Vedexent

Amazing video - really jaw dropping. I'll take two, please :)

You're hardly going to get objective opinions here ;) However, I agree that the Mi-8 is very rewarding to learn to fly. It's big, it's not always cooperative, but it's fun :) As noted - there is no official English cockpit, and no English manual. However - the quickstart guide in English is enough to get you up and running with basics, and Youtube is replete with people having recorded short tutorials explaining many of the more advanced aspects. As for the English cockpit, I cannot recommend Devrim's Mi-8 mods highly enough. His English cockpit mod makes learning the systems so much easier for English speaking sim pilots, and I think the black cockpit mod, and the "cleaner windows" cockpit mod make the cockpit cabin much more enjoyable. They are not that hard to install, at all.

Don't forget that only the C variant is a trainer. The ZA version is a light attack variant. (but yes, finally seeing the F/A 18D come out would be awesome :) )

It's only my personal opinions, but I can't disagree more. I don't want to see any new FC3 level aircraft. There are other flight sims - like IL2 Battle of Stalingrad - which model to this level: Survey Sims as opposed to Study Sims. There's nothing at all wrong with Survey Sims - but that area is being covered elsewhere. Where ED shines is in depth Study Sims. Advanced Systems Modelling / Professional (or External) Flight Modelling - or bust! :)

+1 on this. I would like an even playing field / level of fidelity on all DCS aircraft - especially because if we don't, the Russian aircraft get the short end of the stick. I would be gleeful beyond measure if there was ASM for my Su-25 (doubly so if there was an upgrade to the Su-25SM model). I believe this is the current slow steady direction ED is taking, as we're seeing PFM for the F-15, and PFM coming to the Su-27, apparently. Don't forget that brand new aircraft are still coming in from Belsimtek and Leatherneck, so it's not like all new projects are on hold while they update the FC3 aircraft.

I like aircraft. Period. Would I buy/fly civilian aircraft in DCS? Some, yes - I don't really have much interest in large civilian aircraft, but there's a wealth of historical and smaller aircraft that would be cool to fly.

That's a elegantly simple piece of instrumentation - ingenious :)

A combat glider! With IR air to air missiles, and a 20mm cannon, and ... OK ... sorry ....

So far as I know, there's a bug with the Morse code beacons, however. You can - and most often do - get more than one code sequence playing at the same time. Unless this was fixed recently - I have not tried in the last few weeks.

No, it's just "Main". Is this is a mission setting issue? EDIT: Got it - Ralt-/ not / for the radio menu. I knew if was something simple that I wasn't getting. Thank you!

... can anyone tell me what? I cannot get ATC to respond to me when I'm flying the Huey. Here's the steps I'm taking from a cold start: AC Voltmeter selector to AC Phase DC Voltmeter selection to ESS Bus Main generator switch to on, and covered Battery on. Low RPM audio off VHF Comm power on VHF dialed to 127Mhz (Sochi-Adler airfield) VHF test button results in burst of static Intercom mode dialed to 3 - VHF AM Transmitter Radio menu -> ATC -> Sochi -> Request startup And ... nothing. What am I missing here?

Wow - thank you for solving the aircraft specific knee-board questions. Rep inbound.

weathered cockpits always seem more authentic to my mind, but keep in mind there's a difference between weathered and dirty. Dirty, decay, water marks, and rust are usually a byproduct of a plane being decommissioned and rusting on a back lot somewhere; I doubt you'd see it in a working aircraft. If I was a pilot, I'd at least use the cuff of my flight suit to rub the fingerprints off the Shkval. Still - it's a better result than I could ever do :)

F11 will give you camera view from above an airport (keep pressing F11 to cycle through airports). The default camera view appears to be hovering above the center of the airfield, looking toward the runways(s). The camera is movable, rotatable, zoom-able, etc. However, AFAIK this view doesn't "padlock" to any given aircraft - you'd have to handle panning and tracking manually.

It's worth just looking for Devrim in the user files: http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/ He's made some very cool stuff for several aircraft - I especially liked the clean/dirty window mods.

You can overheat the starter. If you try and try and try starting, eventually it wouldn't respond anymore - at least that's happened to me. I find that if I'm having problems starting the engine, it's probably a case of me priming too much, or having the throttle open too much, and flooding the engine.

They are indeed stretched pretty thin. I'd love a ASM/PFM version of the Su-25 though: DCS: Su-25SM Probably the Su-25SM however, since I think the Su-25T and Su-25TM programs have been abandoned in place of the Su-25SM variant however. Then again, the Su-25T was never made in great numbers, and it's the version ED went with ...

I've definitely seen this happen on my server as well.

I'd also like to change the color of the text; OR, it would work if there was a way to make an opaque background. Dark blue text on a blue sky background is hard to make out.

Question about resolution though: can you read dashboard instrumentation? It doesn't look like you can with the dev kit - hopefully the consumer version - or is my information out of date?

In the mission planner you can also change the channel frequencies, so for the air strips which don't match up with "factory preset" channels, you can match them up to channels.

That said, TrackIR is a brand name only. There are other head tracking options, if you're willing to go somewhat down the DIY route. Google for Freetrack, or TrackNoIR

SFM - Simple flight model (?) AFM - Advanced Flight Model (Su-27) AFM+ - Enhanced Advanced Flight Model (Su-25) PFM - Professional Flight Model (F-15, Ka-50, A-10C) There's also an External Flight model for third party developers (which is kinda/sorta PFM, depending on how the developer models the "internal" part to go with that external part). As you go down the list, the level of sophistication in the modelling, and therefor the realism, goes up. The other pairing is Systems Modelling SSM - Simple systems modelling (not-clickable cockpit) ASM - Advanced Systems Modelling (clickable cockpits - roughly) So, Su-25 is SSM/AFM+, F-15 is SSM/PFM, Ka-50 is ASM/PFM, A-10C is ASM/PFM, etc.

I too would love an F-5 variant (although I'd probably slap an RCAF livery on it and claim it's a CF-116 ;) ). However, I'm not pushing it; Tango is already working on two aircraft that I want now (L-39, please :) ), I don't want to divide efforts further.

I know there are people that do it. I know you can move the viewpoint around with the mouse. I've even seen them get kills against AI pilots with the Sabre. I wouldn't do it. If my TrackIR broke down, I'd probably stop playing DCS, and go out and get another TrackIR immediately. TrackIR isn't an essential item to play the game, or even dogfight - but it adds so much to it.