Tomsk

Last time I tried dropping a Mk-82 Snake Eye in FF mode it opened the tail fins as well .. i.e. just ignored the setting. As far as I'm aware dropping them in low drag mode should be an option, I guess it's just not implemented properly yet.

I don’t know for a fact the Hornet can do this, but it sure would make a lot of sense! Especially since we know from Jello that you can designate a point on the ground, it would be weird if you couldn’t see the point you had designated.

I mean broadly: HARM - good at suppressing radar SAMs, especially longer range ones (SA-2, SA-3, SA-6, SA-10, SA-11, SA-17, Hawk). Maverick - good for making stand off attacks, where you don't want to get close but you can outrange the AAA or SAM (SA-8, SA-9, SA-13, SA-15, SA-19, Roland, Rapier). Good for killing longer range SAMs in pop-up attacks if you can terrain mask. Good for killing tanks and some ships. Mk20/CBU-99 - good for killing infantry and soft vehicles: trucks, APCs, IFVs, SAM launchers, etc. Good for killing AAA, or killing some SAMs where you can terrain mask. Only good if you don't mind getting fairly low. Mk82 - good for killing soft vehicles, small buildings. Requires you to be reasonably low. Mk82 SnakeEye - good for lay-down attacks: dropping at low-level, and in level flight. Good for killing SAMs where you know the vehicle location very precisely and can terrain mask in. Mk83 - good for killing larger buildings, or better armored vehicles if nothing better available. Mk84 - good for killing hardened structures. Rockets - good for killing infantry and soft vehicles, I particularly like them for attacks on very hilly terrain where clusters struggle. LGBs - when we have TGP: good for killing SAMs or AAA that you can overfly if high enough (SA-8, SA-9, SA-13, SA-15, SA-19, Roland, Rapier). Good for killing tanks or ships. Good for killing precise buildings or bunkers. Good when fratricide is a risk, especially when you have JTAC. Good for loft attacks if you've got someone else to lase for you. JDAMs - when we get them: good for killing stationary vehicles or stationary SAMs that you can overfly. Good for killings buildings or structures, good for loft attacks. Glide bombs - good for killing targets you want to stand-off from.

Filed as a bug: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=231574

Hornet should be able to carry 120 flares. The F/A-18C as it is currently modelled in DCS has a maximum of 120 counter measure slots: with chaff taking a single slot, and flares taking 2 slots. This means that the DCS Hornet currently cannot carry more than 60 flares maximum, this is enforced in the mission editor and also in the aircraft itself. However, this is incorrect to the actual aircraft, which is able to carry up to 120 flares. The Hornet (like almost all Navy aircraft) uses cylindrical counter measures, and those that are used with the AN/ALE-47 are all the same size. As such the Hornet should be able to carry up to 120 flares. This is evident from the document: Which is an unclassified document (as stated on page I-1 of the document itself) describing Naval counter measures. I won't post a link as the document is newer than 1980, but it is publically available and very easy to find. As that document states (pages I-12 to I-14) the counter measures used with the AN/ALE-47 counter measures system (which the DCS Hornet models) are: Flares: MK46 MOD 1C, MJU-8/B, MJU-8A/B, MJU-27/B and SM-875/ALE (simulated flare) Chaff: RR-129/AL, RR-129A/AL, RR-144/AL, RR-144A/AL As also stated in that document (pages I-9 and I-10) these are all cylindrical cartridges: 5.80 inches in length and 1.42 inches in diameter, i.e. they are all the same size. This agrees with publically available photos of the Hornet showing the counter measures system, which always show uniformly sized cylindrical stores. For example: This also agrees with the model of the Hornet in the game itself, which again shows uniformly sized cylindrical stores: Apologies if this issue is already reported, a search did not reveal a similar bug report.

