notproplayer3

F/a-18c for the excellent weapons it can carry for A/G as well as A/A (jdams, jsows, mavericks, aim 120 and the aim9x with the jhmcs... ), the systems and also for the glass cockpit that can basically give you all the small details of your flight and also so much more options (or rather much more accessible options) than in the f14 (fpas, sa, fcs, stores...). Finally the plane is so much more easier to fly. I think the two compelling traits of the f14 are the aim 54 long range missiles and the 2 seats that sorta makes it like you learn two aircraft for the price of one. But the f14 is Hella hard to fly compared to the fa18 (for example you can enter flatspins super easily when you try to evade at high altitude or you can even break your wings if you aren't careful, plus the super basic hud that gives no speed or altitude makes it a chore to land especially when you want to make a case I pattern landing where you need to monitor speed and altitude at every step of the pattern, in the fa18 you can basically do any ridiculous maneuver and the fbw handles it like this is nothing, you are basically totally protected by the computer). In the end the f14 is very deadly in A/A if you use the aim54 under good conditions but dogfighting remains very hard against "normal" fighter jets with good pilots. A/G in the Tomcat is good with the lantirn pod coupled with the gbu's and because of the great payload it can carry, that makes it a formidable bomber. The fa18 is very deadly in A/G as well as in A/A, in long range A/A engagements it might be taken out by the aim54's but in medium range the hornet has the upper hand with fox 3 missiles (that you can carry more if you use double racks), in short range it is unbeatable because of the aim9x/jhmcs combo and in a dogfight with cannons, the fa18 has far greater maneuverability so it probably wins if the pilot is skilled enough. In A/G, whilst the hornet carries less payload than the f14, it can carry more precision guided weapons like the gbu's 12 mounted on double racks that amount to 8 of them mounted on the 4 pylons. Also is has much more precision guided muntion options than the f14 (jdams, jsows, mavericks, harms and even more to come). And because of the sensors, systems and the glass cockpit, you can configure these weapons much more precisely. In the end the fa18 wins in AG in my opinion. So as a recap the f14 is good for long range A/A engagement and bombing because of it's payload. It's quite hard to fly though and is gonna take so much more training to master The fa18 is good for it's glass cockpit, excellent fbw, systems. It also has a variety of modern weapons that gives it an upper hand in medium/short A/A engaments and that gives it the obvious advantage in A/G because of the variety of targets you gonna encounter. The fa18 is simply more modern and easier to fly, you gonna spend less time trying to learn how to fly it properly and spend more time learning every option and systems with the mfd's. In the end the fa18c wins by my book and is much more versatile than the f14.

No, sorry again

I don't know why the track file was corrupt but there's no more problems, it was some mod compatibility issues and I'm deeply sorry I forgot to mention that I had mods. I don't know how to delete threads or what to do if the issue has been fixed but at least everything's fine on my part.

Thanks for the comment, it's a very interesting story, I myself had the chance to fire a roof mounted machine gun during military service (barely 3 weeks ago) but sadly shooting while moving wasn't my thing at all, and I guess shooting the minigun in the gazelle isn't either, but let's not diverge from the subject at hand. I don't know anything about piloting a helicopter and I guess most of the people who buy the gazelle don't either, so it is imperative that they make good training missions that actually gives the player everything he needs to know about flying it, other helicopter modules do that so why not the gazelle ? Especially since it's exactly the same price as the others

Yes, I use the mission editor, the problem is just that other helicopter modules have lots of missions right of the bat but not the gazelle

No, there are 6 badly done and very small training missions that explain not a whole lot about the aircraft, 5 very basic and not very diverse quick missions (not even in the persian gulf), only the general purpose mission and no other mission (other helo modules have more than that), and indeed there's a campaign that's look very good to me so I won't complain about it, but for the rest, this is unacceptable when you compare with the missions you get in other helicopter modules

Ok then, thanks for explaining it for me, it's unfortunate but I can't really blame you guys for that. What I can blame you for is everything else I said in my post like the training missions or the lack of other missions, I can't explain why, but it's really ruining my experience with this module, maybe because I play in singleplayer and I can't really play this helicopter a whole lot without needing to take the time to create a mission for it.

