arneh

Actually from Fulda Gap scenarios I've read the Apaches would take out SAMs so that A-10s would be able to take out armor more efficiently. The A-10 works much better when it isn't shot down by SAMs :) And the Apache is better at SEAD than the A-10 which has neither speed (to avoid missiles) nor as good ability to use terrain for cover as the Apache. Though admittedly it was argued if that was the best way of using the Hellfires, considering that the tanks was the big threat overall.

The announced the V-model at first. But then showed some work in progress screenshots of the P-model cockpit. And when I asked Wags said they hadn't decided yet. So that's how it stands currently :)

I believe all the vehicles of the SAM system have to be part of the same group. I.e. don't make a new group for each type of vehicle, just make one big one with a vehicle of each type you need.

The designate button is also used if creating target points. Or if doing INS updates. Or for turning on the Shkval automatic scan mode. Or as you said you want to move the HMS aimpoint or uncage the Skhval. And possibly some more uses I've forgotten now. So in various unrelated circumstances, so I've personally been confused on a few occasions which button to use.

Well, in Black Shark there is one button which is lock and another which is designate (and uncage) skhval. So I'm sure it helps if you use the appropriate name, as sometimes you use one, and sometimes the other.

Is that 27% of the types of helicopter, or 27% of actual helicopters? If it's the latter then I'm guessing the more than 10 000 Mi-8/Mi-17s make up a huge part of that :) Probably more than all other types using the engine combined?

I have the same problem when using the microstick on the TM Cougar for skhval control. It's like there is a huge dead zone. I will move it maybe 30% of the way and there will be no movement. Then when I exceed a certain limit it will suddenly pan it very fast. I have checked my controls and removed all deadzones, but the problem is still there. In fact it gets a little better if I add some deadzone in the axis-tuner, although that is counter to what one believes. It will still take as much movement until it starts panning, but it will pan a little slower when it starts to pan (though still too fast to allow for accurate panning). Movement looks fine in the axis adjustmens. I've adjusted the axis to be really S-like, so that it should hardly move at all until I get to 80% or so, and it helps some but it sill pans too fast when it gets to the magic limit where it starts to pan. So I've ended up to assign buttons to panning too, and use those for fine tuning, and only use the microstick for coarse panning. Though that seems like a waste, as it should be possible to do better fine tuning with an analog controller than buttons, and I have better things I could have used those four buttons for.

Indeed they are, twin launchers for Igla-Vs. Like these ones:

They have mentioned in one of the trim threads that they're changing trimming in the next patch. Which also confirms that there is a patch in the making :) But yes, I haven't found much wrong in DCS yet, so no urgent need for a patch for me at the moment :)

See page 6-23 of the flight manual.

Only in EECH.

The helicopter will weather vane into the direction of flight as soon as you get some sideways velocity. And the faster you're going the stronger the effect.

Mostly various insurgents causing trouble there nowadays. In addition to South Ossettia, you've also got Abkhazia and Adjaria, all regions that have tried to gain independence. There are some more troublespots just outside the map modelled in DCS, but who's to say some of them might not spread in a hypotetical campaign :) Russian troublespot Chechnya is just to the north east of the map in DCS. Nagorniy-Kharabakh is just to the East, and not too far to the west you have Moldova where a Soviet army refused to leave and claimed independence after the USSR collapsed. And on the Turkish side you've got Turks vs. Kurdish conflict. ACIG has some quite indepth analysis of most of these conflicts, particulary the airwar part of it, so go read about it at http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/cat_index_12.shtml Here's a map of the regions which have tried to gain independence from Georgia, and you can also see Chechnya in the top right:

It's not write protected, and keyboard.lua does list the assignments as I've changed them. I'm also using XP, not Vista. There is however another file there, called default.lua, so I tried changing it. And lo and behold, that actually did change it ingame too! But I guess you're not supposed to change the default file, that's the safe backup in case I screw up? So is there somewhere I can tell DCS to use keyboard.lua, and not always default.lua?

Good tip, I even suspected for a moment that I was running in easy mode... But no. To make sure I changed the keycommands for both configs (though there is no master caution reset in easy mode), and even tried easy mode to see if did change anything there. But no, nothing there either, G does gear lever no matter what I do.

I was trying to remap some keys, but it doesn't seem to have any effect. So just as an example I tried to switch G and M (gear and master warning reset). I went into the controller menu, found the Gear level command, cleared it, then Add and M as command to use M for gear. Then did the opposite for Master caution push-light, cleared it first, then Add G as its command. I also saved a profile with it, though don't think that makes a difference... But when I try in-game G still commands the gear and M still the master caution. Going back into controller menu it's like I set it up with M for gear and G for master caution. But in game they're still doing their default actions. So what's the secret to making these reassignments have effect? I have already reassigned lots of joystick buttons and that works as expected, but reassigning keys doesn't. And it's not just gear and master caution which are special, none of the other keys I've tried to reassign have worked either in game.

