Altimaden

thank you! had that crosswired in my head

As a Metricist (?) I can appreciate the utility of the imperial system for navigation. Its hexadecimal, as is our (native) mesurement of time and circles and imperial measurement - base 12, has more factors than metic - base 10, so it makes sense. Also, our brains work with hexadecimal better for some reason, like with currency I've heard that you can learn and calculate change faster with a hexadecimal than a decimal, eg. pounds vs dollars. Makes sense to me that its easier to calculate navigation stuff in hex, like pounds of fuel per minute per mile at X knots at angels rah...

talking WVR, would an aim7 guided in flood mode be more effective than an aim9? from rear on obviously you would have the added stealth advantage with the heat seeker, but flood does have it's no lock tone benefit...does an aim7 launched in flood mode give a launch warning to the target? also, in a head to head, which missile is better? which turns best?

i've made (i think) a nice profile (named buttons and all :P) for the '52 pro with trackIR, i've used the modes as categories, 1 - landing and take off, 2 - autopilot/general flight/navigation, 3 - combat. so for example cruising in mode 2 on the stick, i change to BVR mode in the f15, then switch the stick to mode 3 for combat which has all my radar controls. i have common buttons across the flight modes (2 and 3) like countermeasures, ecm, airbrake, and common buttons across modes 1 and 2 like navigation lights, flaps, etc. it seems to work well, i am constantly tweaking it...i tried to make the trim turn on and off very quickly in the profile software when i hold the button down, as the f15s trim is thuper thenthetive, but i don't think i've got it right and it needs tweaking. i've also had to map the odd button in game, like weapon release...i remember having a problem mapping guns and weapon release to the same button, so i'd be happy to send you my profile along with the dcs keyboard profile but i found that making the profile myself helped my understanding of the game. it's a pain, but because there are so many options, who's to say what is the best profile? would the best then be whatever is comfortable for you?

not to mention as soon as you start adding combat loads like big heavy fuel tanks, cookpass's chart changes and the aircraft's handling changes noticeably - so ideally you need to practice with different load outs too

after reading the thread, i think most of the ambiguity comes from the geometric concept of a radar cone. when an angle is referred to, it is a 2 dimensional figure, but when it comes to a 3 dimensional radar search cone, an 'angle' actually means a 'solid angle' from what i gather, a radar is like a cathode ray tube monitor - in that a small beam (the arrow in the figure) is pulsed over the search area (area A) in a however many bar zig-zag, and the difference in the reflected image over time builds up a scan picture - so for the F-15C in game IIRC takes 2 and a half seconds to build a complete image...am i close?

if only mankind were telepathic and language irrelevant i've got a question, i have a hard time re-acquiring targets that have closed inside 20nm, would it be better to use TWS to search for the target for its higher scan speed? or RWS for that extra azimuth?

seeing the chopper is one thing, shooting it down is another. i don't bother using radar missiles, they don't seem very effective - so i only end up going for a chopper if i know i can get close enough for an IR kill without endangering myself. heat seekers have a shorter range against helis too, yeah? smaller thermal signature and all

the originals are up on youtube - it's how i did it and people have done their own if you prefer a different teaching style, there's a fair bit on air to air tactics i found very useful on youtube too. i also found these guys helpful http://flankertraining.com/ironhand/news.html with some good videos that i think you can load as tracks in DCS if you care to figure it out. clearly i didn't

totally agree primal, the moment i went from pushing to the merge, to picking my fights, i started enjoying fighters a whole lot more i thought the 3/9 line was 90 degrees off your nose, if you picture your jet overlaid on a clock face, the nose pointing to 12 o'clock, the line from 3 to 9 o'clock is the 3/9 line yeah? ...i've been flying about 15 degrees nose-off approach to a contact (if situation permits) to keep the closure rate up which (i think) gives my first shot a little more range (right? not that i fire at max range anyway), would there be any disadvantages to that approach?

also, don't expect missiles fired at close to maximum range to be successful. some understanding of missile flight dynamics goes a long way - you might want to drag a missile low into thick air to make it bleed energy faster through turns, conversely you may have some range to play with, so making the missile climb to you could be the best way to maintain an altitude advantage over your bandit...

