seikdel

Erforce: Yeah, it's a challenge. Bump up the Shkval resolution as high as you can (1024 every frame, if possible), try to know where the FEBA is, and spend a lot of time scanning. Those help, but yes, it's still a challenge =)

I haven't quite figured out how to minimize SADI drift, but letting the INU spin up for ~90sec and then uncaging the SADI before starting the engines (and even the APU) seems to help.

I'm a Shark pilot, and if you've never flown rotary, you won't find a friendlier airframe. Combat employment is also a complete joy: park yourself in a safe position, rifle off a dozen extremely powerful pinpoint-accurate ATGMs, perhaps make a strafing run with a volley or two of rockets, then RTB and rearm for the next run. I haven't flown the A-10C, so take the following with a grain of salt: compared to the Hog, the Shark takes a lot more work to keep in the air, but once you figure out how to fly her without letting her flip over whenever she feels like it, combat employment is a breeze. If you want to stick with fixed wing, I'd suggest something different: learn to fly the Su-25T first. It's a solid mud mover, it's much easier to operate (because it's FC3-fidelity, not DCS), it's still fun to fly (AFM), it has avionics that are adequate for target search and acquisition, it can do SEAD, and best of all, it's free. If you enjoy the Toad, chances are you'll enjoy the other FC3 aircraft as well.

I'm going to miss my ejection seat so much =(

You've got it =) Think of the collective brake as a trim button for altitude only. The way I use it: hold the collective brake in, adjust altitude to what I want, and then release the collective brake. Speaking of altitude hold, don't forget about the barometric/radar switch down on the autopilot panel (it's the left switch). That'll determine whether you hold based off the barometric altitude or your actual AGL. I've never found out what the middle position for the switch does. I think it holds radar altitude when the radar altimeter is active and barometric otherwise, but I could be wrong.

I actually find the rudder trim to be quite useful, especially when I have the controls indicator up. Use the central position trimmer mode. Hold down the trimmer button, maneuver the cyclic until she's in a stable attitude, release the trimmer button, center the stick. When you want to change her attitude again, repeat. Once you're proficient in flying with the trimmer, start playing around with the autopilot channels. Disable the heading channel if you want to have fun doing low-speed aerobatics =) Finally, hop online and find someone who's willing to teach you. Join a squadron and take advantage of their tutelage. You learn fastest when you're picking things up from a real person.

Aha, yeah, it looks like R-828.lua isn't amongst the files saved in the prepare mission thing. Perhaps that's why this isn't working?

Can it be done? I know there are some lua files that can be packaged into a mission (e.g. ARK.lua), and this one would be really helpful because it lets us link up Ka-50 frequencies with one of the A-10C radios. On a related note, is there a list of which lua files we can pack directly into the mission?

No matter what I set it to, the UPK still only fires in 10rd bursts...

I've never found a way to fire the UPK-23 pods in anything other than 10rd bursts. Is there some secret deep magic method to get them to spray until they're empty? Or is it just that limited?

Training, as has been pointed out. Besides, I was more interested in the "in real life" part of the sentence...

[citation needed]

The PVI is definitely faster. The ABRIS is just an order of magnitude more accurate in the coordinates it gives you. It's a tradeoff, and you have to use your best judgement to decide which method to use.

I'm not a lua gurua; would you please give me an example of what that'd look like?

True, but if you're passing coordinates to Hogs, the ABRIS method gives you another significant figure, narrowing your window from ~200m to ~20m. Edit: In the VTAG, we use this method as SOP because of the increased accuracy.

Protip: Open up Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\aircrafts\Ka-50\Cockpit\Scripts\ABRIS\Options.lua Swap lines 457 & 458 Swap lines 464 & 465 Save Voila! Now the ABRIS defaults to displaying coordinates in decimals. Enjoy =)

Even simpler method: After you've marked the TP, select MAP, then INFO. Scroll the box over the TP, then select INFO again to display the exact coordinates of the TP. For giggles, you can also do this to view your wingmen's altitudes by selecting their markers on the ABRIS =D

I don't recall if you can engage with non-ARMs at that point, but I know you can't slew the Shkval at all. Turn off the ELINT pod and voila! you regain control of the Shkval and have a perfect view of your prey =)

Has anyone found a way to delete waypoints from the PVI? I haven't...

Virtual Tactical Air Group We're actively recruiting Ka-50 and A-10C pilots right now. We have 2 private dedicated servers on which we run different training missions. We typically fly using TARS. If you're looking for a home with an excellent group of virtual pilots, come check out the VTAG! If you have any questions, please PM me =) http://vtacticalairgroup.net/

First thing's first: the campaign is hard. Really hard, especially for fixed-wing. The first mission has some horrible clouds that limit you to ~1500m, keeping you quite in reach of SHORAD. It's quite a bit easier in the Ka-50 because you can hang back more effectively. I have yet to successfully get more than a couple missions into the campaign in the Toad. I find orbiting to be only sort of helpful in the Toad. It doesn't have a TGP, so you can't look too far off the bore. Also, our missile employment requires that we point the nose pretty close to the target, which tends to draw you to lower altitudes on attack runs. You can limit this by only launching 1 weapon per run. Make sure you don't get too close to your targets. If you're going in with guns, make sure you know that there aren't any IR or radar SAM threats. In general, I'd stay away from the campaign and focus on multiplayer instead. Pop into servers (104th is usually pretty good for mud movers), fly with other people, get on teamspeak and enjoy yourself =)

Much thanks, Viper =) And for the record, I did search around, but couldn't find a specific reference to it. That's the problem with people referring to the T as just the Su-25... Edit: Is it on the fix list for 1.2.3?

Is the aiming reticle in the vanilla frog off? I swear my rockets were falling 50m short consistently. Yes, I had the laser on. Thoughts?

I believe you don't even have to manually reactivate the laser when firing multiple Vikhrs, just deactivate it and fire again. You mentioned TV-guided missiles. One pro-tip I figured out for both the TV and semi-active laser-guided missiles: The plane has to be pointed close enough to the target for the missile to pick it up with its own receiver. The missiles have a gimbal limit, and if the target is past that, the missile won't be able to acquire. That's what makes the difference between a flashing LA and a solid LA when you're in range.

I don't recall the actual quote (loaned my copy to a friend), but the gist was "armored enough to completely protect it from ground fire". The point was, while there is some armor, it's also designed to absorb damage, at least in part by redundant systems.