flyco

With all my real-life flying done in the RAF, where QNH was the norm for local circuit work, I routinely took off with QFE set, and changed it QNH, or SPS, when I left the circuit. I cannot quite see how taking off with QFE set would upset the A-10Cs IFFCC, but it just might explain why many of my group are getting consistent errors of 2-5 metres in delivering GBU-12s. As a result, I will change the habits of a life-time (well, the last 55 years of it anyway), and henceforth use QNH for my take off. Finding it very difficult to cope with all these new modern procedures - had enough problems when we switched from fixed undercarriages, never did me any harm - harrumph - harrumph!!!

They last for 1:00 hr after switching on. If they go over 1 hr, you only need switch them off for a second or two, and then back on. Seems a bit of a cheat, although they do then take another 3minutes of cooling before they can be used.

There certainly is rudder trim - and I use it. As I said, it is usually no more than ‘smidgeon’ out, but every little helps. I even have an encoder driving the rudder trim left and right, to make it easy.

May I commend the article in this months ’Aeroplane’ magazine, by Dave Southwood. In it is a very comprehensive description of flying the 109G. Dave is an accomplished pilot, who flew ‘Black 6’, and this article provides a very detailed and lucid account of how to do that. Not a 109K,but the differences are, I suspect, fairly minor. Certainly most of the points he makes in that article, are very relevant to our ‘K’ model.

I trim the rudde early in every sortie. When carrying asymmetric stores (which is just about every trip), you will often find it slightly out. I spend 15 seconds or so getting that ball right in the centre, with both feet off the pedals. Additionally, after dropping stores, or every 30mins or so, I repeat the process. Not essential, but it feeds my obsessional nature, and makes me feel better.

Stop between the point where he answers and the point where you get a rollocking. Sorry, couldn’t resist it. In fact I share your frustration. There is clearly a DCS trigger area, immediately before you enter the runway, but in reality it is far too small. In real life, you would call for take-off, at 100 yds or more before you reach the runway, once you have checked visually that there is no-one between you and the runway or on short finals. On a military base, you often need to get airborne quickly, and the last thing you need, when you have 3 other formation members 30-50yds behind you is to have to stop, transmit and then retaxy. In practice, in that situation I just enter the runway and line-up. In that case, you will hear ATC complaining about the other formation members following you on to the runway. You will also find occasions when, while you are taxying, when you get an instruction to hold - again, presumably because you are about to enter a ‘box’ on the taxiway which is already occupied. That said, the ATC set up is really quite good in DCS, and you will soon get used to, and ignore, the obvious snags. Just don’t carry that into real life if you ever fly for real.

The fuel booster pump is normally switched on after start, while warming up the engine. It should be checked as on as part of the Checks before Take-off. I also routinely turn on the fuel tank pressure cock.

The Spitfire Slip indicator as modelled has virtually no damping. On the real life aircraft I have flown the slip indicator (often a ball in a curved tube) is far more docile. The other difficulty in limited panel (particularly 'recovery from unusual positions') is that pulling moderate amounts of 'g' causes the turn needle to go to full deflection. Thus in recovery from a 'UP' the first action is to unload to around 1g - very difficult to do in a simulator where there is no g meter - as with the Spitfire.

The group that I fly with have had quite good success in taking out SAM-6s, and SAM-3s. The technique we use is to approach directly at around 20k. Ensure you have the launcher locked into your TGP. When you see the launch (usually around 12-8 nm), turn hard left or right through 90 degrees, and push out chaff, as soon as you start the turn. When the HSI marker shows that the launcher is at 90, level your wings and look for the missile, in your 9 or 3 o’clock position. If it is still coming directly at, or slightly ahead of, you push out more chaff - if it is still coming for you after that, roll inverted, pull to the vertical and put out more chaff. At a launch range of 10n.m, you have the best part of 30 secs to break the lock. Take it in turns to do this, and the fourth guy (SAM-6) or fifth guy (SAM-3), should be able to run all the way in and launch a Maverick. It is worth locking up the Mav for all runs, you might just get close enough to launch. For an average SAM, this is usually successful, the better ones are a bit more tricky, usually by delaying the launch, although this does increase the chance of getting in an early Mav launch. If you are a flight of 4, and reasonably co-ordinated, you can space out at around 30sec intervals or approach from different directions. However, in that case you do need to be able to identify who the missile is launched at - hence the need for a TGP lock on the run-in. It sounds a bit ‘hairy’ but it does work, and can be very satisfying!

That is why in the RAF it was always standard to teach “limited panel” IF. As mentioned earlier the wings were kept level using the turn Indicator, and the nose was adjusted for pitch using the RCDI (VSI). Nowadays, with non-toppling ADIs, plus standby instruments, this is becoming largely redundant.

It certainly would be nice to have. As a military pilot, icing was something that really scared me. Having your only engine fluctuating after a 20k climb through solid cloud is a real pucker-factor. That said, it would be a very complicated thing to simulate and would have to take into account weather conditions as well as different airframes and engines. I could think of more sought after effects. Finally, as mentioned, it is there in the form of blocked static and pitot inputs.

