scoobie

Hi, if this happens again, you may tap Esc, then click "Messages History" and you should get the list of all messages/instructions/etc. spoken so far in the mission. I'm not sure whether you have to have subtitles turned on in DCS options for it to work or it doesn't matter, see for yourself.

Exactly! The module is great and it's a very very good EA release. On top of that it is probably the first module one of the very few modules which you can really/seriously employ at night, not only because of its sensors, but also the simple question of being able to properly dim all the cockpit panels, screens etc. - it all just works (unlike, for example, in the Hawg). The trim issues discussed here are not bugs, it's more like an old deficiency in the helo trim system in DCS, which bit many folks only now because Apache is pretty agile, responsive, "impetuous". FWIW, I saw a YT video where one dude showed his curves. It absolutely struck me the guy had curves of 35 (both pitch and roll). Initially I though "Naaah, civilized people don't do such wild things!", but then... I tried it and so far I've been having a really good time. Non-extended TM Warthog joystick without the main spring. As ballpark figures (pitch, roll): 35 curves, 90 saturations Y. It doesn't cure the trim, of course, but lets you hover nicely. On the other hand, when you want to fly vigorously, combat manouvering etc., you can still do it, but you have to accept you'll be doing it with maximum or close to maximum joystick deflection most of the time. If anybody finds hovering somewhat too twitchy, too messy, I think it's worth a try. I'm talking to people who know how to hover, not to newcomers to helicopters (the latter folks WILL find hovering difficult in any chopper, with or without curves).

I'm sorry! I'm too fast answering, too slow reading

Yep, I did the same trick yesterday for myself I'm sure "Special for joystick" (what a strange name!) commands will start popping up later in EA period, but for now, if you don't want to mess with your Lua files as shown above by Bailey, you can check if your trigger is guarded or not without actually shooting any weapon. 1. Take off (no weight on wheels). 2. A/S ARM. 3. Make sure NO weapon is WASed! 4. Pull the trigger and now: A) If your trigger is unguarded, you'll see "WEAPON?" in the bottom right part of "High Action Display" part of your IHADSS. Apache can see you want to fire but doesn't know which weapon it should fire. B) If your trigger is guarded, nothing will happen (no "WEAPON?" text), because you haven't actually pulled the trigger - as it is guarded. Such a quick and dirty workaround.

No. It's not only that. 1. In Huey there's a significant delay in "Default". Nearly one second of delay. So don't say "Default" is the same everywhere. 2. In the Hip, the delay in "Default" was decreased to very small (now it's also referred to as "instant trim", "FFB friendly" etc.), because she's sluggish enough (intertia + perhaps quite "agressive" SAS), so that it doesn't hurt. I, myself, didn't notice there was a change from Huey to Hip, I can fly both OK. 3. In more agile (than Hip) helos such as Apache/Hind the very small delay became annoying when you want to introduce larger trim setting in a single "step", e.g. when picking up, crossing through ETL etc. 4. For this reason some people switched to "Centering Position" trim, which doesn't have this drawback, but in turn this one can make you crash. So it's not only about the new names of the options. Yep. SME himself is struggling. Symptomatic, isn't it?

I'm only following ideas from other folks in this thread. This is how "Special" tab under Options could look like. I ticked some options and left other unticked just an example. You can get "instant trim", "timed release trim" (adjustable), "center position trim" AND you can have new "non-locking center position trim". Robert is your mother's brother. OPTIONS->SPECIAL: [v] Cyclic Trim [v] Release axis when it gets centered [v] Release both axes after 0 ------o--- 1 seconds [ ] Anti-torque Pedals Trim [ ] Release axis when it gets centered [v] Release axis after 0 ---o------ 1 seconds LEGEND: [ ] - unticked check box [v] - ticked check box ------o--- - a slider with "o" indicating position Options for pedals are greyed out (disabled, currently non-clickable), because the "main" trim option says we don't want trim at all. If all check boxes for a particular trim (cyclic or pedals) are ticked, it means "whichever condition is met first" (logic "or"). ED have code for both options already, it's just the time delay is now hard-coded, and both options are currently "either-or" (mutually exclusive, selected with the drop-down list).

