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Post by Pounce de León on Jan 11, 2019 22:30:52 GMT
How is there no DCS thread - or am I just blind? OK, here's the thing DCS is free flight simulator. It comes with a couple of "simple" planes to fly for free, a map of the caucasus to fly in and a couple of tutorials.
However the developer and a couple of contractors design and develop a number of "DLC" or "modules" as aircraft that can be quite detailed in the way of flight model and cockpit detail (clickable switches, bord computer simulation, avionics modelling, graphical detail and sound design and model of all kinds of aircraft systems). Not exactly cheap, these modules are targeted to a pretty dedicated hardcore simming audience, but there a seasonal offers / sales and older modules might see price reductions.
The planes and helicopters now cover quite a range of combat aircraft from several countries such as highly advanced US and Russian aircraft as well as outdated planes like the MiG "Fishbed". If you ever wanted to fly a Harrier, you can do it here. Latest addition to the mix was the F/A 18C "Hornet" and coming up next is the F-14 Tomcat (quite unique - this is will be crewable by two players).
On the ground side the game also features a module for ground units, but if you are looking for a tank sim rather look elsewhere. There is also a number of additional maps to fly in like Nevada and Persian Gulf.
Overall I'd say the strengths are in the detail of the aircraft, the weapons and the general systems like avionics. In general the learning curve is quite steep. Flightstick with lots of buttons recommended.
World graphics aren't exactly high end, although the last major update to the engine brought it to pretty good standard now - and my rig to its limits.
There is a load of vids, tutorials and whatnot out there so I just stick with a early hands-on preview of the F-14 - gives a good impression of the standards of the contemporary module releases:
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Post by Serza on Jan 12, 2019 23:07:22 GMT
There are some crazy flyboys there. Here pictured an Su-25T right after the Russian madman put her down on a Nimitz-class carrier. I think it was the CVN-74, John C. Stennis. Photo taken from the cockpit of an F/A-18C Hornet. steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/951848044621655434/575A834B13B74A6798DF4E253BDADE1459B0A53E/You can easily see the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System on that screenshot, and the left DDI is displaying the Stores page (you won't see a lot) while the right DDI is on the radar screen with 40nm scan range in the 4-bar setting. Something tells me I had that in the 140 degree scan at the time, but I can't see the bottom of the DDI where that would be displayed by pushbutton 5. All them buttons you see there? Clickable. You can also see the JHMCS on/off+brightness knob on the right, labeled as HMD. The screenshot comes from my first trap, now that I think about it.
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Post by Serza on Jan 13, 2019 19:36:57 GMT
So we were doing a flight tonight. A simple mission, really. Ground strike, no aerial threats, the skies were ours. So we did some formation on the way there. I had two Mk82 Snakeeyes (retarded dumb bombs - no, those aren't impolite redundancies) on my centerline, pair of AMRAAM-C's on my fuselage mounts, two AGM-65F (IR Mavs) on my inboard stations, two double Zuni pods (each 4x 127mm unguided rocket) on the outboard stations and two AIM-9X's on the wingtips. You can see Tempest 2 (Shelby) on the picture on the formation. His loadout is clear centerline, no AMRAAMs, two AGM-65Fs on the inboard stations, AGM-88C HARM (Anti-Radiation Missiles) on the outboard stations and finally AIM-9M or L. I don't know which exactly. We actually overshot our target and turned around to face it, starting off with my Snakeeye passes (I did set them to Retarded which was probably a shit idea, they both missed.) and then 2 tried a Maverick pass, but couldn't lock it up, so I went in behind him from the east. Locked up a T-90, had a Rifle and a Shack with good effect on target. The explosion of the T-90 must have penetrated a nearby BTR's fuel tank with shrapnel because that started burning, too. Two-for-one. Excellent. The next pass from the west, again following two, we got our Mavs off just fine but neither hit. Mine hit a tree and I dunno about his. So at this point, he has one Mav (that he fired into the convoy but I dunno what happened as he didn't report a Shack) and I have sixteen unguided rockets. The convoy is protected only by automatic cannons on trucks. ZU-23s. So I give the first a three-rocket salvo and it explodes, going around for the second which meets the same fate with about five rockets, as it was clustered with another BTR. Right then I got to Bingo fuel so I turned away from the base heading to come around with the remaining eight rockets to just dump them on whatever remained of the convoy. On the last pass, however, a BTR must have hit my AIM-9X on the right wingtip, blowing it clear off. I did retain control, so 2 talked me over to the base where we landed, even with a heavily damaged bird. Let me tell ya - she behaved shit without that wingtip at low speeds! Tempest 2 after landing... And here's me. Lovely time flying, combined with earlier A/A fighting.
