AcroGimp

Verified explode on landing issue curently on Carl Vinson and the Bush. with SU-33 PFM and F-15C AFM - also, meatball and ramp lineup lights basically function on the Vinson but function correctly (flashing based on offset) for the Bush - LSO Plat cam works on the Vinson but not on the Bush.... About to try the .LUA change and see if better. 'Gimp

Yes it was but they would not fold on the boat all and only occasionally when on shore, tried the key command, also bound it to a HOTAS button, but no joy. The new install with the SU-33 PFM works fine for almost everything although carrier takeoffs are weak, even using the intake screen open, wheelbrake hold and special afterburner key commands - frankly not sure any of them are functioning correctly since it starts moving once the normal A/B kicks in. 'Gimp

DCS is 2.5 OB, and I am using the F/A-18C Mod with SU-33 PFM with either the A-10A or F-15C avionics set - I did find a post about a .LUA change for the explode on carrier landing and will test it out shortly. With the F-15C AFM I could make traps but could not get the wings to fold which is part of the immersion for me after making a trap, hook, flaps and fold and make way to six pack or back to catapult. We'll see if the .LUA change fixes it. 'Gimp

The USN Pilot's Pocket Checklist for the Hornet in physical form would be surprisingly big - I wrote the Flight Manual and PPCL for the T-6A Texan II back in '99-2000 timeframe and as I recall the PCL was almost 200 pages where the Flight Manual was maybe 800-ish pages I think. Because the T-6A was a joint USAF/USN program we developed the Flight Manual as an Air Force -1 and the checklist as a USN style NATOPS Pocket Checklist - I believe the contract switched the checklist to USAF style after I left in '01. What most simmers would expect as a quick reference checklist was not a deliverable from Beechcraft to USAF/USN so not sure if there would be a shorter one for the Hornet. I load the flight manual and checklists for both the real and sim aircraft I fly onto my tablet that I use as an EFB/Kneeboard for reference when flying/simming so the NATOPS PCL will be part of my loadout once the Hornet comes online. 'Gimp

Ditto, would be great! See satellite shot from NAS Lemoore as example. 'Gimp

Latest update from WAGS on waypoint nav progress, joygasm!! This is going to be EPIC! 'Gimp

I picked up the Night Attack AV-8B as a tide-me-over until the Hornet releases and wow, what a complex beast. Just starting on basic indoctrination right now, day/VFR unarmed fam flights but so looking forward to learning sensors and weapons, really a cool little jet. 'Gimp

So I uninstalled and reinstealled the F/A-18C with the SU-33 PFM and A-10A avionics and overall the sim is behaving better except the plane explodes on touch down landing on the Carl Vinson. My technique isn't all that great but that never happened with the earlier installation on the Bush. Is this an issue with the Vinson, the plane or did I suddenly get awful at landing? Thanks 'Gimp

Question on using the mods, if I want the F/A-18C Mod with F-15C cockpit, A-10A A2G avionics (I presume it would then look like the F-15E cockpit with the A-10A TV display in the SMS display) and SU-33 PFM, how do I get there? I am relatively new to DCS and don't know if/how the various .cmd and/or LUA files are used/edited. I do have a lot of FSX .cfg editing experience so I am sure with some help I can figure it out. As it stands the SU-33 cockpit AG version does not function well for me - no waypoint info on the TV display when camera not selected, cockpit lights make the gages opaque and unreadable, no AOA indexer, no folding wings when on the boat (maybe because boat is moving??), no ability to select single weapon fire (it pickles all selected stations). Edited to add, is there a way to get the drooping aileron and slat animations to work using the SU-33 PFM? Also, is there a lockout on the folding wing function based on movement - it works for me on shore but not on the boat where I actually need it. adding - my DCS base install (including FC3) is on an SSD (F drive in my rig) but the saved games folder is on C drive - could that cause some of the issues? Help is appreciated, I am digging the Hornet Mod until the DCS/BST Hornet is released. Thanks in advance. 'Gimp

Trigger down, snap. Good kill. He he he. Can't. Freaking. Wait. 'Gimp

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!! Seriously, the hype train just went to plaid! Nice work WAGS. 'Gimp

Thanks feefifofum, I tried that after your suggestion but still not working for me. I have the S-3B set to travel airborne spawn to 1st waypoint, then orbit (circle), so I can practice rejoining and tanking in a circle (I am flying VSN F/A-18C mod). I've tried Tomcats and Hornets as escorts and with both the follow and now escort command, but after the Tanker goes into its' enroute job the fighters peel off and boogey back to the Bush. I am sure it is a setting or option checkbox somewhere I am missing - still new to the whole DCS World and just want to get ready for when the Hornet releases. 'Gimp

