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This seems to have turned into an, "argue about rockets," thread somehow. If you want to talk 80mm rockets as a practical anti-armor weapon consider the following: For the last 50+ years military superpowers have made a point of not fighting opponents with any of these: large armies, well trained armies, well equipped armies, and armies supported by substantial industrial and scientific bases. WWI, WWII and Korea were enough to create a distaste for all out war with industrial powers. This means that assuming you're taking a Russian pilot's role you can figure that you'll have total air superiority, and will be flying against unskilled conscripts driving old armor that they don't know how to use effectively. In that sort of environment, especially if the armor is mixed in with a lot of softer targets (armor is somewhat expensive and prone to breakage after all) a loadout that's heavy on medium caliber rockets is perfectly reasonable. The catch is that your primary threats are going to come from small to medium caliber gunfire and slightly outdated MANPADS. So in general you'll want to make a single pass on a target and unload a lot of firepower on it. Then you get out of there before they have time to get organized and try to shoot you down. So for a heavy concentration of vehicles cluster bombs or munition dispensers are clearly and vastly superior to rockets. You set an appropriate ripple interval and just unload the whole payload. Nice short time over target, and it doesn't require pinpoint accuracy. The place where rockets might be better is if you have small groups of mostly soft targets scattered around a large area with the occasional or very rare heavy armor unit. You shoot a few rockets at each target and hope to attack more target locations than you could using cluster munitions. The thing is, in that situation any armor kills are going to be a lucky bonus on top of the primary mission. It's not that it couldn't be done, but it's not something that you would plan on doing before taking off. In a strategic sense, you shouldn't be worrying about the tanks overly in any case. If you kill the troop transports, fuel vehicles, supply vehicles, and command vehicles all of which are soft targets well suited to being engaged with rockets, you will have largely neutralized the combat value of the tanks. Most of the vehicles in a tank war aren't tanks, and without support the tanks don't do all that well. Indeed, if all the support vehicles are destroyed history shows that tank crews will often abandon their tanks to make a run for it before a follow up sortie appears with dedicated anti-tank weapons. "But the mission requires . . . " Many of the missions are not very realistic. There is however a button on the main screen that is labeled, MISSION EDITOR. Can you use 80mm rockets on tanks? Sure and they'll work if enough hit, but they're definitely not the best choice. You might try S-13s though. The Vikhr is really just a slightly modified 130mm rocket, that's why it's so fast compared to most ATGMs.

The other option is to build yourself a collective. I think PeterP has a thread on a very nice Ka-50 collective that he built for himself. In the home pit building section of the forum. For most people though it's easiest to just bind it to throttle axis of your HOTAS. The function in terms of flight dynamics is sort of analogous to what the throttle does in a fixed wing aircraft.

Are you sure about that for main battle tanks? Because when flying the Su-25T I've noticed a definite difference in how many Vikhrs it takes to kill tanks. Usually at least 2, but sometimes up to 4 from the front, but usually single hit kills from the rear. From the side it's variable 1-3 hits, but my impression is that turret facing has an effect, ie you want the front of the turret facing away from you if possible. In my experience this happens for T-72s, Leopards, Gepard AAA, and Challengers, haven't flown against other tanks enough to see if it holds true for them. Now this isn't a detailed thing where you might for example get a damaged track, or targeting system, or other specific components. More like a [incoming weapons damage] * [aspect coefficient] = [damage done]. Where you'd have an aspect coefficient table along the lines of: Front = .5 Side = .75 Rear = 1.0 Or something sort of similar to that. It doesn't show up with the heavier guided missile because their warheads do so much damage that it doesn't matter where you hit, but I notice a significant difference when using Vihkrs.

Hardest part is that with the exception of S-25, Kh-25, and the non-cluster bombs you need to land multiple rounds exactly on target, ideally on the same spot. The ideal spots being the top of the turret, and (if exposed) the top of the engine compartment (usually the rear section of the tank's hull). That's a level of precision that's very difficult very to impossible depending partly on how good your input hardware is. The solution? Apply munitions liberally. Don't drop one bomb, ripple some or all of them. For S-8 rockets 5-7 hits will usually produce a tank kill, for S-5s and cannon rounds it's probably 10-15, possibly more. The Su-25 can kill heavy armor, but it's a lot easier to do it in a Su-25T using guided munitions in combination with the Shkval system. I'd say the equivalence is maybe 4 fully loaded Su-25s are equal to 1 Su-25T with two stations of Vikhrs.

