DCS

[dburne]

9 minutes ago, Gambit21 said:

 

Do you find the HARM fairly easy to learn and deploy?

 

In Chuck's notes for that weapon in the campaign, he describes it as the most complex weapon to learn in all of DCS.

I took me lots of reading over and over and watching youtube tutorial on it over and over, but I finally got it. 

Was not as difficult as I initially thought it might be. Using it in Target of Opportunity mode and having a designated waypoint as target point helps.

Then it is just fine tuning the flight of the missile in the last few seconds to hit the target you want. Plus that part is really cool.

Edited February 21, 2021 by dburne

[Gambit21]

1 hour ago, dburne said:

 

In Chuck's notes for that weapon in the campaign, he describes it as the most complex weapon to learn in all of DCS.

I took me lots of reading over and over and watching youtube tutorial on it over and over, but I finally got it. 

Was not as difficult as I initially thought it might be. Using it in Target of Opportunity mode and having a designated waypoint as target point helps.

Then it is just fine tuning the flight of the missile in the last few seconds to hit the target you want. Plus that part is really cool.

 

To be clear, I said "HARM" not SLAM'ER. 

 

 

 

[DD_fruitbat]

The HARM is very easy to use, its a slightly simplified implementation in the Hornet at the moment,  although its planned i believe,  to have the more realistic implementation as is in the Viper.

 

Even in the Viper, its still a pretty easy weapon to deploy, once you understand SAMs and there various radars. 

[AndyJWest]

Trying out the free community A-4E mod. I'm using a beta (2.0.0-beta-2) with the newly-added bombing computer gadget here. Not as advanced as modern CCIP/CCRP systems, but better than Kentucky windage, at least for me.

 

Point the sight at the target, hold down release, and ease back on the stick - it drops at the right time automatically.

 

Rather sensitive to any roll, which puts the aim off laterally Close, but no cigar. Though I suspect in reality I'd have done serious damage even with a miss this close. Ships don't like big underwater explosions nearby.

 

Now I've got to land this thing. As with most military jets of its era, throttle response is slow...

 

... and my approach isn't entirely under control, though I land more or less where I intended...

 

..or rather, collide with the runway, per approved USN technique. No fancy nose-up aerobraking techniques required. Just don't forget to arm the huge automatic spoilers.

 

The mod is available here - note that it is a beta. Full release will come later.  https://github.com/heclak/community-a4e-c/releases

A nice video showing how to use the bombing computer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw-qi2dTpFw&t=10s

 

 

[BOO]

"The clouds video really makes DCS look pretty. I think it justifies the expense of the horsepower required to run it maxed out at high res"

 

thus is fired my first shot in the war to obtain permission from Mrs Boo to purchase a new puta..... I envisage the longest campaign of trench warfare is about to ensue given how forcefully the  kitchen brochure was flung at me .Im already regretting the tactical error I made when I packed up all the sim gear last month and allowed her to annex the portion of the living room ive effectively occupied for the past 4 years (including the TV). 

 

 

[Hoots]

8 minutes ago, BOO said:

"The clouds video really makes DCS look pretty. I think it justifies the expense of the horsepower required to run it maxed out at high res"

 

thus is fired my first shot in the war to obtain permission from Mrs Boo to purchase a new puta..... I envisage the longest campaign of trench warfare is about to ensue given how forcefully the  kitchen brochure was flung at me .Im already regretting the tactical error I made when I packed up all the sim gear last month and allowed her to annex the portion of the living room ive effectively occupied for the past 4 years (including the TV). 

 

 

I think we’re all sympathising with you but also shaking our heads at the rookie error of giving up the space...

He says from the corner of the spare room allowed for the PC

[BOO]

13 minutes ago, Hoots said:

I think we’re all sympathising with you but also shaking our heads at the rookie error of giving up the space...

He says from the corner of the spare room allowed for the PC

It was a fit of rage after my courgar mfds bricked.

