percivaldanvers

So we have two Su-25s in the sim, one a late 80s era A and one T from the mid 90s. I've been getting into these aircraft in a big way for the first time in four years of DCS, and finding I really love both. I was surprised/disappointed to learn that the Su-25T was only produced in extremely limited numbers and is basically not in use anywhere anymore. I don't expect we'll ever see an Su-25SM or any of more modern Frogfoots in sim, but I'm curious what they would be like. Would it basically be like an Su-25T (in terms of avionics and HUD updates) without the Shvkal? The Su-25A seems appropriate for a late cold war threat environment, but doing that manual laser designation through the HUD seems fairly suicidal against modern threats. Do modern Su-25s use targeting pods or anything to replace the Shkval?

Huh looks like you're right. Looking at old photos of A-8s I see they almost all have the rack on. I forgot that was also for the fuel tanks. That safety catch has cost me many a kill I mean the A-8 technically was a fighter. Maybe not a very good one depending on one's opinion but I guess more of an anti-bomber fighter than an anti-fighter fighter.

The default loadout for the FW-190 A-8 in DCS has an empty bomb rack slung under the fuselage. Is there a reason for this? I would think this is normal in a 190 G or F, but in a primarily fighter 190 it's a bit bizarre to have that as the default.

Yeah I'm thinking I'll use the launch of Beware Beware to really get properly into it.

I have this plane, I love it, but I rarely fly it because I immediately unlearn everything I knew about flying the Mustang, the 109 or the 190 when I spend any time in the spitfire. The turning capabilities seem to indulge my worst impulses, and just like that energy fighting goes out the window for me and I'm getting killed turning in other planes. Anyone else find this to be the case?

Well that makes me feel little less bad about getting repeatedly curb stomped in this mission. Funnily enough I can win this about 50% of the time with the F-16. Possibly it's because you can't make it use AIM 7s so you're forced to use much better missiles. Even so they still do much better than even AMRAAM equipped hornets. Those ERs are tough for sure. I do notice a lot of hornets bursting into flames before they even go defensive, so it seems possible that they're getting hit while they're trying to support their AMRAAM launches. I can't say whether there's anything wrong with the BVR AI, since I'm so bad at BVR that I wouldn't have the frame of reference .

Hmmm I suppose it's a possibility I may have forgotten to tell them to engage. I'll run it again and see! Edit: Yeah the hornets are getting slaughtered

Those Migs and Flankers do seem to have their <profanity> very much together today. They just gobbled up the AI Hornets, even when I cheesed it by equipping them with AIM 120Cs and AIM 9Xs.

This instant action mission is giving me some trouble. Is there a good strategy for winning it?

Just finished reading "Duel Under the Stars" by Wilhelm Johnen and his descriptions of the havoc wrought by nightfighting mosquitos really makes me want one in DCS.

I think this is unfortunately true. I didn't realize until I opened the scenario in the editor but your enemy actually starts the battle one or two hundred kph faster than you, which is enough of an energy advantage that even a spitfire might be able to catch up to you. To make matters worse you're barely above tree top height, so no power-diving away. Basically you're in a situation where it's impossible to fly the dora its strengths, at least at first. Understanding this I've been able to get better at the scenario. Your first priority is to extended enough that you can begin to fight on your own terms, or at least prevent the enemy from exploiting their massive energy advantage. It also doesn't help that the AI, despite all the improvements, still does not seem to do particularly well with the D9, so chances are you're going to get outnumbered pretty fast. It's definitely a winnable scenario, but it is a hard scenario. Probably about the most demoralizing intro to fighting in the Dora I could imagine. It's been a learning experience though. I've found it helpful to get in the mindset of thinking of maneuvers in terms of the space they need to be successful. People always say "stay fast" and "boom and zoom" and that's all true, but you have to understand what that means. You can turn as much as you want if you give yourself room to execute the maneuver without pulling hard into the turn. If you're flying this way it's really easy to stay fast because you're keeping the Gs low, which in turn makes you a less appealing target.

This instant action mission is so annoying to me that I almost want to uninstall the channel map so I can stop obsessing over it. You’re given a dogfight where pretty much none of the things the Dora is good at are available to you. You’re on the deck so there’s no room to dive, you’re traveling at 350kph so you don’t have energy to maneuver, and the enemy is too close for you to escape and reset the fight. This last point really frustrates me as I’ll often try to fly straight through the enemy pair and run away only for the enemy mustangs to turn 180 degrees and overtake me. I can’t understand it but I have a compulsive desire to develop a tactic for winning this fight, but it seems like everything I try ends in disaster. What am I even supposed to do here?