OK so we may not need nylons and chocolate bars to survive in a virtual mission but we do need to have a certain amount of information at our finger tips.

     Being a virtual pilot is far more than simply playing a video game and there's a lot of information that we either need to have thoroughly memorized or at least close to hand.

     Below is a sampling and description of my personal survival kit.

This is my "flight deck". There are a couple of very basic things that I always have close to hand.

[A]  A coaster for my beer or wine. Very important!

[B]  A note pad and pen  for making mission notes. They may consist of briefing information or, for me as a mission builder, notes on what goes wrong in a mission and needs to be fixed.

[C] A printout of the phonetic alphabet in case I forget how to callout "S".

[D] A cockpit plotter as a quick reference to headings.

Three Ring Binder #1 - Key Bindings

This is a binder I keep very close to me which contains several pages listing all my key bindings.

As you can see some pages have photos of my controllers but the other pages are simply lists of bindings in quite large type so that I can read them from a distance while flying.

Three Ring Binder #2 - General information

This binder I use as a reference book not for use during missions.

The pages contain names and phone numbers,  Formations, pilot list, aircraft skin list and any other information I might need to look up at any given time.

Three Ring Binder #3 - Mission maps

This binder is very important. Each time we fly a mission and have a mission briefing map I always print it out and keep it in this binder.

The binder has tabbed sections that identify the different areas of conflict so that I can locate any given map quickly.

The maps are also noted as to whether the mission is in the HSFX or BAT version of IL2.

Three Ring Binder #4 - FMB Reference

This final binder is for my own reference when building missions.

The pages contain object numbers for both HSFX and BAT as well as samples of field dressings. (No not bandages)

I also keep a section on tips and tricks.