Horns

Could we please revert the thread title back to what it was and move this thread back to the general sub? The thread was asking if I was seeing the symbology as I should have, not requesting anything new be included. I like seeing our aircraft represented faithfully, whether that makes them easier or harder to use.

Success! Thanks, believe it or not I skimmed to where I saw the 'Scan sector' command mentioned... on the very next page :doh: Much appreciated, fingers crossed something else in your day becomes inexplicably easier to balance this out

Something strange seems to be going on, so I'll uninstall VA, Vaicom Pro etc, delete all related data and downloads and start again from fresh downloads, so at least we know I'm working with a blank slate and not getting sideways due to some earlier error.

I don't have any 'VAICOM PRO AIRIO.vap' profile, the only one I have is 'VAICOM PRO FOR DCS WORLD', having downloaded and installed the latest versions of Vaicom Pro and AIRIO respectively. I searched my c: drive in case the AIRIO profile installed somewhere weird but it's not on there at all. Is there an alternative location I can source that from?

Thanks, that explains it! Despite importing that profile again I don't have the 'scan sector' command under 'Extension packs', the list looks for me as the image shows. I'll add that command now, but just to be sure I'm not missing anything, could you please double click on that 'scan sector' command, click on 'Advanced' and select 'Execute an external plugin function'. In the window that opens, could you please confirm if the Plugin name is 'VAICOM PRO 2.5', the box next to 'Wait for the plugin function to finish before continuing' is ticked and the other fields in that box are blank, and if not, could you please tell me what you have in the other fields? Thanks for all the help, I hope this experience hasn't been too frustrating

Hi hornblower793 :) It’s not in the VA ‘when I say’ commands, even after the finish and paste steps. Should it be in there or does it need to be added manually? Would you be able to talk me through the process of adding the ‘scan sector’ command start to finish please? I’m getting a little confused...

Thanks for answering Greyman :) I guess I misinterpreted hornblower's last comment. My 'scan sector' commands aren't working or being acknowledged at all, and I'd already updated the keyword collections, so I figured he was saying this command might need to be added manually. I did try importing the DCS Vaicom profile and that didn't make any difference either. So the 'scan sector' command worked for you without needing anything special done? If you have any suggestions I'm all ears (eyes?).

Sorry to Bogart the thread - I'm afraid I have no idea how to add this command. I tried a 'when I say' line of "Scan Sector, Angels [0..70] at [0..150]" and a few variants of that, but the message I got from VA was "Vaicom dll undefined function call: context not set". Could you please give me the correct "when I say" line to scan sector by altitude at range? Last, I got it to "Execute external plugin 'Vaicom Pro 2.5' and wait for return". Could you please advise if that's correct?

Thanks, much appreciated. Guess I'll have to choose between enhanced SA and acceleration worthy of the word.

Is there any way to get RWR hits to show on the HSD like they do on the F/A-18 SA page, and if there is would you be willing to fill me in? The manual says that 'ownship sensors' are one source of data represented on the HSD, and I would have thought the RWR is one of those, but I haven't been able to get them to show up.

That was spot on, thanks very much :)

I've messed up the starting head position in the cockpit of the F-14 (only), can someone please let me know? Thanks

Like you, I struggle with the AAR. Hornet is the easiest due to the auto trim (modern jets!). When I had more time to play DCS last year, I made a point of doing 5 mins worth of AAR at the end of an evening, just to keep my eye in. Just recently I've had the chance to get back into playing DCS, and guess what, my AAR skills have almost completely faded....... Thanks so much, that’s exactly what I wanted to know. If I don’t do carrier recoveries at least every couple of days I get sloppy, any longer and I wind up needing to do refreshers, I see why AAR would need that regular practice too. Much appreciated :)

Thanks, good advice. I'll just practice flying formation with the tanker for a while at a time without requesting fuel and see how I go.

I owe you all an apology. The mission I was using was a self-modified version, I had thought that I explained that in my first post but now I see I didn't. The only change I made was to delete the second F-14 but that seems to have caused the problems. Sorry for wasting your time. I did see the 104 tutorial (Maverick's always great for these) but I didn't realize there was a thread, thanks for providing another source of info. One last question to anyone who'll answer: do you find either the F/A-18, F-16 and/or the M2K much easier to tank with than the F-14?

