bonesvf103

Sorry, I can't get Jester to change range display to less via VAICOM Pro otherwise they wouldn't be so clustered together. But the radar would still see them the same regardless of the way it's displayed on the TID right? v6, boNes

IronMike, Still not having much lcuk. This time I did Dragon Tooth and I climbed up to nearly 40000 ft, gave a crank, saw the 4 bandits at 35000 or so. Got valid launch cues, turned nose back on, raised it about 15 degrees in full burn to give the Phoenixes as much oomph as possible, and launched all 4. I kept them illuminated on the nose, then with a slight crank. All 4 missiles missed. One looked beamed, the others looked chaffed, but some didn't even care about chaff or maneuvering, they just sailed on by. I dunno. What did I do wrong? Or is this just the AIM-54A mk47 being easily chaffed? v6, boNes Tacview-20220214-153429-DCS.zip.acmi

OK, thanks. I see in the one where you cranked, you only cranked maybe 20 degrees or something small like that and it still hit. So what would you say is the ideal amount of crank you should use? I've been using 40-50 ATA so that it would be harder for them to lock me (and easier for me to escape with only 40 deg left to beam) while still allowing my radar to see them. Is that excessive in this case being I'm shooting a Phoenix? OR is a little bit fine since the real point of the crank is to get the targets to separate as one tries to intercept me? Thanks. v6, boNes

I just watched it but is it the right tacview (20220204-210819-DCS.zip.acmi)? In it you are flying straight at them the whole time and get the 2 Phoenix kills. v6, boNes

IronMike, Again thanks, I'll practice this some more. With non Mk60 missiles, is there a different tactic? v6, boNes

Thanks again for the quick response, but I thought earlier you said to crank before firing so that the radar can see the targets as separate contacts better and thus give the missles better targets to see? That is why I fired off bore. I wanted to crank 40-50 ATA before getting the valid lock and firing. If we crank on the target then fire, are we to hold that crank the whole time until the missile goes pitbull to insure it sees the target fine? I would think so but then my question becomes what is the point of the T? It's supposed to be centered to keep the best amount of targets in the scan volume, but if we crank like that, there really is no point of the T anymore. So are you basically saying to crank all the way up to missile fire time in which case, go back nose on and then fire? Wouldn't that make the targets a mass of blips again and not give the Phoenix good distinct targets to seek? If doing it that way, after firing, can I crank to make it more difficult for the bandits to lock and fire on me? Or will that also screw up the phoenixes since my radar is off bore to see the targets? If the Phoenixes were AIM54As or AIM-54 (not C) what would be the procedure then? Also as a safeguard I flew up to 30,000 and fired as I was passing through 15 deg nose up so that by the time the missile fired I'd be 20-30 nose up to give them that toss. v6, boNes

So it worked OK then...but now, I do the same mission over and over and fly it the same way and now my missiles seem to hit only 20% of the time. Most of the time I watch the missiles go after they go bullseye and they always got close to the MiGs and never detonate even though they were close enough, or the MiG somehow just gets out of the way. He was chaffing, but well before the missile even got there. I don't get it I'm just starting to feel like this is literally hit or miss. v6, boNes Tacview-20220210-165233-DCS.zip

IronMike, Update: Well, I'll be...! v6, boNes

OK, I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the insight that yes tactics and feel must be reconsidered. v6, boNes

I should be more clear and tell you that by 25 nm, I meant the missile went pitbull when the target was 25 nm from ME not when it was 25 nm from the missile. Anyway here is the video clip. I didn't record it until after missile launch but I think there is enough visible there to see the situation...including my getting shot down since I was watching the lost missile track the whole time, haha. I have some video of the previous tests from angels 20 or so, but since the angels 30 one was supposed to be the best case scenario for the Phoenix, I figured this is the better video. v6, boNes

1. The target was not extrapolated. 2. Targets went co altitude or just below me 3. TA was RT3 4. Phoenix went pitbull at 25 nm 5. at 15 nm the one Phoenix was in negative countdown, the other hit at about 15 nm from me After the missile missed, it was headed down to the water, then went level, then climbed up, then disappeared from external view Now if I lost lock on the second guy, would that had happened with him coming right at me instead of notching? Would countermeasures do that? I don't know but in the video I had a solid lock on him, no extrapolation, to the point that the countdown went negative. Your bandits were chaffing and flaring heavily and your missiles still hit. Could it be that my patch didn't have the update? I know HB mentioned before that they've submitted updates that for some reason wasn't in the patch but then was in the next one. Maybe I should check file integrity? I mean when you hit them, you seemed to be under the same conditions as me. Yet after 5+ tried, my missiles never hit until that one TacView I posted... Oh and you mentioned that when the AI realizes it has been launched on, they drop lock. I never knew that, is that all AI? How do you know that they realized it? The spike stops? v6, boNes

