dwpenney

Try using the formation management communication commands. Spread your flight out a bit more and/or order them to 'Pincer' (I can not remember the exact term in the communication options) which provides an offset up, down left or right.

OMG. Ah.. OMG. Seriously? OMG. That. Is. Awesome! Fridge

{Bah! Typo in the title! This is #6} Part #2 (Part 1 here): Turning back around, we head for waypoint #4 again and our second approach to the target area. At this point I change our formation into 'echelon' or 'wedge' formation. My plan is to approach the target to the left of the initial vector. This approach is more along the lines of the waypoint #4/#5 line. Because we were not fired on to the right or left of the initial approach, I am relatively confident that the area we passed over is (relatively) clear. This wedge formation widens our punch-hole but I will offset us to the left of the original approach vector to compenstate for this. The added benefit of this is that it will provide a juicer target for the SAMs that might still be in the threat box and widens our avenue of approach. We are clearing the ground under us of high risk threats and will use this ground to complete our mission. Approach #2 to the target area (yellow box). I have left off the threat box - you should be able to recognize the ground features by now :-) Approaching the target area I perform the same actions as our initial pass. This time I focus more on the target area and the north portion of the threat box. And I get lucky. In the inset pictures, right to left, you can see as I pan along the S edge of Nagomari and off to it's W. In the last inset picture (top left) I happen across a not farmilliar H-on-its-side image (which you can't really make out in the scaled picture). I lock it up and launch. And before we can break away, a launcher in the immediate area returns the favour. At this point I am not sure if I have targetted the same launcher that has fired on us. I have also made a potential mistake by breaking right instead of left. It is a toss up here on which way you should go. Left (and S) takes you diretly over the threat area from the briefing and if we did not get the first launcher, we would be in trouble. Right (N and E) and we are tuning toward that armour group we spotted on the first approach. If they have any siginificant SAM/AAA assets we are going to find out shortly. In reality I guess it comes down to luck. You can spend some more time sanatizing the threat area (which is what my plan was) or get lucky and hope that you can defend against this threat until your weapon finds it's mark. Continuing the break right and diving. Top picture shows my view relative to the threat. O am hooking to the right and leaving a trail of flares/chaff in my wake. Bottom picture shows the view from the missle - on the inside of the blue arrow are the same series of flares/chaff as inside the red arrow. Regrouping towards waypoint #4 (and pretty much flying over the same terrain as approach #1 Buster calls out a bandit. It takes some searching as we cirle from pointing at waypoint #4 off to the W and turning back N (flying, if I rememebr correctly, just over the launch site from the first SAM). Luckily the bandit does not have A2A missles and was high enough to be a sillouette in the sky - it was easier to find him and approach. Splash one! Back on task - resetting over waypoint #4 again I change my wingmans orders. I order him to 'cover me' which frees him up somewhat to attack any threat to my aircraft. Relaxing my control of him at this point makes sense since we have eliminated the SAM threat in the S section of the threat area and I am 50% sure that we have the N section cleared as well. We still have to be careful of MANPADs and AAA guns but the high threat obstacles are looking to be gone and each pass over the threat area reinforces this. Back on target I lock up what I hope is another AAA threat close in but, alas, it is not. My last AGM-65 (and my zoomable TV camera) is now gone. I don't show it here but Buster is working the area over the area to the right, which is where the other armoun group is. He is helpful in taking out AAA guns and such but, in hindsight, I should have used him more directly with the A2G modes. However, I can not fault the 'cover me' approach at the moment or the fact that I wisely chose to only load standoff weapons! Buster calls another bandit - thankfull because I can't seem to pick them out without labels on (and I avoid that if I can). I launch but get a maddog (I think that is what a rogue missle is called). To make things interesting, the fight with the enemy chopper has had us gaine enough altitude to draw the attention of the SA-11 site N of our position. Fortunately the launch was aimed at me and I was at the high end of medium altitude. I dropped some height and both SA-11 missles exploded harmlessly in the distance as the launcher lost LoS. In the background high, Buster splashes the Hind while lower you can see the smoke from the SA-11's self-destructing. Another launch but the hills mask us as Buster rejoins. Turning back to the target area. We are jsut a little to the left of the second approach vector. I have to visually check that my wingman has dumped his munitions when the SA-11's launched. I ask him to rejoin as I don't want him wandering over AAA guns trying to attack a primary target. I'll take that chance myself. For the first time, I actually score hits and make effective use of the Hydra rockets! The rest is cleanup with the Avenger - all for the safety of the area we sanatized south of the target! RTB: Buster and I line up on final. And approach the runway. Fun fact, in turning on my navigation lights I accidentally turned off my left engine. Note my haphazard attitude as I deal with what I thought at the time was strong wind! Helpful hint to not map critical controls next to others but instead group your functions. :-) Next: Either I refly Mission #5 or attempt Mission #7 - I have not decided yet. Fridge PS: I have the track for this. If anyone wants it send me a PM with your and I will see if I can email it to you. _________________________ Things which do you no good in aviation: 1) Altitude above you; 2) Runway behind you; 3) Fuel in the truck; 4) The airspeed you don't have.