 

"right, that is it - enough is enough". Off to the loft I trotted dragging  three hundred weight of throttles, joysticks, rudder pedals, screens, mounts and god knows what else unceremoniously behind me .....as soon as I heard the Jericho Trumpet of the Dyson I knew.......by the time I returned to the living room Nexflix was on the favorites bar and the seating had  been re-arranged......even the tv had been dusted in one of the the most brutal acts of territorial pissing Ive ever seen...

 

[RedKestrel]

30 minutes ago, BOO said:

It was a fit of rage after my courgar mfds bricked.

 

"right, that is it - enough is enough". Off to the loft I trotted dragging  three hundred weight of throttles, joysticks, rudder pedals, screens, mounts and god knows what else unceremoniously behind me .....as soon as I heard the Jericho Trumpet of the Dyson I knew.......by the time I returned to the living room Nexflix was on the favorites bar and the seating had  been re-arranged......even the tv had been dusted in one of the the most brutal acts of territorial pissing Ive ever seen...

 

Pictured: BOO, watching Mrs. Boo outmaneuver him.

Now she has your space and has extra strategic depth. You gotta be a little proud. 

[dburne]

Just finished Mission 11 of my first campaign for the Hornet - Rising Squall.

Started out with an offensive attack on an enemy outpost app 60NM from home base. My flight was tasked with defending the attacking planes. 

Had to intercept a couple of enemy planes and shoot them down.

The ground attack group finished their task successfully and we are all returning to base.

 

Then we got the message there were enemy aircraft inbound on the base. We had to race back to intercept and had one heck of an air to air battle. Even had four B-52's the enemy insurgents had we had to take down. They were on their way to drop their bombs on our airbase.  Guns worked great on those. I got the last one with guns and seemed he was about to start his run to drop his bombs. I got him probably just in time.

I expended all my ammo just before getting the mission successful message - whew good thing!

 

Only one mission to go - Mission 12  and my first campaign for the Hornet will be complete. Not much of a briefing and I don't have much in the way of weapons so it should be interesting. Based on what I am seeing on their forum sounds like the latest Open Beta introduced a bug in this mission so I will likely hold off until they get a hotfix out for it.

 

This has been a good campaign for me especially as a first - I think it certainly helped me get to the next level in my learning process of the Hornet.

This has been quite a long time coming for me and it feels so good now.

 

 

 

[Bremspropeller]

When shorthand isn't short enough for the LSO to note-down your grade...

 

Vandy One on the prowl.

 

Harpoons on their way to a booze-running destroyer in the port of Sukhumi.

It ate a total of seven Harpoons without sinking.

[dburne]

Man this looks like a cool DLC campaign for the Hornet.

Operation Pontus.

I am afraid for me at this time, that one might be a bit above my paygrade. Maybe someday.

 

 

[Bremspropeller]

On 2/22/2021 at 3:28 PM, AndyJWest said:

Trying out the free community A-4E mod. I'm using a beta (2.0.0-beta-2) with the newly-added bombing computer gadget here. Not as advanced as modern CCIP/CCRP systems, but better than Kentucky windage, at least for me.

 

 

Just tried to fly a couple of Case I approaches in the Scooter.

Dang! Made the TOMCAT look easy afterwards...

 

The dive-toss works great, but I also have an issue with mixing in too much unwanted roll during the pull-up.

I just put in a curve for roll-control, which makes it a bit more realistic.

[AndyJWest]

3 minutes ago, Bremspropeller said:

 

Just tried to fly a couple of Case I approaches in the Scooter.

Dang! Made the TOMCAT look easy afterwards...

 

The dive-toss works great, but I also have an issue with mixing in too much unwanted roll during the pull-up.

I just put in a curve for roll-control, which makes it a bit more realistic.

