DaveRindner

I taught myself Maya, Houdini, Realflow, Nuke,Arnold, Mantra, Rendrman, liquid/fluid simulation, rigid body dynamics, cloth simulation. Have not conquered crowd simulation yet. I have committed to memory start up for A-10C, UH-1H, F-5E, KA-50, MIG-21. If I can do all that I can conquer startup for Mirage and AV-8B. Now watch me and my big mouth fail epic.

OK, a little better thank you. However snags I am encountering. On page 10Start, after setting the rotaries to ALN and STS, I get no countdown, and ALN light is blinking, and never stops. On page 13Start , IFF rotary is nonfunctional. The rotary is not responding to mouse button clicks, or mouse center rotary. IFF selector is kinda dead. On page 17Start After setting fuel and APU fuel as shown, then pressing Engine Start Switch for 1 second. I get no lightoff. The engine remains cold. The Fuel Cutoff Switch and its cover are not clearly shown, or described. Which way is DISABLED? Is it supposed to be in right-most position or in left-most. This is the kind of missing detail, or incorrectly shown, that I was referring to. I tried it both ways, but nogo on engine start. At this point I Quit mission, then launch mission to try again. Same fail. Tried it 3X. Same result no lightoff. Same fails as described above . The start up slide show is not working in my case. I cannot tell where I fail to perform a step correctly. Up to page17. Very frustrating. But your assistance is appreciated. Thank you.

OK, thank but where does it say that the coordinate displays are windows. All they show are two dashes.

An obvious solution to voice directed tutorial missions, is an error check. If the user makes an error, the voice over would say so "Looks like you made a mistake at setting 'FUNCTION'. Correct and Press Space." Or something similar. Right now, the start up can be hosed up and down, and tutorial is not effected, and user often is unaware that error has been made.

There is a disconnect between instructions and actual user experience. I am at a loss as to how to enter INS coordinates. When I go through procedure, I set the dials, PRESS 2 for N latitude, then try to punch in coordinates on kneeboard, and INS panel does not acknowledge clicks. I press numbers with mouse, but beyond first digit, no numbers are accepted. I do not why, and tutorials provides no explanation. "In case that INS pad refuses to accept numbers, do the following;" This is missing. Blinking ALN button, refuses the press. It is confusing. Whether in Georgia or Nevada, 3/4 of time INS entry procedure crashes M2K and DCS. Thats on the developer. There are other important details as to dials. Maybe it is a French thing, maybe it is just how the 3D cockpit is lit, but many of the rotary dials are difficult to impossible to tell where they are set to. INS selector is excellent example. Is the pointer 'DOWNLINE' or 'UPLINE' . It is is not explained. And in many lighting conditions, it is shaded so flat, that there is no up or down. Trial and error rotation just end with DCS crash! So having a look at at whats going on in M2K during startup is probably warranted. Engine control switches, same thing. ON/OFF can't tell. Follow start up procedure, turn them on(single click on each), then hold START button down for 1 second. Nothing, no engine start, no error message. As I said, there is a disconnect between instruction and actual user experience.

I don't see any white point on the dials. On dials that have a white line, are still confusing, becouse I cannot tell the direction that dial is facing. Rotating a dial places the white line as pointing at two different options. But becouse there is no shading, its all dark, it is impossible to tell what the dial is set too. M2K is the only module I have this problem in. My gamma is set to 2.2, but regardless, engine switches are lost in black. I have no idea which is ON/OFF. Its really bad. What in the bloody heck is goin here. I ask myself. I increase Gamm to MAX 3.5. All I get is pure grey and I still cannot see the switch settings.

The radio radial dials are f'ed seriously. Regardless of how bright I set gamma, I cannot tell the mode that switch is set to. Not at all. Tutor is saying set to M, but I cannot tell as there is no discernible pointer on the dial.

I am sorry but these guided training missions do not work for me. I cannot tell what the switches are set to, the graphics are just not working for me. Pressing buttons , that are specified to be pressed, fails to press when clicked on. RAZBAM needs to review these training material. It is working poorly. Or perhaps I am just a bad student.

