Please note that you can find expnalation of each (or at least most) pictures by moving your mouse over it. The MM02 invitation page is archived here. The congoers are starting their trip. The MOOSEBUS is fully manned and prepares for takeoff. But the skies are dangerous. The Ju-52 had to be equipped accordingly. The pilot, Julle, put on his crash helmet and Koko took a double barreled MZ-81 and looked the skies for cons. And then we took off. While coming to the convention the Moose Junkers 52 made a short landing to supply field. Four food trolleys were filled with food and approached the shop counter in neat schwarm counter. The flight towards wasn't dull by all means. The cabin was filled with sounds of mini tanks, rovers, fighting with their infra red weapons.
Network is provided by Sonera. We have a 512kbps frame relay providing amazingly low latencies. This 512kbps bandwidth is also priorized to us only, so we won't have to compete for the bandwidth with other users. This line is similar as to one Sonera provided us last summer -- simply put, this setup is highest quality connection you can get. No compromise - Sonera.
The LAN at the meeting site was fully switched this summer, and we had an Allied Telesyn AR220E as NAT/Firewall unit, we can recommend this unit warmly to you who are thinking about setting up these meetings. Easy to configure, does everything you need, and is very affordable.
The horror, the horror. The beer does not flow. To the rescue! After long hassle, fighting with passwords and electricity the beer supply started working. People were filled with joy. PJK got the first beer, then Buffalo/Penttiku in his Luftwobble uniform followed closely by Grendel. But why is BlauKreuz looking so angry. Is it because he does not have one, while Jatezz does? Notice also Julle bringing inside a load of tasty ingredients, that will cause many chaotic moments later in the evening. You can also notice some FPO materials.
Many weird people come to the con - and they bring even weirder joysticks. Here is a short look at the strangest sticks we could find.
Enjoying the summer, RC-airplanes and so on... The RC-airplanes were started when the wind finally stopped. Now the skies were clear. This was a signal to the first two RC-pilots, Cosmo and Grendel of Icebreakers, to roll their airplanes from the hangar and start flying. A small crowd came around them and watched, enjoyed the airshow where Cosmo showed fast speed maneuvers and cool action, Grendel flew his slow flier and amazed the watchers by hovering still and doing sharp, fast maneuvers.
Evening fun. Sauna and summer vegetables
Still alive! Waking up and other activities.
The RC dweebs were the first to look out of window and immediately ran out seeing the clear weather and sunshine.
Friday happenigs. Wake up was about 9,00am, and the first words i heard were "Oh Uhh - My HEAD" Weather was bad and our plans to go to see WWII tank parade to Parola was forgotten. As the program relaxed nicely, attendees went happily for oh so familiar "beer and gaming" program. When the weather cleared for a moment, Cosmo, Lart and Grendel went go fly outside with their RC-planes. The original idea was to go and fly with sailplanes, but as the weather prevented this activity, we had to come up with other means of entertainment. Luckily we have a small scale movie teather set up, and lots of educational (and free of copyright burden) documentary films from World War 2. And naturally, refreshing liquids and gaming. And more gaming. In the first small room is crowded with World War II Online players -- you should have heard that sreeming, yelling singing when we won. In the next room are the rest of the players, and gamebase isn't so focused in here. Great place to take a peek at the grass on the other side of the fence. We had a delicious dinner at Räyskalä airfield restaurant. As we are in Finland, bathing in sauna is a obligatory event. A meeting with no sauna just doesn't feel complete. (And naturally, a bath after active day makes us big and furry virtual pilots smell like roses again).
Crud game wasn't forgotten, either. After dinner the pilots, both the dweebs and the mr. Big Dweeb grouped around the billiards table and started playing. Main photos of the match are above, here you can see the results.
Virtuaalilentäjät - Virtual Pilots Finland Association had its annual meeting. The board of directors (Grendel, Kossu, My and BlauKreuz) were found guilty of good work and ordered to continue in the board. The coming year will bring virtual aviation in Finland more visible, the association taking part in different aviation happenings, more aviation history work and of course dweebing in the virtual skies.
