Stearmandriver

Wow, thanks for the sanity check. I didn't think about that... I'll try it with a wingman next time.

Hi, I find I'm unable to plug the right basket on this aircraft. The left one works no problems, but I swear I've slid my probe right through the center of the basket on the right side several times with no connection; it's like it's not there. I made sure to be very close to the right basket before calling "ready pre-contact" to ensure it was clear which basket I was going for, but no dice. Has anyone used the right basket on the 135 MPRS with the Hornet recently? This is on the Persian Gulf map if that's relevant. Thanks...

There could be something to that as well. Being a real-world pilot, you've probably caught yourself applying habits from one airplane to another, with not always great results ;). Maybe you've just been so used to the Hog that you've got more "unlearning" to do? I don't know, the Hornet is all I use, but just another thought. After being away from work for almost two months at the beginning of Covid (and discovering and flying a lot of DCS), on my first trip back at work I caught myself making almost continuous, small, quick throttle adjustments down final. Works good to get aboard a carrier (in DCS anyway)... works less well in a 737. :D

Small, small inputs. Smaller than you think you need. Focus on the tanker, keeping the refueling package (what the hose comes out of) right in the top right corner of the hud glass, between the two panes. I know you know all this... but knowing and doing are 2 different things, as I know from my own experience lol. Another question is what kind of stick and throttle you're using, and if there's any latent control inputs coming from that? The reason I ask is your comment about being unable to trim wings level. For years, I used a $50 Thrustmaster hotas and enjoyed it, but always had the same experience you describe in DCS - I could never *quite* get it trimmed wings level. Plus there was a dead zone of random size - it varied with every input. I got to where I *could* refuel, but it always took several attempts. Then recently I finally splurged on a Warthog stick and throttle. I've been blown away at how much better the plane flies. I can trim her up, let go of the stick, and she's on rails. There is no dead zone I can feel at all... the slightest pressure affects a flight path change. It actually feels like flying a real aircraft. I typically plug the basket on my first approach now, and remain plugged until I get all my gas. The moral is *not* "spend money, it fixes all your problems" lol...I flew several sims for years with that old hotas and enjoyed it. But this new setup has shown me that my old stick (and probably throttle) had variable dead zones, and clearly often maintained slight control inputs when centered. I never popped up the control monitor, and maybe the degree to which this happened was so slight that it wouldn't have shown up anyway; I mean, I could fly and land just fine. But it sure was apparent during refueling... I never realized how much until switching to a setup that doesn't do it. Anyway, just a thought.

Thanks for the heads up on this, it looks great! I came to the DCS party late with the launch of the supercarrier, and I'm realizing I started flying the Hornet just after it got a bunch of features (like TGP, advanced weapons etc) that people have been waiting on for awhile. I finally timed something right :D. But it's great to learn how much in-depth mission content is out there, especially freeware, but I certainly don't mind paying for content as rich as this Raven One campaign looks to be. I'll be getting it for sure.

Recently completed first 2 Hornet Supercarrier Cage the Bear missions. Heartily recommend!

Yup, in morning lighting on PG map is where I saw it. Lighting effects on the boat were bizarre too; such low contrast on deck you could hardly see markings, and LA lighting was on... at 0945 local lol.

Or, add 200, then subtract 20 (or vice versa).

If you can resolve that glowing blur into meaningful information at .7dme, you've got much better eyes than me. I can't differentiate the ball from the datums until somewhere between IM - IC, and that seems to be a common experience, from other remarks. I mean, there would be no need for a popup otherwise, right?

OR - and I'm just spitballing here - we could just have an IFLOLS system ON THE BOAT that is visible and usable all the way out to the start, like it actually works (and other sims have had for years). ;)

https://twitch.tv/videos/680190331 A night mission. Starts with night launch. (Lousy) night refueling around 1:16:00. Ends with a bolter and then a trap, around 1:45:00. Keep in mind it's downscaled to a 720p stream, so the actual game looks better.

I noticed this tonight as I was doing some carrier work to get used to my new hotas. I'm pretty sure it's new since the recent update; I feel pretty sure I'd have noticed it before. The datum and meatball lighs (and I assume the cut and waveoff as well) are no longer aligned with the physical structure of the IFLOLS. As a follow-on point, the IFLOLS is still too low on the deck; if you sink low enough to get a red ball, it's actually below the deck structure and is partially obscured. I think that one has been mentioned as a known issue, but wanted to make sure.

