Zembla

I found I was so used to the old trimmer that the new trimmer... didn't really work out for me. I always very quickly recentered my stick after trimming, and with the new trimmer this sometimes meant I had difficulty regaining control of my bird, as the controls would lock up. -Z

I push on my throttle. I felt the HOTAS bore zero similarity to the real life Ka-50 setup, so I stuck with what I knew. -Z

I agree one of the lesser known, or rather, lesser common European airplanes would be bliss. Such as the Tornado or the Mirage, but also these planes are a niche within a niche. (Though I certainly would be one of the ones who felt catered for with such a sim). There has in fact (looooong long, DOS times ago) been a Tornado sim, it was quite spectacular, never played it myself though, so that's only hearsay. I think the most likely candidate might be a Mirage, seeing as that plane is still being ordered and is a moderate export success. Then again, the Tornado probably matches the Mirage in that regard. Although I do remember something about reading the Mirage was going to be phased out in favor of the Rafale in France too. Might have been long long term plans though. Ah well, we'll see what deal ED scoops up next. I'm sure, being the niche market that this is, most of us will get over ourselves and enjoy the products for the true brilliant survey sims they so far have proven to and promise to be. -Z

Higher speeds mean the torques on the blades are different. Just like changing the AoA of the rotor disk (which happens when using pedal input) will change the yaw. Higher airspeed means the blades flying into the wind experience more drag. Additionally, the retreating blades experience a bit of a push, and the lift changes. Not only the lift changes though, because one way to yaw is to work with the change of yaw momentum because of a different blade attitude. You really need diagrams for this stuff :p A picture, or a vector diagram shows more than a thousand words in these cases :) -Z

It's true the helicopter has been modelled with such fidelity you would almost feel combat can only come as an afterthought... however, that's merely a phese in the evolution you go through when learning to fly the thing :) Or at least, that's how it was for me. Initially I was very content with flying the aircraft from A to B, and coming to grips with how it turns/lands, basically does things. With the ABRIS and all the other systems on the helicopter there's plenty of stuff to find out before you go into combat. But once I did [go into combat], I found all of the systems suddenly made sense. All the stuff in the cockpit is there for a purpose, this purpose is combat. Sure, you can also just navigate the terrain with it, but in the end, the automation and all the systems are there to deploy the helicopter to the battlefield. A lot of the stuff in the cockpit suddenly made more sense to me once I started flying the campaigns. Then again, DCS is a switchologists' wet dream also :p -Z

If you have Vista, and UAC is enabled, you won't be getting any screenshots to your DCS folder. Solution: modify the permissions of the "user" group to "full" or in any case also include "write". What Vista users are basically running into is the same problem why any program with no administrator privileges cannot write to Program Files etc. -Z

Fas.org Then again, that number could be wrong, though it does seem to confirm what I seemed to have remembered :) -Z

A cycle of 10 seconds means you can lase a target for 10 seconds (default), range it if you will. An interval of 5 seconds between each serie means you have to wait 5 seconds before you can lase again after lasing. Or are you trying to point out they are the same thing? In which case; the way I interpret it is as follows: you can range 16 targets, with 5 seconds between every 'lasing'. After you have completed such a serie you have to wait 30 minutes before you can start a new serie of 'lasings'. You can execute 5 such series of 16 'lasings'. -Z

Clicky -Z

I'm personally not convinced it would be a great idea... but saying the MMO idea doesn't transfer well to flight sims is invalid. Games like Warbirds and Aces High have been doing it for years. Sure, they're not as avionics intensive as modern day flightsims, but they still have flight models realistic enough to call them sims. Anyway, from that perspective, an Aces High'like server where you play using DCS equipment in one large arena could add entire new dimensions to online play. As mentioned as well, all this requires sufficient players to be online. Even then, all the benefits of this centralised server could be realised by a powerful well scripted server as it is now as well. -Z

Haven't seen the whole thing through, but a couple of things caught my attention. You probably damaged your nosewheel because you took off with the handbrakes on. It caused some stressed braking during a couple of your landings too. Disabling the wheelbrakes is done by pressing LShift + Z if I recall right, then again, I'm on an AZERTY keyboard, so it might as well be LShift + W. I forgot where I read it, (spent the better part of half an hour looking, haven't found it, so maybe I'm imagining things), but I thought the hydraulic system only had a finite charge of pressure so to speak. Lowering the gear takes a big bite out of this charge, so if you keep lowering the gears often you'll soon notice your hydraulic pressure is getting dangerously low, and you risk not being able to control your helicopter. In fact, pilots can only lower the gear a fairly low ammount of times before getting into that twilight zone. Of course, I may misremember, but to be fair I doubt so. Another thing I noticed, and this may be bogus, but you don't really trim that often. Whenever I'm about to make a change in my attitude, or in general, whenever I maneuver, I hold down the trim button, until I've navigated into a new stable state, only then do I release the trim. Trim accounts for something like 20% of control inputs, or in other words, if you move the stick, you'll have to overcome that 20% of input the trim has authority over (I may be misunderstanding trim as well though). Anyway, to get the snappy responses, and to fly without fighting the trim, it's generally advisable to hold the trim button down while making maneuvers. What you also might want to give a shot is the Flight Director mode. Input response is very different when engaging Flight Director. I genuinely believe it's just a minor misconception that keeps you from being convinced by the general awesomeness of this sim :) -Z

