Pocket Sized

Nice!

typing with one hand

Oh, the humanity!

I'd really like to see the wing rock that people are talking about. Also, it's worth mentioning the aileron booster doesn't do much until at high speed, so turning it off won't make a big difference when landing.

In real life the pilots knew where the targets were before taking off. The ground mapping radar will be able to see large groups of targets or buildings, but that's it Don't be turned away just yet though. Some quick reading though the WIP manual and this thread will show you how unique and capable she can be ;)

Just so you know, the autopilot doesn't interfere with manual flying at all. It provides dampening to make her fly even better, in fact. You just turn it on and after that you don't need to touch it.

Control augmentation (F-15, Su-27, F-5, etc) ALTERS your inputs slightly to allow for more predictable flying qualities. Fly by wire REPLACES your inputs with control surface movements that generate the desired response. For example, at full back stick the mirage will deflect the elevons down a bit to keep the AoA below 30. Press right ctrl + enter if you want to see what the FBW is doing to your inputs. It's pretty amazing to watch.

Zero G will flameout the engine much faster than negative G due to the design of the feed tank IIRC. Watch for the fuel pressure warning light when doing anything that isn't positive G.

There's a system that does exactly that! It even has its own gauge below the nose cone position indicator. It changes the ratio between stick and elevator movement as airspeed increases. The gauge shows the current pitch ratio. Know your airplane, guys ;) It does start limiting max AoA below corner speed, which doesn't make sense. You end up not being able to produce max AoA OR G load at certain speeds.

Low aileron authority + slow aileron movement speed + lots of (too much?) roll inertia = wing rock on approach. I don't have too much trouble with this. It takes some practice but eventually you can get a feel for the roll response. Also, make sure you fly with full gun ammo. Without it there is a constant right rolling motion. Skip to 7:15 for the landing.

Also, does the HUD have any general purpose navigation modes in which it isn't slaved to a waypoint? I imagine most of us will be spending a lot of time flying without any particular flight plan. I probably need to re-read the HUD section of the manual.... Edit: It seems like the HUD slave switch would keep the pitch ladder from moving left or right, however the manual doesn't mention what this switch does outside of low altitude or landing modes.

Last night marks the second dream I've had in which the Viggen releases, and the fourth dream about the Viggen in general.

Never underestimate DCS systems modeling. I read the real F-5 manual and found the various functions of the engine fuel control fascinating. I remember thinking "too bad that's probably not modeled in game, you wouldn't even notice unless you knew what to look for..." Sure enough when I got in game the gauges all interacted exactly as described in the manual. For instance, the engine nozzles will adjust themselves to maintain a specific EGT at full military power. If you look really closely you can see that's exactly what happens. Little details like this never cease to amaze me.

"The DRM activation issues have costed us a tremendous amount of development time and will not be present on the Viggen" -From the AMA. I believe it was a mistake made when they were putting the MiG-21 in the starforce system.

I'm sure if the plane is lightly loaded (ie no stores and half fuel) it wouldn't need the water at all.

That's the pitch ratio changer, it keeps pitch response from being too sensitive at high speeds. It's not perfect though so at some speeds it will limit your turning radius. If this is realistic or not, I don't know.

I asked on the AMA and they said they're developing their own implementations of the seeker head behavior. Will be interesting to see how it compares to the A-10C.

2-33 The fact that it spins so well is pretty surprising, you really have to try to get so much as a wing drop during a stall.

There's a very box shaped bomb that would like to have a word with you

The best solution would be to save the actual position of every unit maybe once per 5 seconds? Or if you're clever about it you could save position depending on how quickly it's moving/accelerating. That way you'd still get the resolution of the current track system but errors that accumulate over time could be neutralized.

#unplayable

Does anyone know how much pitch trim is required throughout the airspeed envelope (minus transonic trim changes) on a scale of F-15 to Su-27?

Last I heard, the game engine still scratches its head at external countermeasure pods. The other stuff, ie Rb 05 attack modes, could be handled on kneeboard pages.

The hardest thing to grasp about the HUD is that, in most of the footage we've seen, the pitch ladder isn't slaved to the velocity vector but to the waypoint. Those vertical lines show if you're above/below the desired altitude for the current flight conditions/waypoint. I'm wondering what the HUD will look like whilst flying without a waypoint selected (AKA non-combat flying, what I do 99% of the time)

It was ahead of its time and has many unique/interesting capabilities, which in itself isn't that impressive. What's impressive (IMO) is that it worked despite being a very ambitious aircraft.