In today’s “wtf” news, I’ve learned that the extremely dim carrier landing lights occur on one of the two maps I own, but not the other. It’s Caucuses that has the nearly invisible landing area; in the Persian Gulf, the LA lighting is visible over a mile out. Everything else is much brighter as well; nav lights are downright ridiculous with the glow they have around them. Here’s 2 screenshots. 1st one is on Caucuses from .3 dme... no visible LA lights. Second one is in Persian Gulf at .7 dme... you may have to zoom in because of how small the deck is at 3/4 mile, but you’ll see the lights are nice and visible. http://imgbox.com/sQLW8oFM http://imgbox.com/FXL4N5Yo Same boat, same weather. Just different maps. And no reshade or any other effects here; my install has to be as vanilla as it gets.

Gotcha; it is a good point, thanks for raising it. Yeah, I've taken to using the ICLS until roughly in middle even on Case 1s... I know some may consider that heresy, but it feels less disruptive to me than the pop-up FLOLS overlay. But I agree, it would be best if the ball on the ship were clearly visible at the start!

You can see in my screenshots that all my HUD and panel lighting is very dim. It's definitely not over powering the landing area lights. However, I flew a night mission last night, and strangely enough all my lighting seems to have changed. There was no update to the game that I'm aware of, just the updater, and yet all lights in the game are much brighter. The boats landing area lights are now visible from a normal distance astern. And I see the glow that everyone else has complained about around nav lights and the meatball. I'm not sure what changed. I'll post some screenshots later, if I get time.

I wondered that, but look at this HUD video of a super Hornet trap. The camera exposure is such that you can only barely read the HUD... but look how bright the LA lights are. You can just make out the DME on the HUD, and can clearly see the LA lights from over 2.5nm out. EDIT: same video you posted, that I posted back on post two lol. But yeah, you can clearly see the centerline lights from over 2nm out, well before you see the ball.

I do appreciate the the input, and the lights are so very dim that I can see why you'd think that. But they ARE on. If you're viewing my screenshots on a mobile device, you may have to turn up your screen brightness to see them. They're only visible in the top photo, at 0.1dme, at the ramp. You can see the rabbit (the brighter, sequenced strobing portion of the centerline lights) in the HUD, with the 5L pitch ladder line cutting through the middle of the rabbit (I've gone high in that shot, which is why only the IFLOLS datums are visible, the ball has squirted off the top). This mission begins at midnight with me behind the boat, so no transition from day to night, though that was a good idea. I thought I mentioned in the first post, but all comms were performed correctly. Request inbound, report established in Marshall, report commencing, check in with approach, call platform, get the "3/4 mile, cal the ball" from the LSO, make the Hornet ball call and get LSO calls to the deck because the pass is ugly because I have no visual reference lol. It's NOT a comms problem. After the trap, the LA lights are visible for about 5 seconds and then visibly extinguish. They're there all right, just FAR too dim!

Oh absolutely... they ARE on (you can see them in my screenshot at 0.1dme), and they go off a few seconds after the trap. They're just FAR too dim.

Glad to hear it's not just me. Anyone from ED? BIGNEWY? Is this considered a known bug? Is it being worked on?

The MOOSE Airboss script includes this. https://flightcontrol-master.github.io/MOOSE_DOCS_DEVELOP/Documentation/Ops.Airboss.html

You should seriously look up the RescueHelo and RecoveryTanker functions of the Airboss script, they accomplish those exact things with like 3 simple lines of script. It would be nice to have it built into the ME but there's no need to wait, this is dirt simple. You don't have to be any kind of programmer for it.

The whole point of using AoA for a reference is that it makes airspeed irrelevant. When you fly a given approach speed in a civilian aircraft, you're doing so in an effort to fly the correct AoA, so using an AoA indicator directly is just an easier and more accurate way to accomplish it. I've never understood why we don't use AoA the same way in civilian aviation, though we're finally starting to. Our 737 HUDs have an AoA indexer.

I had the same problem except my ship was slightly faster so I ended up with a helo to hit if overshooting into the groove lol. My solution was to use the Airboss MOOSE script. The RescueHelo function gives you a helo that launches, recovers to refuel when necessary, and will hold station correctly regardless of boat speed without you needing to set any speed at all. It'll also go circle and "rescue" a pilot that ejects around the boat and bring him back to the ship haha. That plus the RecoveryTanker function, plus the persistent gradesheet abilities, almost makes up for losing vLSO when I switched to DCS. If only the SC LSO would be improved now...

You can pretty easily ccomplish the situation of having AI aircraft spawn on deck at mission start, but delay their start up until a specified time. It involves setting the AI to start from ramp, checking "uncontrolled" and creating a task to start. Everything else would be ok, but seems there are bigger priorities now, like visible landing area lighting and a FLOLS properly located on the deck. Those two things would go a long way lol.

This is a good discussion. Thanks guys.