{Bah! Typo in the title! This is #6} I am going to wait to post the AAR for Mission #5, not through of any sense of drama or action but simply because the track for it was somehow corrupted. I usually take only a few screenshots during the mission and rely on a review of the track to grab what seems the most helpful and revealing. That usually means that my tracks (and the actual mission) suck a lot more than it may seem in the heavily edited AAR :-) For Mission #6 I was focusing not only on succeeding and documenting the mission but in trying to make my wingman reach some level of operational effectiveness - other than his effectively practiced tactic of fertilizing of the countryside. Needless to say, I replayed this mission some number of times before I was able to pull it off. In the end I achieved the goal using him to his 'maximum' while keepling him alive. I must point out that each replay I followed the same strategy as that laid out on my first attempt. Although I obviously learned on each replay where the bad guys were situated, sometimes with minute detail, I always pushed myself to follow the plan and assume that I did not know where or how events might occur. Take that disclaimer any way you want but other than the fact the Buster (my nickname for my wingman in hommage to Mythbusters and the fact that he was being used as an AI crash test dummy) repeatedly died and left me cursing and exiting the mission, each replay had it share of variances and kept me on my toes. Warning: This AAR is also quite long. It covers some 37 screenshots and, probably but the time I am finished, quite a bit of text. My goal is to document both the approach that was taken within the mission parameters, describing decisions and approaches, and the organization and deployment of my wingman 'Buster'. ---- Part #1: Mission #6 has us tasked with destroying a supply depot just outside the city area of Nagomari. SAM and AAA threat is moderate. I expect that twp SA-11 sites that have been harassing me in previous missions still exist N of the ridgeline (N of waypoint #6 and NW of waypoint #7). That is going to keep me under 3000ft. I am going to defing low altitude as <1500ft, medium altitude as 1500ft - 2500ft and high altitude as 3000+. I am going to impose a high altitude ceiling at 3000ft and only go above that if I have no choice. Above 3000ft and I expect missles inbound from the N SA-11 sites. Here you can see 'The Plan'. The objective is located at waypoint #5 along the S outskirts of Nagomari. I have adjusted waypoint #2 to pull me farther S and hopefully keep me protected by the ridgeline. The red arrow shows my plan of attack. Since I am not certain of the SAM/AAA locations I am going to pull in to waypoint #5 on the NE side of the waypoint#4/#5 line and hook right to reset aroung or N of waypoint #4. The idea here is to make a cautious approach to the target area at medium altitude with my wingman in tow hoping to lure and SAMs to give away their positions. I know that there are hostile forces in the yellow box and around the target waypoint and that they have a high probability of having local low/medium altitude SAM systems. I want to expost the most leathal of these threats ASAP so that they can be dealt with before the flight engages the target. This is a typical (so I have read) SEAD tactic. With a human wingman/element pair, you would leave the human eyes circling waypoint #4 and watching the approach of the 'bait'. Once the SAM launchers fire, they roll in while the 'bait' evades. I have also customized our loadout to only include standoff weapons - AGM-65's and Hydra rockets. This is another incentive for Buster to not get his lazy arse directly over any threats. Make sure that you select each unit of the team in turn and then select the loadout. Wheels up - we are on our way! Here we are passing over some friendly self-propelled artillery pieces. Heading in to waypoint #3 I send Buster into trail formation. The goal here is to have us manouver as a team with any SAM/AAA threats split between the two of us. Hopefully I will gather the attention while keeping in mind that my wingman is lagging behind me instead of to the side. Think if us as punching a hole in the SAM/AAA envelope. Instead of having him out to the side where he can draw his own threats, behind me we are focusing on a narrow punch-hole with the threat to the flight directly ahead or on the sides. If he is off to the side, the punch-hole is wider we risk drawing fire that puts one of us (or both) in jeopardy where in trail, we should both draw the same attention along out attack vector. About 1-2k out from waypoint #4 I am looking off to the left to draw that mental map that matches the briefing. Here the heavy yellow box is the immediate threat area, the thin yellow box is the target area and the red arrows show the approach path. Note that although the top red arrow appears to the going right-to-left it is really showing a SE-NW approach (depth of field is hard to represent). Turning in toward waypoint #5 and the target area it starts to make a little more sense. Lined up in trail we are off to the E of the waypoint #4/#5 line. A helpful MLRS volley is highlighting the NW of the target area. On the first pass in I got no hits. Throughout the entire flight in to the target area I am inspecting the area in forward arc area in front of the flight (10-2 positions on the clock) and keeping an eye outside the cockpit area to the left (highest threat area). We detect armour at 1-2 - yellow box area - but nothing launches. This armour was a surprise (not in the briefing) and threatens our right hand hook to reset but we draw no fire. I adapt the plan to fly south of the threat area - in essence flying just N of the waypoint #4/#4 line, E to W. This draws a launch! Now because I am not an uber awesome pilot and I can not rely on my wingman to locate and communicate the launch point I sometimes pause the sim to get a good look. Our flight hooks left and back toward waypoint #4. Somehow the missle loses it's lock and explodes harmlessly below us. {in review it appears that maybe the launcher lost LoS (Line of Sight) to us as it is sitting on the back part of a slope - this could explain why we did not draw attention on the orinigal plan pass as we were 'below' his horizon} Time to setup an adhoc attack plan on that SAM launcher. Red arrow is the path that we were taking after the 'right-hook' on the first pass toward the target area. Yellow arrow is the defensive manouver we performed (turning dive away followed by a climing 'beam' on the launcher), followed by our flight extending away from the threat envelope to organize our attack. I keep Buster in trail for the moment because I want to tightly control how close he gets to the threat area. I need to keep this in mind when I am manouvering. In trail he never gets closer than I do. Turning back toward the laun site. Red arrow in the main area shows the flight path as we turn toward the launch area (yellow box - which exists in the S 1/4 of the threat box I identified during planning). Inset is the lineup to the launch area. I have my boards out (speedbrakes extended) and I am using the autopilot 'attitude hold' to hold the hog steady while I tinker with the MAV camera. I find a hot spot N of the buildings on the S edge of my search box. Lock it up and fire. I am pretty sure that the launch was not there however, so I keep searching in case I miss something. I am very aware of how close I am getting and keep in mind that I need to break away soon. Second hot spot closer to where I expect it. This one (on the higher resolution of my monitor) shows more as an H on its side. That looks more like the body of a vechile with a launcher aparatus on top. Second launch {note: make sure that you have a solid view to the target before launch - if the target is partially obscure, say because of a hill side, your MAV may come up shot}. I break left to 'beam' the launch area in case we are close enough for another launch. Here is a view from the launcher. Note that his position on the side of this incline was what 'protected' us in the initial approach to target. Inset is the first shot finding it's target. Weapon #1 explodes on target with the view from weapon #2 and the flight beaming the target area. Weapon #2 finding it's target. Because I grabbed these screen shots after the action at the time I did not know for sure that I had KO'd the launcher. At this point I am 50% confident that I have sanatized that area but I will remain cautious on the second approach to target. The 'H-on-its'side' target identification has me feeling good. Part #2 Fridge _________________________ Things which do you no good in aviation: 1) Altitude above you; 2) Runway behind you; 3) Fuel in the truck; 4) The airspeed you don't have.

