Pocket Sized

The lights are very useful, they act in a similar way to the Kc-135 position lights. They are based on the position and rate of movement of the drogue fore and aft. If you are drifting back the right light will flash, once you get near the aft limit it will turn on solid. Left light does the same thing if you are drifting forward. The lights don't tell you anything until you make contact... one glaring inaccuracy of the 135 is IRL the lights are based on boom position and don't help you during pre contact (as far as I'm aware)

The.rolling looks similar to what we have in the Sim during departed flight but not as violent. LN was definitely on the right track when they added the roll departures.

I fly with an X-55 and no curves or extension. Mainly because I can't stand the loss of precision when maneuvering hard like, you know, gunning somebody down... I can air refuel and fly form just fine, so it's not impossible or anything. Just takes practice.

So you want to take the fishbed up to her top speed of Mach 2.1? I think it's something we've all attempted with varying degrees of success. When I first got the plane I tried many times but always arrived at my destination or burned nearly all my fuel before reaching cruising altitude/Mach. I figured out some key points recently and I'd like to share them with you guys. 1. Never exceed 1250km/h indicated or Mach 2.1 indicated, whichever is slower (will depend on altitude) The Mach limit is VERY important once at altitude. If either is exceeded the engine will flame out and can't be restarted until descending below 10km and Mach 1. Due to the amount of fuel it takes to get back up to speed, a flameout pretty much scrubs the rest of the flight. 2. The aircraft's acceleration is very poor in the low supersonic range (1.2-1.5) but very good in the high subsonic range. This was the realization that led to me developing the climb profile I describe The climb profile: The name of the game is to stay subsonic until about 10-12km (using pitch to control speed while throttle stays at full mil or afterburner), then level off and accelerate to nearly Mach 2. Then, slowly climb to cruising altitude or as required to stay below the IAS limit. 15km seems to be a good altitude, but I'm sure it can be taken higher. If the engine is left at full burner at cruising altitude, you WILL exceed the Mach limit and kill it. Easiest way to manage throttle is by watching EGT. A clean airframe will stay at Mach 2 with an EGT of 700 degrees. Finally, a video in which I demonstrate a flight from Nalchik to Kobuleti. Clean airframe, full internal fuel, and emergency burner used for the initial climb until it disengaged itself at 3km. It still amazes me how quickly this plane gets going! (Might still be uploading) I sorta rushed this post, so let me know if there's anything that needs clarification.

Guys, beware this isn't going to be a full module. Probably an SFM using one of the existing FC3 cockpits.

I love necros...

I remember before I got into DCS, I saw the graphics in another sim and thought "Wow! That's amazing they'd include such a high quality cockpit in a default aircraft!" Looking back on that very cockpit all I can think is "literal potato." Also, I used to read through documentation on aircraft, see some really weird quirk that would be fun to play with, then sigh because I know no reasonably priced simulator would offer such insane attention to detail. That never happens in DCS. For instance, at full mil power the F-5 will open its engine nozzle as needed to keep EGT within limits. You can see this clearly in the sim if you look closely at the engine instruments. It's amazing how there's never a detail too small, too unimportant to be included in the sim. Not to mention the massive competitive aspect to it, which keeps things from getting dull. No matter how much I complain and whine about bugs, release dates, and getting shot down while ground pounding, you can be absolutely certain I'm not leaving for a very, very long time. (and I'm sure many people are in the same boat)

IRL those ribbons are used for coordination in forward flight, much like the slip/skid ball. In a hover, wind from the rotors would probably drown out any lateral movement of the ribbon sadly.

I saw somebody posted the (translated) story waaaay earlier in the thread, it started a huge argument because it implied the Viggen could do a split S in 500m if I remember correctly.

Pretty sure I'm not the only one who would love to see what the F10 map looks like zoomed out with all the airfields. :music_whistling:

Hornet has been pushed to 2017 until further notice, sadly. The Viggen MIGHT be out this year, there's an upcoming livestream that will likely give more info. Viggen will include a custom ground mapping radar made by leatherneck.

