Magician

First, is there a way to designate a ground target other than padlocking it for "Engage My Target"? I discovered that Padlocking it works, but it makes the plane hard to fly while padlocked. If you are over the target and try engage ground targets, they always seem to go off and attack the nearest air defense, why have the engage air defenses command if they are just gonna do that anyway. Second, is there any way of designating the weapon you want them to use like the Engage With command in A-10C? Given a choice, they always seem to go with bombs without that command.

Okay I jumped in and did some maneuvers at that altitude, and at both 500 kts true (~310 kts indicated) and indicated (When I could reach 500 kts indicated, wouldn't do it with drop tanks). And with varying loads from empty, to 8 Slammers, to 3 tanks and heaviest load of missiles out of the stock load outs. All I can think is that you are trying to bank and yank with a full load of missiles and 3 drop tanks, or maybe just 3 drop tanks. Because I could pull a lot of G's at that altitude and airspeed all day without them, even with 8 Slammers, but if I tried a bank and yank with the drop tanks it pretty much maxed out the AOA right away, causing the rolling back and forth. Ease up on the back pressure and it recovers pretty quick. You aren't supposed to do that with drop tanks in any case, and that is why. You can still do gentler maneuvers without any problem though (2-3 G's).

You may wanna rethink your phrasing. I haven't flown it since the update, but I have a really hard time believing ya can't fly straight and level at FL 300 and 500 kts.

To be more basic and explicit, you want to find a taxiway heading the opposite direction and go that opposite direction to get to the departure end of the runway.

Yeah, you pretty much have to think ahead to look around the side of the seat behind you (like at the fuselage tank fuel gauge), and shift to the side before you turn your head. Otherwise it is majorly confusing. And it only gives a very limited side to side range when looking to the rear for some reason.

I was recently flying the A-10A and happened to notice the set course window on that plane is completely borked. It seems to bear no relation at all with the course to fly. Now that one is either a bug, or not implemented at all. On a side note, the director bar on that plane also wants to line up the nose with the bearing to the WP, rather than the flight path. At least it has the SPI/WP box in the HUD that you can line up the VVI with, and an EAS yaw channel that doesn't center the VVI.

No immediate plans for the F-15C to do that. The first modern American fast mover that's coming out in High Fidelity is going to be the Hornet. Possibly (with emphasis on possibly), this year.

Only that perhaps the coding should go ahead and round up and snap the 10's column up one when the course ends with a 9.7 or so or greater. Other than that it would take a major coding change to either make the 1's column round and snap, or make the 10's and 100's columns roll. But in that second case it would just make it even harder to read in situations like this (Found that out when I was doing it with the A-10C, trying to read the course when all the numbers are "in between" is a genuine PITA) ETA: Overall I think they made a decent compromise between realism and making it legible the way they did it. It's not a bug, just what they decided to do it to minimize confusion... how often does the course actually end with 9.7 or greater?... ok, so twice in that flight plan LOL.. but that seems to be a fluke (or intentional). Seriously even with the proposed rounding up, that'll just make some people confused about whether it was between 209 and 210, or between 219 and 220 (the answer is in where the needle points). Personally, I only find that window useful for making a precise setting of the course when doing it by hand, which makes it irrelevant to me in FC3 aircraft. I "fly the needles", and they are accurate, right down to some fraction of a degree.

On the A-10C, the 10's and 100's columns both roll along with the 1's column as the 1's column rolls between 9 and 0.

As for the course needle and bearing pointer lining up vertically when the CDI is centered and the plane is on course with no wind, I dare anyone to show otherwise. Turns out the director bar will cause an overshoot back and forth if you don't stay on it diligently enough, or don't switch waypoints soon enough. But eventually it will get you on course on the course line. Unfortunately it seems to want to put your nose on course rather than your flight path in a crosswind situation. A problem both ameliorated and exacerbated by the CAS Yaw channel bug. If you use the CAS Yaw channel, the nose is aligned with the flight path, but you will be slipping pretty seriously in a crosswind.

Okay, I see the issue now. It has nothing at all to do with the bearing pointer, or the course needle, it's that the 10's column of the set course window doesn't roll, it snaps to the next number after the 1's column fully reaches "0". So it looks like it says 200 on WP 2, but if you look closely, the bottom of the 9 is still showing, and the 10's column just hasn't snapped to 1 yet. Another clue is if you look at the course needle, it is pointing at 210 (ETA: btw, the CDI in the picture for that wypoint ain't centered). The exact same thing with WP 3 looking like 160, but the 9 is still showing at the top. And the course needle is showing 170. But there is no problem at all with WP 4, it looks like 40 and it is 40.

I just had a look at and flew your mission; No and/or about it, that flight plan has both. That being said, when I got the CDI centered on each leg, the course and bearing agreed.

Just for further edification, the "Set Course" is something that is done manually on most real mechanical HSI's (and on the DCS: A-10C). In the case of the FC3 American aircraft, it is done automatically according to the flight plan, on a WP to WP basis (or runway heading in ILSN mode). If you were able to manually adjust it, it would agree with (or be 180 degrees off) the bearing when the CDI is centered.

I do recall the A-10A training video on navigation goes into some detail about the HSI functions, anticipating turns etc... Don't know about the F-15 video though. But the HSI works the same in both.

