ESzczesniak

Exactly! Real life has much greater resolution than a computer monitor. No pilot strafes through binoculars, but they also have the advantage of nearly infinite resolution. This is similar to zooming in so you can read the numbers on the HUD. In real life, the resolution is much better and the HUD is establised so that any pilot (20/20 vision) can read the text. I have 20/20 vision and can't read the text unless zoomed in a little bit.

The key to good landings is comfort with the aircraft. Civillian traffic patterns/landing tend to be much more conservative than military and my recommendation would be to start with these as a guideline. In these cases, the default traffic pattern altitude (can be changed specific to the airport) is 1000' AFE (above field elevation). Make 90 degree turns from upwind to crosswind to downind and to base. Your downwind leg should take you 5-6 NM past the touchdown zone before turning to base (you can calculate the exact distance from trigonometry...I'm on beer #6, so I'll defer until tomorrow.). I tend to make my turn from base to final 60 degrees to give me a chance to refine my intercept of the runway centerline. Once established on final your descent angle is 3.0 to 3.5 degrees (depending on runway) and you fly this in to touchdown. As others have stated, this becomes not only second nature, but flown entirely looking outside (i.e. no instruments...other than say AOA indexer). The key is repitition to get a solid sense of what the view outside the window should look like. Once you start to get this view, you'll find you can roll out on final 1-2 NM from touchdown at 300' AFE and nail the landing. My recommendation for getting this feeling? Push yourself to the limits. If you have FSX, fly some full protocol carrier traffic patterns (this really pushes you to fly AOA instead of airspeed...flying off of airspeed is a bad habit). If you don't have FSX, well you can still kind of fly it in DCS. The carrier traffic pattern starts at the initial point that is 3 NM before you touchdown point. You fly over this point at 250 kts and 800' AFE. After passing the touchdown point, you make a 180 degree turn (essentially eliminating your crosswind leg) to your downwind. In this turn you should be slowing to landing speed (and in carrier patterns, dropping the hook) and descending to 600' AFE. When abeam your touchdown point (it is 90 degrees to your left) you should have flaps down and be on AOA for landing at 600' AFE. Approximately 1 NM past the touchdown point (about 3/4 NM for carriers...the carrier moves) you start another 180 degree turn to line up for final (elimiating base(. In this turn you maintain altitude and AOA. As you roll out of the turn you back off the throttle to start your descent around 600-700 fpm towards the runway. Hold this and your lineup until touchdown. Granted, we're not landing on carriers in DCS A-10C, but trying to follow this traffic pattern pushes two points. First, and above all, fly outside the cockpit. This is key to a good landing. Even in IMC, you need to transition to visual by you minimum descent altitude (MDA), decision height (DH), or decisions altitude (DA). That visual picture is key! Additionally, it focuses on flying the approach at a certain AOA. Based on your weight, your landing KIAS will vary, but AOA will stay the same. Once you nail landings within tight tolerances of a carrier break pattern, any other traffic pattern will seem quite easy.

I wish I had any ideas why we have such a difference. I have your system with the i7 overclocked to 3.5 GHz and a GTX 285. I doubt it'll be much different, but I'll upload the latest version I've been tweaking when I get home from work. None of the changes should be performance issues though.

Odd, I haven't even had a stutter the two times I've played it so far. What are you guys systems like? Also, I assume everyone having problems is trying this in beta 3?

I finally made my first real flight on this mission (despite having made it). The embedded JTAC worked flawlessly tasking all vehicle groups and even requesting reasonable weapons accounting for what I had left. AWACS and airport comms were excellent as well. However, the tanker pilot is some random as cowboy. I thought I had him set to be orbiting at 15,000' MSL, but he's down on the deck in his tanker orbit. Will have to work on this. Additionally, the JTAC doesn't task you to destroy the bunker (no option to do so, would love to try that with buddy lasing from JTAC). I had placed the bunker with the intent of using it to practice force correlate on the mavericks. This bunker is quite poor for that use, so I will likely change this building. Will see what I can do about these couple of issues and upload a new mission when they are solved. If anyone has suggestions on the tanker track, let me know.

Uploaded a newer version with JTAC (untested) added.

