Yoda967

Abu Musa and Greater Tunb islands are good places to start. Possession of the islands are under dispute by Iran and the UAE (Iran seized them in 1971), and both have airfields and pretty substantial military presence. There's a Hawk site (presently empty) on Abu Musa. Looking at Google Earth, I found 16 AAA sites on Abu Musa and 12 on Greater Tunb. You could put pretty much anything you wanted for ground forces on either island and be correct, so long as you stick to what Iran has in their inventory.

At the moment, comms with JOHN C STENNIS are on 127.50 FM. As for UHF/VHF radio, this link might be helpful: http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/mtMilVHF.html

I'll add my praise to the growing chorus, too. The Hornet is one helluva piece of software! It's the details that show how much thought has been put into this thing -- like the burned CRT in the left DDI. Just brilliant!

There's always the KC-130. Or, you know, the 75 minute flight deck cycle.:smilewink:

Stefan, Nikola's right: You might be hearing the radar altimeter alert. You should only hear it for a couple seconds on final as you pass through 200 feet. As for pro tips, my flight instructor drove this home every chance he got: pitch controls airspeed, throttle controls rate of climb and descent. As Habu says, it takes plenty of practice to get a feel for how the FA-18C handles. I took a two-step approach to getting that feel: 1. I practiced transitioning to the landing configuration at 5,000 feet, away from the carrier and the field. I kept doing that until I felt confident with it. Jabbers' "no math" approach didn't really help me that much, and I had a hard time until I read a note in the NATOPS about knowing the target speed for your approach. The math is simple: A jet with no stores and 2,000 lbs of gas has an approach speed of 125 KIAS, and for each 1,000 pounds of stores and fuel above that, you add 2.5 KIAS. The FA-18C in DCS has an empty weight of 25,642 lbs, so plus 2,000 lbs of fuel means that at 27,642 lbs, your target approach speed is 125 KIAS at 8.1 degrees AOA. Let's say you're entering the pattern at 31,700 pounds -- your target speed will be 135 KIAS (4,000 extra pounds of stores and fuel at 2.5 KIAS per thousand gives you an additional 10 KIAS). Practice that...look at your weight on the checklist page of the DDI and practice the math, too. 2. I then did touch and goes at an airfield with touchdown markers (those broad white stripes on each side of the runway about 1500 feet from the threshold). Make two circuits around the field for each touchdown. The first circuit should begin at 350 KIAS and 800 feet above the field to set up the break turn, and focus on getting that turn right. Wags' VFR approach video is a must watch for this. Put the VV between the touchdown markers and keep it there. Use throttle to control your descent rate. As soon as your nose wheel is down, go to full throttle and half flaps, and take off again. Do it over and over, until you feel comfortable. This works for me because a runway isn't an angle deck that's driving slightly sideways away from me while I'm on final...I can work on my flying skill before I add in the mind bending visual of that moving deck. It's a realistic practice, too. Thirty-five years ago, when I was doing pattern work in a Cessna at NAS Glenview, I shared the pattern with a visiting USAF F-16. He was doing two circuits for every one of mine. Once you start nailing those touchdown markers every time, go back out to the boat and see how your landing passes look. Keep at it, sir. Good luck!

No, he was already expected to bring the jet back safely. In this case, he burned the fuel that should have been brought back aboard, and that had to be replaced, costing the taxpayer MORE money. ;-)

No, you don't need A/A enabled to receive the carrier TACAN. In ME, check the TACAN channel set for the carrier. As stated above, it defaults to 1X, but you can set it to anything you like. (I set JOHN C STENNIS to 27X, and the identifier (below the channel selection in ME) to "JCS" (no quotes). To read the TACAN, I then perform the following steps on the UFC: 1. Press the TCN button 2. Observe that T/R option is marked with a ":" (if not, press the 1st option button) 3. Press the ON/OFF button 4. Observe that "ON 1" shows up in the UFC scratchpad. 5. Press CLEAR 6. Press 2 7. Press 7 8. Press ENTER 9. Press the 4th option button to mark the X with a ":" 10. On the HSI, upper left corner, observe that the selected TCN station information is displayed. The TCN selection does not need to be boxed on the HSI unless you want to display the TACAN navigation cues in the HUD.

