Stuge

Very nice Bushmanni, just what i was suspecting.. higher closure means less warning range.

Happens all the time. Maybe the eagle driver is focused on someone else. Maybe he is just scanning in the wrong place. Maybe he just appeared from behind a hill. Maybe I can post a track :) Not many flights are needed for such scenario to occur. Of course if you want to pull off a stealth attack you can't use your radar, you have to go EOS only. Which is no problem, since afterburning targets especially are picked up from afar. As long as your RWR is silent, you pretty much know you have not been detected. Keep in mind that Active Radar Homing missiles are inherently superior to the Semi-Actives, and thus engaging an AMRAAM-equipped Eagle 1 vs 1 openly with your Flanker using ERs only with the intent to push til the end is a very bad judgement call and you should fully expect to be destroyed. Combine ERs with ETs you have better fighting chance, but you are still at a large disadvantage. In these cases you can either poke the bandit with your shots (but don't expect a kill if he fires back!) or if possible shoot a long/max range ET shot and run, these reach their unsuspecting targets surprisingly often! Regardless of what you do, you have to turn back before those AMRAAMs reach you if you want to play it safe. Against equal or inferior Semi-Active opponents (like an AIM-7 equipped Eagle) the chances go up, and using superior launch timings and snaking maneuvers you can push your attack until the end and come out victorious, forcing the bandit to either turn back and run or be destroyed. The discussion about what should or should not be the best use is something I am not interested in discussing. It's up to the game developers to create the most realistic representation, not me. I just say what works in the sim that we have, I can't give an opinion on what's correct and what's not. Because I really don't have the expertise to do so, I have never worked with real world air forces, I have never seen a live fire missile test, nor missile flight parameters from such tests. Now if someone could provide a Tacview-level quality replay of a real test fire of a missile we have in the sim, complete with flight path and airspeeds, and also for SARH missiles the parameters of the launch platform during missile flight, then I could compare the performances and start saying what's wrong with the sim model. To say anything about countermeasure effectiveness, these countermeasures would also need to have been executed in such a test fire scenario. I think real world stats for modern fighters are pretty worthless because a) there are too many unknown variables that affect the outcomes and b) there have not been enough engagements to draw any real conclusions. You would need hundreds of combat events with relatively known parameters to draw any meaningful conclusions from them.

My assessment is that ER is most effective when fired from front aspect, 8 km range, slightly uphill (look up against sky), against a target who is unaware of your presence. This way I find the kill probability to be higher than 90%, also better than ET because here the ER cannot be reliably defeated without at least beaming it, and there is not much reaction time for the target to do so. Firing closer than 8 km risks the missile not having enough speed to maneuver hard enough in the terminal phase. Firing further than 8 km gives the target too much time to react, enabling beaming or even escape, wasting the missile, and possibly letting the target escape. Return fire is unlikely in this scenario because the target is in a panic situation and will be toast in just a few seconds. Just in case though it's good to dive and crank, and get ready to beam that AMRAAM if it comes :)

Being outside of RWR cone doesn't explain all the cases of being "instakilled" at high altitude :)

I want to reinforce Bushmanni's view that the "normal" pitbull range is 6 nautical miles. This works quite reliably at low altitudes as a cue to go evasive - there is enough time to escape or beam. However at higher altitudes things sometimes get funky, sometimes the RWR gives as little as 1 second warning before impact. Nevertheless, tactically this is insignificant since at medium-high altitudes one absolutely must anticipate incoming launches before warning, or get hit anyway!

Haha if this is true, it's a ghost from the good old Freespace 2 era (the year was 1999) where you had to lead your target extra by a distance which is calculated with the equation: Extra Lead Distance = Your Speed x Your Ping (in compatible units, for example speed in meters per second, ping in seconds) :D Bravo!

Alrighty then! Stuge Finland 104th Phoenix Any plane (use me for either team for balance) UTC+3 I can only fly this and next weekend, then i'll be gone for a month.

Cool, I suggest for example anywhere between 13-21 UTC for the european game!

I'm on your side Winchester, I don't see a reason to poison a thread with pointless negative comments just because one doesn't like it...