FYI, I changed a couple of the more glaring issues (like lack of a briefing screen) and uploaded a new file. More significant changes will come later.

I don't know about others, but I did much of my weapons training and familiarization using the "Shooting Gallery" mission on Nevada. Now that We no longer have this map, I needed a replacement where I can train without things shooting back. This mission in it's current state is quite early in development, but I thought I'd share it here now both to make it available to others and to get feedback for additions and bugs to fix. I'd like to morph this in to a sort of ultimate training mission where you can practice nearly anything. Current setup/design philosophy: -There are no dedicated red force anti-air defenses: Feel free to train without fear of retribution (although if you're close enough, the BMP's will shoot at you). -Ancillary support training: AWACS and a KC-135 are placed in the mission so that you may practice communications and refuelling. -Variety: There is one static bunker and a mix of trucks, BMP, tanks, helicopter (harmless Mi-8's) and SMERCHes. -Easy to find targets: in theme of the old "Shooting Gallery" mission, targets are at waypoints appropriately named. -You can practice everything: Ramp start, refueling, attack profiles, ILS/visual landing. -Familiarity: targets are all near (but not on) the abandoned airfield used in the training missions. -Short transit times: no need to spend 35 minutes flying to the target for 15 minutes of practice. Plans for the future: -Addition of moving ground targets to practice point tracking versus area tracking on the TGP. -Addition/refinement of more airbase "environment" (there's just a few static aircraft right now). -Addition of fixed wing A2A targets (maybe). -Possible revision of the current waypoints used to mark target locations. My thoughts would be to make these mission points outside of the flight plan. With this you could switch to the mission points to easily find your targets or keep your flight plan up and rely on JTAC targeting or markpoints in a more realistic fashion. -Addition of a "hostile zone" in the opposite direction of all the targets (to the north instead of the south) with active AAA/SAM to practive missile evasion tactics. -Possible addition of a wingman pending feedback (my wingman in Shooting Gallery just annoyed me, so I've left them out for now) Known Bugs: -The current group of trucks at waypoint "convoy" are oriented perpendicular to the road instead of parallel. -Tanker pilot is on crack. Need to figure out why he's orbiting on a race track at 2,000' MSL. Please report any bugs you as well as suggestions for new additions and/or refinement of the current mission. I will continue to update this mission and upload it here. Once this mission is relatively stable, I'll add a version with IFR weather and a night mission for further training. Change log: v1.01 -Added briefing information -Removed erroneous A-10C's on bunker roofs -Added some additional static aircraft v1.02 -Added JTAC with tasking -Tried to smooth out tanker track Training Grounds.miz

You will need to have access to the Open Beta forum (there's a link to request access in your purchase/download page for the DCS A-10C). Once in those forums, there's a subforum for user made missions. I'm uploading v1.00 of this mission now.

As I used the Shooting Gallery mission quite a bit for training, I have just started working on a replacement myself. I will certainly upload to the forums when I have something respectable. In short, I'm keeping air defenses out of the map and making all AI skill as bad as possible so even things like BMP's that can shoot at you (and did so in the Shooting Gallery Mission) will be bad. I plan to throw a tanker and AWACS in and once I get to this point will upload it. This should work well for most basic weapons/procedure practice. Within the future, I'll add moving ground targets, some harmless orbiting A2A targets, JTAC's and anything else people suggest they'd like. Still learning the mission editor at the moment though, so it will probably be another 24-48 hours before this first stage gets finished.

BlueRidgeDx, thanks for correcting my sloppy use of terminology. In particular, I had been using MAP instead of MDA in my post. At some point maybe I'll actually proof read posts rather than just spewing words on to the screen.

