Raisuli

Good! There's nothing worse than 'news' articles that begin 'I'm an <insert subject here> expert and these are the seven things you should never do/say...". I base my decisions on my knowledge and experience, and so should you. Get educated and make an informed choice, or believe who you choose and follow along. The latter is generally the path of least resistance.

I wish it was that simple, but I'm actually in the software business working for a small, indi developer, and I know how it generally works where the code hits the compiler. Right now I'm trying hard to resist the urge to cancel my pre-order just on the Chromium issue. Couldn't care less about the delays, but the more I think about the underlying structure of HBUI as described the less I like it.

HA! You guys made me laugh. We've spent the better part of a year trying to get our heads around the way Microsoft, and by extension it seems far too many other people, save files. Sounds simple. Once you get under the covers it's a convoluted, inconsistent, nightmare. HBUI sounds even worse. In the mean time it'll take another year or two to get good at the Viggen and where I should be with the F-14, particularly since I have two of those now. Take your time, relax, visit with the family, and take some time off. Down time tends to be when the toughest problems get solved. <edit> I should add that it would be nice if you let us know when you embed Chromium in your other products. Always amazes me when people think software written by an advertising company is 'free', particularly after the Facebook iOS SDK debacle </edit>

I'm very optimistic that when the F4U and F6F are both available we will see, once and for all, that the F4U was the superior aircraft overall I'm also very optimistic that until that day comes I have plenty to do with the toys I have readily available. Actually, I learn aircraft at about the same rate that developers produce them and I got a late start, so no rush. In the meantime I have a shelf full of F4U books should a Corsair emergency arise. Carry on. The checkbook will wait patently.

You make a valid point. At no time in history has any pilot, older or otherwise, embellished a story to sell a book or a speaking engagement. Come to think of it us older people never embellish anything. Nothing but documented facts with multiple eyeball witness. I sit corrected. F4U is still a better aircraft than the F6F, and I knew a guy who taught flat spin recovery in the F6F during that war. Just look at how long they lasted once that little disagreement ended; which aircraft keeps flying, and which one gets turned into cooking utensils...

Back in the day I was never enamored with the A-4, and we had quite a few flying in and out when I was at Alameda. Flew it for the first time today on a map with a B-1 poised on the runaway; it goes out and does a loop at 400 knots, then comes back and I'll occasionally fly formation with it just for the practice in everything from the F-5 to the F-18. Ground handling is tough; not used to differential breaking. Roll rate makes the F-5 look sluggish. Responsiveness is awesome. Had to cut a corner to catch the B-1; fastest I could go was 450, but once I got it reeled in the B-1 never lost me. Didn't have any trouble with it getting away from me, but I was more focused on retaining energy than maneuvering so that might change. I'll keep those setting in my pocket when they come up; right now a 20 curve on roll and pitch keeps me in the air. Landing was awful; couldn't get the thing to feel right, had to abort one attempt and circle back, ended up flying at the ground, and once down took the whole runway to stop. Then my ground handling skills put me in the dirt and that was that. If I get the ground handling down this thing will be an absolute blast to fly! Need to fix that first, then it's time to learn how to get around in this thing!

And Tunderbolt! by Robert S. Johnson, side by side so they can tell lies war stories to each other.

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.