n+1th

I have spent the last few hours playing through mission 6 of the A-10 campaign, trying to keep my wingman alive and operational and get him to contribute to the mission without dying. That is proving difficult :-) In other missions it was possible to ask him to complete mission and rejoin, let him launch a couple of weapons (1 or 2 depending on the risk facing us in the missions) and have him rejoin. Basically I could interrupt his AI routines before he over committed himself. Mission 6 was particularly difficult to use him effectively given the enveloping nature of the low level SAM threats. My strategy was to approach from the S and slowly coax the SAMs into revealing their positions, then either knocking them out myself or trying to get him to do it (couldn't ground stabilize in a good place to let him free). Once the S SAMs were dealt with, the SAM or two around the target area (truck page/supply depot) were harder to coax into revealing themselves and asking my wingman to attack always ended with him dying. So. Questions :-) 1) How can I get him (if there is a way) to standoff instead of getting in close to kill the trucks (MAVs instead of cluster/dumb bombs)? 2) On RTB he parks instead of sticking with me to rearm - is there a procedure that someone knows for this? 3) Can I get him to orbit at a waypoint (the only request I can see is for him to resume which does not seem to 'work')? 4) A way to order him to attack air defenses and not have him high tail it to the N to KO the SA-11s that will pwn his arse? Suggestions? Help? Fridge

Yes. You will lose the procedures and, most importantly to any Falcon vet ran, you will lose the dynamic campaign and the fluid battlefield. You have to look at it from a different perspective if you want to enjoy FC2 - something along the lines of a 'lite' sim compared to Falcon. But don't take that the wrong way! I am not trying to knock FC2 but just trying to move your expectations a little. There is a lot of detail that is still there and DCS: Black Shark will keep you on your toes with procedures. When DCS: A-10 comes out, it'll just add to everything you loved about Falcon and with a well designed campaign, although you might still pine for the dynamic campaign, you will do so while enjoying your game time. Fridge

I'll take a look at the tracks after I complete the campaign. They are not executed nearly as neatly as might seem from the way that they are documented here :-). I'll see if I can't find a couple that are relatively straightforward. Fridge

I am not sure how to start this AAR - it pretty much follows the last one. Proper planning during the mission briefing is the order of the day. It is hard not to spend too much time stressing that point because, heck, at the end of the day we all just want to get in there blow some crap up! Once you get airborne and feel the wind in your hair this planning will really pay off. Finding your target, given the ground pounder's love of camouflage and hiding under trees, is a combination of luck and preparation; that all-to-critical briefing can will save the day. You can not rely on friendly assets in the area to hold your hand all of the time and certainly not when they are under fire. For me, finding the target is a 5 step process: Step 1: Study the brief and then head to the mission planner. Identify landmarks and placement of the known units; Step 2: Plan your approach. Take a look at this AAR and note how in the second map screenshot I had moved waypoint 4 to visual approach to the target area. My plan was to use Nav mode to get me to waypoint 4, then to identify the river under that waypoint - same as in Mission #3; Step 3: Walk your eyes to the target area. Once I had the river I knew I could follow it until it right to the target. If you are having problems (like I did in later missions) pause the game and use the mouse look/Track IR system to zoom in and help walking your eyes to the target area; Step 4: Once you have the target area, smoke should be visible or use the TV camera in the AGM-65 Maverick to take a look around. If you have to (don't get too close or overfly the target) do a 180, wait a few minutes, another 180 and repeat the approach. Take your time. Often you will not have the benefit of someone popping smoke on the target - obviously that is going to make it harder but practice will make it easier; Step 5: Get lucky ;-) ; ---- Mission #4 has use targeting some armour units farther north. Given the high level SAMs that have been operating in that specific area, I am going to make good use of the hill cover to keep my arse safe. Well, as safe as I can make it. I have modified the flight plan to allow me to more easily find my way into the target box and I am going to back that up with a little drawing again in case what I see does not match my memory from the briefing. The approach will be from the west and I'll circle off to the south to reset. (I can't remember what that other arrow pointing north was for :-) ). All lined up on the numbers waiting for takeoff permission from the traffic controller. My wingman and I have a little competition to see who can get the closest to the water - he wins. Passing over a forward airfield re-captured airfield that has become active in the past few hours. An Apache flight launches ahead of us, inbound to the east. Here we get down to business. As I approach waypoint #4 I am trying to refine my wingman strategy - hoping to keep him alive and get him into the fight - I ordered him into trail formation (follow the leader). The plan is that I can get eyes on the target, ground stabilize in A2G mode (not with the AGM-65 Maverick TV) on a valid target and set him a specific task. Here we are passing over waypoint #4 and rolling toward the target box. Note the obvious river that we can easily follow. I know that the target is north of the river (where I am in lead) and off the the north-east of the river bend. South of us, parallel to our course the AH-64 Apache flight is encountering some fairly heavy AAA and SAM fire from their south. Back to our flight I get a little surprise - reminding me that the best laid plans always need adjustment. In this case, as you can see in the bottom left insert, the target area is on the rear side of a little hill making my plan to stay really low a challenge. I bump it up a few hundred feet for a better look (lower right insert). Now I honestly can't remember here if the order to my wingman was to 'complete mission and rejoin' or to 'attack my target' but either way he moves to engage - and does do effectively. We both hit our targets and circle off from the hostile area. He pulls north and I pull south. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I think that it splits the attention on our flight in two directions making it harder for the enemy to concentrate fire. I think this is a great idea! Until ... Here I am continuing my 180 turn and, well, look at him all up high there in the top left corner of the screenshot! I am pumping flares/chaff as I have my back turned on the enemy and might not get a quick 6 call. Sure enough that SA-11 site is on it's toes and notices him cresting the hills to their south. Note that the hills in question are low hills and the dull grey mountains are on the south side of the valley we are operating in, giving the SA-11 site a good view into the medium/high altitude areas of a fair portion of our operating theatre. They launch a pair while #2 starts his evasive maneuvers and cleaning up his aircraft. Unfortunately he is just to slow to cause them to burn much of their energy - heck, they are still under powered flight! I watch with that sinking feeling that I am not going to see a chute from this one. I think that his engines kept going for a little bit and not a chute in sight... In retrospect, what I should have done was order him to rejoin as we both pulled off target. As I reviewed the track he extended north for apparent separation from the target area but his RWR must have been screaming at him. In his place he should have dove into that valley we used to approach the target and hope for the best. Back on target I finish off the last two remaining hostiles in the target box. It's a lonely RTB. Coasting over the warning bars ---- So that puts me 4 missions into the campaign and I have RTB'd once with a wingman, had 2 KO'd, and had 1 have to walk back to base after ejecting over the front line (but in a low enemy population area). Tip of the Mission: Control the wingman a little tighter. Get him to rejoin after launching before he wanders off or gets distracted by shiny things. Fridge _________________________ Things which do you no good in aviation: 1) Altitude above you; 2) Runway behind you; 3) Fuel in the truck; 4) The airspeed you don't have.