@Hiob You're right! My bad. The only significant difference is that in the Huey the "freeze" time is really long (in the "Default" mode), like 0.7 second or so. I thought in the Hip it was the same, but no - the "freeze" time is very short. I got so confused about it all and eventually selected wrong options in the Hind and Apache I'll go and check the Hind which gave me the most trouble (most crashes during NOE flying due to sudden "controls lock"). Thanks for the enlightment!

"Springless" typically mean the cyclic is held in position by friction, it stays where you leave it (you can buy these, I forgot the manufacturer's name). In a RL helo it won't flop, but the details depend on a helo. For example in the Hip the cyclic will jump back to the trimmed position - where "trimmed" means it is a position held by a "spring bed" (don't know proper name for it). When you retrim, the springs get retrimmed and want to hold the stick in a new postion. So you can steer the Big Lady with or without trimming, the difference is force you have to use - you may choose to fight against the springs or not. So... can we have the "timed release" trim option back (Apache and Mi-24)? No one asked to have it removed. The new system may stay there, I just won't be using it (I have a "soft center" stick myself, the TM Warthog with the spring removed), but why deprive people of the system that PROVED to work over loong years? That's beyond me. Huey and Hip are old, lots of people bought it, lots have hundreds or thousands of hours in them. No complaints about trim. Starting with the Hind, trim threads started popping up, some of them with misleading titles, because people are confused, they don't know what exactly is going on (just like myself until yesterday).

OMG... The numerous threads about trim, previously in Mi-24 forums, now about Apache, are about the same thing. Apparently someone in ED changed the behaviour of the force trim for spring-centered joysticks (starting with Mi-24). I didn't know that, I didn't notice there was any announcement about it... or was there? The old system was called "Default" (check in your Huey or Mi-8, but NOT in Mi-24): 1. Tap force trim button. 2. Your force-trimmed axes in the game get "frozen" for one second (more or less). Then all the axes "unfreeze" unconditionally. It has worked so well for so many people, for so many years. The new system called "Central Position Trimmer Mode", which I believe was meant to be the replacement for the former "Default": 1. Tap force trim button. 2. Your force-trimmed axes in the game get "frozen". Each of them will individually "unfreeze" only when you precisely center or cross the center position in that particular axis. For example, you may "unfreeze" pitch, but have roll stuck. Or pedals, or pitch or any combination of them. Whoever was paid for coming up with this system should give the money back. Contrary to that person's false belief, people don't always PERFECTLY center their joysticks. This is either for technical reasons and/or for the "heat of the action" reason where people are just too busy flying to focus on "the stupid joystick" - and they don't center precisely. The old system never gets stuck and in case someone had the joystick slightly misaligned after pressing force trim (i.e not exactly centered), it was next to impossible to notice it because this small misaligment was added as a new joystick input a second after the trim button press. Since it was small, it wasn't noticeable, or hardly noticeable. The new system gets people crash their Hinds, and now it can get them crash their Apaches. People turn towards "INSTANT TRIM (FFB FRIENDLY)", because - so it seems - the SAS on Apache "waters down" the "jump" which occurs when you press the button, especially for small changes to trim, e.g. in cruise. Still - it's not a solution, there will alwawys be a "jump" in control input which folks with spring-centered joysticks cannot avoid. Moreover, the new system must demand precision-centering, because otherwise you wouldn't be able to add small amounts of trim at all, it's inevitable. Can you see that it means it's technically a wrong system? Count all the "Hey, my trim is bad!" threads in the Hind and Apache forums. You really think all these people are just dumb or something? No, they're not. Oh boy... PS. Fun fact: The "INSTANT TRIM (FFB FRIENDLY)" in Apache is what is called "Default" in Mi-24... which is of course different from "Default" in Huey or Mi-8

I'm not sure what you're doing, but to make it simple at the beginning, consider unbinding the axis from power levers and use keyboard instead - just for now. During engine start you move a power lever from OFF to IDLE (that is rAlt/rShift+Home) at no less than 20% RPM of gas generator. Repeat for engine 2. Oh... make sure the collective is lowered throughtout the whole process! Once the engines are running low RPM and oil pressure drops to no more than 70, you spool the engines up by gradually moving both levers towards "FLT" (flight) position. I'm using Numpad+, initially. When I'm close to "FLT", I tap PageUp to put the levers exactly in "FLT". That's it. Engines are happy and running. 101% RPM everywhere (power turbines, rotor). Maybe you are incidentally moving the power levers forward of "FLT" far enough so that DCS considers it this... this position forward of FLT (forgot what it's called)? AFAICR it's a position where manual throttle is engaged, or something of this sort. At this stage the only reason why rotor RPM may drop is: A) you have pulled the collective too much and/or too abruptly, B) you're too heavy and the Crazy Indian doesn't have enough power to competently deal with the weight. All this is off the top of my head, I've had 0.75 hour of flying myself, so I don't exactly know what I'm talking. Sorry.