Keybinds should be global (apply everywhere). Things to check: Make sure you're in the Su-25 tab not the tab for some other aircraft when setting keybinds. After doing the keybinds make sure to name and save that setup as a control configuration profile. Make sure that the profile you saved is loaded before starting or resuming campaign play. Normally it will just load whatever the last profile used was, but I can think of scenarios where it might reset to default and you'd have to manually select your saved control profile. If you've done all of the above correctly there shouldn't be a problem. If the problem persists it's either a bug or some kind of problem with your control configuration files (like the files being in the wrong directory or something).

Stick curves are really a matter of personal hardware setup interacting with personal preference. The best way is to spend some time fiddling around with settings and then test flying to see if you like the results. I typically have a dead zone of 0-3 and curvature of 0-25 depending on the aircraft. Graphics are basically the same across different mods as far as I know, though the player/ai versions of flyable craft may have more detailed models than the scenery static object versions. ED is working on a new image rendering system though so changes may come with that. The SU-27 standalone will not be a fully interactive cockpit. It may have 6DOF camera movement and touched up textures in the cockpit. Upgrades to the flight model are also possible, though I don't know how likely. It will still be a survey level sim like the Su-25, Su25T, A10-A, and (when it comes out) F15-C. Very little information has come out on the Su-27 standalone other than that it's likely to arrive after the F15 stand alone does. So far they've been adding improvements to many of the stand alone mods, so think, "similar to FC:3, but if we're lucky with some nice improvements." The P51's definitely have a shortage of same era opponents to fly against at the moment. I've also heard that the damage model is a bit wonky and that unless you hit the pilot or the engine you can shoot planes to pieces without having any effect (seems to be the case with WWII era ai planes available to mission builder for DCS, not sure if buying P51 modules improves this at all). I assume the variety and fidelity of WWII era planes will improve when/if the WWII mod project hits release.

This is a thread that should be moved to the pit building section of the forum. Certainly you're likely to get more and better answers there than in the general DCS world forum. ED Forums >> English >> Sim Topics >> Input and Output >> Home Cockpits. Many very skilled and enthusiastic pit builders there that are very generous with advice.

I don't think I've flown the Huey since I got the Mi-8 module. On the other hand the Huey startup screen has the best music of all of the DCS modules. Or at least the music that suggests, "Damn, we're gonna have fun up there today!"

To be specific, there is not default shooting range area in DCS World or its mods. There are shooting range missions, some included with various modules usually as tutorial missions or quick action, and some available as third party missions. You can also jump in the mission editor and make a shooting range mission of your own.

It already is partly labeled in English, Autopilot, generator, radio, and some others as well I think. :smilewink: I think it helps if you've had enough advanced math/physics/engineering classes to have been forced to learn a lot of the Greek alphabet. A lot of the 'oddness' of the Cyrillic alphabet to native readers of Latin alphabets is simply substitution of Greek letters for their Latin equivalents.

Oh, anjet a few other pointers. The Su-25 is going to be moving and turning a lot faster than the Ka-50, which means that a lot more momentum is transferred to the weapons it launches. While this can be used to increase range it also presents the risk that if you give momentum pointed away from the target the missile uses a lot of its maneuvering capability trying to correct for the bad aim. Firing while turning often stresses the missiles' ability to correct. Weapons ranges: Kh-29, Kh-25 up to 12 km, but 10 is more realistic. For TV versions target box sizing is very important to get a target lock, and even if you get the size right you may not be able to get a lock at max range. Usually at 80% of max range you can get a good TV lock unless in dawn/dusk/night conditions or a low contrast target. Vikhr up to 10 km but usually more like 8. The Vikhr is very sensitive to being launched while the plane is maneuvering, if you treat it like a very long range unguided rocket it is great. If you treat it like a highly maneuverable missile it will miss a lot. S25-L about 5 km, even less able to maneuver than the Vikhr. Iron bombs and rockets, use the laser rangefinder, dive at a 20 degree or greater angle, and apply in large volumes until you've had some practice. The new tutorial missions are pretty decent too. You might give them a try.