 

Yeah, I'm two for two so far with A-4E carrier landings. If I don't count the 7 go-arounds before the first one, ? and another for the second. And the fact the the first landing was basically a belly-flop in at a rate of descent (over 1,200 ft/min per TacView) that would probably have collapsed the gear. The second landing wasn't as hard, but was way short, and I was lucky not to wipe out on the stern.

 

I think that with practice I'll get there, but it certainly isn't easy. No velocity vector means you have to eyeball it, and I don't think the FLOLS is set up anything like right for the aircraft either. And as I noted above, throttle response is slow. 

 

As for the bombing computer, I'm beginning to wonder whether I'm getting lateral misses due to wind. It probably doesn't compensate for that, and I seem to need a decent wind in the mission to get the thing to safely catapult in the first place. 

 

I can't seem to get TACAN working, but the navigation computer seems to get me back to the launch spot, or near enough, and the carrier won't have gone far. I've not got radio comms working either, but that's just down to not figuring out how to tune it yet. Should be simple enough.

 

Great fun, despite the problems, though. And free. ?

[Bremspropeller]

I think the airplane makes you try a lot harder, which is good for the overall ball-flying skills.

I usually try to not watch the VV at all (only placing it onto the crotch of the boat to get starboard drift-compensation for the moving carrier). I even click (de-clutter) it away in the F-14.

 

We haven't gotten the TACAN and radio to work either.

I think the radio is UHF only, which may be the reason why connecting the carrier has been fruitless so far (has always been on VHF).

[Geleitzug]

13 hours ago, Bremspropeller said:

 

Vandy One on the prowl.

This one as a plastic model is just on my list to get finished - it's only the decals remaining so far... 

[AndyJWest]

Rockets. 152 rockets. You can never have too many rockets...

 

...or maybe you can.  Dropped down to 25 ft before climbing away. A little too close for comfort.

 

This was with full fuel, which probably wasn't necessary, though I was still under maximum weight for carrier launch, from what I can figure out. Full flaps seem to work better than half, and you definitely need 30kts or so of wind across the deck.

 

There are JATO controls included in the settings, though JATOs don't seem to be implemented yet, and I don't think that A-4s used them for carrier ops.

 

 

[Bremspropeller]

2 hours ago, AndyJWest said:

and I don't think that A-4s used them for carrier ops.

 

Not on carriers, but they used them out of Chu Lai, in conjunction with SATS and MOREST.

 

The Skyhawk is such an awesome little plane. I really wish they'd be doing it as a full size module with some customizeable options (like taking off that hump, fitting a bent probe and some other things to play with...).

 

 

[NDak]

SATS and MOREST, two acronyms I haven't heard since my Strike Fighter Days... we made a fake carrier on the runway for SF Vietnam at Chu Lai... it worked except for the catapult shuttle and wire animation... those were the days...
We are due for a 'New' Korea and Vietnam sim...

[Gambit21]

49 minutes ago, Bremspropeller said:

 

Not on carriers, but they used them out of Chu Lai, in conjunction with SATS and MOREST.

 

The Skyhawk is such an awesome little plane. I really wish they'd be doing it as a full size module with some customizeable options (like taking off that hump, fitting a bent probe and some other things to play with...).

 

 

 

How is it overall...believable?

I love me a Scooter.

4 hours ago, AndyJWest said:

 

This was with full fuel, which probably wasn't necessary, though I was still under maximum weight for carrier launch, from what I can figure out. Full flaps seem to work better than half, and you definitely need 30kts or so of wind across the deck.

 

There are JATO controls included in the settings, though JATOs don't seem to be implemented yet, and I don't think that A-4s used them for carrier ops.

 

 

 

How do like it?

One of my favorite AC.

[Bremspropeller]

8 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

How is it overall...believable?

I love me a Scooter.

 

It's pretty good and it's free, so no second thoughts there.

I think it's still a little rough around some edges*, but nothing that is detrimental to the fun it brings.

 

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that ED isn't pushing for a SEA-theme with a map and a couple of fitting aircraft and assets.

