Welcome to the Virtual Air Command. This column will focus on Virtual Squadrons from around the world as well as any upcoming special events or functions of Virtual Squadrons. At the moment plans are to continue this column in print only, so this is only a teaser!

While many of you know me for my avid LAN connections, this column is for ALL Virtual Squadrons, LAN, Internet, On Line flying or any combination of these. It does not matter what game you fly, what era, jet or prop, or even if you fly those helamathingies. All squadrons based on a combat simulation will be included.

A lot of the success of this column will depend on the input from you. If you have an event (LAN or Internet), competition, ladder, fly-in ... anything that your squadron will be involved in, e-mail me at [email protected] so I can add you to the list of up coming events.

The main part of each article will be about a Featured Squadron of the Month. We will give you information about a squadron, what they do, what they fly, when and where they do it, and any pertinent information. There will also be some history and origin of the squadron.

To give you an idea what to expect, we will begin with a squadron I am pretty familiar with:

• Squadron: 209th VFS Delta Hawks
• Type: LAN Squadron based in
• Stockton, CA USA
• Contact: Jeff "RHINO" Babineau, CO
• Dan "CRASH" Crenshaw, DCO
• Sims: Anything that Multi-plays over a LAN with cooperative objectives. Examples of sims flown, FALCON 3, EF2000/TACTCOM, SU-27 1.5, LONGBOW 2 ... currently involved in beta testing FALCON 4.0
• WebRings: PC AIR COMBAT RING, Host site for the FALCON 4 WebRing.

History:

The 209th was formed in 1994 from a local pair of war gamers that wanted to experience real time air combat with human wingmen instead of computer run AI. Initially, there were two guys trying to fly FALCON over a 2400 baud modem using the Null Modem cable setup.

With the networking ability included in FALCON 3.0, and inspired by hearing of the 510th TFW, Spectrum Holobyte's FALCON 3.0 Squadron, Jeff "RHINO" Babineau and David "WOLF" Lanphear decided to form a local group in the Stockton, CA area. "Compuserve had a list in its library called PILOTS.TXT, a list of pilots and their e-mail addresses and ... their area codes! I could search and find a pilot that was in my same area code. So, of course everyone in the 209 area code got an e-mail. Within a week we had 5 guys."

The first meet was chaotic with guys yelling across the room, speakers going ... very difficult to remain focused. After a few different experiments with intercoms, CB radios were decided on as the best way to communicate (plus it added to the immersion factor).

Through on-line activity and personal contacts at software stores the 209th began to generate more members. "Slowly at first and then all of the sudden a big boom. I have noticed that the squadron seems to grow in spurts. We may not pick up a new member in 3 months and then 1 month will have 4 new guys show up.

More recently the 209th has kind of joined forces with the 510th. They were going through a period similar to ours in that computers were getting faster, too fast for Falcon 3.0 and no new games were coming out that met all of what F3 had to offer so attendance was dropping. Now that F4 is due and it has all of what F3 had and more, we expect a boom in attendance."

Rhino says, "Network flying is nothing like solo flying. The game changes dramatically. And finally, technology allows us to feel more of the experience. It is a tough life, being a member of a LAN squadron. It means that you have to pick up about $2000-$5000 in gear and haul it to someone else's house and hook it all up to fly for awhile and then do it all again when you're done. It can be hard work.

But everyone in the group agrees, it is well worth the effort. I have met some wonderful guys because of this hobby. Lou "Yoda" Mayers, Ken "Grizzly" Webb, Dan "Crash" Crenshaw, Bob "Tango" Fakes, Bryce "Stain" Whitlock, Rick "Stormshadow" Di Riccio, the list gets bigger all the time."

Rhino adds, "In the 209th, the arrogance of who is the better pilot really doesn't exist. We have found that virtually all of the guys, that start flying on a LAN, realize that cooperation is far more enjoyable than flying H2H. We have competed in inter-squadron competitions and there were some fun moments, and of course the first time you go H2H you love it.

But after a while, egos get involved and when everyone gets to be a certain skill level and anyone can pretty much kill anyone at any time, it gets boring for us. We are sure there are lots of guys out there that can beat us 1V1 all the time. In the real Air Force, how many 1V1 fights are there? That's just not what we do. We try and simulate the whole combat experience. Mutual support, command, control, communications, get your buddy home alive, accomplish the MISSION."

The 209th VFS Delta Hawks meet the first weekend of every month for weekend long meets.

You can find out more about the 209th VFS Delta Hawks, and virtual air combat at [url]http://www.deltahawks.org.[/url] There you can find information on LAN meets, Radio set ups, Wingman and BFM Tactics lessons, Sound files, International LAN squadron listing, links and more information pertaining to all aspects of virtual air combat.