A subject I can relate to! I was off last week and got to play 3 straight days and nights of online sim. I practised my ass of. I flew LA7, Spit IX, 109F-4 all in dogfights. I played against top guys. The best was Dinoh82 if I remember right. That guy is fuckin awesome. He was #9 on the leaderbord as of last wednesday. I haven't played since then because of car repairs. So I've had a break of almost a week. Hauptmann Molders showed up a few times as well as Stinger. I can't remember who else but they were all in the top 20. Want to talk about demoralizing!!! I did pretty good, though, and was satisfied with my progress. Particularly in the art of not dying. 2 to 8 times in 20-30 minute matches. I actually killed some people and flew pretty damn good. I got down a few times and took extended breaks. There is no way I can get that good. No way. I'm simply not a game junky.

My big problems were: 1. Constantly dogfighting. I like strike and CAT. A little strategy and teamwork, some bombing and defending are great! But very few games going, even at night when European guys start coming on. Dogfight, dogfight, dogfight. 2. Those guys are 10 feet off the ground!!!! I'm sweating bullits turning with their asses! I have to use rudder. No other way to turn that sharp. I died 30-40% of the time augering in. And they are damn difficult to find that low. I know they are there but they blend so well with the damn ground and especially over the cities I can't see em. You gotta get down there too. Very, very difficult handling an aircraft that low, let alone trying to stay with someone! Diving on them usually ends up in a crash. 3. Staying with them/keeping site of them. Either they outturn me or the frickin blackouts are killin me. I don't like em. Somehow they sure aren't bothering the other guys, though. I lose the target, start searching, next thing I know tracers are flying by my screen. 4. Staying oriented. I'm looking one way, find the target, try to get my plane in that direction, then lose the target or completely fly off course. Damn hard to fly where you are looking as fast as they do it. That's their biggest advantage. Spotting their targets, getting there oh so fast, staying on the target, and spot on shooting. 5. Really and truly, you guys are just flat better than most everybody. I'm tellin ya, I flew my ass off, and not too badly either, and had no chance against these top boys. Edal, I haven't had the oppurtunity to see you in action yet, but you are #1. I sure would like to see you against Dinoh82. Man that guy is unbelievable. Unfuckin stoppable! Us part time players and rookies are going to die a lot. No way out of it. I play anyway cause it's fun as hell!!! And that one kill against your big dog asses is worth 2 or 3 hours of "practise".

One more thing. GO COWBOYS!!! I'll be at the game Saturday night in Jerry World!