From my experience there are a couple of things to consider: Step 1: Study the brief and then head to the mission planner. Identify landmarks and placement of the known units; Step 2: Plan your approach. Take a look at the first part of this AAR for mission 3 (http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=52571) and note how in the second map screenshot, I had moved waypoint 4 to visual approach to the target area. My plan was to use Nav mode to get me to waypoint 4, then to identify the river under that waypoint; Step 3: Walk your eyes to the target area. Once I had the river I knew I could follow it until it turned east and there was a bridge near the turn. If you are having problems (like I did in later missions) pause the game and use the mouse look/Track IR system to zoom in and help walking your eyes to the target area. Step 4: Once you have the target area, smoke should be visible or use the TV camera in the AGM-65 Maverick to take a look around. If you have to (don't get too close or overfly the target) do a 180, wait a few minutes, another 180 and repeat the approach. Take your time. Step 5: Get lucky ;-) With regard to SAMs, you are gonna face those at all altitudes. In Falcon 4 I think that you were not 'safe' up past 20,000+ feet. There are SAMs of all shapes and sizes, for all altitudes where the ground pounders feel threatened. In the case of the early missions I tended to stay below 3000 - as long as the SD was flashing it's search mode, use that as a warning. That will protect you from the high threat but don't go too low (under 2500 for some SAMs) that you are in the heart of their engagement zone. That's the toughest really. I got pwned by an optical SA-9 because I was too low and too close to the launcher. On a repeat, 2500 was 'safe' as long as I was about 4nm away. :-) Fridge

Wags, I'll try to take advantage of that info when I get to that mission. :-) Question though, would you still make the dive approach or something a little shallower? Fridge

I'm going to have to catch up to him. I have been thinking of the S-25 campaign as my next challenge!

Nice! Great AAR!

