Istari6

Found an answer in this topic here:

Bullseye data is shown on the HUD in the lower left. You have to visualize in you head your position vs the Bullseye calls, but I was able to use that data to fly in the right general direction to find the ships. Really liked using this functionality in the mission - hadn't used it previously, felt realistic. Ah, that's great. I was wondering how Harrier pilots did this, if they were doing math in their head all the time trying to convert decimal to traditional Lat/Long. Seems that it would be a recipe for errors, particularly in sensitive CAS operations.

I had the same happen to me. The CH-53 landed successfully on the OHP and shut down the rotor. But still stuck at 50% on the mission, even after I circled for awhile until I was low on fuel. I ended up editing my Campaign file to give 100% and proceeded to the next mission.

Bumpity bump. Any tips from other Harrier pilots on converting Lat/Long decimal coordinates in briefings or ATHS into something that can be input into the Harrier's system?

I'm with you. Even with airframes that I'm comfortable with, I like an intro phase to get to know the story, local environs, etc. These aren't necessarily the same thing. I agree that a campaign that eases you into the story and theater is welcome. For example, I love campaigns that offer a starting mission where you're the new pilot in the operational theater, so you're doing a check flight first to understand the front line, local nav points, etc. That's great, but it's different from a campaign that is easing you into the aircraft itself, starting with easy milk runs and then adding difficulty later on the assumption you're learning the plane along the way. Hormuz Freedom feels much more like a real pilot in a real war, where you need to be proficient in the aircraft right from the beginning, then deal with the changing situation and missions as the war proceeds.

You have to know the Harrier coming into this campaign. It's not going to teach you the Harrier the way an included campaign might. I'm flying this after flying the Ottoman Courier Prologue and Sky Warrior campaigns, so pretty comfortable with the Harrier's procedures. But I personally like the way the campaign starts off with a crisis situation in Mission 01 and escalates into a realistic war from there.

Yes, definitely buy it. I'm on the final mission of Hormuz Freedom, and it's been a great campaign. It has a few rough edges (formatting, misspellings, some radio frequencies are inconsistent across briefings/kneeboard, etc), all consistent with a 1.0 release. But the overall experience has been one of the best campaigns I've flown yet. You really get the feel of the US Navy "kicking in the door" to the Straits of the Hormuz, dealing with setbacks and having some very creative operations.

Yeah, I can only imagine the challenges of keeping these complex scripts up-to-date as DCS changes and grows. The "Knock it off" sounds good. I have some other thoughts on the campaign, will post to this forum with spoiler tags.

SorelRo, Again, I'm really enjoying the campaign. You've created some memorable moments, some of the best experiences I've had in 5 years of flying DCS. But there area a number of small errors and points of confusion where the campaign would benefit from one more "final pass" to clean up inconsistencies or link voice messages to positions of units on the ground. For example, during the mission where blue forces are taking an island (trying to avoid spoilers), the voice actor is telling me repeatedly "do NOT bomb EAST of the runway." I wasn't using labels, so using the TPOD, I spot infantry moving west of the runway and proceed to drop Rockeyes on them. I check the mission score as I pull off and see that I've committed fratricide (!). I turn on labels and see that - whoops - all the blues are WEST of the runway, the remaining enemies are EAST of the runway. Exactly the opposite of what the radio told me. These kinds of errors are hopefully easy to fix with one last pass through the missions, but it can throw off the player and lead to some frustration. Particularly for those of us who like to fly without labels to mimic real-world operations, using the TPOD and ATHS to determine friendly vs enemy, etc.

I'm now on Mission 12, really enjoying the campaign! There are some great moments ahead for you. However, I agree there are a number of typos and errors like this throughout the campaign. Nothing deal-breaking, but hopefully there will be one more pass through the missions here as it gets user feedback to clean up some of these errors. Just cross-check the briefing, kneeboards and on-screen popups. They're not always in synch with each other, but one of them will have the right frequency in my experience. It just may take a little trial-and-error to find which one is correct for a given mission.

Also, is there a way to automatically convert ATHS from JTAC into Targetpoints? I'm looking at Chuck's Guide, videos and the DCS AV-8B Manual, but I can't seem to find documentation on how to use coordinates sent by a JTAC in flight. I've trained on how to setup GPS ripple bombing by transferring waypoints from F10 map at mission start, but this kind of real-time CAS via ATHS is new and it's hard finding documentation.

