RyanR

The "enable" tip is really neat. If I recall, you need the same button to align the HMCS on the ground, so it's handy to have mapped. Thanks! -Ryan

What are you using for rudders? My TM rudder pedals need replaced. My other sim hardware is VKB..... but their rudders don't have brakes.....

The F-16 is such a great example of good UI/UX. The avionics are super deep, but it's easier to focus on learning them, and you can keep your eyes out of the cockpit. I bought the A-10 recently. Soooo many switches. It works so well in DCS, too. Clickable cockpits make it easy to get into things. I started with the original Falcon on an Atari ST in 1988. I was enamored with the F-16 from then on. Tried Falcon 4 AF, like 15-20 years ago. Too many key bindings to remember... and the view system didn't work well without head tracking. I mostly was prop/warbird simming. I'm enjoying (and sometimes not enjoying.....) that everything is a learning experience. Even BFM and trimming the jet is a totally different animal from WWII and early jets. It's like starting over completely. -Ryan

Yeah.... I was kinda flustered when I clacked the keys typing this thread. Problem seems to be intermittent, and only happens if there is bad guy radar in the RWR. This is with the long ALQ-184. Position 3 only works in manual mode. Pos 2 and 1 work in the semi/auto modes. Positions 2-3 are ECM priority. Position 1 is radar priority. All of this is correct, and the radar is disabled when it's supposed to be. Every once and awhile, I can't get the FCR going again after being in Position 3, and then CMS switch right. That should put it the ECM in standby. When this happens I've tried adjusting every knob/switch on the CMDS panel. I've tried the flipping the FCR on/off ("rebooting". so to speak) on the right-side control panel. The only thing that works is turning the ECM pod off. The FCR starts sweeping again at than point. After a bit of frustration, the problem goes away by itself. It's just odd. -Ryan

Are there any "just for fun" squads? I haven't done online simming in 25-30 years. Things got too serious too quick. Though, I bet the devolving furball world of the WWII sims probably doesn't exist with DCS jet folks. I haven't seen good JTAC *tutorials*. Just people flying JTAC missions. Just doing a thing isn't isn't a tutorial. Wags has one, but the text is impossibly small.... and there's no breakdown of the lingo. The Reapers have one, but it's a real life guy doing the lazing. -Ryan

Try the training missions. Most of them work. Some are broke. I'm a month into DCS myself after decades of filght simming. The highs are high. The lows are low. Tip: Any tutorial older than about six months is obsolete and no longer applicable. Either the developers changed something, or the sim is simply broke/bugged. I'm hitting the point of finding a more "mature" aircraft model. I love the F-16, but I'm burned out from the bugs and lack of documentation. -Ryan

Is there a trick to getting the FCR to start up again if you have the ECM pod in manual/saturation mode? No matter what I do, I can't get the FCR to work after using the ECM in the full back position. If I turn the ECM pod completely off, the radar works again. If I turn in on, the radar stops sweeping. Nothing on the CMDS panel seems to have any effect. I just want to get it into radar priority mode. It seems that time is the only cure. Which would be fine if the red triangle from the AWACS wasn't screaming at you head on, and all you want is a radar track to send an AMRAAM down range. -Ryan

I pulled up the mission in the editor, sure enough, the F-18's last waypoint is #8. So they bug out. The "start at push? has the F-16's scattered. Might as well be herding cats. It takes 10-15 minutes to wrangle them into formation. Sheesh. This should be embarrassing to ED that another F-16 thing is broke. -Ryan

I've been stuck on the last mission. If you fly the mission from cold, the F-18 escort flies off to the east at push time. It never comes back. Since they're TDNL donors, you can watch them on the HSD after they fly east over your head. *Every* friendly flight gets shot down one by one. Your F-16 flight runs into both Groups of Flankers. If you survive to live to steerpoint #9, you're out of countermeasures and missiles. It's pretty bleak. In contrast, when you F10 and "skip to push time", you get a completely different mission. The F-18's spearhead the push, shoot down baddies. Friendly flights all pretty much live. It's almost too easy to scoot over the target and dump the GBU's, then laze the target as you break for beers. Something's gotta be off? -Ryan