I already did :)

Or at least update the translations used to be the same as in the English cockpit. I originally posted this in this thread, but I'll repost it here as you may want to change it in the manual as it makes using the procedures confusing as it is. This is from the "Fly over target point designation on page 7-5", which was the one I was struggling with yesterday. The switch I think they mean is labeled Edit in the English cockpit, not Enter. To confuse matters more there is a switch close by which is labeled Enter (though not a mode selector). In the Russian cockpit both are labeled ПРОЛ. This one is labeled "INU" And "Update" in the english cockpit. Apparently Update is the "Over-fly" position, and "INU" corresponds to skhval. This is labled NAV TGT Numbers are the same :) This one doesn't appear to be labeled ЦУ in the Russian cockpit either to confuse matters more. But the key list does at least refer to it as designate target, so you can figure out which key to use. Now things get even more confusing. Because I believe they now want us to press the button named Enter in the english cockpit, however it's not the second time, as in the first step the mode selector was put in the "Edit" position, not pressing the "Enter" button. It's labeled "Oper" in the English cockpit, not "Work".

Actually what I find most confusing isn't the Russian labels used in the manual, but that the English translations they've used in the manual doesn't correspond to what's on the label in the English cockpit. This get's confusing when using some of the procedures later in the manual, e.g. the one I was struggeling with yesterday for making a target point: The switch I think they mean is labeled Edit in the English cockpit, not Enter. To confure matters more there is a switch close by which is labeled Enter (though not a mode selector). In the Russian cockpit both are labeled ПРОЛ. This one is labeled "INU" And "Update" in the english cockpit. Apparently Update is the "Over-fly" position, and "INU" corresponds to skhval. This is labled NAV TGT Numbers are the same :) This one doesn't appear to be labeled ЦУ in the Russian cockpit either to confuse matters more. But the key list does at least refer to it as designate target, so you can figure out which key to use. Now things get even more confusing. Because I believe they now want us to press the button named Enter in the english cockpit, however it's not the second time, as in the first step the mode selector was put in the "Edit" position, not pressing the "Enter" button. It's labeled "Oper" in the English cockpit, not "Work". Seems to me the manual and cockpit were translated by different people, and they never cross-checked to make sure the translations used were the same. It's an understandable thing to overlook, but it does make using the procedure lists confusing to use as you constantly have to cross reference the first part of the manual to figure out what switches they actually mean.

See, now you made me go look it up :p Quoting from Yefim Gordon's Mil Mi-24 Hind Shooting them down I'm sure is fine. But the Soviets were primarily trying to force them to land, and then it's an advantage to be able to fly alongside. Fighters have a hard time flying that slowly.

Well I found a way of trimming cyclic with Cougar trim and pedals with DCS trim. At least if you have some forcefeedback device pluged in, like I have with a force feedback steering wheel, which I use the pedals from. You let the trim button trim BOTH the cougar trim and the in-game trim (well I guess you could separate them to separate buttons too if you prefer, cougar trim for cyclic, DCS trim for pedals). But trick is that you must go into Producers.cfg and set ForceFeedbackEnabled to true. Most likely you set it to false previously because you were told trim wouldn't work in DCS with non-FF stick otherwise. But what it does is enable forcefeedback-style trimming of the cyclic... which does nothing on non-FF sticks. Hence all the in-game trim will do is trim the pedals, and the stick can be trimmed with the cougar trim. So what I have in my profile is BTN S4 /I TRIM (JOYX, 0) TRIM (JOYY, 0) ResetTrim /O SetTrim HOLDTRIM (JOYX) HOLDTRIM (JOYY) (where SetTrim = t and ResetTrim = LCTL t) It works very well for me! Only disadantage is that pedals don't hold their position while trim is held, like it does for the stick. It uses the DCS trim, so you must release them immediately when you press the trim button. If ForceFeedbackEnable is set to false if you only have non-FF devices you can try setting it to true and see if the trick works then too. Haven't tested that myself.

Rockets is not a precision weapon, think of it more as aerial artillery. You don't fire them at single targets, you fire lots of them at groups of targets. Which is a use they're good at. For accuracy UPK-23 gun pods should work better (or of course the internal gun or Vikhrs).

The first generation Cobras made in the 60s that lingered on in service in the 80s may not have been night fighters. But the AH-1Ws which started entering service in the 80s were night capable, as were of course the Apaches (A-models). And those were entering service in the early 80s, at the time when Ka-50 design was just starting. Even the Mi-24D from the 70s had a FLIR, even if it wasn't fully night capable. So I don't think it's fair to say it doesn't have any night capability just because it was designed in the 80s, as other helicopters in service at the time did have it. I guess it just wasn't something the Soviet army at the time prioritized. I thinks it's generally accepted that the Ka-50 would have been on the same side as that tremendous flow of armor ;) I can't imagine NATO trying to send its puny amount of armor the other way.

Mi-24s have also been known to carry R60s (AA-8 Aphid) at times. Most prominently after Mathias Rust landed a Cessna on the Red Square, and the Soviet Air Force realized that fighters were unsuitable for intercepting low, slow flying light aircraft.

Since ED are making the Mi-24 themselves that doesn't seem very necessary :p We'll see what happens next. Going to try DCS some first, had my first flight last night :)