

fencible
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Everything posted by fencible
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At first I wasn't keen on the F-86F - but lately it's become one of my favourite rides. Just took me a bit to get used to setting up my controls and using the radar gun sight effectively (and it works really well!). I thought the .50s underpowered at first but now I think they are fine and as destructive as I could wish - but I think they have been tweaked recently. The manual for the F-86F is superbly well written and a pleasure to read. The OP should maybe try the L39 (with excellent 'Kursant' training campaign) and/or C-101 to get an idea of how challenging flying a non-fly-by-wire aircraft is. I hesitate to suggest he try the P51 and/or Spit because taking off/landing them safely and consistently takes quite an effort, unless you have a real-life pilot for a friend to sit with you and talk you up and down (as I did - and he was VERY impressed with the Spit IX flight model). Both aircraft require constant trimming and stick control, and rudder use to avoid slipping in turns. The MiG-15 I love to fly - easy take-off and landing, but problematic at high speed - the elevator trim does not have enough authority to hold the nose down at high speeds and you have to hold the stick forward to fly level. I have real trouble shooting with it - low velocity cannon rounds, slow roll-rate, and snakey handling at speed - but I hope to learn. I've had trouble with every realistic module at first - especially the non-fly-by-wire planes and helicopters. Realism is challenging. Nick Grey - who has flown 5 marks of Spitfires amongst many other warbirds in real life says that none of them are hands-off flyers - they all require constant trimming and hands-on - like a helicopter. Pre-fly-by-wire fighter planes have always been designed to be nimble, which requires instability, which means constant pilot control. If you want stable aircraft then stick to fly-by-wire jets or multi-engine bombers.
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Steam account link now available via DCS Account Profile
fencible replied to NineLine's topic in Steam Support
Does anyone know if more modules will be available to transfer from steam to stand-alone? My steam installation is down and I cannot reinstall it successfully (after two attempted 3 day-long downloads). I have a number of modules like the L39, Huey, Gazelle, MiG-15, Bf109K, 190d9, and especially the F-5E that I would really like to transfer over. -
Rockeyes work great.... I tried Rockeyes in a home-made test mission - I carried two HARMS and 4 Rockeyes to attack a SAM 6 site set up near Batumi. I took out the radar with a HARM when it locked me, and then dropped 2 rocks on the circle of armoured missile carriers from ~5000ft. I had set the burst height (VT) to 900 feet. I was then staggered when not only the two vehicles I targeted in the CCIP drops were destroyed, but nearly all of the vehicles in the area. The rockeyes were VERY effective against lightly armoured vehicles, and covered a much wider area of dispersement than I had anticipated.
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So ~2950 fps with a 700 gr bullet?
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over-speeding tires on take-off? Hello, I have burst tires by over-speeding on takeoff, and not realized it until I tried to land. I managed this faux-pas when I was heavily loaded and did not put on enough take-off trim, so the jet didn't want to fly.
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Aside from using suggested RPM and throttle settings, I've found that I must check temperatures very frequently, especially while in transitional states (climbing, diving, turning). As soon as temps start moving towards limits I open radiators all the way manually. When I'm cruising level, I set radiators to automatic. I've mapped radiator controls to my throttle HOTAS because these radiator adjustments need to be made so frequently. For sure, if you are anticipating an engagement in the near future, start cranking open the rads manually ASAP. You will overheat quickly dogfighting with radiators on automatic.
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Have you checked your input control positions before you start? Make sure your collective isn't pulled all the way up, and that your throttle is set approximately to the setting you expect to start at. I sometimes forget to turn up my RPM control (throttle) before popping into a hot-start mission and then when I touch it the actual position registers and the rpm drops on me. I have to quickly turn it up before I crash.
