DaveRindner

Would it kill DCS to convert SU-25T to SU-39. Strengthen the landing gear, add hook and carrier landing sim. Optical landing system 3/4 mile approach, and LSO. I have tried Kuznetzov touch and go approaches. Half the time, main gear gets bent, but plane keep flying. As poor mans carrier approach, I use path marker. Keep it centered on that white spot on deck, keep IAS between 240 and 270, no breaks, full flaps, use power for AOA and descent rate. But its very difficult, as Kuznetzov's OLS is to small to be seen, and I don't think it works any way. SU-33 in FC3 is too easy to land as it does not have AFM or PFM. Thus its too forgiving as far as vertical velocity and trap area.

In Wings Of Red Star : Mig-21. It is stated, with heavy fake Russian accent by Peter Ustinov, that getting the inlet spike was a challenge, and like with SR-71 inlet, there had to be a program to push in/out the inlet spike to prevent inlet stalls. Though not stated in program inlet stall could and often did lead to unstarts. Basically a shock ring that travels through the compressor with great violence and can flame out the motor. So curious, for Mig21 testers, is spike program , manual, or automatic (i.e. no user control implemented). In Col. Rich Graham's AWESOME SR-71 book, those Mach 2+ unstarts were bane of SR-71 program. They were never really solved. Ben Rich spend 25 years managing the program and it was never really solved, only made less common, and easier to deal with in 1980's, when inlet spike got digital control. They way I understand inlet stalls and unstarts is it starts with a rumble near or near, at, or above Mach2, like a stick shaker for stalls, then there is a large bang, then aircraft pitches or yaws. The pilot has to ride it out judge when unstart has passed, bring aircraft under control quickly, or risk high speed stall/spin. All 2nd and 3rd gen Mach2+ aircraft with inlet spike are susceptible. I am curious where this sim stands, if they simulate the motor accurately. Does that mean that air behavior inside inlet is also modeled.

Most realistic opponents of MIG-21, as far as single seat fighters. Are F-8 Crusader, A-4M Skyhawk, and Mirage III (IAF). F-4 is a realistic opponent as real world confrontations did occur, but F-4 is best described as pregnant cow. Its success is due to lack of equivalent replacement, high speed, advanced avionics,and multirole capability. But it is agreed by aerospace historians that F-4 as ACM air-air fighter was outmatched by MIG-21, the threat platform it met the most in combat.

F-4 would be 'nice'. But if I may suggest. There are two other NATO aircraft of 60's and Vietnam period that would be better candidate. Those would F-8 Crusader or A-4 Skyhawk. Both are real opponents of Mig-21, both are single seat, fighter attack.Both could span three decades of versions, 60's, 70's, and early `80's. Both were used by international clients. Namely France, Brazil, and Argentina. A-4 was used by Israel against Mig-21 in '73 Yom Kippur conflict.

I wish that DCS had expeditionary airfields. Those are made from interlocking plates. Brought in my heavy helicopters or C-130, C-17 , landing on dirt strips. Installed by combat engineers. Usually they are short fields.

My consise wish list for DCS: UH-1 Weather cond. Trully dark night with variable moon ambient light, and ambient occlusion shadows. Current night is too bright. FARP is replaced with modern tarp based FARP with refueling blivets. Better peripheral vision masking with NVG. NVG from 1990's have 40 degree FOV. Use of door gunners without external attachment point requirement. Additional gun options for gunners. 7.62 FN MAG, M240E, .50 HBMG, MK19 grenade launcher .50 HBMG forward firing guns. M134 7.62 is a little ineefective against armour. Dual pourpose armor piercing rockets FFAR and Zuni. Basic RWR receiver. Nothing fancy. Ability to define cold start from ground without FARP or tarmac. HOT anti-tank missile for European UH-1 TwinHuey engine option, with currently simulated two blade Hiller Bell teerering rotor. Authentic SkyGray livery. US Coast Guard, Canadian Coast Guard External rescue hoist rig on starboard (pilot) side. blade and fuselage collision with trees. Right now they don't seem to do it.

