Gth

The more I see people say this the more I start to wonder if I've somehow stunted my flying ability after flying without proper rudder controls for so long (Having flown since the first Microsoft Flight Sim release). While I do certainly lose some degree of energy when I have to turn, I've never really run into a situation where it put me at a disadvantage or even stalled me. I ought get a track uploaded here and get a diagnosis on my flying cause now I'm really concerned :joystick:

Welp, from what I'm reading here I'm definitely sold on either going for the P51 or for one of the helis. However, my issue with going with a heli is one, will my TM Warthog do well with flying one (I imagine it will because duh, but my only experience with a heli using that stick was with Battlefield, which doesn't even count lol) and two, how well will I do without rudder pedals? With the A-10 I hardly ever needed rudder use outside of taxiing and foul weather (and even then), and for that I was just fine using my trim hat with a modifier. Taxiing isn't smooth, but it gets the job done without having to spend more money lol. But with a heli, at least to my knowledge, you need to use your rudder pedals in order to fly properly. Or may be not, I'm not all that sure on that one. Also, just to clarify on the Russian bit, its not the language barrier that puts me off, but just the general design of Russian based air/spacecraft. They just look weird and offputting to me. Like, the Soyuz, a rugged spacecraft no doubt, and the only still active manned spacecraft in the world atm at that, but man it looks so strange. And the Russian planes are the same idea. I mean, why so much blue? lol.

So lately I've been considering getting another module for DCS, now that I'm fairly well versed on the A-10C (after finally taking the time to learn it after having had it since it was released) and I'm still not sure which one to go for. My first idea was to go for the P-51D, because to my knowledge its on the same level as the A-10 quality wise but also introduces a happy changeup what with being such an old aircraft built for different purposes. But then as I kept poking around I also became interested in the Sabre, as it is also apparently up there quality wise, but this time its closer to the A-10 in terms of what its used for. So given these two ideas*, which do you guys think I should go for? I really loved the learning curve on the A-10C, but I'm also getting a little bit bored of bombing the crap out of ground targets. * Should be noted that, much like Russian spacecraft, I find Russian aircraft to just be weird and of practically zero interest

Something I've been doing to get an eye on targets is to actually fly parallel to my target area on autopilot about 15-18nm out and up, and then zoom in my view on the TGP MFD to look for targets. Makes it a lot easier to spot targets when you're right on the screen. It also takes some of the headache out of trying to locate a target because then, if you set yourself up correctly, you don't have to worry about running into enemies (Unless they come after you :joystick:) and you can really get a good look at the area. It also helps because then you're keeping your TGP on point for the longest time possible. Another thing I like to do is use my mark points to mark targets as I find them. It should also be noted when it comes to JTAC, even when they send you a target through the TAD, is that it is seldom accurate, and more than likely is just the center of a target area rather than the specific coordinates of the target.

It is neat, though personally I just mapped the CDU to my keyboard and keep it in my lap as I fly.

Something I've noticed, at least with the D variant is to follow this sort of procedure to get a more consistent lock. Set target with TGP. Get just outside of range of MAV Switch to MAV TMS Down Tms UP. For me it seems to lock just about every time as long as I've got my plane oriented correctly. Come at the target at a weird angle then it won't lock. But I have seen them miss before, though it could just as well be that I accidentally designated another target or a building or something in the heat of battle.

^ Clear Summer days at noon? I can see how weather can affect it, but when you're 2nm out and headed straight into the target and you still can't get a lock under ideal conditions, somethings not right.

^ Thats the thing is that it doesn't always do that even when you're within the sub 8nm range and pointed right at the target.

I personally haven't had any issues with the TGP, of course I'm constantly flipping my boat switch to find targets. Something I've noticed is that certain targets won't show very easily under different switch positions, which does appear to be because of the terrain, but there again, depending on the boat switch position the terrain causes different amounts of clutter while bringing out the target. I'll have to load up a mission and post a screen of what I see when I target something.

