Fishbreath

I should probably have some time to play with this for you tonight—I was flying a few nights ago to check out a few things for my guide, and was receiving bank guidance in FD mode (incidental to another thing I was working on). I'll try to characterize it.

I'm on a bit of a DCS kick right now, so as I'm powering through more sections in my Ka-50 guide, I'm also working on this a little bit. In the next few weeks, I'll have a version 5.0 available, which, at minimum, will restore the friendly tankers spawns and complete the move to script-based spawns. (The latter gives me a lot more latitude to do complicated things, a la the current BVR range.) If I'm feeling ambitious, I might work on the COIN range, too—decide how I want to do it (with a random selection from a few spawn points and a few paths through a town, maybe).

The Ka-50 is a deeply idiosyncratic aircraft, it's true--I found myself saying, "Really? *That's* how it works?" an awful lot while I was learning it. Some of it has to do with the Ka-50's prototype status, I think--they might have cleaned it up a little if it had ever gone into production. Some has to do with Russian design philosophy at the time, which was not heavily based on making sense. (In a way, I guess, the 1980s were Russia developing its philosophy of how aircraft with automation and computerized systems ought to be laid out. I suspect it's better for more modern things. Unlike the A-10C, the Ka-50 was one of the first of its kind in its homeland.) For all its weirdness, though, it remains my favorite DCS aircraft because of how effectively the automation eases pilot workload. It's certainly a pain to learn and to get comfortable with, but it works.

Yup--the section I posted is just about order and priority of targeting references. The datalink section will have the full procedure.

Aircraft weight and drag index are irrelevant. There are four things you need to know to calculate an impact point. (Five, if you're correcting for terrain altitude at the point of impact, but we'll ignore that for now): 1. The ballistic characteristics of the weapon. (Which includes temperature and pressure, I guess.) 2. The release platform's altitude. (Which becomes the weapon's initial altitude.) 3. The release platform's speed. (Which becomes the weapon's initial speed.) 4. The release platform's dive/climb angle. (Which becomes the weapon's initial dive/climb angle.) In those conditions, you can precalculate offsets for windage.

Aha! You've missed a step. After selecting the target and verifying it on the ABRIS, hit the DL INGRESS button on the overhead datalink panel. As long as the DL INGRESS button light is active, the datalink point will be the targeting and navigational reference. Hit the DL INGRESS button again to turn off ingress mode.

It's impossible to offer a fixed correction factor—the deviation experienced by the bomb depends on the time it takes for the bomb to fall, which depends on the delivery parameters

Huh. That seems like it should be sufficient. You might try uncaging before enabling ground moving target mode (note: it doesn't have to be enabled for ground targets—IIRC, the only thing it does is adjust the Vikhr guidance to lead the target instead of fly directly at it) and auto turn to target, but I wouldn't expect that to change it. If it still doesn't work, feel free to post a track, and I can have a look at it.

Have you solved your slewing-to-datalink problem?

Sorry, nothing comes to mind. I have some Ka-50 time scheduled tonight, so maybe I'll give it a try and see if I can turn anything up.

1. Yes. (Or rather, reset weapons system is the only way to cage the Skhval.) 2. Yes. If it's flashing on the ABRIS, do reset weapons system (this does not, IIRC, reset the datalink target selection), then uncage the Shkval (O). This text (from part of my Ka-50 guide which I haven't released yet) describes the Shkval uncage behavior:

Huh. I'm not sure what to say there—if I have some time over the next few days, I'll play with it. You shouldn't need to turn off the bank channel.