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Post by Pounce de León on Jan 14, 2019 17:53:55 GMT
Heh, my fondest memories are probably with the Black Shark. Once i wondered how low and fast i could go. I ended up zooming down a gentle long long slope along a road at like 160 mph a somewaht between 5 and 10 feet. I guess the ground effect is well modelled. I took her over Caucasus mountains once but I really had to pull every trick I had. I finally managed to get over summit again using ground effect. Otherwise it wouldnt have worked. Dontforget to heat your blades.
Or that one time i shot the friendly awacs in MP. Big "hello" in chat. Turned out I forgot to flip a switch so the IFF would do nothing. I was already wondering what scrub would fly that high near our base...
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Post by Serza on Jan 14, 2019 18:05:19 GMT
You could've always put your radio on the AWACS freq and called for a bogey dope Friend wanted to do an IRMav training + learn CCRP. He ain't online though... Maybe tomorrow. Me, I'd rather be learning the HARMs...
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Post by Pounce de León on Jan 14, 2019 20:15:00 GMT
SEAD buddies with strikers make for a good mix for coop missions. I found it easy to cooperate. Spikes are easily identified. Targets don't move fast. You can practice evasion and coordinate to take out the threat and finish the objective.
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Post by Serza on Jan 14, 2019 20:44:09 GMT
Classic hunter-killer...
Do they still call it wild weasel?
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Post by Serza on Jan 20, 2019 23:05:58 GMT
So HARMs are actually pretty simple to use on the Hornet.
Switch to A/G Master mode, choose the HARM on the Stores page, the SP or Self-Protection mode should be on by default. Cycle through sensors detected by RWR, point nose in general direction of target, press the weapon release button...
...and watch as the radar crew panics and shuts it down, only for them to find out the hard way that HARM, unlike the earlier Shrike, has a memory function and doesn't forget where the source was. Scratch one radar.
I also took a peek at the advanced Air Combat Maneuvering modes for the radar. There's the boresight that I have no idea how to use, and there's also Vertical and Wide scan modes. I suspect that Vertical may be a thing of beauty for achieving AIM-9 locks with the radar-assisted mode (ie no JHMCS to slave the seekers). Of course, with the AIM-9X's HOBS capability and the JHMCS' look-to-lock, this only becomes useful for the AIM-9L and 9M. Whose low off-boresight still limits you to launching when on boresight.
A simple mission has really shown me just how much the old-style fins on the 9L and 9M are inferior to the thrust vectoring on the 9X.
I did however not do any traps in over a week. That'll need fixing.
Come on, can't be so few of us here who fly.
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Post by Pounce de León on Jan 21, 2019 19:02:18 GMT
Is still Wild Weasel I think. But SEAD is more common I guess. I was wondering whether turning of radar would work against enemy missiles. How fast are the HARMs?
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Post by Serza on Jan 22, 2019 10:03:52 GMT
Should be Mach 2, and shutting off the radar supposedly worked versus the earlier Shrike, but not the HARM which should be able to remember the location of the radar and guide on the last-known in absence of emission to target.
However, speeds in Mach are a little fucky as you can go 500kts at angels 30 and be doing well over a Mach but same speed on the deck will probably be what, .6 Mach? I still haven't figured how that works.
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Post by Pounce de León on Jan 22, 2019 10:35:03 GMT
Should be Mach 2, and shutting off the radar supposedly worked versus the earlier Shrike, but not the HARM which should be able to remember the location of the radar and guide on the last-known in absence of emission to target. However, speeds in Mach are a little fucky as you can go 500kts at angels 30 and be doing well over a Mach but same speed on the deck will probably be what, .6 Mach? I still haven't figured how that works. Mach number and Ground Speed are different things. I think it's a bit like IAS and TAS. Mach number isn't so much about speed but rather about the aerodynamic stress limits of airframe and control surfaces. Mach Maximum Operating Number is the value manufacturers indicate how fast a plane can go safely.