Thanks Lapwin :)
So much happened even today. Too. RC flying competitions rolled and unfortunately we didn't get to soar, as the weather was so unpredictable that the gliders were still grounded today. On the other hand we had a great presentation about Suomen Sodat 1939-1945 DVD project by colonel Leo Skogström. Let's give the keyboard to Harppa who will now think about glider flying in MM01: Ahemmm, I still remember the glider flying last year. I was one of the first to go up with my tutor. As i remember I almost shit my pants when taking off, that hard the plane towing us up was treating us with the little help of the wind which was quite frisky that day. Well, anyway it all changed when we were free from that exhausting motor plane. what a silence and tranquillity, wish I had a camera and a tape recorder... We just soared here and there, watching sceneries, I had lots of questions for the tutor and he pleasantly answered for all of them. Suddenly he asked if I had my hand and feet on the control. When i told him yes, he said it's all mine. GOD, I was flying by myself !!! I still felt uncertain,but I continued, doing some gentle moves with the stick and pedals. It felt great ! I soared high up in the sky enjoying the great experience. I and my tutor were at about 2700 feet when I noticed another glider about 200 feet lower. As I learned later , that was Camo. I could clearly see him and his tutor in the cockpit, he was watching up at us. We crossed each other safely and continued the way of us own, but the vision I had is still in my eyes, something to remember for the rest of my life. After that, or at least I felt like that, it was time for landing. the tutor took control , and lead us back to the ground. I was amazingly watching his work with all ailerons and flaps, and air brakes before touchdown. I'm definitely sure I was smiling all time. Others were waiting for us, where had we been !! We really had taken our time. I thought it was about 10 minutes we were up, but others told me it took about 25 minutes !! THX !! -Harppa / LLF
Orkki had orders from Division Lagus (World War II Online) that he must act as communications officer between WW2Online air forces at the convention and the ground forces fighting at ground. Those were the verbal orders. On the other hand he also had written orders, that he must represent the Lagus division and drink booze like 10 men. The written orders won - and the communications officer passed out in middle of directing a WW2Online battle. Third picture from up, leftmost row shows Orkki gaining slowly conciousness in the morning. After the Suomen Sodat 1939-1945 DVD project presentation the special guest of the con, Robert "Mouse" Shaw gave two presentations about air combat tactics and their development. Thanks a lot!
A word from our Estonian guest, Vihur:
Well I think that Mosquito meeting is really nice experience, very goo d attitude and lot of VERY good pilots !!!
Actually I love to meet my squad mates in real life - they are really very nice guys - and of course we had some real good combat tactics and teamwork here !
So I am 100% sure I will be visiting it next year ! these guys are REAL pilots ! Visit to War Marshall Mannerheim's hunting lodge.
We didn't make it through without casualties. An extraordinarily hard match of Crud ended up in blood bath - 1WMaker from LLv34 gave Mouse a good tackling and then it was time for some ice and bandages. 1WMaker, WidowMaker, is not semi officially known also as NoseBreaker. The fourth day started with extraordinary action. First there was a squadron meeting of the Icebreakers squadron, starting about midnight. The members of the squadron decided, that in the future they will mostly concentrate on virtual skies of World War II Online. Some members will keep on flying WarBirds, but it is a major change anyway. So far the squadron had been loitering between WarBirds and World War II Online, not really being able to concentrate on either. Now the decision was made with a squadron vote, with 100 % of the members present voting for World War II Online. After that a call was made for deciding how to organize. Squadron applied for membership at the WW2Online Finnish squadron Gefechtsverband Kuhlmey, which is kind of "Überfinns Perkele" squadron in the WW2Online skies, a common squadron for all Finnish pilots. Now the real night action started. All present WW2Online pilots were called to hear the decision and a major tactics discussion began. Very noisy pilots soon moved to the other end of the MM02 building to let "Mouse" sleep better. All remaining FPO was put to table and discussion began. For a long time it was nice and civil, until the FPO started working and ideas began flying really wildly. Orkki, Division Lagus' communications officer for MM02 was not in full throttle and delivered a good lesson about "what we infantry need". Icebreakers and Kuhlmey pilots put forward ideas how to deliver accurate attacks on enemy, both at ground and in air. Even the rubber ducks were taken out. As Penttiku/Buffalo put it, "it is always a really bad sign for the enemy, when the rubber ducks come to the table."
In the middle of the night untold horrors happened.
