Those of you who actually had the courage to continue reading Vogue Issue 1, right up until my discussion about how great it was being a flight member, will now point at me and laugh. Yes, I, the "Flight Memberness is great" girl, am now a CMDR. So how did this happen? However did I actually let myself into this?

Well, when LC Hicks, my former CMDR resigned (boooooohoooo, come baaaaaaack!), Tornado Squadron found itself without a Commander. Of course, Mairin being fresh out of graduating SM/2, Mairin thought she could do the job, and applied. As it turned out, I'd just received BGCOM Pilot of the Month, and for some reason, everyone thought I could do the job.

No sooner had I received the email saying "Hey, you're the CMDR now", than I panicked. What in the heck are you doing, I asked myself. You don't have the foggiest idea how to run a Squadron.

And quite frankly... I still don't!

It's a sad fact that new CMDRs get pretty much thrown in the deep end, and even experience in other areas of the clubs, commanding Houses in the DB for example, doesn't help. There's a stark difference between running a Krath House and trying to cater for a Squadron of old fogies who self-avowedly hate TIE Fighter.

So what is one to do? They keep themselves fairly active, generally - and the squad has recently been struck by the "Splatt" bug, with me, two Flight Leaders and another member struck down with hardware and software problems that are only very slowly being resolved. Fortunately, I am back to full strength, but others are still waiting on joysticks, and new computers.

Being a new CMDR ain't easy, but I guess I'll get there in the end... Oh - and any old fogies that hate TIE Fighter - I have a place going begging in Tornado!