nicka117

My dad has 400 carrier landings and he says that day traps in good weather are no problem and quite fun. Not true about bad weather, and especially at night. No one sat around the bar and suggested going out to get some extra night traps. he has flown my sim (DCS and FSX Super Hornet w/ Nimitz and VLSO) and siad the sim is harder than real life because you have no seat-of-the pants feel. If you don't have a hyper sensitive HUD scan, you can lose 50 feet altitude in the pattern without even knowing it. That would greatly hamper a proper pass behind the boat when you are going from the 180 through the 90. You roll out behind the boat way below glideslope and your pass is toast. But, in the sim, you can still recover and grab a wire and survive. But, you can't then say, wow, that wasn't that hard. Well, in real life, they wouldn't even have allowed you to continue the pass because of how unsafe it was. So, if you are using VLSO in FSX, to fly a really good pass, where you are hitting all the windows and then fly a centered ball all the way down, making perfect centerline corrections, well, that is really, really hard. Most guys will get aboard in DCS with the F-18 and think they are doing right but would have had their wings yanked in the Navy for being horribly unsafe.

I got to go out and stay on a carrier (USS Reagan) for a couple days. Got a trap in the Greyhound and a cat shot. Got to watch all the flight ops up close, it was very cool.

....but have you ejected yet...that is a real trip.

I could explain the stereoscopic 3D and the 1:1 scale, etc, but its easier to just say this: You will feel like you are actually in a real plane flying.

My dad used to tell me about a pop up roll ahead that he used to do in the a-7 when they went to Fallon. He would be on the deck and then pull up and then roll inverted and pull through, tracking the target upside down. Then you would roll out to release the bombs. He aborted the first one when he saw the ground rushing up at him. Said they were a blast once you got the hang of it.

I just hope the dcs hornet flys around the boat such that the sim rewards the proper technique. Its really hard to bring the nose up when your fast but high, and visa versa when your slow but low. Just relying on the trombone movements with the left hand for glideslope is really counterintuitive. But if dcs bites when you do it wrong that would be great.

My dad has carrier landings in a bunch of different types and he has always said doughnut and centerline with the stick and meatball with the throttle.

Yeah my Dad said the burble was the worst when trapping on the enterprise because of the size of the island. He also talks about how day traps in good weather are fun but not night traps in the A-3. The A-3 was tough to get aboard generally because it was so big and he would get asymmetrical trust on the engines. They are pretty far apart on the wings so it would induce unwanted yaw to the other considerations. You had to get a really good start on that jet and be really smooth. When he transitioned to A-7's, the LSO said he was trying to be too smooth. He could make more aggressive adjustments that you wouldn't get away with on the A-3. The F-4 was something all together different again but he said it was easier because of all the instantaneous power available. It was like the meatball was attached directly to the throttle. You didn't notice as much of a lag as the engines spooled up.

Having done it for real, what are your concerns about how the carrier ops should be modeled with DCS? What is important to get right in the simulation so that its is an adequate representation of what its like to try to get the hornet back aboard the boat? I know we aren't supposed to compare other sims, but as a point of reference, with the FSXBA and the nimitz (and maybe VLSO), is that a good representation, or too hard...or too easy...and can DCS make it better? My dad has 400 traps in A-3's, A-7's, A-4's and F-4's. He says the visuals look right in FSX with the nimitz but it's hard to fly a good pass without the seat-of-pants sensations. He tried out my oculus with the F-15 in DCS and said VR made it much better.

Agreed, with or without gamma slider, there is no way to make the night flying look even remotely correct in VR.

If I had to guess, I would think F-18 early access with most systems functioning maybe just before Christmas, and Strait of Hormuz and Carrier by Q2 of next year. I'd be happy with that. And if I could get my hands on a second gen VR set by Q2, then I'd be in heaven. Hi-def VR carrier ops with the Hornet? Wow. You probably need a little better res with VR to fly an accurately scaled meatball--too much model enlargement wouldn't be great.

Well, if you want to do carrier ops, you should have to pay for the module--MP or not. We have to keep these guys funded so they can keep making cool stuff for us. Certainly not a full sim of a carrier, that would be ridiculous. But, it does need to be a reasonably accurate simulation of carrier flight ops, case 1 , case 3, etc, moving carrier, pitching deck based on weather settings and properly functioning IFOLS, steam catapults. An accurately modeled LSO with landing grades would be nice. If we got some extra eye candy with animated deck crew w/ triggers, that would be really cool, but maybe too much to ask.

Very cool, I didn't think we would get to see any carrier stuff. I thought carrier ops would come quite a bit later than early access on the F-18. Figured they'd bring the carriers in with Strait of Hormuz. I would imagine there's still a lot of work left to be done on the air-to-ground radar.

Absolutely do not do it. It's like getting hooked on drugs. My wife said she lost her husband to the RIFT (she's "mostly" joking...).

Before VR, you knew you weren't flying--somewhat going through the motions. There was never any confusion about the fact that you were sitting in your living room. With VR, you have access to the actual joy of flying. The fact that "most" guys that have tried it will tell you that the hi-def 2d screen has been ruined for them--even with the poor resolution of VR--should tell you something. Typically, most guys will just hop in their buggy and get it airborne as soon as possible so they can get to the furball. Now, you actually enjoy the run up, taxi and take-off just for their own sake. Once foveated rendering makes even a little higher res possible with current hardware, it will be absolutely party over.

Don't forget to take it up to altitude and bail out just for the fun of it.

yep, set up your oculus re-center button and then also map your cockpit camera up, down, forward, back buttons so you can position your head exactly right.

....or something went way right and you got lost in the rift. Also hope you hit high baby draws this morning.

Trigen, you should set the up, down, back, forward cockpit camera buttons on your hotas so that you can adjust head position. I like to set the position so my body is in the exact same position as the pilot's body.

Have you guys ejected yet? Wow, that was really a trip. My heart dropped to my stomach as I looked down from 20 thousand feet with nothing around me.

My dad has 400 carrier landings in A3s, A4s, A7s and F4s and he has tried out my flight simulators but was never really taken with them. He didn't like having no seat of the pants feel. He liked my racing simulators better. And then I got the rift. I put him in the F15 and he flew a low level over Vegas. His quote: "That is a pure kick in the @ss!"