One computer had been left on with a large note - PLESE WRITE TO MM02 REPORT. Now report written in the night hours tells how the Saturday-Sunday goes... The clock is 04:37 on sunday morning and almost everybody is still up! There seems to be a WWIIOL tactics lecture going onat the kitchen and someone is playing movies. People are still up and perhaps getting even perkier all the time. Grendel is acting stranger than ever! I will stop now as my life is in grave danger! 05:33. Movie has ended and I feel strangely content like so many others. Grendel is even more drunk than before, if possible, and he just made threat that he will tell everyone that it was wmaker tha broke Mr. Shaw's nose. Most of us are already sleeping but I feel quite energized, must be the gin I have been drinking. Kouhia is making magic tricks on the hall and people are so noisy that it will be impossible to sleep while they are still up. Crap. WWII veterans are coming in few hours time.-Jochen Kiiitos hyväst sapuskasta ja seurasta. Tartteepas, kohta onnistumme. Dissataan kaikkia muita ww2ol-pilotteja jotka ei oo herelllä enää. klo on 6.07 ja kaikki on nukkumassa paitsi myö. Vallataan antwerppen sitte ihan ite.. Hurrien määrään, taitoon, tai omaan lentokykyyn katsomatta. Zagi on muuten yhä puussa. The casualties in the Saturday/Sunday night were heavy. First bodies were on the floor even before midnight. People were singing on the corridors. Even the junior pilots stayed awake past their bedtime. Kouhia was making magic tricks - and amazed everybody. People were still swapping stories when the sun came up.
Unfortunately Mosquito Meeting 2002 ended finally. We wave goodbyes to the wonderful convention place in middle of Finnish nature and prepare for the Mosquito Meeting 2003, which will be arranged near Oulu. The date will be first weekend of July 2003. Mark that to your calendars.
The last peek in the MM02 library. Books of all kind had been supplementing the flying.
And the sad moment came when we had to pack the beer & cider station away.
Maybe four days was enough. The Junkers 52 took off for a flight home and the half of the passengers slept most of the time.
Mouse gave Grendel the t-shirt of US Air Force Museum as a present. Thanks :) It's always sad to leave the Mosquito Meeting behind - it's always the highlight of every summer. This time there was a bit more rain than usually. As you can see those two virtual pilots also found soul mates of each other.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, too early for many convention participants, a car sound was heard and a small car parked to the front of the convention building. The guests have arrived! Somehow most of the congoers were able to get up and come to greet the gentlemen, even if most had been staying awake for the most of the night.
Please welcome: Hemmo Leino and Kyösti "Kössi" Karhila, two of the finest pilots of the Finnish Air Force in WW2. Kyösti Karhila, born 2.5.1921 at Rauma. Credited with 32 1/4 confirmed victories. Military honors: VR4, VR3, VR3 tlk, VR2. Units: Started 18.3.1941 in LeLv (Flying Squadron) 32, after which he flew in LeLv 30, LeLv 34 and 24. He flew Fokker D.XXIs, Curtiss Hawks and moved to Messerchmitt fighters during 1943. Karhila is credited with 13 1/4 victories in the Curtiss Hawk and rest in Messerchmitts. His peculiarity in Messerchmitts was his "liking" to the wing cannons of the 109 G-6 - while others removed the wing cannons to increase speed and maneuverability "Kössi" instead insisted to fly with the cannons, preferring the firepower. During the Soviet offensive summer 1944 Kössi shot down 13 Soviet aircraft. His kill list includes about everything the Soviets could fly, including I-153s, I-16s, MiG-3s, , LaGG-3s and La-5s, Yak-9s, IL-2s and even P-51 Mustangs. Two articles about mr. Karhila in the Internet in english language: Kyosti Karhila in Dogfight Over Gulf of Finland and Kyosti Karhila in EXCLUSIVE interview for WW2AS!
Hemmo Kullervo Leino, born 8.4.1921. Credited with 11 confirmed victories. Military honors: VM1, VR4, VR4 tlk. Started 16.9.1942 in LeLv 30 and flew later in LeLv 14 and LeLv 34. "Hemmo" made his first victory 9th january 1942 flying Fokker D.XXI fighter by shooting down a Soviet Hurricane. He flew later also the Morane Saulnier 406 and Messerchmitt 109 fighters. His kill list includes, in addition to the Hurricane, LaGG-3, IL-2, Yak-9, Boston and a P-51 Mustang.
Robert Shaw discussed with the vets in lenght. Both of the vets talked good English, because they are both also veteran airline pilots and have travelled the earth for long, long time.
Pilots from the virtual Lentolaivue 34 gave mr. Hemmo Leino a small gift - their squadron's t-shirt. Now a real life Lentolaivue 34 (Fighter Squadron 34) pilot owns a virtual squadron 34's shirt, which was most wonderful idea from the LLv 34 guys! In the other picture below all the chitchat is a bit too much for OK/Icebreakers, who starts to snore. And we thought it was very interesting stories what we were talking about!
Very big thanks to our guest of honor, mr. Robert Shaw - or Mouse, as he is known in the virtual pilots scene.
As well, very big thanks to the veteran pilots who honored us with their presence, chatted with us in lenght and took a good look in the simulators.
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