Stuge

Here's my thoughts: High instant turn rate is useful in many cases, even if it costs you energy: -one circle fight(tight radius) -rolling scissors(limiter off for maximum tightness and braking!!) -pulling down from the top of a loop(limiter off again, lets you swivel the nose down faster) -any moment you see that "instant kill" possible, be it with a missile shot or gun shot. With limiter off you can turn your nose over 90 degrees from an airspeed of 400 kmh. And if you're light, recovery can be fairly quick even from a full cobra maneuver.

I have once managed to blow up an enemy missile with my gun, killing the enemy in the blast of his own missile. :D Missile on missile hits are much more common, you can even attempt to shoot an incoming one with a heatseeker, just before impact. The proximity fuses take care that a direct hit is not required :D

My first guess would be same as yours: infrared-guided (nonradar) missiles. You can easily see what killed you in single player.

You can estimate range of an RWR signal from signal strength. Stronger signal strength = closer target. In F-15 RWR, the closer to the middle a target is, the stronger the signal is. In russian jets, the RWR signal strength of the single "closest threat" target is shown with the outer circle of lights. Now how signal strength reflects target range depends strongly on the strength of the target's radar. Radars can be anything from very weak (like the AIM-120 or R-77 onboard radar) to extremely powerful (like the radar of an S-300 SAM site) However, fighter jet's radars are quite similar to each other in power, especially the F-15 and SU-27 radar strengths go pretty much hand in hand and thus it's easiest to estimate the range for these. Mig-29 radar is a little bit weaker (thus giving a weaker signal strength at same distance) while the Mig-21 radar is even weaker (which can be used to fool the enemy to think you are far away while in fact you're about to pop one in their face :D) All of this of course assumes that the target has its radar on, and is sweeping you with it.

Last year I scored a HOJ AMRAAM shot on an eagle, online, from over 40nm range. We were high (>40000ft), we were head on. Range could be estimated from RWR. Even if the kill probability is extremely low, you can still put some pressure on a jamming target if you want. I don't think people realize what a dramatic effect altitude has on missile range.

Give it a shot, it is the best :) And it's getting better every year...

It's a 19 inch Samsung SyncMaster 957p. Maximum resolution is 2048x1536 at 60Hz. However, I find 1600x1200 sufficient, and that comes with a 75Hz refresh rate. :) That reminds me of the things some new screens may be superior at... refresh rate and of course some crazy resolutions. But both increased resolution and increased refresh rate are useless unless your computer can keep up with the demands...

For this reason, and the good range of ER, the Flanker has superior look-up/shoot-up capability :D The visibility complaints I do not understand, I have no problem tracking targets visually even beyond 10nm. Otherwise, target visibility seems good enough. No oversized targets like in Il-2. Must be the LCD widescreens you guys are using, inferior technology compared to old school CRT monitors. Even the display lag is a million times longer...

You're right Karam the NEZ is wrong. When I fly, there is a separate "virtual NEZ" superimposed on the HUD, generated by my brain :D

About these missiles issues be it guidance, drag, blablabla.. people have complained and will complain to eternity. Why not just take them as they are and adapt? R-27ER works ok. I feel changing to medium PRF on a beaming/cold target makes the tracking better, maybe this I could recommend :) R-27ET works very nice. With current seeker sensitivity, you can often lob it from near-max-range, further than AMRAAM. If the target isn't expecting the missile/doesn't see it, he gets one in the face :) However, either of these are most effective when you use your Flanker's superior stealth capabilities and your awesome EOS scanning skills, terrain, and situational awareness, to sneak close to a bandit, and open fire at, say, 8km range. It probably won't miss. And even if it does, that's when your dogfighting skills come in handy! :D

How about this: push left pedal to push the nose left. Same for right pedal. Simple enough? :)

RWR positions are relative to your aircraft attitude (not the horizon). This means if you roll, rwr signal changes position (in contrast to the radar, where own rolling doesn't affect the radar screen orientation) Both lights are often lit because the signal is not significantly higher or lower. The detection limits of beryoza are +-30 degrees up and down. If you want to visualize the blind spots, imagine a 120 degree wide cone projecting up from your pilot head and another projecting down from your pilot's anus :)

Hat switch is the best :)

