CheckGear

The Wings episode on the F-14 was awesome as well. I especially enjoyed that segment at the end that played footage of the F-14 set to a scintillating soundtrack with no narration. VF-213's sister squadron, VF-114, got some decent media coverage as well, although not as much as VF-213. It's a shame they didn't keep the Aardvarks around!

Both old Discovery Channel and History Channel had some excellent air warfare documentaries back in the day. It's amazing how the market for such productions has completely faded away. Sea Wings, along with Carrier: Fortress at Sea, were a snapshot of naval aviation in the 1990s. It wasn't exactly the good old days, but it was certainly a time when America's preeminence in the seas and skies was a given. Now we're back to great power struggles in today's era.

My initial impression was that it was a TARPS pod. Of course, that'd beg the question what it was doing there in the first place, since they were about to embark on an air intercept exercise...

Fixed.

I've been looking for this documentary for years and I've finally found it once again! Discovery Channel produced a mini-series off-shoot of its famous Wings series titled Sea Wings in the mid-1990s and this is the episode covering the Tomcat. It's probably the best F-14 documentary ever produced and it brings back some awesome memories. BlackLions213, your favorite squadron has the starring role! It shows VF-213 aboard USS Abraham Lincoln doing work-ups prior to their 11 April - 9 October 1995 WESTPAC/Persian Gulf deployment.

Plenty of action during the precise timeframe of the LNS F-14B. They'd have been rolling off the deck of the USS Enterprise to deliver strikes against Iraq during Operation Desert Strike! If you want to get hypothetical, they'd have been flying missions against Iran as retaliation for the Khobar Towers bombing.

So, if you don't go to the gym, the plane becomes harder to fly? :megalol:

I think they'd be jumping the shark with that. ArmA already has the market cornered on tactical shooters, anyway.

Squadron ready rooms? Mess halls? Sick bay? Primary Flight Control? Navigation Bridge? CIC? The head? Goodness, this is becoming much too real...

Top Gun was filmed aboard Enterprise in 1985, prior to their 1986 world cruise. The Hunt for Red October was filmed in 1989, prior to their '89 - 1990 world cruise. I think I'm detecting a pattern here... :P

Hard to believe there was once a time when flight simulations were an in-demand genre.

Oh no, quite the contrary. Fun is most definitely allowed, which is why I suggested the EA classic U.S. Navy Fighters. Jane's USNF '97 is the definitive version of it! :thumbup:

Why, so it can be like EA's U.S. Navy Fighters all over again? These weren't "rare" loadouts - these were non-existent load-outs, at least when it came to operational units in the U.S. Navy. Notice, with the exception of the last photograph, they were all on Tomcats belonging to test and evaluation squadrons and the Iranian Air Force. Want to shoot the AMRAAM, HARM, and Harpoon? Fly the Hornet.

It depends on how well its executed. I'm a huge history buff and, 99 times out of 100, I prefer scenarios that are based on real-world locations with real-world plausibility. At the same time, fictional settings also offer opportunities that real-life settings cannot. This is precisely the same reason why our militaries create fictional countries of their own for their military exercises. A lot of military simulations that have been released in the past have used fictional setting (not just OFP and ArmA) and the campaigns have been just as enthralling as if it were based in a real-life locale. As long as its done in a realistic manner, why not? That being said, if they had a Strait of Hormuz map and they decided to re-name Iran, then that'd be an issue, as someone already mentioned. Real countries are real countries; fictional countries are fictional countries. I also wonder when it became such an issue to name a country explicitly in a game. In the past, simulations had no problem labeling places like Iran and Syria the OPFOR.

You're the best! My dream is that, one day, every last livery will be available for every era of a squadron that operated the Tomcat!

Top Gun: Fire At Will! had TARPS within the game, but it was possible primarily due to the arcade-like nature of the game. What'd be awesome is if there was some way to tie in target destruction with visual verification via TARPS or if successful TARPS missions made subsequent missions easier in a campaign. For example, lets say in one mission, you escorted a strike package onto a target. On the next mission, you blew bomb damage assessment (BDA). Your ability to obtain photographs of the target would result in whether another strike was assembled or if you moved onto another target. In another example, your ability to obtain intelligence via TARPS would make subsequent missions easier, while failure would result in having to rely on other, less-reliable sources like satellite and have to deal with a significant amount of uncertainty in later missions. Not sure how that'd be implemented, but it'd be cool if they could figure it out!

I should've said with the exception of a few squadrons. I generally don't "count" CAG birds, because they've always been high-vis. I was talking about the totality of the squadron.

I remember the arcade-like sim Top Gun: Fire At Will! had the over-wing vapor effect. Pretty cool, given that very little else about the game was realistic.

Jeez, we're like the same person... I agree, overall. As much as I'd like to see the F-16 in DCS, its been done to death by the Falcon franchise. We've barely seen the A-6 or A-7. I'll take the F/A-18, preferably the C/D variant, if only because its been too long since its been simulated.

Aerosoft did such a good job on their F-14 mod, LNS has a very high bar to meet!

You damn Europeans. :chair: Oh well, I'm Asian, so I have a WESTPAC bias...

I wonder if Nellis AFB personnel and Red Flag participants spent much time enjoying the nightlife in Las Vegas. It seems even better than when Topgun was at Miramar!

One thing that always struck me is how early the transition to low-vis markings actually began. The era of highly colorful markings actually ended in the late-'70s. That means that Tomcats were low-vis before I was even born. :(

I bet it is. I'm just saying its not as visually appetizing as Nellis AFB and the area surrounding it is. I'd love to see an NAS Fallon map, because I'm more of a naval aviation guy anyway and I want to know how Topgun feels. But given priorities, I think designers' time can be used towards other projects.

NAS Fallon is on the opposite corner of the state. Its not part of the NTTR map.