Indianajon

Hey @Reflected I'm having a great time out with the fleet and haven't disgraced myself too much so far. i was wondering, if you haven't already, could you or Paco or anyone really go through the summary kneeboard page and explain what the various columns mean. I think i understand the majority of it such as the fuel ladder, the top chunk etc and i know some of the info doesn't make a difference to the game but i wonder if I'm missing anything that might help fly the sortie better? I thought similar during the rag section but as the brief was generally larger I was so focused on that it didn't seem quite as important.

Hi @KeithDouglass, I don't use any curves but one trick I picked up for refuelling from Mooch in one of his vids is to just tap the wings back to 30 degrees. This has the effect of dropping the tips slightly in relation to your aircraft and gets them out of the wake disturbance. It might be part psychological but I find it helps. Otherwise as suggested above just take your time. Get set up and trimmed flying formation, slow and steady, then after you have relaxed a bit ease it in for the plug. Good luck with it. I really struggled at the start and even now if I get tense I find it a faff to hit the basket but you will get there. Its just a case of practice.

Thanks @Reflected it really has been the most fun, enjoyable and hardest thing I have done in dcs! I will be honest the qual scores are my estimates as i didnt catch what it said but in me defence. The case 1 was an ok 3 wire with no comments provided and i reckon would have scored around 70 on Banklers trainer. The case 3 was an OK 3 again but i cut power in the wires as I knew the trap had happened and I was just relieved so didn't boot it. The cq's were the one thing I felt fairly confident about as along with refuelling it's the one thing I have been practicing since the release. I've read the brief for my first Mission and hyped and ready. Zipped lip recoveries is going to be a new experience though. I'm trying to make sure I keep my head in the game and not focus too much on that before I need too. I do feel ready though.

OK, I'm done and here we go. I feel slightly robbed by the below in run 2 of the 4v4 as I was launching a fox 1 on the merge that connected but didn't count. Then took a while to get a second shot in and penalised for it. That said I understand the system and overall I'm really chuffed. The only sortie I flew twice was the unsat to get a regrade. This has been amazing and my flying style and skills have definitely improved in the process. Now to see if I can survive the cruise!

Well, sortie 7 under my belt and desperately clinging on to a 3.03 grade average but it's definitely getting crazy hard! Something tells me I won't be getting any above's in the 4v4, but if I can squeak through on average then I'll be more than happy! Certainly no where near the top of the class! i think it's safe to say @1Batz has to be the golden child and gets the trophy! But if I graduate I'll be happy!

Hey @Reflected pdf sortie 7 (2v2) third page final paragraph, fourth line. 'Stray' assume that should be 'stay'.

Yes I know what you mean @Jayhawk1971 I have traditionally been overly gentle in the B model as I've been worried about high alpha situations. I have flown the A more aggressively in the past but this campaign is helping me push the B.

After finishing sortie 5 and receiving my first unsatisfactory grade I thought I'd spend five minutes explaining how I got here and how maybe you can avoid my same mistakes. It goes without saying the Reflected and Paco have created a unique and phenomenal experience for DCS. Unlike anything that has come before. I have never concentrated or worked so hard simply to fly in formation and Nellis has never felt so alive. Ever since watching the preview mission by Red kite I have been dreading the air 2 ground syllabus. I even created a target range to try and practice low pops in anticipation, but last night the time came and i was all in. Now, my mentality going into this was that the LGB element was where I shine. Unlike manual drops I have hundreds of laser guided drops under my belt. As such, while I read the brief for the other elements three times in detail before flying I skimmed the LGB part. I did a quick check on height and speed and yadda yadda the rest.... you can see what's coming can't you.... Fast forward to over the range. Paco calls abeam and I start my climbing turn. For some reason I realise I'm 1,000ft too low, i'm slow and my circuit is too close. OK, no worries, a little extra power and straighten up. No, wait I turned too far and didn't climb, now I'm too far away, still too low and now I'm too fast.... bugger, bugger bugger, yep, no, I'm fine I can still make this. Paco called 'hot' and now my brain is swimming. Is he is in hot? Is he saying I need to turn in hot? Time seems to be speeding up. Wait, no! Stop!!! Crap now I'm at the wrong altitude, speed, distance. Everything is unravelling unravelling and unravelling fast, do something! Anything! I'm really behind the aircraft now but let's do something. Its a 50/50 so lets assume he is calling me in, I can still do this. Let's roll in! Oh crap! Now I'm approaching the target at a really poor angle, about 60 degrees off from the agreed, why did i turn so soon? My RIO is trying to talk me on and only 10 seconds to drop. Ok, get lined up and just focus on getting the bomb on target. Somehow through all of this i have dropped in the turn and am now below the agreed release height but at least I'm lined up so while I'm fast, low, lined up wrong and completely out of position.......pickle. The pull off went fine, so at least that went ok and the bomb hit the target. Time is starting to slow back to normal and back with the aircraft. Can you see where I went wrong? Unsurprisingly I was scored unsatisfactory. I reflew it immediately with an understanding of what i was meant to do and got an average. Given the circumstances i'll happily take it! More importantly I have learnt an obvious lesson and hopefully you can learn from it and not make the same mistakes I did. So using Bio's debrief system what are the good and others? In the good column I hit the target, didn't die and it was a good teaching opportunity. In the others column I was unsafe, potentially put people on the ground at risk. I was unable to hit the numbers and became task saturated, screwed up the wagon wheel and put my wingman at risk. All in all I crapped out. The lessons I have learnt are. 1, always read the brief. Even for the bits you think you know inside out. Just because you have done something in dcs countless times doesn't mean you know how to do it properly. Make sure you know what you are doing before you do it. Don't wing it. 2, task saturation sneaks up really quickly and it's amazing how quickly a couple of small things can build up and how it affects your ability to listen and make decisions. Knowing what you have to do before you start helps you with this. Be more aggressive on hitting the numbers early to give yourself time to ease into the rest. 3, know when your behind. It's really hard to catch back up when it starts going wrong, but it's dead easy to make it worse. Thanks again to Reflected and Paco! Now comes air to air and something tells me that despite flying the Zone 5 campaign multiple times I'm going to take this hop and the associated brief a little more seriously.