Is just how you are interested in airspeed to determine whether you're going too "slow" on a landing approach or doing sharp manouvers you'll look at the lower end of the scale to avoid stall. On the upper end you look at mach number beforer you rip your wings off or something. Well, it essentially is just stall as well, when you go too fast you lose lift just as well.
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Post by Serza on Jan 23, 2019 21:45:41 GMT
So we did some multiplayer guns-only practice with the Hornets today.
Think I taught my friend something about the bird with my initial few victories, namely what the corner speed is and how the various radar automatic acquisition modes work. Pretty sure my wingman's gonna be just as lethal as I will in gunfights from now on.
Then we tried some shits-and-giggles combinations, like Mirage 2000C versus F/A-18C (the delta wing does a lot, trust me, but Hornets never go without a good fight) and P-51D-25NA versus A-10C (the Mustang won, because let's face it, the A-10C is surprisingly maneuverable for a ground pounder. It's no fighter. Also .50BMG is not to be underestimated no matter the era. The fact he wasn't allowed AIM-9s also did a lot.).
With luck, next time, we'll do missiles and carrier ops, even if those are better trained alone. I sure could learn a thing or two about Sparrows and AMRAAM usage.
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Post by Pounce de León on Jan 26, 2019 8:08:37 GMT
So HARMs are actually pretty simple to use on the Hornet. Switch to A/G Master mode, choose the HARM on the Stores page, the SP or Self-Protection mode should be on by default. Cycle through sensors detected by RWR, point nose in general direction of target, press the weapon release button... ...and watch as the radar crew panics and shuts it down, only for them to find out the hard way that HARM, unlike the earlier Shrike, has a memory function and doesn't forget where the source was. Scratch one radar. I also took a peek at the advanced Air Combat Maneuvering modes for the radar. There's the boresight that I have no idea how to use, and there's also Vertical and Wide scan modes. I suspect that Vertical may be a thing of beauty for achieving AIM-9 locks with the radar-assisted mode (ie no JHMCS to slave the seekers). Of course, with the AIM-9X's HOBS capability and the JHMCS' look-to-lock, this only becomes useful for the AIM-9L and 9M. Whose low off-boresight still limits you to launching when on boresight. A simple mission has really shown me just how much the old-style fins on the 9L and 9M are inferior to the thrust vectoring on the 9X. I did however not do any traps in over a week. That'll need fixing. Come on, can't be so few of us here who fly. Yep, looks pretty simple. The whole MFD and system reminds me a lot of the Harrier. I had a look at Redkite's tutorial who is always worth checking out:
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Post by Pounce de León on Feb 1, 2019 23:35:50 GMT
A quick look at the Tomcat A2A combat with fat bombload attached.
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Post by Serza on Feb 15, 2019 17:41:01 GMT
Copied over first two missions of the DCS F/A-18C Hornet base campaign for clarity. Now about to do the third mission's after action report.
Callsign: Colt 1 (-1 and -2) Aircraft: 2x F/A-18C Hornet Task: Interdiction Armament: 2x Mk84 2000lb bombs, 2x AIM-7M Sparrow, 2x AIM-9M Sidewinder, 1x external fuel tank
Other callsigns in AO: Chevy (4x F-14A, Air Superiority over AO) Uzi (2x F/A-18C, SEAD in support of strike package) Wizard (1x E-2 AWACS) Texaco (1x S-3, air-to-air tanker)
Bandits in the AO: Undisclosed amount of MiG-29 Fulcrum on Combat Air Patrol in the AO.
Other threats in the AO: 2+ SA-6 Gainful site (location known) SA-8 Gecko sites (location and count unknown) SA-9 Gaskin sites (location and count unknown)
Third mission was supposed to be rather trivial. I took my sweet time on the Cat to fix up my bomb program (with only one cluster, I put the bombs to drop one by one with 200ft spread) because we were bombing enemy HQ.
