DCS

[dburne]

33 minutes ago, AndyJWest said:

 

Surprisingly, not only did I survive the catapult launch, after some frantic stick-waggling, but I found that the wings would actually unfold (somehow I doubt they would in real life). Trim seemed rather off though, so I decided that a nice long runway was going to be the safest option, and scuttled off landwards. Put it down with no further damage.

 

I think the captain wants a word with me...

 

Speed below 250, full flaps, you can trim to your heart's content. ICLS carrier landings with the AOA indicator to put her down on the Hornet is a blast, especially when successful.

[LLv24_SukkaVR]

20 hours ago, RedKestrel said:

I know two of the three...JDAM = Joint Direct Attack Munition, basically a general purpose bomb with a GPS-guided seeker head kit. JSOW is Joint Stand Off Weapon, I don't remember how that one works. 

 

JSOW is GPS/INS guided just like JDAM, but it's a glide bomb and has longer range. You can punch in coordinates manually or designate targets with targeting pod. JASSM is basically JSOW with engine which makes it a cruise missile but we won't get that for our Hornet.

[DD_Arthur]

Liking this one ALOT

 

 

[CanadaOne]

2 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

Liking this one ALOT

 

 

 

I bought the Yak-52 back around Christmas and I love it. Great for sightseeing and farting around. Not to mention you can land and take off on carriers and parking lots with the thing.

 

It really needs illuminated dials though. That's the one big problem I have with it.

[[-=BP=-]Slegawsky_VR]

LFDM server is great fun, highly recommended.

 

[[CPT]Pike*HarryM]

Been flying the MiG-21 quite a bit and love it. "Trying" the Mi-8, wow, what a handful for a chopper noob, but still fun. I want to try out the GAW server but will have to use a newer plane for that I guess, have a-10c, F-16 etc.

[AndyJWest]

1 hour ago, [CPT]Pike*HarryM said:

Been flying the MiG-21 quite a bit and love it. 

 

Just tried it. First flight I couldn't get the landing gear up. CFIT while trying to figure out why. ?

 

Second flight, from an airstart. Seemed to be getting the hang of it, but managed to flameout while pulling up from a Mach 1+ dive. Thought I might be able to glide to a nearby runway, which was clearly optimistic (I suspect Snoopy's doghouse has better glide performance). That wasn't working, but I couldn't remember the key to eject, and hit the deck while trying to find the eject control with the mouse. ?

 

The MiG 21 needs to be added to my ever-growing list of aircraft that are actively out to get me. Or maybe I should read the manual properly. ?

[[CPT]Pike*HarryM]

Yeah, it has that gear lock. I just unlock it and forget it. I find it an honest aircraft once you get used to these little odd system quirks.

[AndyJWest]

1 hour ago, [CPT]HarryM said:

Yeah, it has that gear lock. I just unlock it and forget it. I find it an honest aircraft once you get used to these little odd system quirks.

 

Honest? Yup. it honestly seems to want to kill me...

 

My next flight was marginally better. Got off the ground all right. Got the gear up, and remembered to put it into neutral. Went off to admire the Persian Gulf scenery:

 

Bimbled back to the airfield, feeling more confident. Too confident. Got myself nicely lined up, but not really at a stable speed. Too much last-minute throttle-juggling resulted in a hard impact, and a bounce. Going round seemed sensible, so I lit up the afterburner. And then noticed this:

 

Which seems to translate from the Russian as 'you perhaps have nosewheel, comrade, but  main wheels, is guess'. ?

 

I think the gear was down properly before the impact, but was it now? Perhaps the impact had dislodged it? A check from external view seemed to suggest that it was more down than up, though I'd no way to see if it was locked.  I decided to at least try to save the MiG, having converted two to scrap already.

 

This time my approach was better. With a good set of wheels I'd probably have been fine. They weren't good. Or at least, not locked. I careered down the runway, on nosewheel and belly, deploying the brake chute as I went. pitching abruptly from side to side. Finally I stopped. And looked back, to see flames licking towards the cockpit. Does this thing have a zero-zero ejector seat, I wondered? Only one way to find out:

 

This thing has a steep learning curve...

 

 

 

 

[BOO]

On 4/23/2020 at 11:53 AM, CanadaOne said:

The PG map .......Looks great with the new night lighting too.

 

Initially perhaps but it didnt take long for the severe light cut off around the towns and villages to begin to grate.  For some reason 2.5.6 PG also screwed up the Harrier, dropping out the keyboard and joystick buttons all the time.   

 

Still a lovely map in the day and in something else though. Far superior to to the NTTR.

