Props

Well I did not really expect any interest from the DCS community about the forthcoming FSA Expo, but it's only a week away and I wanted to mention that I did get the panel filled out and it will be the First real Combat Flight Sim panel or discussion ever presented at this event. The FSA staff have been extremely supportive realizing that CFS is under represented at the Expo and want to encourage more folks to get involved. The discussion is titled So You Want to be a Virtual Combat Pilot and will be on the FSElite Stage Saturday at 12:15 pm. I have some stellar guests lined up from the combat sim world and I would post their names but DCS forums are oddly non-permissive about mentioning anything about competing sims so I probably shouldn't as it will get censored. Anyway if you are attending the Expo, sit in for the panel and say hi afterwards as we would love to meet anyone from the CFS community.

Hello folks, I don't post much here, but I am looking for a participant for a panel discussion at FSA Expo in Vegas this year. This panel will be a Q&A discussion on getting started and progressing in Combat Flight Simulators something the Expo has not really done before and I would really like to get one more panel member to round out the discussion, preferably from the DCS modern jet fighter community and a regular MP online pilot with a lot of flight time. My name is Joe "Props" Gallwitz and I will be moderating and I am preferentially a WW2 props guy on various sims. Anybody here going and would like to help a bunch civilian simmers make the transition? Combat Flight simming has been a bit under represented at the Expo in the past and the organizers have been really supportive and eager to get this panel setup so if your interested PM or post a reply.

As excited as I am for the Marianas WW2 map, it seems kind of pointless if there are no flyable Japanese aircraft available (and WW2 carriers). Or at least some opposing AI aircraft. Unless everyone wants to just tail-chase each other in P-51s, FW 190s, and Corsairs in pretend combat. I surely hope that this awesome dev team has more content up their sleeve than a pretty island paradise. I don't mind waiting....

There are at least 3 surviving N1KJ George in the US, both in supposedly flying condition - one is at the Smithsonian and may still be under restoration (there are videos about this one on youtube about the painstaking work involved) and another at the National Naval Aviation museum in Pensacola, FL and one at the USAF National Museum in Dayton OH (I have seen this one up close and supposedly all AC there are restored to airworthiness though they never fly them and I'm sure there are exceptions). They also recently recovered one in Japan from underwater that is being currently restored. That Ki84 Frank was flying in the '70s there is a video of this, but Mogster is correct about it being rather derelict now. According to Wikipedia there are 4 surviving Ki-61 Hein out there one of which is being restored to airworthy status in New Zealand and another in good condition in California, one that was restored recently by Kawasaki in Japan and another in restoration New Zealand. I could go on as there are other Japanese models out there in different states of repair so getting many specs for these AC is not beyond hope. I could put a comprehensive set of links to documentation here, but it would fill the page. If there is interest I will post this info. Like I mentioned before I am an avid student of WW2 Pacific aviation and there's a lot more info out there than many folks realize.

I can certainly appreciate the diligence and effort to make these planes as real as possible! I wouldn't expect anything less from crew at DCS. I also acknowledge that the US (and British) evaluations of these AC made during the war can be flawed for the reasons that Mogster pointed out. But at this point in history there may never be enough data, especially from the few lucky pilots that have actually flown them like the guys at Planes of Fame, or now that most of the original pilots have passed on, to effectively model them to perfection. So I am kind of the school of thought that you do the best you can with what you have available, tweak as you go, and hope for the best, rather than not trying at all. We are 70+ years removed from the WW2 era and cannot expect things to be exactly perfect at this point, but I'm willing to bet the extraordinary devs found at DCS can still provide for a great set of planes modeled pretty darn close to reality with the resources that are still available today. I personally feel it is worth the effort.