When we're ready and set on all counts, I just slam the throttles forward and salute the shooter. Quick break left twenty degrees on a clearing turn and then back on course, I start to immediately climb and turn to WYPT 1. At this point, Chevy's already occupied and boy were they occupied for a while. Even going feet dry we were getting collateral radar pings from the Fulcrums that they were fighting! That's well over forty miles of distance flown.
So, navigating towards the target, I'm a little nervous because there are still Geckos and Gaskins in the AO, and Uzi only reported killing the Gainfuls.
Running in, I can see a vehicle solitary near a crossroads and my finger is nervously hovering over the countermeasures release (set to Program 2 where I had 10 flare series with .75s timing between each other) fully knowing I only have two drops on that program (28 flares left). When a radar starts spiking me, I just go full preventive and do the ingress 10 flares, drop bombs (good hits!) egress 10 flares thing that is mostly standart.
Then I start turning home to the water and two reports he got fucked (shit!) by a Gaskin and is ejecting.
Full of anger and with still two Sparrows and two Sidewinders, I hit up Wizard for a Bogey Dope and he says 021 off in the distance at angels 30. So I start climbing towards the target. Big. Fucking. Mistake.
There's mudspikes, 12 o'clock. Another Gainful. Three fingers of death. And I mean the Death part.
Suddenly the air becomes full of damned missiles and I start dancing around dropping chaff like a maniac, trying to trash his missiles. Two launches in close succession mean that I have two to immediately worry about and another in case he doesn't get me straight up.
It works. When I'm already low, he launches the third missile so I just keep dropping chaff and suddenly see I have six left. Fortunately, the RWR shuts up right about then and I scram south before they call friends.
It's an uneventful trip, and while I'm pissed about two, I'm happy to be breathing myself after the Close Encounter of the Gainful Kind and just land on Mom (I have to go around because I forgot to drop my hook - embarrassing!) which I've mastered in the meantime.
I wonder what we're doing next...
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Post by Serza on Feb 27, 2019 20:26:26 GMT
Dear Mrs. Fisher,
it is with deepest regret that I must inform you of the death of your son. While leading a flight of aircraft to provide aerial cover for an air strike on enemy forces, your son's flight has encountered an overwhelmingly larger enemy force. While we all mourn his passing, we take our joy knowing that he did not go quietly into the night, inflicting severe casualties upon the enemy force, as well as saving another friendly pilot from an enemy fighter, an act that ultimately cost him his life. I have taken the liberty to recommend your son for an award for his gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.
With deepest regrets, Cpt. Campbell Commanding Officer, CVW-9
Alright, so what the fuck happened there, exactly.
We had a fighter sweep going. Great stuff, you can imagine. Our Hornets (four of us!) loaded up with six Sparrows and two Sidewinders each, supposed to provide air supremacy for a strike package engaging enemy armor along with Chevy flight and their F-14 Tomcats. Other flights involved our good friends Uzi 2 doing SEAD and the strike craft themselves. All in all, ten Hornets, four Tomcats in the air.
So we kept in the weeds up until we had Fulcrums start spiking us. Then, as we saw Chevy firing their Phoenixes at the enemy, we shot up according to plan. Chevy were supposed to appear by themselves while in fact they would be supported by Colt flight. A beautiful ambush, the enemy thinking they're fighting four Tomcats while in fact they would have them and four Hornets there for the job.
It went nice, Chevy didn't need our help. Already skyrocketing to great altitudes, we stayed high at roughly angels 35. A few minutes of incessant Gainful and Gecko mudspikes later (they were too busy being engaged by Uzi to do anything to us) we had a report from Wizard, our resident AWACS that we had bandits BRA 040 for 40 at 35. He counted four and so we went right at them. Chevy continued to maintain superiority over the coast as we ventured inland to intercept them.
That's not where it went fucked. We found out the bandits were four Foxbats and in the end, I had three splashes with Sparrows. Then I found myself far too close to a Foxbat that didn't get the memo about Hornet maneuverability and HMDs and found himself gunned down with the 20mm M61 gun. No kill like gun kill, as they say!
That was it, Foxbats defeated and a lot of sweat wiped. Chevy must have bugged out without telling us. Suddenly there were a pair of Floggers heading in from their airspace, so I ordered the flight to scram 180 and get the fuck out.
