Baz000

AI F-14 pilot does not do controls wipeout and salutes before being directed to power up by the shooter on the catapult can see it clearly in this video, seems like the timing is off for when the AI salutes the shooter... They seem to salute when being told to stop after coming up over the shuttle. AI F-14 pilot does not do controls wipeout and salutes before being directed to power up by the shooter on the catapult

F-14 pilot looks to the right and salutes on CAT 1 away from where the shooter is actually positioned to the left.

Here you go, hopefully this helps. Here is a way you can hook up to the catapult on the Forrestal and the Stennis without ever having to resort to external view (in some multiplayer servers external views are disabled) it takes a little trial and error and I much prefer the ground crew but it is possible to do and when you do it enough you will get some visual references of how far to move the plane forward to get over the catapult shuttle. It works on both the Forrestal and Stennis carriers.

Listen to the directions of the yellow shirt, he is telling you to spread wings open... Tell you what, I'll make a short video for you

On the supercarrier you follow the directions of the yellow shirt and the crew will hook you up, you don't press U to hook up currently except for the non supercarrier module ships. Learn the hand signals, they should be giving you directions.

So, did we find out who would out zoom who?

The nose gear approach lights are not indicating correctly right now on the A and the B model Tomcat during the daytime. They seem to work perfectly fine at night however. In the day time it shows the green and amber lights illuminated together, the red light acts as it should

Are you having problems landing the F-14? Obviously nothing can take the place of time spent practicing flying the plane at the correct onspeed AOA and landing parameters. If you're not used to how a Navy plane lands using AOA and corrections in power using the throttles then it can seem daunting to learn. If you then add things like opening speed brakes and adding DLC to the mix making timely and needed corrections get even more challenging and frustrating. So, something I would like to impart some advice on is this... START SLOW and walk towards your virtual gold wings no, I don't mean literally start slow as in with your landing approach... I mean start trying to land the thing getting a feel for how it is with as few variables as possible when you first start out learning. Like, just have your gear and flaps down. just do a long boring straight in approach to a nice lengthy runway, start from like 10 miles away and get configured with your gear down and flaps down. gear down at 250 and flaps fully down at 220. okay? Next, I want you to work on getting the plane slowed down to the onspeed AOA of 15 cockpit units (yellow circle on AOA indexer) do this by reducing power on the throttles in combination with adding nose up trim on your stick While you do slow the plane down to onspeed, I want you to manage your decent rate... First, just try keeping the plane in level flight you are going to need to do this by moving the throttles as the plane slows to onspeed. Practice getting to and holding onspeed AOA without much deviation. Use coordinated turns with your rudder, give it a little boot to keep her out of a slip or skid and remember to step on the ball on the turn/slip indicator. Get it rock solid on that yellow circle the whole way down and you know you have mastered that one aspect! But don't forget your rate of decent... Try to go for no less than 500 feet per minute but no more than 1,000 feet per minute starting off. If you botch your approach and you look like you are too high or low, you will need to correct by changing your decent rate. Anyways, get the basics of that straight in 10 mile long boring approach only with the gear and flaps deployed... You can do a go-around, just move the throttles to MIL power and pull a little back on the stick and go around again for another practice run Get mastery of doing that, and then you can start adding more pieces to the puzzle to challenge you and so you learn how each of these variables on the Tomcat effect it in flight. Like, once you get good at that now add in the speed brakes deployed... Notice now you need more engine power to hold her where you want... Get good at that and then add in DLC and try fooling around with that. Hey, when you got all that down like you are a maestro at those Tomcat controls... Now start adding in things like the "overhead break" traffic pattern and fun stuff like trying to trap a 3-wire at the boat! But take it easy, try to break down all these elements like it is a puzzle... And each new thing you learn is like 1 more step towards completing the Tomcat puzzle. I'll be the first to admit i'm no Tomcat master, I hope these words of wisdom may help somebody who maybe is struggling with landing the Tomcat in particular. I made a video of me landing at Nellis in a A and B model, I do a pass gear and flaps only and then another with DLC and speedbrakes to a full stop landing. I have my controls indicator up, so you can see what inputs I'm giving... How am I making my power corrections, and trimming the nose up etc. I think I have some room for improvement myself, but I'm not too terrible at it... I try to juggle between keeping at onspeed AOA and staying on my glide slope I want of between 500-1,000 feet per minute. I didn't record sounds, I just wanted you guys to see the visual approach without distraction. I hope this helps some of you who are struggling, the whole Heatblur team did an amazing job on this plane and the fact that we have former F-14 pilots who are on here and engage quite regularly in posts shows that these guy truly do care about providing a quality product that sets a new benchmark in DCS and paying homage to an iconic plane that touched so many people all over the world.

whoops this needs to be moved to bugs, its a mission related bug.

