Fishbreath

Has anyone done a Wii remote plugin for FacetrackNoIR yet? That's the biggest reason to stick to Freetrack for me.

My unsupported theory is that the Russians like pastel colors because they still look bright and happy when it's cloudy and snowy. :P

The Ka-52 does improve upon the Ka-50 in a lot of ways, but as much fun as it is to two-seat helos in Arma, I like the single-seat idea too much in DCS. One of my friends was a big advocate of the two-seat layout, but after getting into the Ka-50, he thinks it's a little overrated, and says that any strike aircraft can be single-seat, given late Cold War-era avionics and automation. Having played Ranger79's Operation Piercing Fury mission #1, I'm no longer so sure that's the case—I would frequently find myself with too few hands to do target acquisition and flying at the same time, and in low-intensity counterinsurgency sorts of environments, that's not an uncommon mission parameter. It might be better with a wingman, given loose formations, good use of the datalink, and overwatch (so one guy can use his eyes and the other guy can fly).

I'd be glad to volunteer for voiceovers if you need more people for the rest of the campaign.

You don't need to keep the target in the Vikhr launch cue after launch (as you say, it's for the next launch). You do need to stay roughly in line with the Vikhr and the target, though, since it's a beam-riding missile (edit: also as you say). If you pull up or to the side too vigorously, the path between you (the source of the beam) and the target will move, the Vikhr won't be able to correct enough to stay in the beam, and it'll lose guidance. Edit: the guidance beam is wider than the launch cue; the launch cue is just so that the Vikhr, after launching sans guidance, is in the right place to pick up the guidance beam when it's ready to start guidance. If you're having trouble hitting if you don't do #4 in your list, then there's something wrong with the Vikhr modeling.

It was great up until I lost my connection. Looking forward to the final release of this and the subsequent entries in the campaign.

You can do one of two things: 1) Install DCS World through Steam and delete the standalone install, or 2) Get the key from Steam and add it to your standalone install. The second option is much more involved. There's no material difference between Steam DCS World and standalone DCS World. Both are being maintained because standalone DCS World came first, and most of us are still using that method. Steam will get updates at the same time as standalone, though, so if you're new to DCS World, there's no reason to worry about standalone (except for beta releases of some modules). It shouldn't have any bearing whatsoever on DCS WWII, so you don't have to worry about your choice now affecting that later.

I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but if you press 'lock' while the Shkval/Merkur pod is pointed at the ground, it will ground-stabilize—that is, it'll track a point on the ground, rather than move with the plane. Slewing it around will continue to track the ground until you're over a target, at which point it should begin tracking that target without further interaction. (You may have to change the size of the tracking gate.)

The only thing FFS-worthy about DCS sales is the tired, predictable whining whenever a sale happens. You are not a special snowflake for paying full price, except insofar as it marks you as less patient. If you're enjoying the module at full price, and then it goes on sale two weeks later, it doesn't change the fact that you were enjoying the module at the price you paid for it. Whereas, for the Huey and the P-51 in particular, I would not have paid full price. By having a sale, ED and Belsimtek made $10 or $15 each on me they wouldn't have made at all otherwise, because I find the P-51 and Huey to be about $15 of enjoyment a pop, and not worth more than that to me. You obviously thought the Huey was $40 or $50 of fun when you bought it. If you didn't really think so, you should have waited for a sale, too.

I believe the issue is that the TV-guided Mavs in the A-10A don't have the narrow field of view (or the narrow FoV doesn't work), while the IR-guided Mavs do. (I don't have the A-10A, so I can't comment beyond trying to clarify.)

You should never need trim reset in the Ka-50, IMO, and the no rudder trim mod doesn't make a lot of sense to me if you're using the autopilots correctly (unless, that is, you've removed the centering springs from your rudder pedals, but not everyone does that). The controls display, however, is almost a requirement if you don't have a force feedback setup.

Irregular programming has it, as far as I'm concerned—if I want to throw it around the sky and really play with its agility, I turn on the pitch, bank, and yaw channels and use flight director, at which point it trims like the Huey or the Hip, except with stabilization from the autopilot. If I'm in combat, I'm almost never in flight director mode, and I'm not infrequently in route mode. The autopilots are just so handy.

If there's a Ka-50 slot free when I get there, I'm totally in. This looks incredible.

You can buy it on Steam and use the key in standard DCS, I believe.

That's actually a little funny—I'm an American, but I started in the Ka-50 and picked up the Su-25T next, so going to the A-10 and seeing knots/nautical miles/feet was a bit of a shock. As for a DCS Su-25A, I don't want one, because I'd have to buy it then. :P

Low-alt high-drag sounds like a lot of fun to me. One of these days I'm going to give it a try.

If the CCIP pipper is above the drop line, that means the bomb is going to hit your plane. if the CCIP pipper is hanging below the drop line, that means the bomb will fall away. Don't drop while you're pushing the nose down, and you can avoid this entirely.

Nope, the Avenger (which launches Stingers) is IR-guided. You wouldn't even get a lock warning in the A-10 (although it would trigger a launch warning). The Ka-50 is really under-equipped when it comes to battlefield survival, IMO.

The Shark only has a laser warning system. A proper MAWS would be awesome, and IIRC the sensors are there on some Ka-50 airframes, but we only get warnings for laser rangefinders and active laser homing missiles, as I understand it.

Okay. I might have time to whip something up over the weekend. Which files do I need to look at?

Very pretty. I'd love a DCS Flaming Cliffs: Su-33 one of these days. I'd probably even like it more than DCS Flaming Cliffs: Su-27, which I've already decided I'm very excited for.

If you give me a step-by-step, I can turn it into a script.

I would totally pay $15 or $20 or so for a Ka-50Sh plus a missile approach warning system. The code for FLIR and MAWS already exist, thanks to the A-10; it would have to be adapted for the Ka-50, and the cockpit and external models would need some tweaking. Less than a full module price seems plenty appropriate to me.

Woohoo, Su-25T ripple/salvo fix!

Also, remember the helo pilot's mantra: slow is smooth and smooth is fast.