Major SNAFU

Trouble getting the Standby SAI to uncage. I am not sure what I am missing. The SAI in the upper right won't uncage. I click on the knob and rotate it counter-clockwise until it jumps in. Nothing. I push it all the way in, nothing. The digital on the left always has a DIR red flag in the upper-left corner, but it is operating. If I use the auto start up, the standby works fine. If I work my way through a checklist, it doesn't. I know I am missing something, but I can't figure out what it is.

Thanks for all of the helpfull comments. Getting away from the key-clicks is excelletn advice to a point. The funny thing is that I had more success flying and landing in the Low setting that in the high. Today is reserved for getting my Cougar set back up and loaded for BS.

No. I had it wrong. I thought they weren't labelled in English, but when I just went in to try again, they were. But I also am getting better about sooming in to read the labels. Or perhaps I was having a mental moment. Thanks,

I have been using SDeath's checklist found here: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=35571 In the War Hawk's Pit Trainer, it shows all of the controls labeled in English. How do you set this up so it is displayed this way in the sim? This would go a long way towards helping me. I purchased and installed the English version, but all of the controls are labelled in Cyrillic ( I believe) characters. But I am going to try these other one's you mention. Thanks!

The funny thing is that I thought I read that if you don't move the throttles to Auto, you can't generate sufficient lift to take off. But I have taken off 3 or 4 times (having floundered through the checklist) and have not changed the position of these levers (because I had abandonded the checklist and fiddled until I got it to work) but never pushing Page Up/Down. Now I am even more confused. Can anyone confirm my interpretation of RECAP and CAP meaning doing teh key combinations 3X and 2X respectively? Thanks

I am currently using the keyboard and checklist. I am not using any tracking software. I tried to use the Auto execute full start, but man it takes forever. I just wanted to see what it would do.

Hi all, Been mucking about with this for a few days and can take off, land, etc. fairly well. Having a bit of ACM issues. But I am getting stuck on the ramp start. I made a new mission to start from the ramp. I have the checklist and I am following it as best I can, but only about 2 in 10 do I succeed in getting both main engines lit off and getting off the ground. Here is what I have figured out so far: Some of the key combinations on the checklist have to be clicked 2 or three times in succession to get the switch to the proper setting. I *think* that "RECAP" means x3 and "CAP" mean x2, but I would like some confirmation. Some of the labels on the checklist don't match the text that comes up in the sim. The Start Selector Switch is giving me fits at times. I reach that point, switch it to what I believe is the APU setting and try to start the APU and nothing. What I mean is this. I hit "E" once from the default position, which should be APU and hit "Home". Nothing. I hit "E" again and then hit "home" and sometimes I get APU start up. I know I an doing something wrong, but I can't identify it. Lastly (for the moment). I see in a number of start up videos that people are changing the two yellow levers on the collective arm 2 notches. These are not active in my cockpit, even when I am able to fly the helo off the ground. I am patched to the lastest. I believe I have all of the realism stuff turned to full. Some kind assistance, please! SNAFU

Great. It will take me some time to build up confidence that I am not going to waste your time watching me flounder about. Then I will have a go. Much appreciated.

@WAGS: On additional comment on Falcon4 that might be worth looking at, if DCS hasn't already implemented something like this, is how the AAA and SAMs command and control works. It is fairly complex and can be "surprised" on an initial attack, but then is alerted. This is good because it really pays off to set up a coordinated, multi-attack vector SEAD mission as the initial surprise plus the time taken to register, traverse and lock to a new target is "well" modeled. In addition, if you take out the "command", then for some AAA and SAM batteries, the individual units can fire independently, but with much degraded accuracy and speed. Again, it really pays to hit the command vehicle first as survivability increases markedly. I love SEAD missions. Absolutely my favorite and so I tend to pay close attention to how these systems are implemented. Please keep in mind that some of this may be enhanced do to the years of modding effort that F4 has gained benefit from. I cannot speak to a fresh install of vanilla - haven't touched that in many years. OpenFalcon and FreeFalcon are where you want to make your comparissons, IMHO. Regards, Maj. SNAFU (since there appears to be another registered poster who uses SNAFU).