Missed approach point applies only for non-precision instrument approaches. A MAP is a minimum altitude (reported in MSL) you may descend too before initiating a missed approach. This is applicable for the majority of aiports in DCS A-10C. A place to find many real world charts is http://usa-w.vatsim.net/charts/. This is a resource for online FSX pilots (which I partake in quite a bit). I don't know the ICAO identifiers for airports in DCS A-10C to point more specifically. Airports with ILS have a different set of minimums. Depending on the category of ILS (or TACAN-all precision instrument approaches) approach, you may descend to a minimum altidue (reported in AFE) before aborting your approach. This altitude is referred to as a decision height (DH) and unlike a MAP which is specific to an airport, DH is common to all runways with an ILS of a certain category. In brief (reported for FAA regulations, also reported in meters for use in ICAO countries by some sources): CAT I ILS: minimum 2 SM visibility and DH of 200' AFE CAT II ILS: minimum 1/2 SM visibility and DH of 100' AFE CAT III ILS: divided in to CAT III A/B/C with C taking you down to 0 SM visibility and DH of 0' AFE. If a CAT III X ILS approach is in use, visibility is no longer reported in statute miles (SM), but in runway visual range (RVR). Also note that this is specific to the runway at an airport. Airports with multiple runways can have on with a CAT III/C ILS approach and the reciprocal runway with a non-precicions instrument approach. Missed approach procedures are specific to the ruwnay/approach. In general though, they have a climb to 1,000-1,500' AFE on runway heading followed by a turn to a local holding pattern. These are sometimes modified for terrain avoidance.

I get consistent crashes (3/3 so far) when contacting JTAC for targeting on the 3rd column in the mission (first group of T-55's). I check in and then 5 seconds or so later (about when I expect a reply from JTAC) get a CTD.

Different mission, but I'm having the exact same issue on the mission "Hideout EN". Consistent crash 1-2 seconds after requesting permission to taxi.

He never has in my experience.

If you want realism, I would use the JTAC whenever it is present and your mission is CAS. Sometimes JTAC will be there for other flights and is not appropriate. For instance, in the 2nd campaign (Georgia Cross I think?) once of the missions is to drop a bridge. In this case, JTAC is useless and just let him work with other flights.

I've been going through some of the missions I haven't previously tried. I'm finding on the mission "Defend Camp Yankee" that my wingman taxi's up to the hold short line and just sits there. Unfortunately, he's the first one there and no other aircraft are able to takeoff. If I use the next taxiway up the line to get to the runway, the rest of the mission seems fine. It would be nice though to have 4 A-10C's worth of weapons to get rid of some of that AAA in a short manner and concentrate on CAS. Is this a WIP issue that other people have or am I the only one?

Well, a F-16 isn't an A-10 either. There are good arguments that you should feel/hear the gear and there are good arguments that you shouldn't. To know for sure, we'll need to hear from a real A-10 pilot. Unfortunately, being a single seat plane I don't think too many non-pilots got a back seat ride in this bird.

They're present. On the leading edge between the fuselage and the wheel pod (just inboard of that strake). They're not terribly obvious in a lot of photos, particularly in 3-tone camo pictures.

They're in by default. I don't touch them and can fairly regularly take on 2-4,000 lbs of fuel.

What testing is needed? Leave them out. If they're in your tanks won't fill. If they're all in, they yes the tanker will disconnect, as there's nothing for it to fill.

Which is the new campaign? I just started trying the campaign missions and had a very choppy/multiple CTD on the first mission of the Devil's Cross campaign? Is this the same mission or a different one?

Ah, you know I think I confused these. I don't have POH sitting around or anything with the numbers in them. I was actually completely off on the aircraft types (fixed) and I think it was in fact the Phantom and Tornado compared. No the Tornado and Typhoon.

Actually it is. The KC-135 can refuel at a certain maximum rate. You're 6,000 lbs per minute is about right from what I've read. Many aircraft, particularly heavy aircraft can accept fuel this quickly and will refuel at the maximum rate. Other aircraft, particularly tactical aircraft, for space or weight reasons have smaller diameter or lower pressure fuel lines and can not accept fuel at this rate. I don't know many specific aircraft numbers, but I have seen some documentation for the Phantom taking fuel at 2,000 kg/min and the Tornado at 700 kg/min. these are two very similar types of aircraft, but drastically different refuel rates given the internal plumbing.

Controller calibration is still in Windows 7, just a pain to get to. Ultimately you need to get to the "game controllers settings" menu. I get there through the control panel-->hardware and sound-->devices and printers. Then right click on any joystick/etc. and select "game controllers settings". From there it's just like all the old versions of Windows. Personally, this is one place I feel like Windows 7 took a step backwards.