I'm flying a mission about 1/3rd into the new Hormuz Freedom campaign. Just was shot down by unseen air defenses after flying almost 90 minutes and I'm so frustrated I could practically throw a joystick through the monitor. The mission (no spoilers) involves an assault on an Iranian-held island in the Persian Gulf. 1. I'm given three different DMPI coordinates in the briefing. I had no idea what DMPI is, but looked it up and it appears to be Desired Mean Point of Impact. So presumably those are targets. I try to create new Waypoints with these coordinates, but the UFC keeps rejecting them. It appears the coordinates are given in decimal points, (e.g. N255458.782) but the UFC needs those decimals to be converted to an equivalent in minutes and seconds? 2. During the mission, the JTAC sends me coordinates via ATHS. Once again, I'm getting Lat/Long in a decimal format, but I don't know how to convert this into a format I can use in my onboard systems. I even try to steer my TPOD around manually to the coordinates provided, I don't see any targets there when I use CCD or both FLIR modes, so I'm doing something wrong. I keep pressing closer and closer trying to spot targets using NAVFLIR because I can't seem to find anything from briefing or JTAC coordinates. Finally I press too close and get shot down. Are Harrier pilots really trying to convert Lat/Long coordinates from briefings and JTAC into different formats for inputing into the navigation system for targeting? Isn't that prone to error?

I think this bug still exists. In the new Hormuz Freedom campaign (Mission 04), I tried multiple times to refuel with the KC-135. I saw my probe going through the basket each time and never connecting to the fuel hose. Can anyone else confirm you're having problems? This is with latest OB version dropped today (April 6).

SorelRo, I literally had the exact same experience tonight. Ordered my Wingmen to Attack Primary and Rejoin several times. Yet even after those orders (and acknowledgement), and working over the site thoroughly myself (11-12 ground kills), I still received a Draw (50). As a player, I don't know I could do much more, and I gave the AI directions I thought would work. Perhaps adjust the victory conditions so 80% or so gives victory to the player? But beyond this, agree that the new campaign is fantastic! There are a number of small spelling mistakes in the briefings, but the feel of being part of the USN & USMC "kicking in the door" to the Persian Gulf against a dangerous opponent... excellent :).

Yes, that's the one.

I wrote this in another thread. Hopefully loading this file will help. "BD, Just completed Ottoman Courier (Prologue) and outstanding work! Can't wait for the full campaign and I'll be there with the "take my money" meme in my posts. However, I did have a problem with M05 here in March 2022 using the stock Ottoman Courier campaign. The call to go to Batumi Tower and hit Space comes up, but then almost immediately we get a call to switch to Proud Eagle and hit Space. I had to restart this three times before I gave up and went searching in the forums. I found a thread from last year where you posted an updated file. I downloaded that and it worked to complete the campaign, but it was clearly missing some elements (no Hinds flying past, much less sense of urgency). Sounds like this mission keep breaking with recent releases and I'm sure that's a PITA. But hopefully this feedback can help you tweak it again for newbies hitting Ottoman Courier for the first time. Its a great experience, shame to have a hiccup on the finale. "

Just completed Mission 4. Let me offer a few thoughts at the ~1/3rd point through the campaign. First, thanks to Eagle86 for the amount of work that must have gone into the planning of these missions. In particular, there's a huge amount of scripting for the mission and control over wingman. As a bonus, nice use of the F10 menu to offer the player options like checking status of tasks and controlling Music ON/OFF. Having only flown campaigns from Reflected Simulations, Bunyap and BalticDragon, my first few missions in Sky Warrior were quite a transition. While the other three campaign creators all focus on realism with varying areas of emphasis, this campaign feels far more like an adventure story or an action movie. My individual Harrier flight is expected to destroy multiple buildings, air defenses, armored vehicles and often air vehicles, at different waypoints, all in the same mission. We're always "loaded for bear" with 6 x GBU-12, 2 x AIM-9M, 2 x AGM-65F, TPOD and GAU-12 so we can deal with whatever comes up. The missions are often under tight time schedules and push you right to the edge of fuel endurance. It took me a few missions to "get my head" around this very different style of campaign, but I'm really beginning to enjoy myself. Sky Warrior really tests your knowledge of the Harrier's systems - you have to know how to make quick decisions and be able to switch rapidly among different kinds of aerial tasks. As an example (minor spoiler) - in one mission, an enemy helicopter appears right near your ground troops and their helicopter. I was orbiting overhead monitoring via TPOD, and swooped in quickly, selecting Boresight Sidewinder mode so I coul precisely target the enemy helo and not my friendly helo right nearby. So if you're looking for a tense, entertaining test of your Harrier skills, wrapped in a fast-paced techno-thriller style of story, Sky Warrior is for you. Just don't expect a highly realistic simulation of NATO doctrine and standard tactics, techniques and procedures, and you can have a good time. Thanks again to Eagle86 for offering us additional content for one of my favorite aircraft.

