David Hingtgen

For itty-bitty switches, I can't help. But remember a switch is nothing more than a movable piece of metal that completes a circuit path.

As for LED's:

Most every LED you buy will say right on the back what voltage is best, what's the max voltage, and how much current. (Radio Shack's sure do, the individual ones at least) Dunno about bulk packs though. Just buy one (green?) and see what it wants. Or just look at all the ones they have. Green usually wants about 3-4 volts. (Yes, color affects voltage--it goes red/yellow/green/blue/white for least to most)

Also, every battery will say voltage, even a duracell or something. (Anything that's AA/AAA/C/D alkaline is 1.5v each, most rechargable/nicad etc are 1.2v each. A 9v battery is literally 6 1.5v's wrapped together in one case)

So see what fits best. If you get a 3v LED, with a 3v battery, it'll be fine without a resistor. (or 2 1.5v, etc) +/- 0.5v is usually ok, anymore and you'll have to figure out what resistor you need. A 2.5v LED with 2 1.2v batteries will be fine, it's close enough, just a tiny bit low. (Don't go TOO low, it might not light up at all).

There's lots of LED calculators out there, but the formula is simple:

voltage you're sending it, minus the voltage it wants. Then divide by the current it sucks up (in amps).

Example: You have 2 1.5v batteries and a 2.2v LED that sucks up 20 milliamps.

Thus 3v from the batteries minus the 2.2v the LED wants. 0.8 volts you need the resistor to take care of. Then divide by the 20milliamps (.002 amps) the LED uses. .8/.002=40. You need a 40ohm resistor. (Ohm is just what the term is---it's the only way a resistor is rated). Well there's also watts, but there's no way you'd be sending enough power to worry about it at all.

LED 101: http://members.misty.com/don/ledd.html Just text, but it explains it.

Finally, as for shattering: never witnessed it myself (and don't plan to) but some blow more violently than others. Most will just act like a lightbulb--a big flash and then it's dead. But older/bigger ones can really go AFAIK. A plastic-lensed one probably can't do anything, but anything with brittle stuff could be nasty. Better safe than sorry, IMHO. (Even the tiny piece of metal from the electrode when hot could really suck if it hits your eye)

goldenboy--I mean hours TOTAL before it blows. Use it 20 times for 10 minutes each time, and it'll be gone. The LED itself. That'll quickly add up $, plus it'll be burning hot while used (depending on how much you're overloading it). And you'll have to re-wire it every time it blows, replacing the LED. And yes, they literally do blow into pieces if you way over-shoot them. Many toys/cheap lights etc use no resistor, but that's because they don't ever get used more than 5 secs at a time, and have a total life expectancy of a few hours, plus they tend to use metal strips with high resistance, not wires.

If you don't know what a resistor is, might I suggest not trying to install LED's in a valk without reading up on the subject a bit more?

Though basically, resistors lower the voltage running through a circuit (by increasing RESISTANCE). To get the right one, you need to know what voltage the LED wants, how much current it draws, and how much voltage you're sending it. Most batteries are either 1.2 or 1.5 volts each--though that difference, when using 2 or more batteries, is enough to fry a small LED in 5 minutes. LED's run forever when conditions are right. They will run on almost any anything, but their life will be cut to 1/100,000th of normal if you get outside of their preferred range.

I got my light-up USS Lakota down to just one resistor for saucer section, and it runs cool for hours on end. When testing out the deflector's LED though, with no resistor, it got so hot you'd burn your hand in about 5 secs. (To the point that it started making noise---it glowed VERY brightly though)

Of course, all this is dependent on the LED and power suppply. They just might match as they are (unlikely). You can run a 3.5v LED at 4.0v with almost no probs, and most people (me) wouldn't bother with a resistor. But 3.5v at 5v will have problems, and 3.5v at 6v will get real hot real fast.

PS--don't wire it backwards, that'll blow it REAL fast, even if the voltage is right.

Got a resistor? While the LED+watch battery method works, it doesn't last long. As in, hours.

Best nose art ever was on a British Jaguar during Desert Storm:

G's aren't the ultimate measure for manueverability, it's more like "maneuverability at speed". (It's really a measure of structural strength if anything)

A 6g turn can easily evade a missile that's doing a 30g turn. G=speed X rate of turn (basically). I can't do real calculations without looking up some stuff, so this'll be all fake numbers but will illustrate my point:

Turning 10 degrees per second (thus 36 seconds to make a full circle) at Mach .7 is like 2 g, while 5 degrees per second at Mach 5 would be like 20 g. Same turn rate, but more G's due to more speed. (Thus an equal turn rate---but greater radius of turn for the latter).