You're right these are missing. With AIM-9 in longitudinal mode (6) you can press 6 again to increase the area where the seeker can go (it still stays in middle tho until it find something). I haven't tested this mode too much so I don't know the details of its function. The gun funnel... i really don't see a reason to use it. When you're in a perfect firing position, I don't see a reason to fire without radar lock. Spooking the bandit doesn't matter, since if your aim is true (and it is more true with radar lock really), the bandit will be in pieces by the time it would react to your attack. A ground strafing gun pipper would be nice I admit, however the F-15C can be a relatively effective SEAD platform as it is, even without CCIP calculation :D

There's too much stuff about high altitude BVR.. i guess someone said BVR is about who values their lives more. Because if every pilot in a battle is skilled and _careful_ they should be able to stay out of trouble. Thus resulting in big engagement, but very few, if any, planes shot down. However, when you fly on a public server, people (including myself) don't value their virtual lives excessively, they may prefer to go into action with big risk. Add to that less than decent BVR skills of some pilots, and you have a battle where shooting down (and getting shot down) is suddenly quite easy. Bottom line: if your BVR skills are good, and your self preservation instinct is strong, you should be able to take off, score a kill(or participate in a battle in some way at least), and RTB safely. If you stay and try to score more kills... well, the more you hang around the dangerous areas, the more likely someone will shoot you down before you decide to try RTB, regardless of combat skill level :D In this context, sneaking in mountains becomes less safe, because around any corner may lurk danger. At high altitude however, if you take good measures (scan everywhere, especially low alt), you shouldn't be surprised so easily. You detect danger in time, and can react to it properly :) Scoring a kill is not mandatory, but in a public environment it becomes inevitable. It's the staying alive part that's more important to pay attention to..

Now zis one i strongly disagree with! :) I have a habit of flying straight from base to bullseye at 40000ft, and I don't even remember when someone got a sneak shot at me from that situation. Now obviously if you engage someone, dive, turn around all over the place, and so on.. that's when you get sneak killed. This can obviously be avoided by extending back enough after an engagement, and having a wingman check your surroundings. Of course sneaking around low and pouncing on everything that moves is just great, i love doing that too :D

I think notch is overrated. In open terrain, there's absolutely no guarantees you won't be locked again after notching by either your enemy or his wingman. If my target notches while I'm on an attack dive, I may also zoom in and keep visual on him, this is possible at surprisingly far ranges. :) This way I can close in with stealth. To answer your questions: 1) You could practice with a friend 2) Experience will make you better at "guessing" where the target will most likely be, after you have lost your lock.

I can confirm I've seen this happen as well. Both with EOS and with the F15 radar. Rare but happened. And with the recent patches only.

So the load factor limit of the design is 15G.. which is quite nice I have to say :) This means it can take at least 15G without getting damaged. So I would guess the real limit is more than that, possibly even over 20G? Maybe an aircraft engineer could shed some light on this...

Ahahahahahaha sorry i I can't help it this just made my day :)))))) On a serious note, learn to fly it like that in a dogfight! It's twitchy, but it performs better if you're accurate with it. You just have to actively fly the plane, not vice versa (yeah i know it's a Soviet plane but still..:D)

That WoW guy knows what it's all about ;)

I do. If it's missile combat, for pointing r73 yes, but with caution since the heavily loaded flanker may not like it :) However, in guns duel, always. You can do wilder turns than with limiter on. It goes past realism in say an initial turn at merge from 1100 km/h where you can use dynamic deceleration to pull a crazy quick high G turn that is just as tight as a regular turn from slower speed would be, but this leaves you with more speed for the next move :) Most importantly limiter off gives you MUCH more control of your nose, and thus drastically increases the area where you can point your nose for a gun shot (or r73) Keep in mind that after a certain AoA aileron control is both reversed and functions with significant delay :D

I don't think there's an optimal way to scan, everyone develops their own way. Right after merge the eyeball is for me the best sensor. If i merge but didn't see him, maybe i can hear him! Maybe i can hear if he's left or right, then start looking there. With russian birds, vertical scan in T mode is a real winner if you don't know where to look, just turn around and roll around quickly, and you are sure to find anyone close. Don't forget to hold that lock button down! F15 vertical scan is a bit slow and thus is better used to scan an area where you suspect the bandit is. (like across a ridgeline he went behind) if you don't know where to look, maybe the regular radar scan is best, even at close range. Remember it only covers a thin slice of air at close range so change the scan altitude frantically! :)

Flight simming for many becomes a lifelong hobby...

You make a good point, 10000 may not be enough. At least not according to Time magazine :D http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/20/10000-hours-may-not-make-a-master-after-all/