2. What is the recommended cruising speed/rpm? Depending on how fuel efficient you want to be and load and altitude, anywhere from 80 to 100% throttle, though 90-95% is sort of the sweet spot. 3. What is the maximum speed of the airplane? I notice that at around 900 the airplane starts to shake, and soon after that it can even dramatically pitch down and it's hard to bring it back into control at this point. What with Mach, TAS, IAS, and ground speed this is a sort of complicated question. In general, about 1200 kmph in a dive (though that's really stupid and likely to cause a crash when you loose pitch control) which is supersonic at high altitude. At sea level you can hit about 1020 to 1050 in level flight with a light low drag load. For maximum performance about 600 to 775 kmph with flaps up. Flaps in maneuvering you can drop to about 475 and still have good response. Below 320 you'll have serious trouble with combat maneuvers, especially if carrying a decent weapons load. 4. I'm having a hard time dropping speed on landing approach. I have to always deploy my speed breaks to bleed off enough speed before I touch down, but I've always seen other people employ speed breaks only AFTER they touch down. I line up for the strip about 20km out, drop my throttle and begin to descend. But since I'm descending I'm not dropping enough speed. Any advice? Should I just line up even further away? Is there a preferred engine RPM setting for landings? The 'standard' RTB waypoint in DCS is about 15 km from the end of the runway and about 1000m to 1500m higher altitude than the runway elevation. When you hit the RTB waypoint you should be at the correct altitude (I prefer being a bit on the low side often I'll be at about 750m AGL), and have a speed of maybe 400 kmph. By the time you get to within 10 km of the runway you should be below 350 kmph. It becomes safe to deploy landing gear at about 370 kmph or so, and the gear makes a really excellent air brake, especially when combined with flaps. At 5 km out you should be at a stable airspeed of about 300 kmph +/- 20 kmph. Fly the throttle however you need to, to achieve this. For the last .5 km or so I generally aim for about 70 to 80% throttle assuming things are going well, and I cut to zero throttle when the wheels touch down so that the engines can spool down before I deploy the chute. If I'm coming in to the RTB area way too fast, for example running from hostile fighters or coming down from very high altitude, I fly a flat scissors manever until I've bled speed to below 500 kmph.

The Su-25T Shkval: Is from an older survey level sim and has a less true-to-life model Is not exactly the same system as in the Ka-50 and Ka-52, even though parts are shared. Probably had substantially less information from the aircraft manufacturer going into the DCS modelling algorithm Works better than a real Shkval system would, provided you employ it as recommended in the manual. Manual targeting works just fine, you have to do the target/ground stabilization button and then slew the center of the target box to where you want the munition to impact. Then hit manual override, fly to within valid launch envelope and fire. In daylight conditions within range I think this can be done without needing to use launch override. Size the target box to be unsuitable for the target and it won't snap, but the missile will guide to the center of the box. If you really want to kill bushes, I suggest using a 20 to 60 m target box size. :) I routinely killed MANPADS with manually targeted laser guided munitions before I realized that in the old tutorial videos the default target box sizing commands got changed between LOMAC and DCS world. I've also used it in moonlight/starlight conditions without a LLTV pod where there isn't enough contrast for the target box snap function to work. It's also occasionally useful when it keeps snapping to the wrong target in a closely grouped bunch, resize to a 'wrong' size and just keep the target box centered on what you want to hit. It should be noted that for manual override launch, you are responsible for ensuring that the aircraft is positioned within suitable launch parameters for the weapon. As a consequence Vikhrs, S-25Ls, and to an extent Kh-29Ls act like rockets with very limited terminal guidance. Even the Kh-25L isn't very forgiving in manual override launch mode. Provided you are successful in getting within valid launch parameters the munitions have an accuracy of something like within half a meter of the center dot indicator in the center of the targeting box. For low contrast or unusually sized targets I routinely carry laser guided munitions in preference to the TV guided ones, because the laser guided munitions will ride the beam, whereas the TV guided ones must have a valid lock or they will not guide to target. It does take some practice and experimentation to learn what the limits of the munitions are in regards to launch parameters. I remember having the same, "WTF are my guided munitions doing? That's not where my laser is aimed!" kind of reaction when I first tried using manual override. I can assure you though, that unless an update broke something recently it's just a matter of needing practice without the HUD feeding you launch cues. So overall the Su-25T Shkval model is a bit unrealistic, and doesn't share as much operational commonality with the Ka-50's as you might expect, but it works quite well once you've learned it's various quirks.

So having seen a lot of beginner question threads I've been looking at settings and flying some of the tutorial missions. The birdstrike slider goes from 0% to 1000%. So if you have it set to the middle position, that's not 50% of what's normal it's 500%. It's like taking off near a lake on a major flyway during migration season. Unless you really want birdstrikes, set it to 100% or less. If you insist on flying through flocks of invisible simulated birds, grab altitude as fast as you can. The risk of strikes declines sharply after a few thousand feet.