Being a bit of an armchair historian and having spent a lot of time on the Pacific campaigns in earnest, especially in regards to the march up the Solomons, I just plain want a Pacific theater sim! And especially a Zero! I don't care if it's an A6M2, 3, or 5 anyone of them will do, but I do think some appropriate adversaries need to be included. If you're going to do early war / Guadacanal period you have to have the F4F Wildcat, midwar the F6F Hellcat and Corsair (which would take you into the late war as well). Of course if you're going to do late war, where DCS seems to be focused right now, then you really need the N1JK-1/2 George or Ki-84 Frank to be competitive and fair (along with the A6M5), and mid-war the Ki-61 Tony. You can't do the Pacific without the Zero. It was exclusive to the IJN but was also their most produced AC outnumbering all their other production fighters. And for a great portion of the war it flew in far greater numbers as a land based fighter than carrier based. The Ki-43 Oscar is interesting if your going to do Burma and mainland China, but was lacking in many ways compared to the Zero as pointed out in previous comments here, and did not really have much of a presence in South Pacific so is a non-starter for me. As far as documentation on these types goes there is actually a lot more material available on the web (and other sources) than folks realize. I have even found links to engineering evaluations, with photos of interior airframe components, done by the US during the war for several of these aircraft on sites as diverse as the War Thunder forum (an arcade sim I refuse to fly, but I still found those links to be useful!-). I even found one of these reports on the Ki-44 Tojo none of which are in existence now except maybe in bits and pieces in the jungles New Guinea. There are also many surviving examples of some of these AC around the world where enterprising folks can dig up more technical info as well. There's a ton of good info on their carriers and other fleet vessels these being a little better documented despite many of them being destroyed rather early in the war. So personally I think it's all within the range of possibility if the devs really were committed to it. Give me an escort carrier, and one fleet carrier, the Solomons or Marianas map and just a few models on each side and I'm one happy camper! The combat flight sim world has been sorely missing a good solid Pacific theater sim since IL-2 Pacific and 1946 made their debut.

Hello Greyeagle! This is my first post to the DCS forums so greetings to all. I am just getting started with DCS myself (I was holding out for World 2.7 and the clouds!-) though I have many years of experience in the Il-2 series going way back and the older MS flight sims as well. Sounds like your on the right track and everyone's recommendations here are spot on. I feel compelled to throw in my 2 cents worth in regards to the Thrustmaster Warthog though. I have been using the Warthog HOTAS setup with MFG Crosswinds pedals (the pedals are awesome by the way and though I'm small I like the width and it was a major part of my decision to purchase them). I really like the throttle and stick a bunch, and they are more than adequate for WW2 aircraft with plenty of switches to cover my needs allowing me to forego using the keyboard or mouse, but the Warthog base has been problematic from the start. I have had to open it up on way too many occasions to mod it for loose stanchions, funky knocks and bumps that make me nervous about it's build quality, and most annoyingly the large rubber gasket in the housing has repeatedly shifted out of place, even after thorough cleanings and gluing it back in place. It is now deteriorating, cracking and splitting after only 6 months of daily use, so I am hunting for replacement o-rings at local hardware stores. I just received news this morning that my new Virpil T-CM50 base is shipping today after a 4 week backorder wait and I am pretty excited about that, so I am in agreement with those who have posted here about replacing the base with a Virpil. As for VR I am one of those who cannot use it in it's current development. I get nauseated and a headache within minutes. This is a well documented problem with VR, though there is good research being done to alleviate it. Personally I am very happy with my Track IR setup and a large screen with it's high resolutions and framerates, and the ability to see my switches when I need to look, though muscle memory has eliminated the need to look at the switches much anymore. I wear corrective lenses and my left eye is worse than the right, so this could be part of the problem in VR. There are quality prescription inserts designed specifically for VR headsets, but none of those providers actually produce lenses within my prescription parameters. That is probably not an issue for you as from your career history I would guess your eyesight is better than mine! I must point out that I have never been Airsick nor seasick in my travels and did get my PPL some years back with no issues, though I can't really afford to fly anymore, so I am not sure why VR effects me so much! I only want to point out that VR may not work for everyone and there are good alternatives for all around situational awareness like Track IR if you should run into a problem with VR. Have fun!