^ Writing it down seemed to do the trick. So strange you can't contact CAOC though. JTAC is easy because you always call them up for tasking. But anyways, more questions! Whats the effective ranges for all the different Mav's for an actual lock on (IE, not force correlate)? I've been experimenting with the different missiles and for an actual track it seems like every one of them won't track until I'm within 8nm or so, and even then I have to sit there and play with it to get it to track so I can fire the missile. The manual says the effective range for what I imagine to be all of the MAV's because it isn't specific goes up to 17nm, and while I've managed 12nm with force correlate it doesn't really help much unless I'm hitting a static target. As far as locking it goes I know to get my nose on the target and even when I have the MAV's LOS marker right on the target I still can't lock regardless until I'm within that range, and then I have to sit there and constantly hit up TMS short and long until it locks. Sometimes I have to slew the MAV and re-slave it to the SPI. Either I'm missing a step or the MAV's are seemingly tedious to use.

To be fair to OP, it really depends on the altitude he's dropping his weapons and how much trim he has set. As well as how fast he's going I know for fact that high up dropping a weapon doesn't do anything, especially if you have it trimmed to level flight. But come down to 5000 and you'll start seeing your plane sway a bit as you drop weapons. Still depends though. Without trim your plane would probably veer quite a bit regardless. Going slow, even more.

^ I'll have to look into it. Certainly sounds interesting. Do have another question that I may as well ask. How do you guys deal with CAOC, or rather any communications with people on the ground? During this particular mission I get two calls from spotters on the ground and because the calls almost come right on top of one another I never get a chance to save more than one of the targets as a MP. And thats after I mapped my keyboard to the CDU so I can just type as they talk. I can't imagine it'll matter much in online play, but for single that is definitely something annoying that's been bugging me. Course, could also be that the mission has just been bugged for me and I am actually able to contact CAOC somehow.

Indeed this was the case as my wingman just got shot down in the same way. And I decided to just climb to 17000 and stay there for the second Smerch. Now that I'm aware there's AA almost everywhere in this mission I'm much more mindful of how I fly, so we're getting there. Also, bout the rudders, I have the TM Warthog HOTAS. So, no twisty stick. :joystick:

Hmm strange. When it happened I looked back (because duh) and there was a pretty big explosion which leads me to believe I took a missile hit. As I've been running this mission more I have taken hits from guns and so far I haven't been hit as bad as I was the first time. Do have a bit of a weird thing going on in my current run however. RTB for a repair, and now my hud ladder is crooked like I'm banking even though I'm on the ground. Ran the preflight bit a couple times now and it isn't doing anything. No caution lights on my panel either.

So I've been teaching myself to use to the A-10C (after being used to flying the F-15C almost exclusively since the days of LOMAC or whenever we first got to use the F-15) and its been going fairly well. Got proficient with weapons so I decided to start actually engaging against targets that fire back in an actual mission. So I loaded up the Smerch Hunt mission. After a first rather dumb attempt (I had neglected to learn how JTAC and getting on target using the call outs works so I had to back out to read the manual and get that put together) I flew up again, this time without a wingman (mostly because during my first run the AI just wouldn't meet up no matter how I flew or how many times I told him to). Got fairly far until I had to go attack another target a almost on the opposite side of the AO. Simple enough, but then as I'm cruising around 10-12k fine tuning my TGP onto the target, all of a sudden my engines explode and I lose power. Luckily though I was still close enough to home that I was able to glide my way back on the APU. Right when I touched down the game crashed on me, so, no track :/ But any way, what could of hit me? There wasn't any warning and while I think if I had my wingman on me he probably would have called it out, but even so. At the altitude I was flying at I didn't expect to get hit by anything that I wouldn't at least get a warning about. Also, just another general question for those of you without rudder pedals, what do you use for a substitute? I've been mapping my rudders to the left and right trim swtich on my HOTAS stick (with a lever modifier setup for roll trim, as I seldom need roll trim on the fly and more often than not I hit roll trim by accident anyway) but its been iffy because it makes takeoff not as smooth as I'd like, as I end up swerving a bit as I roll.