wilbur81

Great stuff for me on the MT end after some quick tests: With all my same (mostly high or maxed out) settings in 4K, I'm seeing solid 60 FPS in heavy test missions, busy Supercarrier ops, etc. when I was previously dropping into the low 40s. Great step forward! Well done, ED Team.

I ordered the ACE Interceptor pedals a month ago on Feb 7th and it is still "processing" via backorder.

Haha. Nice idea.

Correct... Though, strangely, if you start a mission in the daylight and switch to Nite lighting...as it gets darker and then pitch black out the window, it will dim nearly as dark as the other instrument panel lights. If you start off in the dark, it is WAY too bright on the minimum setting... and I too usually just turn it off completely.

Speaking of "late to this party," how long did it take for your pedals to arrive after placing your order? Are you in the United States? Thanks in advance.

For step three: Purchase Baltic's "Raven One" campaign and it will stretch your ability to operate the Hornet technically and tactically to the limit...and you'll come away appreciating how remarkably capable America's most underrated 4th gen fighter truly is.

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/312608-f16-flight-envelope/?do=findComment&comment=5153812

...And who needs that fat, slow, and ugly "Super" Hornet when you can have a sleek and speedy Charlie with AESA? nullhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pimba-73xHM

Hey, guys. I know the TDC slew on the RDR page is a reported bug (max slew speed is currently far too slow). Just wanted to check in on this and ask, in particular, if there is going to be a specific effort made to make that slew speed "smart?" Meaning: small movements around the center of the control axis should be nice , slow and precise...whilst big axis deflections should get progressively faster... as these two videos (from the Hornet and the Eagle radar pages) demonstrate quite well. Just curious. Keep up the good work!

This document, though an amazing effort and piece of work, is not accurate as it is utilizing TacView for the telemetry...which is known to not provide very accurate turn performance data. Also, if you're interested, here is some real world information sent to me by one of our many faithful forum buddies. (I've not included his name here as he sent this to me via private message) - Thought many might find his buddy's findings interesting. Enjoy: I wanted to tell you about a conversation I had at an unclassed level with a friend of mine in the fighter community. He went to the vault and looked at the lot 20 EM diagrams (402 engine) and compared them to the F-16CM block 50 F-16 with the engines we have in game -- his findings were pretty cool. He couldn't tell me numbers, to keep it at an unclassed level, but he said the difference was pylons. With pylons on the wing, the hornet will be out-rated by a clean viper. With pylons on the Viper and a clean hornet, the Hornet will out-rate the viper. Both Clean wing, and they are virtually the same with a slight advantage to the F-16. The caveat here is that the lot 20 is still G limited to 7.5Gs -- so it's engine and airframe are just generating that higher turn rate at a much slower speed -- I think around 380-ish. If the hornet gets above 400, it begins to arc, because it can't tighten down more than 7.5Gs, and the turn circle just gets really really big. This friend also told me that the hornet is playing from a very different set of rules than the F-16, and the F-16 employment manuals don't actually cover how to combat the hornet trickery. The USAF is all about aligning turn circles to kill, and you can do that pretty well against non-high-AOA fighters. But a high AOA fighter (and the navy in general) strive to have misaligned turn circles both offensive and defensively -- which allows them to change the plane of motion in ways that the opponent can't follow without overshooting. This is the classic hornet ditch -- but that ditch needs to be executed when there are misaligned turn circles, and the cue for that is seeing aspect angle out of synch with angle off nose or tail. I think this is stuff that's a bit over the nugget of most DCS players, and if they are operating from IFF manuals or the korean 3-3 viper manual -- it's just not covered in there. A lot of people's complains with flight models in BFM probably stem from this. Anyway -- bottom line is that the big engine hornet can in fact rate as well as a clean viper, but 99-100% of the time the navy is leaving 4 pylons on the hornet, where the viper maybe has 2 -- and so the advantage goes to the viper in BFM. Clean vs clean, and we just have a very small advantage in the F-16. Cheers

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/317348-pulling-too-much-aoa-during-dogfight/?do=findComment&comment=5145932

Thanks, fellas! I went with the ACE Interceptors. TM way too expensive for me and I wasn't a fan of the 3D printed combat pedals on the MFGs. All the reviews on YT of the Virpil's look really positive and solid. They were on 'backorder,' so we'll see about wait time. Thanks.

Hey, All... My trusty Saitek Combat Pro pedals are finally starting to give out after 10 faithful years of service. I'm starting to look at replacement options. Anyone with the Virpil ACE Interceptors want to chime in on how they like (dislike) them? I'm not going to pay $600 for the TM TPR's. I'm a fast-jet and occasional Mustang DCS'er, so no need for Chopper stuff. Additionally, the US website shows them on backorder...so not sure about turnaround time for them as I've never purchased anything from Virpil. Any insight will be appreciated. null

I think this is a very underestimated reality in the real world, and you're correct. There are a fair number of YT videos of real world Vipers (HUD tape footage) performing BFM... you will find very few (I've never found one myself) where the max G exceeds 7g or the airspeed exceed 350 kts. Here's one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOa9eWgFllE. Another example from Defensive BFM with telemetry data: https://youtu.be/nEOnP7zpcXs?t=199. Neither pilot breaks 7g in either engagement. Obviously loadout/FLCS CAS mode will have an effect on all this.

