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neofightr

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Everything posted by neofightr

  1. Sorry that stuff is too sensitive to talk about.
  2. I won't go into detail on comms, partly because I barely remember them but mostly it's a sensitive topic. As rule of thumb, comms are short and to the point, you want to be minimal so as to keep the channel clear in case something new pops up. I am sure if you dig deep enough you might find something online. There were always somebody listening to the radios back in my day. You guessed right about the tension at the carrier. Night time landings were stressful due to less SA of your surroundings and the unpredictability when you got into the burble just before landings. Funny story about fitness, it is naturally important but one can go too far. For a while there, the marines couldn't figure out why some of their Hornet pilots were passing out when pulling Gs. It turns out some of these guys were working out just before doing their flights, that was a mistake because for a few hours after the workout your blood pressure is naturally lower and therefore less tollerant of G forces. The word got out quickly to work out after a flight not before it. To comment on visibity and spotting in DCS after some testing last night I can definitely say it's a challenge with labels turned off and no radar lock on aids. Maybe it's my 4k settings but it was a bear to spot and maintain vis on targets. Not big on reading modern day pilot personal accounts. It's just another bubba talking about his exploits for me. Now I am big on reading about WW1 and WW2 and the old school stories just so I could get a feeling what it was like in that world.
  3. Funny how we still do this in today's jets. More for fun than tactical application but what a blast!
  4. Check out this video, One of the slickest done by pilots that I have ever seen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3qut-5MeEM I have a lot more respect for the mirage since I just picked it up. I am so envious of these guys in the video, just look at who comes to the party. Hah, and we US flying bubbas think we have the most fun with our flying, pfft.
  5. I not big on multiplayer because I like to enjoy the action at my pace, and besides I would get smoked by you hardcore sim enthusiasts. God knows how many hours I would have to put in to get any good in these simulators nowadays. I didn't go through Top Gun, I worked there as part of the strike training staff. My favorite part of the strike training was doing low levels (500kts/500ft) they were quite a rush. Especially when doing a pop-up maneuver that shoots you to the moon (500ft to 14kft in less than 40 seconds). Those were the absolutely best hornet moments for me.
  6. My observations are based on flight sims in general vs. real life. I haven't messed around with the weather settings in DCS. In real life the atmosphere causes a lot of washout with regards to ground, haze and cloud backgrounds. The contrast variety of textures both in ground and clouds will obscure an aircraft very easily and at short ranges. Then there's that big old light in the sky causing all kinds of glare. But the single biggest factor is head position because in real flight your head is constantly in motion not only by the g forces but by the need to glance at gauges, radar screens and switches. HOTAS goes only so far. All this back and fourth makes it very easy to lose track of the target. Most of these factors are minimal in the sim arena with g-forces being absent and no realistic way of representing contrast washout that happens against ground and clouds. I understand that sims have their own handicaps with regards to spotting a target. One good example is VR. The resolution is so low that it's almost impossible to id anything outside of 2 miles maybe. I will need to investigate dcs more with regards to spotting in various weather patterns.
  7. Very astute observation, time will tell what happens.
  8. Remember the faster the jet design the relatively worse slow performance compared to the hornet. And no I would not be confident because each and every fight has a ton of variables with the biggest one being pilot skill. If I went against a pilot with hundreds of hours more time in his cockpit then chances are he is going to eat my lunch even with a f15 or 16. And remember this isn't realistic since odds are you are going against migs, Sus or chinese variants and that's a whole different world with regards to performance and skills that I won't get into. So the only sign really for level of competence is whether he loses sight of you before you do him. This can happen. I remember a few times where my sparring partner lost sight of me and I was able to get on his six. I honestly don't remember how many times that happened to me but I am sure it did. It's hard to believe this when you are in the sim world because we have padlock views and nifty text headers pointing out the adversary and clean clear skies with no background distractions.:smilewink:
  9. Great question, If you got into a gunfight after the merge before you used up your missiles and the opponent decided to turn tail and run because he now realized he was facing a hornet =) you would simply line up your missile shot and fired once he was back in the missile envelope again. But you had to make it quick because a fast mover might be able to get away in time. Obviously experienced pilots would never turn tail unless they never turned at the merge to begin with and had tons of airspeed. So once you commit you are in it till death do you part or a wingmen is free to assist because his opponent is dead or never engaged or lost sight etc. You only go into a dogfight if you think you have a chance otherwise you better hope you have the greater numbers or he runs out of gas before you do. And clearly a gunfight is the last option if you have missiles left but sometimes you have no choice because the missile params are not there. There are so many scenarios to consider but those are some basic ones.
  10. The big difference was around lot 20 (can't remember exactly), we had a pretty digital map to look at instead of the old plastic film moving maps on the center lower MFD. At the time, typically the Navy preferred to keep a squadron with a specific lot. So lot's 10s (which were the oldest) were all upgraded for a squadron at the same time. It was no fun for a pilot to deal with varying lots in a squadron with the exception of the training squadron which had a mix of all the lots.
