Zotch's Story
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How I got into this mess:
I started playing flightsims around 1989 with what else… one of the DOS based MS Flight simulator. My first combat flight simulator was Falcon 3.0… That was one of the best games out there in the early 90’s. It taught one respect for MiG 19’s that would sneak up behind you and chew you to pieces. Naturally, as soon as MiG29 came out, I bought that as well.
Some friends gave me a multi helicopter sim – forget the name… was really good. Then Jane’s came out with Apache Longbow… That one was awesome. I then bought everything else they made, F15 had 2 modes of play… 1) Lame and 2) Aerospace Engineer. Neither one appealed. Jane’s IAF (Israeli Air Force) was a great sim loaded with historical scenarios. Their WWII sim, somewhat lame.
Then this box caught my eye… Online theaters… hmmm… I’ll give this Airwarrior II a try. And down the slippery slope I slipped. Signed up with C Land.
I loved flying the D9 Dora, and dive bombing my favorite base – Moggy. Then I moved on into Airwarrior III 3-D. That was a step up! I launched in the full realism arena (Pacific theater). Will never forget that first flight in an F4U Corsair. Stall warning… Buck Buck… Spin… Splat.
After mastering the flight dynamics in the theater, I continued flying solo. One night I ran into a guy by the name of Ken Jr. who invited me to gun for him in a bomber… I was hooked! Took me on some 30k alt flights, taught me how to pork fuel and ammo… Invited me to join the Skyknights squad.
It was a great time, and forgive my mental cobwebs, but as the game switched hands from Kesmai to Electronic arts, and then was finally dismantled, many of the Skyknights went on to fly in Aces High. At that time I was getting married and starting a family, so other duties called.
Then in 2007, I was surfing the net, and came across this website… I couldn’t believe it! The squad was still around, and I got in touch with Alpo, who, along with the others welcomed me back into the fold… So I re-upped. The game was now AH II. As big a jump as relaxed realism to full realism was in AWIII, the Jump to AH II was an equally steep learning curve… I was rudely introduced to propeller torque-steer. Still, I totally love this game, and am happy to fly with this squad again.
Now that I got the bomber thing down (which on occasion some may argue), I am focusing on learning the ropes in a fighter. With Alpo’s instruction, and a lot of hard knocks from the opposition it will be a tough but rewarding path (I may learn some ACM yet).
Favorite AH II Planes:
- LA7
- P40
- P51
- Lanc
- B25
- B24
- B17
- C47– Really nice relaxing flight characteristics… what else you gonna do without guns?
A bit about me:
I don’t have a pilot’s license, although I would love to fly a real plane one day.
I am married and have 2 lovely kids, and a couple of greyhounds.
I am in Montreal Canada , and work for a mutual fund company.