 

 

 

_____

* The approach seems to be too hard to me and might need some tweaking.

[Hoots]

26 minutes ago, Bremspropeller said:

 

 

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that ED isn't pushing for a SEA-theme with a map and a couple of fitting aircraft and assets.

 

 

This is what I don’t get too, it seems like it would be such a win for them.

[Bremspropeller]

[Gambit21]

13 hours ago, Hoots said:

This is what I don’t get too, it seems like it would be such a win for them.

 

Pretty sure I saw one of their producers say “we’re going to Vietnam” the context was an F4 - I made a map leap as well.

 

I think it’s coming - it’s money on the table.

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

Not a big DCS guy, other than helo's, but I'd buy an F4 and Vietnam map in a heartbeat.

[nirvi]

Edited February 26, 2021 by nirvi

[Bremspropeller]

 

[CanadaOne]

3 hours ago, nirvi said:

 

 

 

Those clouds are da bomb! They are going to change everything. Every plane will feel new, every map will feel new, and with the excellent lighting in DCS, I think there will be some amazing eye candy when you play with the settings. Carrier takeoffs in rough seas with the improved clouds are going to look great I'm sure.

[dburne]

7 hours ago, CanadaOne said:

 

 

Those clouds are da bomb! They are going to change everything. Every plane will feel new, every map will feel new, and with the excellent lighting in DCS, I think there will be some amazing eye candy when you play with the settings. Carrier takeoffs in rough seas with the improved clouds are going to look great I'm sure.

 

Yeah I have just started The Serpents Head campaign for the Hornet off the Stennis carrier.

First couple of missions has been in some very rainy weather for both taking off , mission, and landing back on carrier.

Makes it real interesting, can only imagine how those new clouds are going to look in VR. The last landing on the Stennis I was low on fuel and did not successfully trap till my third attempt. I did not have enough fuel for a fourth attempt, and you had to successfully trap on the carrier to get a successful mission count.

That was sphincter muscle pinching lol.

[Bremspropeller]

 

[CanadaOne]

4 hours ago, dburne said:

 

Yeah I have just started The Serpents Head campaign for the Hornet off the Stennis carrier.

First couple of missions has been in some very rainy weather for both taking off , mission, and landing back on carrier.

Makes it real interesting, can only imagine how those new clouds are going to look in VR. The last landing on the Stennis I was low on fuel and did not successfully trap till my third attempt. I did not have enough fuel for a fourth attempt, and you had to successfully trap on the carrier to get a successful mission count.

That was sphincter muscle pinching lol.

 

I haven't tried VR in anything, maybe one day, but I'm sure the new clouds will bring a ton of life to DCS flying. For some reason I keep thinking of hovering in a cloud in my Harrier and them slowly rising up through it. Kinda like the Enterprise in Star Trek: Into Darkness.

 

I will do said rising over a simple people in a humble land, maybe California, and the people of that land will praise me.   

 

 

 

[dburne]

Some Apache news.

Early Access available in May.

 

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/2021-02-26/

[DD_fruitbat]

Dangercatz....... (at least from time to time!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dburne]

Ok so I am gonna brag on myself a little here.

Mission 5 in The Serpents Head campaign.

I am tasked with taking out 6 road blocks that have been designated as 6 waypoints.

These road blocks are blocking off the town for the civilians that live there.

According to intel I should only run up against their guns.

My Hornet is loaded with 8 Mk 83b unguided bombs.

 

I managed to get my weapons all setup and each waypoint as I went through designated as a target point. I set the bombs up as Auto as I knew with those guns I would not want to be dive bombing.

I went in around 8200ft level bombing. Made each waypoint the target point for the bombs, and destroyed all 6 roadblocks without incident.

I was assigned to go land at Tiblis airbase where my Hornet could be rearmed and refueled.

 

What I am proud of is I accomplished all the above without having to reference any guide or manual!

