[OOC] Thunderbolt Black (Fighter Pilot Mercenaries)

[Rhona W]

@Swifttalon, your character is now currently pending removal from the game, as you haven't posted IC or OOC for 7 days.

[MachineSoul]

Expect something from me on the morrow

[Rhona W]

No worries, dude. I know from your comment on GEARS that you've been under the lash a bit lately.

[The Mage]

I'll have a post up this weekend.

[urukhai]

post should be up soon

[Rhona W]

Great posts guys, keep 'em coming.

[Rhona W]

@Foster your character looks good so far. Great and unique choice of aircraft. While I don't know more than the profile you've linked states about it, for that the JF-17 seems like a capable aircraft, and not a bad-looking one either. Also, I love how ghetto that SMG you've chosen looks, but it seems like a pretty decent weapon!

Interested to see the personal history to go with the character - get it up, and I'll see about writing your character in, as long as it all fits in. Although, if it's as on-form as the rest of your character, I'm sure it'll be fine.

[Foster]

It' actually the prototype that lead to the JF-17 in many ways after the J-7S Saber II program got scrapped when US involvement backed-out due to a thing that China refuses to admit ever actually happened.
*Pakistan apparently didn't seem to mind, though.

-Had it gone through, it would've been a Chinese MiG-21 with an F404 turbine, an F-16's intake, and an F-20 Tigershark's radar; plus the option of using either Soviet, or NATO compatible weapons.

The widespread adoption was largely hamstrung because the engine and radar EACH cost more than an entire J-7M. So without outside subsidiaries, it quickly got scrapped as "neat plane, no thanks".
-One of its neatest features was the ability to automatically coordinate drone-strikes.

Meanwhile in that 'other' China...

PS: I was originally aiming for a male pilot, but trying to find "Chinese Fighter Pilot"... I gave up after 10 pages...

Edit: read history... added bio... Yep, China was intense. Also, BTW... I may had been inspired earlier to RP the opening stages of the Sino-invasion of Manchuria from the POV of a light tank crew.

[Rhona W]

I haven't approved your character yet, Foster. I'd ask that you not post in the IC until I have.

EDIT: Although, that said, your personal history was the only bit I hadn't seen yet and it's fine, so I'll consider them approved anyway. A narrow escape this time! xP hehe.

I'll add you and your deets to the list of active players as well.

[MachineSoul]

*reads IC* Oh-oooh... did I just do that?

[Foster]

*reads IC* Oh-oooh... did I just do that?

@MachineSoul

Running into a very short and petite and rather remarkably pissed-off Chinese pilot is up to you.
-Managed to read your IC went very well past that, so threw it into a hider and called it good.

She *is* a good 29 cm shorter and 31 kg lighter than you, after all.

You may now commence shipping.

[MachineSoul]

Hey, no fret, it was funny to me how you implied that the bump was ignorable due to size difference

[Foster]

Retconned largely because I'm pretty sure Dmitry would not have appreciated a twin-footed kick to the chest.

Flechettes, mmm-mm good.

[urukhai]

Ok I should be able to post after work

[Foster]

Just so you know:

Su-35, F-15C*, and Tornado ADV have combat-radii (x2) near that of the ferry-range of the ASF-14, and J-7 (even with the F-404 turbine).
-I seriously mistrust the combat-radius given for the JF-17

So they could carry either a weapons-load, or a buddy-tank to self-refuel some of the less fortunate aircraft.

In all cases, refueling should occur within 1,000 km of the carrier.

*F-15 and Tornado can each get a cambat-radius of nearly 2,000 km, unrefueled and with a bombload. While F-14 has a ferry-range of just shy 3,000 km. And now that I think about it, my plane would be running on fumes by 1,700 km with its current loadout.

For the most part, it would be a good idea to keep the combat-radius down below 500 km.

That said, distance from Bahamas to French New Guinea is 3,500 km. So a refuel-stop will only be utterly necessary for the Super Tomcat and the Super-7 (and any F-18Es), and could easily do-so by using the A-10, Tornado, and Su-35 as tankers while the others travel non-stop.
-The Rafale, can even make it unrefueled.

[Rhona W]

Yeah, I actually figured without looking it would probably be possible without refuelling mid-air for most of the aircraft, but I like to play fast-and-loose with things, and it was a bit more interesting in terms of the story and game to have something break up the flight, so I thought I'd throw the refuelling in there. Plus, our unit needs some more training together, so it works in that regard too, along with the general idea that things are a bit chaotic and thrown together in the wake of the attack earlier. I appreciate the info and the heads up, for sure.

[The Mage]

[Rhona W]

Wat

[Foster]

The Mage vs Maths.

Going to have to think on how we expect to 'secure' a compound using fighter-jets, though.

The A-10C / OA-10 could do it pretty swell in the daylight-hours with a... one hour loiter time over the objective?

And considering it's a 2-hour round trip plus refuel for that plane, what are we going to do for the other 16-18 hours (depending on how much the A-10 pilot wants to fly at night)? Eight of which will be at night.

Sure, we could try using UAVs, and hoping our MiG-21/F-20 love-child can react to a scramble well enough (and it can, sadly not a single F-20 was sold), or even try stationing the pilots of the less-capable planes on the ground as forward-observers (I've noticed we've all got rifles... or at least firearms...).

The Chinese fighter situation of 1970, which was being very rapidly addressed after the 17-day Sino-Vietnam war (during which time more people died than the entire US-Vietnam conflict). [Yeah]

[Rhona W]

I think you're concentrating too much on the facts, and not enough on the fun.
Plus, I have ideas already about how things will run - I tend to plan things in advance for what I think will make the best excitement for the player group I have - all of which (yourself excluded) are less interested or preoccupied with the hard facts, and more interested in doing stuff that's cool. And I include myself in that - I point you back to my rules document:

Realism is not as important as dramatic licence and a sense of fun. I don’t care how many technical specifications and abbreviations you know and try to dazzle us with. Or exactly what the startup procedures for whatever aircraft you fly are.
We’re telling a story about characters, with a level of drama, action and excitement. Add enough realism to keep it interesting to read, and make it flow. But don’t get bogged down in the details and minutiae, or try and make everyone else follow them. It gets boring and annoying quickly.

So, don't worry as much about loiter times, etc. I'm not running a simulation, I'm running a plot-oriented game with dramatic flourish and action. Sure, there may be facts to support things, but I don't really want to spend my time poring over figures, statistics and technical documents. I want to write and have fun, and do, y'know, other stuff with my time as well. As I'm sure the rest of us do as well.
But if I do want to find out something for reference and make a point of it, I'll be sure to ask you, as you seem to have all the information available, and that's good to know.