The blinking ALN light button that is suppoused to be pressed, according to tutotial, is refusing to be pressed. Clicking on it, does nothing, the light keeps blinking. I bet, as with other tutotials for other systems, outside of DCS, like in my day career, the issue is same. The tutorial leaves out some small minor detail, that is not small an minor, or fails to describe what the feedback of action should be. This has caused innumerable hours of student pain, in so many walks of life.

I dunno , I feel that there is some kind of mental disconnect between myself and M2000 startup tutorials. I am doing the cold start in Nevada. After entering INS cords and its time to enter altitude. Placed Data Selection Knob to ALT. Then I hit a mental block. "Now You can set feet or meters with Left or Right Windows" RIGHT THERE I have zero clue what windows is it referring to. I don't see anything that remotely shows FEET or METERS. Windows what windows? Then instructions fade of the screen as mission waits for you to press SPACE, after entering ALT data, which I cannot do! If I press SPACE it continues, but startup is now wrong. Because the descriptors it uses are not clear!

I do have NTTR. But Training cold start mission is set in Georgia.

MH-53 special ops and rescue . CH-47D "Guns-A-Go-Go", MV-22. NH-90, S-64 Sky Crane/CH-54 Tarhee, MI-26. CH-148/S-92. However , I believe that rescue and heavy lift is not well suited to consumer combat-sim market. Those modules would be training platforms for real world. Attack helicopters is much better AH-64A/D but not E MI-28N AH-1W Eurocopter(Airbus Helicopters) Tiger Agasta Mangusta MI-24VN

On landing at Nellis, FPS goes to 1 and everything to **** Not certain whats going on, being new to this module. During Free Flight and Ready On Ramp instant action, coming back to landing. When FPS goes to 1, everything goes to *&&^*. Control is there, but is so slow, and unresponsive, that it may as well not exist. Rest of flight FPS is in 78-96 FPS or higher in NTTR.

F-104. Rocket shaped coffin with a man in it! Womp! Womp! Kelly Johnson was a super-genious of aerospace. So were his designs. Created by super-geniuses, and requiring super talented genius pilots to fly them safely. As Col Rich Graham, a former 9th Reconnaissance Wing CO, and SR-71 pilot, said. In normal planes, pilots's mission and task was the whatever mission he had to do. Fight air-air, drop bombs, etc.. But not in SR-71. With SR-71 a pilot spent 100% of his time, flying the aircraft. The mission came second. F-104, while not as extreme as SR, still required 90% of pilo's attention just to fly it safely. Just like SR it produced super proud orange bag (high altitude flight suit with high vis orange) wearing crews. Unlike SR, F-104 produced dead crews by dozen. In USAF, CFAF, and Luftwaffe. After 104 USAF demanded safer handling supersonic designs. Its weird and wacky, but after mid 1960's, USAF designs did not feature high mach. Except SR-71. Mach numbers have remained pretty constant, if not slower. F-101( remember her), F-4 had 2.2 mach top speed at altitude clean. F-15 is mach 2.2 on a good day. F-16 , when clean in afterburner, at altitude, on a good day, is lucky to break Mach 2. Even though mach 2.2 was design goal. On operation missions, without AB, F-16C and F-15E are subsonic. Maybe 400 to 500 knots top at low altitude, on fence penetration, and approach to target. F/A-22A while it has better performance above 45K on standard day, then F-15C, and SU-27/30/33/35, including MKI. It is not faster, and may in fact be a little slower then SU at 35K but better above 40K. Point is that speed performance has stabilized at Mach 2.2. MIG-31 cannot break 2.4 with weapon load. MIG-25RB has never hit anything above 2.8. -25 would need new engines if it went above M2.5. Russian claim that both are Mach 3 designs are a little 'aspirational'. However MIG-31 can climb to a really high ceiling. It is a natural air breathing Russian platform for ASAT, anti-missile, and anti-HIVAL (i.e. AWACS and VC platforms) missions. F-15A/B specially configured to carry ASAT missile in late 1970's and early 1980's tests, zoom climbed to about 55K-60K ASL for release. F-15E configured for same ASAT mission, as proposed by Boeing, is also claims (unclassified) 55K as operational release . Both had no radar, no gun, and lightened airframe with max G limitation, and reduced fuel. Basically a stripped 'streak' Eagle airframe with single center pylon for ASAT missile. Sorry for getting off the subject. But F-104 is a trigger for me.

