Raisuli

I sure hope so! Looking forward to that one, and let's be honest; HB is the varsity when it comes to this stuff. Those still flew when I was in the Navy as well. I was there for three generations; -4, -14, and I was on the first deployment of the -18. Besides, when I was growing up it was all about the Phantom! I'm actually holding off on rev 3 of the simpit for the F-4; not sure what it might need that's unique to that air frame. HB has been stingy with cockpit pictures so I don't know what controls it uses. I can worry about bindings later.

Lie? No. I would never accuse anyone of intentionally lying without some pretty clear information to the contrary. There are plenty of more reasonable explanations why something might be inaccurate, which is why I asked the question. I had not seen the comment about being destroyed before deployment. However, if they decay at that rate how long before everything needs to be replaced? Mathematically that doesn't make sense to me; even if the decay rate is a logarithmic curve it's going to be unusable within the aircraft's lifetime and they're going to need a lot of Dyno tape. The rant was meant to be more tongue in cheek because we've had this conversation before. Me: Don't like the cockpit, rest of the model is awesome. HB: Too bad, this is how we make models. Fortunately HB seems to be the only developer in DCS with that philosophy. The revenue I provide to any developer is a drop in a lake so I don't expect them to change anything for me. On the other hand there are two flight sim ecosystems in which I have an interest and up to now I've bought every release in DCS (other than a few campaigns) just to support the developers, so plenty of models to fly and places to go shopping when the time comes.

<rant> Yeah, so Heatblur loves their 'realism' to the exclusion of all else. I have to wonder how many of those thousands of hours HB's SMEs fondled F-14s were in the late 70s and early 80s when the A was new, or even how many got to play with recently updated Bs. The Tomcats I saw flying were on their first deployment and despite their thousands of SMEs with an hour of experience each I'll bet they didn't look like they'd fallen off the deck and been left in the ocean for a few months, then power washed. Maybe they did in the 90s and 2Ks because they'd been handled by all those SMEs for decades. Maybe Gumman sent sent them out of the factory looking like that, which explains why they went out of business. Our engineering control rooms looked a little better than those cockpits HB loves. The Vinson's control rooms looked...lightly used! The difference between something over a decade old and something only a few years out of the shipyard. Imagine that. Realistically I'm not allowed to fly the things anyway, so to be realistic I leave mine in the hanger or use them for AI. I'm sure HB doesn't mind; they got their revenue. This mod, of course, is TOO clean, and doesn't have HBs touch, but I'll call it an improvement anyway. Now I'll need to get some bindings set and actually fly the thing, despite that not being very realistic... </rant>

Well, of course! Why waste a perfectly good, expensive, CBU on a soft target

Here's a track that pretty much matches NineLine's result. You have to make sure you're lined up on the target or they'll fail to drop, though. It's not going to let you send them off course. At least not too much, and if you just fly straight that's too much off course. 2023.10.27 CBU-97 MIZ Test.trk

Many fish died to bring you this track file... I discovered if the waypoint is in the air the CBUs don't drop. Changed the waypoint to (something closer and on) the ground and they dropped just fine. Didn't save the airborne waypoint track where I got two failures to drop on two waypoints hovering in mid-air. 2023.10.27 CBU-97 Test.trk

For what (little) it's worth I just did a couple CV launches to test a different problem and gain worked as expected every time. So, went to a drive through to test and got mostly expected results: Wings locked: Normal gain, hold NWS for high gain. Release NWS return to normal gain Wings unlocked: Normal gain until NWS is pressed, then locked in to high gain, and in fact you can't get OUT of high gain once you lock it in. That might be different, but I'm not sure Wings folded: See 'wings unlocked' From here it seems like you have control issues somewhere? That's where I'd start, at least. Maybe try a different KB? 2023.10.27 NWS Gain Test.trk

Might be an SC rather than an F-18 issue. Didn't try in anything else. Perfectly clean (no pylons) F-18, shooter signalling mil, not max, couldn't launch until I went past the gate. WAS able to throttle back immediately after the wheels cleared the deck. Didn't actually try to do that while I was still on the shuttle. 2023.10.27 F-18 CVTest.trk

No, but he has claws and he's sharp on five ends! I've seen him use a MiG-29 as a scratching post and it wasn't pretty... Speaking of Bignewy I was just checking the boards this morning, because it beats the heck out of working, and thought we're about due for the first patch...and there he is!

