Greetings Paddies!

[Hellbender]

Snooping off a few minutes at work to greet you all.

I'll just give you some copypasta from my OFFICIAL AND SUPER SECRETLY CONFIDENTIAL (but hopefully declassified) application form.

See you in the skies soon!

Sláinte Fightin' Irish!


Before we run into any major disappointments along this message, let me reassure you that I am (unfortunately?) a member of the male of the species, a fact which my first name tends to obscure.

Getting straight to business now, I was a happily retired simmer not too long ago (at the ripe old age of 24) who had been flying warbirds ever since he could hold a joystick (the mechanical kind). In the old days (roughly two years ago), I was flying with a Yank squadron known as the Blazing Magnums. Great chaps, all of them, but time (and timezones) came between our brotherly love (not just for flying — actually, the love was not just brotherly either).

After an extended leave of absence, I've come out of retirement. And for a while now, I've been yanking my stick and drinking all by myself, which is a shame coming from someone who has to maintain his country's reputation for being the land of beer (no, seriously, ours really is — but yours is the land of drinking it on an alcoholympic level).

To make a short story even shorter, yours seems like a really fine bunch and I'd like you all to give me a shot. I'm a simming nut, enjoying both SERIOUS HISTORICAL ACCURACY FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AERODYNAMICS OF THE ART OF SHOOTING AT FLYING THINGS FROM YOUR OWN FLYING THING, as well as getting really drunk and having massive TB-3 free-for-alls.

Also, I... (give me a moment here, this is pretty hard to muster up — you know with my ancestors looking down from up above and all) ...I like Guinness. Yes, I really do. Even been to HQ Headquarters while passing through Dublin.

To sum it up, what I expect from you is... Well, not much really. People I can practice my favorite armchair hobby with (I'm making it sound here like I have many non-armchair hobbies), drink beer and have good laughs with. From me, you can expect pretty much the same.

As for the technicalities, I have all the required Basement Geek Air Force's equipment (my fiancee's words, not mine): TeamSpeak, TrackIR, plastic thingies to measure angles on the mini map, oversized beer mugs, kleenex to mop up excess drool from staring at juicy noseart, etc.


Hope to hear from you soon,

Sláinte (I googled it up),


Kim "Bender" Bedin


P.S. Oh, and I really love carrier ops. Love, love, love. Love to stretch them cables.

[:FI:Macca]

[...] Basement Geek Air Force's equipment [...]

good one!

Welcome to the FI Boards,Mail Kim!

Methinks....(it happens sometimes)...
that provided you enjoy Guinnessing, flightsimming, stretching the cables and that sort of stuf... you will enjoy our litle community of Serious Lads.

One important question: Do you like sheep?

There are Fighting Irish COOPs held every Sunday at 1930 GMT. Apart from that there are Historic Encounters - held Fridays - ussually attended by the North American boys due to time zone difference. You can also find lads wearing =FI= or :FI: tags on Hyperlobby almost every day.

Enjoy your stay, best regards

Macca

[:FI:Genosse]

Hartlijk Welkom, Kim! (I hope that was written properly!)

What an application! I´m still stunned! Are you´re sure that you´re not a secret Brit just having a Belgium passport (I read your original application)?

To make a short story even shorter, yours seems like a really fine bunch and I'd like you all to give me a shot. I'm a simming nut, enjoying both SERIOUS HISTORICAL ACCURACY FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AERODYNAMICS OF THE ART OF SHOOTING AT FLYING THINGS FROM YOUR OWN FLYING THING, as well as getting really drunk and having massive TB-3 free-for-alls.

I think that the FIS is right between it ... more or less ...I mean I´m just a Sunday driver ... erm ... flyer but I know that we still have some real aerobatic cracks in our lines who could please your real serious flying ambitions (... no Falcon: I didn´t mean wain-scotting!!!! And no Helo: naw sheeps either!!!).

As for the technicalities, I have all the required Basement Geek Air Force's equipment (my fiancee's words, not mine): TeamSpeak, TrackIR, plastic thingies to measure angles on the mini map, oversized beer mugs, kleenex to mop up excess drool from staring at juicy noseart, etc.

What else do you need then? Yes, just hang around in HL and look out for the chaps with the =FI= tags. Join their game and find out how they fly. Usually there´s a bunch of our guys on Saturday morning (0200 CET) and on Sunday evening (2030 CET) but you´ll also find some of us midweeks on HL.

After an extended leave of absence, I've come out of retirement. And for a while now, I've been yanking my stick and drinking all by myself, which is a shame coming from someone who has to maintain his country's reputation for being the land of beer (no, seriously, ours really is — but yours is the land of drinking it on an alcoholympic level).

Belgium - the land of beer? Oh, boy ... I agree you´re right ... and I´ve always thought that Germany was ... anyhow ... I still don´t like your night lighted motor-/highways ... they´re still a threat for every shock absorber on my car ...

Who likes Germany anyway?


Sláinte, Kim!

[:FI:Wardog]

Well you seem to be a well adjusted sort of bloke Hellbender . I'm sure you will fit in fine with our little bunch of enthusiasts. By the way don't what ever you do google wainscotting. You will be utterly horrified with what you find lol .

As for Helo's love of things bleeting and wooly don't worry he it totally fine when he takes his pink fuzzy pills

So all that is left is to say welcome and hope to meet up with you this weekend on HL.

Wardog

[:FI:Nellip]

Welcome Kim

You seem to have a sense of humour - so what are you doing in Belgium?

Like Genosse, I am also a Sunday driver only these days - too much work, kids and life in general, but many of the lads are on HL more often during the week so if you see the =FI= or :FI: prefix introduce yourself.

[Hellbender]

Thank you all for your warm welcome!