Part I Back on mission the top portion of this shot shows me eyeballing the river I 'flagged' with waypoint #4 (top 2/3 of the shot) and turning to follow it to target. I spent the entire special effects budget on this shot. After passing the hills (under my wingtip in the previous picture I have followed the river to the bridge and it's turn to the west. Red square shows the field of view for the top left insert, green for the bottom left one. It is hard to see but in the top left insert I have moved my 'pipper' (the dashed circle from the CCIP/CCRP bombing mode) over the target area and ground stabilized it, shown in the bottom left insert and highlighted by the small black box). In retrospect I should have put that black box on the main shot as well. This should illustrate how proper planning allowed my to find the targets on the first pass without too much difficulty. I will say that I did use the pause mode and the zoom in to visually lock the pipper on the targets. Again, hats off the to real pilots that can do this for real, even with binoculars it is a tough task that has to be done fast! After ground stabilizing, I ordered my wingman to 'attack air defenses' in the hope that he would do this based on the target area I had defined with the lock. Rifle! Pulling off target to the E (away from the front-line forces that I had noted in the planning section. Inset are the targets of both of my first attempt Mav's. Not that I can not remember if I specifically targeted these outlying vehicles in the hopes of reducing AAA chances or if I just couldn't discern the intended targets or the nice line of them in the Mav view on replay! While circling back for another run, my wingman has headed straight north, overflying the target area and continuing. I am going to assume that he has gone AWOL and is after an air defense asset on the other side of those hills to the north. Either way at this point I issues a 'rejoin' command to get his arse back into this fight instead of find another one! Red box = him, Green box where I want him. In the mean time, F-18 #2 has decided to land at the forward airfield that we captured between mission #2 and this one. The field that was the target of our attentions during mission #1 and #2 is off to the south. In this shot I am trying to 'unlock' and get my pipper back. I tried cycling through the CCIP/CCRP modes and even through different weapons. I had the 'unlock' command assigned to my HOTAS but it was ineffective. After this mission I learned that hitting 'lock' again would unlock it. I am trying to pick a specific target for my wingman My last two AGM-65's find the right targets. I circle back for another pass, wingman in tow. This time I order my wingman to 'complete mission and rejoin'. He must be eager because he wastes no time. That is his first shot. With him directly behind me, his Mav actually flies under me before zooming up. I am 2 feet from being the unintended target! It scared the crap outta me :-) I pull high right, attracting the attention of a SA-11 site off to the north. I am guessing that this is the site he was after when I order the earlier attack on air defenses. Maneuvering and flares/chaff, or possibly because the launcher lost line of sight with me behind the hills. My wingman's shots are relatively effective hitting multiple targets in the target area, including a number of AAA guns (which is what I hoped he would do with the first order). The only problem? He turns left instead of right (his own fault I guess). The same SA-11 that opened on me moments ago turns it's attention on him. Not a problem, in an of itself except that he is about to fly over a smaller SAM similar to the one that KO'd the F-18 earlier. The approach of the first SAM (SA-9 I think). The first one has hit and is followed by a second. In the first panel (left) the two trails are actually from the same SAM - which has a second stage that it ignites. Middle panel is just before the impact and the last panel is the hit (of SAM #2). Above, SAM #3 reaches up to touch someone - him. And, finally, SAM #4 finishes him off. A testimonial to either his luck of the ruggedness of the A-10 (or maybe the SAM is an air-burst only weapon?), he is able to punch out. Given how fast this all happened (less that a minute or two) he may have been trying to punch out after SAM #2 hit. After SAM #1 he had dumped his ordinance. At this point I am out of AGM-65's and I am unsure about the AAA threat over the target area. I RTB, reload and return to the target. I finish off both Artillery pieces and spot a trio of trucks - which the Avenger takes easy care of. I decide to RTB north of the foothills and keep my eyes open for targets of opportunity. Sure enough one comes along Here is where the 'in mission' planning comes along. I am not sure if he has not shot at me yet because I surprised him or if he is busily turning weapons to bear. I pull hard left away from him and decide to circle around behind a hill that will allow me to approach him with my weapons aligned to be effective. I am in the red box and I pull around the hill to the left (red line) coming out the other side along the green line and directly toward the target. Inset pictures show the Avenger cannon run (top right) and overflying the target (bottom left). Turns out this was the guy who downed #2. I get shot at by a T-72 and use my last MAV on him. I figured that since I had seen the SA-9 so late and he had not fired at me that he must have been out of ammo and was not worth the -65. A long mission! <RTB screen shot removed due to a forumn limit to 20> ---- And a long AAR. Sorry for the number of shots and the length of the post. Let me know if it is too much. I am aiming for less that 25 shots in a post :-) In case anyone is wondering: the mission was about an hour long, replay (for screen shots, etc) was about 1.5 hours, 3 hours in post production (cropping, merging, etc) and another 2 hours writing one up. Whew! Fridge PS: Sorry for the split - total post was over 17500 characters and there is a 15000 limit! _________________________ Things which do you no good in aviation: 1) Altitude above you; 2) Runway behind you; 3) Fuel in the truck; 4) The airspeed you don't have.

