[ 25/08/01 ]
News from Grey Ghosts: Froglips e-mail address on the roster was wrong and has been corrected.

News from Green Mambas: In the words of Green Mambas pilot, Flybywire:
"This comes with a heavy heart... but, it's time to go for me... I've been disjointed from the Falcon 4 community for a while now and even more so it feels with the 185th. This is due to a larger work load now I'm senior engineer, my wife having to work Saturday nights and our kids getting older and I now have to baby sit on Saturday nights, Sundays don't work for me at all with an aspect of trying to fly... And above all I don't have the time or patience to figure out a multi load Falcon 4 on top of all this, so put me on reserve asap please, I'd like to think I can return sooner rather than later...! Good luck to all of you, keep in touch BYEeeeeeeeee"

Truly sad news indeed. I remember a flight from when I was new in the Squadron. I flew with BigBrother and Flybywire. We didn't engage anything or shoot anything down, rather we flew around practicing formation flying and at one time we flew a low level chase amongst the hills where the objective was to stay as close to the leader as possible without crashing into each other. It was very intense and enjoyable.

Another time I remember having Flybywire as my wingman in Green and Triton flew in the 1-3 position. It was a fairly long flight to get to the TA, so Flybywire decided to rattle me a bit so as to keep me on my toes I guess and proceeded to lock me up in MRM mode. Well, it kind of went a bit wrong when he accidentally (or not, we will never know ;)) hit the pickle button, so there I was just cruising along enjoying the scenery when all of sudden I got a F-16 spike, followed by a "Oh sh*t!" and the not so pleasant "Slammer inbound!" call, lol! All I heard after that while hanging in my parachute was Flybywire explaining what had happened and saying he was sorry while Triton was laughing his arse off...

Thanks for the memories mate, I hope you will return to us soon.

Regards,

Wolverine.

Newsflash!

CNN Reports:

"I've spent the last few hours trying to catch up on what I've missed. So far things haven't been going too well for the USA. Numerous strikes have failed and many aircraft have been lost. Defensive aircraft also seem to be taking quite a battering. The aircraft for this evenings missions are already out on the ramp with ground crew swarming all over them like ants. There seems to be good deal fewer aircraft then when the conflict first started but I supposed that only to be expected."

The SHL has been updated with the results from the TE flown on the 11th of August. Top scorer was Homer with an excellent 33 points. Runner up was Winder with an excellent 29.75 points. Well done guys! Especially Homer who claims his second top score in just 3 weeks. Awesome flying mate.

Meritorious Unit Citation with 4 Gold Oak Leaf Clusters has been awarded to: MadMax

Meritorious Unit Citation with 1 Gold Oak Leaf Cluster has been awarded to: Devil

Meritorious Unit Citation has been awarded to: Mickey

Congratulations gentlemen!

[ 21/08/01 ]
I have added a couple of War Stories written by Skylark and Sparrow on a Friendly Fire incident that happened during their flight on the 4th of August, the "Lab Rats" TE. The stories does a good job of showing just how intense it can get when multiple planes are involved in what is called a furball and how easy it is to get task saturated when that happens. I would like to thank the both of them for sharing the stories.

News from Red Wolves: Eagle, who used to fly with the Blue Eagles and the 185th a while back has returned to the 185th. This time he joins up with the Red Wolves. Very welcome back Eagle! As usual all information needed to add him to your contacts can be found on the roster.

News from Blue Eagles: In the words of Blue Eagles pilot, Aquila:
"Hi Blue Eagles, Hi 185th.

It is resignation time, I'm very sorry guys. I joined the 185th in January 2000, I remember the politeness and the patience of my first Flight Leader: Shodan "the Best". I remember also the Saturday night flight emotion and how bad my English was, now also as you can read. How time flies.

Some months ago I meet an Italian virtual Squadron born in January 2001 , who is growing very fine. Take a glance if you like http://www.amvi.it, sorry it is in Italian only. l Believe me guys it was very hard to speak and particularly understand English. Now speaking my language I can fully appreciate the Falcon 4 cooperative flight.

Thanks to all Blue Eagles and to 185th, where I meet a lot of friends. A very particular thank and a big hug to Shodan, to the man end to the virtual pilot, thanks to your humor. A thanks to BigBrother also, we joined the 185th together, a very good and keen pilot. A thanks to Ballistic a dear friend, we two was the oldest in the Blue Eagles roster, now dear mate you are the oldest.

OK mates I hope to meet you again and soon in the Falcon4 skies. If it is possible I ask to be moved to the reserves.

Arrivederci a tutti

Aquila"

Sad news indeed, but I think we all can appreciate why Aquila decided to leave. I only got to fly with him twice and both flights were a lot of fun :). All the best for the future Aquila and I hope you will keep in touch with us from time to time.

Regards,

Wolverine.

[ 19/08/01 ]
The SHL has been updated with the results from the TE flown on 11/08/01. Minstrel achieved the highest score with 31.5 points followed by Lowe who had a score of 31.25 points. Excellent flying gentlemen!

Meritorious Unit Citation with 4 Gold Oak Leaf Clusters has been awarded to: KTel

Meritorious Unit Citation with 2 Gold Oak Leaf Clusters has been awarded to:

Skylark, Sparrow and Winder

Meritorious Unit Citation with 1 Gold Oak Leaf Cluster has been awarded to: Lowe

Meritorious Unit Citation has been awarded to: Homer

Congratulations to you all.

[ 18/08/01 ]
News from Red Wolves: Unfortunately, due to finding it more and more difficult to attend our weekly flights, Lowe has decided he have to resign from the 185th effective immediately.