Ok, long day1.miz is an older version, long day.miz is updated as of today I normally fly with birdstrikes set to zero, on the basis that in general, I can find much more creative and interesting ways to destroy the plane than they can. Both versions worked for me when I flew them, and there's probably not any difference in the mission files, but I included an old and new just to be on the safe side. Su-25T - Long day.miz Su-25T - Long day1.miz

Fair enough Imp and Vincent. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I can fly a mission with 100% mission completion and targets of opportunity taken out as well, and still consider the flight to be embarrassingly terrible flying. As far as the Su-25T specifically, it's a very nice plane in most of its flight envelope, so it can be a bit of nasty surprise when you get to a spot where it is suddenly no longer the forgiving plane that you may have thought it was.

Updated DCS, flew mission, no problems. Couldn't get CCIP to work for me, but I actually managed to land some PTABs on tanks with CCRP which is an abnormally good bombing run for me. Maybe you're just getting very unlucky with birdstrikes?

Well it must be an update caused issue, (or corruption of the file) because I know I've flown Long Day multiple times in the past without issue. I'll see if I can get around to saving my current version, then I'll update and take a look at the most recent version from updates. On at least one of the missions there is a trigger that blows the left engine on RTB (something like 10 to 20 km out) after you've completed the other objectives. But if you've made it that far in the campaign, engine shutdowns and emergency landing are things that you should be very experienced with. You should not be having trouble with takeoffs though. Mystery master caution could be a matter of operating flaps and gear at the same time. That drops hydraulic pressure enough to trigger warning lights, but you can safely ignore it.

Hmm, must not have drawn that mission when I played it through. I only remember having to edit one broken mission, and that involved a night mission where the illumination flight was not dropping the flares. Or I just forgot that I fixed it when I played it because it was a while ago. The nice thing about learning the mission editor is that broken missions are only a problem if they're broken in a complicated and non-obvious way.

No, I'm not exaggerating at all, if anything I'm understating. The question is, what standard am I using for beginner? When I say beginner, I'm talking about in comparison to a real pilot, not in comparison to a player of flight sim games. By that standard 'experienced' means flight time counted in thousands of hours. If you're just talking about taking off and achieving enough to not fail the mission, 5 - 20 hours might be enough. Of course we're at a disadvantage, because even if we get hours on the sim, we don't have the educational, training, and documentation support that a real pilot would get (except for those that are real pilots of similar aircraft), so really we probably need more time to reach an equivalent level of competency. [/sarcasm]Of course we all do things like fill out pre-flight checklists, know how to operate all modes of radio and nav gear, write up flight plans before heading to the plane, know every single emergency procedure well enough to do it without error in a high stress situation, etc.[/sarcasm] We don't just jump in the plane and fly off to try to shoot stuff, because let's be honest, what kind of incompetent fool would you have to be to do that! :music_whistling: For reference, depending on the training program, aircraft, and locality, you typically need ground school and 30 - 100 hours of supervised flight time before being licensed to fly civilian light aircraft solo in VFR conditions. Turbine, multi-engine, and IFR qualifications require more education and more flight time. Qualification in combat aircraft if you're a military pilot requires still more. So really, perhaps I should have said, 100-200 flight hours to be a rank beginner. ;) DCS does currently suffer from a lack of training aircraft, and the Su-25T really isn't what you'd call a beginner friendly airframe. Great in many ways, but not the easiest to fly. It will punish you pretty badly for certain mistakes. Of course with enough time you can learn to do some fairly amazing things with a Su-25T. Or even more amazingly, doing those same things after large chunks of the plane have been shot off.

