Smokin1469

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.

Thanks! I understand the concept of turning it off, I was just curious if you came up with that or you got it from one of your SMEs. Not having flown the jet, I tend to put a lot of stock into the -1. But this could definitely be a case of something everybody did even though it's not "in the book"

Dang autocorrect! Thank you for all the hard work you PUT into these campaigns. Very IMMERSIVE.

@Reflected Why do we turn the roll stab aug off prior to maneuvering? I can't find any references to that in the F-4E -1. Did you have some "tribal knowledge" passed down from your SMEs or is this unique to the F-4B we're simulating? Or something else? Thank you for all the hard work you pit into these campaigns. Very immersion.