Sorry . Lctrl+3(x2) and Lctrl+4(x2) does not work for me. Matter of fact, AI gunner free fire does not even appear in options, so I can't map it. Where did you find. If its not too much trouble, please post screen grab. I have latest 1.2.7 and thus far, I have not been able to use door gunners, except manually, nor can I fire flares. There is no short cut available, and cockpit button does not function. Thank you.

Yes. I modified a stock quick start. Perhaps I should have mentioned that. If so I do apologise. It is intended to be a template, like all prepackaged missions in DCS. The point of the mission is flight training, not tactical planing, or engagement. The bulk of the effort in designing this mission, was placement of FARP pad in a way that allowed the player helicopter to be placed on pad that is inside the hangar, and still alow UH-1 to be flown into and out of hangar. Weakness of DCS helicopter modules, is that they require a FARP or airfield for cold start missions. A failiure on part of designers, as helicopters are capable to be based of grass, or unprepared terrain. So a FARP pad in mission is my concession to limits imposed on me by DCS. There is a similar fixed wing limitation ,as DCS mission editor does not have expeditionary airfields. That is runways and ramps covered in expeditionary airfield matting with wire arrestor cables, or compacted earth. Also American FARPs are really just strong sheets of polyester and fiberglass, with fuel bladders, and munitions pallets. They are deployed by CH-47 and UH-60, powered by generators, batteries or apu's of serviced helicopters. The FARPs in DCS are old school, semi-permanent Vietnam era pads, that were developed to counter muddy wet ground of Indochina. As a sidenote, I got the idea for this mission profile , from two sources. The Hoth Ice Base in Empire Strikes Back, and supposed Cold War urban myths from my time in US Army which obviously did not happen.

This a mission template that you can use to modify. The objective of this mission is training precision handling and hover taxi, of UH-1. The mission start and should end, inside a hangar. Everything is tight, so if your hover taxis skills and precision handling are wanting, you will have blade collision. About 5km away are an enemy forces with ZSU AAA and BTR, who will take pot shots at you, so keep building or terrain to mask your movement t contact. THe mission as is is recon/observation. Just click on enemy position with mouse form cockpit, once position is reported, return to 'secret' base. Approach to hover taxi from forward flight, and hover at 3 meters rdr alt above landing pad, then hover taxi at 1-3m rdr alt into hangar, land, shut-down. Watchout for security troops and obstacles inconvieniently in your way. I don't have MI-8 module, but I suspect that its disk radius is to large. KA-50 is easier to land in this mission, its disk is slightly smaller then UH-1. UH1-IA-secretOps.miz

Amphibious and large merchant marine vessels It would be nice to get some amphibious ships. Tarawa class LHA hulls, and or Landing Platform Dock , like U.S.S. New York (LPD-21). Ships that are made for maritime operation of helicopters. Large merchantmen hulls that support a small flight deck. Towed artillery for both NATO and Russia. M198 or M777 towed howitzers for NATO, and D-30 for Russia.

UH-1B/D height-velocity graph. Found this little gem on the internet. I could not find HV in U-1H Flight Manual. The one on pg 37 is a generic example. The attached PNG is actual HV for UH-1B/D and for its civilian model, Bell 204B. My guess is the H variant would have same or mostly similar HV. Stay out of red. Mem assistance; If you go red, you might be dead. Fly in the light, stay in the fight.

I am curious does UH-1H adjusts flight model dynamically as fuel is burned of and ammunion is used up? I experimented with hovering, and taking helo off in max gross, with 4 miniGuns and two 19rocket launchers, and 50% fuel , with gross at 99% Compared two same load but with used up rockets and expended all ammo, and remaining fuel at about 35%. I have a hard discerning any difference is helicopter performance. The rotor disk coning seems same, but the difference may to small to discern. Hovering in GE seems to need same cycling, coll, and tail rotor offsets.

Bring up the Saitek X52 Control panel from Windows, and leave it open, when running DCS. You'll find that all buttons on both stick and throttle work only when Control Panel is open. When panel is closed, some buttons do not register. One of those things I guess. I hope upcoming X55 solved that issue. I am not sure about X65 for helicopter sims. Having cyclic being pressure only, seems kind of weird. Plus its still expensive despite being a poor seller for Saitek.