Looking forward to it! More quality campaigns for the Harrier is a Good Thing™.

BD, Just completed Ottoman Courier (Prologue) and outstanding work! Can't wait for the full campaign and I'll be there with the "take my money" meme in my posts. However, I did have a problem with M05 here in March 2022 using the stock Ottoman Courier campaign. The call to go to Batumi Tower and hit Space comes up, but then almost immediately we get a call to switch to Proud Eagle and hit Space. I had to restart this three times before I gave up and went searching in the forums. I found a thread from last year where you posted an updated file. I downloaded that and it worked to complete the campaign, but it was clearly missing some elements (no Hinds flying past, much less sense of urgency). Sounds like this mission keep breaking with recent releases and I'm sure that's a PITA. But hopefully this feedback can help you tweak it again for newbies hitting Ottoman Courier for the first time. Its a great experience, shame to have a hiccup on the finale.

I've just completed the campaign and came here to praise BalticDragon for a phenomenal experience. That's next :). But I was surprised to see this comment because I had exactly the same experience. Pickled on AUTO exactly on target, VVM right on the ASL, and my Mk 82s sailed long and hit 50 ft+ beyond the target. Can't explain it, as I've never had this happen in my own training flights with AUTO drops with dumb bombs. Weird. Same!!! Just completed the 5 mission Prologue, and I was blown away, particularly by missions 4 and 5. I think this is my first BalticDragon campaign, and now I understand why I hear such great things about his work. Makes me want to pick up the Mirage 2000 and learn it just to experience the included campaign :). Thanks for the great work in these missions. #04 was one of the best campaign missions I've ever had in 5 years of flying DCS. Will definitely pay good money for the full Ottoman Courier campaign if BD completes it in the future.

Yes TY for these replies. Exactly what I was looking for. Good to know there's an automatic shutoff if I forget to safe the laser, and that the total cumulative time should be sufficient for all SP campaigns.

AV-8B is the first DCS aircraft I've flown with laser-guided weaponry. I've heard that laser designation beams are very powerful, but can overheat. That's why tactical pilots only turn on the laser designator after releasing the bomb, to minimize the risk of burning out the laser from sustained use. Does anyone know what the (rough) time limits are for the LITENING G4 used on the Harrier? Do I need to be very careful about waiting to designate until after bomb release and before impact, or is it safe to designate while running in, so one less thing to worry about during final bomb drop? I've done a search and found a thread here that talked about the real-world LANTIRN pod having a 3 min limit, but can't find information on the LITENING G4.

Baltic Dragon, A big thanks for this mission! My friend and I are learning the Harrier, and this mission has become our perfect "Advanced Training" test before we tackle campaigns. We've now flown it multiple times, and we're loving the FARP-based turnarounds, the tenseness of defending the Georgians, and the variety of tactical challenges under real time pressure. Probably the best single mission I've played in over 5 years of DCS.

Just flew River Defense (Single Mission) for the first time. What a great mission! Feels very realistic, yet with interesting challenges and surprises along the nearly two hours it took for the friendly reinforcements to reach the defenders. Question about the MQ-1A Predator: this is my first time working with a UAV in DCS, and I'm not sure what to expect. The Predator arrived over the battlefield and I received the message to contact on 133.00 AM. I did so and called in "Check In + 15 min", heard Wags voice calling my stores, altitude etc. No response from the Predator. I confirmed I had radio on TR+G, and tried 133.00 from both COM 1 and COM 2 separately. Still no response. Is anyone else able to get a response from the Predator JTAC?

Remember that most pilot memoirs discussing the P-47 Thunderbolt covered aerial combat at high altitudes (6000m+). What we need is how did the P-47 perform at high altitudes and high speeds, compared to Bf 109s and Fw 190s? The Spitfire is NOT a good rolling airplane once you get to higher speeds.