I noticed that - using Vista - I had to change the permissions on my folders to authorize users to write to my DCS installation folder. Otherwise no screenshots would show up, so taking pictures was useless :p Maybe it's the same with tracks? -Z

Don't think they're hostile in the way that they actively oppose the addition of such a tick box in an option menu somewhere Dropbear. I just think they feel they'd never use the feature. Personally, I've been annoyed at it a couple of times before, and indeed, in combination with a gamecrash when you get your bird repaired, I can imagine it's a pain. But for me, once I read what it was, I just planned around it. I know, useless advice in a way because in the end, even if you treat it like a baby, it'll still run out eventually, but I don't really mind much. Mainly because I'm lucky enough to get my birds repaired without my game going belly up on me :) Don't think of it as hostility though, it's just a way of viewing things. An extra option wouldn't mind much if it leaves things the way it is for people who like it the way it is. -Z

This may explain some things to you. It's a feature. It only works for a couple of times, then it dies. -Z

In all honesty my game has never crashed when I went to get my helicopter repaired. I have experienced the laser malfunction often enough but pussy-footing around with the laser has solved these issues. Not that what I do is ideal or anything, but I just only range when I need to deploy a weapon or need to get a position fix. I just slave the Shkval to the target, make sure I get a good fix, then activate laser, designate again, and I'm ready for deployment. Wingmen will engage my targets without me even lasing them, so that's fine too. Anyway, it's just how I do things :) -Z

If you have G25 pedals, is it safe to assume they're plugged in? When I started using my G25 (I already had an X52 and DCS: Black Shark) I noticed my trim wouldn't work. Checking this section of the FAQ solved my issue. The helicopter needs its trim as much as air almost. I find trimming and retrimming is key to flying. Oh, that, and smoothness. Practice makes perfect as they say. -Z

Of course it's possible, it's just not SOP :) Personally, I retrim for every change of attitude of the aircraft. I am by no means an expert, but at least this way the heading autopilot channel doesn't give me too much issues. -Z

I'm curious. If you can change the skin of a helicopter in a mission, does that mean you could potentially also change the starting point of the helicopter in that mission? What I'm asking basically is, can you do something similar, to allow us to ramp start a campaign mission? -Z

Indeed, the cost is relative :) The first time I heard about TrackIR I was skeptical, and didn't have much use for it. Or so I thought. I guess this must've been around 2003 or something, it was ages ago. After a while it got more and more common, and people started recommending it. Only with 6DOF I started seeing the benefit of it, and I had an itch to get one. That itch was growing, and it wasn't before fall 2008 that I got mine. I always considered it a big cost, especially considering I'm a mere student, we tend to spend our cash on other stuff than TrackIR. But it was so worth it. I couldn't have half expected how it would completely change my flight sim experience. It is such a tremendous tool, and it frees up joystick functions, and immerses you that one bit more. Before I got it, I thought it was expensive, but in the end, I've spent more money on products that I've seen a lot less enjoyment, or a lot less result from. In other words, I'm entirely happy with the money spent, because heck it was worth it. -Z

Not that it will matter much, but did you disable or enable Catalyst AI in the ATi Control panel? Also, have you updated to the latest drivers, and are you sure there's no resource hogs running in the background? -Z

q6F-0rIpLJE Models can do crazy stuff. Be prepared to blown away when watching that movie :) Anyway, scale and power to weight ratio etc, not to mention inertia, helos despite being maneuverable, aren't the best bullet dodgers when it comes to missiles :) + The RWR disucssion has been done ad infinitum now. -Z

Failing that, http://www.simw.com, admittedly, it's in Brussels Belgium, but I'm sure the shipping wouldn't be much higher for them for shipping to Holland. It ain't exactly that far :) -Z

I like the 0xx setup, or whichever the one is where you tick the release flare button, and a whole bunch of flares pops out, until you hit the "stop" button. Unrealistic, but what the hey, I get things done :p -Z

Offtopic, but when I went to LCD from CRT, the crispness of the image of the LCD really win me over to the LCD side. Not to mention, staring into an LCD is much more comfortable than staring into a CRT. I don't think I would be able to go back now, everytime I look at a CRT it disappoints me :p -Z

Considering the UV-26 will not come on until you've spooled up both engines, and flipped the AC generator switches, I'm assuming that when the inverter cuts out the UV system will not receive enough juice, and thus will also cut out. I'm assuming the AC generators are asynchronic engines? I'm assuming the converter converts the AC to DC so that it can be used by onboard systems? Considering systems like f.ex. the UV-26 don't really need the advantages of AC, they probably operate on DC... Then again, I'm no expert, but I know of a few on this forum who are. So I'm sure that if I 'm wrong they'll correct me :p -Z