Yeah, I read it in NATOPS, too. I think it's a trap. They only tell you how you can fill drop tanks when (and only when) your wing tank is leaking etc. (battle damage or whatever) and you don't want to push fuel into it. This paragraph has a vertical bar next to it, which means it is an addition to the text in the manual's newest edition. So someone came and threw in this paragraph, apparently without careful reading of the surrounding text. AFAICR there's not a single word about in-flight refueling in the surrounding text, and suddenly you stumble upon this paragraph, which may make you think "okay, so this is how you AAR the plane!". A trap. They could have been more careful about wording, i.e. write anything about AAR in general and only then add a note on what you should do when you need to skip wing tank during AAR.

(I am on v2.0.1) Thanks, guys, for reasurring me that the drop tank AAR does work - thanks to this I kept pushing. Finally it worked! I must have messed something up about my Stream Deck, which I normally use for AAR switches (among other things). This time, for a test, I clicked the in-cockpit switches with the mouse (instead of pressing Stream Deck buttons) and bingo - everything went okay, drop tanks filled! It's seldom the case that Stream Deck bites me, hence it wasn't my suspect. I thought I might have botched the mod's installation on my PC or that it's a bug in the very mod etc. Thanks again, I'll invesigate the problem on my side, but at this time I know my Scooter is 100% healthy

Hi. Can you actually refuel drop tanks in flight? I can fill the internal tanks no problem, but drop tanks remain dry forever, no matter how long I'm hanging from the basket. Silence, no transfer. Tanks under pylons 2 and 4. "DROP TANKS" switch set to "FLIGHT REFUEL". What am I doing wrong?

Thanks! I really started thinking I had got my nomenclature all wrong.

Praise topic? I'm in! Same here. The earliest "DCS", i.e. Su-27 felt like a really serious thing, but looking at how far it has gone over the years is just unbelievable. Moreover we seem to be living in the "sim controls golden era". When in early 2000s I finally had money to buy the set of CH Products gear (stick, throttle, yoke and pedals), I thought I was the King of the Universe. It's of course very good equipment, but when I'm now looking at VKB, Virpil, others (I may not know all these companies), my Warthog and TPR pedals... it's more than I could dream about. Now add these two things together - software and hardware. Is this really happening? So... "THANKS!" is the least I can say PS. I find it funny. Have you noticed that it's predominantly older folks who seem to appreciate all this the most? Young people probably think computers have been like today since Christ, so they seem unimpressed (not so much at least), but no, each of the few last decades was a leap forward. We are really lucky.

Fantastic animations However, the guy could redo the engine part, he got it... too wrong even for general public, which the video is aimed at. One thing puzzles me in his video... why is he saying "main rotors" and "tail rotors"? "In the center we have our 4 main rotors" etc. I thought these were blades, and there's one main rotor (unless it's a Chinook or a Kamov). Is it OK to call these things in English as he does? I know English is very flexible, but... he got me confused.

Great video, thanks for sharing how the magic is done! I had a rough idea how much work it probably takes to make such a campaign, namely: "hell of a lot", but now I can see I still underestimated it! We're lucky to have such a firm "club" of great campaign authors - sorry for missing a few names, but BD, Reflected, Ground Pounder, Bunyap and... a dozen or so more talented folks who do it for us. And what they do is so often just mind blowing. For me campaigns are the epitome of fun in DCS, they utterly change the feel to it (and each in their own way, depending on the author) - the sterile "sim enrivonment" changes into a living world, it's like reading a book where you suddently realize you participate in as a character. If there's one thing I find... unfortunate, it is the fact that you have to fix what you haven't broken (DCS updates) time and again, and again... It's bad not only because I imagine it's an anoying and mundane work, and you have jobs, families etc., but the more campaigns you release the more a victim of your own success you become, spend more and more time on fixing them... instead of "plotting" new campaigns. You'd be happier people and we'd be a happier crowd. Well, I hope it will improve over time, especially in the AI department or generally in terms of control the author can have over what happens in the mission. Fingers crossed I know it's little, but I can only say THANK YOU, MEN *) (Reflected and others), your work DOES make a huge difference. Thanks! *) Men of both sexes, of course, voice actresses etc.