Something that caught me off is that steerpoints have an altitude. The TGP will set to that altitude. You can't snap back down to earth unless you jiggle the cursor on the AG radar. Speaking of radar, I have noticed that the FCR will maintain its offset (with no SPI created) for a given steerpoint, even if you cycle to another steerpoint and back to the current one. I've found that I need to CZ the radar and the TGP. Is there a master "zero" function to wipe out all of the sensors? -Ryan

Make sure you push at the time in the planner. If you leave a few minutes early, it's hopeless. If you leave on time, there's more friendly assets in the air, and I think the F-18's start flinging Harms that way. -Ryan

Are you using the radio preset? I think it's 20? -Ryan

It almost seems to me that it takes the Maverick longer to lock on a target with the the TGP handoff than it does with the the WPN page as SOI. Thew other thing, is that no matter how well you boresight the missiles, you really need to have an eye on the WPN page to see when the MAV seeker can distinguish one target from another. -Ryan

The funny thing is that this is not a problem at all anymore. I just do it, and it works. What prompted this thread was a couple changes in a recent update that made some tutorials obsolete. The key is to learn what it looks like when the ground boresight "takes", and when it doesn't. When the boresight "highlights", and then un-highlights, you know you're good. You can cycle the two stations and see that they're boresighted. So many threads like this happen because you messed something up, and then it doesn't work when you're starting down a SAM site. I think screw-ups around SAM sites cause most posts around here. I'm appreciative that the community is top notch. -Ryan

Thanks all! The friendlies in the mission aren't in the "flight" (not blue on the HSD), so I'm guessing that's part of the issue. Not really enough time in a training mission to troubleshoot. -Ryan

The data Link training mission (included with DCS) tells me to look at the HSD to see some form of magic as my flight attacks some bandits. No magic happens. I can't see anything bugged, or the magic dotted lines that occasionally pop up. My wingmen simply shoot down the bandits. Am I supposed to see something? Or is it broke? The datalink is pretty hit or miss. I wish ED would provide a NOTAM. Thanks, -Ryan

I'm very much learning myself. Agree that you just wipe out when you hit a bug and can't get something to work. Any tutorial or guide that is over a year old can't be 100% trusted. -Ryan

Would a two-seat F-16 use this as well? Random question. -Ryan

Agree! Only been doing DCS for a month or so, and still riding the high from the first ILS landing. -Ryan

I've noticed the same behaviors. I think some "interesting stuff" happens when jamming/countermeasures come into the picture. The bad guys don't want to become system targets. Since DCS seems to model the avionics, and not just provide the facade of them, inconsistencies make sense. Of course, I could simply be new and not know what I'm doing. -Ryan

Comforting to know that 3 years is where the learning curve is. So far it's been one step backwards for every two steps forwards. It can sting when taking that step backwards. -Ryan

I've been experiencing strange mark point behavior, too. The only time I have trouble is when playing around with free fall bombs in DTOS/CCIP/etc while en route to target. Then it doesn't matter what I'm doing when I set the mark point. I does seem to be stuck on Steerpoint 1. You can tell when it's broke because you don't have to hit CZ on the TGP after hitting M-sel. I don't think you mark a point from the WPN page. So you'd need to use the TGP as SOI and not a Maverick. -Ryan

There are definitely bugs here. I'm practicing weasel work. Ballparked an SA3 with the HAD, found it with the TGP, and marked it as a steerpoint. Made an attack with the WPN page in the opposite MFD. In on the SA3 on the deck, at 7nm, I popped up. TGP was SOI in point mode. TMS UP did not SOI to the WPN page. Why??? TMS up has always SOI'd the WPN page. I mean, this thread was created because of this behavior. -Ryan

Thanks a bunch! Gotta check these out when I get some time. Thinking about it, sustained turn rate has probably rarely been used in the history of air combat. You're always trading energy for angle eventually. I have lots to learn with the F-16! Thanks again! -Ryan

How do you measure/approximate degrees per second in the cockpit? I recently got into DCS, and it's amazing how different "dogfighting" is with modern jets from the prop sims I'd been into for decades. Even early jets play more like the old "rules". I was only going to go as far as the F-86 in DCS.... but my favorite jet since I was a kid is the F-16 (I was hooked on Falcon in 1988)..... and I couldn't stay away. Thanks! -Ryan