billyzero

Glad it worked out for you. Now, get used to trimming a lot. After takeoff, after each munitions drop, after major throttle settings, etc. It might seem like a pain to keep the aircraft trimmed but it pays big dividends when you're making bomb runs and it becomes second nature. You'll find yourself trimming the plane and not even realize that you're doing it.

I am sure you're doing this but you are trimming the aircraft, right? Also, I notice that immediately upon takeoff, the aircraft has to be trimmed quite a bit to get straight and level flight.

I am really stretching for recall here but I believe every military airport is controlled (has a control tower). Depending on what type of control space exists around the airport, you contact the tower at a specified distance and state your intentions to land. Typically the tower then tells you an active runway and then tells you to enter that runway's pattern or gives you a straight in approach. For civilian airports (controlled) its basically the same thing. If the airport doesn't have a control tower (uncontrolled), there is a standard civilian traffic frequency that you turn to and just start announcing your intentions and location over the frequency. You choose which type of approach (straight in or pattern) but typically you want to fly over the airport to look at the windsock to get an indication of the wind direction (so you can figure out the best runway) and then enter that runway's pattern (all the while, announcing location and intention, ie. "11-Tango at Mullin Airfield at 1500 feet entering downwind leg of runway 9 with full stop landing.") The concept is that hopefully other aircraft in the vicinity will hear this and you two can coordinate to avoid a mid-air. This is a quick and dirty explanation and it's been over 20 years so your mileage may vary.

You can even modify exactly which labels appear and what color they appear if you want some labels but not full labels (name, distance, etc). check out this thread on how to do it. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=75874

Check out this thread: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=76230 I had the exact same problem and there are some great tips. It's gets better with practice!

Are you setting the laser time on the profile page? Not the Laser On button but the setting that tells the TGP when to start firing the laser, ie how many seconds until impact does the laser turn on.

Left Control + UP means while holding down the left-side Ctrl button on your keyboard, you also press the "up" arrow on your keyboard. The grouping of 4 arrow keys, one pointing up, one down, one left, and one right. So you are pressing and holding LCtrl and then pressing the Up arrow. LCtrl + UP Long means hold the up arrow down a bit. LCtrl + UP short means just press the UP arrow and release it quickly. Look at the tutorials or even the Youtube videos, they will teach you TONS and they are quite fun to watch. Most importantly, stick with this! This game is SO rewarding when you do things right. You get a real sense of accomplishment when those tanks go all asplodey from your missiles.

Be sure that your JTRS switch (on the front dash) is on. Also, I wait until the NAV is loaded before turning it on (not sure if that matters). But as stated before, sometimes the JTAC just doesn't have the capability to transmit data and you have to input the data via CDU. This thread is a good tutorial (hope its ok to link it here) http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1126958&postcount=4JTAC

I'll try the above suggestions, thanks!

I've noticed a couple times now that after I fly a mission, sometimes, when I am watching the track of it afterwards, the ending is different. For example, I was playing a campaign mission, I get one of my vertical stabilizers blown off (to what, I don't know but something hit me hard). I abandon the mission (which consequently fails) and try to fly my plane home and land. It's amazingly challenging just trying to fly straight and level but it's also completely fun. Somehow I manage to land the thing (it's a rough landing that blows all the tires but heck, she's down). Excitedly, I begin to watch the track after the mission. It's the right track because it's showing stuff that happened in the beginning and middle part of the mission but then my plane just basically nose dives into the ground. I'm pretty sure I would've remembered that. Anyone have this happen to you? Is it a bug or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for all the help and great information. Between the suggestions above and the confirmation that finding the target is just plain difficult, it makes me feel I am not as far behind as I thought I was. It's definitely challenging and it's definitely fun. I have no idea how you guys play without labels. I guess it's just patience, persistence and practice.

Excellent suggestions ! Thank you, I will try these tonight! Update: Major improvements. The OSB 19 and 20 buttons while in IR mode make a REAL difference along with flying at altitudes that originally seemed too high. Thanks guys (the maintenance guys thank you too).

This is my first post on these boards. First, a BIG thanks to the DCS community for all the answers, tutorials, and manuals that exist here. This is by far the most mature and helpful gaming community. One thing I can't find is tips on target acquisition. I believe I have the mechanics down and my TGP pointed in the right place (I even turn on labels to ensure the TGP icon on the HUD is right on the tiny red dot). However, I can never find my target. I see trees, grass, buildings, but I CANNOT find the artillery, SAM vehicle, MBT if I cam further than 2 or so miles away. Getting so close to SAM vehicles usually ends up with me practicing 1 engine landings. I switch between all 3 TGP mode, I zoom in with narrow focus, zoom out with the standard focus, it just doesn't seem to help. So, are there any tips/secrets from you vet players about finding those pesky targets with your TGP? Perhaps Lasic Eye Surgery? One other thing, what altitude should I be attacking from? I started really low below 2K feet but that invites AAA fire. 12K just feels wrong but is that the best way to go? Thanks for any help!