Raisuli

It's my fault. There's only one ship in the Navy I've been aboard that's still in commission...and this one isn't it. Though I did nearly go for a swim doing line handling when she pulled out of Alameda once, and spent some time in number one MMR, where there's still a sea story that on shakedown St. Rickover himself sat where I was sitting and ordered dinner be brought down to him, which they did despite being an egregious violation of the rules. He pretty much ignored dinner; he just wanted to know if they'd actually do it... <edit>Ok, there's a second ship that is still in commission, but not in the US Navy; that was an Ayatollah class frigate</edit>

That cracked me up. In my day, which was the first deployment of the F-18A, the running joke was it had just enough gas to get from one end of the boat to the other. Then again, we compared it to the F-14. With ferry tanks. When I 'cruise the strip' at NTTR, which means mach 1.3 in the viper and 1.15 in the hornet, the hornet get at least three laps before it's time to find a gas station, where the viper is almost lucky to get two, so compared to the F-16 it really does have long legs! The viper can take off (barely) with 10 CBU-97s and 4 AAMs. The hornet can't even carry the -97, which is a shame, but it will take off with 8 -154As and 4 AAMs. There are things the viper carries that I wish the hornet had available, but overall I really do like the hornet's hauling capacity. I boils down to whether you prefer to spend your time on trim and engine management or pushing buttons on the computer. I kinda like all of the above; some days I want to trim and watch those needles, some days I want to push buttons and make things go boom twenty miles away. Some days I take a steam-guage Cessna and fly ninety knots, other days I take the same route at five hundred. But there is something special about 800 knot overhead breaks.

That was normal in those days. Back when we splashed around in that bathtub the R2D2s were pretty much always in standby, or just flat out turned off. Those things have a mind of their own and the first thing on their mind is not always the promotion path of the commanding officer, which runs counter to the purpose of a Naval vessel in those days. The scuttlebutt was nobody felt comfortable leaving them turned on lest something career limiting happen.

I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out why I would want a launcher. I have yet to meet one that adds value; maybe eye candy, and they love to flash marketing crap for the developer, but otherwise just add yet another layer between me and where I want to go. If they want to improve the eye candy give us the option to change the wallpaper that's built in to modules, because quite honestly the vast majority of those are awful. If they want to make some kind of utility to manage mods or setting or whatever fine, but if I want to play DCS I'll launch DCS. Launch a launcher that launches DCS? Why not launch a launcher that launches a launcher that gives you access to the launcher that...

Track files. That's a nice addition. Most of my flying is only suitable as a warning to others, so it would be nice to have it properly documented.

Hoping someone has some ideas... I have 8 controller panels, all of which are Serial, Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick Arduino-style microcontrollers. Almost every time I start DCS, certainly almost every time I start my computer, those boards scramble, so the button assignments for one board are now assigned to a different board. I might get it to work consistently for, say, a day or two. It takes about an hour to assign all the controls on a complex jet like the F-18 or F-16, then the next time I fire up DCS everything is completely fouled up. To figure out of this is OS or DCS I jumped into a (simulator that shall not be named, but I will call it X)plane and all the controls are still configured perfectly. Correct switch on the right board does exactly what I expect. Simulator M also manages to get all the right controls in all the correct places. Come on, if Simulator M can figure this out ED should be humiliated... Only DCS makes me reconfigure every aircraft constantly. Anyone have any insight on this?

My experience is a little different, and I sit arms length from a 38" screen; no noticeable blur anywhere. Then again I use a special (non-progressive) pair of glasses for flight sims, so at the distance I view everything it's all sharp. With my normal computer glasses the screen does blur in places, but that's the lens and not the graphics card. Screenshots might help demonstrate the issues you have.

That's a relief. I always have nothing but sympathy for boomers; the most excitement anyone ever gets there is an emergency pump start. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled squadron search (but I can't get "Make your altitude two seven thousand, aye. Fifteen degrees up bubble, make turns for three six zero knots!" out of my head.)

Six years in submarines. Let's see...about two, two and a half years to get through the pipe, that puts you on your first boat with three and a half to four years to EAOS. Three and a half to four years on submarines operating a nuclear reactor, which makes you an ET (as opposed to the EMs and MMs who play aft of the tunnel but don't operate the reactor). I've heard nukes get to miss the normal A school, which sounds boring. Six months-ish to qual the panel, another six to qual the boat. Two and a half to three years with your dolphins pinned on submarines operating nuclear reactors 6x6 P&S, probably, unless a lot has changed. The avatar looks boomer-ish, which means three out and three in, most of your time making steerage turns and every transient has burned out, so absolutely nothing ever changes other than the endless drills during the COs day (your real job is to get the CO promoted, and if that means you never sleep that's a price he's willing to pay). Welcome to DCS! You can do barrel rolls here, and it only takes one person to manage flight!

