chaos

I started on the runway, engines idle. Applied max. brakes and pressure remains steady. Took off and returned to land. During the roll-out phase I get a Master Caution (disregard my previous comment) upon applying maximum braking (W key). L HYD gauge shows 0. According the A-10A manual; If L HYD fails, the R HYD system should take over and provide hydraulic pressure for braking (albeit without anti-skid). If that fails, there's enough pressure in the accumulator to bring the A/C to a full stop. I can only assume this is a beta-software issue....

Maybe I'm missing something here... I land on speed and in the touchdown zone on a long runway. I press the "W" key to apply (max) brakes. After a few seconds L HYD PRESS caution light comes on (without a Master Caution I might add). Is this normal system behaviour? I doubt it. Hence I end up in the grass at the other end :-) I should be able to apply max. braking under normal conditions.

Maybe take a re-fresher course... ? Joking!!!! :-) Like Eddie said; there's no need to stand on the brakes (unless you have to make due with the "W" key for braking like I do). Pumping the brakes is discouraged because it doesn't do anything except increasing your stopping distance. With every brake-application, you're forcing the anti-skid system to re-calculate how much pressure should be bled in order to prevent the wheels from locking up. It can take up to 3 seconds for the system to calculate how much pressure should go to the brakes. I assume the military systems work on the exact same principle. I've been flying for 22 years now (currently B777) and still learning every day...

Okay, I'll email flight-technical of our company and tell them they've been wrong all along. Might as well get Boeing and Airbus involved as well. :-)

With engines idle, hydraulic pressure would be more than sufficient to operate the brakes. Even with the pumps not running, there would be enough pressure in the accumulator to brake (i.e. hydr. failures). "Pumping" the brakes is not smart as you're forcing the anti-skid system to continuously cycle in an effort to find maximum brake pressure for existing runway conditions. This will increase your stopping distance. Especially during hydr. failures you should refrain from pumping as the accumulator will only allow a maximum of 5 applications before pressure drops below safe levels (A-10A). Besides, as anti-skid is not available with alternate brakes, you'd be well advised to brake cautiously because you may blow a a tire. It would be interesting to see if ED actually modelled this anti-skid behaviour.

Ah yes... QEMM, LOADHIGH and whatnot. Those were the days... :-) Tornado anyone??? Real life got in the way, 10 years ago, and I haven't had the time to fly sims since then. Now I'm flying DCS:WH on my laptop, with the arrow keys as a stick... It's not good enough so I'm thinking; "should I buy a proper desktop/HOTAS/TrackIR"? Hell, yes!

I'm unfortunately not able to pre-purchase the software just yet. Can somebody confirm the following; TACAN range is a four-digit number (fourth digit being 10th of a mile) in the sim. From screenshots I've seen so far it appears that range is depicted as a 3 digit number which, according to the A-10A (TO1A-10A manual), is not correct. It's as if the artist has forgotten to include the 1st digit drum. The TACAN range window (in-sim) does actually allow the 1st digit to be displayed but is currently a "black hole"...

The DCS series screams SEPECAT JAGUAR. No radar, plenty of switches to throw, does both A-G and A-A (A-A is a bit of a stretch), sexy and fast in a 1970's package... wooohooo! ;-)

Something cool I noticed at 04:44... As the sun rises, taxiway edge lights (and REDL?) switches off. One of my pet-peeves regarding BlackShark is that airports stand out like a sore-thumb because of the way lights are implemented. Thanks to whoever implemented that new feature.

My Android phone plays the video just fine...

I've been sight-seeing on Google-Earth trying to cross-reference all of the airports with the ones that are currently in the game. I noticed that some (seemingly active-) bases are not featured in the map-screenshot and vice-versa. Some bases in the game have actually been turned into farmfields or housing projects according to the satellite-pics. What is ED's reasoning for doing so? Is it purely for game-play reasons or are there other considerations?

http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/ (LUA Manual) regards

A "cold start" requires a complete alignment process that takes more than 3 minutes. Quick align only works when the system is already operational and needs some refinement due to accumulated errors. Typically one uses quick align during a short turn-around. It cannot be used during flight because the platform needs to be absolutely stationary.

FWIW... There's an article published somewhere... might have been on tomshardware although a quick search didn't reveal anything. To cut a long story short... moving to 64bits is mainly beneficial to the developer (i.e. compiling etc.). It won't improve performance in-game all that much, if any. Maybe somebody from ED (or any developer) could comment on this?

I'd like to know what is going to happen on the 3rd party development- front. Will the tools be made available soon and when is the forum going live? Good update... not so sure about the FC thingy but obviously some people are very happy about that.

May I suggest "Chickenhawk" by Robert Mason. I rarely read books because I don't have the patience.... this one I've read in one go.

Can somebody from ED (or the terrain mod crowd) tell me what DCS' DEM resolution (90m, 5m or less) is?

HellMutt, Thanks for your suggestion... The problem was with downloading the map onto the fighterstick. I've got the throttle working now... so much easier than keyboard :-)

No need to yell, USSR_Rik... I did read the manual _and_ the FAQ. Thanks to everybody who are trying to help... CH Hangar seems promising but I'm unable to try their suggestions at the moment since I'm not at home. Thanks Bart... that's what a I need ... a step by step plan. I'll try it as soon as I get the chance.

I don't think this is a problem with BlackShark therefor I've posted this under "General Discussion"... I own a CH Fighterstick without external throttle or rudders. The Fighterstick is recognised by BlackShark however, the "Axis" button remains greyed out. I cannot assign the collective to the Z-axis. In short; I can use the joystick to control the cyclic in-game just fine but I'd like to add the 3rd axis (throttle) to control the collective.... what do I do? The stick is correctly recognised by Windows XP and functions normally (including the throttle function).

Tornado GR3... probably not going to happen. Runner up.... Sepecat Jaguar!

...and wouldn't it be fun to just press a button and try to figure out what it does... By now I have a pretty good idea of where to look thanks to the producers notes. To boldy go where no man has gone before... The real question is; will they accept creditcard payments on the 17th?

Besides... you can start a mission with "engines running" or choose a "quick mission". Just raise the collective and off you go! No need to immitate Wags' moves as per "Producer's Note 1" :-)

I want the baseball hat, damnit!

Steel Beasts Pro PE $125. Pioneer Plasma TV $3000. $795 for Black Shark seems fair... but they'll have to throw in a baseball hat or no sale for me!