Smokin1469

Getting ready to fly mission 2 and want to know, do I have to direct the wingman to attack the target using the comm menu, or are they set up somehow to engage the target on their own? Thanks!!

Downloaded Bitsum, turned off core parking, and everything seems to be working fine so far!!

Opened up the most recent log and it starts with a warning that I have parked logical cores. I assume that points to the problem? I see some have turned to Bitsum to fix. Is that the best one to use?

So, my game's not crashing and I'm not getting any messages, I just get lots of pauses in the game with the spinning hourglass in the corner, like it's buffering or something. Only play single player so I don't think it's a WIFI issue. RAM problem maybe? I've got 32 GB of RAM. Thoughts?

Thanks!

Replayed mission 11 today and on startup a P-51 crashes into me from behind, before I even start up. Is this a new bug with the latest update?

Well, I like to shy away from blanket statements like "The Phantom rolls with rudder at high AoA". Keep in mind that we're dealing with three distinctly different birds here. DISCLAIMER: I have no significant time in the Phantom IRL. I just put a lot of faith in the flight manual when that is the case. First is the hard wing Phantom, which we simulate in Reflected's excellent campaign "MiG Killers". According to the F-4 C/D flight manual, you "must use rudder to produce roll" at elevated AoA. Otherwise you're likely to depart controlled flight. Second is the slatted E, which is the "normal" Phantom we fly in DCS. Flight manual is very clear, stating several times that the optimum roll performance at high AoA is obtained with "a combination of aileron and rudder in the direction of turn". It also states that adverse yaw, a prime contributor to departing controlled flight in the hard wing Phantom, is "negligible". Third is the DCS Phantom. To what level of fidelity did Heatblur model the high AoA and departure characteristics of the Phantom? Does it really fly like a hard wing when you lock out the slats? The only way to find out is to experiment for yourself at high AoA with slats in normal, and again with slats locked out. I think Heatblur did a wonderful job with their flight model. It's just my opinion but they probably have the best flight model outside of the "official" sim. Bottom line ( for me anyway) is that for max immersion (and maybe fun) fly the DCS Phantom the way you would the real one: rudder only at high AoA in the hard wing, and combination of aileron and rudder in the slatted E.

I just played the mission. You're supposed to follow White flight. As soon as White flight taxis the jeep moves out of the way. Good luck!

It's been awhile since I played that mission, but I remember it moves out of the way when it's time to taxi. You have to wait a bit.

When I try to fly the included training mission 6 (air to air) the Sidewinders aren't loaded, just Sparrows. Is that a bug introduced with the last patch? It used to work fine.

Just some random thoughts I wanted to share about the F-4E module in general and specifically the MiG Killers campaign. Just recently switched from a Logitech X56 to the Thrustmaster Viper stick. What a difference. The higher stick force and heftier stick makes it really pheel like I'm phlying a Phantom! There is a much bigger difference when you turn roll aug off, the jet feels twitchy with it off and I didn't get that with the other stick. Easier to maneuver and fly formation too. I'm sold on it. After about 3 weeks of flying the MiG Killers campaign exclusively, I went and re-flew some of the other missions that came with the module. I found I really miss the interactive checklist, extra comm from Jester, comm from the bandits and flight lead etc. Felt awkward to fly without all of the challenge and response checklists. One thing they taught us in formation school was "never turn into the echelon". If, for example, you're in echelon right formation, like you are coming back from the range on Event 9, you don't turn right unless you absolutely need to and then do so very gently. I was thinking about this as we turned (right!) onto initial and lead and two smacked into each other, crashing both of them. Art imitates life? There were two times where if I were really in that first TopGun class I would have been responsible for shutting the program down. First was the 2 v 1 sortie where I flew myself and Jester into the ground. With the emphasis on safety they definitely would have shut us down. Second was on Event 11 "HAVE DRILL" where the bandit flew into the ground. They'd cancel the program for sure after that! Any other random thoughts folks had flying the campaign? I absolutely love it!

At least for USAF, Knock it off wasn't just used for safety of flight. Both were used to stop a fight, for whatever reason. KIO was used to stop the fight for everybody. Terminate was used to stop a local engagement. For example, if you want to stop the entire 4 v X scenario, you'd say KIO. If you just wanted to stop your little part of the war, you'd say for example "Terminate the fight over Reveille peak, 10,000" You and the bandit would stop but the rest of the fight would continue. We briefed procedures to follow in the event of a local Terminate. A common one was for blue and red to flow toward their respective sides for one minute before pitching back into the fight.

Anybody getting radar contacts and BVR locks on the 2 v X missions where you start 20- 40 NM apart? Jester and the other RIO are calling out contacts and ranges but my scope is blank. Is it just me? I know the APQ-120 isn't great but thought I'd see some contacts on some of the setups.

There are a lot of variables, but in my experience getting a tally-ho and an ID in DCS is way too hard without some sort of aid. I use a VR headset and the visual acuity is pretty poor. Solution one is to use the spotting dots. This can give some wildly inaccurate long-range tally-hos though. For example, with the dots on, you can get a tally-ho of an F-86 at 8 miles. I was only reliably able to get a tally ho on an F-16 size target at 5-6 miles IRL. But, even with the dots on, within visual range (WVR) performance is still lacking. Within 3 miles, the dots work pretty good for gaining/maintaining sight, but the ID is unrealistically hard in my opinion. Solution two is to fly with the little carets on. This still makes the BVR tally-ho and ID too easy, but I'm prioritizing the WVR performance and I've found that using the dots and carets WVR is the best compromise between a sim and real life. Use that for what it's worth. I was bummed when I found out the carets are disabled in the training missions. I'm glad it's a bug and not something Reflected did on purpose!

Copy that, thank you! Another reason I like your campaigns so much.