bonesvf103

When selecting an airbase on a map it usually has multiple ATC freqs listed. I've had incidents where I tuned in on one of those freqs it didn't work, but if I tuned into the other listed one, is does. Any reason for this? Thanks. v6, boNes

Why did anyone move from the HGU-33 to the 55+? The locking visor seems like when it hit that 400+ knot slipstream, it's not ripped off and continues to shield your eyes. The -55 is just a visor attached with bungee straps that snap on. They come up and over the foam blocks easily enough so I imagine in a slipstream they would fly right over the top of the helmet and get ripped off. Why did they move to those? Was it that the 55+ had better visibility than the 33? Also in the 33, the visor is stored in that integrated cover while the 55 has a Velcroed lambskin cover. I think the visor housing is more protective than the lambskin cover is. Anyone know the reason? What happens if you eject and pass out over freshwater like one of the Great Lakes? How would your LPU inflate then? Any fix for that? v6, boNes

Thanks for the updates. What makes a LPU-34 different from the LPU-36? Could it be that not all helmets were converted HGU-68s? I have seen a black edgerolled and elephant eared HGU-55 that didn't have a -68 track or drill holes to attach the track. Is the MA-2 still used? If not, what's in its place? v6, boNes

You can "fly through" it by choosing CTRL-F11 then scrolling and slewing around with the mouse. Not the ebst, but only option right now. v6, boNes

This is not an HGU-68/P. HGU-68/Ps have the off center slide lock to raise and lower the visor (like the VF-201 photo you have above it). Rather, this is an HGU-55/P that has modification for using NVGs (hence the clips on the black "elephant ears." This is what the last Tomcat crews were wearing, though there were some HGU-68/Ps here and there, inasmuch as there were some MBU-20/Ps and Combat Edge systems. The horseshoe type flotation collar, with the beads like Megan is wearing, is the LPU-34 low profile collar. Before the LPU-21 was used (seen in most photos from the 80s). The CMU-33 is the newer version of the CWU-33, but there is little functional difference. The CMU-33 is for rotary wing crews and has a flap on the right clavicle that opens to expose a slot where an extraction hook can go. The CMU-33A is for fixed wing ejection seats and so does not have this, but it has slits cut into the vest at about pectoral level so that the Koch fittings and the D-Ring from the MA-2 can fit though them. The oxygen regulator that connected directly to the MBU-14/P hose was the CRU-79/P. The chest mounted version that attached to the modified SV-2B was the CRU-88/P. I believe the CRU-88 was used in the latter days of the Tomcat's era. The REDAR hose was used with the CRU-79/P, maybe the CRU-88 too. v6, boNes

Haha you know when I noticed this I did wonder what was up. Now I know! v6, boNes

I've tested and timed it and it appears that yes putting it right between those 2 markers seems to be the right place. You can check yourself by this way: a 2 minute turn means you do 360 degrees of turn in 2 minutes, or 3 degrees per second. So make a turn and count off seconds and if you change 9 degrees of heading in 3 seconds, you are in a 2 minute turn. In more round, easier to approximate numbers, make it 10 degrees of heading every 3 seconds and it's close enough. 10 degrees is easier to measure on your heading tape or compass rose than 9 degrees. v6, boNes

Yes I already tried having therm reload me on the ground and it still didn't work. I even checked the mission in the editor and it showed that you are full 100% of ammo. Seems odd that since the gun trigger by default is the spacebar that the mission writers would have the radio calls bound to it too. v6, boNes

Thanks! v6, boNes

Sorry you had such a bad experience with it. I'm not sure why but I've been able to get it to work pretty well, and for things I didn't like I was able to modify to my liking. In making the radio menu useless, it could be that you had it set to remove menus..this is a setting you can turn on or off. There is also that the microphone push button must also have a release button, and this is configured in the profile under radio controls. This is also where you map which radio you want for which PTT. It's not entirely difficult once you get the hang of it. I used Bailey's profile at first too, and it is good, but I wanted to do away with the distraction of the Jester wheel coming up and getting in my way when I really need unimpeded visibility for SA. PLus there were certain commands that were newer such as having Jester choose target size or Supercarrier commands and even air to ground functions or JTAC functionality. VAICOM Pro does lack in certain things and some things don't make sense logically to me, but overall I like it and have not looked back. But to each their own I guess. v6, boNes

Sorry I searched around for this but couldn't come up with great results but if you and your wingman are in the initial and you kiss off, how long before your wingman should kiss off? 15 seconds? 30? Thanks. v6, boNes

