FourSpeed

Hi All, A couple weeks back I posted here about some issues I was having while trying to learn the SLAM-ER. Alas, the response was underwhelming (no offense intended to the 1 person who did respond). Given that, I conclude that there are bugs / unfinished work needed for proper functionality of the SLAM-ER weapons (at least, while using them essentially like PP JDAMs where target coordinates are entered on the ground before flight). Specifically, I found that neither the target entries for ELEV or TERM-ANG affect anything at all. As best I can tell, Terminal Angle while showing as entered has no effect at all on the descent angle -- In my testing it always comes in at the appx same angle (~24-28 degrees PTH based on F6 view). As for elevation, regardless of what is entered, the missile always hits at whatever elevation the terrain is, at the target's Lat/Long co-ords (which, on the Caucasus map is a negative number in sea areas). I did my testing using a custom mission (attached in the original post linked above), and I'm attaching two tracks described as follows: In both tracks, I start on the ground, and enter target coordinates as part of my ground start procedure. In the first track (a), I launch 4 SLAM-ERs at an offshore Oil Platform with differing values for ELEV, and TERM-ANG for each missile. In the second track (b), I do the same thing with a ground based EWR Dome as the target. In both cases, the missiles are set for a High Profile and launched from ~appx 35,000 feet. The first pair are launched from a distance of ~90 nm, and the second pair from ~75 nm from the targets. In both tracks, the 4 missiles are set for the appropriate target's Lat/Long co-ordinates and the ELEV and TERM-ANG values are set as follows: 1: ELEV: 2000 feet TERM-ANG: 25 degrees 2: ELEV: 1500 feet TERM-ANG: 45 degrees 3: ELEV: 500 feet TERM-ANG: 65 degrees 4: ELEV: TGT elev* TERM-ANG: 85 degrees * 100 feet for Oil Platform, 16 feet for EWR Dome In both tracks, all missiles appear to hit very close to the same identical spots, and the descent angle is ~24-28 degrees for each. In the case of the Oil Platform, the hits are underneath the platform despite the ELEV numbers entered (While we were lucky enough to hit a cross beam under the platform in the track, in other missions, the missiles oftentimes just splash into the water below it, missing entirely, which is quite frustrating given the effort needed to set them up). In the case of the EWR Dome, the impact point is right at ground level where the dome is located, again, despite the varying elevations and terminal angles entered. Hopefully, these issues can be corrected in a future patch. Thanks in Advance, 4 SLAMER-Test_240602a.trk SLAMER-Test_240602b.trk

Hi Guys, Started dabbling with the SLAM-ER the past week or so, and, afaict, a number of it's features appear to not work. First, I'm not talking about datalink, steering, waypoints, or anything that far along the learning curve as yet. Basically, I'm just treating them as longer range JSOWs -- ie. PP Mode, Set fusing, Set flight profile, Enter precise co-ords for the target points, and call it a day.... What I am observing: 1. Data Entry works exactly the same as it does for PrePlan JSOWs (Great!) with the additional option(s) of terminal guidance (for me, Drop Angle is all I want). Employing them is identical to PP JSOWs, but at much greater range (Perfect!). 2. Unfortunately, using High Flight mode (> FL350), and launching within 100 nm, I find: A> TERM - ANG, quite simply doesn't work/matter at all -- the PTH angle (on F6 View) *always* shows ~25 PTH (+/- a bit for range) - never what I enter using the UFC. B> ELEV - also does not seem to work/matter... Whatever the map elevation is at the tgt co-ords is *always* what appears to be used, regardless of what you enter. A little more here.... --- Target: Some Precise LAT/LNG (that works fine - it always gets there and reaches the target if in range). Set ELEV at any number (I tested up to 2000 ft for a 16 ft TGT), and all missiles hit the same ~spot (TERM-ANG doesn't matter either - I tested 45-85 deg, and they still hit the same ~spot with a ~25 PTH angle) That said, that still works fine for a bunch of trucks on the ground, or a building on land, BUT, if you're trying to hit an oil platform above the sea level, (note: map height is negative at sea on Caucasus map, at least), missiles will often miss by flying into the sea *under* the oil platform, doing virtually no damage. Unless you're lucky enough to hit a platform crossmember on the ~25 deg attack path, there's no joy for hitting that target, regardless of TERM:ANG or ELEV (FEET) settings you use. So, are these parameters simply not working, or am I completely missing something here? If these are known issues, then, good to know, I'll bide my time with these missiles pending a fix. If not, I've provided the test mission I'm using, and can make some tracks, if necessary, to illustrate what I'm seeing, but what I'm observing distinctly limits SLAM-ER use cases, compared to a standard Unity Broach JSOW, which works fine, albeit at closer range... Any insight you could provide would be most welcome and appreciated. Thanks, and Regards. 4 F-18 -- SLAM-ER Testing.miz