Here's a tacview of the last engagement I described where I climbed up to 30000+ and launched. As you can see, the MiGs weren't even maneuvering. The one Pheonix just lofted up and went over his head and came down into the water as he passed. v6, boNes Tacview-20220204-134017-DCS.zip.acmi

I'm not seeing any changes. Whereas the missiles seemed bonked before today's patch, they still seem the same now. I did the Persian Gulf Instant Action stock mission called "BVR". I fired 2 Phoenix-C missiles at MiG-29s in TWS-A. Target altitude was about angels 25, mine was about angels 23. Both missiles went pitbull at about 25 miles range and both missed. This occurred when I cranked after firing, placing the targets at ATA 50. It also occured when I didn't crank at all and left them on the nose ATA 0 and TA was 0. It also occurred when I told Jester to set the target size to large. Up to now, I can't get a single hit out of the Phoenix. EDIT: OK did another test, same conditions. They were at angels 25, this time I went up to angels 33 or so. No crank, TA ~0, ATA 0. One Phoenix hit, the other flew ahead in a dive, then it would climb, then it would dive, then it would climb, then it would self destruct or just disappear from external view. This was after the remaining Fulcrum had closed range to less than 20 nm from me and later merged. His TA was always between 0-3 RT pretty much the whole time so he wasn't even notching. v6, boNes

Thanks for the quick response! Now that's customer service! I would very much like the Final Countdown mission! Hope you get around to that. v6 boNes

Does anyone recall if it was Normandy 1944 or the Channel that had stock instant action Tomcat missions? I recall one where you went up against Mirages. Thanks. v6, boNes

Hh, ok...just a shame that it doesn't work for the Tomcat and it seems to for any other ED aircraft like the Hornet. Thanks. v6, boNes

I've been able to have Jester set map markers to steerpoints, and also to fixed points IPs, etc. But I found that the map marker number is a toughy. Sometimes he gets the right one, sometimes he doesn't. I end up having him set a point, then double checking it against the F10 map to be sure he gotit right, which is like 80% of the time. v6, boNes

Any updates or progress on getting playback of tracks fixed? It seems like every time I play it back, it's not what had happened. I'd really like for it to work for things like, reviewing your carrier approaches from different angles. I don't even use time compression when I play or play it back so it's not that messing it up. But even so, I could trap a wire but when I play it back, the Tomcat ends up in the drink instead. Or I can kill the bandits, but when I play it back, the bandits shoot me down instead. v6, boNes

"A New Breed" as the patch says...! v6, boNes

How about ROVER? That would be cool to add, or was that DElta only? v6, boNes

Good points. I believe we were state 8.5 when we trapped at that time. We only had 2 Phoenix left, all other missiles had been shot off (we got 4 kills on the hop). Also we were still carrying our empty fuel tanks. He was approaching fast too. 155 KIAS or so. He'd been away for 2 weeks or so so he was REALLY rusty, and sloppy in the pattern but we were the only ones in the pattern so that was sorta forgivable. At least our human LSO thought so, haha. v6, boNes

Yesterday I was flying against an F-16 in an Instant Action mission and it clearly states in the briefing, "Gentleman's rules: no firing until after the merge." Lo and behold, just before the merge, the F-16 fires at me and gets the kill. Like I said, they have become more aggressive. v6, boNes

So I've been seeing posts that people have been trying to break the hook off just to see if it happen and it wasn't happening for them. I kinda stopped looking for reports of this after a while. Then, last night my pilot who was rusty landed fast on the boat. We boltered but we heard some noise that seemed new. I thought it was us ramp striking, but didn't think that much of it until our LSO called, "uh, confirm your hook is down." WE both looked at the hook lever and confirmed it was down. But then he said we had no hook! Haha that was what the noise was! External view showed it clearly, and you can hear it in the video at 29:17 It was pretty funny! v6, boNes

No kidding. They have been aggressively reckless too. There are several times when in the merge they rammed right into me at high closure! v6, boNes

I agree. I used to be able to shoot down that Su-27 in that mission in 2.5 minutes or less, now either he runs out of gas or I do. There was even a time when I hit him several times with the gun, yet in a turning chase, he suddenly goes faster than 500 KIAS. I give chase at that speed and and suddenly he is accelerating past 600 KIAS and he still is flying away from me in a turn. I was up to 600 KIAS and he was still heading away from me, like he suddenly got this energy out of nowhere and broke the laws of physics. Also I've noticed if I get slow in the Tomcat, then I drop the nose and put on burner to speed up, she takes a long time to accelerate. Like from say 130 KIAS to 300 in FOREVER even if my nose is down and my configuration is clean. I haven't been able to conclusively prove it is the Tomcat or me, but I used to do this before and it would accelerate fine. She just doesn't feel the same lately. I now there was a FM update but something like nose down to the ground and full burn seems to me that with gravity and all you'd accelerate faster than that. v6, boNes