  11. I agree, it just shrinks the F a little and increases the A I guess.
  12. My gut feeling is that this will affect AOA numbers and will hurt performance. But there's got to be a trade off somewhere. This could also be a contractor's desperate attempt at more money, time will tell.
  13. On the whole I think my posts puts this thread where it belongs, good move. And by the way I am determined to get ED to have sharks with laser beams firing off the F18 rails, that would be righteous but maybe too much drag for the ol' killer bee to handle.
  14. This is surprising to hear since the Rhino took over carrier tanking duties for the S3 when it retired years ago. I thought it had all the gas it would ever need. It's obviously a boon for CAP missions and such. Not sure what the trade-offs will be other than more wear and tear due to increased weight oh and a bigger fireball if it gets hit..
  15. I have truly seen it all. being lectured by an outsider on my craft and career, stunning simply stunning.:noexpression: You can throw all the video presentations you want at me, lecture me all you want but my thousands of hours in the tactical environment tells me you have no clue what you are talking about. I never said guns was the first priority and everyone who read this thread knows this. You talk as if I did not have extensive training and practice with the whole inventory that was available to the Hornet. I actually fired missiles in real life (both AG and AA) something of which only a small percentage of tactical pilots get the luxury of doing outside of combat of course. No form of technology has ever been 100% reliable, to train to such an assumption is folly. It is not how it's done in the real world and it will never be. *Anyone with an open mind understands and accepts this.* Just because I emphasize BFM doesn't mean I don't understand and appreciate BVR and have *extensive experience in it*. You assume you know as much as me because you think you have access to the same resources I do and did, and guess what you don't you never have and you never will. I think your primary desire is to shut down this thread and it might just work, keep it up.
  16. Here is a terrific historical video explaining the big picture of engagements and dogfighting that applies to the Hornet and all jet fighters now and back then. Produced in the era of Vietnam, you get a good idea what the Navy had learned from the gunless phantom and desired from the brand new tomcat. This is a Grumman promotional video so Tomcat lovers are going to really dig this video. Good stuff! Even more good stuff, I am a big historical buff so these promotional videos are intriguing and only enhance the immersion when playing with the DCS planes and of course the upcoming f18 module. Watch them both if you want the big picture on engagements and dogfighting amongst other topics.. And finally a more historical video of the F18 development. I am not a big fan of the more recent documentaries you find on tv because they tend to focus on people and not the craft themselves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5jE6E5_Y3k
  17. 1: on a clear day it's possible to spot an aircraft 10-12 miles away but they have to be showing max plan form (i.e. their top down angle to you). It also depends on the plane, much easier to spot an F14 or 15 than a 16 or 18. This is why the F5 is an ideal adversary fighter since it mimics the small profile of the migs that were commonly used out there. It is very easy to lose sight during a hard turn when glancing down for that split second to mark your speed etc then looking up and wondering where did he go he was just there. It's even easier to lose that tiny speck at 9 miles, you cannot take your eyes off him or you will lose him guaranteed every time. 2. You do anticipate incoming ball movement based on seat of the pants (the feeling of rising or falling gives you the heads up that the meatball is about to move accordingly and you better be ready to catch it with power adjustment. The stick movement you see is pilots keeping that AOA fixed. 3. Betty wasn't that bad really. The occasional "altitude" w/ alert tone when you were in a dive for a bombing run but that's about it. Almost all modern planes (to include trainers) have buffeting designed into the wings to alert the pilot that the plane is about to stall. Some aircraft like the trainer t34c had a neat sound it made that sounded like the pouring of sand against a hard surface as you got closer to stall. This was needed for slower craft because there wasn't enough airflow to generate the buffet warning you find typically in jets. To me after flying enough civilian sims is the altitude call outs that airliners have now that's annoying but if you train with it you get use to it.
  18. I won't discuss specific numbers just generalizations. I didn't have a lot of flying against the F14. Typically squadrons didn't do much cross bfm. So the few times I did I believe it was against the B. My understanding with the conversations I had with the crews was the A with the original engines were severely underpowered. This was rectified with the engine upgrades. Back in my day there were not many D squadrons around. I remember the F14 holding its own against me in the few engagements I had, we basically remained at a stalemate through most of the turning eventually someone flinched and the other got the upper hand. But basically that was attributed to pilot skill and not the aircraft. In basic terms to win a dogfight you need be able to maintain a threat with the nose at all times in other words denying your opponent any advantage in angles. If both players are consistently doing this then the turn circle turns into a scissor fight as the pilots jockey to get behind the other. When different aircraft have similar performance numbers then it will always boil down to which pilot is better at maintaining optimum speed and AOA numbers through the entire engagement because by doing so you are maximizing what the plane can do and eventually you will control the fight and get the edge. So my point is not to get hung up on the numbers between a/c but focus on the numbers of your aircraft as to always strive to maintain them. Because really it's a toss-up between all the last gen fighters when you factor in pilot skill and error.