if you're asking if there's a default profile, the answer is no. i have an x52 pro, made my profile about a year ago and i still tinker with it. not gunna lie, it is a bit of a process... profiles are transferable but you'll honestly learn a lot about the aircraft by making your own and it'll be just how you want it to be. my approach was to set most of the buttons on the controller to different keyboard key strokes, leaving most of the default commands in game. in the profile editor software (go views > grid view) i deleted the pinkie shift states, and left 3 modes, 1. take off and landing, 2. flight (with autopilot controls, HUD modes and various other less used commands), 3. combat. not saying mine is the best approach, it may well not be, but i figured it makes use of the joysticks modes and when i'm in combat all the controls i need are right where they need to be so there's less extra for me to think about - just what the stick is good for

please do starkey, i would also appreciate it. your advice is very helpful. i've got a question, i'm trying to change my mindset towards survival - it's working and it's not. I live more and get to do more landings :P but i'm firing more range shots and missing more, and getting less kills... recently i've been approaching head on 1v1 this way: see bandit from around 60nm, (ecm on or not, depends on situation), approach head on, if he's high, i'll get just below vape trails with ecm on, if he's mid to low, ill approach around the 12 to 15 thousand foot mark, depending on terrain. i like to be on the low side as it puts his radar looking down and if i need to dive into the hills, i'm a little closer. I'll close to the 20nm mark, get LA but wait until something like 18nm to make the p.k. a little better. i fire and crank, with liberal c.m. and 'soft' maneuvering get to around the 12 to 10nm separation and turn in, fire two more, wait until pitbull (usually not long) then break off, turn tail and extend. if i've left my turn a bit late, ill split s to get some speed up. Point is i'm left tail on with something close to 10nm separation from bandit. if the bandit defeats my missiles (happens too often! lag maybe? doesn't matter why, really) and gives chase, i'll be stuck in an extension until my fuel runs out or something friendly helps me (barring useful terrain). Once, while in an extension with low fuel, one 120C left, and a bit of range to play with, i pulled an immelmann, as i was coming over the vertical i picked up the bogey on my radar screen straight away, got to parameters, fired and did a split s. missile warnings going off c.m. blazing away and with some maneuvering i got the kill and survived. very satisfying. i was just wondering, i suppose pulling that off was dependent on a whole heap of factors such as having the extra range in the extension to play with, picking him up early on my scope...i guess my question is: is there a way, or an approach to breaking out of an extension? the best defense is a good offence, right?

Fingers crossed for an fa18 with an AFM soon, not that the f15 is boring but variety is the spice of life

do the su27 and su33 share a flight model?

what joystick are you using?

I'm going to agree with blaze, you we're talking about 1v1 combat, narrowing the field of discussion... I personally find it very easy to find people at 40k+ I have learned the hard way to always scan that sector of sky and now I target the high flyers. I turn on the ECM, almost negating their range advantage (unless there's an AWACS), and I can safely get close enough to put him on the defensive, then defend myself (which is easier to do, being lower) allowing me more time to re-acquire, catch and kill. I've tried the 'high approach by myself' tactic and it has worked for me, but I've abandoned it. It just doesn't work against a decent bandit. I think it's a viable approach with a wingman at something like 25k or lower, making a wide vertical bracket, but then you never mentioned a wingman

Well I'm impatiently waiting. Want better missiles nao!

just because it is the weapon of choice, doesn't make it best. at best, it is the least worst missile. besides, just because something is popular, doesn't make it good: katy perry, jersey shore, twilight, religion.

oh! thank you i was not aware of this! i was under the impression that i was casting a 60 degree wide cone. come to think of it, would the radar produce a circular cone? or is it oblique?

yep as intended driver. you loose 15 degrees of each side. the scan is quicker though, so you'll get faster target updates and it does make a difference you can also switch your regular scan mode's beam width down to 30 degrees too, to get that faster scan.

at the risk of sounding like i'm whining, are the missiles worse since 1.2.8? cuz i think i have noticed a marked drop in performance (subjective of course, with no tests or evidence to back that up, i also only have about a year online experience - disclaimer!). i think the 120s are missing more often, or are at least easier to evade, the aim7 as useless as ever (i give up carrying it i tell you!). i had merged with an su27 today (i know, shouldn't be that close but he was unlucky, i got visual first), turned off radar to stab him in the back with a sidewinder. did a radical turn (too hard as it turned out) and as my nose swung to his 6, the seeker picked up his hot tailpipes, he didn't react, he didn't know i was there (perfect!). now as i hit launch, my nose drops out of the sky on account of the stupid turn i did, and the missile launches. it blows up somewhere ahead of me where the target isn't, he see's the black puff and goes all evasive. i'm wondering if i ****ed that up, or the missile did? [edit:] also, i'm finding russian missiles easier to evade - now i would like to put that down to 'me getting better with time' but it could just be 1.2.8 and i still suck

yyyyeah good question...was it a question?

I suspected as much. That's a shame. Oh well at least bandit looses SA if he notches early, right?

I've been lurking the forums for a while and I dig these discussions - I'm learning a lot. Got a question though; if I fire a long range low pk slammer outside of pitbull (a-pole?) and bandit notches, loosing my lock, then if I re-acquire lock does that support my missile again?