Turning's complex, btw.

Many people believe Speicher's F-18 was lost due to mid-air collision with a MiG-25, not shot down by it. (Mostly this is based on info by the other pilots in VFA-81 on that mission---VFA-81 rocks) I have no love for the 18, but it is an amazingly strong aircraft. They almost always survive the first missile hit and come home. It takes either a HUGE missile, or multiple missiles to bring them down. But being hit by the world's fastest fighter will surely take it out.

::gets out Gulf Air War book:: F/A-18C #163484, VFA-81, Modex AA 403. January 17, 1991, first combat loss of Desert Storm. Officially listed as downed by SA-6 SAM. (One of the few big enough to take out a Hornet in one shot). However, due to the fact that the rest of the squadron was practically engaged with a MiG-25, and they saw the MiG-25 in Speicher's area, and there were no other SAM's around, it seems likely that the MiG-25 got him, and not a SAM. As I said, lots and lots of debate.

Speicher's "saga" if you'll call it that is still a big thing in the aviation community. His status has been switched from KIA to MIA. Still don't know where he is. And I'm not sure if they ever had proof the F-18 remains they found in the desert was his. (I think they do). But the big debate is whether he could eject, and if he survived the ejection. Canopy/seat condition are of course the biggest clues, but the canopy wasn't where it should be, for either ejecting or not. Many believe the Iraqi's messed with the wreckage before we found it, as a lot of it simply didn't make sense.

Enough for now, maybe more later. (Trying to keep all pics below 50k)

I got LOTS 'o -23 pics.

This is pretty YF-21-looking:

And I already posted a perfect 3-view line drawing of the YF-23 a few posts ago. Anyways, here's another pic:

Uxi, sure you don't have -22 and -23 confused? I mean, how could the YF-22 (with FOUR tail fins of different shape) possibly look more like the YF-21's TWO fins, when the YF-23 has TWO fins set at the same angle as the YF-21 with the same shape fins? That's always been the #1 thing---YF-23's tail configuration is utterly unique, and the same as the YF-21's. (Somewhat belatedly known as a pelican tail due to proposed X-32 configuration)

VF-19A or VF-19S? Big difference.

And hey--gotta use the YF-22 to compare, not the F-22. F-22 wasn't around when the YF-21 was designed. YF-22 and F-22 are not the same plane, it's like YF-17 vs F/A-18F. F-22 has different nose, h.stabs, v.stabs, and most importantly pretty much an all-new wing compared to a YF-22. (Plus a lot of other little things)

Ok, "all over" is too strong a term. How about "obvious"? Also, check out the top of the engine nacelles for some hexagon patterns. (The YF-23 has them BETWEEN the nacelles, the YF-21 has them on the nacelles.)

YF-21 is a ,modded YF-23, hands down. Nothing's from the YF-22. (IMNSHO) The engines in trapezoidal nacelles above the main fuselage clinch it.

PS--you know those diamond/hexagon vents all over the YF-21? Only one other aircraft has vents like those--the YF-23. (Y/F-22 uses sawtooth style)

This is the month of "sequels that sucked from series I love". Virtual On, Rogue Squadron, Megaman X. At least the new Castlevania's supposed to be good, and Jak 2.

That's so messed up I don't know where to start. Thankfully other people have posted the right info.

Can't name something after something that doesn't have that name. I mean, c'mon. What's next, the Macross itself was named after the USS New Jersey? "They're both big ships"

There's so many Flanker variants I don't even try to keep them straight. I know *some* Flanker has rear radar, and that's good enough for me.

Of course, equally difficult is the sheer act of firing a rear-facing missile, as no matter what, it's going to be launched while the plane is going forward at 500kts, so it's got to go from -500 to 0 to 1500 kts quickly, if it's going to be any good. (Micro-missiles seem to be so agile it might be better to launch them forward and then have them do a 180)

No, I'm too young to be a former anything. But I've had airplane books since I was 4 (couldn't read until I was 5, but I had them--I've had basic air combat tactics books since I was 6). And since the YF-19 is my fave valk by far, I've read everything on FSW I can. (There's not much, it's pretty simple--inverse spanwise flow, that's it--and that doesn't affect much on a plane).

Top 2 are the YF-23 and F-15C.

Other highly-ranked ones are the F-14, Tornado, F-16, F-4, F-8, SR-71, B-1B.

For older/other stuff: FW-190A, F4U (Merlin-Mustangs be damned, the F4U is the coolest-sounding fighter ever), P-38.