My turn TL;DR: Just go and get it. It's THAT simple. It was pretty obvious the campaign would have the "BD Quality" badge glued on top of the box. A note to new people: this badge DOES mean a lot, it's not yet another hollow marketing w**king marketing hype. What wasn't so obvious to me was why make another tranining campaign for the Hawg while we have 3 such campaigns already? Seems to make no sense. Boy was I wrong, terribly wrong! What you get in the package: 1. EXCELLENT voiceovers! Firstly, you can easily hear these people put their heart into it. They sound professional where that's expected (e.g. ATC folks), sometimes amused, relaxed, or focused - depending on the situation. I guess that's what people call "acting", right? They really ARE actors, they sound so authentic. Secondly, BD must have hired FSB or CIA to catch for him the whole bus full of these actors, there's A LOT of them, each ATC guy/gal are different people, sometimes they're different from mission to mission (when one is on duty, the other has a day off etc.) - or if they weren't different, I was mislead to believe they were, it's just hard to memorize all these voices at once. They did absolutely fantastic job, big thanks to all of them! 2. 10 long missions that just work (Note: at this early stage there are 2 or 3 quirks across all missions, but I'm sure they'll get ironed out). Now, if you think it's normal for missions to "just work" and this shouldn't be praised, then... well, it can't be taken for granted in DCS, I don't know about it, but I think it must be some kind of arcane magic. If you're not a sorcerer by trade, you may easily char you face casting those trigger spells. So I heard. 3. 10 missions where you WILL learn new things about your Hawg (vel Hog). I've taken a (metric) tonne of notes in my notebook, so that I don't forget any of the little pearls I learnt. Now I'll rewrite them "clean" and attach to my flying notes for the Hawg. While Iron Flag Part 1 is not for total beginners in the Hawg, this particular aircraft has a funny trait - no matter how many hours you've flown the thing, you get this feeling creeping on you that she still keeps some secrets, there are still some features that you don't know how they work or why you'd want to use them, or you don't even realise they are there in the cockpit. An example? Here you are: 4. You will be learning using the most fun, hands-on method. Reading the manual is OK, I think it's a must in the beginning, especially in the Hawg, but how can you read 700 pages and memorize everything? (And not fall asleep in the process?) None can do. Want to supplement your knowledge with the invaluable Chuck's guide? Great, go for it, but still... it's another 500+ pages. Now the Iron Flag - you'll be flying, getting instructions from your wingman, you'll immediately follow them one by one and immediately see how things work in practice. The most fruitful learning method - learning by practising. 5. As always in BD's campaigns, you get top-notch "papers" for the missions. I'd risk a gallows to say no one gets close... or at least not very close to the quality BD provides in the papers, they're just... nothing short of smashing! (Sorry, for the record: Mr. ChillNG with the new company "Ground Pounder Sims", he made my jaw drop, too). The papers are error free (at worst you get a single error for every 300 pages BD writes), packed with all the information you need or you will soon learn you need. It shows how much thought and consideration was put to lay out the information - both in terms of logic, as in readability. One thing should be noted, though: in this particular campaign PDFs are less important as they are in a typical "combat campaign" (where you study recon photos, possible threats locations etc.). Here you are constantly instructed over the radio, so maybe mission preparation is less important, but I wanted to emphasise how good the papers are in BD's campaigns. Excellence is the word - I'm not exaggerating. Oh, the kneeboard pages - they are also "papers" - they're equally great, even more important once you're in the air and these you'll need a lot in this campaign. 6. Thanks to the new "GUI system" in DCS for campaigns, once you finish Iron Flag, you'll have access to every single mission in it, so if you forget something, you can first browse through the PDFs to see which mission teaches which systems/features, then you can refly it. Perfect for refresher training! 7. If you're... not overly young person and you easily get task saturated in those dramatic, action-packed combat missions (like myself, sometimes), rest assured - this campaign lets you take your time. The instructor will peacefully wait for you, regardless if on ground or in the air - you'll be, for example, orbiting trying to achieve what you were asked for, the instructor will be orbiting with you without nagging. On the other hand... every stick has two ends (well, a slingshot has three, but nevermind), so be prepared for another BD's trademark (maybe not trademark, but typical feature): these missions are LONG. Some take 2.5 hours, perhaps a little more. For some of us it means we can only fly such missions on Sundays. I don't mind too much when I discovered that every week has a Sunday in it ************ A few notes: Voice audio levels - some uneven maybe too much, with the following caveat: I may be a) plain wrong and/or b) I don't speak English so understanding a foreign language requires relatively clear voice (clearer than necessary for a native speaker to understand) - that might have been my problem. Well, also the wife says I'm going deaf, but she might be going dumb as well, who knows. I think it was Biff in some early missions - he was loud and overdriven sometimes, while some... that must have been a feminine voice - she was way quieter, to the point where I had to pause and read subtitles as I couldn't hear the lady (or understand, not hear) through the engine whine. I wonder if this is actually a technical thing or my hearing, but anyway - if it really is the thing, then maybe those audio programs have some normalization function, or first normalization and then a bit of sound compression (dynamics "tightening"). I know recording sound with a mic is not "easy peasy lemon squeezy" at all, as some people might think, so I understand you may get all sorts of levels, noise and reverb, though the level (loudness) seems important in a loud aircraft. Well, I don't know, I guess I just wanted to shamelessly expose my apparent hearing problem The campaign made it evident there are some idiosyncrasies in AI taxi logic at Nellis AFB. Maybe, if I live long enough, someone will look into it. Not BD of course. I saw Biff twice and I think Lotus once taxiing over dirt. For some reason they landed on 21R (not L, and I was clear of 21L way ahead of them), then they slowed down and drove off the RWY diagonally to get to the point where Bravo meets 21L. That looked funny. Immersion +1 Also, I don't know which way is "front" when parking at... Thunder (was it?). You placed static Hawgs and player's Hawg in one direction, while AI Biff/Lotus often (or always) parked facing in the opposite direction. Anarchists in the army, go figure! I deleted the damned "page" thing, but it's immortal