Keep in mind as well that the F-14 is a third party module from Heatblur whereas Supercarrier AND the Hornet are made by ED. So of course everything works for and is geared to the Hornet such as deck signals (which is not that different at all from Tomcats actually, ok, maybe spreading wings). Heatblur is at the mercy of whatever ED deems to be the end all be all of carrier ops in Supercarrier, even if the F-14 is one of the most popular, immersive, and realistic modules available. Heatblur has said many times how they want to do things in a certain way to make it accurate in the Tomcat but can't because ED's standards won't allow it. There was a time just before Supercarrier came out when the Tomcat almost didn't make it onto Supercarrier for the reason that they had to adhere to ED's standards. How long did it take, for instance, to finally get the AOA indexer to be bright enough in the Tomcat? It was fine out of the box then ED did something that made it dim and HB couldn't do anything about it because it was a change to DCS World that thery were at the mercy of. Then finally things changed only recently where they were able to get it bright again because a DCS thing had changed to allow it. They are dealing with that with other things too such as the mach cone, the Phoenix behavior, and to an extent the jammer to cite some of many examples that they are at ED's mercy to do anything about. This I'm sure includes the IFLOLS. And let's face it, Supercarrier is by no means complete and is currently in an state of abandonment. The working LSO station, though in the manual is not working (for instance where is the mouse cursor control to manipulate the fullscreen LSO screen that doesn't even exist though it's in the manual) and I am yet to get a hangar view as in the manual without having to resort to a CTRL-F11 flythrough. The stuff they do have working is pretty incredible though and we should be at least a little happy with it (compared to the Stennis ghost ship). Now I admit that the LSO calls leave something to be desired and the IFLOLS placement is kinda bad (not to mention oh yes you can move it with the mouse, but who has time to fiddle with the mouse when you are seconds away from the rounddown?) but it still is better than what we did have. Some of us can't even see the ball well enough without the pop up IFLOLS because of rendering or monitor characteristics--it's just the way that DCS is. Before you say, well, you need a better monitor, FSX of all places has AI Carriers as an addon along with Virtual LSO where you can see the ball just fine without a popup and it is functional as well as the LSO calls being accurate. You even get a trap history with your recencly qualifications tracked. So it's possible to do may things it's just when can ED get the time to do it and/or do it right? I guess I'm just saying let's not fault HB for soemthing they can't do because of imposed limitations from ED. They are by no means intentional, but it's not HB's fault and it shouldn't deter anyone from getting the Tomcat which is pretty well received by just about everyone who has tried or has it. v6, boNes

So isn't the default keybind for the gun trigger the spacer bar? IT seems odd that the mission would be written with the space bar being the radio response key knowing that the spacebar is the default so that everyone playing has to remap their keys...? Or am I not recalling properly? v6, boNes

Makes sense v6, boNes

I've been noticing that just as Saint and I set up in Mission 2 for the dogfight, that right when we go fight's on, he physically disappears from view. I could have a good tally on him at close range then poof he disappears. Does anyone else experience this? v6, boNes

Sorry I think I was thinking about the Raven One campaign. I think I noticed that there. v6, boNes

So I revalidated the files and tried again. The gun again would not fire. Which was disappointing because I had him dead bang lots of times. so since I couldn’t kill him, I just hit the option to knock it off then to end themssion. It prompted me to do so so I did before even returning to land. the campaign status showed that my hop was successful....100% campaign mission success. Odd. so when you fire the gun in this mission, does it actually fire rounds, or does it keep track of the hit based on your piper being on him when you pull the trigger, like a simulated kill? Because I don’t know how else they would deem it a successful hop. another thing I thought...my trigger to fire the gun is key bound to the space bar—which is what the mission uses to reply to radio calls. Could it be that this is overriding my trigger pull to fire the gun and that”s why it never fires? It’s basically making a radio call whenever I pull the gun trigger? Although I waited until we actually called fight’s on before using it to fire guns so I dunno. v6, boNes

Ah yes good point I think I did notice that today. funny how though if you’re not on the right freq that they can still here you. v6, boNes

Get VAICOM Pro with the AIRIO extension and you can do that and/or add that functionality. They also have added some commands that didn’t even exist in the Jester wheel that work pretty well. v6, boNes

I've been noticing lately that the ILS needles used to be pretty representative of the ball but now they aren't. For instance, you can have the needles completely centered but the ball will be high. If I continue to fly the needles I usually will not get a three wire. But if I follwo the ball I will. They used to coincide but lately they don't. v6, boNes

I am using VAICOM Pro and have not experienced this phenomenon. Now being that you are prompted to respond by hitting the space bar by the mission, I have found that although you are given a list of freqs and buttons to tune, they really aren't much use since you just hit the spacebar anyway. Not complaining but I was kinda looking forward to tuning my own radios and such. v6, boNes

Not that I have found. To be honest I stopped using the Jester wheel about a year ago since I converted to VAICOM Pro. But I did so because Jester was not really doing things that I needed him to do (or Iceman for that matter) but VAICOM Pro added certain functions that Jester could do that wasn't really in the Jester wheel. He was still limited though, just not as much. NavGrid and shifting the display in Ground Stab I don't know that he'll ever do--how could he? There's no way to convey to him exactly how to set the NavGrid to your specific liking. And yes unfortunately you can't do it in MP unless you have a human RIO or are the human RIO. At least for now, HB says they are working on changing that but it could be a long time from now because it's dependent on ED. v6, boNes

IIRC (and I am kinda guessing because I usually jump in back and do NavGrid myself without Jester, but absolute sets it to a specific heading (which is in the Jester wheel usually cardinal compass headings, ie, N, W, E, S, etc. Relative is like a bearing.. Set it to 45 relative and it will point at 45 degrees to the right of your nose. The think I don't like about Jester doing NavGrid is like what you were saying...it's centered with YY at bulls, but that's off to the side of the TID. So I have to go in the back and use the HCU to offset it so I can see where things are as needed. There's no way to get Jester to do that so far. If you want it to be along a defined axis of your choosing then you have to do it yourself, ie, hop in back, and enter the settings in the CAP. v6, boNes

You can do most of everything from the front seat with Jester’s help, but there are certain things that are better with a human such as being able to shift the ground stabilized radar screen or using NavGrid to your liking. Zone V campaign is a bit advanced as far as procedures go, some of the others are a little more lenient. Try cutting your teeth on some of the SP missions, or the training hops and go from there. Or you can get someone to help you with questions etc or even to sit in the RIO seat who knows the plane and help you from there. v6, boNes

Are the radios in the Zone V campaign set to easy? I tried manually tuning the station and broadcasting for things like landing clearance and nothing happens but when prompted by the mission to hit the space bar to make a radio call on the same button I was previously using, it works. v6, boNes