[CanadaOne]

9 minutes ago, BOO said:

 

Initially perhaps but it didnt take long for the severe light cut off around the towns and villages to begin to grate.  For some reason 2.5.6 PG also screwed up the Harrier, dropping out the keyboard and joystick buttons all the time.   

 

Still a lovely map in the day and in something else though. Far superior to to the NTTR.

 

I haven't noticed any problems with the Harrier or the map I'm happy to say. I'll try them out again tonight.

 

For the moment I'm pretty involved with the F-18. I did a separate non-Steam install so I can have the F-18 trial for a month instead of Steam's two-weeks. What I find interesting about the free trials is how many planes I don't care about and uninstall minutes later. Several planes I considered buying didn't last five-minutes on my SSD. The two I find most interesting are the F-18 and the I-16.

[AndyJWest]

One more report on the MiG 21. With hindsight, it probably wasn't wise to switch straight to this after practising 'slam it into the deck' carrier landings with the Hornet. The MiG undercarriage clearly wasn't built for anything but the gentlest of touchdowns.

 

On the positive side, I now know how to restart the engine. All I need now is to figure out how to avoid it stopping in the first place... ?

[CanadaOne]

1 hour ago, AndyJWest said:

One more report on the MiG 21. With hindsight, it probably wasn't wise to switch straight to this after practising 'slam it into the deck' carrier landings with the Hornet. The MiG undercarriage clearly wasn't built for anything but the gentlest of touchdowns.

 

On the positive side, I now know how to restart the engine. All I need now is to figure out how to avoid it stopping in the first place... ?

 

I ditched the Mig 21 because it gave almost no feedback on my MS FFB2 at all. Zero tension, the stick would just flop over. The F5 is very light as well, but flyable. The Harrier and the F-18 are good.

[bzc3lk]

1 hour ago, CanadaOne said:

 

I ditched the Mig 21 because it gave almost no feedback on my MS FFB2 at all. Zero tension, the stick would just flop over. The F5 is very light as well, but flyable. The Harrier and the F-18 are good.

 

Try simFFB_64 , helped my FFB issues with DCS until I replaced my gear with  Virpil

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=181606

Edited April 26, 2020 by bzc3lk

[AndyJWest]

1 hour ago, CanadaOne said:

 

I ditched the Mig 21 because it gave almost no feedback on my MS FFB2 at all. Zero tension, the stick would just flop over. The F5 is very light as well, but flyable. The Harrier and the F-18 are good.

 

I've never tried a force-feedback stick. Maybe it would help a little to increase awareness, though I'm not sure it would have made much difference for me in the MiG 21, since the problem wasn't a lack of sensory input so much as an inability to process it sufficiently before the runway came up and hit me. More inputs would probably just confuse me quicker...

 

I can now report that I've at last managed to land it in one piece. The trick seems to be to ignore what the airspeed indicator reading means (i.e. ludicrous speed!) and just think of it as a number to aim for. And then concentrate on landing as gently as possible, without flaring enough to risk a tailstrike. Which basically means forgetting about trying to land on the runway piano keys. The brakes and chute seem to work well enough, so landing a little long isn't likely to be a problem.

[[CPT]Pike*HarryM]

Here is one of my better landings...

 

[Bremspropeller]

11 hours ago, BOO said:

Initially perhaps but it didnt take long for the severe light cut off around the towns and villages to begin to grate

 

I never understood all the hype about the night-lighting. In my book, X-plane does a much better job ever since it came out.

 

5 hours ago, [CPT]HarryM said:

Here is one of my better landings...

 

Having a go at a simulated Space Shuttle approach? ?

Nah, seriously: I think most people's problem is that they're coming in way too steep, setting them up for a high flare and a high sinkrate on touchdown. A great set-up for driving your gear through the wing.

 

Try to fly on speed and on glideslope - that should give you a sight-picture of the runway just above the lower windscreen-frame and a nice vibrating aero-data boom.

You'll need quite a bit of power to keep her flying, but you'll have a much easier roundout and flare.

[CanadaOne]

9 hours ago, AndyJWest said:

 

I've never tried a force-feedback stick. Maybe it would help a little to increase awareness, though I'm not sure it would have made much difference for me in the MiG 21, since the problem wasn't a lack of sensory input so much as an inability to process it sufficiently before the runway came up and hit me. More inputs would probably just confuse me quicker...

 

I can now report that I've at last managed to land it in one piece. The trick seems to be to ignore what the airspeed indicator reading means (i.e. ludicrous speed!) and just think of it as a number to aim for. And then concentrate on landing as gently as possible, without flaring enough to risk a tailstrike. Which basically means forgetting about trying to land on the runway piano keys. The brakes and chute seem to work well enough, so landing a little long isn't likely to be a problem.

