Raisuli

F4U. The carrier problem was between the stick and chair, and a lot of politics, and some bullet (and reality) proof egos. Besides, I have a shelf full of F4U books, exactly...zero F6F books, and I'm an engineer. That's enough logic for me.

Thanks! Once the UPit is out of the shop to address a few minor gripes, which should be later today, I'll give those a shot. Doing flight school missions, because I spent way too much time learning basic stuff for which there is no instruction. At the same time learning how to put 'real' missions together. Besides, 1v0 is my niksen time...

I'm setting up a mission with some long straight transitions and want to put green gates in. Is there an (easier) way to get all those waypoints on a straight line? Right now I'm eyeballing it and using the distance measuring tool as my straight edge...and it's pretty ugly.

Not sure why I didn't think of that immediately; I have a file with the IDs of all my panels so I can do the same trick. Virpil changed it from "Right VPC WarBRD Stick" to "RIGHT VPC Stick WarBRD" because...well, just because. They were probably cackling the whole time they wrote that function because they knew that would screw things up. Other applications...no such luck; at least not that I'm aware of. One of them doesn't use the DirectX name and instead pulls the assigned name from each panel, so it doesn't have that problem. I'm kinda hoping DCS does the same thing with Vulkan; ED should consider a revamp control bindings in general...but that's not on their list. In many ways ED seems appropriate.

Updated the firmware on my stick; that caused it to be renamed. Now I get to re-configure the stick for every aircraft in DCS, and every sim (I have more than one that cannot be named). If it ain't broke, just say no.

Well, at least they hold out hope. ED is useless when it comes to controls, and even worse are modules with the same feature (like altitude pressure adjustments) that respond differently to the exact same input. No consistency at all. HB has indicated the F4 is going to bury us under control input options. Looking forward to it.

<Edit> I read Nightdare's post and for some reason it didn't parse; this is a repeat of that. Or a confirmation. Or I'm just off the rails again. Either way, what @Nightdare said... </edit> The F-5 has a similar arrangement. I have a 3PST switch for this; (ON)-ON-ON. For the F-5 I use the (ON) momentary position to toggle the cover. The middle ON is "safe" and the top ON is arm (guns, msl & cmr or some such). Works great. With the F-14 the (ON) momentary position does not toggle the cover, neither does any other momentary switch I tried. The (ON) position for the arm switch will toggle the ACM cover if I change the assignment, however. So, no, it doesn't work.

It's a Croatian carrier. Or the Enterprise; they had a thing about ripping bilge keels off going in and out of port. There are better pictures on-line; it was breezy the day I was there (thankfully) and the water was a little churned up, but it's that clear all up and down the coast. Absolute glass. Cold, but glass. The lagoon at Diego Garcia was hands down the nicest clear water diving I've ever done anywhere. Limitless visibility, warm, sheltered from the IO at large, and I wasn't dressed up in fifty layers of yellow replacing equipment in the (hot, of course) RC. Great times! Then, just as I'm ready to get seriously bent chasing those sharks around we get called back up to the gulf at best possible speed, which for us was way the heck faster than anyone else in the battle group. Started in last place, got there first because they were all looking for the nearest gas station before they really got started. The Connie might have kept up if everyone else wasn't sucking gas off her. There is something cool about burning metal rather than asphalt.

And I bound a toggle to toggle. Doesn't work.

You've never been to Diego Garcia...or Hvar... To answer your question, that's a two-screw wake, not a four screw wake. There's a difference. You can count the screws (one, two, three, or four, and I've seen all of the above) by looking at the wake.

The cover over the master arm switch. Should be able to open/close with a mapped control, but it didn't work for me, either. I just assumed it was the goofy covers/lockwire/whatever that appeared over the combat controls for reasons I haven't figured out yet.

HA! I lost count of the number of times you made that mistake. Not sure how you got all the tar and feathers out of your fur, but I'm sure it took some industrial licking... Winter of 24 hasn't happened yet. In the southern hemisphere...

A long time ago Wags told me real F-18 pilots suffocate and die between startup and takeoff, which would explain why the Navy is always short on pilots. Maybe he took the mask off in self defense?

Don't look underwater, look down. That is a two-screw boat (in a bathtub). Wake modeling; ED has said they're working on it, so they might as well fix that, too... (I've never seen a screw, at sea or in port, under water, and I always looked. Maybe on the Dalmatian coast, where the water is as clear as glass, but was never there in the Navy. I have been to Diego Garcia, where the water is every bit as clear as the Marianas, and didn't see the screws while we were tied to the pier.) (Okay, that's not completely true, but I was the designated diver looking for screw damage and the visibility was absolute crap. Never told anyone I hit my head on the damn thing, and the water was below freezing when I did it)

I've answered this three times, all three times the forums kick me out of the reply, sent me back to the 'Missions and Campaigns' group, and deleted my entry. I should just take the hint!

