Fishbreath

The Kh-66 missiles don't fire in pairs. The left will fire first, then the right the next time you hit the release weapon button.

This is fixed in today's patch.

Without SAU directional mode, you don't have the middle needles on the KPP at all—just the needles on the edges, and the ones on the NPP. SAU directional mode gives you the same sort of ILS direction as the Su-25, as I read the manual, while having it off gives you no direction at all, just error information. Edit: to be clear: chasing the error needles isn't too far from chasing the director needles, but if you're using a director system, you fly onto the director needles, which then move to fly you onto the right course and slope.

To make it more complicated, my multiplayer range mission was working with Blue and EWR (even with an American MiG-21), although not always.

I think it's actually just static. Request ground power and turn on the ARK and radio, and you'll hear it with engines off. Additionally, it responds to the ARK volume knob and doesn't change at all with throttle settings.

The clickable button in the cockpit sometimes stops working, apparently, but the key binding should be okay. As for switches with covers, in general, you have to open the cover before hitting the switch, whether or not you hit the switch with a mouse click or a keyboard bind. It's the same for jettisoning the drag chute and deploying countermeasures/dropping the RATO pods.

There's a lock to prevent accidental gear retraction on the ground. You have to undo the lock to retract the gear. The click zone is to the left of the gear handle, and the key binding is probably in the sticky about retracting the gear in the main MiG-21bis forum above Bugs and Problems.

The following thread goes into detail on my testing, and includes a track, a sample mission file, and a Youtube video illustrating the problem: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=130931 The data in the previous thread doesn't show it, but I found that the bank director needle in the KPP would often command flight out of the localizer beam if I was off center. For approaching the glideslope beam from below, the pitch director needle would often start by commanding a slight climb, then progressively command steeper climbs which would have taken me above the glideslope, then impossible climbs. Both the pitch and bank director issues remained through cycling SAU landing modes off and back on. Sometimes, when the plane is in the PRMG signal (as indicated by black windows in the NPP center), turning on SAU directed landing mode will display the director needles dead center for several, regardless of maneuvering, then turn off. May be related to Philipp2's report about automatic landing mode and Dejjvid's issue with the same.

More precisely, it's on the front of the stick, the pinky button on your average American-style flight stick.

Track and mission files demonstrating the issue. (Mission starts you ~30-35 km from Kobuleti, 600kmh, 600m. Kobuleti is RSBN/PRMG channel 15.) The KPP bank director is correct in this track. As you move closer to the airfield (and closer to glideslope), the pitch director moves up the KPP until it vanishes. I cycle SAU directed landing mode off and on several times. It doesn't come back until final approach, and still indicates incorrectly. I'm uploading a Youtube video too. Will edit post when it's done. Edit: prmg-landing.trk MiG-21 Landing Test.miz

The MiG-21 fighter maneuverability in today's terms document (or whatever it's called) in another thread claims that the MiG had extremely good low-speed rudder authority, down to as little as 30 kts (~50kmh). It could just be aerodynamics at fast taxis. (And presumably that's why the manual/procedures say to taxi at 50-60kmh, so you don't have to spend your compressed air on keeping centered on the taxiway.)

Yup, it's a hot start issue.

It doesn't, as of yesterday when I tried a full shutdown after finishing my flying, anyway.

Pretty sure the SPS-141 and ASO-2 are an incompatible loadout, aren't they? I think the manual says so, although I haven't tried equipping both. Edit: do you have any information on how the SPS-141's jamming features work? I'm curious, and I haven't had a chance to test it out with someone else yet.

Yup, just making a little joke. (Whenever I have to use a slightly less-technological alternative, like over-the-air high definition TV instead of cable or satellite high definition TV, it's like a caveman.) 'Unreliably unreliable' isn't hyperbole, it's a statement of the problem: sometimes SAU command landing mode is closer to correct, sometimes it isn't. It doesn't have a dependable failure mode. And, of course, I remain firmly against the idea that we must always behave as though Eagle Dynamics and third-party devs can do no wrong. Obviously, they're not perfect, and although Leatherneck has done an amazing job with the MiG, they certainly would agree that there are some things remaining to polish to perfection. That's why I made this thread—to see if I ought to promote this problem to a bug report, or to see if there's a problem with my setup, my installation, or my procedures. Can anyone else reproduce my issues? This afternoon, I'm going to try some approaches at other air bases and see if I get the crazy director needles at fields other than Senaki-Kolkhi.

You can totally change country coalitions in Notepad++. You just have to change the coalitions table near the top, and move the whole country block in the mission objects section to the other coalition's block.

Further testing suggests that, for me, the KPP needles are unreliably unreliable. I tried another two approaches, and at times, the KPP pitch/altitude needle seemed correct, but progressed to demanding changes that would have taken me off of glideslope. Sometimes it didn't appear at all, or disappeared off the bottom of the scale (while I was not far from glideslope) and never came back. Cycling the SAU (cancel landing modes, directed landing mode) occasionally brought them back. The bank/heading needle was never correct as far as I could tell; I was slightly right of centerline for most of the approach, and the needle was consistently commanding right bank. Edit: that certainly could be. For the time being, I'm just flying my instrument approaches with the deviation bars alone, like a caveman, but I'd like to know if I'm just doing something wrong. :P

I tried an instrument approach at Senaki, and I couldn't get the SAU command landing mode (flight director bars) to provide reasonable inputs. The glideslope and localizer bars on the KPP and NPP both were working correctly, but the KPP director needles were providing impossible input (demanding 20+ degrees of up pitch while I was on glideslope, not showing the localizer director needle at all). Here's the procedure I've been following: 1. Line up on runway radial. 2. RSBN descent mode to airfield vicinity. 3. Landing mode, fly level until glideslope and localizer signals are picked up (black windows in the center of the NPP). 4. SAU landing command mode push button. 5. Deviation bars working correctly, providing error information. Flight director needles not providing correct information. Is it working for other people/do I have some local configuration problem, or am I missing a step in the setup?

Look in DCS/Bazar/Terrain/Beacons.lua. There's no RSBN at Sukhumi at all. (Also in mods/aircraft/MiG-21bis/Cockpit/Systems/R_NAV_data.lua.)

It's not MP or SP, it's any aircraft set to 'start from parking hot'. Ramp start it (or maybe start in flight? haven't tried) and it's fine.

I'd say it's definitely a bug: what if you have a mission with Russia and the US on the same side (or US and Ukraine)? You might have American aircraft who want to talk to the Eastern EWR.

My multiplayer shooting range mission has a MiG-21 warm start/parking hot slot, and whenever I joined it, I couldn't turn the cockpit text backlight down. (The knob responds to scrollwheel and click/drag, but constantly turns back up of its own accord.)

Pylons are numbered differently in the cockpit than in the loadout editor. Inside pylons are 1-2, outside pylons are 3-4. Odd-numbered pylons are on the left.

There's a test 4.0 version on the first post, featuring a first pass at the new BVR range (and menus done by script instead of trigger/flag, too). Not done yet, available enemy types are limited, plays poorly with the old-style ranges still present, etc. Available foes are C-130 (unarmed fun), F-4 (old-timey but dangerous), and F-16 (new-timey and definitely dangerous). I think I left the Mustang menu option in, but it doesn't yet work, because I haven't decided where I'm going to put the WWII/Korea spawns yet. (Probably north a ways.) I'm not going to be doing much in the way of enhancements beyond the BVR range for a little while, in favor of moving all the current content over to the (much more reliable, versatile, and user-friendly) scripted system.

You have to turn the right seat sight on. The switch is behind the main body of the sight. (It's easiest for me to see it when the sight is in the up position.)