Thanks for the tip. I appreciate the response. That said, I'd rather not monkey around with swapping / editing files every patch. I'd much prefer that they allow proper key bindings for these various switches. It makes far more sense, and it's much more customer friendly than altering my game installation to kludge that functionality. Regards, 4 ~S!~

Hi, I've been learning the F-15E in recent days, and overall, I'm really enjoying it. However, one thing I've noticed is that when it comes to key bindings, many items in the category "Joystick Switch Abstraction" cannot (currently) be mapped to keystrokes, despite many of these being simple switches on the consoles (ie. Radar Alt, various External Lights, TF Radar, etc.) rather than joystick items. It would be a great help, and very much appreciated, if actual keyboard bindings would be allowed / implemented for the items in that category, especially for us Voice Attack users. While I have a WinWing Hotas and Gladiator Joystick with a lot of buttons, these are already saturated for vital things like TDC, Castle, Auto Acq, Trim, NWS etc. and thus are not available for secondary items like the bulk of the controls in the JSA category. Thanks in Advance, and looking forward to future improvements in the module! Regards, 4 ~S!~

Interesting. Thx for the response. I was flying it in an SP mission, run in MP, because of a different actual issue with the game freezing up at Sim Poststart (see post) on missions with a Super Carrier (a feature of my SP training mission, originally made for the Hornet), where I now simply swap out the player aircraft in the M.E. when I train on other planes (A-10, F-15, F-16, and now F-15E). That mission has a bunch of training targets (air & ground), and it's really easy to edit / swap quickly for other aircraft, so I find it real useful, but I always run it in MP mode. So, I guess this is just another downside of that particular issue.... Pity. Thanks, and Regards, 4 -S!-

Hi Fellow Pilots, I just started learning the F-15E yesterday, and one thing I noticed after a handful of flights, is that the Pilot Logbook doesn't show any time flown in the F15E category. I didn't see any other mention of that in the Bugs section, so I thought I'd ask here if it's a bug, or if it is something I've missed? Anyone else seeing that issue? Thanks, and Happy Holidays, 4 -S!-

Hi Flappie, Just a point of clarification, the missions that lock-up are discrete, standalone missions, rather than campaigns. That said, I did rename the logbook.lua file and restarted my PC & DCS a couple times, and the missions loaded successfully on those occasions. However, when I restored the original logbook file, and restarted, the missions also loaded successfully, so I'm not sure what conclusions (if any) can be drawn from that, as I never got a lock-up during any of those tests. Regards, 4

Went from a 504 error initially to a 502 error after patching with 41066 and the 41066.1 hotfix... I'm guessing a 41066.2 hotfix for the hotfix will be forthcoming soon-ish??? 4

Interesting. I've rarely (if ever?) tried to fly from a .trk file, so I'm not sure how applicable it is to the situation, but who knows? In my case, I've just been flying standard .miz files (many of which I created myself, or modified from older missions as modules, terrains, and such other DCS game updates and features have been added to the sim). Regards, 4 ~S!~