No that sounds it. Did you do end on your back and then roll out bit? It's a weird one? I had absolutely no issues with it? hopefully someone will be able to help on here for you.

No sorry, I had no issues doing this? Did you follow the roll out at the end and correct speed? Maybe it thinks you haven't completed it for some reason?

Another couple of hops down and my grade average has dropped to 3.17 and while I'm mainly getting average and a couple above I have two belows which were well deserved. The first from in place turns where I struggled with the bank angle but have seen the solution on here. The second was on the second BVR intercept where, all keyed up I broke for the notch when the rwr picked Paco up rather than waiting for when he locked me up. I turned back in, got locked up and successfully put him in the notch but by now all the distances etc were screwed and while I got the kill it took way longer than it should. I have never worked as hard or concentrated as much playing this game! I'm loving it! Tomorrow is air to ground and after low level this evening I'm feeling more confident, so fingers crossed.

....Well now I'm worried about this evening, that's what I'm about to do.

After two hops my grade average is 3.2 but I get the distinct feeling it's going to go rapidly downhill when we reach the air to ground syllabus!

Ace thanks

Hey Reflected, sortie 2 (day) after the air refueling Paco talked through the RTB and had the news report but he then proceeded to stay in formation with the tanker and fly the racetrack. Stuck with it for 15-20mins on the thought we were all heading home but eventually realised we were just drilling holes in the sky. Ps. This campaign is definitely a real challenge!!! Can't remember the last time I was this focused in dcs.

Wow! What an amazing start to a campaign! I'm all in. Just as a heads up. In the first chunk of the prologue people were floating in the air again. Also the briefing pdf for mission 1 has a typo. Paragraph 4, first line 'flt' instead of 'fly'. Just reading the briefing I've already learnt something! Just rudders in split s for greater control! I reckon by the end of this the multi player servers are going to have a shed load of annoyed players being dominated by people who have flown this campaign!

Hi @Horns i used to use the same headset and while a different more recent headset will aid in this I found moving your head closer to the gauge also worked. It reached the state where based on the needle position I could get a rough idea and then moving my head would give me the detail as needed. It's not great but it does work. I think the advantages that vr gives during refuelling and around the boat make up for it though. Happy flying

Hey Reflected, hope you are well. While I am kicking my heels waiting for a certain update and campaign I've been working through some old missions. This evening I decided to play mission 5 and flight lead HV-V ended up RTB'ing at the waypoint we meet the big friendlies. I carried on without issue but didn't remember this happening previously and thought last time I followed him all the way through? It might just be my memory but wanted to flag it just in case.

Hey Reflected, Not sure what has happened as I have never seen it before but did the graduation vid and the central pilot (Bozo) was floating a couple of ft above the ground. Then at the O-Club 3 crew were about 7ft above the ground with a 4th member another 6ft above that? Just wanted to let you know. Ta

Ace thanks

Hi @HC_Official sorry I'm not quite sure what you mean? Yes they have beards and AKs.

I know that previously there was an issue with manpad units sliding around the map rather than walking properly but recently I have found the same issue with the insurgents regardless of the infantry type. Is there a way I can make them walk properly or do I just have to put up with sliding at the moment? Thanks in advance.

Thanks HB for mentioning the A6 in your latest update. I can breath happy again.

As long as its still happening then I am happy and will wait for as long as is needed. My fear is that its no longer happening. I know HB are always quite tight lipped until they are ready to show something but the silence along with its lack of appearance (even a distant external ai model) in the 2023 and beyond film has me concerned.

No I know. I'm not sure if we should be concerned or not that there wasn't even an external shot. That said I know Heatblur like to keep things close to their chest and don't show things until they are happy with the quality. The recent Corsair 2 update mentioned changes in dcs requiring their model to be started again so it could be similar here? I understand that the priority is the Phantom 2 followed by the Typhoon and its more likely 2 years than 2 weeks for the Intruder. I'm just a little worried it's been dropped as this is the number 1 'upcoming' module for me and I think it fits perfectly into what dcs does best. I guess all we can do is keep scouring everything HB release and hopefully we will see it's still in the pipeline even if it is low priority at this stage.