RimanDk

Perfect! Thank you!

Given the format of the campaign and the nomenclature used (Mission 2.a, etc), I was hoping that each exercise would be re-playable from the campaign mission select menu. Unfortunately, they are not and only the "top" mission file in the stack is shown and re-playable. That means, if I want to practice a particular exercise, I have to go through all of what came before first. I get the "you can never get too good at x and y..." argument, but when time is limited and the mission/file structure seems to support this... If I were to copy the individual mission files from the campaign folder into the Missions folder, would I not be able to load and play each "subsection" of the mission (each exercise) separately? Would it break anything? Would I be doing something "wrong"? Are there any particular drawbacks in doing this? Thanks in advance.

Perfect! Thanks for that! Believe me, I listen to Paco carefully - and stop the mission to read back the message history whenever I am in doubt - but listening to and understanding are not always the same thing... particularly when you have no formal training in any of it and are just an enthusiastic, self-taught amateur =). As much as I would love to take your grad-sheet challenge, it's pretty evident to me that I'm not on a level yet, where it would make sense to do so. Instead, I'll use the first few missions in this campaign as a training tool to learn and practice those fundamental skills I'm missing (primarily precision flying). Cheers - and sorry, FMBleucher, for butting into your thread

Ah! So, "wings level" means level flight as well? I took that to mean "no bank angle". Okay, fair enough. I guess there is still some lingo I need to get used to! Cheers.

I get that. Its value is not readily apparent and I'm not sure I have the full answer to that. My personal takeaway is a greater understanding and appreciation for how it handles at low-speed, high-bank. At a certain point, that nose just comes down dramatically. I also have a better feeling for how it will recover from such a situation... how much vertical space I need for it, etc. To me, that's all got some carry-over to BFM.

Same point as anything else on the fam flight: to get a feeling for how the plane does in different situations. Great tip, the bottom one! I'm willing to wager you are a far more experienced - and meticulous! - flier than most of your customers*. I've run through this mission 4 times now, and I ran out of fuel once and got a bad remark for landing with 1600lbs left in the tanks on a second occasion, where I got a BELOW AVERAGE. The latter is ironic, for I was trying to make up for my first, AVERAGE run =). The difference was that I was asked to re-do the left-hand 360, the loop and the first wing-over (in my better run, I had to repeat the level turn as well as the wing-over, but not the loop). That, and I got confused by the Mach run portion. You do as instructed, but there is no voice-over telling you when have satisfied the criteria. I did my right turn, did my left turn, got no confirmation and did them a second time. Got pretty close to hitting the mountains at Mach 1.5... only when I backed out of it and leveled out on my own, did the sound file play. I guess the trigger is going back to wings level and/or pulling out of blower. Had I realized that sooner, I would probably have had more juice to limp home with... *Sidenote: this campaign is brutal! I know you warned us in advance, but... mission 2 is absolutely spanking me raw... I dare not think of 3... (and no, it's not the AAR, it's keeping formation through the turns)

Got it! Thank you =). Quick follow-up question for mission 1: The wing-overs, are you supposed to use rudders during? Spud's video of mission 1 is a bit confusing about this, as it mentions airflow over the tails, but doesn't mention applying rudders during. The slow-speed, high AOA exercise is slightly confusing as well, as getting the nose to 60 degs is easy enough, but keeping it there becomes impossible eventually. Keeping it at 30 is doable, but not higher than that, in my experience. Is that okay? The script/triggers seemed satisfied...

Finished the first mission with a "AVERAGE" and a mission score of 80 - are the two related? I did stuff the landing up quite badly (I thought it was 2700ft on the radalt, not baro... popped both tyres on landing, spun out the runway xD). What exactly dictates the mission score in this campaign?

Okay, I just finished the first mission and I can confirm that Wake Turbulence was the culprit! Removing it made all the difference! Good call!

Huh! Okay - did not know that... also, it was pretty damn difficult to fly behind those formations! It probably comes as a surprise to none, but those bombers do whip the air something terrible! Alright, I shall try disabling it and giving it a go! Thank you for the tip.