I never trim a Hornet for A2AR. Ever. Tried it once, and it was worse than just flying the airplane. Yeah, the stick is always slightly deflected. No big deal. Then again, ask ten people how they do that particular task and you're likely to get ten answers. I think that might even be true with real pilots, because I've heard a couple say "well, what always worked for me was..." My tricks? Stay relaxed (I generally pucker up enough to take the simpit with me when I stand), fingertips only on the stick, feet on the floor, try to stay out of phase with the aircraft, which means I've already backed the correction out before it shows up on my eyeballs. Wear the right glasses, and I have a pair for sim work, focus on the refueling pod and keep it stationary. Hence the 'right glasses', because that will strain my eyes with my normal computer glasses. When the PIO starts, and it does, remember to relax again and get back out of phase. Don't fail at this for too long; do something else, even if it's just flying formation off the tanker's wing. What crossed the line for me was creating formation flights, usually with an F-14 as lead (because it's big and smokes just enough). An hour or so of chasing after that F-14, try to stay as close as possible without getting run over or bouncing around too much because A2AR is really just a close formation flight and nothing more.

Navy instructor? That could be good...or bad...I've met both Oddly enough that was why I asked the question. A lot of people are afraid to admit they don't know where to start, and the learning curve here is pretty steep. Almost all the content I run into assumes you've already climbed that hill, though, to keep the pros engaged. Multi-player servers are the worst...part of the reason I don't go there.

No, I said I had issues with control lock-up after the second launch up above, then down below I said that problem seems to have resolved with a slow repair. Or the new patch. The only 'work around', and it might not be needed anymore, is lighting the blower for a second on run-up, then return to mil before the salute. But your question made me think of a few questions, and now I want to check out a couple other things.

Comfortable in what way? I can land it on a boat, refuel, drop two 1000lb JDAMS on two different targets and put 4000 pounds of LGB on a bunker in the same pass, put 8 JSOWs on 8 targets using the TGP in a single pass, I should probably get better at Mavericks since they seem to sink boats the Harpoons bounce off but I'm pretty good with a Harpoon and a SLAM, not sure I've used the SLAM-ER yet. SEAD/DEAD is where I go to have fun and I like dancing with SAMs. Doesn't mean I don't suddenly get to watch flaming wreckage fall through the sky now and then when I get too confident, but it's still fun. So is coming in at 100 feet, popping up a notch and leaving 8 snake eyes to deal with all the green and red BBs below me, but I really wish the -18 carried CBU-97s...those are a blast. Literally. There's a lot I don't know. I can't do A2A for crap, but I'm pretty good at spotting things on radar and twidgeting AMRAAMs at long range. BFM? Hopeless. PIO? Just when I'm in a tight, dead on formation the PIO starts; on a good day I can damp it out and carry on, on a bad day...not so much. I suck at formation landing with a B-1 on a runway that's no wider than the bomber's wingspan. That wake turbulence is a...pain. So...yeah. Campaigns. Just looking for a place to start since really all I do is either 1v0 or set-piece training and task switching is difficult. Almost pulled one up yesterday, then did some testing on CVs since I had control issues on the second launch previously. There's one campaign I've been told is good for beginners; worst that can happen is I embarrass myself. Can't possibly be worse than the things the LSO tells me.

Add this to the SC wake wish list; two of the screws are missing. Doing some screenshot processing of an F-18 overhead to land and realized that's a two-screw boat down there! American carriers, at least outside Tom Clancy novels, have four; two in each engine room (even on the -65).

I just did 3 launches and 3 traps without any post-launch control issues after a slow repair. Still spawn in with the brakes half on, it seems, and if you go to burner during the run-up, then back down to mil before the salute it will launch you. Now to bring 59 back into that mix. Need another asphalt burner in my battle group. The big scary bug is I did three traps without a bolter. None of them were anything to write home about, but I still got on the boat. Obviously a bug...

Pretty sure if you ignore the eye-candy and marketing blurbs that video really only says "It's a bitch to fly". But...dang. That eye candy is pretty hard to ignore...HB has apparently managed to out-do themselves again. Again.

Lots of re-learning. Originally I thought it was me, then I remembered the FM changes; it's like a completely new airplane. Not qualified to judge 'realism', but certainly different and will take a bit of practice to do the things I normally do automagically. Had some odd issues over the last few weeks (predating the update) and finally got around to a slow rebuild last night, so I'll take it up again and work on the new feel. Overall I think I'm going to like it. I really like the lack of ballistic flap trajectory, but that doesn't stop the airplane from going places I didn't intend when I'm trying to stay on-speed. PEBJAC, I'm sure, and it'll get ironed out. Doesn't help that I'm natually ham-fisted; PIO is my super power.

Almost, but not quite, as annoying as the every second 'Home Fuel' deedle deedle, and setting the waypoint to something undefined doesn't help with that anymore. Nothing like a master caution every half second to distract you in the groove. As for the bingo, I got that wheels down taxiing to parking. At least home fuel stops when it thinks you might already be home and can call a tow truck if needed. Enough to make me wish there was an easier way to turn bitchin' Betty Lou off.

My home-grown missions are all about learning to set up and employ A2G weapons, and I've gotten pretty good at that. I can even wild-weasel SAMs to a degree. I used to do BFM guns-only A2A, then I found out a fight against a MiG-21 was an endless two circle until someone ran out of gas and nothing I could find on-line fixed that. Before they changed the AI I could do a MiG29, but it did vertical loops all day. Anti-gravity is nice. GVad the Pilot's videos help, but I almost need one dedicated to whatever I can't seem to do. Growling Sidewinder still cracks me up when he loses though he does better at hiding the grumpiness, but all he does anymore are mods. So...campaigns seemed a logical progression, but we're back to the original problem. If I went through flight rather than that other school (although several of my classmates tried to fly and the Navy tried even harder to cover that up) and had been a military pilot Reflected's would be right up my ally.