Zeus67

The nigh vision googles are now enabled:

New pilot for the M-2000C under development.

We don't have anybody on staff that can translate the manual. It is difficult for us to even translate it to Spanish when both Prowler and I are native Spanish speakers. If you can find somebody who is willing to do the job, I can provide the pocket guide word file so he can do the translation.

The nozzle stop is modeled and functional.

The hotspot detector look for acute temperature differentials between the spot and the background. On a cold ground any hot spot will be "seen" hence the false targets. In the air it is a bit harder because air is a good heat sink so temp differentials tend to be less acute. One of the reasons why the first iteration of IR missiles were rear aspect only. I'll read the IR section of the TAC MAN more carefully so I can determine if air target spotting is feasible.

Water is refilled every time you do a rearm/refuel. Water is not required 100% of the time. In fact you can do VTO and VL in Caucasus without water. Nevada on the other hand is a different story due to the base altitude of the terrain, you may use water or not, that is your call and it is based on engine power. Basically, in any airport at near sea level (or in the Tarawa) you can practice without the need of using water. In high altitude airports the need to use water depends on environmental factors that affect engine power, as well as your aircraft gross weight. Also, the water system does not work like an off/on switch. Once you enabled it, water may or may not flow depending on engine rpm. So the 90 seconds of continuous water use is quite a lot of time. Check the engine limitations in the pocket guide and you will also notice that you have a higher probability of damaging the engine through overrevs or overtemp long before the water runs out.

The hit probability has improved thanks to ED. In my few tests, it seems that you need a stable firing platform for the missile to hit, otherwise it can miss. In one of my test flights, I engaged what I thought it was a SA-8 but instead it locked on a search radar that was behind it and killed it. When I panic fired at the SA-8 later, it was shooting at me, it missed the launcher. The main drawback is that you have no control over what target it locks. So a good tactic is to keep enemy radar sources separated, if possible, so you can engage the one you want. Still, it needs more testing.

Based on your images that means that the hotspot detector can be used to try to find enemy aircraft in the sky.

Usually the "Widowmaker" moniker is earned when the aircraft is undergoing flight tests, which is when everybody is learning how to fly the aircraft. If you can recall the V-22 Osprey has also been called "Widowmaker". I know that the F-4 Phantom II got the moniker while undergoing tests due to the number of test pilots fatalities. The AV-8B NA is a difficult and unforgiving aircraft, you make a mistake and it will do its darned best to kill you. AFAIK "Flying Coffin" is a tag reserved for outdated aircraft that are hopelessly outmatched against modern ones, so any pilot flying into combat in it is actually committing suicide. The Brewster Buffalo was called "Flying Coffin" because it has no chance whatsoever of defeating the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero, with the most famous defeat being of the VMF-221 at Midway where 13 out of 20 aircraft were shot down for one enemy fighter downed.

The aircraft does have a "calculator" for those, but it won't be available until later.

The FM updates are being tested. If no problem arises, they will be ready for the next update.

I debated with myself about doing that but in the end I do want you to interact with us. I will close this thread if things get out of hand.

Folks, I understand that you are anxious for news about the updates that are scheduled for the M-2000C. Despite the AV-8B NA taking precedence in all our work schedule, the M-2000C has not been forgotten and several improvements are ready to be deployed as soon as we are able to do so: - FM updates - New collision model. - Textures improvements On the avionics side, I still have to start working on the promised changes, but they will be coming. In fact I think that the M-2000C will benefit from the hiatus since some stuff that we learned while developing the AV-8B NA will be used with the M-2000C. Not a lot of news, but these are true news. :)

The HUD repeater is basically a HUD backup in case the HUD for any reason is unavailable. In the specific case of the AV-8B NA, the HUD repeater can also show NAVFLIR image.

We are debating what special options will be available but unlimited water is not one of those. If anything, we may tie it to unlimited fuel but for the moment water is limited and you only have 90 seconds of it.

Thanks. It worked.

It is an EFM, otherwise we wouldn't have vectorial thrust.

Play nice. I've been tempted to close this thread because I feel it is devolving into a catfight about IR detection. My view on this issue: The "false targets" are a bug and not a feature. The manual explains the issue and how to mitigate it by using filters and the like but in the end it says that they cannot be 100% discarded and thus the pilot must live with them. This is the same issue with AG radars and ground clutter, the difference is that radars have doppler filtering to keep false targets under control. The USMC wants the "God Mode" NAVFLIR hotspot. Now, to the simulation problem. As I said, only active vehicles can be detected by the HS detector. Trying to interrogate the environment in front of the aircraft consume too much computer resources. This is the same problem why AG radar is such a headache. We hit this problem when we were developing the M-2000C Air-to-Ground radar ranging. Even with a high-end computer the FPS could drop to single digits unexpectedly, specially when DCS was redrawing the scenery. I don't like the random spots solution. If they are random, I cannot control where they are going to be displayed and some could be displayed in the air, which is a big no. Quite likely the 1st iteration of the hot spot detector will work with active vehicles only. Remember that this is what the pilots of the real aircraft want: no false targets at all. We will look for a technical solution that can create at least some "false targets" but that will take some time. I have some ideas but I have not shared them with ED and I won't until the time to develop the hot spot detector is at hand.

I would, if I knew how. The pocket guide is made on word with dynamic linking and then "printed" into a PDF file, but the links do not carry over. :cry:

The aircraft can be flown in all available DCS versions.

That will require terrain interrigation, which is something we don't want to do.

It was going to be a "Here's the aircraft. These are the instruments. Here are the controls." But, it is a fairly complex aircraft, specially with the nozzles controls and it took a life of its own.

It is calculated on the spot by the pilot based on aircraft weight.

Just a heads-up. ED is working on the sounder. We expect that AV-8B NA's specific engine sounds to be available by next week.

Indeed, by loading the TPOD in a wing station you also lose the other wing station because you have to load a GBU-12, that won't be used, as a counterweight.