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Yes, I was noticing that my co-pilot was exceeding EGT green limit, so I took control again and backed off the collective a bit. When I switch back to co-pilot EGT temperature stays within safe zone. If you watch the controls and gauges when co-pilot is flying you can see fluctuations caused by control deflections. You have to setup collective so that it is low enough to stay within safe zone at highest excursions of the co-pilot.
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Yes - I've noticed an apparent increase in power and/or lift on the Huey in the past week, wherein using the same loadouts, I get noticeably better lift in hover, and higher cruise speed. I am also easily able to complete the UN Pilot campaign mission involving the rescue of a downed pilot ('Diego'). Before, I did not have enough power to get out easily after picking up the downed crew. Now there is plenty of power to lift off and climb away. As to engine fires, I don't know why so many people have trouble managing their exhaust gas temperature. I never give myself engine fires anymore (had lots when 1st learning Huey) - I leave that to enemy action now. Just back off the collective if your EGT dial gets above the green zone, and if you need to go above the green zone for take-off, make sure to back off as soon as you can - within a minute or so and once you have transitioned to forward flight. Then check your EGT dial occasionally - especially after a change in collective or flight regime (like if you have to start climbing over a mountain, hauling a sling load, or something) to make sure that you are not inadvertently running above green zone. Easy-peasy. If you cannot stay in the air and in the EGT green-zone at the same time, then you are overloaded and need to reduce weight. This is why pilots do a hover test - to see if they can get in the air while staying within safe limits. Remember that you can't take a full fuel tank, weapons, and passengers. You have to trade-off between these three things when preparing for flight. Watch your total weight on the weapons configuration window. If you are taking troops, leave a margin of 200 lbs per extra passenger. Also, some weapons are lighter - mini-guns for your door gunners weigh a LOT more than M60s, for example. Most on-line missions don't require more than 50% fuel load or so. If you use auto-pilot (simulate allowing other pilot to fly) be careful to set your collective well in the green zone first, and monitor EGT dial anyway, because auto-pilot sometimes will run EGT in the red, even though you handed off in the green. If you just assume auto-pilot knows what it's doing then you may wind up with an engine melt-down. The Huey works fine if you follow the flight operating restrictions outlined in the manual and visible on your flight instruments.
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MiG-21 used to be my favorite ride... can't stand it now
fencible replied to streakeagle's topic in MiG-21Bis
Yes - I'll chime in to say this - "Fire the crew chief - he is a vodka-soaked incompetent, and negligent in his duty of care to this aircraft." Air crews POLISH the canopy perspex of in-service fighter aircraft before every flight. It is critically important that the pilot see very clearly. Only people with excellent eyesight are accepted as fighter pilots in the first place. The current 'improvement' of adding globs of black stuff and greasy handprints to the canopy, while showing great graphics skills, is highly unrealistic. No airforce crew chief worth his salt would allow his aircraft to get into such a shameful mess - he'd be busted down to private for such dereliction of duty. I find it highly irritating and stupid to inflict this on customers of this otherwise superb module. It puts you at a huge disadvantage when dogfighting players flying other modules that have properly maintained canopies. -
Experienced BF-109 pilots - help needed - right roll level flight
fencible replied to Mud's topic in DCS: Bf 109 K-4 Kurfürst
We had a Luftwaffe veteran pilot who emigrated here to Ottawa, Canada after the war. He had flown 109s on the Eastern front. He said that the biggest problem with the late-war 109s came from flying them out of rough adhoc grass airfields, due to the narrow undercarriage, and that there were a lot of accidents due to that factor. I suspect that spitfires also had high accident rates operating from such fields. Having just acquired the DCS 109-K I was prepared to wrestle a fire-breathing torque monster, but I have been very happily surprised to find that it is a pleasant handling, responsive, balanced and tractable aircraft. I enjoy flying it very much. but then, I am using nice concrete airfields with runways to take-off and land in DCS. The tendency to roll slightly to right is not bothersome. Both the DCS Spit IX and P51-D require hands-on at all times, too. This is entirely realistic. These aircraft are not airliners. -
So excellent! I wish to add my thanks and congratulations to Bunyap and Wags on both this and the Charnwood campaigns. The depth of research, documentation, and successful attempt to provide the player with a rich atmosphere and sense of realism, have been excellent. The designers of future DCS campaigns will be challenged to rise to your level. I deeply appreciate the modelling of actual situations and missions, and tying the air missions to the ground battle, which gives so much more motivation to the 'pilot' player. A dear friend of mine, recently deceased, was present on the battlefield throughout the operations modelled in both of these campaigns as a member of the 3rd Cnd Div, and I've done a lot of research on the ground battles, spurred on by hearing his personal accounts. I feel that you have done justice to this intense and terrible battleground with your excellent work. You deserve the enthusiastic support of community for these and future projects.