Proper planning is key to any endeavour, whether military or having breakfast. Without proper planning you might find yourself short of milk, low on eggs or shot down flying over territory you could have sworn was solidly in friendly hands. I am not trying to ignore the other complicated and stressful aspects of flying a combat aircraft into a war zone but planning is one of those necessary skills pulled out of the tool box both before flying the mission and in adapting to the fluid nature of dropping bombs on bad guys. I am neither a real pilot or military person. My knowledge is limited to what I have gathered in pouring over books, AARs and pilot accounts of action and what I have witnessed and 'survived' in the virtual realm. My only qualification for that statement is to profess the unwavering respect that I have for real life combat pilots. The number of times I have tried to go 'head down' in Falcon 4's rendition of the F-16 Fighting Falcon cockpit, in a vain attempt to locate a ground target and hit it before I end up 50 kilometers past where I should be, has given me an intense respect for the intelligence and skill of those pilots who can work that magic. Thus, I try to do as much planning as I can (remember to do) before the mission. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not work. Let me point you to two SimHQ articles written by Andy Bush that are extgremely helpful: - Combat Mission Planning Considerations, Part One - Initial Planning - Combat Mission Planning Considerations, Part Two - Ingress, Attack, and Egress ---- Since Mission #2 the front lines have been pushed back. Enemy forces have been retreating up the valley and giving a good fight. In their rear areas self propelled artillery pieces have set up shop and have been providing on-call support to enemy infantry forces trying to hold the line. Well, we can't have that now can we :-) Mission #3 tasks our two-ship of A-10A's with the removal of this critical piece of equipment. Now I have a history of not being able to find the bad guys as quick as I need without the involvement of various helpers. In the last two missions we had two aids: 1) a clear terrain feature at the objective - the airfield; 2) and help on the ground when some poor ground pounder popped smoke. This time I am not taking a change on a smoke marker and from the single recon photo we have, it looks like any other spot on the map. Take a close look at waypoints #3 and #4. Waypoint #5 is clear as the immediate target location, so I am going to leave that one there in case I need it as a reference point en-route. Note also the locations of the front line troops that we have recon info for. Keep in mind the FLOT (Forward Line of Troops - from Falcon 4 terms) and where bad guys might be and have local AAA defenses. Now I am of the mind that I need two additional aids. First, there is no way that I am going to recognize that little square field with trees and buildings around it. That is just not going to happen. In my case I am pulling out a small pad of paper and a pencil and sketching it. Yeah... Well, it makes sense to me! ;-) The box is the target area, TTT is where I expect to see the artillery pieces (I was thinking Tank at the time - as in Tank body). You can see the trees/building areas N and W of the target, the road running through the target box and the river and city to the S. Second, I need a way to walk my eyes to that target box. There is no way that I am going to be able to pick that out from the cockpit while maneuvering around and avoiding getting my arse shot down. Here I have moved waypoint #4 up to the river and will turn west and run south of the target box. Note the bridge that crosses the river before it turns to the west. I am going to leave waypoint #3 in place and use it as my 'fence' checkpoint - normally, in Falcon 4 that would be where I would start setting switches, weapon modes and tune in the cool TV stations on those MFDs in preparation of ground attack mode. In the A-10, well I am already there (and I am looking forward to DCS:A-10 which will add this complexity to the operations). So the plan here, before climbing in to the cockpit is to say in the hills to the south of the valley where I can try dipping into a valley to avoid a significant AAA threat. I am also aware that there could be 'insurgents' in them there hills but that is a chance that I am going to have to take. It is either that or the open fields of the valley floor. We are ready to go! Turning north and toward waypoint #2 after taking off of runway 31 (E-W and not that obvious smaller runway below). During the mission I saw an explosion off to the north while flying from waypoint #2 to #3. Checking this area out on the replay shows a two-ship of F-18's from the Bulldogs (bah, I can't remember the CVN (Harry Truman?) they are flying from - should have written that down!). I wouldn't call this a 'flattering' shot of the F-18 but I am flying a Hog so I'll just keep my mouth shut :-) Soon enough they start maneuvering heavily and I find out why... Two pairs of SA-11's (I think) per F-18. Should be interesting (for me sitting a looong way away and not invested in this fight). I'll diverge may attention from my mission for a little and follow this fight. It is over just as I hit waypoint #3 so you will not miss anything and I am safe in the Officers Club sipping coffee and reviewing the footage :-) Both F-18's break into the missiles, one going high and the other diving for the deck. Obviously they had started this manouver before I grabbed the screen shots of the SA-11's in flight, hence the way both pairs of SA-11's shown above have obviously branched after their intended targets. Both F-18s shake their pursuers and the following shot shows a competent AI pilot forcing the SA-11 pair to keep pulling lead and lose all of their energy. At this distance, the odds of survivability are increased but both of these F-18's have aborted their mission by (rightfully) dropping their ordinance. A shot of both SA-11's in this pair detonating because they lost their lock. The other F-18 successfully evaded it's pair as well. The odd thing here is that both F-18's continue on their previous course (I assume to complete their missions) but without their weapons! I reserve the right to withdraw that previous 'competent' label :-) Here F-18 #1 gets tagged by an AAA gun. Note in the third panel the smaller SAM launch (SA-9 maybe?) and his/her flaming #1 engine. As my A-10 flight approaches waypoint #3 we receive a target update from Pointer - no smoke this time. Unfortunately F-18 #1 is unable to avoid the SAM and F-18 #2 gets engine #2 tagged by the AAA fire (top left) while #1 is apparently unable to eject and plows into a field (bottom left). Fortunately, F-18 #2 gets the engine fire under control and has maneuvered to egress the area. Here is a shot of a bad angle SAM launch (same launcher that bagged #1) Bottom to top you can see how the SAM never has the energy get to the flight level of #2 while it extends away. This was a low PK (Probability of Kill) shot by the SAM on the departing F-18 that kept it's energy up. Part I