Sadly we've tried this in Black Tails: changing this line allows you to set 60 chaff & 60 flares in the mission editor ... but when you fly the mission you'll have 60 flares and 0 chaff :doh:

So I had a big issue with pitch up after the break until a friend of mine suggested sticking the flaps and gear down as soon as you can (250 knots) which should happen half way through the break. Then use the extra lift it generates to help finish the break turn, i.e. roll more to the left so that the pitch up just pulls the turn a bit tighter (and release stick back pressure a bit). If it's still nosing up in the level out then push the stick forward to keep it where you want it. This is a totally reasonable thing to do in the downwind if you need to. Alt for throttle is once you are established on speed. As for leveling into the groove that's not anything weird, that's because some of your power was being used for turning ... you stopped turning, so now that power is going to cause climbing. Ideally you need to anticipate this and reduce power a bit as you roll level. If you fail to do that and find yourself climbing too much then IMO it is better to punt the nose down a little with the stick and reduce power at the same time, rather than climb much too high and then falling like a rock as the power reduction kicks in. As long as you do reduce power at the same time as you push the nose forward then the AoA will recover to the right value fairly quickly. It also needs to be brief: a quick forward punt on the stick and then back to neutral, otherwise you are going to be at the wrong AoA at the boat.

Sorry I searched, I didn't find.

So a few of my squadmates noticed an oddity around waypoint coordinates in the current Hornet. So on the HSI DATA page for a waypoint the LAT/LONG coordinates are displayed in decimal minutes. For example, some real coordinates we were playing with: N25°07.82 E55°07.16 This is clearly "decimal minutes" format due to the .82 at the end. However, if you enter new coordinates into the hornet using the UFC you need to enter them in "degrees/minutes/seconds" format. So to get the coordinates above you need to enter N25 07 49 E55 07 10 Since .82 * 60 = 49 and .16 * 60 = 10. Once you've entered these coordinates they will then show on the display as the first example: in decimal minutes format. Does anyone know if this is accurate to the real Hornet or is this just a bug? It seems really odd that you'd enter LAT/LONG in one system (degrees/minutes/seconds) but it would be displayed in another (decimal minutes).

No problem, that was an easy fix, took 2 minutes :) Yeah for some reason DCS in VR doesn't like lots of static objects. Nothing to do with drawing them oddly, if you pause the sim you get a great framerate, something to do with the AI / physics perhaps.

Is there a way to remove the requirement for this? The problem is that whilst it adds to the immersion, it absolutely kills my framerate making carrier landings very difficult.

I can't get this to work sadly, I've installed the US Navy Deck Equipment mod as requested, but when I try to start the campaign I get: The strange thing is if I go look in the list of installed modules, USN-Deckcrew is listed there. I'm kind of stuck on what to do next really, are you sure this works with the latest OpenBeta? EDIT: no cancel that, deleted it and put it back again and now it's working. The mysteries of DCS shrugs.

Interested!

Also seen the bug frequently with low-level runs.

Yeah seen the exact same with low level snake-eye runs. That the position would change with temperature wouldn't be surprising if you didn't correct the altimeter .. but I've seen it be off even after setting the correct altimeter setting. I think it's just buggy at the moment.

Nice work :) Yeah so that definitely does appear to be a BUG, bomb release calculations don't take account of changes in air density due to temperature.

I don't think we know .. but if I were designing the Hornet my first thought would be to do those calculations based on the GPS/INS data. Seems far more likely to be accurate. Perhaps someone knows ... or perhaps the NATOPs says somewhere ...

+100 wanted this sooo many times.

So I replied in that thread. Yes altimeter settings matters, however, even if you correct for that my understanding is that bombs will still fall short/long depending on the temperature, I will check :) I would guess the amount of drag varies depending on the density of the air, which is different for different temperatures, and DCS doesn't yet take account of those changes in density when computing the release point.