Minor Update (and possible short-term workaround). I've not had the chance to do much more testing lately, but the past few days, I have not had any Sim PostStart hangs with the problem missions that were regularly locking up. Rather than clearing folders, as Nealius suggested, what I have done is this: * On the first start-up of one of the "problem missions", I start the mission up as a MP mission (before trying it in SP or before trying to edit it). (ie. Select Mission --> "Launch as Multiplayer Server", rather than just click "OK") -- so far, the mission(s) have always loaded up without a hang at Sim PostStart. * At that point, I can either: -- Fly it that way as an MP experience -- Exit the server, and then restart it as an SP mission the normal way -- Exit the server, and edit it (if I'm tweaking things), and it will load / run properly from inside the M.E. with the green arrow button. Why does that work? I have NO idea, but since I've started doing that with any missions involving the Supercarrier, I've had *zero* Sim PostStart lock-ups. Go Figure... Anyway, I hope that works for other folks as it has for me, and I hope that it might help the devs pinpoint what's causing the lock-ups in the first place, so they can hopefully squash that insidious bug outright... Regards, 4 ~S!~ Update / Concession I'll be the first to concede that this is *not* the ideal solution. That said, I've experienced *zero* Sim PostStart lock-ups since I started the first (problem) mission start-up of the day / session as an MP server... A pita, but so far, it seems to work for me, so in the absence of any other solutions, this is the one I've personally found to work for me ... YMMV

Yep, This is the same kind of stuff I'm seeing when my missions hang at Sim PostStart as well. It always seems to involve missions with the Supercarrier (although I've not yet rigorously checked this, and I do fly the Hornet most of the time, so that may not be too much of a surprise) Nevertheless, I'm getting a strong sense that this post and my post are encountering the same problem. Interestingly enough, when it works and when it doesn't, there still seems to be many of the same errors. In the failed case, it just never moves past that step. I'll attach a couple logs from the other day, where one worked, and the other one failed... Regards, 4 PS> Changing my pagefile to 32GB didn't make any difference -- the failures are still happening quite frequently... dcs-Successful-Run.log dcs-SimPostSart-Fail.log

Thx for the replies. @MAXsenna and @zildac: While I do appreciate your suggestion, it doesn't really help me. I'm not interested in monitoring my log minute by minute, and I don't much understand what's in it (or want to) -- I just want my game to work properly when I run it. The fact that this issue happens intermittently (with either client on missions that normally work) sounds a lot like an internal bug to me, and if as @Nealius points out, it's a problem with DCS loading an internal table of some type, then it's really something the devs should be looking at. I'm only including the logs because A> It's not possible to get a track, as the crash occurs during loading... B> The logs may be useful to the devs or folks who find it interesting to look at logs (I'm not one of them) to help pinpoint why this problem is occurring. If it is related to the SuperCarrier,as @Nealius implies, that might make some sense as the problem started fairly recently for me (and I know they added SuperCarrier features a couple patches back), and perhaps that may be the source of the problem. I honestly don't know, I'm just hoping the logs can help a knowledgeable person find the issue so it can be fixed, and my game gets back to running properly once again... Regards, 4 ~S!~ PS> I've also added the autoexec.cfg line (about full debug logs) to my config per BigNewy's suggestion (sorry, hadn't seen that before I posted the OP), so perhaps that will contain better information the next time the hang occurs....

Hi Fellow Pilots, Lately (the past month or so), I've been observing cases where the sim hangs while trying to load / run a mission. This always occurs in the "Sim PostStart" phase of the loading screens. That step typically takes ~ a minute, or two, when things are going ok, before moving on to later steps, but occasionally, it simply hangs there and never comes back.... The only way out at that point is to kill DCS with the Task Manager. This occurs in both the standard OB version and the newer MultiThread version. It occurs on several (working) missions, most notably when I've been in the editor tweaking something, and then try to run it (with the green up arrow on the left vertical task bar). In looking at the logs, the only thing I seem to see is that DCS looks like it's having issues trying to find things when it hangs. Apart from a few liveries, Grinelli's F22 (not used in the recent hung missions), and TacView, I'm not running any mods that I'm aware of. I'm including a couple log files (from today) for review. These were both from the standard OB client (not MT -- this time). In the first one (a failed, hung game) I was in the M.E., saved the mission, and tried to run it ---> Sim PostStart hang.... After killing DCS with Task Manager and restarting it I simply ran the mission from the Main Menu (Mission), and it succeeded. I copied that log at the point where I was able to select the flyable aircraft (after mission successfully loaded). At this stage, I'm unable to pinpoint exactly what's causing the problem as it seems to happen intermittently, regardless of which OB client I'm running or which mission I'm attempting to edit / play. Note, it doesn't always happen during editing a mission either, that just seems to be where I notice it most, like today's example). Any insight you could provide would be much appreciated. Thanks in Advance Regards, 4 ~S!~ Save_Failed_dcs.log Save_OK_dcs.log