That's why I said I really didn't think of it, I must have installed these mods years ago and never used them since, also it never crossed my mind to mention them. But thanks, for future issues I'll be sure to not forget about that

Actually, I'm starting to get the hang of this helicopter and I really enjoy flying it, it's just the issues that I mentioned that really need to be fixed so that I can enjoy this module to it's fullest, right now it's really lacking behind in terms of missions and the switches need to be usable, it just feels beta

Why didn't I think about that, it was totally the issue, thanks a lot for pointing that out

Yes I agree with you, flying this helo feels fine and the damage model and the different systems are good, maybe one fix or two here and there but overall, operating this helicopter is up to DCS standards (apart from the dead switches and the lighting)

That's sad because I really wanted this module to work well, I'm french and I guess I took this helicopter over the huey for that reason but I think I'm starting to regret it, seeing also that as you said, this module seems to be abandoned. There may be hope it's gonna get fixed but I really don't know. All I'm asking for are training missions and functionality to the dead switches (maybe also these PBR textures, they seem sweet)

I already have the ka50 and the mi8 so I decided I'll try out this gazelle because of the summer sale and to be honest, I wasn't impressed, here are the issues: 1)Horrible training missions and too few of them, I've got no problem with not having any voice that guides me at what I'm supposed to be doing, but could you at least make me learn more stuff ? For example the 3 NADIR missions were laughable, the two first were 10 second training missions and the third one was barely longer, firstly you could have regrouped the three in one mission and secondly, I barely learnt anything, I know how to put coordinates and I know how to copy them from one waypoint to another, but how the hell do I now use this device to navigate ? And what are all the other functions meant to do ? How to I start this nadir device from cold ? ... And this is the trend in all of the training missions, I push buttons but I don't really know what they are supposed to do, you could at least explain the function of the switch or the other functions of knobs, like in other training missions. Then there are clearly too much training missions that are missing: viviane, counter measures+rwr, basic flight+autopilots+auto hover, how to employ other armament in the sa342mistral and sa342L... Other helicopter training missions in comparison actually give me everything I need to know to operate correctly the helicopter, unlike the gazelle where I had to go to the manual to learn pretty basic stuff... 2)Bad manual, It's just a chore to read and to try to understand and is quite basic, chuck's guide is just so much more intuitive and explains more stuff. This point plus the last point just means that I had very little enjoyment trying to learn this helicopter unlike the other ones. Nothing to do with the helicopter itself, just the bad training missions and the bad manual. 3)A lot of switches and buttons that do nothing. Firstly in all helicopters the big IFF panel (the panel just behind the seats) doesn't work at all, then these are the unusable switches in the sa342L and sa342Mistral and in the sa342M and sa342 minigun There are also quite a few other switches here and there that don't work 4)LOL it's in the backseats of the sa342M and it's aerospatiale not aerospitale 5)Way too few other missions, I already mentioned how few training missions there were but this goes also for how few quick missions there are, the first 4 are just basic tanks and trucks hunting missions in different settings, and when you play them you just see how little effort was put into them, not saying at all they are bad, but I can also place 4 trucks and make them move to a waypoint and then place a gazelle and set it as the player, you could at least make the effort to put some more moving units around the helipad and use a different picture for the thumbnail, this is maybe a minor complaint but with the other helicopters, the quick missions have lots more units and objects but most importantly there are much more quick missions and they are very diverse, also they have quick missions in the persian gulf which the gazelle module doesn't have. Moving on to the normal missions, this is pretty pathetic, nothing apart from the base helicopter ops mission that every helo module has. Then for the campaign I haven't really played it for long but you could at least put something in the briefing instead of referring to the pdf file BUT honestly this looks like a very good campaign with lots of missions, I can't wait to play it once I master the gazelle (ugh...) so thanks a lot for that 6)The cockpit lighting is way too dark but this issue has already been said 7)Very few liveries 8 Can't transport people or snipers like it was written in the DCS product description (or as it should be able to do) I won't try to talk too much about the FM or system modeling because I know nothing about this helicopter, even though I've noticed quite a lot of small stuff that seem to me as being issues but overall I think the helicopter is still fine in game and quite fun to fly. To end this message I want to say that the module still feels beta because of the issues I mentioned, the two biggest being, in my opinion, the training missions and the unusable cockpit switches, if they are fixed I'll be satisfied but until then, this module clearly has less value for the same amount of money than the two other helicopters I own (ka50, mi-8) who feel complete and are exactly up to DCS standards (the ka50 is 10 years old but is still fine and is getting a cockpit update later this year). Please polychop, add more content (quick missions+mission+training missions+liveries), fix what should work by default (switches and buttons+dark lighting+transporting people) and It'll be P E R F E C T, or at least it will feel like a normal DCS module. I'm sorry if I'm a bit nitpicky here and there or even a bit mean but that's just how I feel about this module

Well, I totally never learned how to use radios on the ka50 so I thank you for the tip, thanks a lot and have a nice day

Just as the title says, if I land, open the door, and ask for rearming/refueling, nobody answers, but when I shut of my engines, everything works fine. I don't know if it's an issue or if it is normal but it's kinda annoying