Altitude hold is controlled by the collective brake. In the real helicopter, holding in the collective brake lever (turning the brake off) allows you to move the collective. Releasing the collective brake lever engages the brake, locking the collective control at the current setting, and sets the autopilot's hold altitude to the current altitude. Last I checked in DCS, the autopilot still applies its control authority to the collective when the collective brake lever is held in—so you're 20% down on available collective travel when altitude hold is engaged. You have three options: 1. Bind collective brake to a key, and hold it in while changing altitude. Because of the issue described in the paragraph above, this is functionally identical to... 2. Bind collective brake to a key, and tap it to set a new altitude when you want to change altitude. This also robs you of 20% of your collective travel, since you're fighting the autopilot—it's trying to hold the previous altitude. 3. Turn off the altitude channel while you're changing altitude, and re-engage it at your desired altitude. This gives you full climb performance, since the autopilot has no collective authority when the altitude channel is disengaged.

One way of doing things: 1. Note bearing from waypoint x to waypoint x+1 in briefing. 2. Note range/bearing from a designated RSBN station to waypoint x+1. 3. When you reach waypoint x, turn to the noted bearing. 4. Fly that bearing until your range/bearing from the designated RSBN station matches the noted range/bearing. That's the easiest way, and provides an easy way of correcting any error you accumulate along the way: just fly along the radial until you hit the correct range. You can also note the bearing to a given point on the map from two RSBN stations (or two NDB stations (I forget what they're called in Russian, exactly <.<), or a combination thereof), and fly until you match those bearings. That's a little harder, because it requires tuning back and forth between two stations, and the data you need to correct error is on both of them. (Fly along the first radial you match, then watch for the second bearing to line up.)

Sure thing—there's so much to know about the MiG, it's hard to keep track of it all even if you've read the manual a dozen times, and there are so many things that make me say, "That can't possibly be how it is for real!" It does seem like it's not a lot of safety margin, but the MiG's landing gear seem to be relatively unforgiving anyway, compared to heavier fighters like the Flanker and the Eagle. I guess it's just down to priorities in the design.

The MiG-21's tires are rated to a maximum of 370kmh. (First result in the manual, searching for 'tires'.) You should be off the ground by 350kmh, even overloaded. There's much more to tire wear than size. If the MiG's tires are thin-walled (as you might want on an interceptor if you're trying to shave weight wherever possible), the simple heating from rolling friction could be enough to pop them. The Su-25T and F-15 are bad examples; both have much more modern tires, I'd expect. The F-104's typical landing speed was about 315kmh, but flapless landings (a reasonable emergency case) could happen at up to 450kmh, so it makes sense that its tires would be able to take that. A light, empty, flapless MiG-21 lands at about 350kmh, IIRC.

As the couple of posts after mine said, it doesn't seem to be possible.

I can't promise it'll be this week, but in the not-too-distant future, I'll try have a look at your mission file and see how easy it is to translate into lua.

Pressing the button isn't instant 100% brakes--it ramps up. You can modulate it to get a certain amount of braking less than 100%.

The pilot's operating instructions for the real MiG-21bis instruct pilots to maintain 870kmh TAS for best climb performance to 10,000 meters. It struck me as odd, too, but I'm not one to quibble with the manuals. Edit: see this thread for exhaustive discussion.

The standard climb profile is: 1. Take off at afterburner 2. At 600kmh, go to military power. 3. Climb to 1000 meters while accelerating to 870kmh on the true airspeed indicator. 4. Climb to 10000 meters maintaining an indicated airspeed of 870kmh. I've never timed it, but following that profile gets you up high very quickly.

Space constraints, maybe? There's not a lot of forward surface area in the MiG. Alternately, it might just have been poor Soviet electrics—did other radars from the late 60s/early 70s have distance measuring capability down to close-in gunnery range?

I think that's reasonable. The only A-G loadout I could see the MiG carrying at 10,000-plus meters is a nuc, and I don't get the sense that mission planners would budget return fuel for a high-altitude MiG-21 nuclear bombing run. :P

When you switch between AUTO and MAN modes for the gun, you have to change the wingspan setting. Automatic mode uses the scale printed on the knob, and manual mode uses the scale in the window.

Yes, the engine sounds got some love in a recent patch.