Hey there. I just solved a similar problem with my 2009 vintage X52 Pro. My stick started to stick, then slip forward, making flight difficult. Turns out, that the sticking slipping part is the base ring(?) which is pressed into base opening with two spring. Well that base ring was sticking to the stick's central metal column. Its spine. Went auto parts (PepBoys) and got DIELECTRIC GREASE, in auto electric dept. Its made with silicon and it appeared to NOT damage any plastic parts. Also , at RadioShack got ControlContact Cleaner and first cleaned the base and springs with it. It dissolves built up gunk. Followed it up liberal amount of dielectric grease, whirled the stick around for 30 seconds. Wipe off the excess, and now X52 Pro is almost as good as new. Sadly I think the spring coils lost some of their tightness. I can see how above lends itself to sophmoric snarkiness. But jerking your stick around for a minute after lubing it grease, is a neccessary task.

From pilot station, neither the pilot sight intensity knob, nor on/off switch are visible. Gliding mouse pointer over their position does not register. I can see and manipulate them from co-pilot vew. RSHIFT +M DOES NOT WORK! It is not mapped in default keyboard shortcuts options. So I don't know what the command for pilot sight is. The commands for pilot sight in v 1.2.4 and v 1.2.5 now only work for co-pilot sight. So I am leaning towards that whatever change that were made in v1.2.6 , kind of suck. The translational lift to/from transition in flight model is screwed up. The helicopter starts shaking badly, and there is vibration noise in its position. You can see from external aircraft veiw. It shifts position and orientation in an impossibly fast rate. For me, it is the most difficult part. The aircraft becomes very difficult to fly. Collective looses effectiveness, vertical velocity goes from low to high faster then I can compensate with collective. Combined with hard shaking, makes the aircraft very difficult to transition to hover and landing.

Unfortunately I am not happy with 1.2.6 5. The pilot’s aiming sight is functional, but the command interface is still in-progress. Currently you need to do the following to use the sight: a. Lower the sight by pressing RSHIFT + M or clicking the locking lever. NO IT DOES NOT! Neither can I find the command that lowers it in options. Only the co-pilot's gunsight is lowered. b. Increase reticle brightness by turning the brightness knob toward the pilot (clockwise if looking from port side) Only works for co-pilot sight! HOW do we do it for pilot sight. c. Turn on the reticle HOW? HOW? HOW? In version 1.2.4 and 1.2.5 it worked on pilot sight, in 1.2.6 it is not turning on. Also reticle UP DOWN LEFT RIGHT not longer work. They worked in previous versions.

OK. When ECM is in semi-auto. How do I manually launch flares or chaff? In options/keys I cannot see the options for them. With TGP. How do I put into FLIR view?

I was practicing night anti-speed boat. I strafed, and as I came off the target, the wing exploded for no reason. In playback the track file, I can see no reason for it. Otherwise the mission went well. I was cheating with labels. If someone can take a look and see something. A10C_navalCAS_msn201309062300.trk

OK thank you on the hover. Good to know that it is in fact , me. Regarding KA50, KA-50 2 in DCS is easier to hover then in v1.1 original. Regarding UH-1 start up. What used to be start button on the collective, in v 1.2.5, is now STOP button in 1.2.6. Also a remap of start short cut is required in controls, even if keeping the old shortcut. In still needs to be re-maped in 1.2.6. Thats a minor issue. The slightly bigger issue is throttle corrector. In 1.2.5. The corrector could be successfully mapped to a slider. In 1.2.6 corrector slider no longer works. To bring the engine N1 and rotor RPM to takeoff/flight rpm, it must be manually clicked with mouse on the collective in 3D cockpit. Doesn't affect sim while in flight, just on start, and shutdown. It felt more real in 1.2.5. On the other hand, I like that now there are no door gunners, when UH-1H is flown without weapons. Good call!

