Well, the theatre-specific aircraft seem to have been a short-lived experiment, and there wasn't much new to report from iEN this spring except for a couple of new cockpits (the P40 and B24), one attempt at using the Blitz terrain in the WW2 arena, new bulletin board software, and rumors of a blue-water ops terrain sometime soon. Deft's score pages got a TOD archive page and squad scores going, but it seems to have some kinks in it still.
Two new guys joined us this spring: Zinmar and Derekd. Also, Zama got back on the roster after a prolonged absence. That makes a total of twenty active pilots. Because of the influx of new members, I took the opportunity to set us up three-to-a-wing instead of two. The idea is to give the new guys extra guidance, and to improve the chances of everyone getting a dedicated wingie on any given night. We hit a new record attendance of fifteen pilots a few squad nights ago: a formidable presence. At the moment we are not actively recruiting, but as always we will consider any requests for membership.
The 2004 Legion of Ferret was awarded to our good friend Squadron Leader Badcat of the 475th FG Satan's Angels. A big Ferrety welcome to our new honorary member! Here's to many more missions together in the unfriendly skies.
Congratulations and thanks go out to Warrant Joystc and Sgt. Snofox, recipients of shiny gold stars for one year of sweating it out with the Business. Thanks, gents! Here's to another year of mustelid mayhem. Congrats also to Invstr and Drdyer for earning their Sergeant's stripes this spring.
In Squad Select Series action we saw the results of On the Beaches campaign. As I expected, we won a whack of awards. Andrew earned top overall S3 honors, and Joystc came in second: a formidable father-and son team. Andrew was awarded the Knight's Cross; Joystc and Yours Truly the German Cross; Warone earned an Honour Cup; Doones, Drdeth, and Gldnbb earned the Iron Cross 1st Class; and Momo the Iron Cross 2nd Class.
Our next S3 experience, entitled Tit-For-Tat, went considerably less well. We saw virtually no action until the final frame, where we all perished but your lucky lucky CO. We won no awards for that one, as you might have guessed. The combined awards for the past three S3's ought to be announced soon.
The fourth Ferrets' Challenge air race was a success, again drawing better than 30 pilots. Congratulations again to Sgt. -Wcat- of the 417 RCAF City Of Windsor squadron for his second consecutive first place finish, to Easyed of the 11th Ranger/TFS for second place, and to Twedge of the 416 RCAF The Lynx for his third place showing. Thanks to all who attended, and to the refs, and to iEN for coughing up a free month of WB's premium for the winner. Our next race will exceed the 190F's maximum range by exactly one mile.
Thanks again to Butterbar Meteor for leading our team in the Satan's Angels Four-on-Four Challenge. Our first ever duelling event ended in a second-place finish. Thanks to the Satan's Angels, and congrats to The Haze for their first-place win.
In other news, the Ferrets sponsored a commemorative paratroop drop on the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Some of us have attended a few DOA meets, and others have been frequenting Shack's Tuesday night Armored Assault events. Still others have downloaded the new Aces High 2 release, and are making tentative plans to meet up online (using the free eight-man arena feature) for some instruction from resident AH experts Snofox and Kavikk. The new damage model sure sounds intriguing. On a personal note, Ferrets Momo, Warone, and Drdeth all moved house this spring. Good luck in your new digs, gents!
Col. H.C. Rana
Over and Out