The CBU-87 is normally used against soft targets. It would thus have little effect against armour, which is best attacked with a CBU-97. Or was that a misprint by metzger?

I have had similar problems, but not identical. I suggest that the next time it happens you exit, and take a look at the dcs.log file - it's in the saved games.logs folder. Early on in that file, you should see a number of lines with 'INPUT' in them. This is DCS initialising your USB controller inputs and is perfectly normal. However, I find that at random points in the game my system re-initialises them, which throws many of them out of synchronisation, requiring me to reset them. As I say, look through the DCs.log file and if you find a second, or even third or fourth, sequence of lines with 'INPUT' in them, you have the same problem. That said, I do not know the cure - I wish I did! If you do find this is the case, I would be grateful if you could post here to that effect.

I recently built a mission, during which I had Airfield Equipment 0.9.0 installed. However, when I loaded it to a server, I found that anyone without that mod was unable to access that mission. I confirmed this by unloading that mad and trying to edit that mission on my own PC. Sur enough I gat the message "Need modules for load mission: VPC_Object by voc & virpil.com" I presume that, unknowingly, I had use one of the items in that mission, which was essential to the mission.. The solution being for all who play to also install that mod. Is this a case of 'you can only join the server if you are not 'PURE'? Strangely, I have joined a server in which such equipment had been loaded without the mod installed on my PC. In any case, it is worth publicising this strange (if perhaps understandable) anomaly.

At some stage, the ability to identify, and thus select, a specific position in a Flight in the initial mission pages has disappeared. Thus when four players are appointed to a flight of 4 aircraft, say Boar 1,2,3,&4, there is no way of identifying which of the 4 aircraft, all listed as Boar, is which. Not only that but they would appear to be listed in the order:No 2, 3, 4, and 1. Very confusing - especially to a KOF like me! Could this be rectified - perhaps by allocating the column allotted to airframe number to call-sign.

At some stage recently, the multiplayer join board seems to have been changed. There now seems no way to indicate which position in a formation each aircraft represents. I have set up a mission with 2 flights of 4, Boar and Hog, all Clients,. However, on the start up page, the flights are listed with the No 2 at the top, and No 1 at the bottom of the 4 in each flight. I am sure that in the past, aircraft were listed, and indicated, as Boar 1, Boar 2, etc, allowing pilots to chose their slot according to the brief. Has this changed recently? How can I indicate on the initial screen, which aircraft has which callsign?

E-mail with attached files on its way. Thanks again.

Fine, thanks for letting me know. I will await the new version.

I have referred the problem to Alaskan Grizzly, in the Kneeboard Builder Topic.

No effect, I'm afraid. For the Spitfire, the file "device_init.lua" is datestamped 16/12/16 15:16 and is 6KB in size. For the Uh-1H it is datestamped 04/11/2016 19:49 and is 14KB in size. It seems improbable that this file would have become corrupt in more than one aircraft type, or that all of them would not be corrected by a repair. I have the same problem in all three versions of DCS (Stable, OpenBeta and Open Alpha), with each of them having a totally separate Kneeboard Builder installation. I have even downloaded a separate version of KB for each. As I say, I have seen several reports of identical cockpit corruption. See, for example, the thread in DCS: Spitfire L. F. MK. IX\Bugs and Problems\ Transparent Spitfire.

Kneeboard Builder appears to replace the file "device_init.lua", renaming the original file. It does this for each aircraft in "/mods/aircrafts/(name of aircraft)/cockpit/scripts/" folder. Unfortunately, this appear to have the effect of eliminating large sections of the subject aircraft's cockpit structure. Externally the aircraft look fine, but from the cockpit, much of the structure is missing. I have seen a couple of other people note this effect. Does anyone have a cure?

I have found that using Kneeboard Builder will produce this effect with the Spitfire, the Huey and Sevreal other aircraft. It seems to be caused by changes made by Kneeboard Builder to the files: /mods/aircraft/(aircraft type)/cockpit/scripts/device_init.lua. It replaces them by a file with the same name and renames the original file device_init.lua original. Beacuse of this I am unable to use Kneeboard Builder..

In addition to the Reputation annotation on the label to my posts, there is below it a Warnings section, with several orange blocks and a percentage value (0%). I have clicked on the graphic and it tells me I have no warnings against me. Can you tell me what this means and whether I have committed a misdemeanour?

Thanks for response. Attached is a log of a short (20 min) flight. There was no Tacview file found for this sortie, although others on the same server have no problem recording on Tacview. dcs_log.txt

Since updating, I am getting no recording in multi-player, although single-player still records OK. The only differences I can find between the MP and SP dcs.log is that in SP there is a line giving the name of the recording, whereas in MP that line is missing. All other references to TacView appear to be identical in both SP and MP logs. It is enabled in DCS and the server does allow export. Any suggestions about what I might try to correct this.