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The bomb parameters are useful. Here is how I use some of the bomb parameter settings: Suppose I want to make a low level bombing run with my F18C against a known target in a copse of trees. They probably have AAA defences in there. I select 8 or 10 Mk82 retarded bombs and plan a level release at 500 knots from 230 feet altitude for surprise. Before take-off, I open the 'stores' page and select the Mk82s. I select program 5 with the preset Manual mode. I select 'Nose' fuse because 'Tail' is not yet available. 'Tail' would be better, since the bombs will fall through tree cover. I select 'Delay1' fusing because the bombs may hit branches in the trees and I want them to explode after they get through the trees. I select 'Ret' for 'retarded' so that the bomb retardation devices will open after release and give me enough time to clear the radius of the bomb blasts. If I selected the other option, the retardation devices would stay closed, falling much faster, and my plane would be damaged by the explosions of my own bombs. Yes, I have learned this the hard way. I select the Utc button and then on the up-front control panel I set number of bombs to drop with each button press. I plan two passes at about 90 degrees to each other to get good coverage on the target area, so I set this number at 4 or 5 (half my load with each press). I set the interval between bombs to 90 feet to spread out the destruction. I set 'Reticle' (HUD aiming reticle) to 78 mils, which I know from experimenting will hit or come very close to my aim point from 250 feet at 500 knots level (if I get my speed and altitude correct at release time). Now I am set up for my low-level high speed attack. I just need to select A/G attack mode and set the safety switch off as I approach the target area. I do this well in advance since I will not want to be looking down in the cockpit when on my run at 250 feet and 500 knots. The above settings will allow me to appear over the target with surprise, a split second after the sound of my jet is heard. If I approach from a covered direction there will be no chance of ground fire from the target area and I will be out of sight immediately after release. This is a very effective technique against AAA, if properly executed.
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I'm using the latest 2,5 as of June 16, 2018. The trim works fine on the Huey for a while, but on a long flight it eventually locks up and the stick goes dead. Resetting trim, turning trim toggle switch off all fail to restore control to the pilot and the helicopter crashes. This happens repeatedly. Avoiding use of trim altogether is only way to prevent this bug.
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DotChuckles - There are several trim settings available for the Huey in the settings page and I'm not sure which one is meant for use with a self-centring joystick. I use a special joystick with weakened centring spring for the Huey - to spare my arm on long flights but I can't decide which trim option is really meant to be used with that sort of set-up. I would like your advice on which setting to use.
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When is the new L-39 campaign going to be available on steam? I've been waiting for weeks now. Can it not be made available to steam Beta users?
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Yep. How many groceries can you buy with $80? How much gas for your car? I know lots of people who burn twice that for their motor boat gas in one weekend. And we're going to find that, like the MiG21, some really hot specialists are going to prove that the F-18C, with it's special handling characteristics, is a very dangerous dog-fighter for those who really learn how to fly it.
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I agree, Baco - dumb bombs work great with F/A-18. I've been having a ball with level low-alt manual delivery with snake-eyes (500 knots at 300 feet - use ~100 mills deflection on manual sight). Really exciting and effective! Yes radar drops lock easily, but that is realistic - it is the 'oerfect' FC3 radars being too good that are unrealistic. I predict that FC3 planes will not be allowed in some multiplayer servers in future.