Happy to help. Got to thinking about Viggens, set up some basic controls, and took one out for a spin (with an AI out in front). I've owned it...forever. Not sure I've ever flown one, but dang! Surprised at how much I like it! Thrust Reverser! I want after market thrust reverser kits on all my jets! J-turns on runways. Pulled into a hanger, thought 'this is stupid', backed out of the hanger, turned around, then backed in. How cool is that?! Maybe not Norway, but I think Slartibartfast would approve

Well, I know what a 'skede' is now, but I almost certainly can't pronounce it intelligibly. And yes, formations with AI are all fun and games until you tuck up close and that enormous aluminum cloud turns into you. Since I created the route you'd think I'd be aware, but...not so much. Pucker factor spikes every time. On the whole, though, it's not too bad. You get used to the little glitches at the top and bottoms of climbs and learn there are places where you just need to give the AI a bit of follow room. It's the slides that really shake you, though, and you have to learn how to set up the waypoints so the AI doesn't do that. I've got four or five formation trainers set up at between an hour and an hour and a half each. The only clues I give myself (because I'm too lazy to create 80 waypoints and 80 trigger points with turn warnings) is when the lead aircraft spawns at the start and right before it breaks off to land at the end.

Viggen training good. My Svenska bad. Actually, calling my Svenska bad is insulting to people who speak a language badly. More like 'nonexistent'. Flying formation with the current state of AI: Where'd she go?

Might be an MP thing? Haven't seen much difference in SP, whether the TACAN was built in or added (the portable one we can set up as a ground vehicle).

The place where I noticed this the most, downright jarring, was A2AR from a C-130. Of course I didn't try with an IL-78, so maybe the tanker version is inconsequential. Anyway, the basket had about twelve gallons of coffee too much. It was visible flying formation with an AI F-14, it about took my teeth out when I tried to refuel. Tracks, maybe even videos, on demand. I'd be a bit stunned if ED hasn't been inundated with both.

I got the mini, but with shipping the way it is I also got the button expansion, grip replacements (because...because) and detent frames. Arrived yesterday and spent last night getting mad at it, in large part because with the throttle all the way forward it would go from sending 100% to 0%. VKB wirelessly connected to the throttle overnight and fixed all the bugs, so my day today went much better. Come to think of it, DCS does that, too...pretty sure it has nothing to do with me reading manuals... Right now my biggest gripe apart from the TDC being on my thumb is the rate at which it slews. After tweaking software all day I'm not convinced I can't slow those axis down a bit, though. The other thing is the way the F-18 antenna elevation control works, which isn't VKBs fault. That makes me want to have multiple button configurations, and I've heard that is also possible. Given some time I'll look at that tomorrow as well. If you want videos Jabbers has about 85% of what you need in his review video, and that was done better than the tutorials provided by VKB. I did need VKBs tutorial to turn an encoder into an axis because Enigma's attempt needed help (boolean? Huh?). Then I made it an encoder again once I remembered why the F-18 antenna elevation sucks. I didn't get any of the button expansions because I build my own. Up until today I've used a Warthog throttle since forever, but never configured any of the buttons other than those on the grip, and not all of those. With the significantly improved control density on the STECS more and more get use; the front triggers are 'HORNET BALL' and 'READY PRECONTACT', but that might change. As for detent frames, that's a point of annoyance. Apparently you can't set up detents on the black frame (and still call it a black frame). No idea where that decision came from, but I'd prefer to match the colors on the one that gets the most use. Seriously, VKB, why make that one special? So there's one with shutdown and AB detents for real airplanes, one with just the shutdown detent for almost real airplanes (those without an AB), and by default the black frame for helos with, as of now, no detents. Jabbers set his shutdown to pulse, I did not, and set it to < and mapped to IDLE/OFF. Works perfectly. The downside to a shutdown detent (that I will probably never use) is it reduces the throw length, which compresses the travel needed for things like A2AR and formations which are the same, really. Those detents could be a bit narrower; they eat up a significant amount of travel, and even with two you can tell some real estate is missing. I'm sorely tempted to take the shutdown detent off and just keep the AB. The best news is you can tweak the throttle on the fly without restarting DCS. Mostly. That didn't apply to changing the encoder to an axis; I had to restart DCS for that to pick up. The base wants to be flat, but isn't. When I mounted the throttle I put small (#8) washers under the holes to prop the corners up so the center won't flex. The whole thing is surprisingly light after using that 100 kilo Warthog throttle for so long and you can just forget about using it on a desk without some kind of mount. It does not have any kind of rubber or non-skid feet or surface, but that's an advantage for mounting it (almost) flat. Another point of annoyance is the right throttle handle will move on it's own if the tension is dialed down into me range, so it's stiffer than I prefer. The fix is to either link them or have more friction than I'm used to, but neither of those make me regret the purchase. I never linked the WH throttles, but I might try to get used to that with this one. On the whole I really like it. For $321 all up, of which about $65 was shipping, it's a great deal. If you can live without all the 5 way switches and extra detent frames you can get it for a bit less. Incidentally I almost bought the carrier for all those extra parts ($5, shipping change is sunk cost) but they all came in one, so bonus. Once this is bolted to something solid it has a wonderful feel, and despite several hundred hours using the WH throttle I didn't have any trouble doing A2AR or formations on this one. Yes, the throttle position is a little different, but it's tighter and more responsive than the Thrustmaster. I put off getting a Virpil (I have a Virpil stick) for years because I didn't want the buttons and was unsure about the smaller throw distance. VKB really nailed this. The real test will be how well this holds up five, ten years from now. I could see crud getting in and gumming up the works, but we'll see how that goes.