Done some searching to no avail - how do I set pu a fighter escort for a tanker to make an AAR sortie feel more alive? I have tried 'follow', formaton, etc., and can't seem to get it to work - any help appreciated. Thanks 'Gimp

Are you set in TACAN and T/R? There is no DME with Mode Switch in DF mode or with the TACAN control switch set to REC. This got me a couple times early on. 'Gimp

Just DL'd the F/A-18C, F-15E and Tomcat to tide me over until the official Hornet and Tomcat drop and I have to say, pretty good work guys, thanks so much for these. Survived my first two traps on the Carl Vinson in the Hornet and drove me to really learn how to setup my HOTAS (T16000M/TWCS). Thanks!! 'Gimp

Installed this tonight and took off on a generated strike mission with a 2nd F-5E, got him killed just past our join point, had to jettison all my weapons and then fought 2 Mig-21's to a standoff forget to reset jettison switch so missed out on 3 good Fox2 opportunities. Great experience and highlighted my lack of preparation as I expected more of the mission elements in the kneeboard. Thanks MBot, this is going to be fun while I wait for the Hornet and learn how to bomb stuff using the 'old ways'. Edited to add, watched the track in TacView and can't believe how poorly I managed the approach from our join point towards the target, I never saw the MiG's coming up, but in the end both of the -21's were shot down, one by aHawk SAM and one by a late launching F-5E CAP bird. 'Gimp

Still struggling with the practice missions, the AI flies pretty well, but I completed the NTTR Fam flight complete with a severe aircraft malfunction (loss of throttle control around Student Gap). Really enjoying this module and looking forward to flying the for-credit missions once I can somewhat reliably kill the other guys as opposed to just keeping them from killing me. Great job Maple Flag! 'Gimp

I just had a somewhat similar experience. Flying the BFM NTTR FAM Mission from the Maple Flag campaign, we had just come out of the training area at Student Gap, cruising along at 300 KIAS and Angels 24, suddenly the throttle sticks in IDLE, I move it forward it moves forward, but as soon as I stop moving it goes back to IDLE - I struggle with this for a minute or so and then have an idea. I pause TrackIR (Numpad + in my setup, going to change), I press Numpad + and they move to Max A/B, and now they move to Max A/B instead of IDLE, great, won't crash for lack of thrust now, but how the hell will I land? I fly around trying burn fuel down, keeping a lot of G on with boards out to keep speed reasonable while descending into Vegas area, and find that if I constantly exercise the throttle it will stay around idle. I get the kiss off from the IP that mission is completed, now I can try to bring this pig back home. Finally make it in close, well below BINGO fuel, touch down, take my hand of the throttle to deploy the chute, collapse a gear and spin off the runway but stay upright, with both engines still in Max A/B - I go skidding around the grounds of Nellis like a chicken with its' head cutoff until first the left engine, then right engine die from fuel starvation - I just managed to NOT hit any planes in the ramp, and I ended up near the Aggressor ramp. Not sure if it is a campaign issue, a DCS issue, an F-5 issue, a Thrustmaster T16000 HOTAS issue, or a Voice Attack issue - although VA failed to respond to any commands (and keyboard commands were gone) after the initial throttle control failure. I was sweating like I was really there - actually a lot of fun trying to figure out what I could do to secure one engine or something but the keyboard controls were nonresponsive. Ideas? 'Gimp

Trust me, I know the feeling, I've tried going high, going low, smooth turns, bat turns and it has not come together for fighting AI in the practice missions yet, but I know it eventually will. The airplane is so well modeled and executed I want to learn how to fight it - I've been watching tons of the Youtbue videos and part of my problem clearly is I am trying to fly it like a real fighter in a real environment - much of what you see on Youtube is completely unrealistic, running around at 20 feet and max A/B taking Fox 2 shots out of huge graceful turns at 500 KIAS, where it looks easy to maneuver into the WEZ. I think that is part of the frustration of fighting AI vs a mixed AI/PVP environment on the multiplayer servers where there is a real fog of war, imperfect SA, and bad decisions. I just added Voice Attack to help with some of the switchology so that I don't have to take my hands of my HOTAS (I'm dominant right handed and using mouse in left hand is tough so I want to only do it for clickable things like radio tuning, pipper adjustments, etc.), I'll see if it helps any in combat, it is completely awesome on the ground for start up, more immersive and keeps me from having to memorize a billion keystrokes. Keep at it, it will come. And try some MP, I was setting up TeamSpeak and Discord yesterday so I can venture out - if I can finger out how to use SimpleRadio I'll add it too. I know in Star Citizen the most fun I have is when multiplayer. 'Gimp

