Gianky

I'd say that what is going to happen with the F-4 is probably a decent way to implement these airframe that spans decades of service and tens of variants, so as for the Cobra, I'd hope for a first module with an older, Vietnam era, single engined variant and a modern, twin engined one (possibly the -1G and the -1W). If we're taking into consideration even other, non US western choppers, I'd like to throw into the hat the A-129 Mangusta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agusta_A129_Mangusta

Mine, too.... Orione, c'hai fatto prende' un coccolone, deh!

Question: do you have any previous experience with complex airplane like the 4th generation fighters, in other sims?

@AlpenwolfI understand the hesitation, as demonstrated by the update posted above, including it in your missions implies additional work in maintaining them. Anyway, I wanted to thank you for the Arab - Israeli war mission, I enjoyed it a lot (even though I managed not to drop a single bomb... I remapped the weapon release button on my stick that very day and costantly pressed the old one while in your server.... do'h! ); one question, since it was the first time on your server: the description says that dot labels are active, even though it specify "(local)", but I didn't see them during the mission, despite pressing shift + F10... did I do something wrong or were they disabled? @RealA4EPilot thank you for your answer and for sharing another sea story with us! If you can/want to answer, I'm wondering what was the usual loadout for CAS missions? Did you load bombs and rockets (Zuni or FFAR?), did you use the MK4 gunpod, napalm bombs or SUU-7 dispensers? I'm asking because, aside for the historical interest in everything aviation, I'm almost done with the only A-4E campaign that I found and I was thinking about creating my first one with this little gem as a protagonist, and I'd like to be as accurate as possibile within the limitation of what DCS has to offer.

Have I missed something?

Sorry if I'm being (again) picky... it's Driscoll, and the Ace of Aces for the US in the Vietnam war was a WSO, Charles "Chuck" DeBellevue, with 6 kills... there were actually more backseater aces than pilot aces in Vietnam.

If I recall correctly, yes.

Navy's only ace... and both crew members had the title.

Thanks for sharing, RealA4EPilot! If you can/want to talk about it, were the support missions in South Vietnam more or less like the modern on call CAS mission? I mean you took off, got to a spot over SV and waited to be called or the end of vul? Were you guided by a FAC or a ground controller, or were you put in direct contact with the troops on the ground? IN the latter case, were you free to choose how to conduct the attacks or under strict control? I'm guessing the answer is going to be again "it depends" but if you could elaborate a bit on it, I'd be grateful.

Hey Alpenwolf! First of all, thank you for including the A-4E in your Cold War server... I don't understand why there aren't more people doing it! Can't wait for the Arab-Israeli war this weekend and I hope you'll include Scooter in more mission... I'm itching to use it more and more! As for the options, beside what Calabrone told you, keep in mind, if you don't already know, that the ones about CBUs and CMS can be modified by the pilot on the ground, before starting the engine, so you don't have to worry too much about them. I'd suggest you keep the ECM, too.

I was thinking the same thing, then I realized: they have their own discord. So I subscribed to their server, link is in the first post of this thread.

So many questions I'd like to ask.... Let's start with something I couldn't find a clear answer on the Internet: were all missions from Dixie Station basically close air support for troops on the ground, or did you conduct other types of missions as well, like strikes, SEAD, etc? Also, if you feel like sharing some more sea stories from your deployments, I think we all be very eager to hear them.

So, @RealA4EPilot, if I understood right, this https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/cv62-65/index.html should be the cruise you were talking about, right?

Reccelow, that's amazing! Please, someone with the necessary skills, help him get that mod working in DCS, we need an appropriate tanker for the A-4!

It doesn't say it. As you pointed out, the picture on the Hornet NATOPS is essentially the same of the Skyhawk NATOPS, even in the Hornet manual the last indication of height is 450 feet at the 90, there's no indication of the altitude at which the aircraft should intercept the glide path, nor can I find any reference to a 300' altitude in the relevant section (though I just gave a glance at it).

Bello, grazie per avermi fatto scoprire un altro canale che vale la pena di guardare, Majinbot!

It's at page 1.2 of the manual, right side, squared below the radio description.

Yeah, it's a special case, apparently it didn't have an intercomm to communicate with the ground crew.

You don't have to turn the engine off for refueling and rearming, only for repairs.

I'm sorry, did you mean US Navy didn't have them? As far as I know, USAF used them during the war, although experimentally.

I'll take the second kind, thanks, there's no amount of expendables, decoys or jammer that can save you from a Vulcan nerve pinch!

There are several versions of the A-4 Natops around, from what I've seen so far, no A-4E had nosewheel steering.

In X-plane, switching to Vulkan gave me 30% more fps. I'd realistically expect something similar in DCS. Multicore, on the other hand, I have no idea how much of an improvement can bring, I have no direct comparison, but I hope it'll help a lot, especially in mission with a high number of AI units, those are the ones that right now are giving me a hard time.

I would put the F-4 in, at least, the very probable. HB said that it has been in developmente for a long time, so they're not starting from scratch and they clearly stated, even in the FAQ, that it will be released in 2022. I think they'll release just one of the two versions, just as they did with the Tomcat, probably the oldest one, which should have the easiest avionics to simulate.