Airflow

My first was the F-19, which was horribly overpowered, but had all the elements of a proper flight sim - missions, physics, objectives, big maps, stelf... Hard to imagine how I could ever play that, but it was huge fun at the time. Then came the LHA, a helicopter sim. Also overpowered, but the variety of missions put it above the rest. Sometimes all you had to do was rescue a few dudes. Don't worry, wasn't anything easy about that. Got to give kudos to DID throughout. Every sim recognizable, and mostly, looking back, they tended to strike the best realism/fun balance for every era. I remember playing their final creation, the F-22 TAW, and thinking "no way a real plane would fly that well, be that easy to control, or have the systems as accessible". Now after trying out TAW, I figure they were reasonably close to the mark. There's still a community playing and extending that sim, though most of them play DCS as well. Tiger if any of you are here )) Visuals are overrated. It's the games that make me feel like I'm in a plane on a mission that I remember. Though good visuals are really cool.

Hi all! New pilot. Finally learned which end of the stick to hold, that radar contacts look like green squares, not yellow triangles, and that nudging a MQ-9 down with my MLG will not in fact convince it to defect. I'm on and off in the game, can play from 0600 to 1400 UTC. So anywhere in the Eastern Hemisphere works. My main plane right now is the Hornet, but it's not set in stone, and I enjoy checking out others in trials. I'm looking for an ultra-casual squadron that flies a variety of missions, but without any performance expectations, as long as I do reach Vr by the end of that taxiway. Hopefully to train with too, learn which end of the stick not to hold. Ideally, one that also occasionally does some crazy stuff, like send half the USN and the PLAN on a collision course, turn on immortality, and enjoy the slideshow as all of it hits the fan. Any flight clubs like that around? I promise to keep rules #1 and #2. p.s. Boring specs: I run a Warthog, pedals, sometimes TrackIR, can do voice, top PC, ~10 hours/week. But I am prone to exploring "what if...?" over "do it right".

Yeah, the RTFM thing worked. I got pampered with the tutorials in other games, which let you learn everything without ever tabbing out. Not the case here... Chuck's guide finally helped, though. I was surprised with how easy and simple many of the controls are. And realized that others actually are that obtuse in the sim, like manually moving the TDC to pick a contact... or is that just me, not doing it right? Still feels ridiculous, when the STEP button on the SA can just cycle between them, but apparently I still need to manually steer the antenna to the location the machine already knows, as a daily test of my worthiness to command it and not the other way around.

In a practice mission, I had my HUD lock up on me. It did not lock up completely, though: it responded to AA/AG mode changes, but altitude and airspeed were fixed at incorrect values, lines didn't show right. At the same time, parts of the HUD behaved normally. MFDs kept updating, and responded to all buttons, except for returning to the main menu (TAC/SUPT) - I hoped to get a MFD HUD. Analog gauges worked well enough to land. I did get hit with two bullets, and had a "MC 1 FAILURE". Is it designed to behave like that? I'd consider it damage, but expected computers to fail in a more "all or nothing" way. Something like a MFD or HUD turning off completely, or going non-responsive, rather than responding normally to most commands and not others. Just checking to see if this is correct and expected behavior.

I've got Thrustmaster Hotas Warthog plus pedals. Been running it in various sims for a while. Also have a TrackIR laying around, but not using it right now, because it felt way too twitchy with my setup (one big screen), maybe I used it wrong. Flaming Cliffs was easy for me in that there's no advanced avionics controls to learn. I just used the default HOTAS mapping and it felt like a shooting game. But it felt to me like a serious step down from F-22 TAW in terms of how much it "feels real". Not something I'd expect to enjoy for a long time. Maybe I should give it a second chance? Is there anything useful, i.e. transferable skills, that I can learn from flying FC aircraft? FC has the obvious advantage that I can get some action right away. My long-term preference is for the most advanced aircraft available. If there was the F-35 in the game (a proper sim module, not a reskin), that would be a dream come true for me... of course I guess that won't be possible for many years. I had good experience operating the AV-8B (and I love its STOVL complexity), except for the navigation and the smarter weapons. I've also tried the JF-17, for being the newest plane in the game, but it lacks content and the training missions are too limited. The F-18 appeals to me for 1) being modern, 2) being super popular, and 3) the added challenge of carrier landings and takeoffs. Although it does feel too buttery-smooth and obedient as a flying machine... but I guess something that's particularly hard to fly would not be good for learning combat. Got it on not needing the trainers. Is learning the F-16 likely to prepare me for an easier curve with the rest of the modules? Or is it something that's just going to spoil me again with intuitive controls? I 'm not sure, but I suspect that my old habits with the F-22 TAW are interfering with learning DCS module controls. It's always a "false friends" situation where I expect things to work a certain way, and then they don't. I have a feeling like I'm missing something fundamental and obvious to everyone else. Like an iphone kid facing a rotary dial phone, and not even thinking of turning the dial. How many hours should I expect to sink into manuals, tutorials, etc., before being able to do simple combat missions in the F-16 or respectively the F-18?

Hi all! I seem to be able to fly well in DCS, but still haven't managed to learn any modern plane's avionics reasonably well. Background: I've got some experience in flight sims. My most extensive was F-22 TAW - it's got simplistic aerodynamics, but the avionics part is delicious. Still, the game just feels too easy, the plane's too overpowered, and the flying part is abstracted away too much. I've tried to upgrade to LOMAC and then to DCS, but it's been challenging. Maybe I've been spoiled by TAW with its seemingly-perfect UX. I just can't seem to understand the avionics of any aircraft in DCS. Navigation, most of all, followed by weapon targeting and launch. The training missions seem to assume I know a lot, and teach me on a very specific scenario, but then I can't use it even in the next training mission. So far I've tried the F/A-18 and the Harrier (my favorite) as combat planes. Got to some very basics like dropping bombs with CCIP, but I still can't get reasonable results with missiles. My airmanship appears sufficient for DCS physics. I tried taking off with and landing all of the DCS planes during the trial, and got most of them on the first attempt. Even got carrier landings done on the F-14 on the 2nd pass without crashes, first on the F-18. Aerofly FS was the sweet spot for me for a while - no avionics, but realistic flight models; however, without combat, it's not fun enough. Flaming Cliffs was okay, I could even shoot there (yay!), but the avionics are so ridiculous that I'd rather play TAW again. I tried to do a realistic progression in DCS: from basic pistons, to advanced trainers (L-39), to lead-in (Hawk), to light fighter (F-5E)... Didn't work out - most of the skills weren't transferable. I have limited time, unfortunately, not retired or anywhere near that yet. Questions: - Is there any jet airplane in DCS that has markedly easier-to-learn avionics than the rest? Either simpler, or more intuitive, or a great manual. - Should I try a survey-sim style progression - try to learn a simpler plane first, then more complex ones? Or put all my efforts into the F-18 or whatever I want to keep flying? - If I choose anything other than the F-18 as my primary aircraft, will that make the missions/campaigns more difficult, due to lower performance, or is it a non-issue?

Hi everyone! Relatively new here. Tried multiple sims, non-sim flying games as well, and ultimately DCS is where it's at... F-22 TAW was my favorite previously. Played a bit of Lock On, with these easy-mode flaming cliff planes. Found them boring, so here I am.