on GEnie long ago .. I was helped a bit by Ghost Rider and Blue Baron one evening .. filmed it .. evaluated what I was doin wrong, corrected that, and worked on my shooting, which was the worst of my skills back then.
I couldn't seem to hit the broad side of a B-17 from 10 paces.
From there, I remembered how I felt the first few weeks in the arena, and whenever someone new logged in and started askin basic stuff like how to get to an airfield an such.. I would meet them at a field, and go over some of the basics with them, tellin em to write down the commands they would need.
From there it developed into a routine .. new player logs in, I'd ask 'em if they were good at flight sims.
Nearly everyone would list all the sims they had played, it usually took awhile..when they were done, I'd say 'great, now that's outta yer system, welcome to AW.. forget all those others, 'cause this is against people, not drones.'
Got to the point where Carrie gave me my own BBS address.. 'GE's Welcome Wagon' .. where I and some others would answer any question posted by players.
THen came the Air Warrior Trainers .. and the Air Warrior Training Academy.
I stayed in it through the early years .. but increasingly, people would log into the training area just to duel me.. and that wasn't why I was there, and it became a distraction to the training arena. Trainers would be trying to explain something to someone, and some yahoo would be typing in the chat buffer all the usual BS to try and get me to duel them.
My last flight as an AW Trainer, Tex came in, wanted to duel in spitfires, cause most people knew I was a Mustang pilot, dint mess much with the turn an burn planes at all.
He and others dint know I learned first in the Spit 9 and Zeke .. then progressed to the Mustang.
I went up, took him out, and left.
To this day I don't duel as a rule.
I have on occasion been goaded enough to duel someone, but frankly, it never proves anything except whoever makes the first mistake usually loses.
I'd rather spend my time hunting with friends ..havin fun.
As for AH . . I just don't feel competent enough or energetic enough to take on the role of trainer .. again.
Yet.
Mebbe in a year or two.
-GE