The point of doing AARs, for yourself or to share with others, is to offer up as a learning experiences - what you may have done right and what you most certainly have done wrong. Think of it as an investigation into how you performed the mission or discourse on how it could be done better. In this case I am still learning the sim, let alone proper A-10 tactics on how to attack a target and stay alive in an hostile environment. And I have to state that I appreciate the campaign designers choice (intentional or not) to ease you into A-10 operations without kicking your arse off the mark. No hoard of MANPADs right from the jump, just an achievable goal. A-10 Campaign Mission #2 for me is a repeat of Mission #1. I know that there is some variability built into the campaign engine in DCS and I am ok with repeating the mission; I just imagine some general on the other side thinking that a particular location is important enough to risk a second tank platoon on. You would think that after reading BeachAV8R's account of this mission (here) and going through the mission once myself, that I would walk through this mission with ease... ---- Mission #2 looks surprisingly like Mission #1. I am not sure if the campaign makes you repeat missions if you miss a key trigger but I swear on my life I hear the 'Mission Completed' message and saw the text the first time through this one. :-) The plan is the same as before - strike the units at the airfield and use the beach/bay area as a safe point. My A-10 from Mission #1 was in maintenance when the frag order came down so I ended up borrowing one of the A-10s from our European allies. Here I am wheels up and overflying the airfield on my way north. Note the 'odd' paint scheme but in these shots you can see how it does make the A-10 less visible to the Mark-I eyeball that might be looking down from above. Thundering in on target at low altitude - this probably a mistake that will cost me in the later missions. Although at low altitude I am protected from the higher altitude SAM threats you have to keep your head on a swivel for AAA, MANPADs and other low altitude launched SAMs. Unfortunately at this point I am still struggling to get my wingman to cooperate. This will 'improve' in later missions (which I will document then along with the technique that I used in the mission). For now, this struggle has me too close to the ZSU-23 sitting on the airfield. Lucky for me the Zeus takes aim at my wingman instead of me. Note the result of the bad angle ejection - that is most likely my fault as flight lead for being so low that it did not give the poor guy a chance. Mental note that although this was my wingman, it could have easily been me and I would have faired no better with no altitude to work with (see my sig). Circling back around, following the attack plan, I attempt to avenge my wingman. [NOTE to ED: You can see how some of the textures are showing through the Maverick launch plume - not a big deal of course but it's well illustrated here :-)] Mistake on my part here. Instead of taking down the obvious AAA gun in the middle of the airfield I opted for one of the tanks, got myself too close for comfort and ended up with a few extra holes. Tip of the Day #1: Silence the AAA first! This mistake cost me my hydraulics for the mission. Since I still had most of my MAVs I opted to try to stay in the fight. Not a 'bad' decision but again I ended up too close. I should have adjusted to a higher altitude and longer standoff distance. At this point the -23 was burning but that T-72 ended up striking a fuel tank and starting a leak. Note: I did not notice the leak at the time, only on the replay. Obviously I am not paying enough attention to the fuel gauge - this will become evident later :-) TotD #2: At low altitude anyone with a pea shooter can ruin your day. On my RTB - out of Mavericks and with my hydraulics toast I did not want to get any closer. I headed home to reload some MAVs and finish the mission. Back at base rearming. I did glance at the fuel gauge when I was rearming and I noted that I was at about 30% fuel. I had it brought up to about 75%, hoping that the extra weight would not mess with the flight controls. Of course the hydraulic leak would probably have grounded my A-10 but I took a chance and returned to the mission. [Note to ED: Once you power down your engines, the leak disappears but upon starting them up again (which is the procedure I am using when I RTB to rearm) the leak did not return.] Note to pilots out there: I could not find an option for someone in the ground crew to tinker with the hydraulics or hand me some duct tape :-) Back on target I had the unfortunate luck to lock up a moving fuel truck on my first pass instead of the remaining tank. That unfortunate truck driver incident is in the inset picture with the main picture showing me destroying that last tank on a second pass. TotD #3: Verify your target. Now I should have just called it a day here. But being in a virtual cockpit instead of a real one you are usually more willing to chance your life on a gamble - it's an ego hit instead of a mortal one. I had a pair of MAVs left so I thought about the AAA guns operating off to the west. I figured that I could stand off far enough away to take at least one of them out. TotD #4: AGM-65 Mavericks can get distracted by fire in the background. Can anyone confirm this behavior or were the MAV's just getting distracted by the buildings? I had my first MAV finish off one of the buildings that was on fire. The second was a struggle to get a lock. When I did I was fairly close but it was not unmanageable. If this had been planned I would recommend a different approach: more of an E to W run instead of a S to N run, which would have taken me along the row of buildings instead of toward them, allowing the -23's to get lost in the background ground clutter. Now my instinct here is to put the -23 on my beam where my speed, maneuvering (even with my hydraulics out) and distance would be an asset and not make it too difficult. My problem was in turning right instead of left. If you can picture this: there were two other ground units deployed in an L formation, now I can't rotate that L to effectively show you but the -23 I attacked was at the was at the 'top' of the L and there were two other ZSU-23s (part of other ground units), one directly W of the first (ZSU-23 #2) and the other SW (ZSU-23 #3). that's an L laid on the ground running E to W to S. By turning right I and turned into the corner of the L. Chronologically these shots go from top left to top right, then bottom left to bottom right. Top left is ZSU-23 #1 taking a shot (no idea if my MAV got him after this shot or not as I was busy maneuvering). Top right is the ZSU-23 #3 shooting, followed by ZSU-23 #2 in the bottom left and both @3 and #3 firing in the bottom right shot. I thought I was dead! TotD #5: When going after targets of opportunity, remember your briefing and the locations of all known hostile threats. Don't turn toward them when in trouble! Sure enough, both my engines flamed out as soon as I had put #2 and #3 behind me (on my 7-8). At the time I thought I had gotten shot from behind from those unexpected gunners but, during the replay you can see that in the inset image I have two Caution lights lit: I was out of fuel! Remember that T-72 from way back that tagged me with his 12.7mm antiaircraft (I had to look that up, I thought it was going to be the 7.62mm instead). TotD #6: Watch (scan) your gauges! I turned toward the coast but again, my low altitude was working against me. I had to punch out before I was clear of possible collateral damages from the stricken airframe impacting Mother Earth. Although I narrowly missed this house, I am sure that in the end the fire would have taken it out too. I would like to take a moment to point out the excellent animation of your pilot during the election sequence. Hats off the ED for this! Mission Accomplished (even with a pretty high cost)! ---- On the plus side I think that this can easily illustrate why AAR's are important - even if you just take a few minutes to play back the track and accelerate to all of the good stuff. It is very easy to critique yourself and see where and what you might have done wrong (AAA threat, moving target, turning toward the enemy instead of away). Coming up next: the Mission #3 and #4 AARs (late tonight, tomorrow and/or over the weekend) as I take to the sky for Mission #5 on Friday! In Mission #3 and #4 I try to control my wingman more; with him surviving longer, but not by much :-) Fridge _________________________ Things which do you no good in aviation: 1) Altitude above you; 2) Runway behind you; 3) Fuel in the truck; 4) The airspeed you don't have.

Thanks guys! I will be starting Mission #5 on Friday and posting Missions #2 & #3 this evening. They are both in 'post production' and trying to make me look better :-) Wags: I'll turn up that setting for the next mission (#5) and see how it goes. Thanks for the suggestion.

