=Mac=

Yup, that's Mars alright. I can see how easy it is to fly there in my Sabre, but what is the heading from Sochi?

I was towing an F-4. I was an idiot at the time (perhaps I still am) and I turned a corner a bit early. The starboard mainmount on the F-4 eased into the grass and we slowly came to a stop. The tow tractor could not pull it out. I disconnected and drove back to the line shack. End of story for me. But, somehow, my crew mates got it out.

You can use Shadow-Play with DCS now????? I don't want to stream, I want to save to my SSD. Is streaming from Shadow-Play the only way to use it?

Yankee Station focused mostly on the North, yes. 700 nmi from Subic Bay (Philippines) @285T 225 nmi from Hai Phong @150T 90 nmi from Da Nang @ 010T 75 nmi from Sanya @ 230T That should get you visual with them without Tacan. It should be noted that, in 1967, the U.S.S. Forrestal had its disastrous fire there when an F-4, on the fantail, switched to internal power and actually launched an un-safety-pinned rocket into an A-4. The rocket didn't detonate but the poor A-4 bled JP-5 all over the deck and burned. Bombs on other aircraft then cooked off killing over 100 guys. When I was on board in the Caribbean, it had the derogatory names of U.S.S. Forest Fire or U.S.S. Zippo. During carrier quals, we had an A-7 that trapped but blew out its nose gear, dropped onto its "chin" and spectacularly fodded its own engine as well as the Forrestal's flight deck.

I was Navy back in the early '70s. Training with the RAG outfit VF-101 then on to VF-74 (sister squadron to VF-84!) with F-4Js stationed at NAS Oceana as well as carrier quals on the Forrestal near NAS Jacksonville before a Med cruise (which I did not go on). This is a snapshot of what was affectionately called "Sticks" (modex number 111), the tail code indicating this was a cat shot off the the Big A (U.S.S. America), probably at Yankee Station (WestPac)

:smilewink: From FLightAware:

I had been flying with the sound on for a while. Wifey went to bed and I flew quietly on. Yup, I fell asleep at the stick. Wifey came into the room yelling at me, "Pull up! Pull up! Pull up! My gosh, I'm trying to sleep!" Weeks later, it was time to get up for work and Wifey, already up, taps my foot, "Pull up, pull up, pull up. You're late!"

the fictional USAF livery can only be assigned to US planes of this type. Please, don't ever lose that livery. It's one of the reasons I bought the plane! (Many other reasons, but I am sooo in love with that livery. :)

I am very very happy with my C101, bugs and all. Beta is beta, after all. PLEASE DO NOT give up the USAF skin for this bird, fictional or not... PLEASE!!!! Awesome. Edit: Tango, thank you for reading and writing posts here. Invaluable.

I now have two forums to read every day. (Well, actually, several times per day!) Mudspike and Eagle forums. Yep, the world is rapidly becoming heaven for me! God, please don't take be before DCS World 2 comes out. (In fact, can You wait for DCS World 3?)

She flies nicely. Should be much better once the "better" flight models are up and running correctly. Not too sure I like the stall warning that much. Well, I guess for a trainer, it's necessary, eh? Okay. I can put up with it. She looks so nice. Will there be a back seater painted in if wanted?

I understand there is a landing gear lock (RShift + G). I cannot find it and, thus, cannot raise the landing gear. The (RShift +G) is not mapped, so far as I can tell. Is that the Landing Gear Toggle key? Help? EDIT: Never mind. CUSTOM KEYS, then Landing Gear Toggle. That did it for me.

I didn't wait for my wallet to be full enough. Credit card. Sheesh, I'm sooooo in trouble with Mrs. Mac....:cry:

Got to go to work, damn it! I'm late because of all this! Love it being released in beta. Landing gear won't map to the Warthog HOTAS. Neither will the flaps. Speed brake is mapped correctly. Stick shaker and light scared the hell out of me! Thought it was the gun! Thanks AvioDevs!!!! Keep up the good work.

Unlike many of the software packages I have, I have never even contemplated a DCS crack. I just don't let myself think that way about DCS. It's too important to me. So, I know nothing about crossing up my install of DCS. In fact, some modules I have twice just to reward ED for such a great sim. Yes, I have had a SSD crash and hand to reinstall Windows, DCS, TacView, TrackIR, and drivers for my hardware. I lost an activation, I would assume. But I have nine left... I think. I haven't checked in a while. I have no problem with any software from ED, core install nor modules. Yes, the Huey Beta was seriously weird once first released, but today, the Huey is an angel for me. I really don't think about Digital Rights Management (DRM) with DCS. My problem, my abject refusal to get anything from them, is Steam. I bought a Shooter game through Steam, once, and somewhere in there, I lost a key or something. I lost the use of something I paid for. (I really can't recall how or what I did, but Steam pissed me off.) ED might like Steam and offer DCS to people that way, but I am SOOOOOO glad I bought everything straight from ED. There are no issues with DRM and DCS for me.

Sure, I fly to kill something occasionally. But, for the most part, I fly for the fun and challenge of flying only. DCS gives such a good simulation of flight. I understand the "C" part of it, but the adventure of trying to land a Messerschmidt is IT for me! I'll get it right, soon...

I fly the P-51. I know some aerobatics. But when it comes to dogfighting, I am very successful at running like hell. My only problem is, by the time it's too late to run, it's too late to run. :) I fly weekends on the VA server. We can't shoot there, but we sure can dogfight. Well, fly towards each other, at least. After that... I understand some of the basic tenets: the Merge, cornering speed, scissors, high yo-yo, low yo-yo, lead pursuit, and the all importance of a wingman.