Interesting. Good to know I'm not missing something, with the set-up. Thanks! Regards, 4 ~S!~

Hi Fellow Pilots, I've recently started learning the A-10C II, and I find I'm really enjoying it even more than I expected to.... One oddity with Mavericks I've run into is this: When carrying 6 (on stns 3 & 9), I'm seeing that all mavericks will fire from one station first (ie. 3) before any fire from the other pylon, rather than alternating between them for each shot like they do for other a/c. Note: this occurs even when I have both pylons selected (via DSMS page -> Prof -> Dobber to Mavericks -> Act Pro). If I want to avoid an asymmetrical situation, either I ripple them all in one pass, or I manually manage the stations myself on the DSMS page between shots. This behavior seems quite odd to me, so I'm wondering if I'm missing a setting somewhere, during Mav setup, to have them fire in a balanced sequence. Any insight on this would be much appreciated, Thanks in Advance. Regards, 4 ~S!~

I'm not sure that's actually the case that it's only for fighter pilots. This Link seems to imply differently, and if former Apache pilot and YouTuber "Casmo" is an actual callsign (rather than just an internet nickname) then there's at least one Army Pilot with one, although Apaches came into service well after Hueys and Cobras. That's why I was kind of hoping a few Army folks would weigh-in. Regards, 4 ~S!~

Hi Pilots, I've a friend that I regularly golf with who was a U.S. Army Helicopter pilot (Hueys & Cobras) during the '70's. Obviously, he was a great help to me while I was learning the DCS Huey a few years back, and we often talk aviation while on the links... Anyway, during one of those chats, I asked him what his personal callsign was, and he totally surprised me when he said he never had one, and couldn't think off the top of his head of anyone he flew with who had one either... Now, I've always thought that it's very common that U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots have callsigns (often given based on their names, or some sort of "event" that occurred during training, etc.), so I was very surprised when he said they didn't seem to be a thing back in his day... I'm curious to get some insight from any past Army pilots regarding callsigns, and whether they just weren't in vogue, or whether that "tradition" trickled into the Army later than they did in the other service branches, or whether they're still rare for Army pilots. Thanks in Advance, 4 ~S!~

When I started with the Hornet, I started with RWS (partly b/c TWS wasn't yet available). To get a basic understanding of the Radar, I played with this little tool for awhile: https://tawdcs.org/radar-f15/ Lately, I've made the switch to TWS, and one YT video that I found extremely helpful was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFxqqIzdEuQ It can be a little "work intensive" initially, but I've had excellent results with that approach. In the Hornet, it seems like there's almost as much "Art" as "Science" to getting the most out of its radar, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy, and effective. It will take a little bit of time futzing around with it initially. Hope that helps, Regards, 4 ~S!~ PS> The setup I use isn't exactly the same as his, but it's fairly close to it, and it definitely follows the principles he talks about in that video.

Thanks Tholozor, That helps (I use 55 now, as a nice round number ) so, once again the problem is mitigated, at least for now, albeit in kludgy fashion once again. Interesting that nobody has chimed in on how it works in the real bird (unless they use the same kludge we do ), but at least that kludge keeps me from pulling my hair out... @Bunny Clark, As I think about it now, I'm not 100% sure I recall getting it during AAR, so you might be right about that, although I'm 100% certain it pops up (incessantly) during BFM or during IFR / Cat 3 approaches (Late mission RTB / Low-ish Fuel situations) In any case, thanks for your responses and assistance, and hopefully, the RL Hornet drivers have a better option than us Sim Plebes do... Cheers, 4 ~S!~

I thought I had installed them properly (in Saved Games), but I'll revisit them and see what can be done. I just (mostly) wanted to make sure that they could use the FC F-15 if it's installed as a standalone rather than the full FC3 package... Thanks for the responses and insight. Cheers, 4 ~S!~

Hi Guys, I'm relatively new to mods, and I'm running into some issues. I have downloaded a couple (F104, etc.) and I'd like to try a few others (ie. Raptor, F35, etc.), but I'm having some trouble getting them to work. Most of these say you need FC3 -OR- the F-15 from FC. In my case, I have the standalone F-15 (from FC), so I'm wondering what I need to do to get the Mods to work with it. Any advice or assistance you could provide would be quite helpful. Thanks in Advance, 4 S!