1. Cold ramp start procedure has changed, and no longer works AFICsee. It appears that start button and shortcut no longer start turning the engine. So v 1.2.5 ramp start training is no longer valid. 2. When entering sim from hot or in flight, there is an overriding turbone whining sound that was not there before. I've ridden in National Guard UH-1, as passenger. I recall the sound. The beat from v 1.2.5 sounded more correct. V1.2.6. whine is annoying. I also don't recall, from being a troop, 20 years back as ROTC cadet, in the back, that violent shaking and vibration as helo undergoes translational lift, and looses it when transitioning.to hover. Perhaps it was the skill of the real pilot. But in this sim. its really violent, and causes power loss (the rotor RPM alarm goes), and entry into vortex ring state. Transitioning from hover through translational lift is not a problem, except the shake. But transitioning from forward flight to hover is difficult without power loss and vortex ring entry. 3. Hover, itself is very difficult. Much much more difficult then KA-50. I would come to what seems like a stable hover, then few seconds later, the helo teeters forward or back quicker then I could ever correct.

1. Cold ramp start procedure has changed, and no longer works AFICsee. It appears that start button and shortcut no longer start turning the engine. So v 1.2.5 ramp start training is no longer valid. 2. When entering sim from hot or in flight, there is an overriding turbone whining sound that was not there before. I've ridden in National Guard UH-1, as passenger. I recall the sound. The beat from v 1.2.5 sounded more correct. V1.2.6. whine is annoying. I also don't recall, from being a troop, 20 years back as ROTC cadet, in the back, that violent shaking and vibration as helo undergoes translational lift, and looses it when transitioning.to hover. Perhaps it was the skill of the real pilot. But in this sim. its really violent, and causes power loss (the rotor RPM alarm goes), and entry into vortex ring state. Transitioning from hover through translational lift is not a problem, except the shake. But transitioning from forward flight to hover is difficult without power loss and vortex ring entry. 3. Hover, itself is very difficult. Much much more difficult then KA-50. I would come to what seems like a stable hover, then few seconds later, the helo teeters forward or back quicker then I could ever correct.

There are two pernicious targets, that defy destruction. Ammunition depot, and command center bunker. The only way, I found thus far, to destroy them is place 4 X GBU31 into the doors. Only 4 hits on the door or on the roof above, destroy this target, and they need to be dropped above angels 8. Separate his on the roof, does nothing. I'll post trk later.

I wish I had saved a track from this issue, but here goes. I was practicing short field landing in 10C, using those small strips in Georgia . On one case, I had use up all of ammo, and had 60% fuel (internal). I approached the strip, and touch down at 105 knots, with high AOA of -20, and -5 VVS. Yes I know, I screwed up. On touch down, there was a small bounce, and loud thump. The aircraft remained at high AOA, and would not lower nosewheel, and wound up rolling dragging the tail, and came to rest in this attitude. Nose wheel up! How is this possible. That would mean that its CG had shifted aft. Did this happen because of empty ammunition drum? External stores at touchdown; AIM9X2, ALQ-131, TGP.

AGM as SOI. OK point taken. I tend to look at it as a munition, not a sensor. But yes, you are correct. I find AGM sensor really difficult to use, in this sim. It takes too long to lock and not stable. I use TGP to point it. I prefer GBU-38 JDAM to it. However AGM-65G X2, will sink most small and med size ships in this sim. It is also the longest range weapon in A-10's arsenal.

I don't know what CDU, TAD, SOI, EGI, HOTAS SWITCH LONG UP or any of the other jargon actually means.... You'll get it, eventually. CDU - command display unit. Your navigation computer. On the right side of cockpit its the small screen with keyboard. Can also be repeated on right LCD. TAD -tactical aquisition display. Moving map displaying steerpoints and targets. SOI - sensor of interest. Currently active sensor for target search and designation. There are three. The HUD, TAD, and Litening targeting pod. You switch between the three as needed, using HOTAS buttons on your joystick. The red border line on either of two LCD screens tells you which is current sensor. If no red borders are visible, then the HUD is SOI. Switch Long Up/Down means you have to hold down the button for one second or little bit longer. Wait till you get to Communications. Those really require some training.