So the altimeter setting could easily affect this. The aircraft only knows where to show the diamond because of the information available to it: it knows the target is X miles away, it can work this out using the aircraft's current position from GPS/INS and the pre-programmed lat/long of the target waypoint. it knows the target is Y feet above sea level as this was programmed into the HSI DATA page for that waypoint. it knows this plane is currently altitude Z feet above sea level, I would imagine it does this using the altimeter rather than from GPS/INS data. It can then use this information to work out how many degrees below the horizon to draw the target diamond: basically Tan(angle) = (Z - Y) / X However, if the altimeter setting is wrong then the computer might think the plane is Z altitude above sea level, but it actually isn't, it's actually some other number. So it will calculate the wrong angle and display the diamond in the wrong place. The correct altimeter setting to get the altimeter to show feet above sea level varies according to the outside air pressure, which varies with temperature. Setting your altimeter to 29.92 does not mean it will automatically give the right elevation above sea level.

Yeah I noticed. Before you could tell your wing to “Engage Mission Target and Rejoin” and they would normally then deploy their ordnance onto the area specified by their waypoints. Sadly now upon receiving this instruction they just fly off somewhere else completely random and do nothing useful. Takes a long time to kill all the ground targets when you have to bomb them all yourself ...

It seems there's quite a bit of work needs to be done by ED to calibrate pipers for different munitions. For example it's well documented that lofted Mk82s will go long, Mk84s will fall short, and on hot days bombs go long, and on cold days they fall short.

Yes the flight path marker, it does also get called the meatball. This is of course in contrast to "the ball", which to my knowledge does not get called a "meatball". This may work on a screen, but I fly in VR and it's not really possible to see the ball clearly enough for that. In the end I guess people needs to find what works for them :)

There are several reasons you might have trouble with Mavericks. Did you warm your mavericks up first? Otherwise you will get TIMING and a countdown in the top left until they wake up. Did you use the castle switch to move the diamond into the Maverick sensor? Easy to forget to do and if so you can move the TDC all day long and nothing will happen. Sadly this is a really non-obvious state in the Hornet, unlike the F-16 or A-10C where the 'NOT SOI' over the display makes it pretty obvious what is happening. The cage/uncage mechanic can be a little counter intuitive. When the maverick is CAGED (as shown in the top-right of the maverick display) the maverick triangle will stay stuck pointing near the nose of the jet. If you try to slew it when it is caged, nothing will happen. You first need to UNCAGE the maverick (using the cage/uncage HOTAS button) and then you might be able to slew it around. Just to add to the confusion, it seems that in some situations the maverick will UNCAGE itself, which can lead to the seeker head pointing nowhere near where you want. I've found that generally the best procedure is to keep it CAGED until the nose of the jet is near the target, then I UNCAGE and slew. If you have have a waypoint designated (using WPDSG on the HSI) then the maverick triangle will stay pointing at the designator diamond when UNCAGED, and you will be unable to slew it around. When CAGED it will of course point near the nose of the jet. In order to slew away from the designated waypoint you'll need to undesignate the waypoint (with the NWS/Undesignate button). To actually do the slew you need to hold down the TDC depress whilst you are slewing. This is the same button you use to lock radar contacts. If you don't hold TDC depress the seeker won't slew anywhere. Additionally I have found the maverick slew does not work properly with the Warthog Throttle TDC nipple: it will only slew along the diagonals. The TDC cursor does work properly in other contexts (Radar and HUD slew) and so this is presumably a bug. Using a 4 way hat for the slew does work okay. Lastly even once you've got it to slew the seeker okay it can be fiddly to get the maverick to actually lock. You need to be close enough and you need to have a good contrast. This is probably not a bug and is likely simulating something close to real maverick behaviour. It's complicated enough that I actually have a little checklist that I run through in my head before using mavericks. I find the BARO autopilot is extremely finicky. You have to get the plane absolutely level before engaging it, and even then you might have to jiggle the FPM above and below the horizon a few times to get it to stick. Otherwise it can get itself stuck in this weird mode where it is sort of doing a BARO hold .. except it will continuously lose or gain altitude. I think it is fair to say that it is buggy.

I find AAR is actually a lot like maintaining a hover in a helicopter. After you've practiced it enough, you can do it without thinking: the correct movement just happens. Carrier landings, however, require a lot of concentration.