Try this. Lift vector is essentially a line straight up from your wings, perpendicular to the wings and to your line of travel/flight path. If someone is driving into the weapons effective zone (WEZ) behind you, they will typically be trying to match your bank angle, since the most efficient lead lag or pure pursuit is to align their lift vector with yours. This will vary if they are also driving in with a heading crossing angle (offset from your flight path) but in general you want to keep your lift vector on the guy you want to shoot, so the guy who wants to shoot you wants to do it too (with mods for lead, lag or pure pursuit). If you see someone working to get a gun or missile shot, take advantage of the F-5's superior roll performance to roll well right or left quickly, and then pull hard - if they are already not matched to your bank angle, say they are off to the left, roll away (to the right) to create more roll and/or heading change they have to go through to get their lift vector back on you. This gives the separation you want to force an overshoot where they simply cannot make the same corner. Do be sure you are not improving their firing solution if they are offset in lead/lag vs pure pursuit, in this case you turn into them usually to create a bigger HCA issue - it is like formation flying, basically 'visual geometry'. 'Gimp

I'll take a stab at this but look forward to other replies. I have found having your lift vector displaced from the opponent, e.g., off to left or right using roll, and then a very hard bat-turn pull, to be effective for forcing an overshoot (if you can pull below the bandits' wings level line, e.g., below their line of sight/flight path, is best since they now have a large roll and pitch angle to address). The instantaneous pitch rate of the F-5 is pretty good with energy on (~400 KIAS for corner velocity mid-teens). You are giving up energy to do so, so if altitude allows turn that momentary separation into an opportunity to unload and accelerate keeping an eye on the bandit to rebuild the smash. 'Gimp

I just saw this thread and was about to comment on needing to hold the button for a 2-count or so - glad you figured it out. I tried to pickle one off the other day and just hit the weapons release switch, nothing happened, then press and hold for 2-count, boom off she goes. 'Gimp

This is factually incorrect, RTFM (page 277 if interested). The aileron limiter function (a resistance spring in the the real plane) is simulated in the F-5E and in order to get full throw you must deactivate the limiter (press and hold L or map to a joystick/HOTAS button unless you have a FFB stick) - it is a momentary function so press and hold. In the real plane, the limiter is OFF with gear down, and ON with gear UP, at full deflection and at speed the plane will do 700 degrees per second. I don't have a lot of time in DCS yet but I have actually flown real BFM, in my real Yak, with a real USN F-5N adversary pilot and he used every axis to get snap shots off. We discussed his time at VFC-13 and he explained the F-5N had to use every trick in the book when fighting superior opponents (F/A-18, F-14). To suggest rudder, rolls, or slow speed maneuvering have no place in combat is simply untrue and unhelpful. The lag roll, barrel roll, low and high speed yo-yo are staple BFM maneuvers - additionally, high roll rates can be used to jink/fake an opponent out if driving into the WEZ. Even when flown cleanly the F-5E is at a disadvantage against most other modern fighters and will end up slow in a prolonged fight, you simply must be able to fly it in all regimes. 'Gimp

Stall is AOA, not airspeed, you are pulling too much - I noticed same myself (e.g., stalled with mushy, non-responsive ailerons at 250 KIAS) and am changing the stick curve to help prevent it. Remember, stall is where the AOA exceeds the critical angle of attack for the wing and can occur at essentially any airspeed, until you get to the point you break the wing based on instantaneous G (which I am not sure is possible in the Tiger). You can carve a turn with the rudder, and you can effectively point the nose when at low speed, but best to do with pedals and best to do smoothly, the Tiger rudder is surprisingly powerful. Try small movements to aid bringing the nose around, once you get a sense for how much pedal translates into motion at different speeds you'll dig it. You can tell aileron limiter is off based on deflection of the aileron, it moves a lot more but you have to hold the bound switch/button since it is a momentary function (unless you have a force-feedback stick I think in which case it is modeled into the FFB loop). 'Gimp

Respectfully disagree. We both made mistakes and we both missed opportunities but had the F-14 outplayed me the result would have been my death, in 2-5 turns, as it admittedly usually is, a lot, in that particular engagement. In fairness, I have figured out that my instinct results in more two-circle engagements which is even worse against a better turning/more powerful opponent - thanks TacView! It's all about learning how to employ the weapon system you have available. We all know the Tomcat was an extremely capable fighter, we all know it has better sustained turn, high-alpha, and specific excess power than the Tiger. And we all know that that engagement puts the Tiger at an EXTREME disadvantage from the very beginning. Please post up your evidence of you just getting behind and staying behind the fastest turning western fighter, from that instant action engagement - just to show us all how it is done, I am always looking for examples I can learn from. 'Gimp