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@Dangerman: - thanks very much for your comments - always a thrill to hear from a real fighter pilot.
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AIM-7 Performance
fencible replied to HawkDCS's topic in Release Version Bugs and Problems (Read only)
I don't think we should use the DCS F-15C performance as a bench-mark. I think that the FC3 planes - their radars and missiles - probably over-perform. The Super 530D - well I've only read that it did not perform well - I may be misinformed. As I said, I got a head-on kill with it the other night on 104th server - even though I had turned away from the target and was not painting it anymore. I thought maybe it had an infra-red seeker built in as well as the semi-active guidance, but that is not true, so I don't know what happened. Seemed strange to me, though. -
AIM-7 Performance
fencible replied to HawkDCS's topic in Release Version Bugs and Problems (Read only)
I think rather that the A/F-18C Sparrow behaviour is just more realistic. The missile was notoriously unreliable - as are other semi-active radar homing missiles like the Matra 530D. Unless you are shooting at AI targets, you should expect a low percentage hit rate with semi-active radar homing missiles, especially against manoeuvring targets with chaff and radar jammers. There is a good reason that the AIM-7 and other semi-active missiles are being phased out. That being said, I was very surprised to make a head-on kill on the 104th multiplayer server the other night with a Matra 530D versus a human-guided F18C. His AIM-7 shot on me was defeated by my evading and dumping chaff, while he flew straight into my Matra. The thing is, I only fired it to force him to evade. It should have missed him because I broke radar contact when evading and the Matra should have gone stupid. Maybe he just flew into it by accident? -
ED, I'll add my praise and thanks to this thread. I've been waiting for a sim of this aircraft and of this profound depth since I read 'The Sting of the Hornet' by David L. Bashow back in 1989. You have fulfilled my long held wish at last, and I must say that I have not been disappointed in anyway - thank you!
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The big 'X' on your CCIP HUD means that your weapons computer calculates you to currently be inside the lethal zone of where your own munitions will hit the ground, and your plane will probably get hit by fragments and/or shock wave blast from your own bombs training off if you release now. You are not well advised to ignore it. I found that out the hard way.
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I agree with QuiGon - a load of 10 snake-eyes dropped from level flight at 500 knots from 400 feet in manual mode, retarded (of course!) with about 80 ms ripple and instantaneous fusing is highly effective against soft area targets. I've been testing these low-level runs off-line and also on some servers. If your target is in a flat area you can be on top of it without any warning and there is no time for their AAA to react effectively. It's not too hard to guesstimate when to release, and practice helps. It makes for an exciting ride, as long as you have a good idea of where your targets are going to be. At that speed and altitude there is no room for adjustments once you arrive. Best to set a waypoint on the target or have it marked with smoke. I've found that a load of snake-eyes fused for instantaneous burst are much more destructive than cluster bombs against softer targets (in DCS world). For arteedecco: they used simple reticle sights in Viet Nam - like those of the F5E in DCS World. I recommend 'Phantom Over Vietnam' by John Trotti for a highly detailed account of techniques and procedures. He flew Phantoms for the US Marine Corps. He describes one pop-up attack as a hard climb from low level to 3,200 feet, rolling onto target into a 20 degree dive with sight set to 87 mils, and release at 2,000 feet at 400 knots with pull-out at 1200 feet. Of course that takes extremely precise flying and careful study of waypoints and target. I have found that for CCIP runs with snakes in the F18C that the faster you go, the easier to keep the CCIP ground reticle out front of you where you can see it, not under your nose, and keep your velocity vector well above the target (not coming from under the target as in a conventional run with fixed reticle sight). This gives you more time before you get too low. But I'd just go with slicks - 82s or 83s for CCIP runs.