JimMack

Here is a bit of history of someone who had problems with deflection shooting. Clive Caldwell was the top WW2 Australian ace. He served first in the desert with P40s. In his first missions, he just could not shoot down EA due to lack of deflection shooting skills. Flying back from a sortie, very low, he noticed that his leader had a distinct shadow on the desert floor. He therefore "attacked" the shadow from various angles, noting where the bullets hit the desert relative to the shadow. The technique became standard training in the Australian Air Force - more effective than shooting at a drogue. You can try it in DCS:P51. Create a mission where the sun is at an angle (at midday, the shadow is under the leader and mistakes can happen!). Find an area that is flat, and set season to winter as the shadow shows up better on the snow.

I agree - my 6 year old grandson loves game mode and can keep him happy for 30 minutes. Anything to keep him occupied and thinking and not sitting in front of the TV is good news!

Yep - compare the detail of the Caucasus in DCS with the detail in FSX!

I see many posts on all the forum sections about Air Combat Maneuvering. Many questions are asked time and time again. The answers are in the "Bible", for 1stWW, 2ndWW, and modern aircraft. Fighter Combat - by Robert L. Shaw http://www.amazon.com/Fighter-Combat-Maneuvering-Robert-Shaw/dp/0870210599/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343309845&sr=1-1&keywords=fighter+combat You might like to look at the other 2 books on the Amazon link. Flying combat in a flight sim is more difficult than real life, because you do not have the cues the body gives, onset of G, the feeling in your body that you are slipping or sliding in a turn, etc etc It is essential to have "soft hands". Use finger tip control on the joystick. Pulling excessive G just bleeds off speed. Learn how to download (-G) and disengage to get into a better position with higher energy.

Hi Yo-Yo This needs to go into the manual - both Quickstart, and the main manual. Can you arrange with Asso, Chizh etc?

Great to see you back Rich - you have been missed!

You will have to wait for final release code.

There have been so many great videos created for Flaming Cliffs, Black Shark and A10C that is difficult to create a top ten. For me, one of my top favourites is Frazer flying an aerobatic display in the Black Shark. The reason that it is a favourite is not only that Frazer is one of the best virtual display pilots that the community has, but that the video is very instructive in the display of the 3 views:- - External - Pilot's view - Cockpit view - so you can see how the controls are being moved in a manoeuvre. I would be very interested in seeing a similar video with the P51D in an aerobatic display - rolls, hesitation rolls, loops (accurate - no egg shapes), barrel rolls etc. As a point of trivia: Some of you may have seen at Flying Legends Stephan Grey flying the Bearcat as the "joker" at the end of the display. Once he enters the display at a high speed pass, he never touches the throttle. He plans his display so that he is trading speed for height, and then height for speed. You really have to know the aircraft characteristics to get it right! See For displaying a P51 in current air displays, you do not want to strain either the engine or airframe. A typical maximum for vertical manoeuvres would be 47 inch manifold, with 2,700 rpm, and not exceeding 4G, reducing to 40 inch and 2,500 rpm for horizontal manoeuvres. Fuel will be at half tank. Of course - in the 2ndWW no one bothered about limits!

If you do not know about it, there are a number of videos here about the Su25 http://flankertraining.com/ironhand/a2g.htm

A JTAC would be under cover and camouflaged. The only way to simulate this is to make him invisible.

Quote for US WW2 training: "At the beginning of the war, flight training lasted nine months, with three months of primary, three months of basic, and three months of advanced training. Each pilot had 65 flying hours of primary training and 75 hours of both basic and advanced training. During the war, each phase was reduced first to 10 weeks and then to nine weeks. Primary training was accomplished in aircraft such as the PT-17, PT-19, PT-22 and PT-23 while basic training took place in mostly in the BT-9, BT-13, BT-14 and BT-15. Advanced training for fighter pilots took place in the AT-6, and training for multi-engine aircraft occurred in the AT-9 and AT-10 aircraft. The AT-11 was used to train bombardiers and navigators. " Also see http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/raf-pilot-training-ww2-26347.html In summary - a pilot had 260 hours of flight time training before being qualified to fly a WW2 aircraft into combat. In the UK, to get your ppl in a simple aircraft - the requirements are:- "Applicants for a Private Pilot Licence must be at least 17 years old, hold a valid JAR-FCL Class 2 Medical Certificate, and have met the specified practical and theoretical training requirements laid down in JAR-FCL. This presently includes 7 written theory examinations, completing at least 45 hours' flying training, including 10 hours' solo flying, 5 hours' solo 'cross-country' flying and at least one solo flight of not fewer than 150 nautical miles with full-stop landings at two or more different aerodromes other than the aerodrome of departure" It rather puts it all into perspective about the experience needed to fly a P51!!

For those thinking of building missions for DCS:Combined Arms. The addition of land mines has been available since Black Shark. Not really used in missions. However, with DCS:Combined Arms, this could be an important addition/problem!

You know too well my mantra - "how do you eat an elephant - bite by bite!"

Actually the concept was first proposed in 1985 by Gilman Louie and myself when Mirrorsoft acquired Spectrum Holobyte and we prepared a business plan including the concept for the acquisition, and then launched Falcon, Mig29 and M1 Tank (I still have the original business plan somewhere!). I was then in development charge of Flanker in 1993 for Mindscape/SSI (not Carl), and discussed the concept with ED. We reckoned it would take 20 years to achieve fully. We are still not there. As usual, I am always too optimistic about the rate of technology change!

A point about control very close to the stall speed. If you get a slight wing drop, correct with rudder and not aileron. The reason is that the increased drag with aileron on the wing can stall the wing. This not only applies to the P51D - the Phantom F4 was notorious in this respect, as a few crashes at Da Nang in Vietnam can testify. This vid has been posted before -

This has been available for a number of years. It was introduced for military versions to simulate IEDs in Afghanistan.

Do not worry - we are working on the AI for final release, to make them human rather than super-human!

A very comprehensive and insightful reply. I wish we had thought of it and made it a sticky! It might reduce the amount of "noise" on the forums. As well as developing the software, we do read the forums every day! Regarding the Mustang. I think some people do not appreciate the significance. We have proved we can model fixed wing jets, and rotary wing. The third "leg of the stool" is prop aircraft, which obviously have completely different characteristics to jets. It opens up opportunities for modern prop aircraft, Pilatus, Tuscano etc.

Nor would I, as my Father, as the RN maintenance test pilot accepted our T20 aircraft from the manufacturer in February 1952 at RNAS Anthorne! I hope to fly it this season - as second pilot.

RIAT is next weekend 7/8 July. Flying Legends is this weekend!

I have tested the current beta new code with G940 and it works fine. Nice early warning of an impending accelerated stall!

Slight problem, to release as a free product into retail. Why should retail stock it? We can release free to the download market.

Before lunch and flying starts, I think we will all be around No 2 Hanger. If not Chris, has my mobile no, so let us meet up!

Only 1. Any more would double the chances of seeing the bugs that still exist :-)

We need to get a final release candidate. Then submit to PEGI, ESRB and USK for age rating. Then go to manufacturing. I would say about 2 months after release candidate. For the manufactured version only, it is planned to include a 45 minute video - Roaring Glory Warbirds - P51 Mustang.