You're getting turbulent air from its wing vortices...and perhaps you got gunned once by him and then, under G/wake turbulence, your damaged wings snapped off. Tracks? Additionally, don't use the Paddle switch/G-Limiter O-ride switch when flying if you were. It'll develop bad/unrealistic BFM habits and the Hornet airframe isn't meant to take that kind of over-G-beating.

Baltic Dragon's Raven One campaigns have some nice, long, realistic flights built in that might satisfy...then there are some extremely stressful moments mixed in, too.

One never knows what will actually happen with Gov't spending, but at least 10 of those USMC Hornet's may get the APG-79 AESA radar upgrades. It's been successfully tested at least. Man, if that actually happened and made it all the way into DCS! The maneuverability, speed, and looks of the Charlie with the Radar of the Rhino! https://www.naval-technology.com/news/raytheon-tests-apg-79v4-asea-radar-on-usmc-f-a-18-hornet/

For sure, my pleasure. Baltic's Raven campaigns really do put the Hornet through its paces! They're excellent campaigns. It seems that there are a good many F-15C and E guys in particular who sing the praises of the Hornet when it comes to the in-close knife fight. Look up a dozen real world Viper BFM HUD tapes and you'll see that they are fighting between 200 and 400kts most of the time, and under 7.5 g's. (In this example, the Viper doesn't exceed 300kts in a minute and a half of BFM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOa9eWgFllEI) Wombat said it well in one of the Vids I linked: "I'll let the Viper have it's 9g's all day long." The Hornet keeps a slightly slower but smaller circle while the 9G guy wears out as he rates around... which is probably why the Viper, Eagle, Hornet, etc. guys are not BFM'ing at 9G's and 450kts much of the time in the real world vids I've seen. (The dudes doing 60+ seconds of 9g in the centrifuge aren't doing anything else). I think the Hornet received A LOT of flak when the Navy brought it alongside the Tomcat, which they let age-out. Tomcat guys hated on it... then USAF hated on it because its distant Step-Father (the Northrop YF-17 Cobra) was seen as a 'loser' because of coming in second in the LWF competition. Add in a slower top speed (even though it out-accelerated F-15's up to certain numbers), and the popular (negative) perception is complete. The Hornet was kind of the F-35 of the 80s in many ways. And the "Fuel Problem" was mostly only when in comparison to the Tomcat, Intruder, and A-7... the Hornet actually manages fuel quite nicely as said in one of the Vids, but they are weaker compared to the Tomcat, Intruder or Mudhen in that regard (It's just a smaller, sleeker airframe). Anyway, not trying to make the Hornet out to be better than it is (it certainly has weaknesses [read: "Too Slow"], as do all jets barring the F-22 ), but trying to argue that it is falsely underrated and every bit an equal to all the other 4th gen fighters, with its own strengths and weaknesses.

Agreed.

The Legacy Hornet seems to be THE most underrated 4th Gen fighter out there. If you're interested, I started a thread with links to real Eagle, Strike Eagle, Tomcat, Hornet and Viper drivers praising the performance capabilities of the Legacy Hornet.

Because the real one can:

ALL of our 4th Gen Legacy fighters are amazing platforms, and we are being treated to the Golden Age of mil flight sim by ED right now. However... Almost weekly, I'll come across some YT video of a DCS PvP BFM fight, a real world Hornet driver praising the jet, real world non-Hornet driver praising the jet, etc...when, invariably, someone in the comment section (or in the ole' forums) will say something like the following under an interview with former F-14D Tomcat & F/A-18A Hornet Pilot Mike Vizcarra (below): and other general slams such as: "The Hornet is a lame duck" "The Tomcat is superior in BFM" "The Viper is superior in every way, especially in BFM" "The Eagle is superior in BFM" "The DCS Hornet is overpowered because I lost to it in BFM" etc. etc. It seems to me that the Legacy Hornet (especially the big-engine Charlie) is one of the most misunderstood, underrated dogfighters in the world. For those who are interested, I thought I'd drop you a bunch of (mostly) time-stamped links to various real world F-15C, F-15E, F-14A/D, F-16C T-bird, and Legacy Hornet crew praising the Legacy Charlie and its WVR performance, and busting some other coffee-table-book-myths about the Legacy Hornet. One thing to note: ALL of the men here have plenty of DACT experience against every 4th Gen USAF/Navy fighters (which of course many of them talk about if you want to watch the whole video). Finally, HUGE shout outs to Mike and Steve at AC Interview and 10 Percent True! If you don't subscribe to either of these guys' online content, you are missing out BIG TIME. Enjoy... Praise for WVR-BFM Performance https://youtu.be/a-gPWlODKCY?si=YHlnvhcH-ZK_g0Ik&t=4642 https://youtu.be/Vz7B_QfF_hw?t=224 https://youtu.be/w877J-B6IXU?t=975 https://youtu.be/APAEykrfUZs?t=1515 https://youtu.be/yDMVhAh7nOQ?t=162 https://youtu.be/yDMVhAh7nOQ?t=401 https://youtu.be/eD9s0Eb6c7U?t=3432 https://youtu.be/y-a-CL8ClX8?t=9 Praise for the Apg-73 from a Mudhen WSO https://youtu.be/eD9s0Eb6c7U?t=3481 https://youtu.be/Q_n78CvQrRY?t=1017

Any progress here on a faster TDC?

Hey, Bloodhound. Probably sold long ago, but I'm in the market for a Warthog stick to go for a base that I currently already own. Are these still available, and if so, would you be willing to sell one only? I live in Kansas.

I agree 100%!