Vertical scan at the merge. In the merge, you should be anticipating your bandit's moves. There are four ways he can go: (1) pull up high, (2) roll and pull low, (3), roll and pull at the same altitude, or (4) blow through. You should be able to see him pull just as he snaps by allowing you to make your move on him. There is a famous saying (at TopGun?), "Lose sight, lose the fight." If you don't KNOW where he is, get the hell out of there. If you are a wingie, talk to your lead. If YOU are lead, talk to your wingie. If you are 1v1, play chess. If you are 1v2, you already made a fatal mistake. My two cents worth.

I knew a fellow who pulled 30 Gs at 100 knots. He was a cartoon character running from a coyote... :)

If the 120 and the 77 are modeled correctly, the A2A scenarios in DCS World would be quite a bit different and relatively boring. De-naturing these weapons helps make the simulator a bit more "engaging". However, I would agree with what people are attempting to say here: the 120 is hobbled a bit too much. What would be interesting is to see a clear comparison between the 120 and the 77 as DCS implements them at this time. (I don't have the time to do it myself.) For the record, Wikipedia has a nice entry for the 120. I thought I'd share some of the text here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-120_AMRAAM range • AIM-120A/B: 55–75 km (30–40 nmi) • AIM-120C-5: >105 km (>57 nmi) • AIM-120D (C-8): >180 km (>97 nmi) The kill probability (Pk) is determined by several factors, including aspect (head-on interception, side-on or tail-chase), altitude, the speed of the missile and the target, and how hard the target can turn. Typically, if the missile has sufficient energy during the terminal phase, which comes from being launched at close range to the target from an aircraft with an altitude and speed advantage, it will have a good chance of success. This chance drops as the missile is fired at longer ranges as it runs out of overtake speed at long ranges, and if the target can force the missile to turn it might bleed off enough speed that it can no longer chase the target. Operationally, the missile, which was designed for beyond visual range combat, has a Pk of 46% when fired at targets beyond visual range (13 missiles for 6 kills). In addition, the targets lacked missile warning systems, were not maneuvering, and were not attempting to engage the fighter that fired the AMRAAM. One of the targets was a US Army Blackhawk helicopter. This leads to two main engagement scenarios. If the target is not armed with any medium or long-range fire-and-forget weapons, the attacking aircraft need only get close enough to the target and launch the AMRAAM. In these scenarios, the AMRAAM has a high chance of hitting, especially against low-maneuverability targets. The launch distance depends upon whether the target is heading towards or away from the firing aircraft. In a head-on engagement, the missile can be launched at longer range, since the range will be closing fast. In this situation, even if the target turns around, it is unlikely it can speed up and fly away fast enough to avoid being overtaken and hit by the missile (as long as the missile is not released too early). It is also unlikely the enemy can outmaneuver the missile since the closure rate will be so great. In a tail-on engagement, the firing aircraft might have to close to between one-half and one-quarter maximum range (or maybe even closer for a very fast target) in order to give the missile sufficient energy to overtake the targets. If the targets are armed with missiles, the fire-and-forget nature of the AMRAAM is valuable, enabling the launching aircraft to fire missiles at the target and subsequently take defensive actions. Even if the targets have longer-range semiactive radar homing (SARH) missiles, they will have to chase the launching aircraft in order for the missiles to track them, effectively flying right into the AMRAAM. If the target aircraft fires missiles and then turns and runs away, those missiles will not be able to hit. Of course, if the target aircraft have long range missiles, even if they are not fire-and-forget, the fact that they force the launching aircraft to turn and run reduces the kill probability, since it is possible that without the mid-course updates the missiles will not find the target aircraft. However the chance of success is still good and compared to the relative impunity the launching aircraft enjoy, this gives the AMRAAM-equipped aircraft a decisive edge. If one or more missiles fail to hit, the AMRAAM-equipped aircraft can turn and re-engage, although they will be at a disadvantage compared to the chasing aircraft due to the speed they lose in the turn, and would have to be careful that they are not being tracked with SARH missiles. The other main engagement scenario is against other aircraft with fire-and-forget missiles like the Vympel R-77 (NATO AA-12 "Adder") – perhaps MiG-29s, Su-27s or similar. In this case engagement is very much down to teamwork and could be described as "a game of chicken." Both flights of aircraft can fire their missiles at each other beyond visual range (BVR), but then face the problem that if they continue to track the target aircraft in order to provide mid-course updates for the missile's flight, they are also flying into their opponents' missiles. This assumes of course that all aircraft will detect each other.

This is the pre-sell version of Edge.

In DCS, the only aircraft I don't have are not available yet. That's not to say I fly them all. That's to say, for what it's worth, nothing in these forums will sway me from making a purchase. I have all three helos, flying only the Huey, because I want DCS to live on. Giving ED money is my way of doing that. These forums are for us to yammer about our hobby. If someone wants to say that the F-42 sucks, well, that's their opinion and, sometimes, I'll read what they have to say just to see if it makes sense to me. Whether they are right or wrong, the ability to say what they feel is important here. P-man's opinion of the flight characteristics of the P-51, to ME, is of utmost importance because I have come to know that he knows a hell of a lot more about it than I do and I have come to appreciate his flying techniques compared to my own. Should he offer an opinion of (my fictitious) F-42, I may disagree with him but I certainly will read with great care what he has to say. In a forum, such as this one, the customer has the right to be wrong. Take it with a grain of salt, point out flaws, and play nice. While I have only flown FSX, and Janes, my opinion of the superiority of DCS over ABC is just my view. But I sure do like DCS with all its faults. So.... does anyone know when the F-18 will be released?:megalol:

Damn straight! Absolutely. I would die if something ever happened to DCS. Thanks to everyone involved with making this simulator the best thing that ever happened to a computer.