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.

Done the Now or Never again, and scripts are working, maybe I missed it first time. I missed Snake the first time, LGB lock kept dropping out after a while, I did find him again...eventually, parked at the end of the road and got him, but a Mig got me....not saying too much as not to give away the story line. One improvement I would recommend, the mission where you escort the F18 back to Stennis, a good idea, not sure how realistic it is, maybe escort a C17 to an airbase of something would be cool, I think that actually a mission from F15 Baltic Dragon. Escort missions are always cool, just would be good if it was changed a little. Really like that it tests your Hornet knowledge, I learned a lot so far! Would like if all missions started C&D, also I think some mission winds are not stated correctly, ofter saying wind is 000 deg, when it's from the south. One mssion says mission sucess, just a small spelling mistake, should be success. Just in case you want to make small corrections. Please confirm, you are making some Super Carrier Campaign? That would be beyond awesome!!

I have no problem tanking, but I wanted to see if changing the loadout worked, just out of interest. I think when the centre line is free, it's always good to add a tank. I had the correct Tacan and AA setup, but it just kept searching, will try it again sometime. On the mission "now or never", it would be good to have a tanker at WP3, instead of it triggering as you get to WP3, just to make it feel less of a "triggered" mission if you know what I mean. But I realise that the mission setup has limitation. On another note, the Maverick mission with JTAC; if you try and contact the JTAC at 15 mins out (standard way), it then stops the mission working. You need to contact after the game trigger asks you to, the only issue with that is by the time all comes are completed, you are over the target. No big deal, prob a limitaiton of the mission editor, but an earlier trigger to contact would be better. Only other issue I have is, I think if you ask for the cords to stay on screen for 2 mins, you then dont get text about the next assignments, but Im still testing that. Overall, enjoying this very much, just got shot by the Migs though on Now or Never, again, no text, so trying to listen to what the task was, but hard to understand.

To add, I never got a tanker, completed my tasks, said to tank if needed (I didn't need as I added a fuel tank before takeoff), but Tacan would not show the tanker, so it was lucky I didn't need it.

Was 25 years old when I bought Flanker 1 in 1995, been flight simming since 1985 on the ZX Spectrum.

Sounds to me like a few things going on at once. My advise is to not land like a pro on your first attempts, don't start with a VRIAB (visual run in and break), start with BFM (basic flight maneuvers). First of all, you should be well trained and pro when it comes to speed, throttle, pitch and trim....in a Cessna! Not much changes for the F18, flight principles remain the same. Can you fly in a straight and level flight at 300kts clean, trimmed Can you fly at 200kts clean, trimmed Can you apply half flap, adjust power to hole IAS and fly trimmed Can you slow to 130kts full flap trimmed Can you do a 45 deg level turn at this speed, trimmed. The hornet has BIG flaps, you need to stay ahead of the plane (which means predict what it's going to do and control it, not the opposite). So this is when you become a master and predict the small power input you need for the turn to final. But start with the basics, don't chase the HUD around with big inputs, be really gentle on the stick, otherwise your AoA will go wild and you are chasing it. The more gentle you fly, the smoother the flight path vector and ebracket become and the easier it gets. And practise! Go and do 20 circuits non stop until it starts to become natural, then do another 20...

Same problem here, was on Hoggit training server, CCIP line was about 90 degrees out the SIDE, so just release when I thought I should, CCIP was about 200 yards to the right of the bridge, and hit the bridge dead on! There is a slight wind in that server, sometimes the CCIP line is straight, depending on the aircraft heading and pitch, but as soon you you nose down slightly, it goes off to the side. Definitely a big, no user error as worked perfect before.

Same problem, found this old thread, but in case it helps, if your trim is slightly off, HSEL does not work. I trimmed due to a different weapons load on each wing, after centering the trim again, HSEL is working again.

Awright muckers. Was going to open a new thread, but thought this one was appropriate. A2A refuelling has been no problem for me, until I started doing missions from cold and dark ramp start. With ramp hot start, the radio comms work with no issue, I can use the old comm menu button and the tanker answers on initial contact, I can use comm1 shortcut and it works too, freq goes to 251 by default, AM...no problems. With cold and dark, I am using the cheat start up until I get time to learn each step manually. But with this start state, I can not get any answer from the tanker with first contact. So either this is a bug, or I suspect cold and dark is not setting something in the radio like a hot start does. With cold and dark, I use comm 1, either with M mode and input 251, which the radio accepts, contact tanker with comm 1 shortcut or general comm menu and no answer, tried everything possible but I can't get an answer, using the preset freq 251 (preset 18 I think) doesn't work, trying another frequency doesn't work. Something obvious, read the manual, or a bug? Thanks for any help.

I love the sound of the F18, I hear it every few weeks near my house when the Swiss F18's fly low, same sound, just lasts a bit longer as it's not quite as fast. My wife often says she saw jets when I'm at work, I gave up asking if it's a twin tail twin engine, or a single tail (Tiger), I now just ask her what it sounded like and then I know!

Same here, but not in AG mode, just normal nav mode. At a certain point it starts selecting the next waypoint many nm before reaching the current one. I also have a problem with only having a dashed line for the 1st 14 waypoints, I'm not sure if that's correct or is a bug?