FSW has nothing to do with pitch-rate in normal flight. Doesn't make it seem less stable, doesn't make it faster. Also, a rapid pitch-up leads to high AOA, the FSW's reason for being, where FSW is *more* stable. Thus a YF-19 doing a rapid pitch-up would be more stable than say an F-16 doing such a manuever.

Things to consider:

YF-19's canards have a heck of a moment arm due to the long "neck" of the plane. Control effectiveness is "size X distance from axis". And it's got a LONG distance from the pitch axis. (Wouldn't be too good for rolling, or drag-induced yaw, but sure as heck has plenty of pitch authority).

Also--high speed=lots of airspeed. Even a 1-foot control surface has authority with 1000kts of air. (Unless people want to get into a compressibility discussion)

Also, the FSW gives it built-in instability like a few others have mentioned, which makes it inherently more manueverable

NO IT DOESN'T

That's twice now. FSW isn't unstable. Period. Doesn't give instability, doesn't make things more prone to be unstable, nothing. It has the same effect as painting the plane green. Nothing.

As I said a page ago, it actually makes it MORE STABLE at high alpha. The exact opposite of what most people seem to think. An FSW plane can hold extreme angles of attack without rolling off to the side due to the reversed spanwise flow. Very few aircraft can hold greater than 45 alpha and have ANY manueverability, and almost nothing can hold 60 and not fall out of the sky. But FSW gives you a bit extra. (not a lot, like 5-10 degrees).

Man, if the old boards weren't down I'd go copy my whole "FSW and what it does and how it works" from there...

Anyways, in response to Lightning 06:

Nope, YF-19 has 1D vectoring (but 2D nozzles). It's one of those things where everybody gets things confused--like centrifigual and centripedal force. (It's CENTRIPEDAL on a roller coaster--though 9/10 of text books and TV shows say centrifugal). Regardless of what compendium says, it's 1D, it's clearly shown in a close-up. (Using it to roll, ironically).

Lots of people think up and down count as two. No, it's 1. It's a freedom of motion. Best analogy: trains. The engineer can make them go forward, or back. One choice, no others. Cars have 2--front/back, left/right. 2 choices, in any combo. A YF-19's engines (and F-22 for example) can only go up/down. Yes, they may be used differentially to give a left/right roll, but they themselves cannot go left/right (if they did, they'd give yaw--and you almost never see pure yaw vectoring).

To do this, you have 2D nozzles. Think of a "normal" nozzle. That's considered 1D---1 dimension about an axis. A circle (which is a line). (Geometry be damned, that's how works with planes--standard nozzle is a 1D axisymmetric cone--equidistant about the thrust axis). But for your standard "flat rectangle" vectoring nozzle, it's not a cone, so you need 2D to describe it---the top/bottom, and the sides. Different dimensions/non-syemmetric (it's a lot wider than tall).

Now, to get actual 2D vectoring (left/right) you need what is called the 3D nozzle. Which is really a hyped-up 1D nozzle. F-15ACTIVE or any REALLY modern Super Flanker. Basically a 1D nozzle that can fold and flex a bit at any point to subtly shift itself.

Toothpicks! Far more useful than most people realize. I mainly use them for gluing, and stirring paint. But have hundreds of other uses (stick them in small holes to hold parts, great for holding wheels, sticking in gaps to open stuff up, gently prodding things into place, small shims, and even more uses if you carve/sand them) Oh yeah---STIR paint. Shaking is bad (air bubbles) and not even 10% as effective as stirring. I like flat toothpicks, BTW.

Sand paper: 280, 320, something in between, and 600 grit are the basics. Anything rougher is too rough for most models, anything finer is only for final polishing usually for clear parts. Though 1000/1500 can be quite useful if you need a really fine finish for painting. 2000+ is "polishing clear parts till they gleam". Good cheap source for sandpaper: auto parts stores. Though I love the Testors stuff, since it's on plastic sheets, not paper sheets. Flexes easier.

Emory boards. Yes, the things for nails. See if you can get a girl to buy them for you, if not just suck it up and buy a half-dozen bright pink nail files. VERY useful. Cusioned, large flat sanding surface. Buy "fine"---usually 280/320 grit. Gives nice even sanding without gouging.

Airbrush: I've had great success with the Testors $18.44 set at WalMart. Certainly a good buy to "try out" before you spend $100+ on a airbrush you won't use. $18 won't be able to do 4-color German splatter camo freehand, but it'll lay down paint nice and smoothly if you just want to spray something overall Ghost Grey or something.

But my point is that it's not seamless if you have to swap discs... Swapping discs=not a seamless presentation, thus defeating the point of re-editing credits/openings.