 

The biggest difference with a FFB, as I've seen, is you feel the buffeting when you start to stall, and different planes have a different level of tension on the stick, which ranges from great to deal breaking. One brilliant thing with BoX is the FFB goes dead - zero tension - when you lose consciousness after too many Gs, and then comes back when you do. Pretty cool. Unfortunately my FFB2 is feeling its age. One problem is the POV hat will not look left, I have to program a button for that. And there's not way I'm opening the thing up to try to fix it.

 

As for landing the MIg 21, it sounds great! I had tons of fun landing the Captain Sim F-104 in FSX. I'd love to see an F-104 in DCS just for the fun of those nutbar landings.

 

I'll load up the Mig 21 again and see if I can make it work better with the flightstick.

[LLv34_Flanker]

S! 

 

Mig-21bis should have a system that blows extra air over the laps in landing configuration. It gave extra lift to the plane during approach. I recall it was called SPS and was tested every day before plane left apron. On a rainy day you did not want to stand behind the flaps or the airflow blew all the water on you Used as a prank on unsuspecting mechs

 

From what I recall of the 21 the pilots never had problems with engines flaming out. In the contrary the speed had to be limited as the plane would go faster than it could structurally take. Limit was 2,05 Mach. 

 

There was one hazard that could cause a loss of the plane: the oil stick. It was located under left wing behind an access door. You had to turn it open and check the oil amount 10,5 litres from it. If you closed it sloppily the stick could possibly unscrew and pop out causing all the oil to be drained too. Inevitable turbine failure and pilot had to jump. There were a few incidents because of this. 

 

Every plane had their own set of external tanks, 3 in total. One underbelly and two in inner pylons. When a new tank had to be taken into service for a plane you had to test which one of the new ones fit the plane. Then mark it for this individual plane. They rarely could be changed between planes. Talk about quality of construction there. 

 

Was quite fun to work on that plane. It worked most of the time fine but had it's quirks. 

 

Edited April 26, 2020 by LLv34_Flanker

[CanadaOne]

11 hours ago, bzc3lk said:

 

Try simFFB_64 , helped my FFB issues with DCS until I replaced my gear with  Virpil

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=181606

 

Awesome! It works like a charm. 

 

The Mig 21 demo went from being no fun at all to being a beast. And the F5E I bought last year has a new lease on life. Now it feels like a big jet and not a paper airplane. I love the plane but had stopped flying, now it's got some "Oompf!" to it.

 

Gonna try it with the Pe-2 in IL2. I like the plane but the FFB is weak and the plane just floats. This should help a ton.

 

I owe you a beer!

[Bremspropeller]

Some LV/LSK (East German Air Force) propaganda shots with a couple of landings in between.

Mostly MiG-21F-13s and SPS (PFMs designated after the new SPS system - ze Germans liked to come up with their own designations)

 

 

[[CPT]Pike*HarryM]

4 hours ago, Bremspropeller said:

 

I never understood all the hype about the night-lighting. In my book, X-plane does a much better job ever since it came out.

 

 

Having a go at a simulated Space Shuttle approach? ?

Nah, seriously: I think most people's problem is that they're coming in way too steep, setting them up for a high flare and a high sinkrate on touchdown. A great set-up for driving your gear through the wing.

 

Try to fly on speed and on glideslope - that should give you a sight-picture of the runway just above the lower windscreen-frame and a nice vibrating aero-data boom.

You'll need quite a bit of power to keep her flying, but you'll have a much easier roundout and flare.

Well, it was one of MY better landings. I usually come in much shallower then have to add some burner, it is nice to not have to do that (and be able to see the runway). I am going to start using the ILS system to get a handle on an ideal approach/landing. Lots of interesting info here! There is a good video on the "aircrew interview" channel with a Finnish pilot where he discusses the 21 quite a bit.

[Bremspropeller]

This is the best video I could find, but it should help some with the approach-angle you're shooting for:

 

 

[DD_Arthur]

2 hours ago, CanadaOne said:

Awesome! It works like a charm. 

 

Verrrrry interesting!

 

  Standby for questions later on.....

[CanadaOne]

26 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

 

Verrrrry interesting!

 

  Standby for questions later on.....

 

Standing by...

[DD_fruitbat]

57 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

 

Verrrrry interesting!

 

  Standby for questions later on.....

 

Ditto

[DD_Arthur]

3 hours ago, CanadaOne said:

 

Standing by...

 

The only trouble I had was my inability to read the instructions..  Now I know to fire this thing up after I've got the game running, doh!

 

Other than that, simplicity itself and actually great to be able to pause the game and adjust stick forces on the fly.  My only question ;  is the stick FFB actually running or is this the 'default spring' setting it's enhancing?