Too late, the Floggers caught up and 4 had a pair of missile launches on him. Seeing what the fuck happened back there, I turned around, gunned another with the 20mm (No kill like gun kill!). His buddy was right on my six around that time. Yes, this is where it goes completely FUCKED.
With the Flogger being sandwiched, he decided to just fling all he had left at me. That's how the missile hit me, and that was it. Didn't even have a chance to punch out.
Still, got an Ace in that flight and the Russians are gonna be REAL sore, having lost NINE aircraft total, with the strike craft likewise inflicting severe damage on the ground targets.
Just, y'know, too bad it ended the way it did. Wish the AI knew to tell me there's a missile launch and I should break/pop flares. Also that Chevy intercepted the Floggers themselves.
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Post by Pounce de León on Mar 3, 2019 9:12:13 GMT
Fuck me. Is time I get a new rig to get to fly this shit:
And since I have no headtracker, this will maybe just the right plane for me (comes with AI copilot who can call out threats, even in dogfights. afaik is planned to me multiseater for 2 players too, but not at launch.)
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Post by Serza on Mar 3, 2019 11:28:52 GMT
They have already presented the RIO pit, so it's very likely multiseat will be available on launch.
It's still the best if you can actually see the threat yourself.
And in the end, it's all about the pilot. My friend has full HOTAS and head tracking but in a Hornet-on-Hornet I was the king even with just a stick and a mouse to look around, because I knew my plane. In fact he needed a Mirage to beat me in a gun fight. Something he himself said he can't do to every Hornet pilot, plus in a missile fight the Mirage has lower range and fewer missiles (the Hornet, when fully loaded, can carry 10 AMRAAMs or 6 Sparrows + 2 Sidewinders - more than enough to posture the Mirage into a defensive stance and eventually kill it when it gets within RnE - all the while very likely out of harm's way itself).
At the end of the day, modern fights are fought on much greater ranges than WWII and Korean era fights, despite me getting into a furball and killing two with guns on my last flight (both gun kills occured after I closed in and had a few kills with missiles). TrackIR becomes a lot less necessary, and instead knowing your aircraft and tactics takes all the more of the pie of importance.
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Post by Serza on Mar 13, 2019 16:11:55 GMT
Kitty kitty came out today.
Let me know how you feel about it if you have it.
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Post by Pounce de León on Mar 14, 2019 8:59:56 GMT
Kitty kitty came out today. Let me know how you feel about it if you have it. Not yet. I need to upgrade my computer. I feel I'm gonna do it soon tho. And then it's up on top of my priority list.
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Post by Serza on Mar 14, 2019 14:18:45 GMT
Don't worry, I'm not getting it anytime soon. I need to pay for a lot more things before I can even consider fixing my PC up, it seems.
Though when I do, heck, might as well fly together, right.
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Post by Pounce de León on Mar 14, 2019 14:25:37 GMT
Don't worry, I'm not getting it anytime soon. I need to pay for a lot more things before I can even consider fixing my PC up, it seems. Though when I do, heck, might as well fly together, right. Ye, why not - I'm more a ground attack guy with bad A-A skillz, tho so I'd be totally OK flying RIO.