As title says. The problem comes early, when it is time to align INS. The voiceover and highlighting is kind of confusing as to what set to what. To make the problem worse, entering INS data causes DCS to crash.

On X-56 I set one of the circle nobs on throttle as nozzle rotation knob, at it seems OK.

Soviets , in their day, made their cockpits very similar. Mig-29, SU-27, Mig-23, Mig-27 had cokpit layouts and avionics in a very similar configuration. A pilot could go from -29 to SU-25 with minimal OCU. Look at Soviet Gen 1 and Gen 2 tactical jets, mig-15, SU-7, SU-9, Mig-17, Mig-19. The cockpits looked identical. I was shocked, but not too much, when RT showed Putin sitting in a TU-22M cockpit, in pilot command seat. The instrument panel, stick and throttle, looked so similar to SU-27 in DCS. Can't be said for Western designs. F-16 pit is different from F-15. AV-8 is very different form others pit. May have some similarity to F/A-18 and A-4. F-4 pilot seat is different from A-10. I think they only commonality is left to right workflow for start up and reverse for shut-down. Electrics ON,comms ON APU ON, Fuel ON, start engines, APU OFF, generators ON, avionics ON, sensors ON, check xmas tree for faults, ejection UNSAFED, canopy close, taxi. THe emergency procedures are also different, somewhat for different types. This is what worries me most. Some emergencies should be muscle memory. Compare F-16C Block 30pit procedures, to Jaguar, and Tornado. Very different. In DCS, compare M2K to AV-8B to F-5E, to F-15C(assuming a future full PFM and ASM with clickable pit).

Thank you for the offer. Perhaps some time. I don't want to waste anyone's time, untill I get out of the noob phase with AV-8BNA. Plus, I am not certain I dig DCS in network mode. For AA and AG, formation flying, its great. But something happens to DCS when landing in network mode. It looks wrong, and feels weird. The aircraft control lacks fine refinement, gear sinks into deck and ground. AG CCIP is less precise, same for cannons. During flight, there would be a snap update of few feet or less. Like the whole aircraft attitude and position , hickups.

WOW! Thank you. I'vee been flyin and dyin in DCS and FC3 precurso since 2005. I have KA-50 BS2, A-10C, Mig-21, F-5E, FC3, UH-1H, NTTR, Normany, and WWII Assets, and just got AV-8B and M2K at the same time becouse of sale. They say learning Harrier is unlearning previous fixed wing. Already crashed a few times, without fatality, all on landing. Perhaps I did not put it into VSTOL mode correctly, maybe I did not use water injection correctly. Or something else. My VV gets too high despite at full power, and nozzles in vertical, gear down. Down in very low, last 100 feet or so, aircraft destabilizes,and I hit terra-firma with excessive VV, gear snapps, wing snaps, engine catches on fire, but virtual USMC aviator (there are no pilots in Corps), remains alive. This is expected, and if I greased AV-8B NA on first flight, I would be disappointed in it. USMC AV-8B veterans say that 30-40% of training time at OCU, is spent in transitional VSTOL regime. But of a bunch post apocalyptic alien invasion cave-men can learn to fly it with a simulator, in Battlefield Earth (2000), so can I! As Indiana Jones said, "Fly yes! Land No!"

Got the AV-8B. Like it! A lot. Excellent performance. 78-98 in Nevada at 2560X1440 with HIGH settings. 65-73 ish in Caucauss. Subtract 5-7 FPS when flying over thick forest. Normandy perofrmance is somewhere inbetween Caucauss and Nevada. Don't have Person Gulf, yet. Any advice for AB-8B newbie?

