Sven Hassel

Originally posted by Cargomaster
Any info that anyone can tell me about this – eg unit/base – would be appreciated.

F-102A 56-1080, in what appear to be c/o markings of the 86FIW, then based at Hahn in Germany.

Phantom,
No way you’ll ever see an F-102 fly again. There are far too few left (the bulk has been shot down after being rebuilt to PQM-102 target drone). Even more so, that drone program used up most if not all of the spares still available. The few existing airframes are all very old now too (haven’t flown for more than 20 years), and both the Greeks and Turks really like it to have derelict airframes around their airbases. Certainly none of the Greek examples will ever be able to fly again, and i don’t think it’s much different for Turkish ones.
I think the best chance of having a J57 engine in action would be an F-8.

Ha, the stir-up has worked 😉

Most companes don’t give a toss about “helping” corrupt countries, they just want to safeguard their revenue. If you want to help them, tell the UN to do something for a change.[/b]

Can’t see the importance of the UN in this case. Where in the UN manifest does it say that it’s member states should refrain from corruption and stick with sound economic activities? Operation Alba in Albania only took place after the pyramid-scams had turned the country into anarchy, not while the process was still going on.

Also Arthur, I do take mild offence to your charaterisation of accountants.

It was not intended as such and i mildly apologise if i came across too harsh.

So what if Andersens were dodgy? Do you regard Dutch lawyers as bad, just because of the shenanigans in the OJ Simpson trial? I wouldn’t think so, and in the same manner you can’t use the Andersen/Enron failings to judge accountants from different countries. The UK had its own “mini Enron” many years ago (Guinness/Distillers, Polly Peck) and a lot of faults were fixed back then, though of course I’m not complacent.

One of the world’s largest and most renowned accounting firms is found out to be dodgy, and all you think is ‘sho what’? You’re in the business so you will be far better to see this in it’s true proportions, but to a layman like me it’s different. If a renowned Western firm can’t be trusted, who can? I don’t think “If Anderson’s bad, everyone is”, it’s far more subtle than that. I am perfectly well aware that not all accountants are on the same level, neither are lawyers or newspapers.

But where you usually know what you get from your newspaper (compare the Mirror with the Times) or a lawyer (a free pro-deo assigned attorney or an incredibly expensive keep-me-out-of-jail-at-any-cost lawyer OJ Simpson-style). I thought Anderson belonged to that part of accountancy which was sound. To a layman like me, it’s like finding out that Mercedes is actually selling Zastavas with a different label.

Also, you may be right that the amount of “dirty” American money dwarfs the amount of dirty Nigerian money. But we’re not talking about absolute amounts, we’re talking as a proportion of the economy. On that basis, the US is far more advanced than Nigeria. Otherwise, we’d have some country like Burkina Faso No. 1 in the world and countries like Japan and the US last!

Good point. But countries like Burkina Faso and Nigeria are economically far more dependent on exports (oil, cocoa, coffee) than the US is. The national economies of a lot of third world countries are completely dependent on foreign companies exploiting that nation’s resources. With this in mind, I don’t think Nigeria could keep up it’s level of corruption without Shell feeding that corrupt economical system. As a matter of fact, i can imagine Western multinationals prefer bribing the local tin-pot dictator a bit more rather than spending a lot more money on non-productive issues they might be required to do so by that country’s official law.

Mongu,
just to stir things up a bit: your employer refuses to accept work from ‘corrupt countries’ unless you are paid an …ahum… special extra fee… you know, for the wife…? I can’t see how that policy towards countries with a less than perfect reputation (do remember that that’s what it’s all about here) is supportive of them clearing their reputation and/or corruption.

Likewise, i think corrupt countries could do with some assistance of some reliable accountancy firm. (Andersen and such :rolleyes: ). Yet with a policy like your firm uses, it wouldn’t be possible.

“Greece? They are corrupt as hell. If only they’d let their books checked by that incredibly reliable accountancy firm from the Isle of Man, i might consider investing there!”

What strikes me as odd to that list is that the US is still regarded this high, even after major scandals as Enron, WorldCom and US Food Services. Even if these prove to remain isolated cases (which IMHO is doubtful), the amount of money kept outside the books is far more than the last Nigerian government could ever forge/bankroll/withhold/whitewash/spend in Monaco.

Aerodrome is from the pre-runway era, when an airfield simply was a circulair stretch of grass where aircraft could always land and takeoff with their nose into the wind. Not a strip, a ‘drome’. Just like a hippodrome where you can watch horsies run.

I’m not too well-informed about British airfield layouts to tell which ones are actually aerodromes, but here on the continent there are a few airfields/bases/ports which show their aerodrome roots. The terminal building at Berlin-Tempelhof is a nice one, which covers the northern part of the ‘drome’. Likewise, the original hangar areas of airbases like Rangsdorf, Dessau, Juterbog-Altes Lager and Eberswalde-Finow still show the circulair shape from the time those were aerodromes.

I’m sure quite a few British airfields will have similar hangar-layouts.

Perhaps a bit stupid, but i’d suggest moving to XP. Even with a pile-more-junk-on-that-HDD-and-desktop-and-now-start-a-multitasking-rave useage like mine, it hasn’t given me any problems. This including hardware modifications.

As of yet.

Fingers crossed.

I’m waiting for that blue screen of death now.

I’m sure a few red lights start flickering and a few buzzers start beeping in Seattle now.

Nothing?

Ah well, i guess it still works. I guess Bill Gates being the richest man in the world has made him a bit more friendly with his products. The Wrath of Bill hasn’t struck me anymore after XP.

Two countries ranked 7th? Guess the list was compiled by asking companies which did the books for Enron & Co.

Mongu, somehow i don’t understand how you got to your ‘Europe is corrupt’ only by giving a list which shows that the fifteen current EU members are considered to be within the 31 least corrupt nations on this planet? Gee, this would mean some 165 countries around the world are considered more corrupt than the worst nation in the EU… wow, impressive indeed.

I thought you native speakers had an advantage on understanding the English language over us continentals. But i could be wrong.

Here a few URL’s where you can download missions, campaigns and all sorts of addons (weapons, vehicles, islands… you name it and it’s there).

http://www.opflashpoint.org/
http://ofp.gamezone.cz/
http://ofp.action-arena.com/

Now remember there are a lot of missions around, and quite a few new campaigns as well. Some of them are absolute junk and/or faulty:in stead of emptying your silenced Bizon SMG, you are suddenly at your Windows desktop again…

A few good downloadable campaigns are:
Samson’s War on Terror
Samson’s It doesn’t take a hero
(both are good fun to play, but Samson is a good friend of the Bible and assumes that computer games about killing people is a good first step to becoming a christian. A bit twisted, but good fun).
Spetsgruppe Alpha 13
Delta Ops
Two excellent special ops campaigns, in the first one you’re Spetsnaz. Tough missions but very nice.

You can find all four (and a few others, which i either didn’t try or have errors) on http://www.opflashpoint.org/maps.php?pt=Campaign . Remember that these campaigns (and also a lot of separate downloadable missions) often need non-standard addons, which you will have to download as well. Usually, a readme file is attached to the campaign download to tell you which separate addons you need.