Fishbreath

I've noticed this a few times: when you select the ERBL submode off of the map, the ABRIS changes its display so that north is up (rather than the default, which is aircraft heading). When you leave ERBL mode, the map remains oriented so that north is up until you cycle ABRIS modes back around to map, at which point it goes back to aircraft heading. Is this intended?

That's not a bad idea—JTAC would be cool to have, for sure. It would be a little tedious switching the radio items to blue, but I might be able to do that with search and replace in the raw mission file. (I'll have to do that anyway, if I'm switching USA's coalition.)

v2.1: tanker spawns available.

I'll be uploading another release tonight that adds flyable A-10As, and has a spawn option for friendly tankers under the BVR range menu. I see that there's a new version of MIST due to be released soon, too, which should fix the weirdness with the dynamic spawning functions. (As I recall, they work poorly if you use them, and then new people join the mission.) Once that's out, I'll put up a copy that uses it.

Re: fighters, we'll probably leave them in next time. The beginners have been learning navigation and positioning, and when we can tell them to fall back to the friendly air defenses, it'll be easier. (Alternately, I might bite the bullet and try Combined Arms.) We definitely intend to give it another go once we're more up to speed as a group. It's a solid early-intermediate mission—enough going on so that it's exciting, and well-defined air defenses so that it isn't frustrating.

(Bump) Second version released.

Where is waypoint 1 in relation to the target? Have you considered moving WP1 well before the target, so that it hits the waypoint, then has time to line up on target before dropping?

Yes, it still applies, but I've only burned out the laser twice. Once, I fired a full load of Vikhrs, then returned to a nearby FARP and fired about half of another load ten minutes later. The other time, I accidentally bound the laser to my push-to-talk key. It's not something you have to worry about generally.

DCS: Flaming Cliffs <number or airplane name> is simplified modeling. DCS: <airplane name> is full cockpit systems modeling. That's the pattern so far, anyway.

1. FC3 is Flaming Cliffs 3, a many-times-updated version of Lock On: Modern Air Combat. It used to require an installation of LOMAC, because of license agreements with Ubisoft, the original publisher, but now ED can sell it themselves. 2. Yes--FC3 is just another DCS World module. 3. No--they're about as complex as the free Su-25T. 4. FC3 buys you the A-10A, which is a natural complement to the C model, the basic Su-25, and variants of three fighters (the F-15, the Su-27/33, and the MiG-29A/G/S). They're all a complete blast, and I really like them for the same reason you might--as a complement to the heavier-weight planes.

There are 'squelch' switches on both radio panels (see pages 6-73 and 6-99 in the manual). Sounds like one of those is getting flipped to the wrong position?

You won't use any internal fuel until the external tanks are empty. The main gauge doesn't show them, IIRC.

Bump: Cool to see there's a new version out. Three of my friends will be running this, so we'll have a full flight of Su-25Ts up. I want to record the whole thing, and I'll hopefully get a TacView track too. Edit: I didn't get TacView set up right, and I didn't verify, but I think I forgot to record comms, so neither the track nor the video will work. The mission went well, although the one nugget didn't do so hot (the Kub got him twice). The other killed some stuff, then had a landing accident about halfway through. I and my other friend got the mission nearly to the end (our tanks were in Mirnyy) before the mission crashed. One of the newbies streamed it, along with some of the guided weapons practice we did first.

Route mode with a Shkval lock. It's not perfect, but with a long run in on target, it's usually pretty accurate.

Autopilot is actually pretty good, usually, at putting a bomb nearly in a pickle barrel. For accurate bombing in the Su-25T, there are a few things you'll need to keep in mind: 1) Be wings-level when you're about to drop. Bank introduces side-to-side errors. 2) Bomb from relatively low altitude. The Su-25T has no means of correcting for wind (if present), and CCRP is less precise than CCIP anyway*. 3) If you're attacking an area target, don't be afraid to ripple a few bombs at it, cluster bombs especially. The Russian cluster bombs are underwhelming, in my experience. 4) Killing a tank or a decent IFV is going to take nearly a direct hit. Honestly, I find that S-13 rockets are my favorite unguided anti-AFV weapon—you can hit about two targets per pair of pods, and a direct hit on a tank will either kill it or really, really hurt it. * CCIP, however, is broken right now, and has been broken since 1.2.5—the pipper doesn't drop as far as it should, so you have to be in a very steep dive to get it at all.

I saw a thread about a similar problem not long ago—it was a very windy Ka-50 mission, and the pilot was having his missiles go dumb because the wind pushed them out of the guidance matrix before the missiles could pick it up. Could that be happening here?

The bullseye marks a location called bullseye—militaries frequently give radio calls with a bearing and range from bullseye rather than from a specific platform. The mission maker has to set an airfield to your coalition for you to be able to rearm there.

'Cy' is Cyrillic 'Su'.

Just wanted to let folks know that I haven't forgotten about this—right before Christmas, I was wrapping up a Command Ops AAR about the northern shoulder of the Battle of the Bulge (here), and after Christmas I went on two weeks of vacation. I want to get something hammered out on this front this weekend; proof of concept, if nothing else.

Hold the trimmer down while changing attitude if you aren't in FD mode. The pitch change doesn't happen in the real helo because the pilots 1) trim almost constantly (there's a video around of a flight over Moscow; you can hear him tapping the trimmer almost constantly) and 2) don't have to recenter their stick when they do. In the sim, the pitch change happens because the Ka-50 autopilot can't distinguish external deviations from the set attitude (wind, change in ground effect, etc.) from control inputs, and we without FFB sticks can't trim as the real guys do.

On that note, sign me up for the MiG-21 pool!

This mod claims to do it.

It's the A-10A modeled to the same level as the Su-25T, not the A-10C with a detailed avionics model.

The smoke sticks to the plane while you're shooting, then falls back when you stop.

And vice-versa: the autopilot has no information on pilot inputs, so it tries to correct when you move the stick sans trimmer because it looks like any other deviation from desired flight parameters.