Ok. I am going to take a stab at this. A couple of caveats first though: I am not as good a pilot as BeachAV8R, I ain't as humourous as Dart and I certainly am not as witty as either (at least when put together). [Note: I originally wrote this for posting on the http://simhq.com forums where both Dart and BeachAV8R are household names :-)] A little history first. I have my roots in Falcon 4 but I made extensive use of the freeze/pause feature to work all the knobs and switches (although technically the seeds were planted back in the XT EGA days with Microsoft Flight Simulator they did not blossom until 1998). This means that I am well intentioned but not exactly swift at the cockpit chore list and doing my laundry in the right order. I tend to get distracted by the flashy bits and let my ADHD run a little wild. Falcon frustrated me a fair bit. I always felt the need to do the full startup sequence but the game would usually crash when I was on a successful mission or stay stable enough for me to die :-). I think that we have all been there. And that was the start to my unhealthy addiction to flight sims. After a short break and a short time in Black Shark, where I was too afraid to strap into that baby and get my arse shot all to heck, I had a hankering for some fast mover action. The crew at DCS obliged by offering up a 'port' of Flaming Cliffs into the DCS engine. Couple that with BeachAV8R's excellent AAR's and I felt ok falling back off the wagon. So here we are, flying my first Campaign since sometime in the middle of Falcon 4: Allied Force's release. It felt ... frustrating to work my flight gear over in an attempt to get everything mapped right ... but when the wheels were up and my A-10 was airborne in the navigation training mission I felt right at home. Enough of the verbiage. Lets get on with the Mission and AAR! ---- My first mission was a typical one that I had read about before. Up north of our airbase a group of enemy tanks were preparing to engage and prohibit the movement of our forces into that area. We were tasked with removing that threat I kept the default loadout, wheels up and executed a 270 degree turn to target: being in the habit of giving my wingman time to get sorted and join up for the move north. Short enough into the mission to realize just how close this airfield is to the action we get our note from Pointer I love this aspect of the sim - it immerses you right into the action! We get spiked by a search radar off to the North West so we will keep it low and stay out of any launch envelope it might have. Moving further into the target area some poor bugger hiding in a bush next to the airfield has to draw attention to himself by popping smoke. That makes the job much easier and at this low altitude anything to reduce my workload is a bonus! I line up on the first target, struggle to get my wingman to do anything and get of my first live shot of the action. I pop flares as I pull away from getting myself too close. I know that there are probably no SAMs with those tanks but I am not taking chances. I see the AAA fire reaching up at me. Feet wet off to the west of target I look to circle back for another pass. Rifle! Pulling off to the South West, past some burning buildings and giving the people in the office towers/apartment complexes something to think about. Circling around to the South East I pick up a spike on the RWR from a AAA gun. I put it on my left side and look for the tracer fire to give away it's position. I get distracted and feel the need to quiet him down. Back to the target at hand, I am out of MAV's and since the AAA gun on the field has been silenced (not the same one as the picture above) I decide to try a rocket pass. My old squadmates in JG52 in World War II Online would appreciate how well I outline the armour in rocket fire instead of hitting him! :-) So, it falls to a pair of Mk82's: I think that they are 82's - the low drag gravity bombs. ... bah the number is not important! I think I am having a Dart moment ... Here's a pretty picture: Pulling off the target, not a direct hit but close enough to destroy him with the shock-wave. Job complete I overfly the FLOT on my RTB. This is probably not a good idea as those self propelled howitzers are lobbing shells close enough to my flight path to have me wondering how detailed they might be modeled :-) Interesting enough, passing the same buildings on fire as a previous shot, you cna make out the train waiting to be unloaded carrying it's military hardware.Talk about deploying it right on the front lines! Crossing the warning lines at the end of runway 13 - a successful, relatively low stress mission. ---- All in all I am liking FC2 and the A-10. Being a mud mover has it's thrills and I am actually glad that I do not have to handle the switchology required for something like Falcon 4, or DCS: Black Shark. Don't get me wrong, I look forward to getting back in that saddle again soon, but as an 'entry level' into a complex and difficult sim this approach is a welcome introduction that I think beginners will appreciate (without getting overwhelmed). I am looking forward to the dedicated A-10 module for DCS in the coming months (and years :-) ). Fridge PS: This is my first attempt at an AAR. If the images are messed up, incorrect or not to spec I will attempt to address them ASAP. ----------- Things which do you no good in aviation: 1) Altitude above you; 2) Runway behind you; 3) Fuel in the truck; 4) The airspeed you don't have.

I was having a problem directing my wingman to attack my target when I had a target locked with a MAV. A helpful user on another board suggested that I try the A2G mode associated with the free fall weapons. This allowed me to maneuver a dashed circle around to a ground unit showing in the HUD and 'Ground Stabalize'/Lock up that location. Ordering my wingman to attack my target now seemed to work. However (you knew that was coming didn't you :-) ) I have been unable to 'unlock' that location and return to the moveable dashed circle. Can anyone help me and point out which bit of information I am missing? Also, is this process the accepted/intended way to get a wingman/flight to attack a certain target area or is there a better/correct way that this can be accomplished? Fridge

Part 3 is up now.

Well I was able to set the NAV POS in my custom mission. I added a Nav point to a bridge that was enroute to my target area and used that plus the Shkval to set it. Very cool.

Return to Base Using Route Mode or Route Without Task? Do either of these fit? I have seen the message in a Mission I am building but I have been in neither of those two modes.

Can anyone explain what the EKRAN system is complaining about? I can not find anything in the manual about the message other than the reference on page 2-32. It sounds to me like the INS needs to be updated with a correct nav position but I have no idea how to do this (procedure). Anyone have an idea? (Cross-posted from SimHQ)

I like this skins but does anyone else see them as 'too green'? or Too bright? They seem to stand out more than blend in - then again we sent our troops to Afghanistan wearing them in the desert areas :-)

Can this skin be added to/with Modman?