g5flyer

Greetings, what is QP?

No apologies needed, we know the team is hard at work and you have to make the right decisions based on an issue that impact certain people. If it impacts all, it's a no brainer, but when it's a specific group, you have to really weigh the risk of throwing out a hot fix right away.

Yeah, if the situation was big enough and there were no work around, we make a hotfix and push it. It's the beauty of having that pipeline in continuous deployment.

This sucks lol, carry on.

Hello all, I was wondering how I would be able to host a private server with someone that's in the same household with two different pcs, tried to join the same IP but had an error message pop up, Ive tried port forwarding and antivirus checks =.

In the air.

Excessive amounts of jitter when switching from WSO to Pilot seat, anyone else get this while using VR?

NKAWTG! I added another post some where talking about lighting in general to include tanker lighting. As you said, the under body lighting is crucial in being able to see all the references required to maintain position. Staring at PDI lights only gets you in trouble and you will be unstable and all over the place. You need to clearly see those antennas, markings, wing tips, leading edges, engine nacelles/pylons and flap canoes so that you can keep those eyes moving and have a better indication of where you are in the envelope. I also pointed out that NAV and anti collision lights have to be seen from specific distances. You can easily see anti collision lights of an aircraft at FL450 from the ground. They could also have the tanker lights dim down at a certain distance as they would during checklist. Maybe an option to request different levels of under body lighting from the tanker menu. Formation lights should be brighter too as you depend on these when flying night formations. I really hope the KC10 and needed light adjustments make it into DCS.

Yep, you start with a 300 feet per minute descent when a receiver requests it.

Greetings, I wanted to advocate to bring the mighty KC-10A back. I flew this jet for about 9 years through major operations, fighter drags and good old cargo hauling like FEDEX. This plane was awesome and had major dual role refueling capabilities. It's one of those jets that pass through and everyone wants to get close to it. At airshows, we had the longest lines. I've been at airports world wide and airport/airline personnel wants to get close to take pictures. People are along the fence line snapping away. The plane is a very capable tanker. It's easy to refuel against with it's very large refueling envelope. The body lights will illuminate the aircraft like a baseball field. It can go from boom to drogue in seconds and has wing drogue pods along with the centerline. It's a stable platform even though you have to have some power to punch through the burble and down wash behind the tanker. Routinely B1s would be lighting up burners intermittently on one and two when transitioning the burble. Slow aircraft such as the C-130, heavy A10s and EA-6s would require a toboggan to get in because they didn't have the power to punch through, especially if the slats and flaps were needed to get slow enough to refuel them. For KC10s and other large aircraft, the 135 was notorious with their autopilot disconnecting. If you moved in too quick or popped up too quickly in the envelope, the 135's autopilot would disconnect and the tanker would descend into you. After it happens to you a couple of times, you are readily prepared to break away. The boom also has a rate disconnect that would automatically kick you off the boom if it felt your movement rate will send you past the limits. The boom also had a independent IDS nitrogen disconnect system to blast a receiver off if the normal rate and boomer initiated system failed to release the toggle latches to disconnect. The KC-10 is an iconic aircraft and I believe it would be a disservice to this jet if it's not brought back into DCS. If it was decided to bring it back, I can assist with the technical aspects and procedures we used in the aircraft. Rick

That statement has me rolling

There's a lot that goes into that with the combination of humidity, temp and pressure. Even though it may be summer time, you will still have temperatures at which you can have those ice crystals. In fact, you can have a higher chance of getting into icing in the summer. For example, I was making a quick hop from Bogota, Columbia to Panama City, Panama. I was cruising at FL280 at night and suddenly got into some severe icing. It started with heavy precip that we could hear pelting the windscreen and fuselage. Then came the TAT fail warnings along with air data and TAS warning. The auto throttles kicked off all when it happened. The icing was so bad that the TAT heaters could not keep up with it. After a minute or so, we exited the clouds and all of the warnings went away. We turned the auto throttles back on and went on our way. The standard day temp at FL280 is -40C. At -40, it's generally too cold for icing. What happens in the summer time, especially near the equator, you get those major storms with frontal passages. These big storms will throw up a lot of moisture and warm air high into the atmosphere. We call them hot towers. As you get close to these storms, the warm air and moisture is perfect for severe icing. There have been many reports of aircraft losing engine power because those ice crystals start to choke off the the engine near the first stage of compression and cause the engines to roll back to a lower setting until you exit conditions. In all, the conditions will determine where you will see the crystals/ice halos. It's just like contrails. Flying in the AOR, they would put the contrail altitude in your paperwork. That way, you can ensure to stay below it so you are harder to find visually. That altitude changes depending on conditions.

I'm not sure if this has been brought up before, but I wanted to post about aircraft external lighting. Now, I will say from the beginning that I fly exclusively in VR. The issue that I have with external lighting is that you can't see them at night. This is very important for rejoins, air refueling and formation flying. In general, NAV/Position lights must be visual by 2 miles. Anti collision lights and beacons can be seen up to 20 miles. You can clearly see the anti collision/beacon lights of an aircraft at FL400 from the ground. Now in regard to these lights, they are essential when flying night formations and night air refueling. During rendezvous and rejoin, the lights play a key roll in determining which way the lead aircraft/tanker is heading. This is why there is a requirement for NAV lights to be visible at a minimum of 2 miles. Your lead aircraft might tell you their heading, but a tanker could be at any position around the AR track unless it's an enroute rendezvous, where the tanker plans to turn onto your course with you in trail. Even during comms out formation rejoins, you may not know leads heading. In these situations, you find them visually with their anti collision/beacon lights and then get an idea of their direction with the NAV lights if you don't have a fighter/intercept RADAR. Of course, prior to visual, you are tracking their air to air TACAN until you start to pick up those lights visually to confirm. Now once you have rejoined or at the pre-contact position, the anti-collision/beacons will be turned off(only the tanker's bottom for refueling) and the NAV and formation lights can be dimmed so you are not blinded by them and the flashes. This will be accomplished through the checklist. Under body lights are very important for AR. We use a lot of visual references on the tanker and cockpit to judge our position in the envelope. The PDI and signal lights are there, but fixating on them or the drogue will have you all over. This is why you keep your eyes moving to all of the external references. You have wingtip lights/under body lights that will give you wing tips and the under body references and markings. For example, under body antennas will be touch white hash marks or a hatch. You will use flap track canoes and engine nacelles. For example, the inboard flap track canoes will be touching the leading edge of the tankers wings when you are in the contact position. You will also put the tanker's engine nacelles in certain positions inside of your cockpit. This is why the under body lights are so important. Each receiver will have their preference on how high they want the under body lights. Will be great if the lights on aircraft are adjusted to be seen as in real life. After the the intent to refuel is given, the tanker lights can be adjusted dim, under body lights on and bottom beacon/anti collision light off at a half mile in trail. The ability to request the intensity of under body lighting would be great too.