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Post by Serza on Mar 14, 2019 14:59:43 GMT
A/A isn't that hard once you get some experience under your belt. It's a lot about understanding how energy works. Every object in the air has (as I was taught) active and passive energy, speed and altitude. When you launch a missile, it starts with the actives and passives the aircraft has at the moment of launch. A missile launched off a Hornet going Mach 1 @ angels 30 will have the speed of 1 Mach to start with. That's a LOT of active energy, and it will have 30k of passives. Now things are a little more complicated here. The AMRAAM, for example, has an effective range of about 5 nautical miles on the deck while it can hit up to 30 nautical miles away when both launching aircraft and target are at high altitudes. Air is thinner up there, meaning less resistance for the missile. Also if you're low you gotta count on the fact that the missile will burn a LOT of energy going up and the effective range will become a lot shorter, with an almost non-existant Rne (Range No Escape). This is why you would ideally notch of f-pole a missile. It will need to turn to the new calculated intercept point, and turning is always a no-no if you want to keep energy. Do that a few times and the missile will simply spend all it's energy (and they never burn all the time they fly) turning to new intercepts. Finally, missiles can't turn on the spot. While the AIM-9X has crazy HOBS capability and associated turning (provided by thrust vectoring instead of flight surfaces) it's one of very few that can turn SO sharp, and not even it can turn on a dime. Case in point: I had a runway bombing mission. After payload release, in the weeds (I'm thinking it was cherubs 5?) and I had a MiG-29 on my tail. He launched a missile, I think I had no RWR tone. I popped flares and did rolling scissors. The missile missed despite being a point-blank range. MiG pilot must've loved me after that
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Post by Pounce de León on Mar 15, 2019 11:39:39 GMT
A/A isn't that hard once you get some experience under your belt. It's a lot about understanding how energy works. Every object in the air has (as I was taught) active and passive energy, speed and altitude. When you launch a missile, it starts with the actives and passives the aircraft has at the moment of launch. A missile launched off a Hornet going Mach 1 @ angels 30 will have the speed of 1 Mach to start with. That's a LOT of active energy, and it will have 30k of passives. Now things are a little more complicated here. The AMRAAM, for example, has an effective range of about 5 nautical miles on the deck while it can hit up to 30 nautical miles away when both launching aircraft and target are at high altitudes. Air is thinner up there, meaning less resistance for the missile. Also if you're low you gotta count on the fact that the missile will burn a LOT of energy going up and the effective range will become a lot shorter, with an almost non-existant Rne (Range No Escape). This is why you would ideally notch of f-pole a missile. It will need to turn to the new calculated intercept point, and turning is always a no-no if you want to keep energy. Do that a few times and the missile will simply spend all it's energy (and they never burn all the time they fly) turning to new intercepts. Finally, missiles can't turn on the spot. While the AIM-9X has crazy HOBS capability and associated turning (provided by thrust vectoring instead of flight surfaces) it's one of very few that can turn SO sharp, and not even it can turn on a dime. Case in point: I had a runway bombing mission. After payload release, in the weeds (I'm thinking it was cherubs 5?) and I had a MiG-29 on my tail. He launched a missile, I think I had no RWR tone. I popped flares and did rolling scissors. The missile missed despite being a point-blank range. MiG pilot must've loved me after that I think I never did any BVR, except a bit of MiG Fishbed, but that was mostly furballing in open DCS server. I quickly lost track of contacts and had trouble spotting them after merging. Isn't exactly dogfighter neither the Fishbed. The rest is trying to fend off fighters with Sidewinders on ground attack craft or trying to lay a trap with a SAM vehicle. Tried to shoot a F5 with a Vikhr once too, lol.
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Post by Serza on Mar 15, 2019 12:02:56 GMT
The Fishbed isn't much of a fighter, to be honest. If you're fighting anything other than the likes of a Tiger or Viggen, you should scram.
For the likes of Eagle, Hornet and Mirage 2000, you're food. Takes a lot of attention to fly and then you can pay attention to the situation. This is caused by the fact that the Fishbed is an interceptor while the Eagle is an Air Supremacy fighter, the Hornet is a much more modern Multirole and the Mirage is a likewise much more modern Multirole. To illustrate, the Fishbed is a second generation while the Hornet and the Eagle are the fourth generation representatives.
Other than that, TrackIR helps but is not vital (when we did a Hornet-on-Hornet gunfight with my friend, I won several times despite him having full HOTAS and TrackIR and me having only a stick, just because I knew a lot about dogfighting from my Il-2 46 days and the fact I knew my plane and could effectively slow down to corner speed and then go buster to close for the shot at critical moments). The nice part about BVR is that TrackIR becomes effectively nullified. There's barely any looking around.
Try just putting an identical plane hot at near-merge distance, with identical weapons and fuel load (start with guns). Do a pass then turn around and try to kill him. Experience is key. (And of course having the JHMCS on helps, right, Serza? Well, of course it does, thank you for asking, Serza! Figures, you smart ass, you do realize that not all planes have that modelled, right? Oh, you mean the situation where the Eagle doesn't even have AIM-9X and JHMCS while it's the Air Force's lead platform for them? Yes, thank you for noticing, Serza!) Alright, now that I had a pleasant conversation with myself, well...
Just keep trying, you'll get better one day.
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