Micr0

I could not even begin to remember the various meanings, but these lights indicate the current status of flight operations. IIRC, the most common was just a green light indicating normal operations. But each color had a different meaning.

I had this problem for one flight. I reset all the various supercarrier special options (helpers, velocity limit, etc.) and the ball came back. Not sure if thats a coincidence or a fix

The Airboss wants to see you in PriFly.

That arttu mod works pretty darn well! Thanks for sharing!

Not common. But it does happen

Agreed. This is what I and Lau were asking for in our threads below. This was possible the "other" sim using a program called FSRecorder. I think something similar would be a great addition to DCS.

+1 To Miramar. That's a legendary location

+1

Hi, Max. Sorry for the confusion. I'm not talking about views. I'm referring to being able to go fly another plane while a track plays in the background as AI traffic.

As it stands the tracks are played as "first person". Can we just make them playable as traffic?

Not sure about the sim, but IRL, no, not a good thing. Grading normally stops at the ramp. If you did something to attract the LSO's attention after crossing the ramp, and "in the wires", it aint gonna be a good thing.

It essentially comes down to the airspeed and altitude when coming in for the break. The ultimate expedited recovery is the "Triple Nickel" (aka <profanity> Hot Break) with 'nickle' being an American slang term for five. Normal break is 350kts, 800ft, break at the bow. SHB is 500kts, 500ft, and break at 0.5nm tacan distance behind the ship - and if you're feeling it, you throw it into burner for a couple seconds over the LSOs. That particular F-35 pilot was doing his first ever expedited recovery and thus was only at 435kts. But it would appear the adrenaline still got to him. It was a lot to do in a short time, and it could be overwhelming for any pilot given the circumstances

That was me being a little silly when i edited down the video. Good catch.

I was in only from 2000-03. I made to the RAG and then went and jacked up my back. Medicaled out before I got to have all the fun. Hence I live vicariously through dcs

JackJack, when were you in? Yeah, it's really not possible to describe to someone how dark it is. I miss the adrenaline. Like the guy says in the vid below, "I don't think you know what dark truly is....."

Draconus, Yeah, that is a handy trigger, but it still doesn't drown out those pesky flood lights during the recovery setting. Like you said originally, there is room for improvement. Minsky, I'm actually not "asking" for anything. This was just an idea to improve the immersion. The challenge of night carrier operations is how dark it actually is. Just taxiing around the deck can be terrifying. Personally, I like to make it as challenging as possible to re-live the glory days.

I did a slight mod to make it a bit more realistic to what is seen in reality. I took the FCLP Box Lights, along with the FLOLS and attached them to the carrier in the ME. I don't call the ship so they wont turn on the ships lights. Its not perfect. The dim flood flights used during normal ops are not there. No drop-down lights, no nav lights on the ship, and the box lights are a bit smaller than the real deck. But this is pretty darn close. The video starts out at 10 miles behind the ship when, on a clear night, you can start to make out the landing area. The box lights are indeed a little dot bobbing in the distance, like they really do.

Draconus, I've been on the deck at night and seen it from behind the boat. Both of those pictures are open-shutter for a few seconds. Hence the moon looks like the sun. It's dark, and i promise the island isn't illuminated. I can't provide a picture of something at night that is that dark. When you take into account all the "ziplip " ops to conceal the carrier... an illuminated tower doesn't make much sense. Heck, they made us turn off our nav lights when on deck for a reason.

Hi, Draconus. So, I'm a bit confused about what your asking. But just a bit of logic would leave someone to ask where the light that is illuminating the walls of the island is coming from. For example, if you are standing outside at night in the darkness, and you shine a flashlight out in front of you.... your body will not illuminate. This is exactly why the flood lights of the island do not illuminate the island itself. As the lighting stands right now, it appears as though there are spotlights on the deck being shone at the island. I assure you there are no spotlights on the deck.

Flying tonight and something finally occurred to me: As you can see from the screenshots, the island is reflecting light as though the deck is illuminating it. Yes, the flood lights on the island should illuminate the deck, but not the island. This only occurs for the island itself, and not for the antenna towers. The towers appear much more realistic as they are dark. It might add to the immersion to eliminate this lighted island effect.

The laser in the LRLS is an "eye-safe" laser (hence it can be pointed directly into a cockpit). I'm far from an expert on that system, from what I was told eye-safe lasers emit a much lower intensity of power and wavelength that is also less intense. What that means for the viewer.... It's just a light. I remember picking it up once at about 4 miles, but that was because I was lined up right and was getting the green light. At 3 miles and on centerline it's barely visible, as it blends in with the drop-down lights.

The laser is no more visible than the ship itself. It does not have some magical powers that make it more visible. It is a light attached to the ship, it just happens to be a directional light. A more realistic concern should be the visibility of the landing area from a distance.

Ok, I've been holding off on chiming in. But here's the deal. I flew in the Navy for 3 years before being discharged for a medical. But I can tell you this: The LRLS is worthless and no one used it. Why? Because during day Case 1 you're not going to use it, as it would only be visible in the groove and the LRLS isn't part of "Ball, Lineup, AoA". I could not even tell you if it's even turned on during the day because you're never in a position to use it. During day, Case 3, you're not going to see it because it's foggy. During night, God help you if you told anyone you were using the laser to line up unless there was some sort of issue with ICLS/ACLS. You are expected to be inside the cockpit scanning your instruments until the 3/4 mile call. That ridiculous system would only (possibly) be useful during Day Case 2 or if there was a malfunction with a primary system on the ship or in the plane. Give it a rest with the laser. It's not a realistic system ball flyers would, or will, use. It's a novelty.

Needles

Hi, Jack. Thank you for the reply. You clearly have a lot of passion about this issue. Please allow me to apologize to you for my absurd ignorance. To answer you question though: My CO told me pilots do it - when he had me go down to the hangar bay in 1999 to manup before flying a maintenance profile. I then rode up the elevator to the flight deck in my jet. As you can see in the video below (scroll to 8:50), it was not common, but did happen. But again, I thank you for the information, tactfulness, and setting me straight. Regards.