Source is general knowledge about aircraft Navigation instruments, gained from many sources. The manual doesn't spell it out the way I did buit it does say this: If the CDI is off by one dot, the bearing should be different than the course by 5 degrees. (according to the manual, YMMV) It takes time and distance to turn a plane, if you wait till you overfly the waypoint to start your turn to the next one, you can expect it to be off the course line when you finish the turn. Especially so if the turn is particularly sharp and/or the distance to the next WP is particularly short. ETA: Unfortunately the director bar doesn't anticipate the next WP to direct a smooth transition, unless you time a manual WP switch in advance of reaching it.

Additionally, if you bank the F-15C to center the director bar (short vertical line) over the VVI in the HUD, it will direct you onto and along the course line in the most expeditious way (supposedly).

Not a bug, the course indicator shows the course to fly along the line from the previous waypoint. The Course deviation indicator in the HSI shows how far off that line you are. The marker in the HUD shows the bearing from wherever you are, there is also a little arrow outside the compass rose in the HSI which indicates the bearing to the waypoint from wherever you are. ETA: "Flying the course line" can be pretty important for mission timing and threat avoidance, assuming the flight plan was created with those things in mind.

There is something seriously wrong with the sim if wind (other than turbulence or shear) affects the flight characteristics in any way. Flying straight and level with a constant wind over the ground is no different for an aircraft than flying straight and level with no wind over the ground, the only difference would be the track and speed with respect to the ground. All I can think is that if you treat the VVI like the ball in a turn and bank indicator, and trim the rudder to center it, you will definitely bank the plane away from the relative crosswind. The VVI does in fact show your velocity with respect to the ground, and should never be centered horizontally with rudder trim. It is not the same as the ball, centering it with a crosswind actually causes the plane to slip or skid through the air. Unless of course, the sim really is borked in this fashion.

After you select your aircraft on the map, on the right side will show all the options for it, about 1/3 to halfway down is a series of tabs, for waypoints, loadouts, etc.. the tab on the far right has an icon that looks sort of like a radiating antenna (ETA: refer to the picture in the above link). Click on it, and below there are boxes to input the frequencies for each button. Get the frequency you need by clicking on the airbase on the map, the tower frequency will be one of the items that show on the right side. Or download one of the reference guides available on the net, incuding DCS site's "User Files"), or the DCS Manager app for phones and tablets.

Well I found an old WWII checklist for the P-51D, It seems to have been copied word for word for the DCS Manual, except, curiously, the part about uncaging the Flight Indicator and DG, before starting the engine. That's when it is supposed to be done. It doesn't say anything further about it. I went ahead and followed that procedure, including the mag tests and prop test at 2300 rpm. Taxied to the runway, and when I got lined up and brought the engine up to 30 inches with the brakes on, I noticed the Flight indicator horizon starting to move into the proper position, so I held it there and it aligned properly after about 20-30 seconds. Sadly, I could not repeat that result. One thing I had remembered though, was the plane got away from me on a sharp turn with the tail wheel unlocked and I did a full 360.. I thought maybe that had something to do with it, but again, no dice with an intentional 360.

AI controlled planes use a simplified flight model, which includes simpler ground handling physics.

Has anyone found the correct procedure for uncaging the AI during a cold start that consistently results in a properly aligned AI at Takeoff? I cannot find any information on how and under what conditions it is supposed to be uncaged, and regardless of what I try, the results are remarkably inconsistent. One time I glanced at it and found it aligned properly when I was getting ready for take off on the runway, other times after several minutes of level flight I've noticed it indicating properly (I tend to ignore it since it is so inconsistent.) But lately it never seems to align correctly. Is there some proper way to do it? Or is it just bugged? I even tried waiting motionless on the ground for 5 minutes with the suction in the green (Like it says to do for the Su-25T), but if anything, that just makes it worse. Hard to believe it could be bugged that badly when it works perfectly well with a hot start mission.

It's only a non-issue because apparently it is not necessary, as Raistlen found out above. Individual pausing would be a major issue for MP. ESC could literally be an escape key for someone in trouble, possibly by throwing off any developing intercept solution by suddenly freezing in mid-air. Depending on how exactly the game handles a lack of updates from that computer, it may just kick it off for all I know, defeating the purpose of making in-sim changes for the person that did it. But it's a moot point. Apparently it isn't necessary for the simulation to be paused to make those changes, only the way it is implemented in SP makes it necessary to first pause it.

I'll take your word for it. I stand corrected (though hardly on all my points, just the main one :cry:), hadn't thought of trying that. I guess all they would have to do is disable the automatic pause with the ESC key in MP to implement it. As you say, the feature already exists.

That is not the function you want, you want to be able to do it without pausing, that function does NOT exist in DCS. And yes, if it is done without pausing, it has to check all the time it is running for changes. wtf? The evidence is that you have to pause to do it, Just like every other mid 2000's pedigree flight simulation that even allows you to do it from "in sim". And the reason is so it does not have to add a process every few cycles to check if anything got changed, as you pointed out above, it does it once, while paused.. Seriously? It makes the difference between adding the process every few cycles, or only when paused Bear in mind my main issue is the fact that you claimed the function already existed, it does not. It only exists while paused, I can't help it if you can't differentiate that from while it is running a real time simulation. And keeping in sync with several other computers. I have no issue with them adding it, if it is possible, just pointing out why it is a lot more involved than you seem to believe. I agree. That's why I would combine the html files Excel, compress and sort them, and use my tablet LOL Yeah it would be nice if you could at least displayed it while running, as I said, that should be a relatively easy feature for them to add. I have no issue with what you want, just pointing out that it ain't a feature that already exists.