 

Ahhh......answered my own question; YES! FFB working very nicely.  Just tried it in GBS and WOW!!   What a great little utility!   Nice one bzc3lk

Edited April 26, 2020 by DD_Arthur

[CanadaOne]

6 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

 

The only trouble I had was my inability to read the instructions..  Now I know to fire this thing up after I've got the game running, doh!

 

Other than that, simplicity itself and actually great to be able to pause the game and adjust stick forces on the fly.  My only question ;  is the stick FFB actually running or is this the 'default spring' setting it's enhancing?

 

Ahhh......answered my own question; YES! FFB working very nicely.  Just tried it in GBS and WOW!!   What a great little utility!   Nice one bzc3lk

 

I'm sure there's a better/easier way to get out of the game to turn it on, but I hit alt+ctrl+del and that gets me to the desktop, then I turn the FFB thing on, then I hit the game screen and I'm back in.

 

I haven't tried it with many planes yet, but is absolutely saved my F-5E in DCS. Definitely going to try it out with my Harrier as well. I won't buy the Mig-21 but I'm happy to be able to enjoy it for the month now that this utility made it worth flying. Most of the IL2 planes already work really well with the FFB, but I may see what the utility does with those.

[AndyJWest]

Thought I'd try something a little more forgiving. The Tiger appears to be a pussycat, and if it has any vices, I didn't find them on my test flight. Though the Vegas casino owners may want a word about the broken glass all down the Strip.

 

Back at an airfield that nobody admits to knowing anything about, which definitely doesn't have alien spacecraft in the hangers. A slight lapse of concentration. They say two wrongs don't make a right...

 

Yes, I'm lining up on the out-of-service runway. Oops! I am also landing downwind. Doh! On the other hand, since I'd completely forgotten that I'd sent my wingman off to land too, and he was quite likely landing in the right place, in the right direction, at the same time. If I'd gone for the runway, I'd have met him half way down it...

 

Edited April 26, 2020 by AndyJWest

[CanadaOne]

You can fix you lack of alien spacecraft.

 

There's a Star wars mod and you can get a Tie fighter and an Imperial Cruiser.

[Bremspropeller]

All this Fishbed-talk had me want to try her out for a spin again.

 

Took her through the Mach, went flat out to M2.05, did a few supersonic rolls and killed the engine. Hit air-restart and landed her at Sochi with about 400l of gas left.

No sweat...

 

Baste-to-Final turn...

 

Of course there had to be a train running through final approach when I was coming in on fumes...

[Lusekofte]

These old USSR planes talk to me. 

[LLv34_Flanker]

S! 

 

@216th_LuseKofte When you work with them, they more or less laugh and swear at you

[DD_Arthur]

10 hours ago, 216th_LuseKofte said:

These old USSR planes talk to me. 

 

The MiG21 is a Rosa Klebb of an aeroplane.  You need to try something more.........

 

 

Ahhh....thats better!  How was it for you darling?

[Lusekofte]

6 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

Ahhh....thats better!  How was it for you darling?

That is another one I own not even assigned controls for. I hear it is one of the best ??

[DD_Arthur]

It’s a really, really nice plane. Nice cockpit in VR and surprisingly simple to operate systems ?

[Lusekofte]

I might take a brake from BOX soon and take the time learning it. All sims need a timeout in order to get the right perspective on why we love it. I feel I am about to get there

[AndyJWest]

I tried the M2000 briefly, but thought it was a bit bland and generic. Insufficiently French.

 

I like my aircraft like I like my women. Character matters as well as looks, and they need to give at least a slight impression of wanting to kill you if you stop paying attention... ?

[CB77Don246]

My opinion of DCS well its not a patch on IL2 GB. Trying to set up controls are a nightmare, and the aircraft are not in the same league as IL2 that is the few WW2 stuff cockpits are not as good, ho I am not going on I think you know how I see DCS this is my opinion.

 

Back to my first love IL2 Sturmovik I only wish they would be a little quicker giving us more add-ons and then I could say it is the best in the world 

[Lusekofte]

18 minutes ago, CB77Don246 said:

Trying to set up controls are a nightmare,

I like DCS setup, it make you set up for each plane.

18 minutes ago, CB77Don246 said:

Back to my first love IL2 Sturmovik I only wish they would be a little quicker giving us more add-ons and then I could say it is the best in the world 

Again I disagree, among flight simulation this brand put out more and faster than anything else worth comparing.

Also when it comes to improvement and development.

Nice with a review but I do not think it was helpful, But IL 2 GB is a better WW2 CFS choice for sure

Edited April 28, 2020 by 216th_LuseKofte