LOL...if you were a real aviation buff, you would've used the term 'recip' (for reciprocating engines).

Joking aside.
I went to Middle TN St Univ for an Aerospace Admin degree in '92. Unfortunately I didn't get the degree and would up joining the Marines instead, where I worked in I.T. data systems rather than aviation.
Due to my color vision deficiency, I was not qualified for most aviation MOSes.
That worked out ok for me as I'm doing well in an I.T. job at the moment.

I do have about 23 hours (~9 solo) in a Cessna 152. I wanted to get my licenses but the training was just too expensive for me at the time.

Favorite armed military airplane. A-10 hands down. The AC-130 Spectre gunship is a close second.
Used to be nuts for the F-14 as well, though the F-15 is my favorite fighter jet.
Like corrupt says, why do you not like the F-4? It's rather mean looking plane.
You might already know this but the F-4 was the Navy's designated fleet defense platform before the F-14 replaced it.

 

you got that right.

 

I do admit I like the hog. Definitely a purpose built machine - not meant to look pretty!

Anyone here flight sim on the computer? I remember my first combat flight simulator - Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. Thinking the graphics and game play was so good. Now I scoff at it - it doesn't even have yaw control! I enjoy FSX, but I reserve in the back of my mind about how poor of a flight model it has. I have just got XPlane 10, but I haven't really figured it out yet. All I can tell is the flight model on that one is very good.

Not long ago I got my hands on a copy of DCS A-10 Simulator. Having never tried any of eagle dynamics simulators before, I was in for a shock. That thing is bloody complicated! Put it this way, on FSX, to start a jet aircraft up, you just press Ctrl - E. Done. On the A-10 simulator, it takes a 25 minute tutorial, with 40+ steps required! I love realism, but this is to a new level. The "flight manual" is almost 700 pages long.

 

The only thing that puzzles me about the A-10 is that the Marines never got it. The A-10 and the USMC is a freakin match made in heaven.
As cool as the Harrier is, I'd take an A-10 over it any day.

Yes I know the gear wasn't carrier rated but c'mon, carrier ready landing gear could've easily been retrofitted onto this beast.

 

AV8 is an annoying air frame. So loud. Almost as bad as the EA6. A10 all the way.

 

I have been in Aviation for some time now, and to me the greatest Fighter is the F-15.