Y'all remember the story of a Viggen doing recon who baited a fighter into a split S and got a maneuver kill? Well, last night I was inspired by this in the F-5. There was a fishbed who had just taken off on my tail so I knew he was heavy. I couldn't shake him and I saw tracers going past my canopy. I realized I was low and fast so I pulled up and rolled inverted at about 4000 feet. I pulled like mad and watched with glee as he slipped outside my turn and ejected about 50 feet over the water. I silently thanked the wonderful people in this thread and returned to base. (The fishbed pilot said something in Russian in the chat then disconnected shortly after)

Nobody is saying the AIM-54 should be nerfed. Read the OP of this thread please. Thank you for your time.

There are two red levers under the throttle quadrant that will jettison the tanks when clicked.

I just realized: 1. The stream is going to be on a Monday 2. The stream is at 1:00 PM local time, so I won't be able to watch it until 2 hrs after it ends 3. Leatherneck is known to be THE biggest troll in the DCS community so there's no chance this was accidental 4. I am cri

Can't do gun runs in an AC-130... or cruise at 300 knots... or drop PGM's... or gun down a fighter that accidentally gets low and slow with you... etc Don't get me wrong though, I'd absolutely love to fly something that has some real mass to it, the Hercules seems like a good choice.

I'm really curious as to what could be causing the tire blowouts for some people. I've taken off as I usually do in the F-5, Su-27, and MiG-21 since the update, which means pulling full aft stick shortly before predicted nose wheel liftoff speed, then holding the nose at a certain angle until the mains unstick. In the F-15 you should pull half stick at 130 kts then hold the W between the 10 and 15 degree lines. It's what they do IRL, and it works damn well in the sim. I often see people with the nose still down while accelerating through 200 knots, which may not blow the tires but they sure won't be happy.

Worth mentioning that ED has long stated it will not be adding or accepting any more simplified aircraft into DCS. I see no reason to think that is no longer true. Back to our regularly scheduled roadmap, free of discussion.

That would explain a lot. I spend a vast majority of my time in the fishbed on the aerobatics server so I rarely fly with gun ammo loaded. Had no idea it was off center.

This weekend I put another glider flight in my log book, and it was extremely fun. On the way up I was told to box the wake, which is where you skirt around the perimeter of the wake turbulence behind the tow plane. Very good way of learning to use your feet during the tow. After a few currency maneuvers to give the instructor an idea of how much I've remembered we began the spins. He would pull the glider into a climbing turn while adding rudder into the turn and pulling the stick into the corner. A wing would drop and the nose would soon follow. After a turn or two he took his hands off and said "Your glider, recover!" A stomp on the pedals and a dive recovery later we were level again. (Shamelessly going to admit spinning aircraft in DCS helped a TON with recognising and predicting what the plane was doing) I wish I had more time to write this now, but I was wondering if anyone had fun/interesting/scary stories about their first time spinning an airplane (intentional or not).

I've noticed the slow right roll to be present in nearly all flight regimes, it's just more noticeable in some conditions. But yes, the roll reversals are obviously exaggerated sometimes. I'll have to get around to making a quick video on it at some point.

I was under the impression the F-15 autopilot has been totally INOP for years lol

Also JDAMs produce at least an order of magnitude too much drag, they should easily hit targets near or past Mach when dropped from high altitude but for some reason they like to SLOW DOWN to under 300 kts.

I like the FM, it matches some of the reports I've heard about the fishbed's unhappiness at high AoA. Particularly how she "violently departs" if there's sideslip in certain conditions. If you carefully load the aircraft and keep it straight it will stall just like before. If you don't stop the roll before pulling things get nasty, quickly. Manipulate one axis at a time.

Pitot heat on? If at high altitude with it off the AoA probe freezes and stall warnings sound constantly or become INOP.