Blackeye

Mission 2: B: DCA Vul time: 20 minutes (1654L – 1714L) You actually arrive a lot earlier than that, also at one point 40 mins are mentioned in the mission (at CAP) - however 20mins are mentioned as well. CAP way point number in voice do not match the numbers on the map. B: Maintain CAP until relieved by Ford 5/6 Didn't see them in the mission, but I might not have waited long enough. Edit: Lineup card: Player Callsign Ford4-1 - 4 ship in the mission it's Ford3-1 2ship. Also I might be missing something obvious but wouldn't 1654L indicate Lima timezone (UTC+11) or is it meant to mean local - but wouldn't that be either J (local) or U (UTC-8 )?

Well part of the timing issue appears to be originating in the bullseye as mission way point situation. The way point timings in the briefing and the mission would match IF you actually flew out to bullseye. Since you skip it you're on station way too early. The "jump start" is another issue as is the catching up afterwards. EDIT: The second time it worked out ok. Also the briefing says DCA Vul time 20 whereas in the mission it said 40 at one time plus WP numbers are off (you actually can end the mission there) but according to the briefing you should be staying until relieved by Ford5/6. However those guys never showed up - not sure if that is due to the timing issue or if they're simply not implemented. I've only played the campaign up to this mission but I feel that the missions themselves fall a bit short of the excellent briefings. In mission one there are also some minor mismatches but I really hoped for some more voice overs. The long ingress would have been a great opportunity for some chatter - maybe our wingman grew up in Alamo and would make some remarks about the landmarks. I could also imagine him commenting on my first red flag "kill" or some sort of situation report when taking over CAP. Don't get me wrong I am having fun with the campaign and the briefings and the overall concept are great. The missions however felt a bit generic to me. They aren't really bad but after reading the briefings I was hoping for a wow factor that I didn't find in the (first two) missions. I think a little more care in matching missions and briefings along with some more voices would have gone a long way in creating that immersion factor without being overly costly. Maybe I'm just spoiled by having played excellent user missions (Welcome to Suse) recently . YMMV of course.

Right out of the briefing pdf: Normally, BE is represented by the first tactical SP (as opposed to navigational SP), which for this mission is SP1. So, for this mission, be sure to go straight to SP2 once the mission starts – if you forget and fly to SP1, you will cross the FEBA and cause a major international incident…or worse!

Unfortunately your track was made with a payware add-on mission, so I can't replay it (@ED would it be possible to allow replays of protected content and just disable the take control feature?) But you might want to checkout the replay yourself and see if a) your SPI matched your target at bomb drop, b) the laser fired (~10 sec before impact) c) the bomb started tracking correctly all the way to impact d) target was visible and not masked in the TGP all the time and check where the bomb actually hit the ground. I suppose extreme winds could also cause the bomb to drift too far from the target to reach it with the remaining energy (just like lasing too early). You can enter the wind layers into the CDU which should then take winds into account when calculating release and impact points - haven't tried that though. See http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=66422 Edit: After some testing it appears ground winds above 10m/s will push the bomb away from the target during the last seconds of flight. Not sure how realistic that is though.

My guess is that since the TAD is designed for hooking symbols they don't want you to accidentally hook the ground close to the symbol you actually wanted to hook - thus you cannot reference the ground directly.

You can't. You have to to have some symbol you can hook to. Fortunately you can create a mark point at the current cursor position to work around that limitation. Move the cursor to the point you want to set your SPI to and then press TMS right short to create a mark point. You can then hook that point with TMS up short and make it SPI.

I suppose if you can get your bomb close enough to the target in free fall - not sure what you would gain though.

If attaching does not work for you try uploading the file to some other host (dropbox, google drive, onedrive, ...) and post a link here. In general: make sure to set the SPI to your target, drop the bomb via CCRP and make sure you start lasing 10-15 seconds before impact.

RCtrl+Enter in the sim will display a small overlay that shows controls input.

The bombs laser code has to match the laser code of the illuminating platform. You can set your GBUs laser code via inventory page of the DSMS IIRC - the code of you laser can be set on the TGP. And yes you need to know the codes - default is 1688.

