Donut

Hey everyone. Does anyone have both the Warthog and X55 sticks and if so, which of the X55 springs best matches the spring on the Warthog stick. I am trying to decide which of the X55 springs is best to go with and it makes sense to try at match what a high end stick feels like.

I see what your are saying... Those altitudes must be AGL and engine performance at a lower altitude in Nevada seems worse than performance at a higher altitude in the Caucasus map.

Since I made the original post, my understanding of curves and feel for the Tomcat has improved. What a positive curve does is decrease sensitivity around center but increases sensitivity as you move away from center. I believe this is why a lot of us were over stressing the Tomcat and snapping wings because as we increased the pull, the stick became more and more sensitive until it didn't take very much to over do it. Negative curves do indeed increase sensitivity around center but it decreases sensitivity as you move away from center. With this decrease in sensitivity away from center, some of us experienced improvement in our control as we maneuvered the Tomcat due to the decreased chance of overpulling. However, the more that I have flown the Tomcat, I have noticed that the increased sensitivity around center from the -15 curves makes it more difficult to land and refuel where smaller and finer movements are needed around center. Believe it or not, right now I am back to 0 curves. I can still remain in control of the Tomcat and don't get the oversensitivity away from center as I do with positive curves and it isn't as sensitive around center as with negative curves. What also might be happening is that as I fly the Tomcat more, I am getting better at handling it and knowing it's limits so I don't need the sensitivity buffer that the -15 negative curve provided with larger stick movement. Hopefully all of this helps someone out there find the right stick sensitivities that works for them.

This is indeed the case and incredibly accurate in the sim. I changed my carrier heading from 090 to 360 and don't really see any heading drift at all. It's much easier now to line up on the downwind and achieve the right abeam distance.

I think he should state whether these are MSL or AGL...

+1 Jester's inaccurate callouts during a dogfight are my biggest gripe right now as well and an area in which I hope to see improvement. It's all new and a WIP for Heatblur so I am sure they will send Jester back to Top Gun for more training.

Thank you SuperGrover for such a detailed explanation. The level of detail in the Tomcat continues to amaze me and your knowledge of all this shows the brains behind what has made the F-14 the most incredible aircraft simulation.

Alrighty fellow virtual Tomcat pilots (and you real ones out there too)...let's talk about loops in the Tomcat. With turns, there is a lot of discussion about rate vs radius, corner speed, G's, and AoA and I would think the same applies to performing loops. What does an optimal loop in the Tomcat look like or is it just dependent on the situation and what position you want to obtain? Is there an optimal entry speed? Do you light the burners, peg the AoA at 15 and just pull all the way around or is it ever a good idea to cut the throttles near the top, bleed some speed and then pull high AoA to bring the nose around quickly at the cost of energy? I am curious to hear what everyone's thoughts and proven methods are!

So, I don't know what changed between me flying this afternoon and my test tonight but the AWACS command now works as it should. Obviously an issue on my end and nothing on yours. My apologies for taking your time with this. I am truly puzzled though at what my issue was earlier. The only thing different tonight was that I didn't start TrackIR but I doubt that would have caused an issue because none of the other VoiceAttack commands had problems. Oh well, all fixed now...thank you again for everything! FYI...both my mission and the Bone Strike Mission have AWACS as F7

Whoa, thanks IronMike...a lot of new information here. I have been using NWS on takeoff so that's good to go. However, I have never heard Jester give speed callouts on takeoff... I didn't now about they maneuvering flaps on land-based takeoffs either...I thought it was widely believed (at least I did) that it was full flaps for both land and carrier. Thank you for helping make me a better virtual Tomcat pilot! Keep up the amazing work!

Good question! I often find the radar image on the HSD to be too cluttered to read clearly with a lot of things overlapping. It would be nice to change the range or be able to zoom in and separate things apart a bit.

Great tips Heatblur! I did not know about the lateral stick for steering....does the same apply during takeoff as well?