I could've picked a better week to sign up, as I'm out of town this weekend (and since Belgium really is just one large town composed of countless villages growing into each other like flesh-eating tumors; out of town actually means out of the country). This said, I'll try my best to get back early on sunday and get some quality HL time that evening. I'll be sure to hunt down the servers you're playing on (and then hunt you down). In the meantime, I'll scrape some of the rust off my flight training.

I must admit that I like to play with the most realistic settings possible when flying online, even when playing "for fun" (which, is, well, all the time really). Especially when playing public Dogfights against the nameless masses, I tend to prefer full switch servers (to be honest, I play almost exclusively on Warbirds of Prey's Zeke vs Wildcat). It's more of an anti-cheating measure than anything else. When playing Coops with friends, I do like to have external views and such enabled, which does reduce a lot of the usual claustrophoby of it all.

But hey, in the end, all I want to do is have fun, no matter how we play this great game. I'd rather play with a bunch of chronically intoxicated red-headed stick jockeys laughing my arse off at slightly awkward homosexual innuendos at 2 o'clock in the morning while we joust oversized Russian bombers at each other, than having to justify TOTALLY INACCURATELY SETTING YOUR PROP PITCH AND FUEL MIXTURE AT 5,600 FEET IN CURRENT BAROMETRIC CONDITIONS(, NOOB).


And to answer some of your questions:

— Yes, I do like sheep. So warm and fluffy. Tasty, too.

— I love beer from all countries, really. I drink it often, though I'm hardly a heavy drinker. And I stick with beer, exclusively. It's sort of a ritual drug to me, just like the rastafaris smoke ganja and the pastafaris eat spaghetti.

— And yes, I am Belgian. I'm part French, actually (I fear that my candidacy is hereby revoked). Here's an interesting read. And no, the claims about our little kingdom are by no means exaggerated. Frankly, it's not really a boring place. It's more of an awesome joke that seems to shun its punch line (for fear of getting getting it punched back squarely between the eyes). I'll stick with Douglas Adams' most respectable definition of Belgium: the worst swear word in the universe.

[:FI:Sacktime]

Welcome! Kim

May your beer glass be full and your wit be sharp, 'cause around here you'll need both, well the wit part for sure and you seem to have some of that.

(plus the pink fluffy pills they issue you on full membership come in handy )

[:FI:Falcon]

Kim,

Welcome to the boards!

Be sure your HyperLobby and TeamSpeak thingies are working for Sunday BEFORE takeoff ... or before the third restart.

>sigh<

Has anyone given our TS addy to you yet? Meet us on TS and we'll give it to you.

>heh-heh<

We fly full hard settings usually. Sometimes the minimap is on, sometimes not. Outside views happen less and less often these days, so if you die three minutes after you takeoff you might as well go help your wife/mother/gf hang the drapes or whatever until the next co-op starts. I'm sure, if you gripe enough, someone might turn them on again.

"'Bin bag' tribunal"? lol good stuff! Here in N'Awlins we have no rules ... except if you are caught importing crawfish from China you are shot.

Hope to see you LATE Friday/EARLY Saturday ... don't sweat it ... or this Sunday.

Oh, do you have a pencil mustache and have an accent like Poirot as most Belgians do?


Fal "World-wise" con

[:FI:Sneaky_Russian]

Welcome Hellbender.

Hey if Belgiums got a bad reputation ; it's all down to Brussels - you know the EEC and sprouts

[Hellbender]

Kim,

Welcome to the boards!

Be sure your HyperLobby and TeamSpeak thingies are working for Sunday BEFORE takeoff ... or before the third restart.

>sigh<

Has anyone given our TS addy to you yet? Meet us on TS and we'll give it to you.

Tee hee.

But it's a good thing you asked, I no longer had TeamSpeak installed (been getting used to Ventrilo lately — still prefer TeamSpeak, though).

As for the address, I was kind of assuming that I wouldn't be allowed on comms till after the "Washing of the Unclean".

I eagerly await your post pigeon — gun cocked and loaded.

Hope to see you LATE Friday/EARLY Saturday ... don't sweat it ... or this Sunday.

Will try for late Friday. Not a chance for early Saturday. Definitely be there on Sunday evening, 8PM'ish (GMT).

Oh, do you have a pencil mustache and have an accent like Poirot as most Belgians do?

Yes.



(actually, it's an old picture — but, I still look the same now, even though I've grown sideways)

(no, sorry, I'm on the left)

[:FI:Falcon]

check PM's


~Faucon~

[Nightcat]

You'll love it around here, lots of fun people and stuff going on

Any problems, send a pm to Falc or Gen or Gerb or Fen or... so many caring people, its .. odd ^^



NC

[Hellbender]

I had a first session tonight with Gadje, Genosse, Mikester and Murph (unleash the spelling police if I mistyped one of those)... and had a real blast (both on and off the ground)!

So apart from a couple of feline mishaps (my cat loves to stretch them cables too), which I'll get sorted out, I'm all set for joining you guys on Sunday evening; whatever it is you're doing.

See you then!

[:FI:Heloego]

Welcome abroad, Hellbender!

Are you the evil twin of Bender, the space robot? Evil twins are the best, m8!

As for the sheep...

Gen, I'm crushed. I've spent the last, oh, several minutes preparing them for the "Great Washing", cluing them in on the proper manner of addressing a Belgian, and preferred methods of foreplay.

All to make him feel at home.

Now I have to tell them it's all off?


Sheep!

I mean, SHEESH!!!

[:FI:Macca]

Welcome abroad, Hellbender!

Are you the evil twin of Bender, the space robot? Evil twins are the best, m8!

We've got bad experience with twins over here, Helo