Raisuli

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.

So...we're somehow related? That sounds like the kind of thing I'd do, assuming the initial brief didn't leave me drooling over the stuff real pilots take for granted. Then I go back to my home grown training missions and blow something up, or do carrier practice, or A2AR, or just fly formation with an aluminum cloud for forty minutes or an hour. It's really hard to keep my focus that long, so I try to improve that. In SA it's hard to look at the lead and not the scenery, in Kola that will be worse.

Which might not have an answer... I had to look at my DCS order history this weekend and realized the very first thing I paid for was the F-18 pre-release. I have all but, I think, two of the campaigns for the F-18 and probably all but 10 overall. I've bought a lot of stuff from ED. I've never flown a campaign. So, given I at least know which direction to face while sitting in the aircraft, what campaign would all you pros recommend for my first? I looked at a 'beginner' F-5 campaign and the first mission started out by flying the boingo departure and picking up bozon to the blotto waypoint and doing something that's probably not legal, even in Nevada. I'm not a pilot. I kind of know what a departure and arrival are, but in general when you say 'departure' that just means it's time to leave. I need a campaign just to teach me the stuff you have to know to fly a campaign...

Yup. Did a few tests, put a post up complete with a track, etc, etc. Someone suggested a slow rebuild because this seems to be an isolated case and I haven't done that yet, but for me, at least, it's infinitely repeatable. CV59 and SC; same outcome. Then again, maybe my jet was sabotaged by the deck crew, who really don't like it when I land on their boat anyway...

I've seen screenshots outside the sandbox; kind of hoping for someone who'd actually been there to have some sage advice. I've been to Pakistan, and the north end is pretty amazing. For that matter so is Iran if you're outside the PG limits. So far I've seen very little about the country. Some serious Iran-Iraq with the north end of the bathtub, where I have been...but as you say, no information, other than an apparent "support it blindly or go away". Happy to do the latter. Thanks for sharing what you know.

Looking for a reason to buy it, because I've never not bought a map. What are you doing here? Certainly not selling the idea, but thanks.

My controls lock until I hit the water

Right now I'm leaning against Iraq and Afghanistan. I look at the cost estimates and look at my wish list in other ecosystems and ask myself 'More deserts in DCS or something that might actually get some use?'. Several of those somethings are by the same company that's doing Kola; totally get why Wags spent years talking them into a DCS map. Those would be the first maps I don't buy, but honestly I have a hanger full of aircraft I paid for (because I bought them all) and don't use, along with Combined Arms, which I've never figured out how to use. Owning all the modules will probably change also. If ED ever gets a map that's not a desert, even an updated Caucus, I'm in. Deserts? I have plenty, thank you. Mostly desert with interesting terrain in one corner or along one edge? Got enough of those, too.

I'm on OB and it gives me the option to update

Withholding judgement on Iraq, but it will be nice to finally have a map on which I can run desert campaigns. Honestly I was hoping for Algeria and Libya to go with Egypt, but with only NTTR, Persian Gulf, Syrian desert, Egyptian desert, and the Jordanian desert in which to run desert based missions it's been pretty limited. Kola is a first day buy.

I've never flown a helicopter and am not entitled to an opinion, but the AH-64 is to me as the Hulk when he had Loki's ankle and was pounding him into the floor; every once in a while I'll try, poorly, to fly it for a few minutes, then I'll go have fun in something else. Unfortunately I can't seem to let it go; a bit like Charlie Brown and that football, but the end result is the same. That can't be blamed on the flight model; there are people who fly it well despite any minor blips or glitches in the implementation; it's all between the joystick and chair.

Possibly; I've never flown a jet. I've done other things that sound sexy when you read about them, but turn out to be a grind at times. The inconvenient truth I've discovered is any adventure turns into a job now and then. Listening to real pilots talk I think that happens on station while you wait for tasking and your butt isn't quite dead yet, but it's well on the way. I do know pretending to fly a jet can get boring, particularly that gap between when your last LGB hits the target and you land a hundred miles away.

Thanks! I just staged another -50 on my new map (old map, new scenario...you can't imagine how hard it is to save the world on your own) and it's time to start flying it again! I'll give that a try.

Got the full set printed, picked the one I thought I was most likely to like, cleaned it up, got it installed (total of five hours after I found out about them; three and a half to print, another half to cool off and clean up, an hour to get the printer going with all of them on the plate). Then I set the curves to something really insane, like 40. Night and day; maybe I'll get used to that TDC. At least I don't get epileptic seizures watching it flit across the MFD!