xxJohnxx

Personally, for me the fun in the FC3 planes is to fight online against others. There the missile mod doesn't work anyways. Generally if you try to fly online against others, the missile mod is not recommended because it will fail the integrety cecks.

Hehe, good one from ED there :thumbup: What is up with that date?

Thanks for the info and the picture! Have a look at this post of Novak (Dolphin887): http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2192709&postcount=41

Yes, 320km/h is quit slow, but acording to my sources, 320-330km/h was the speed the East German MiG-21s used back in the day. Ofcourse, 340km/h is a good speed when you are a bit on the heavy side. Generally nothing will go wrong between 320-340km/h.

I personally wouldn't do that. 360km/h is the speed on which the blown layer/blown flaps system turns on/off. Flying at this speed can cause the system to turn on and off sporadically causing changes in lift. The recommended speed for final approach is 320km/h, which is easily doable if you are at the right weight.

That's a bit of a problem with the sim version. You can't really do that in the real version because an interlocking mechanism prevents that. Basically you don't want to get the RPM too low, because if it does, there is not enough bleed air generated for the BLS (blown flaps). If it cuts out because of too low RPM you will see a sudden loss of lift, causing the aircraft to drop down onto the runway quit hard, so you don't want that to happen.

Gun-cam apparently wasn't really for post fight analysis but rather for training. It probably would record the gunsight when you hold down the trigger to take a series of photos (while there are no actual bullets being fired), from which could be evaluated if you would actually landed bullets on target or not. Apparently it was not even carried during real combat.

Probably fly a holding pattern to burn some fuel though.

No, there is no way to retract the gear besides the primary gear retraction mechanism. The backup relies on gravity to extend the gear and makes it lock in place once it is out. For safety reasons those locks can not be removed by any means other than the primary gear retraction mechanism. Given how critical a failure of such form is, you don't really want to bring the gear in anyway, because who knows if it will extend again.

Yes, this renders the ASP quit useless for ground attacks with the gun now. It still kinda works if you use the rudder to push the piper to the middle of the fixed net and then fire, but that is not really how it is supposed to work.

That's normally not how the version numbering system for DCS works. All modules should be 1.2.16. The MiG still being on 1.2.15 probably was just an oversight.

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, the SAU autopilot has the so called "Recovery Mode". This basically will bring the plane from any flight attitude to level flight. You can use this for example if you loose orientation inside clouds or during night. I am using that most of the time while flying to keep the aircraft going in the desired direction.

I think the R-25 uses the GSR-ST-12000 WT.

Yes, this is a problem. The AoA vane does move with pitch instead with AoA. Probably worth making a report in the bug section.

Can definitely confirm this. In the attached track I took off with full burners (not emergency though) and kept on a constant altitude. The "external-wingtanks" empty light started flickering at around 3200l remaining, 5:50 minutes after setting take-off power. It illuminated constantly at around 3000l remaining, at 6:30 after take-off power was set. The "external-central" fuel tank light came on at 2900l, at about 7:00 minutes after take-off. All the external tanks seemed to feed the engine at the same time. The 900l central-tank seemed to feed at about twice the rate of each individual 490l wing-tank. Not sure how this would change with the 490l central-tank. MiG-21Fuel.trk

Hmm, this is interesting. I remember I did some tests on that a while ago and it seemed to work correctly. Didn't really pay attention since the latest patches though, but I will go and have a look.

You have to consider that even if sunset is faster, as you can see in the graphs I posted on the previous page, it takes quit long for the solar panels to reach peak energy output (because of the angle sunlight hits them), which is around noon.

Yes, battery type designs are one possible solution to the whole stabilization problem. Some also hope that electric/hybrid cars could also be used for similar purposes, however that would still be far away. However, another approach that undergoes heavy development recently is the so called "Smart Grid". The general plan is to adjust the power consumption and not the production. This would be basically done with digital controllers in private homes that can regulate the output for certain devices such as washing machines, heating systems and boilers (which is already done) and other stuff like that, that is not really time critical and could possibly wait a few hours for a better moment to be turned on. First digital power counters have been installed that allow remote monitoring of the electrical consumption of a household. While they are not around in huge numbers yet (at least with our local providers), as it is only a public test to see how well the technology works, devices like these will server as predecessors to that "Smart Grid". Not quit, that's the problem. While they will switch off large solar panel arrays (airports, bigger private installations, ...) they will not be able to switch of private solar panel installations as they are operating autonomous. Whenever there can be electrical energy produced they will output it into the network, independent if the electrical grid can take more power or not. Again, some new private installations have remote control possibilities, however there is only a few of them around at this point. The majority of electrical solar power that is produced however, is exactly from the private households that don't have any remote control possibility, which why this whole problem even is around. Of course the easiest solution is to keep all solar power production shut off for that day, however that is technically just not possible. Yes, most likely we won't notice it, but the potential would be there. :smilewink:

Well, this is a bit a different thing. The sunrise and sunset are fairly slow compared to the eclipse. As sobek provided, it will not be instant, but compared to a normal sunrise/sunset it will defiantly be. Have a look at this chart: This is the solar power production throughout the day. Starting at around 5 o'clock in the morning, the solar power production increases from 0GW up to 25GW during noon and decreases again. Incidently, in the same time frame the energy consumption through the country goes up (industry starts working, people start cooking, etc.). This is quit visible in this chart: Again, a chart representing the German power production. As you can see, the daily peak is pretty much satisfied by the solar power. The "conventional power" (nuclear, coal, (oil), gas and water), as it is called in the chart only have to change their output by a relatively small margin to satisfy the demand through the day. It is worth mentioning, that nuclear and coal power plants normally operate on a fixed power level, where the power output is seldom changed as such changes are slow and most of these plants are only really paying off at full capacity. Very fast changes in the network (such as partial obstruction of solar panels due to weather) are usually compensated by water pump storage power-plants, often located in the south of Germany, Switzerland and Austria (basically in alpine terrain). Pump storage power-plants often can go from 100% production to 100% consumption within a minute. In former years normally water was pumped into the uphill reservoir during the night (with cheap nuclear energy) and let down during the day to provide peak energy (morning and noon) briefly until gas plants could take over. However, with the renewable energies becoming more and more common, the behaviour of water pump storage power-plants has changed. On an average day they now often quickly switch from pumping to production and back again, to sometimes consume and sometimes produce power, just to keep the net stable* and the power demand satisfied. Water pump storage power-plants are not very efficient. Only about 50% of the energy that they use to pump water up the hill can be recovered when letting the water down again. But with these plants it is not about efficiency, it is about regulating the network. That's why more and more of them are becoming necessary because of increased solar and wind power production. (Worth mentioning that a few new designs even have operation modes in which they basically just "waste" energy. Pumps and turbines are operated at the same time, basically routing the water around a small loop. While it allows for better regulation (power consumption can be finer adjusted) it is connected with huge losses in efficiency, which is actually not that unwanted.) Slower changes in the network are accommodated by gas power plants that have good reaction times and often are cheaper to operate than their pump storage power plants. Day and night cycles are no problem, because the infrastructure had to be built around it. The same infrastructure will come into play once the eclipse covers Europe, however it is just more challenging to manage the problem because of it's relative quick speed. *There are a couple of factors that are critical for a stable net. Generally the power production has to met the power consumption. One of the most critical parameters is the network's frequency, which is usually 50Hz in Europe. If you produce more power than necessary, the frequency will go up, if you produce to little power the frequency will go down. You can compare it to a drive shaft. The engines (generators) rotate the shaft which rotates the wheels (consumers). The rpm of that shaft has to be constant. If you disconnect a whole lot of engines (in this case solar panels) the rpm will go down. Now this sounds boring, but take a look at this chart: This shows the frequency-diagram of the 4th November 2006. The initial step drop from 50Hz down to around 49,2Hz was due to a couple of power plants disconnecting after a power line switched off. However, only a few power plants where directly connected to that line that failed. However, the few plants that failed caused the frequency to fall that much that other power plants performed emergency shutdowns because they where outside of operating parameters. The operators however reacted quickly enough and disconnected parts of France, Germany and Poland from the power grid, reducing the load on the network and allowing for the network to recover. After around 2 hours power was restored in most places. However, if the operators hadn't managed to reduce the loads on the network more of Europe would have been affected. Another similar incident started off in Italy, which again nearly caused the whole European grid to collapse.

I am not entirely sure why I am accused to "instil panic across the face of Europe" as I wrote several times that it is not a likely event that it will happen, but it is theoretically possible. See the first post: I am not trying to create panic across Europe (don't really think I could if I wanted too), but just wanted to inform. As I tried to point out in the very first post, it is not very likely that it will happen, however there is a possibility that it could. Will it happen? Probably not. Would it affect entire Europe if it happened? Most likely, yes. As I wrote in my second post, the stuff about the related problems is coming from a technical briefing our local power company did last Tuesday (10th of March), held by one of theirs control room shift bosses. As said, they are currently preparing for it, making plans in both, prevention of the blackout and also restoring of the power grid in case it would actually come to said blackout. What will happen on that day depends on a lot of factors, first off, the weather. If huge parts of Germany are covered by overcast, it won't be a problem. If a huge part of Germany has clear skies it can become a problem. As said, everything is done to prevent it, however it is a difficult task. If it will be successful, which it probably will be, we won't even notice it. However, the chance still remains, and while I can't give you an exact percentage, it definitely could come to a blackout given the odds are there.