I see, well my cannon doesn't work and here are some screenshots

*This is for DCS 2.5.5, I had no problems before that* As the title says, when I play with the ka50, after takeoff and DO AT LEAST a couple of minutes of flying, and I try to land on grass (no helipad or runway), the game immediately stops and I get that DCS has crashed window that appears. I've noticed that this behavior is quite strange, it rarely happens on free flight with no enemy's type missions, for example if I go in the editor, simply put a ka50 and start flying then landing isn't an issue BUT when I go into most combat missions this behavior is very recurrent, for example the ka50 mission "cleaning Tkvarcheli", I play this mission a lot and after normal takeoff, I hunt for a bit, land on the helipad to rearm, no problem there, but as soon as I get shot down over normal terrain and at the precise moment the helo touches the ground, the game stops, the same goes in that mission when I simply land over normal terrain. In that mission this is ALWAYS the case, but in other missions such as "patrol" it happens a lot, but not always as it seems. Finally any mission I create with the quick mission creator has this problem also all the time, but some other user created combat missions have this problem most of the time but also no always. In other words: no combat->no problem (most of the time, only had one or two crashes I can remember) combat->problem (almost all the time, 90%) I attached the crash file to this post dcs.log-20190620-183845.zip

Yes, thanks for the tip, I indeed use the rockets quite a lot in fact and I'm getting pretty good with them, I use them usually if there's a convoy or a couple of lightly armored targets I'm flying over and sometimes I try them from a greater range with the laser lock and they work okay, but I'd still say that for me the gun is more useful, for example if I want to hit single lightly armored target easily, the gun is the way to go, also if I spot a manpad from far away, and he doesn't see me, I won't waste a vihkr missile and I won't really try using the s8 rockets either, but the gun is the prefect tool for such a job. I could go on and on about the uses of the gun for me but it's simply the ease of use and how well it can work that makes it an ideal weapon for a lot of situations. But let's not deviate from the thread subject, my gun isn't working and that's the problem, I could use only s8 rockets but why should I if the gun is intended to work ? I think I'll report this bug seeing that someone else also had the exact same problem, anyway, thanks a lot for the comment and I hope you have a nice day :thumbup:

I'm sorry for the very late response but it's exactly my issue, Vikhr's work but the cannon's don't track and after 3 seconds a big X appears, also if you look externally the cannon is way too depressed to hit anything so this is the issue, sorry again and thanks for the comment

Interesting, I kinda get it but I also kinda don't, so you are saying relock works or it doesn't work ? At least for me it doesn't work, I click on the same lock button multiple times to make sure the target is correctly lased and the cannon still points down. So do you know how to overcome this issue ?

Okay then, if you say so, but it's still pretty crazy to me, the su 27 for example, why hasn't it received full fidelity treatment ? All the people always say the same thing and that is that the russians don't give out info easily, so maybe it wasn't that of a crazy job from eagle dynamics side but more from the russian side that put the information out to the public, I dunno, all I'm saying is that I'm happy we have a modern attack helicopter in DCS

Yes, the paid update is kinda unexpected but I guess ED gotta feed themselves and honestly I support them totally in their decision, especially since everybody gets that free cockpit update, but I still won't expect that update to cost more than 15$, or even 10$ I dunno, just because the ns430 navigation thingy is priced at these values Edit: Wtf am I saying, I don't even care how much it's gonna cost, I am probably the biggest fanboy of the ka50 ever, I got a question sorta unrelated to this affair, how did you find russian info to make this module and especially this update ? I mean it's an ultra sophisticated recent russian military helo, I mean russia is supposed to be super secretive about military information and you roll out this ? Please make a sort of documentary about the development of the ka50 module on your youtube channel, especially since it's your first full fidelity module you made and this update's gonna roll out

Yes, just as always, I mean, all I'm saying is that before 2.5.5 I could use the cannon with no problems but after the update I got the issue mentioned before, thanks for the reply anyway :thumbup:

Just after the 2.5.5 update, I started playing a bit with the ka50 (especially before we get that cockpit update) and I tried the usual cannon routine, lock up something, press C, and turn the helo so that the target is in the big rectangle on the hud but I get the no shoot indication (the big cross), and when I look externally I see that the cannon is clearly too depressed to shoot where I want it to shoot. I've still been playing the ka50 for two days and the cannon always has the same issue, it won't shoot because the cannon depresses itself instead of aiming on the locked target, I can still shoot if I put the cannon in fixed mode but it's clearly auto mode I'm using 99% of the time. I don't know if it's a bug or if there was an update that added a step for using the cannon in the auto mode but it's without doubt after the 2.5.5 update something changed, if it's a bug then I may hope that it's gonna be fixed in this weeks open beta update.

Hey, I came back to this thread after this week's 2.5.5 update and there is now a ladder when you cold start the f/a-18, I do know that the ladder retracts automatically once you switch on the battery, but I don't know how you can extend it again