Dr_Watson

Sounds good, I've not got round to trying it yet.

It’s nothing new. Dropping off troops is already a feature of some helicopters and is popular in a few multiplayer servers. The HIND just continues that theme. I would like to have the ability to rescue downed pilots now that they show up on the map!

Don't let that put you off, you can do a great deal in the chopper by readying 20 pages and watching some tutorials. There are many out there, I quite like the way Wilbuz LLF does his videos, especially the trimmer. Learn how to fly and trim and use the Autopilot (ie. Autopilot is on all the time you fly mostly) the weapons are not so hard to learn, pay attention to laser burn out. Lastly, you can get into the map stuff and datalink etc, that can take time, also cold start can take time to learn but is not needed, you don't need too much in depth knowledge to have fun. Make sure you set the cockpit to English...and as already said, come join us on "Capture the bases" in Syria, hot start (engines running), flying 50nm at 5m-10m, weaving through orchids, forests, farms, under pylons... then stalk a base for an hour taking out SAMS and ZSU's and those bloody Gephards....! Capture the base.....then crack open another Weiss beer!

Enjoy

I too believe is overdone, I was landing behind another F18, he was maybe 2nm ahead, he landed, I kept low and flew 100ft, 350kts along the runway on a low run in and break, as I approached the runway, my aircraft was uncontrollable, flipping upside down, took a bit of effort to avoid the ground. I think this video shows that the effect is a bit overdone, or needs some optimising.

Start by cheating, don't worry about wingmen, start with 1 vs 1, use the F10 menu to see the missiles being fired at you. The tactic is to know how long you can keep flying at the enemy aircraft even if its fired at you, to help ensure your AMRAAM will at least go pitbull and also have a good chance to hit. Use the F6 missile view too. You will be surprised that you can guide your AMRAAM then make a 90 deg turn (diving turn if need be to keep speed), then another 90 deg climbing turn away, the enemy missile soon looses speed and every time it turns to track you, it looses speed and energy. Then do it again but with no labels or maps and you will start to get to know some ranges that you feel safe. Energy of your aircraft is key, worst thing you can do (in a medium range fight) is start evasive turns and firing out counter measures the moment you detect a missile launch. Once closer in though, that is a whole different ball game. CAP is not always technically perfect, but his vids are never too long and usually to the point, so you don't fall asleep with too much detail. AZ/EL video here

Make sure you are extremely familiar with the cone, how to move it and shape it to find the targets initially and then how to concentrate the cone in the area of the targets so you done loose them again. Main things to know are, how to change the Elevation bar settings and what effect that has. How to adjust the radar elevation using elevation control, how to adjust elevation using the TDC, how to use Azimuth width selection to find targets and to then track them. You should be able to see a fighter size aircraft at 40nm to 80nm in idea conditions, once you get a hit on the radar, you need to make a mental note of its altitude that shows on your radar, then you can narrow the elevation of the cone to search only the rough elevation of the target, and then also move the Azimuth to search that piece of sky too. Took me a little while to get use to the F18 radar, one thing that you need to check is when you put the radar on by default, it is often pointing down at the ground....and you will see NOTHING unless you know how to set the elevation.

I would go with the F18, I tried the F16 with one of the free to play deals from ED and I liked it but I prefer the F18's flight model. I have been learning it bit by bit, it takes time, and you don't want to get ahead of yourself or you end up in a mess, one thing is to learn the specific traits of the aircraft, and the F18 has many. I use the Grim Reapers videos to go over each section, they are short and to the point. If you need more details, then I check Redkits or Wags stuff. To make learning fun, I use Hoggits training server so you are flying with others and world seems alive, also some good targets there and you can spawn up ranges to practice on, practice A2A refuelling and carrier stuff without getting shot down all the time! Next step I did was flying in the Capture the Base servers in Syria. Really fun server. Some evening I do CAP for A10's, some CAP for KA50's, sometime go off looking for Mig 25's, sometimes droppping GBU38 from 40k ft onto a BUK Sam, other evening doing rockets CAS, or Mavericks, or LGB's or some great cluster bomb drops over airfields....never ending fun and always learning. I stick to one of these mission types until it's familiar with it then move on. Some great missions taking off from Incirlik AFB, go a refuel from a C130, drop some GBU38 on a SAM, CAP for some ground pounders, come back and take out some soft targets, back to the tanker, a bit more CAP then back to base....amazing! Good luck!

You can use the F18 on the Stennis, which works fine for basics of takeoff and landing. The Supercarrier adds a lot more though and is recommended, but try the Stennis first before parting with you money.

IMO, this should be addressed before anything else outstanding for the F18!

To add, I haven't found time to do more testing, too much going on. Will get to it eventually.

A Super Hornet with the new clouds....that would be amazing!!!!!!!

Im not posting a track until I have some good info. Tonights quick test shows online, with a few MK83, cheat start, everything worked pretty perfectly. However, after landing and rearming, I could get the bomb fall line off by 45 degrees at about 500ft. Maybe something to do with a hot rearming. I want to test this in single player so I can see if there is a pattern with multiplayer and/or rearming. Give me a few days to get some more info.

I will try this again on Hoggit this evening and send a track in. Cheers

I have this problem, but from airfields. Recently I'm getting upto speed on the F18s systems using the Hoggit Training server. I'm using cheat start then using all weapons until I become totally familiar with them. I can't use any weapons in CCIP though as the bomb fall line is off to the side, at 500ft agl, it can be about 20 deg off vertical, at 200ft it can be 90 deg out to the side! Also I find that when using the TGP, nearly all the time, the point where I laser designate is not where the bomb (or maverick) goes, it is always about 500ft off to the side. I can lock a static object, see it on the MFD, fly towards it and I can see the small diamond is on a different location on the terrain! More recently, I'm flying on a "capture the bases" server with AI as enemy, and now putting my knowledge to some use, in this server, the aircraft are on hot start, in this case, I have yet to see the problem, CCIP and laser is working properly. Maybe this is not related to the above posts, but it seems like a similar issue. I am not familiar with the F18 INS so I use cheat start, but maybe there is some difference between cold and hot start, and it's not always only related to a carrier start.