- Callsign:
grendel
- Name:
Kauppinen, Jukka
- Date of birth:
160770
- Nationality:
Finnish
- Height:
?
- Weight:
trying to weight less
- Hair:
lots & black
- Eyes:
located between mouth and forehead, two, blue.
- Sex:
Undecided.
- Marital status:
reserved.
- Children:
lord, hope none!
- Occupation:
journalist
- Education:
hardly.
- Military background:
almost 2 months in army, then relieved for life.
- Real-life flight experience:
built and flew the small Toka- planes, a lot (!) of dogfights with self-built model airplanes and couple flights in passenger planes. Had first real piloting experience at Mosquito Meeting 2001 and have enjoyed IRL flying a few times since. Started RC flying in 2002, too.
- Hobbies (other than WB):
computer games, demoscene and demoparties, reading a lot (military: mainly aviation related, also tanks go; science fiction & fantasy, historical novels; comics, occasional beer & booze, selected movies & tv series (Babylon 5, Xena, British comedy, science fiction overall, though I actually didn't watch tv at all between ages 15-25), radio theatre productions: Knalli & Sateenvarjo (Men from the Ministry) & Linnunradan Käsikirja Liftareille (Hitchhiker's Guide...) etc etc.
- Started Warbirds:
october/november 1996. Air Warrior 1993-1995.
- Why?:
Quite logically. Built the model airplanes when kid, read all the air combat books I could find, played all the flight simulators since 1983. Only thing you can do when you grow up is play the hitechier games. Love the realism, love the human factor.
- Why that stupid callsign?:
Been "Grendel" since 1987. Most pals call me that even in "normal" life, I even respond to "Grendel" calls better than any "Jukkas".
- Favourite plane:
gimme GERMAN iron.
- Favourite prey:
low'n'slow. BUFF. Total dream: me and my 109K, and only company endless stream of single enemy bombers.
- Favourite drink after a hard day's fight:
a tasty beer of course.
- Motto:
a pain in your arse.
- Free speech:
Flew Air Warrior already in december 1993, with a direct modem connect to Air Warrior's UK server, and wrote the 1st ever article about the game in a Finnish magazine (MikroBITTI 02/1994, page 48). That way, I actually founded the Finnish virtual pilots scene ;-) since this article directly led to founding of Suomen On-Line Pelit who started marketing Air Warrior in Finland. Pelit-lehti covered AW then in their issue 03/1994, while I again wrote a big article in MikroBITTI 09/1994, and together with the competing sister magazine started giving big coverage to Internet multiplayer flight sims.