If you don't use the hydraulics it will take a long time for the pressure to drop. Operating the flaps (left system), speed brakes (right) and ailerons however will drain the stored pressure from the accumulators fairly fast. Still it lasts a lot longer in the Sim than it should according to http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1892547&postcount=6

On the TAD you can also hook your own aircraft (TMS up on ownship) and select HOOK-CURS mode (OSB18 ). Then drag the cursor until the displayed range & bearing match the desired values and drop a mark point (TMS right). Now you've got a mark point at the requested location and can find (and steer to)it whenever you need. It's fairly quick and doesn't require you to do math or memorize bearing and distance - still need to remember the letter of the mark point though ;p FWIIW: Those hooking modes are also quite handy when resolving bullseye calls on the map (BULL-CURS)

1- Yes - see manual pp321 2- No radar on the A-10C - but you do get an AN/AAQ-28 targeting pod (even though FLIR isn't modeled properly). 3 - read the 600+ pages manual to find out http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/downloads/documentation/dcs_a-10c_flight_manual_en/ 4- Not sure what you mean by "old avionics" (like FC3s A-10A?) - it's the A-10C model and most switches and systems are modeled minus some (then) classified stuff. For more details check the manual - see 3)

Yep - just tested it. Nellis is dark if you start in the air but they turn on lights after inbound call.

0. Random engine fire doesn't add that much for me. Definitely. I guess it would depend of the location - some places with lots bird others not so much. I think I remember someone mentioning 100 as "realistic" value.

Don't think IIIc landings are possible anywhere yet (IRL) and you probably wouldn't need lights for IIIc as it is 0/0 but of course they need to be there for IIIa/b anyway.

I took off at Nellis so the lights were on. Not sure how to get them turned on when coming from another base if "inbound" call does not work. There's another thread about the lighting so I guess ED should know about this already. ATC is wip in 2.0 as far as I know, so maybe that's the problem there - it's called alpha for a reason, I suppose. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=155632

What's your fog setting? I tried to recreate your settings but the ILS into 21L at LSV seemed to work fine. The overall visibility was actually a lot better than expected including the runway lights, so I'm probably missing a setting here. A track or a mission file would be really helpful. Edit: Here's what it looked like for me when the runway came in sight (slightly right and below the TVV) - about 2nm out 900ft AGL. at decision hight (200ft CAT I)

Are you sure you've mapped them correctly? You could activate the axis display (rcrtl+enter) and check if they actually work.

Well usually you just point the TVV (total velocity vector) where you want to go and ignore the offset. In certain situations when you need to match nose heading and TVV (e.g. landing) you'd use rudder and ailerons to point the nose where you want it to (slip). Edit: Dang it, sniped ;)

You need to disengage nose wheel steering above 50-70 knots otherwise the rudder will become very sensitive - might want to add curves to it if you find it still hard to handle. Also your takeoff speed is a bit on the slow side - the effect of asymmetric load can be dramatic at slow speeds.

IIRC the key ramps up the both breaks over a short time (~1sec) so you can kind of select the average breaking power by repeatedly tapping/holding the key for a short (or longer) time and then releasing. So the equivalent of holding the key would probably be to "slowly" (~1sec) apply both toe breaks to full and keep them there. Of course having proper breaking axes opens up more options when it comes to breaking than a simple key.

Well this IS a simulator, so there isn't really any extra challenge attached to a combat environment. In fact I think the exercise background of the setting may allow more credible interesting missions. For instance in a conflict no one would ever send 2 A-10s into a SAM infested valley to see how long they last - it might make a (somewhat) more plausible training exercise though. You can also easily explain any kind of opponent in exercises. One day your opponent might have access to the best weapon systems available and next week you are fighting large numbers of outdated equipment. Of course missions builders can use live ammo and/or come up with any crooked background story they like (e.g. CA invading NV to get access to the Hoover dams electricity). In short: there are no restrictions to the kind of missions due to it taking place in Nevada. Edit: the current alpha does not come with any missions yet, just a few instant actions - you can however design custom missions yourself (some created by users are already available on the dcs site). However if you absolutely want a more credible real world conflict theater you are probably better off using the old map and waiting for upcoming maps like the Strait of Hormuz http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=129972

Have you checked your axis assignments? I have a HOTAS throttle and the keys only work if the throttle is in the off position (synchronize on).

The autostart key is RWIN+home not RAlt+home - the latter will move the throttle from off to idle. This does start then engine during the manual startup but you need to perform a couple of steps before that (do at least: battery on, inverter on, fuel pumps on, apu on and wait for 100%rpm) Also some keyboards offer the option to disable the right windows key, so you may need to rebind the autostart (cheats section) - you should double check that binding anyway. Edit: Saw that you are using manual startup. In that case visually check that the throttle is moving from off to idle when you press the shortcut. If it does you're missing some other step before that (track could help). Otherwise check the bindings. Also do you have an axis assigned to the throttle?