No problem! Just to confirm for other people: yes, ask Lotus for "extra explanations" and the mission will go on. To be 100% accurate: I asked her TWICE for extra explanations, the first time she explained more, the second time she said something like "so you'll need to get back to your books once we're on the ground" - in this scenario the mission continued. Maybe you don't need to ask twice (maybe once is enough), but twice certainly "unblocks" the mission. ensures the mission continues.

I failed twice, succeeded the third time. I'm not sure what the "formula" for making Biff take off promptly is, but getting him right behind me on Alpha wasn't enough for me. Maybe (just a guess) YOU must be before APEX yourself when there's the radio call to Biff "report crossing APEX". YOU - not only him. Maybe. I succeeded when I "lured" Biff onto the RWY behind me. I had him right behind me on Alpha, as in previous 2 attempts, got the clearence, but this time I drove onto the left half of the RWY and I think this made him follow me, partly - the nose of his Hawg was on the RWY already, something like 45° off the RWY heading, and his tail still clear of RWY, more or less. He stopped in this position, undecided. Then I quickly took off and kept myself very slow in the air (like 160 KIAS or so), though I doubt it matters. Once I got into the air, some 20 seconds later, he pushed the throttles and followed me. I don't know if it matters, but once I saw him take off, I accellerated so that he couldn't catch me before the "report crossing APEX" radio call... and I think I didn't let him form up on me before I crossed APEX (I'm not sure about this last part, though).

The mission "stopped" for me, too. I think you can't copy text from "Messages History" window, so I just took a screenshot. In this state there is no F10 option in the comms menu, you are basically stuck.