So, some general pointers, since I didn't have time to list them when I made my first post. Look at the map in the mission briefing and look at the F10 map. Better yet, take notes on both of them on where enemy positions are. Better still, memorize enemy positions on both before taking off. Go around air defenses if at all possible. This is easier if you paid attention to suggestion one and know where at least some of the air defenses are. (ZSU 23mms do not really count as air defenses, they almost always miss if not mounted as part of a Shilka system) Is there a short range IR or EO SAM somewhere in that group of enemy units? YES! Is there more than one? YES! But I can't see any, do you still think there's a SAM there? YES! The extra dynamically spawned groups that didn't show up on either map, they'll have air defenses too. It's usually wise to zoom in with the Shkval and scan for MANPADS and SAM launch vehicles at ranges between 25 and 10 km. You need to positively identify each unit as a non-air defense unit before you fly within 10km of groups of hostile ground units. In most cases this will take more than one pass. Spotting MANPADS in towns or forests is almost impossible, however, it does not prevent them from spotting you. To shoot an MANPADS operator, you should size your Shkval targeting box at 5 to 7 m, otherwise getting a lock will be very difficult. All of the guided missiles can outrange the short range IR SAMs, but a Vikhr warhead not big enough to kill both a MANPADS operator and its Comm unit. For Iglas this isn't a problem, the operator is standing up, and the Comm unit is lying down. For Stingers both are standing and you'll need to take out both to be sure the operator is down. Air defenses are often either in the middle or toward the back of a ground formation, but not always. Gepard AAA units are just as bad as MANPADS, and it often takes 2-3 Vikhrs or a heavier missile to kill them. Landing and rearming/repairing is perfectly valid. In most of the missions you are flying in smaller strike packages than would be used in real life. Take that into account. The recon objectives are there (unless the mission files were changed recently). But maybe not exactly where you thought it was in the briefing map. Hope the advice helps some. It's not an easy campaign, and you're likely to take quite a few attempts to finally get through it in one piece.

There's a user made campaign, that I think is called Operation Cyclone, or something like that, available on the mods page linked from the DCS store webpage. Aside from the "be a complete lunatic and attack an AEGIS cruiser" missions it's a bit easier than Georgian Oil war.

The only seeing a green field instead of the runway sounds like it could be a graphics card problem. DCS really needs a dedicated graphics card to run happily, you get weird glitches (which can sometimes be quite funny) many times if you try running it on integrated graphics chips. Many computers come with the integrated graphics chip as the preferred default graphics processor, so you may have to change your control panel or graphics card driver settings to get DCS to run on the dedicated video card. As far as flight difficulties go, these are fairly good simulations of military aircraft. They are not meant to be especially easy or safe to fly, they are meant to perform very specific military tasks and to perform them well. They are not easy to fly, let alone to master. Depending on your skill level coming in, there's no reason to be dismayed by things like fatal crashes and mission failures. To put it another way, after 100-200 flight hours you should be at a beginner's level of competence. As far as the Russian, well, it's a Russian plane. There are mods available that relabel some of the Russian aircraft in English, and the HUD can be set to English in the Options menu, though I forget on which page they put the little checkbox for that. Not sure if there's an English cockpit mod for the Su-25T, but I've learned most of the Cyrillic alphabet as a consequence of learning the Mi-8 module so I haven't bothered to look for English cockpit mods. There's a link to a collection of mods on the DCS Store web page.

Well, I do sometimes fly the Mi-8 with AP channels off, mostly to practice having a light hand on the stick and not overcontrolling. The Ka-50 is a fundamentally different craft from the tail rotor helicopters. You can perform maneuvers with impunity that would be impossible with a tail rotor configuration. A lot of it's improved flight characteristics stem directly from the rotor configuration. That said, the Ka-50 has a much more robust set of control automation systems, because they are supposed to be able to carry much of the pilot's workload so that the pilot can focus on combat related tasks without crashing. The consequence of this is that if you don't learn to use the SAS and Autopilot systems effectively you are either failing to take advantage of a very important aircraft system, or even worse, misusing it in a way that makes flight much more difficult. There are several, very long, threads on AP use in the Ka-50 forum. They're definitely worth reading, as misuse of the AP seems to be a very common beginners mistake in the Ka-50.

The Mi-8 has sensitive controls and a lot of mass, that can lead to new pilots getting into positive feedback oscillations. Example: You want to fly left. You apply some left cyclic, and hold it. The helicopter has high mass so it is not apparent right away that you have just applied WAY TOO MUCH left cyclic and held it there for WAY TOO LONG. A little time passes. The thrust from the helicopter's control surfaces overcome inertia and the helicopter rolls left far more than you expected. You think OH !#$%^&, TOO MUCH LEFT, TOO MUCH LEFT! You apply right cyclic to keep the helicopter from flipping over to the left and crashing, but due to the high inertia, you have the same problem (too much input for too long) and soon you are correcting your corrections. Leading to control inputs that look like: left, Right, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, CRASH! So maybe it looks like you're trying to do drumming the way the joystick is going back and forth. Eventually maybe you manage recovery once you've either learned to time the delay in response or learned not to overcontrol in the first place. The autopilot channels act as dampers and 'subtract' a lot of the pilot's excess control inputs, so it doesn't look like you drank 3 bottles of vodka just before takeoff.