  19. Let's just hope they talked behind the scenes and something good came out of it.
  20. Normally some of the details I've been sharing especially about ball flying would not interest the general fan of aviation or simply go over their heads but I know for most of you hard core sim fans this all makes sense. I remember my light bulb coming on fairly quickly in flight school thanks to my extensive time in flight sims. Ironically most real world mil pilots don't care for flight sims after they have done the real thing because the sims are simply no match to the real thing but I still reveled in it and went to the F18 simulator whenever I could and practiced everything from landings to fighting the AI. Even though it was crude especially by today's standards it will still a fun learning experience because you could experiment with what ifs and etc that you couldn't do in the real plane. I knew my fellow pilots were not into sims because it was always a ghost town when the scheduled mandatory training events were not happening at the sim building.
  21. Ah yes autothrottle, it's been so long I barely remember the termiinology but there were basically three options for the pilot coming back to the ship. Full auto, partial auto and manual. In full auto you were hands off and let the plane fly all the way to the deck. This almost killed my CO and from then on no one was allowed to use full auto for the rest of the cruise. I assume the sytem has been dramatically updated with software updates and the new super-hornets but back in my day....etc. In partial-auto you controlled the stick and the plane has the throttle, I, like most pilots never liked this mode because it was counter to what we were taught because you were using the stick to influence the glideslope since the computers were not trying maintain glideslope just maintaining on speed. This was a bad crutch to lean on because over time it degraded your skills in flying the ball. This is why I stayed away from this mode like the plague. The only ones that like this mode, typically were poor ball flyers, surprise surprise. This is also why you had to clearly call out this mode to the LSO on approach so that he knew you would be using the stick for glideslope input which changes the LSOs sight picture. Typically you were expected to go manual inside the quarter mile to get you back to the basics of flying the ball. BTW the auto modes were used almost exclusively at night when you were flying the straight-in approach starting at 10 miles. One more note about on-speed (i.e. solid yellow doughnut on the AOA indicator), not only is it the ideal orientation for plane's hook to catch the wires but it's also the optimal lift for the wings of the a/c. IMPORTANT: By having optimal lift you maximize the effectiveness of the throttle for maintaining glideslope.:book: This is why it's so dangerous to use both stick and throttle to maintain glideslope because once you push or pull the stick to influence the nose (for climb/descent) you instantly come off maximum lift and thereby reduce the effectiveness of the throttles. This now has a compounding effect because the pilot has now fooled himself into using even more or even less power then he should be thereby exacerbating the situation greatly. This is why the experienced LSO will down you in a heartbeat if they see this behavior. :cry:
  22. Wow I never heard of an 18 losing it's refueling probe, that must have been talked about for weeks in the squadrons. The repair bill must have been close to a million I would imagine for the plane. I bet you have seen it all. I can only imagine the things you have seen.:doh: I haven't tried refuelling in DCS yet. I am not sure which jets in my inventory can do it, I don't have the mirage, might have to pick that up. I go back and fourth among various sims I have so I have barely touched what DCS can do. I just love zooming, bouncing and landing at Nellis right now oh and doing the startups and shutdowns. Always fun seeing how the different planes do this. Looking forward to playing with the helo modules I picked up on sale as well. Eventually I will dig deeper with the modules. Oh one more thing, the KC130 was an interesting experience because unlike the AF tankers you guys flew slower and you had the prop wash factor that could wreak havoc on flying in close. This is why you would see all kinds of crazy movement from planes, and the reason why the hornet was silky smooth compared to others was the fly by wire computers doing their job and keeping that propwash from wreaking havoc.
  23. whoops I stand corrected, you are right that's the AOA probe, I kept saying pitot tube when I meant aoa probe which is more essential for flying on the boat. Both are primary inputs for the computers though. Old age is getting to me.
  24. No it wasn't common unless you happened to be on detachment in Nevada where the air force bubbas were to the south and it was reasonable to arrange some training outside the normal red flag/top gun events. Once in a blue moon on the east coast we got a chance to fly against AF crews from nearby AF bases but it wasn't routine. Simply put it was too much of an admin hassle and of course there was increased risk of something going wrong in the flight due to different procedures that were practiced. The services have enough in-house training mid-airs so there is no need to compound the issue.
  25. Actually the basket stayed on the fuel probe. Look straight down under the plane's side number, see that little pointy metal thing sticking out the side of the plane, that's the pitot tube, had the basket been flailing around hitting the nose it could rip that probe right off. The fuel probe itself is a tough piece of hardware and won't likely be ripped off but it could be bent. That basket by the way is actually pretty heavy (I am guessing 20 to 30lbs). Imagine a 30lb weight whipping around your head, nerve wracking.
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