Keep getting server errors. Since there's nothing in the patch notes that I wasn't able to live without for the past six or seven years I suspect I can continue to live without them for the next six or seven days. I'll just try again later.

That last one concerns me. Does this mean they reel in the drogue after five gallons of fuel transferred? Mission accomplished? I've heard back-office rumors the sheep have bugs, or at the very least fleas. Hopefully they get that fixed in time.

All I can say is I have to get up at oh-dark-freaking-ridiculous to catch my flight home, and if there isn't a patch ready by the time I get there I might leave a nasty surprise in BN's litter box. Of course I still have that quarter that it will get subjected to change, just to hedge my bets. I've still got, roughly, a mole of skills to learn before I have the current patch mastered so it's not like I'll be reduced to twiddling my fingers. New throttle should arrive in a couple days, too!

I might buy an E, but not an F. There's only one of me, and I'd rather have the 800 or so pounds of gas than the empty seat. That extra seat is one of a few reasons I don't fly the -14 as anything but a lark, and will probably not fly the -4E. As for bringback, I've landed charlies on carriers with most of fifteen thousand pounds of gas; about 38,000 on the checklist, with no trouble at all. Realistic? If this game were realistic the LSOs would go red and free the moment I radioed for approach; that's how much they love me. They'd probably have something to say about the F-16s and F-15Es I've landed on the deck when it was lobster night in the forward wardroom, but in those cases they didn't even give me a debrief. For the record, the only bird farms I've ever been on were tied to the pier. -65 and -70, in both cases I ended up in an EOS after the MMR tour (they called away a security alert on -70, and that's where you go when you don't want to deal with security alerts). Saw both decks, but they're just big flat fields of non-skid in port, so I know nothing of carrier flight ops other than watching from a distance. Also, for the record, the carriers in this game have very sparsely modeled main machinery spaces.

Jeeze, I was so busy taking pictures of it I didn't think to look for it in game. Now I have to go into the past and check it out!

I fly home on the 19th, but given the complexity of the release I won't be shocked if it gets pushed out a little. They're awful brave making a prediction two days in advance; around here good deeds get alpha-strikes! Of course I half expect someone to knee-jerk the "Unable to duplicate and no track file included" label on this post...

That was it. Was doing night ops in the F-16 and the AoA indicator was probably dazzling. AoA never turns off on the -16 and bright lights are not a good thing for me, so I turned it down. It's an axis in the sim pit, so down on the F-16 means down on the F-18, and down means red. Learned something today, which makes it a great day. For my next trick I'll go take some pictures of the sun. Also got 668 knots on the overhead break this time, and the landing was sketchy but not as bad.

Correct. Bright, full-on red. Nothing orange about it. Not even amber. Should have grabbed a screenshot, because maybe I'm just senile. <edit> Added a track as long as nobody laughs at my horrible landing. I was more worried about screenshots of the AoA indicator. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Looks like: 2023.10.13 Red AoA Circle.trk

Gear goes down, doughnut goes from amber to red and stays red. Looked for switches in NVG mode and didn't see any, fast and slow are right, just the circle in the middle... What am I missing/forgetting? Didn't think the -18 had many surprises left (I suppose one falls into the 'not many' range)...

This is a bit like Christmas. No, you can't open your presents yet! Of course nothing is as good as the anticipation, but I am looking forward to new toys. Won't make me a better pretend pilot, but I can pretend I'm a better pretend pilot by pretending my problems are all bugs. Then two weeks go by and I can continue to amuse myself with the people asking for the next update, because nothing is ever enough! So, carry on with your testing and let me know when Christmas comes, because I'll be off working on muscle memory one task at a time. Only about sixteen thousand tasks left to master. Oh, and version three of the sim pit, because I just ordered a new throttle. I'll get the new seat when I'm a little closer.