In the words of Red Wolves Flight Lead, Minstrel:

"You've been a valued, solid and dependable member of the flight ever since you joined and I have thoroughly enjoyed flying with you. It's also been good knowing you as a friend. I will miss you and I'm sure the other guys will as well."

Lowe will be placed on the reserves roster for now as he might rejoin if his situation should change.

News from Grey Ghosts: Due to not being able to take part in squadron activities, Dex has been dismissed from the 185th VFS.

On a happier note. Our old pal, Froggie, has now settled in back in the US and of course he knows where he belongs, so effective immediately, Froglips is reinstated to active duty in the 185th and Grey Ghosts. 185th command realizes this is against our rules (+/- 2hrs from GMT), but for Froglips we will make an exception to that rule. He will join our flights on the afternoon in the states. Welcome back Froggie! You will find the necessary information to add him to your contacts on the roster as usual.

[ 12/08/01 ]
The SHL results from last weekend are up. Top scorer was Homer with an excellent score of 36.25 points. Runner up was Devil with a great 35.75 points. Well done boys!

Meritorious Unit Citation with 3 Gold Oak Leaf Clusters has been awarded to: Drummer

Meritorious Unit Citation with 2 Gold Oak Leaf Clusters has been awarded to: Goose

Congratulations gentlemen!

I have put up the dates (month and year), on the roster, when each of us joined the 185th VFS. I have started with all the active pilots, but I will update for the ones on the honorary- and reserves roster when I get the time. I have still not received the dates from a few pilots, so if you see N/A on your column, please send me an e-mail with the date when you joined up and I'll update asap, thanks.

I rearranged the roster to fit the new column with the dates by placing all the ribbons together. It's meant to look like how ribbons would be worn on a uniform and the ribbons are in order of precedence Let me know if you think it looks horrible :).

Since we give an award to individuals for being Senior Officers in the 185th Triton and I have also added a ribbon (the last one, for now...) to recognize those who have served as a pilot in the 185th for a long time. The definition is as follows:

185th Distinguished Service Medal - To those who have been in the 185th 12 months and have flown at least 30 missions.

Since we have a fairly veteran roster, a lot of pilots have been awarded this ribbon already, too many to be listed here anyway. Still, I want to say congratulations to you all.

All for now,

Wolverine.

[ 09/08/01 ]
RP5 and eFalcon 1.10 has been released during this week. We will continue to use RP4.1 for our official flying for just a while longer. You will be given notice when we will do the switch. This does however not mean that you're not allowed to try them out. Actually, it's just the opposite, please do try them out, offline and more importantly online. Report any findings you make to the 185th command or your flights command.

Have a look in this article for some instruction on how to have several installations of Falcon 4 on your HDD.

- Have fun!

News from Blue Eagles: Due to his real life work commitments taking more and more of his time Voodoo is unfortunately forced to step down as Blue Eagles Flight Lead.

However, Tracer has accepted becoming Flight Lead in Voodoo's place and will take over effective immediately. Tracer has asked if Ballistic would consider taking over as 2IC. Ballistic has accepted. As a
result Tracer is promoted to Major and Ballistic is promoted to Captain in the 185th VFS. Congratulations to the both of you. I'm sure you will do well in your new positions.

On behalf of all of the 185th I would like to say thank you to Voodoo for his time as senior officer in the 185th. Your commitment to the squad is very much appreciated mate.

Good news is that Voodoo still wants to remain with the 185th and he will continue on as a pilot in the Blue Eagles. Something I know Tracer, Ballistic, the rest of Blue and all of the 185th will be happy to hear.

[ 05/08/01 ]
The SHL is now up to date with results from the TE on the 28th of July. Highest score was achieved by KTel with an excellent 38.25 points. Runner up was Mickey with a great score of 35 points. Superb flying gentlemen.

Meritorious Unit Citation with 4 Gold Oak Leaf Clusters has been awarded to: Triton

Meritorious Unit Citation with 3 Gold Oak Leaf Clusters has been awarded to:

Ballistic, Orca and Wolverine

Congratulations gentlemen!

Orca has updated the gallery with 12 new screenshots. Thanks to everyone who submitted a screenshot.

The TE Rota has been updated to include the period October - November. As Saint is currently offline, due to his PC being down, I have kept him off of the rota for now. In case he returns adjustments to the rota may follow. If that happens I will let you know here.

Confirmed results are now finally in from our Force on Force engagement on the 8th of July against the
53rd Warhammers. We won this engagement with 3 - 2 - 1 (Win - Draw - Loss). Further, the 185th won the series of four flights with 3 to 1. Well done to all who participated and thanks to the 53rd for some good flying and good fun. More to come later this autumn.

As a result the following pilots have been awarded ribbons accordingly:

Air Achievement Medal has been awarded to: Homer and Sergant San

Air Achievement Medal with 1 star has been awarded to: Winder

Joint Services Commendation with 4 stars has been awarded to: Triton

Meritorious Service Medal has been awarded to: Triton

First Blood Ribbon has been awarded to: Sergant San

First Blood Ribbon with 1 star has been awarded to: Homer, KTel, Minstrel and Winder

First Blood Ribbon with 2 stars has been awarded to: Jester and Orca

First Blood Ribbon with 3 stars has been awarded to: Triton

Congratulations to all of you, especially Triton for being the first one who receives the
Meritorious Service Medal for 10 confirmed Air-Air kills vs human opposition.

[ 01/08/01 ]
News from the 185th: The following Senior Officers has been awarded the Recognition Ribbon for serving at least 6 months in total as a Senior Officer in the 185th Reservoir Dogs VFS:

Recognition Ribbon has been awarded to:

KTel, Minstrel, Orca, Raptor, Tracer and Wolverine

Congratulations gentlemen!

News from Red Wolves: TBird has been placed on the reserves roster by his own request. He will rejoin active duty after a while.