F-14A in Nellis landing IA mission has full fuel compared to the same mission with the B, the B model had like 6 or8k vs the A starting off with like 16k... Figure it just needs adjusting in the A model version of the mission.

I tell him to go radar silent all the time for AAR, I never noticed any problems commanding him... I also tell him to go active with the radar again when finished with AAR, too.

You mean like a form of customizing a player character?

It looks like when you kneel the aircraft the launch bar doesn't touch onto the ground and it maybe should? Also, maybe looks like the nose gear strut when in the kneeled position in DCS looks extended a bit too high? The bottom of the Oleo is well under the top of the nose gear tire in this video.

This is information that should be included in the Heatblur F-14 DCS manual once it is near completion I would think.

In this video the pilot holds the brakes and powers up for take-off... You can also see that in DCS our nose strut doesn't compress on wheel brake application or when brakes are held also on power up So, 2 points... The wheel brakes don't hold the plane on take-off when power applied and the nose strut is missing its compression component when brakes are applied during taxi as well as when they are applied for power-up on take-off (looks similar to kneeling for a cat shot, but far less displacement and when brakes released the nose strut immediately springs up releasing its compression) also, on the take-off roll the launch bar seems to quite vibrate a bit... No such effect in DCS currently, it is on there rock solid.

In DCS, with the current patch (also with previous as I think it is same behavior) the NWS on the Tomcat does not behave identically to what you see on videos of the real jet... In particular, when the jet is static and not in motion. In DCS if you stop the jet right now with the brakes from moving forward mid-turn while NWS is on and nose wheel is deflected and you will see that the NWS will just remain canted off center, that apparently isn't the correct behavior... In the real jet it should center itself even when the jet is stationary as demonstrated here: Also, when stationary(or barely having forward momentum)... The NWS should be able to freely move to do a minimum radius turn (which is especially important on a crowded carrier deck)

I'm not sure and can't speak for HB or SMEs, etc... But just because a weapon system physically "fits" doesn't mean weapon separation flight testing didn't show when released into the air stream it would separate cleanly without banging into other hanging weapons or the aircraft itself. Maybe it has something to do with that, I don't really know.

If you jam them, you fly home like that with them jammed... Which is why IRL you try not to jam them like that in the first place when you have 6 hours to fly back to the boat. Oh and 3-4 air to air refuelings to perform.

Well, you're not really completely clean tho... Look at what is sticking out underneath the engine nacelles.

I was wondering since the Pilot and RIO cockpit 3D models are in the works if there can be plans to equip them with 3D models NVGs like the "catseyes" for example... What would be awesome is if it could be period specific related to the particular era of the Tomcat you are flying. Also would like it if RIO in the back, if Jester would don and doff it realistically (like not on during cat launch or boat trap for example) And while on the subject of helmets, could we get camouflage helmet covers as a selectable option? Maybe woodland (Baltic) and desert (middle east) for flying in operational theatre vs say training.

Oh, so because it doesn't completely discharge it appears to the naked eyes to be continually illuminated and pulsing? So, does that mean the current implementation in DCS is not entirely 100% accurate? Does this same capacitive effect happen on the TCS chin light too? When I was looking at Tomcat videos, I found one with I think a KA-6 and you got a good look at the tail light and immediately, I thought that is exactly like what the Tomcat in DCS looks like right now. At timestamp 11:12... I was like, that is the spitting image of how it looks in DCS. Also, Spiceman... Thanks for your reply, I heard you spent many years working on Tomcats.

The only direct controls over the radar that the pilot had was on a switch mounted on the left sidewall and a button on the front of the throttle The switch controlled VSL Hi and Low and PAL and the button on the throttle sent the radar to PLM Though in practice apparently the RIO would control the VSL modes too from the back from reading a bunch of anecdotes from Pilots and RIOs. I don't hear of many pilots going VSL themselves.

How is the pilot keeping the plane so rock solid stable, that fast and that close to the ground immediately after takeoff (you don't even see his stabs wiggle when flying level) Amazing skill! And here, the same except in formation but not as fast of and acceleration and not as rock solid steady. The wingman moves around in roll and sorta rocks the wings.

Indeed, marked as WIP still in the last patch notes guys.

I think AP is WIP still and not acting properly