OnlyforDCS

I think its an excellent choice for a trainer. What with the Jester assisted start-ups, and back-seat functionality in addition to being mostly analogue.

Better fuel efficiency, better range, much faster top speed, longer loiter time, better turn rate at all flight regimes except at extremely slow speed, most importantly more weapons ordnance can be carried into battle compared to the Hornet, though it is comparable to the super hornet. /sniped.

My god tried watching that stream recording for a bit. Damn was that painful to watch. Especially trying to refuel at the tanker. Some great tidbits of info from DD there, like trimming is only done on autopilot. Everybody uses autopilot to refuel, etc. Oh boy...

Yeah, the airframe is clearly superior to anything else on the boat to ever enter service since. Including the SuperBug. Some like to bring up the operating costs and downtime, the truth is that by the time the F14D was being retired these were about the same as for the Superbug. An F14E, using the same airframe, modified to reduce operating and maintaincane costs even further, with modern avionics, new engines and AESA radar, AIM9X, AMRAAM capabilites would make both the Bug and Superbug look pretty second rate.

OMG, thats hilarious! :lol:

Kind of weird having Jester in the front seat doing the flying ;)

8 minutes for full alignment is not so bad. Considering how some servers have empty birds to prevent people from getting in the air too quickly and how popular the F14 is bound to be, I'd say it's really not a big deal.

Quite a bit of erroneous information in the video there. But at least it demonstrates that if DDgamer can fly it, pretty much everyone else can ;)

How does this aircraft compare to the super-sabre? I mean they were both second generation fighters right? Apart from the obvious difference, the F8 could land on the carrier after all.

Yeah that's what I meant. I mean you could streamline it even further if you wanted to. Connect power, air, crank right, idle right, crank left, idle left, sas on, instruments on, displays on, wings out, master reset, disconnect all the stupid shit hanging off the plane and youre ready to go! Who cares about checks, checks are for the Air Force :music_whistling:

I love how easy and simple it actually is to start up the Tomcat, the RIO has a little bit more work to do (CLEAR, CLEAR, CLEAR!) but mostly both crew memebers are just sitting there waiting for the INS to align :)

While the linkages are hydraulic in the F14 (I think, could be wrong about that) you still get feedback in the real Tomcat through a bob-weight system that basically "pushes" back on the stick based on the ammount of G's you are pulling. So yeah, Heatblur could realistically only simulate a fraction of the forces a real pilot would experience in a real Tomcat but that's still enough to provide great feedback cues.

No sloppy guns for Hellreign82 in the Tomcat! ;)

My advice. Give multiplayer a try. I realize it's not for everyone, but it's definitely the best way to improve your BFM, tactics, comms, SA, whatever. There are some good solid servers always available to play on, and the community is mostly friendly and free of toxicity. It's so much fun even if you lone-wolf it most of the time (like me). Personally Im quite averse to the campaigns in DCS. They feel more like an afterthought (apart from Baltic Dragon's campaigns, they are really cool). Also sometimes the missions take upwards of an hour to complete, and can get frustrating and buggy and having to redo them makes me just want to quit playing.

Thanks for this post. Much appreciated. No mention of FFB implementation or support, which is making me kind of sad :(

Great video, good questions Dudikoff!

It was always like this. All Early Access modules and modules branded as "New" are excluded from the bonus system.

I put a bit of tape over that sensor ages ago. Best mod I've done ever :music_whistling:

Im using the MSFFB2. No idea what date it was made, but it works perfectly. Honestly this is the first stick I've used where I don't have to set curves to fly. I've done AAR in it, and I've even tamed the extremely pitch sensitive DCS Spitfire and the "untamable" Bf109 in it and all the DCS modules that support it are simply a joy to fly with. (Most do support it) Yes it does have limitations, most notably the lack of buttons and a second HAT switch but I've learned to adapt to them. Honestly in the F14, where you don't need as many HOTAS switches (all the radar work is done by the RIO or Jester) they're not really limitations at all.

Well it all depends on the situation at hand. I think STT has some advantages over TWS and vice versa. For example when firing into a target rich environment, it might be important to make sure a particular target has priority. It is also much easier to retain lock on a target with a PD STT lock, especially when maneuvering. Remember in TWS the radar cone scans only 20 degrees either left or right. In STT you are only limited by your radar gimbals, which gives you more tactical options when engaging a single target.

I'm quite happy with the current FC3 level Mig29 and Su27 in the game. I would however love to see the Su24 as either a full level DCS module or even an FC3 plane. I doubt it will happen as it is: A) Multicrew (a challenging task for everyone it seems, but Heatblur) B) Still in use with the Russian Air Force. I doubt anything more recent has a chance to be developed, apart from maybe upgrading the FC3 fighers we already have in the game to full DCS standard.

So it's been a while since this discussion, but we're coming up on launch so I was wondering if there are any news or updates regarding force feedback support on early access, or after that? A control loading model based on G-load (as the real Tomcat had) would be absolutely awesome.

Nevermind, it looks like it takes some time for the DCS page to get updated: So it looks like all is good. Thank you again Heatblur, was happy to support you by purchasing through your own webpage!

Hi IronMike, Just wanted to say that I purchased the F14 today from Heatblur's store. I followed the instructions and activated the coupon on the relevant DCS page. I am a little bit confused though, after doing all of this I did not recieve a serial key from DCS like I did for all previous purchases, and in my profile it can't find the F14, also on the DCS module page, it doesn't list the F14 as purchased like it does all the other modules that I have purchased there. Is this normal?

Caught the 3 wire! Though I doubt any sane LSO would mark that as a great landing ;)