Inferior because unnecessary (in some cases). I have to scroll throught the goddamned list , e.g. "APC1, APC2, APC3, APC4", see where he places his "aim cross" to find the one I want, then confirm, then repeat for another target. Method 2 is fast - aim, press the button, kill. I have it bound conveniently to my pinky button on TM Warthog. This helps attack a few targets in a single run before I fly into their guns/cannons range. Of course the obvious trick is to shoot closer targets first. It feels like telling Petrovich "Man, see the APC ahead? The nearest one? Shoot this one!", instead of (use strong Russian accent for this one) "Comrade pilot, I can see a myriad of juicy steel bugs on the ground, let me decribe them for you in terms of their category and I will conveniently enumerate them for you, then let's talk about which one you like most". I don't wanna talk that much, I want kaboom! Yep, in the "one button" method I need to aim beforehand and then keep aim, but everyone has to keep aim sooner or later - to support the missile, so... no sweat, I can keep it for good old chap Petrovich, I like flying those whirl-top things, so it's even more fun for me if I have to be precise I don't claim the method 1 (target list) is "cr*p" or something, not at all, it's good in some cases, while method 2 is good in other cases. Anyway, both methods used to work, now the "one button" method stopped working for me, so I wonder whether I messed something up on my end or it's a bug, or maybe a design decision on ED's part.

Hi folks! Sorry for wrong nomenclature here and there, I don't have DCS with me here. There used to be two methods for telling Petrovich which target you want him to attack: Method 1: Petrovich menu, look at the general target area, Petrovich forward short (e.g. "W"), select target from the list, confirm with Petrovich right short (e.g. "D"). Method 2: Place the target inside the inner small gunsight circle (pilot's gunsight) and press button "XYZ" (I can't remember the binding name). Petrovich should attack this particular target. I used method 2 a lot and it used to work. Since one of the latest OB updates (I think THE latest, but I'm not sure), it doesn't seem to work. When I press the "XYZ" button in current OB, and - rest assured - only one target is within the small gunsight circle (no risk of ambiguity), the list of nearby targets pop up - exactly as in the method 1. Point is, in many cases the method 1 is inferior to 2, it's a long story, but method 2 was super cool, my favourite. Does any of you use method 2? Does it still work for you?

I have no idea (@Machalot) Thank you for all the clarifications! The "smudging effect" must be... I think... caused by the "persistence CRT" (I don't know how they were called in English) used in the Viggy to cater for the memory mode. So, without memory mode there should be no smudging and with the mode turned on... apparently there was some smudging (I've never used such scope, so I don't know exactly, I saw a few of them, but I must have been a teenager back then and such scopes were expensive - nobody would let me touch such "serious" gear). I think the smudging may be really hard to model in detail - I doubt there's a knight-errant in HB to go down such rabbit hole, the only gain would be... smudging in memory mode. That doesn't sound like worth the effort And that shows! Has anybody else noticed that near the "pivot point" of the beam sweeping the screen there's a small "missing" arc, like "cut out"? It looks the same in DCS:Viggy! Such a tiny detail. How crazy is that! Hm... since we're talking about these things... The radar screen could easily look more real if there was only one hue of green on it - they were all monochrome. There must be a graphics file where this attitude indicator "pattern" (those lines) is drawn - the lines should be the same hue of green as the radar return picture. In the current representation it looks fake from 5 feet away, or at least it looks fake to all the folks who were lucky to sit in front of CRT scopes in their lives... and a lot of them are still alive I attached pictures for comparison. I don't know if "rich green" in the second picture is a proper phrase, but it clearly is a different green from the radar picture - so impossible to obtain IRL. (To make it clear: of course it's no big deal, nothing to write home about, just a tiny idea for a cheap (if subtle) improvement.)

Whoa, wait... what's going on at 12:21-12:22 in the video? That "rotation" on the radar screen? I've never seen anything like this in DCS:Viggy or... maybe I've never paid enough attention to the radar screen. I don't have sound here, but I guess they're talking Swedish so it wouldn't help me anyway. It looks like the pilot turned on memory mode to sort out those ships, then the two lines at the sides started extending from the bottom of the screen (starting at around 12:13), which I think mean he started pulling up (?). Then the lines started "curving", which probably means he banked right as shortly afterwards you can see the compass ring started rotating. But he was still in memory mode. It just occurred to me I've never really used memory mode (other than a quick test maybe), so I don't know... Do we have such fancy feature in DCS? I have no complaints about the Viggy, I'm just curious.