Thank you for the quick response and fixes!! For the AWACS, it's a mission I created myself. It's an E-2 orbiting at 20,000 and I can contact it the traditional way (\ for comms menu and mouse click). When I use VoiceAttack and say "AWACS", the comms menu comes up and displays ATC, Tanker, and AWACS and that's it. It doesn't go into the AWACS submenu showing the other options. The others work fine...I say ATC and it immediately shows all the airport options and when I say Tanker, it immediately shows Intent to fuel. In the VoiceAttack software, it recognizes my voice and the "AWACS" command just fine. I will look more into it though to see if it something on my end that I am missing but I didn't edit or change anything. The kneeboard and readme are just fine...I was just confused as to what it was saying and why it wasn't working. All fixed now! Thanks again and keep up the amazing work!

The tuned course line drifts as well since that is tied directly to your compass rose on the VDI. I did a quick test and it looks like while on the carrier, it adds another 23 deg in magnetic variation on top of the already 6 deg on the Caucasus map. For example: The carrier is heading 090, the Caucasus map mag variation of 6 deg will give a actual carrier heading of 084. Sitting on the deck, aircraft heading in cockpit will actually be 061 deg and not 084 due to the effect from the carrier. 1.2 abeam, the added magnetic variation effect from the carrier decreases to about 4 deg. What this means is that when I am trying to line up on the 264 radial and get myself 1.2 abeam the carrier, what I see as 264 deg in my cockpit is actually my aircraft travelling 260 deg. Doesn't seem like much but it's enough to require a correction.

I know things are a WIP but just a heads up… The AWACS command does not seem to work. When "AWACS" is spoken, only the main comms menu opens and does not progress into the AWACS submenu. There is a bit of a discrepancy between the actual spoken ground crew commands available and what is displayed in the manual and on the kneeboards cards. I am a bit confused with what commands to say to turn on/off power and air.

Holy moly! Phenomenal level of detail indeed!! Well, they say the HUD is useless in landing mode and now this added on top of that...can the Tomcat get anymore difficult to land?! What is the correct procedure to account for this? How do we fly the correct headings? Is it just all visual?

I understand that, but I thought that was just while on the carrier deck. Are you saying that the carrier's influence extends out some distance as well?

Just downloaded and installed your VoiceAttack profile...absolutely incredible! Thank you so much for this! Your hard work is greatly appreciated! You have become a DCS legend!

For me, Jester in most frustrating in a dogfight. I often find that his callouts are late or completely way off and have me looking in the wrong direction. Overall though, Jester is incredible and I look forward to his further refinement and improvement.

I have never heard landing callouts at the carrier, only on land.

I have been having difficulty achieving the correct heading and abeam distance downwind and I noticed something... My heading as indicated on the HUD and VDI will slowly drift left as I progress on the downwind. I have a carrier setup on the Caucasus map heading 090 (084 magnetic). On the downwind, I attempt to head 264 magnetic, however; I slowly see my heading drift left to the point where when I am abeam the LSO platform, my heading in cockpit is 260 and on the F10 map it's 275 (which would be 269 magnetic). That is a 9 degree error and would explain why I cannot line up correctly on the downwind and struggle with getting the correct abeam distance. There is no wind. I flew a Case I at Nellis to test this further and saw that there was no heading drift here and all compass heading matched up. This issue seems to be when landing on the carrier only. Is this an intended "feature" of the Tomcat or is it a bug?

I only get landing callouts on land, not at the carrier.

Any wind or just carrier at 18kts?

Makes sense...and if there was widely available data, it would still be a couple more years before we would see it in DCS. An F-14B with Sparrowhawk HUD upgrade and other associated upgrades makes much more sense but for some reason as Cobra has stated, this is unlikely.

Has anyone else noticed that Jester will sometimes incorrectly call out a radar contact as a two or three ship when it is just one aircraft? Intended feature or bug?