I be a getting there slowly but surely, and now am having a blast.

[dburne]

Just successfully completed my first Hornet campaign. The Serpents Head.

Nice short campaign that is good for newer Hornet drivers like myself. Not real easy though.

That last mission was in the middle of the night. Started off with doing a cold start and takeoff from an airfield. Glad I found the flashlight function for the Hornet.  Bombed a building where all the baddies had gathered, then had to hit some fleeing 

baddies on the ground with my lased Mavs. Then chase an escaping helicopter and nail it with my Sidewinder.

Then in order for the mission to count successfully , had to fly back to the Stennis carrier and successfully trap on it.

Boltered on my first attempt, managed to trap successfully on my second. Whew.

 

Yay! I actually made it through a campaign. Still have a mission or two left in Rising Squall, will try and knock that out next and then on to The Serpents Head 2.

Great fun!

[simfan2015]

The DCS AH-64D is looking to become yet another awesome milestone for simmers all over the world. I cherish my 2 games/sims that already feature the longbow... Apache :Air Assault and the Arma 3 official AH-64D mod (this incredibly detailed 'mod' being free if you have the now - on sale- 6 usd Arma 3 game). It is as detailed as the DCS AH-64D mod that most here may know and fly once in a while!? . BTW quite a lot of the DCS planes and helicopters are also available to Arma 3 in mod versions as well as a few WWII war birds. These are, of course, not up to dcs or il-2 standards, but do offer true combined arms features (as we all know arma3 being a fps in its core with vehicles, planes, helicopters etc). But I, just as anyone else here I hope, believe the true hardcore DCS AH-64D will be... out of this world!!! 

Edited February 28, 2021 by simfan2015

[AndyJWest]

The first helicopter simulation I owned:

 

I may still have the cassette. I've still got the Amstrad CPC 464 it ran on.

 

As for the DCS version, it's a complex beast, from looking at the flight manual for the real thing. Not sure my brain has room for yet more switchology at the moment.

Edited February 28, 2021 by AndyJWest

[SYN_Vander]

1 minute ago, AndyJWest said:

The first helicopter simulation I owned:

 

I may still have the cassette. I've still got the Amstrad CPC 464 it ran on.

 

As for the DCS version, it's a complex beast, from looking at the flight manual for the real thing. Not sure my brain has room for yet more switchology at the moment.

Me too! Ran it on the C64. I ordered it by mail from the UK using my father’s checkbook. In hindsight amazing that he trusted that transaction lol.

Wonderful landscape of little transparant trees and pyramids to fly  through!

[DD_fruitbat]

The Apache is going to be a day one purchase from me for sure, but I think it could prove to be one of, if not the most complex module to learn of all. Its also going to be a Hotas nightmare when you look in at just the the front seat cockpit!

 

I'm actually also really looking forward to the Kiowa Warrior. It has a laser designator on it, and I can imagine already how much fun it will be, hiding in the weeds and popping up, lasing a target and getting a friend in a fast mover to drop an LGB on its head!

Edited March 1, 2021 by DD_fruitbat

[AndyJWest]

AH-64s have a pilot and a gunner (Or whatever they call them. Probably some obscure TLA), for a reason. I suspect that trying to use it efficiently in single-player mode is going to be difficult.

[DD_fruitbat]

8 minutes ago, AndyJWest said:

AH-64s have a pilot and a gunner (Or whatever they call them. Probably some obscure TLA), for a reason. I suspect that trying to use it efficiently in single-player mode is going to be difficult.

 

You can fly from both seats and do most stuff from both (the gun being an obvious exception which I believe is rear seat, and the TADS front seat), listening to Casmo and a few other Apache pilots.

 

Anyone interested in Helios's and who hasn't come across his channel on YouTube, I recommend having a look at CasmoTV. He flew mainly the Kiowa Warrior and also the Apache D.

Edited February 28, 2021 by DD_fruitbat