As near as I can tell they're etched into the surface of the RWR display. Pretty much any aircraft can be cold and dark and you still see the rings, so no power required. The other option is to print/etch them yourself and overlay the display.

And, just because, the C position is labeled HLY HG now. Sometimes the only way to get rid of an annoying rodent is the Holy Hand Grenade. I did forget to change "SWITCH LABEL" to "QTY" and very nearly used Dyno tape to correct it, just on principle. I do have Dyno tape, but it's black. No, I don't take this game very seriously. Probably why delays don't ruffle my fur.

Any time there is a controls question, and I'm about to have several, LeCuvier is the solution.

Watched one fly at the airshow in Rockford, IL in 1986. Not going to say no to that. Drove out there just to see an actual MiG up close. Ish.

My simpit went in for a D, or maybe even an E or F, check on December 10th. When it comes out it will have an RWR reticle on the 4th MFD. Basically using the same computer and monitor, everything else got updated and rebuilt. Plan to start wiring the weekend, if all goes well it's back in the air on Sunday and I'll re-export the RWRs.

Hopefully after this weekend the lack of a reticle won't be a problem anymore

And in fact FCLP is a carrier touch and go without the angled deck and burble and less chance of dying when a mistake is made. Personally I air start aft of the boat (which in my world makes it a submarine, but I try to stick to terminology) and do my FCLP in a much more realistic, ie on the carrier, manner. Angled deck, burble, and very little chance of actually dying. Not that I'd object to a portable IFOLS (there's a mod, but it's not the greatest) and some extra paint on the runway. There aren't many NASs out there that don't have a deck painted on at least one runway, and from what I've read any time you take off in training it's five or ten bounces on the ball to get back. So...an IFOLS GV and new runway skins... That might make my carrier landings something I wouldn't be embarrassed to let my cat see...

Open door, get into airplane, close door. Seat belt. Key in slot. Turn key until engines start (use the right pedal as needed, but this does have fuel injection so probably not). Once the engine is on release the key. Find a good station on the radio (classical/opera or jazz is best). Right pedal to go, left pedal to stop. The stick in the middle shifts gears, but there's no backup camera. It is a child of the 80s after all. Try not to exceed any posted speed limits. I still haven't found the turn signal or wipers, though.

Yeah. Well. Software. 90% of the work takes 10% of the time. The rest of the time is spent on piddling things that on the forums takes seconds, but where the code hits the screen it takes longer than that to check out the file, and potentially days to track down why setting the strobes to 'FLASH' causes Clown to wet himself. If it helps, and it probably doesn't, it frustrates the developers as much as the customers. Here's something to tide you over. No idea why we don't get a 'CONV OFF NUCL ON' switch. We need one in our jet.

Winter is also relative. Perth in mid-July was warm when I was there. "Winter" is itself pretty slippery, with multiple definitions. Astronomical and meteorological are two, but other cultures use different dates. For all we know Heatblur has their own methods for determining seasons, and possibly even years. Let's not forget the Georgian calendar is just one of many... A little surprised the F-4 wasn't released last Monday since I tore the simpit down for an early D check over the weekend. Going to be a few more weeks before it's back in the air. So to speak. Figured with all the map updates and other assorted niceness in the pipe better now than later.

Oh, sweet! Is that DIRECT or G? Haven't printed that label and it's a 13 position switch, now my 12 position switch is enough!

I didn't notice it until I flew around the thing in an AH-50, then it was just glaringly obvious. Now I can't unsee it, and even notice during overhead breaks. If HB were to crack that code base it would be item number one on my list, but it's probably trivial for the majority so no breath-holding here.

Oh, I don't know. They can't model the smell, or vibration, or sounds. The swish of water, the stars on a moonless, clear night in the middle of the IO. In DCS a deck is a deck, and once the cat fires it really doesn't matter if that was 59, 64, 80, or Nellis Air Force Base back there. Given a choice between a 'bit more life' or the Phantom? Lemme hit the paraloft and get geared up... I imagine they'll get back to it, but maybe like ED they're waiting for core features. Or maybe they're waiting for bandwidth. Either way given a choice between 59 and Cell Block 70 I'll take the asphalt burner just for nostalgia. Ghost Shooters get you off the deck just as good as cartoon shooters. But then I generally fly off SC and use 59 as a satellite air base just so I don't forget how to crash on it. Besides, the forward wardroom is better!

Do the radars on the forest fire still spin backwards? I don't know why that's so distracting. Probably the number of hours I've spent watching radars spin, if only in the background. Maybe this is the anti-Forest Fire...

I thought seriously about sculpting my own; even did some research on chair ergos, then got lazy and bought one of these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DWJ54GC?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1 I've poked and prodded it, but still in the box. Probably another couple weeks before I tear down the pit so I can widen it for the new seat. Current seat is hard plastic with a memory foam cushion, and it's hard on my back (which is already messed up).