Actually, wake turbulence is enabled - am I supposed to turn it off, then? I can't find a place where that recommendation is made. Is this recommendation based in performance concerns solely or realism/handling also? As in - is this something I should turn off when flying busy campaigns or is the effect unrealistic when flying a warbird?

Finally dove into this campaign, but couldn't get through the first mission due to the framerate absolutely cratering once joining up with the bombers. Talking single digits here (i7 4790k, 32gb ram, 1080ti, 3x1080p screens). I think "The Big Show" allowed you to adjust bomber formation size to try and address this very issue? I looked for that option in the F10 menu while on the ground here, in Mission 1, but there's nothing. Am I doing it wrong? Is there something I can do to make this playable? I can work with 30'ish fps (it's in the 45-60 region at Biggin Hill), but it gets unplayable at 8 fps, unfortunately =(. Thanks in advance.

@Reflected, piggy-backing on this thread to highlight a different issue with this mission: The briefing, when you first load into the mission, is wrong! It presents the briefing for hop 4, I believe it is. See attached screenshot. Briefing:

I actually did not expect to learn much from that, I'll be honest, after having watched hundreds of hours of GS dogfighting... but I did! So, thank you very much for sharing! That was really helpful! I am pleased to report that, after setting up a quick custom mission for myself and practicing the specific engagement I was struggling with, I have managed to pass the second mission with.. unexpected ease. It's really weird to me to come here and share that I made quick work of both Vipers (comparative results to what Reflected shared in his update) when I struggled so much a month back... I'm not sure what's changed between then and now - whether the AI has become more approachable or I have just become a better aviator after mercilessly drilling AAR at 350 kts and 1 on 1 guns-only engagements with the Flanker in the instant mission - but I succeeded. I feel a bit silly now, but I swear that that Viper was flying circles around me a month back. Oh well, just thought I would share the good news - at least, we got (will get) more accurate tankers in this campaign as a result of my toils! Cheers!

Thanks for the tip and the insights! I did have a prolonged fight that ended on the deck, where I wasted all 4 of my sidewinders on the same Viper. It just rated too fast. No amount of lead was enough to get them to turn with it.

=o... damn! Thank you for the info and for performing the test and confirming it is still possible! Much obliged! Time to git gud, then!

Thank you so much! That is much appreciated! Can you share what speed you will be lowering them to, so I can start practicing plugging at that speed? As for making the whole hop without refuelling: is that feasible with the current state of DCS? This mission is without bags; even when I fly the route conservatively, I am down to 12.000'ish lbs when I get to the merge. Between the AI logic updates and the FM updates to the Viper specifically, that thing's flying circles around me. The first attempt at the mission ended in flames when I did not recover from a loop too close to the ground. The second fly-out also ended at the deck, but with a knock-it-off call. Fuel was below bingo. In order to rtb with enough fuel, I reckon I would need to spend no more than 4000 lbs of fuel on each round, which would require some pretty quick kills. I'm sure I'm garbage at it, but I don't really see a way for an F-14A to pull that off against this Viper. I would welcome any and all tips, other than ditching straight to the deck . I'm loving the campaign and it's pushing me to learn and expand my horizons in order to overcome the challenges - which is exactly what a campaign should do - but I also reckon the Viper was a different (and much more docile) animal at the time this campaign was released? Cheers!

Hey, Reflected. I've been stuck on Mission 2 for a while, since I had the "misfortune" of starting this campaign after the Viper got its updates.. and now it's quite a struggle to beat. I get very low on fuel during the first round, so I have been teaching myself to aar between rounds (still not there yet, but slowly..) This has prompted me to do some digging into the Tomcat's FM/behaviour while the probe is out and, long story short, I got a lot of comments back from the community on why I was practicing refuelling at 350kts in the first place? I pointed at the instant action mission as well as the tankers in Zone 5 (well, at least the KC-135; I haven't checked the one further out from the engagements zone), which are set up that way. I don't know why the tankers are set up to refuel at that speed, but it sounds like they should be going between 230 and 270 kts... not 350. It also sounded like this was a mistake for the instant action mission (Reference) and that it should be corrected. Were the tankers set up at this speed and altitude based on some reference material you can share, or is it a bug? Thanks in advance!

Hello Mikhail, Please add me to the waiting list =). Buying from Denmark. Cheers!