                                                                                                                                                                                                          -Cooper 

Per Pand's request,

                       We were talking about ROF and I had told him about my great grandfather James or ''Jim'' Corley. He was first assigned as an artillery spotter at the beginning of the war, then when aircraft became a viable option for spotters, he was sent to flight school in France. By the end of his tour of duty he had 3 victories and probably played an even more pivotal role spotting for friendly artillery and troops. When he came back to the states he was probably suffering from what we know now to be PTSD, he turned to liquor pretty heavily from what i've heard. He continued to fly, and drink. Thus, one night he decided to buzz a local baseball game in the early 1930's and had his wings taken away. He had 2 boys who both served in WW2, my Grandfather Thomas Corley who was an enlisted man since he was younger and wasn't through college, and my great uncle Jimmy Corley who was an officer since he had been through college. Jimmy, James' eldest son was co-pilot to a B-17, he was killed in a training operation in England in the 1940's. He was only 23 years old. My grandfather went into the Navy and served as a landing craft operator in the pacific when he was 17 years old. He wouldn't learn of his brother's death in the European theater until close to the war's end. 
                       Below is Jame's map case, which has a compass and some small pockets. Also, his last combat flight plan from his WW1 era sectional chart. I also managed to find some pictures of him online but can't post them due to a 5 attachment limit. Please excuse the glare in some of the pictures since we have them framed at our house. I have no idea what plane he was flying, I will try and get a picture of the news paper article from when he came back.

Gentlemen,


                         I've loosely been reading Hitler's Eagles while playing BOS trying to get a better understanding of the time period and equipment used. I came across this earlier today and thought it was really interesting. Basically the mortars were used to break up flights of bombers so that when a flight of fighters went to engage, the bombers were spread too far apart and couldn't throw out a wall of lead for opposing airmen. Check below for the actual excerpt:



                                             

Cool article I stumbled upon by accident for my fellow history fanatics.

QuoteThe Night Witches were the brainchild of the well-known Soviet navigator Marina Raskova. She became driven to assemble three regiments made entirely of women in 1941 as the German troops were advancing towards Moscow. These three regiments were long-distance bombers, night bombers and fighters.

Raskova was a USSR heroine, a celebrated aviatrix after her record-breaking flight which ended up in her crashing into the Siberian taiga resulting to her surviving on a bar of chocolate for ten days. However, in a harsh Soviet twist, Raskova turned out to be a member of the Secret Police and she sent many to their deaths just months before the outbreak of the Second World War. Countless members of the Soviet Air Force as well as the other armed units were quashed in 1940. This was one of the reasons why the German Wehrmacht made fast progress in their advancement.

When Raskova made her plea for volunteers, many young women all over USSR immediately responded. After all, she was a female idol in the said country. many of these women already underwent training as dozens of factories had flying clubs attached to them giving even the poorest the chance to learn how to fly.

One such example was one of the best known pilots of the Second World War, Katya Budanova. She was just a mere village girl who had to work at the very young age of nine.

Aside from being pilots, the women who signed up were also assigned to be navigators, armorers and even mechanics.

Fighting to be Equal

Vinogradova, in her book Defending the Motherland: The Soviet Women who Fought Hitler's Aces, wrote how during those times, all occupations were opened to women and how Soviet ladies welcomed it with pride by proving they could do as well as their male counterparts when it came to working in various construction sites, in the tunnels of the new metro in Moscow and even when it came to conquering the skies.

Nevertheless, how these women were treated did not keep in line with the state's ideology. The Night Witches as well as the other regiments established by famous Soviet aviatrix were given the moniker  "Raskova's dollies" were mocked and teased especially the first time they were fitted in ill-fitting uniforms that belonged to the USSR's male soldiers. Example, in one comic picture, it was cited how a political officer – which, by the way, was a much hated snoop at that time who was attached to a certain regiment – complained about how difficult it was to indoctrinate women after a girl, exhausted and sick of his propaganda talk, invited him instead to just have "a nip under her blanket".

Even female pilots, who were already hardened by the war's battles, found themselves grounded just because their commanding officers deemed the situation too risky for women. Katya Budanova and her friend, Lilya Litvyak, had to fight off this shared notion of feminine weakness prevalent among their male counterparts by refusing to be fussed over as well as declining every act of consideration extended their way.

These new female recruits, a number of them being flying instructors before the outbreak of WWII, had little difficulty piloting the mercurial Pe-2 dive bombers or even the Yak-2 fighters. As a matter of fact, many female pilots of the USSR downed dozens of the German's Messerschmitts using the latter.

Extraordinary Night Witches

But possibly, the most extraordinary war feats of female pilots during the Second World War were those executed by the Russian female night bombers whom the Germans called Night Witches.

The night witches used the frail and little  U-2 planes built using plywood and percale linen and ran by  100-horsepower engines. These female night bombers would go across the front line with their planes' engines off then glide silently while their enemies sleep. The navigator, who had a flare bomb on her lap all along, would toss that overboard serving as the light to illuminate their target. Seeing their intended destinations through that flare bomb, the Night Witches would then drop off their payload.

The planes of the Night Witches only carried enough fuel for an hour's flight. Doing four sorties a night, these female night bombers would repeatedly land to refuel before taking off again. What was more, they used rudimentary night-flight equipment. Through these all, the damage caused by the Night Witches against the Nazis in terms of the their positions and their soldiers' morale was considerably great.

The Night Witches and the other female regiments Raskova formed, of course, brought propaganda advantage to USSR. After all, femme fatales were rare in a mainly male-fought conflict. For one, Lilya Litvyak, who became known as the White Rose of Stalingrad, became a celebrity in 1943.