I don't know if that is how it behaves in the "real" bird, but can we please get an option for disabling that particular warning? It used to be that we could circumvent it with the (admitted kludge) technique of setting home waypoint to 59 in the FPAS page, but the recent patch seems to have changed that with the addition of the ACLS features. Personally, I find it be be a very, very, irritating and largely unnecessary condition for the following reasons. Reason #1: It's annoying, and distracting from the task at hand. That is *especially* true during an instrument approach in WX minimums, or during a dogfight / furball, or during AAR, where throttle changes are frequent. At those times, the last thing I'd want to hear is a Master Caution alarm, (and since it IS a Master Caution, it shouldn't be summarily ignored) notifying me (supposedly) of a *serious* problem ... which, Home Fuel, quite frankly, isn't (see Reason #2 below)) Reason #2: The vast majority of the time, the caution is incorrect (or at very least, unnecessary) and therefore wrong (imho). It occurs when a high throttle setting is used (like AB), and the computer decides you don't have enough gas to reach the home WP, at that throttle setting (emphasis added). So, at times of low fuel (ie during AAR, or RTB approach), it triggers all the time, or in AB during dogfights. The rub, of course, is that we don't *stay* at that throttle setting (typically) for very long, so the alarm doesn't actually give any *helpful* information, as in fact, there is most likely plenty of fuel still available for the task at hand. Reason #3: We already have useful, and better tools (imho) to help us keep track of fuel. The simplest, and arguably best, is simply setting a proper Bingo / Joker setting for the mission phase we're in, and acting accordingly, when that alarm goes off (Just Once). The FPAS page, by itself, is also very good at showing both endurance and range in real time. Finally, if those two aren't sufficient, GroundSpeed, Fuel Amount, Fuel Flow, and some grade school math can also provide the necessary information. In summary, the Home Fuel Master Caution is annoying, repetitive, usually wrong, and goes off all the time during key phases of flight where it is, at very least, annoying, and at worst, detrimental to the critical task being flown when it triggers (over and over again). If it has to show up, at least, just have it show up (quietly) on the left DDI as an advisory item rather than a Mater Caution alarm. Thanks for your time, Regards, 4 S!

Double check that it's turned on (this changed in the recent patch). To check: WPN page, ASE --> UTIL --> RLWR (Button R4 or R5 iirc?), and make sure the "dot" is solid. NOTE: Make sure you select the UTIL subpage of ASE (not WPN Util page) Hope that's it for you (it was for me right after the patch) Regards, 4

I can think of 3 reasons I might choose Laser guided Hellfires over Radar Guided ones in a tactical environment. 1> The spotter and the shooter can be in two different locations making it more difficult for the enemy to defend against 2> Radar is (essentially) a radio signal making it much easier (I suspect) for the enemy to detect, than a single beam of focused light. 3> Given the focused nature of a laser beam I also suspect it's (generally) more accurate, and less susceptible to interference than radar. Sure, clouds and such can be a pita for lasers, but not usually at a couple hundred feet of altitude... Anyway, not a RL Apache Pilot, so those ideas are just my speculations, but ... they work for me... YMMV. Cheers, 4

Took my first "fam" flight on the Marianas Map tonight. Looks Great! One question though -- what's with the Antenna Tower just right of the centerline for Rwy 07 at Saipan??? I nearly hit it in my F-16 as it's almost right in the landing path... After a change of virtual underwear I went to Airnav to look that up.... Airnav -- PGSN Not a peep about it in there -- Is that really supposed to be right in the flightpath for Rwy 07? Regards, 4 S! PS> Not a knock on the map at all, just an honest question born of a near-miss. The map overall is Great!