Options/Controls blacks out and freezes DCS after OK press So I took advantage of a sale, and got Mirage2K and AV-8B Running into issue with Mirage controls set up. After creating assignments and OK is pressed, DCS goes black. FPS counter keeps running, but GUI is black, and DCS appears frozen.

ACM is hard dude! F-5E is actually more of a ground attack, then air-air. But in daylight WVR its alright. Regardless of platform, situational awareness is most difficult, in DCS, and in real life. Which is knowing your aircraft relationship to target or threats, or both at same time. External views, especially F5 nearest aircraft and nearest ground hostile view,are most usefull. Have labels, so you would know where the friendlies and enemies are. In F-5E, radar is ancillary sensor at best. Visual target and threat detection with RWR is more useful. After SA, managing energy (air speed and altitude) is next most difficult. Aircraft needs speed for best performance. About 400-450 knots for tightest turn, and fastest turn rate. The harder the turn, the faster the AC looses energy. Read Energy Theory of Air Combat Maneuvering by USAF Col. Boyd. This is central to Western thought on ACM. Gross weight of aircraft effects how it sheds and gains energy. So you can't 'dogfight' with fuel tanks and AG stores. Even full internal fuel will slow you down, but F-5E will go through that fast in afterburner. In my opinion, within context of DCS world, unless you are fighting Mig-21, Mig-15, another F-5E, L-39, Hawk, or intercepting large aircraft, you are at energy disadvantage vs. 4th gen fighters, and will probably loose. Even AI opponent at Good or better. Mig-29, SU-27/30/33/J-11A, Mirage2K, all can see you further out, have more and better AA weapons, faster, and climb faster. A clean Mig-21Bis climbs quite a bit faster then F-5E. So best bet is one pass at enemy, fire off Sidewinders, one head on gun pass if possible, then run away. Ambush tactics! Like the Claire Chenault's Flying Tigers in China in 1940. Fighting superior Am6 Zero's with less maneuverable P-40. They would ambush Japanese, dive on them, or single pass from underneath, then run like hell. In DCS I find that F-5E has really fast roll rate. Quicker then almost everything, except clean Mig-21. Fight at 400knots IAS is best. So roll alot, to prevent opponent gun or missile solutions . If taking a IR missile shot, break to side, and dump flares like crazy. If an opponent is on your six, and you have altitude, dive with burners on to gain speed and run away if possible. If you are fighting against MIG-25 or MIG-31, and you survive radar missiles, get them in close, slow the fight to 350 knots, then turn to kill, take the shot, if possible, and run away at low altitude. F-5E has superior turn rate and turn radius then those huge things. Above 500 knots, your turn advantage diminishes. In real world, you should conduct your initial attack (i.e. the merge) with sun at your back. The good old 'Out Of The Sun', tactics from WWI. But, and this is just my opinion, I don't think that AI opponents are affected by sunlight in DCS. But I could be wrong. There is a great , but old book and old 1990's Internet posts by F-16 pilot Pete Bonani. He was a top F-16 USAF pilot, though he was actually Air Force Reserve or Virginia Air National Guard. He wrote great articles, and videos describing ACM basics, air combat geometry, energy management, and so on. His work is based on F-16A and early F-16C blocks, but they hold true for ACM, regardless of aircraft. If you can find it, there is a book by Richard Herman, called "Fire Break". In it there is this list made by one of the story's characters. Called "Abner Furry's Rules Of Survival". Its something like Star Trek's Ferengi Rules Of Acquisition, except shorter. Furry's rules are a bit comical but memorable.

So true. Easier said then done, at least in my case. Especially spatial relationship between own ship and bulls-eye.

My understanding that those hooks are not just for emergency arrests. They are also used when landing on short field , and on expeditionary runways during wet , hot, high density altitude locations. Navy and Marines used to have, may still do, a shore based expeditionary catapult (steam), to assist high gross weight tactical aircraft departures.

Thank you. Just as I figured. Looking forward to getting it + AV-8B. Right now my favorite is F-5E followed by A-10C, followed by MIG-21, followed by helo modules. I do not have MI-8 nor Gazelle. KA-50 and UH-1H I have and love em both. Something about F-5E module that is most satisfying.