Hi all, So I took the plunge, installed and fired it up. So far I am impressed. The list of commands, etc. make this Falcon 4 lifer very happy. As for the battle AI. I second the comments of just having the units under fire disperse, etc. would be nice. I think it would, perhaps, encourage more ralistic engagement tactics on the part of the pilot. Popping smoke and moving is a step in the right direction. Even if you don't know where the fire came from there is much to be said from the addage "speed is life". I wasn't expecting cover seeking like in Battlefront's Combat Mission and/or Shock Force. I guess it would be nice if there was an attempt to break LOS, if a suitable way of determining LOS could be achieve such that it wasn't automatic and all-seeing. Smoke, etc. would have to affect it. This, of course, would eat up CPU that is probably better spent on the KA-50 itself. I can see I have a great deal to learn just to be able to fly and land this helo. Getting one up in the air is not so bad. I was not trying to start an argument here. Thanks for the comments and I can see I will be having a good bit of fun just flying this thing. Are there any servers (looking to the future) where people can gather to practice basic flying, formation, attack timing etc. on a cold battle field? Regards, SNAFU

Lionpride, thanks for the comparative data. Is it just trees that are AI transparent? Hopefully hills, buildings, etc. are not and provide cover and sensor blockage? As an additional comment, I would be happy with just moving underfire. The last thing you want to do is stand still. I haven't taken the time to try and get LB up and running under XP yet. I've downloaded and printed the instructions - but just haven't made the time to do it. Thanks again to a fellow rotor-head. To all others, thanks for the comments and info. SNAFU

As someone considering purchasing this sim, the first question I have is this: Has one of the veterans created some training missions to help guide the new pilot on how to master the basics?

Hi all, Hmmm. Around 50 view and no replies. I am guessing my post is somehow offensive? I just want to know if the enemy/target AI responds to attacks, etc. - SNAFU I am an old hand with flight-sims (Flacon 4, IL2, EAW, the Lock-On series, Long Bow2, etc.) I am posting this because in all of the videos I have seen of BS showing attacks so far, it seems as if the ground targets remain stationary and inert while being attacked. All of the videos I have watched so far follow a common theme of slow pop-up, take 60+ seconds to review and select targets, anther 30-50 seconds to lock up a target and select a weapon, fire, watch the weapon hit the target, THEN slew and acquire a new target , repeat. For total exposure of 4-6 *minutes* w/o droping to cover or relocating to a new shooting position while out of LOS with the potential targets. Meanwhile the tanks (or whatever) just sit there after a SAM launcher 60 meters away just blew up, then the tank 20 meters away also blew up. And no one is shooting back at the HA-50, as far as I can see. Now in LongBow 2, if you employed the above tactics you would be a fireball in the sky in very short order (unless you are well out of weapons range of the enemy and there is no local support you haven't spotted). But even then, you should fly as if there *is* an MANPAD than you missed that is in range and locking you up *right now*. Please tell me that when flying missions you have to fly this way or get blown out of the sky for doing something as questionable/unwise as I see happening in the videos. I am drooling over many other aspects of this sim, but this might be a real deal-killer for me to justify the amount of time coming to grips with the sim. I am hoping that most of these videos are made just to show off the graphics and the weapons. Are there any videos showing a more, to me, realistic prosecution of a reactive enemy that I can watch prior to purchase? Perhaps the user-made missions and campaigns are more sophisticated and require more "realistic" tactics than the ones that come with the sim? I want to buy this, but I have to be convinced that I will get up out of my chair feeling like I went through the wringer after a mission. Regarding user-made missions and campaigns. It seems like this is and active area which is critical for my enjoying a sim as I have very limited time to fly on-line. Lastly, can you set up coordinated missions in the editor where you fly cover for evac helos, etc. so that it is all not just going after troops/tanks/etc. Edit (One last question: Does anyone know if there is a layout for the Thrustmaster Cougar for BS?) - I found one, thanks! Thanks, SNAFU test - This is here because I was logged in, wrote a huge detailed post and then when I tried to post it, I was told I wasn't logged in and all my work was gone.