Thanks George, this is exactly the point I was trying to bring across. Yes, the most likely they will manage to keep the network operating, as I wrote in both of my posts. There is a chance however, that something goes wrong, and a lot of specialists are working to prevent that. Unindependend if it happens or not, it is a problem that could affect whole Europe. You can believe it or not, but in the recent years it became a bigger issue than ever. Too little ever goes wrong for people actually think about it.

Damn hippies!

Yes, you would think that. The main problem is not with the large solar plants. They can remotely be switched off and on. However, since the regulations have been a bit too slow to catch up with the growth in usage of solar power, remotely switching on and off solar panels on private houses (which there are a lot due to good funding) normally is not possible. It is not about the lenght, it is about the impulses. The fastest water pump power plants need about 20 seconds from full consumtion to full production, and another 20 seconds from full production to full consumption again. However, only a small part of power plants is capable of that. Stuff like gas turbines (the second fastest reacting power production method) usually needs about a minute to do the same change. Disconnecting loads is nearly instant and would help on the momment where the panels go out, but reconecting them when the sun comes back is not that easy and also not instant. Yes, there are "batteries" in place for the normal, every day load shifts caused by solar and wind. They are called pump storage power plants. For example, this would be one of the biggest (and fastest) pump storage power plants ever built. It's only purpose is to compensate load shifts and shifts in power production by either producing or wasting energy. If you read the article you will see it is built by the local Illwerke power company and the German power company EnBW. EnBW payed for it, and Illwerke operates it. The reason why the German provider payed for a power plant that, when running in "production only", runs dry off water after two days, is too keep the net stable. However if you take all the water power plants that have that or similar capabilities together, you are still far away from compensating the possible 30GW fall/jump in production. And I can also tell you, everyone operating in the control rooms of these power plants is allready eagerly waiting for the weather report. At the same time strategies to prevent or reduce the effect of the flucations are beeing developed. As said, it is more likely that it won't happen than the other way arround, however if it happens, most of us on the old continent will be affected. I don't want to be the conspiracist and spread rumors. I don't want it to happen, and the odds are low (the weather has to be good in nearly whole Germany; if there are shifts in production they don't necessaryly have to lead to the blackout) However, the information I am basing my posts on is directly coming from the control room of one of the Austrian pump power storage plant providers.

Hi guys, Just wanted to share some knowledge about a possible blackout next week. As you might know, around noon (Europe Time) there is a solar eclipse going on in Europe: Apparently taking around 2 minutes and 2 seconds, where most of Europe will be dark. While you might not directly the moon blocking sunlight to the electrical power grid, this is actually a problem next week. However, it all depends on the weather, more specific the weather in Germany. As well as some luck or lack off. But let me explain: In the recent years the German government invested a lot of money in solar power funding. Many households therefore have solar panels installed. The total installed power capacity in Germany is 40GW (equalling 40 average nuclear power plants, or 50% of Germany's total power consumption of 80GW). During a sunny day this time of year all the solar panels can produce up to 30GW of energy. 30GW? What does that even mean? Well, as an example: Gaming PCs often have power supplies in the 1000Watt range, so lets take that as an example: 1000W = 1kW (kilo Watt) = 0,001MW (Mega Watt) = 0,000001GW (Giga Watt). As you can see, you could power a lot of PCs from that 30GW that will just suddenly turn off, because the panels can't produce power without sunlight. This will be a problem for the power grid in Germany, because a lot of power plants have to basically ramp up from off to full output in a matter of seconds. Only a few power plants can do that and they are way to few to counteract the loss. As a possible reaction to that, some cities/industries could be deliberately disconnected from the network to shed load. However, the panels turning off is not the problem, the problem is the panels coming back online again. Because 2 minutes later, suddenly there are the 30GW of solar power again, that you don't need because you turned on your power plants a second ago. Now it is difficult to turn the power plants off quick enough, and it is even more difficult to add a load (especially if you didn't shed one 2 minutes ago). Now this could become a critical point, which won't only affect Germany but due to the way the grid works, whole Europe. IF and only IF the weather is sunny in Germany at that time there is a risk that this happens. And believe me, the power providers will have all their experts sitting in their control rooms that day, just to be prepared and do everything they can to prevent it. However, with some bad luck, the power grid will go dark that day. The possible blackout could last from anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days, depending on how well the grid recovers, the location and some luck. Too sum this up, maybe get some candles and a good book ready, because you might need it. Though the chances are quit low, it could theoretically happen. If it doesn't you at least read about how fragile the whole European power grid is and how well it actually works. If it does, well at least you know why. :thumbup: John