The annoying thing about stats is.. the moment you start playing for stats it gets boring and useless. I could fly out, get one kill as safely as possible, then retreat significantly or rtb before next attack to have near perfect stats. Only, this cuts the actual combat time to almost zero. For me is more engaging to fly for action. Taking big risks, getting into dangerous, even suicidal situations, see how it plays out, learn from the extreme combat. It's bad for stats, but it's great for combat skill development and it's not boring! Of course I'm talking about the regular daily flying. Flying in competitions is different, there you better pay attention and play it safe. Believe me I've learned the hard way :)

Actually you need to forget what key is to open canopy :D

Like everyone else is saying don't be fooled by the easy startup, the learning curve for F-15C is measured in years :)

In DCS you have to compensate for the boom operator being a drunkard :) that said, keeping perfect formation for 3 seconds is a skill any real life fighter pilot should be capable of. Thus, I don't see the skill requirement unreasonable in any way... I'm not even that great with formation flight, no way I could fly with an aerobatic team right off the bat. And my total sim time I would very roughly estimate 10000 hours.

Try takeoffs / landings with M2000-C. Compared to that, you will find that the Eagle handles like a Porsche on the runway, regardless of speed or wind conditions :D

There was, at least at some point, a bug where the host of a multiplayer game could not connect to the refueling boom with F-15. Excluding this bug, refueling is really straightforward. Just fly into the position indicated by the lights in the bottom of tanker fuselage and keep it there for a few seconds and you have a connect. If you're unable to keep it perfectly centered with all lights middle green for 3 seconds, it's just a lack of finesse in your flight inputs ---> practice more. Once connected, you have more tolerance for movement. Still, if you lose your focus you will drift away and disconnect ;)

The command you're looking for is weapon release, that's different from the cannon trigger. Hold the launch button down for one second, and the missile will leave the rail :)

Conclusion: eos failed to lock because target non afterburning. Eos is great for stealth but if youre seen and eos doesnt lock immediately switch to radar instead...

Since DCS 1.5 was released, spotting vehicles on the ground became significantly harder. Perhaps something to do with the color scheme change etc... One good way to compensate is to use the model enlargement feature in the options. Try out which enlargement size feels best! And zoom in as much as you can to increase spot chance!

I agree on 2 x R73 being better than jammers (= paperweights) :) Jammers are not useful enough to justify having 2 less missiles, more weight, and unable to jettison this weight. Weight issues can be resolved by just a few minutes of afterburning while en route to engagement area (unless it's an airfield defense mission where there's no time..) It's nice to have fuel below 6000 kg when hitting combat. And below 4500 kg when getting into a dogfight. (rough guidelines) Engaging someone openly head-on involves some heavy ER and ET missile use, this will lighten you up nicely also. If you're still too heavy and in a dogfight, you can always use launch override to fire off some missiles, if it seems critical for success (it rarely is but still..)

Having others pilot the Su-33 while I pilot Su-27 is actually an advantage for me. Choosing the 33 over 27 online indicates a possible lack of skill of the pilot.. although it may also be a cunning deception :) Oh and the 33 can't pull off any cool stunts in a dogfight...

I have a thought... what if the winning team of the round, at least in case neither team could take all bases, was decided by dominance time, perhaps weighted by some factor like bases held? Something similar to Battlefield games. My point is that because of the rubber-band-like movement of the front any work done for taking and holding bases can get nullified by just a short time of being outnumbered. Right now even if a team dominates the game for an entire week it may count for nothing, all it takes is one unlucky day to lose it all. Perhaps one base could even be made uncapturable, since a victory by capturing all bases require a combination of one team pulling off great team work while timing it right so the other team is sleeping at the time of the push :)

Actually in the Eagle vs Flanker face off, the advantage gets decided by the terrain. Neither has a universal advantage, amraam or no amraam. Flat favors Eagle, mountains favor Flanker. 104th server Op Leopard is perfect for a Flanker mountain flight, with a little luck you get ace in a flight :) The same fact was proven in the earlier Blue Flag restricted weapons round (No 120, ER, ET) where once again Eagles were quite dominant in the open, but facing off against a group of Flankers in the hills often felt very suicidal and for good reason :):):)

Kindof like interracial copulation... imagine the offspring, Flankers with a decent flybywire, Eagles doing cobras! Doing cobras...yeah..

Here's a style I use for the approach: once cleared contact, align the tip of the boom with the horizon (fly exactly co-altitude with the tip). This is before the boom starts moving, and sets you at a good position vertically. Once you close in and the boom starts moving, ignore the boom and just slowly glide closer while keeping altitude. Once you see the position lights, correct your position to have both vertical and horizontal position middle green and hold it for a few seconds - only then will the boom connect. Once connected, keep position in green and it's ok (doesn't have to be middle green).

Actually Su27 vertical scan in eos mode likes very much to lock afterburning targets at 30+ km.. very nice I like!