It is that mission. I thought I had the same problem in another one that I made but I went back and looked at it again, it wipes a lot of speed off the tanker as soon as the mission starts, but after a few seconds it reaches and holds a consistent speed. Now I see there is an NTTR one, I've only run it a few times but it seems like the speed is consistent in that too. Glad to know that mission is a problem for others too. Thanks for the idea about the status bar, that would really help. Couldn't agree more about the instrument placements, you'd think they'd put that where a pilot could just glance down rather than moving their head and spending longer heads-down. While we're rearranging the cockpit, same goes for the g-meter!

I'm trying to air-to-air refuel for the first time in an F-14B, but I can't get the right speed to approach the back of the tanker and remain there long enough to go through the precontract dialog with the tanker's pilot. One major problem that I have is that the tanker speeds up significantly and slows down suddenly. In lieu of a tin foil hat I've attached a Tacview track (and yes, I do already know I suck at this). I have also used the radar to provide real-time data on speed to make sure it wasn't just my untrained eyes. I really hope other people can confirm this behavior does happen. Is this behavior unique to tankers interacting with the F-14? Is there any way to avoid or 'read' the tanker acting this way? Compensating for this is more difficult in the F-14 due to the analog speed and altitude indicators. If anyone can help with any aspect of this I'd be very thankful. Tacview-20200607-202407-DCS.zip

Thanks IronMike, and thanks for the great work you do. I have a bad habit of gaining altitude without realizing it and winding up in look-down, so it's good to know I can decrease altitude far enough to be sure I'll stay in look-up. The Viggen was the first airframe I learned, so I often prefer being low to high anyway. I'll be judicious about it of course. A couple of times I was surprised when I saw my speed was shown as higher in Tacview than I remembered being at the time, but I had no idea there was a bug. Thanks to captain_dalan for commenting, glad to see unanimity, I am convinced and I'll fight wherever the fight may be from now on :)

Awesome, thanks. The Tomcat feels great at any altitude so that sounds good instead of trying to drag a bandit back to x ft all the time. Thanks again.

Can anyone tell me the optimal combat altitude for the F-14? Beyond that, can anyone suggest how I could identify that information for myself in the future? I've spent a lot of time looking in books and online for the F-14's ideal combat altitude, so far I've been unsuccessful and it seems like it would be a hit-and-miss way to do it for other airframes in the future - but if this is how it's done then I'll happily live with it, just means a lot of :book: whenever I change airframes. EM and Excess Power diagrams haven't been much help because one on its own will only have data from one altitude, and the series in the NATOPS performance data at different altitudes only tells me (from what I can see) that turn performance decreases as air gets less dense as altitude rises - it doesn't tell me how the F-14's decreasing numbers relate to any other aircraft's decreasing numbers, and even if it did, it would only give me comparative data, rather than telling me one altitude where my aircraft will generally perform at its best. I haven't considered finding the ideal combat altitude experimentally (even though that might save time) because I'd like to use this process as an opportunity to learn about the real aircraft, even if it means I wind up at an altitude that isn't quite optimal. If any of you are willing to help I'd be grateful.

Haha roger that. Ok, so just fly to/with them until told otherwise, I can do that. Thanks for the clear advice :pilotfly: Good to know one possible outcome is that they simply leave without incident, I'll make sure to keep a close eye, but that's good advice about being safe with the master arm, cheers :thumbup:

Several of the single missions and the first mission of the campaign initially require the player to intercept hostile aircraft and escort them out of the area under ROE weapons hold unless maneuvered or fired on. How do we do that in DCS? Do we just fly in their direction and wait for further orders? What do we do if the hostiles try to continue past towards their original objective without maneuvering on us or trying to fire before we get further orders? It would be great if someone could explain how to handle this type of mission, I have searched but came up empty. EDIT: I thank Kaba and all our mission creators for giving us these missions, I’m not complaining we have them, just trying to work out how to approach a mission type I haven’t done before

Say "wake up". That dude was saying that's how it's done while running Vaicom Pro and AIRIO.

Thanks Whiskey11, much appreciated :)

I think I just worked it out :) Thanks for the help!