Master Arm on?

Nufsed, If you're unable to move the throttles during a cold start, try Rshift+Home and Ralt+Home. These are the default keybindings that move the throttles to idle from shutdown.

Thanks, Cofcorpse. If it helps, the slider button on the right throttle of the Saitek X55 TQ is an ON-OFF switch. What seems like it would work is a setting that allows for ON=EXTENDED/OFF=RETRACTED. Sorry if you already understood that. Just hoping to be as clear as possible.

Lightning, Yeah, a toggle doesn't sound helpful. I did find a couple for the flaps (AUTO/HALF and FULL/HALF) so it would make sense to have a speed brake setting (OUT/OFF or something). Hopefully, we'll find something that works. EDIT: Hey, Lightning -- there's another thread with a guy looking for a way to get a 2-position switch to work for his landing gear (https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=210309) and that approach looks like it might work for the speed brakes. The variable would have to be changed, of course, but it looks promising.

I'm still piecing together my control setup, but have you looked in the "Special for Joystick" section? That has quite a few ON/OFF settings, and my plan for after work is to look for a speed brake setting there for that BTN35 on the X55 TQ.

I was thinking the same thing. An SA-15 wouldn't be out of place either.

The list I posted covers the detailed area of the map, and Kharg Island is well outside that. I didn't include it, for that reason, but as I recall, there is at least a prepared site, even if the Hawk system itself isn't present. The Abu Musa Hawk site is empty. According to multiple sources, Iran does have the S300PMU2 (NATO designation SA-20), which was delivered by the Russians in 2010. In 2016, Iran unveiled their reverse-engineered version of the S300.

The Mission Builder's Corner forum has some great info, and this thread might have the info you're looking for: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=209140

This is what I have within the bounds of the PG map, with data from 2010 or so. There are a number of EW sites that I'll add later today. IRAN SA-5 Site 27-15-01.79N 056-23-16.85E 1x SQUARE PAIR 5N62, 2x 5P72 launchers HAWK site 27-13-37.80N 056-19-53.05E HAWK guidance set, 1 three-rail launcher HQ-2 Site 27-10-17.36N 056-10-22.48E 1x ZD-2 GIN SLING, 6 launch rails, 3 support TETs HAWK Site 25-52-20.23N 055-02-31.27E Empty HAWK site 26-48-20.49N 053-16-50.37E Empty UAE PATRIOT Site 24-13-36.20N 054-34-33.18E 2x AN/MPQ-53/65, 12 Launcher TELs HAWK site 24-45-28.18N 054-45-25.39E HAWK guidance set, 3x three-rail launchers HAWK site 24-46-23.65N 054-43-27.50E Empty HAWK site 24-40-31.29N 054-41-18.34E HAWK guidance set, 3x three-rail launchers HAWK site 24-26-39.49N 054-31-32.70E HAWK guidance set, 2x three-rail launchers HAWK site 24-23-00.56N 054-13-05.49E HAWK guidance set, 2x three-rail launchers HAWK site 24-19-15.84N 054-40-02.59E HAWK guidance set, 3x three-rail launchers HAWK site 24-13-12.12N 054-37-03.87E HAWK guidance set, 3x three-rail launchers HAWK site 24-13-26.75N 054-28-48.11E HAWK guidance set, 3x three-rail launchers

This is a good place to start: http://geimint.blogspot.co.uk/2007/09/iranian-sam-network.html I've had a global SAM site overlay on Google Earth for several years, but I don't remember where I got it at the moment. If I can find the source, I'll post it, or just post locations of what's active RW within the PG map boundaries.