Relayer

Just ordered myself a TrackIR 5 with the vector clip. My wallet is emitting tortured screaming and begging for mercy - but if it's as much of a game-changer as you all say, then it's money well spent. Also, I need to change the mission still - having problems getting a 4-ship flight to refuel (3 doesn't refuel), so I'll change it down to a 2-ship. Less explodey-bang-power but there you go. Truthfully, it'd take you 10 minutes to knock a very similar mission up yourself - but I'll still post this one eventually.

No - not enough spare £££ to get a TrackIR system.

As I said, I'll be tweaking it and probably release it. Thus, it was a custom mission I threw together :-p

Wow. This was a mission and a half. Four hours of flying without leaving my chair once. Been flying A-10C since the beta came out, and only now am I starting to really get to grips with this machine and start putting it into a semi-realistic scenario. Took off from Kobuleti with a heavy bomb load, bound for NATO positions north of Beslan, to support NATO forces pushing further north into Russia. With such a heavy payload, I had to take off with much less fuel to meet the MTOW. So, time for some night time refuelling just north of Tbilisi - certainly was a fun challenge! From there, north over the mountains into Russia, had a great time putting lots of things I'd only recently picked up into practice - using offsets, mark points etc - dropping 14 GBU-12's over the course of an hour on station. Nothing too special here, just night-time CAS with a Predator as AFAC. Lots of advanced low-level SAMs around so I had to stick fairly high and hope that the fighters and SEAD had done their jobs and that I wasn't going to find an R-27 or SA-10 heading for me. Then, as planned, it was back south to the tanker track to refuel *again* in the darkness, as it was going to be a bit tight on fuel back to Kobuleti. Had a lovely time flying back in the early dawn light, made a textbook landing, shut down the aircraft and pretty much slumped in my chair with relief and a fantastic sense of accomplishment. While I know I've essentially just sat at a computer for four hours and was never in any real danger - I can have just a tiny glimpse into the world of the guys and girls who do this for real. So, I feel compelled once again to thank ED for creating this wonderful sim - it's been a long time since a 'video game' has captured me in such a way - and I'm a games design student. Not since my days playing Falcon have I had that same sense of achievement from a computer game/sim. I'll be tweaking this mission in the future and hopefully release it.

Inb4 'not a game' :-p

Except that's an A model :-p Surely somebody's released a C model - either as a complete kit or as a modification for existing kits? Or even just scratchbuilt the different parts?

Lucky you, I'm still on the old Mark I's...!

We all know it's the proverbial dog's bollocks - blasting through the countryside at 300 knots, barely clearing treetops, all that dramatic yanking and banking through tight river valleys etc. And even more spectacular (and scary) at night by the green tint of NVG lenses. And I never do it - at least, not in a combat area. The only time I ever drop below about 10k is for gun runs, and even those are few and far between. In my view, going low is just asking for trouble. MANPADS, AAA and small arms fire is just too much of a risk to take. Not to mention that it takes more cognitive load to fly at low level than at higher altitudes - important when you're tying to look around with your TGP, or set up an attack, or do anything combat related really. The one time I might fly NOE would be if there was a greater danger at high altitude - a highly effective high altitude SAM system, for example. So, most of the time I sit up high, probably never pulling more than 2G on an entire sortie. Not that it's boring - however: The few times though that I have flown NOE - I loved it. So, my question here is - is there any real call for flying low level these days? When would you choose to fly NOE?

Formation takeoff is only possible when starting on the runway.

Some shots of an RAF paint I'm working on. Needs a lot of stuff changed however - I based it on a Harrier GR9 scheme I'd seen, completely forgetting that the RN also operated them at that time, and that infact I was looking at an FAA aircraft of 800 NAS rather than an RAF squadron! Oops. As such, the chequered markings on the tails will have to be changed.

I never fly without a TGP. It's effectively my eyes on the battlefield, and indispensable for me. So, I would always carry one. And it's not 'cheating' at all, especially since you can change your loadout on the ground in-game. You're the player/pilot, it's your choice as to how you want to handle things.

I think DCS is very much an example of how to do it right, when it comes to flight simulators. I think the 'Open Beta' scheme was a great example of working with the community, where people knew exactly what they were buying in to - a beta version. Compare and contrast that with the state that IL2 Cliffs of Dover was released in, and the differences in attitude towards customers are huge. That ethos of working with the community is evident here, and I congratulate ED for creating this wonderful environment for the sim. All of this before I even say a word of comment on the actual sim itself. I don't really feel the need to comment on the sim - everything I would say has frankly already been said - absolutely incredible. My genuine and heartfelt thanks to ED for creating this wonderful piece of work.

So when will we get Operation Lagavulin? :P