Ironhand

I watched the MiG-20 TRK files and you fail to control your G loading, since the -29 doesn't have a G-limiter as the Flankers do. That's not the damper's function. That's why it's not referred to as a G-limiter. It's there to keep AoA, pitch, and yaw within acceptable limits. You can especially see it attempting to do just that in the 3rd track as it repeatedly tried to neutralize the stick as the limits were exceeded.

@Flappie Here's the TRK file I posted above but, this time, I take over prior to where I had lowered my landing gear and leave everything alone. Notice how smooth the transition is. This is done with Nav, Auto, and Baro Alt hold selected on the ACS. A simple pitch down to start down the glide path and, then, none of the oscillations that occurred when the landing gear and flaps were extended in the original TRK. I lower the landing gear part way down the glide slope without so much as a wobble. Later, I extend the flaps. All is well until right around 1 km out, when the system suddenly commands an unnecessary pitch up at which I disengage the AP and land. That pitch up with the flaps extended should not have happened. Nor should the oscillations occur when the gear and flaps are extended from the start as they were in the original track. Also notice that in both tracks, the AP kept me above the glideslope rather than exactly on it. That's another, separate issue. Flanker AP Landing Test PRGM-Mozdok-Late Gear&Flaps.trk

LAlt+6 is route following without altitude control. It simply keeps you pointed at the waypoint or, in landing mode, the runway centerline. You climb or descend based on your throttle setting. If that is how it now is meant to work, then there's no issue. I suppose you should ask. OTOH, Landing Mode had always, in the past, been done with Barometric Altitude hold engaged, what you get with the "A" key. The combination brought you smoothly down the glideslope. In my testing, that works most of the time, if you keep your landing gear and flaps stowed. Using either the "A" key or "LAlt+6" with "LAlt+4" (route following and barometric altitude hold both engaged) works equally well. It seemed to be the extension of the flaps especially that really screwed things up.

This has been going on for a long time, perhaps since the introduction of the PFM. Maybe before. At any rate, the ACS Landing Mode is mostly broken, often leading to severe oscillations in the pitch channel that make landing impossible. I've attached a TRK file demonstrating an attempt to land at Mozdok. There is no wind in the mission. I approach the final waypoint and some of the Return Mode using what the sim refers to as "Route Following Mode" (LAlt+6) alone because I want to stay at roughly the insertion altitude for the glidepath. If I had used "A" or had added "BaroAlt Hold" the AP would have added some extreme altitude changes to confuse the issue after the switch to Return Mode. Once Return Mode commanded the altitude drop to the glidepath insertion altitude, I add "Barometric Altitude Hold" (LAlt +4). Lowered my landing gear. Lowered my flaps. Hit the glidepath insertion and the oscillations began and got worse. Eventually, the system directed me back to the mid-insertion point and things got even more exciting from there. I've tried landing on 4 of the 6 PRGM equipped runways--the default runways for Mozdok and Krymsk and the similarly equipped runways at Kransnodar Center and Maykop. Not all of the runways yield similar results. For some reason, I seem to have much better luck landing at Maykop. Also want to mention that 100% of the time, on the occasions that the system works without extreme oscillations, the system holds you above the glidepath. Flanker AP Landing Test PRGM-Mozdok-Fail2.trk

Are, by any chance, stalling the airframe?

Yes. I wasn't fully awake yet, when I wrote that. I was lost in the units.

In the F-15C, it's the ADI that gives you the ILS bars. In the Russian birds, it's the HSI rather than the ADI that has them. In both, they don't come alive until, magically, at 8 km (4.3 nm) from the runway. Fast forward to 9km from landing. At 8 km from the runway, it'll magically come alive even though the HUD says it has the localizer and glideslope beams dialed in right from the initial transition from Return to Landing mode. The same thing is happening with the ADI in the F-15. Flanker AP Landing Mode Test Maykop.trk

Ahh. Thanks for the explanation.

There is no “dcs_updater update” in my bin folder. There is only dcs_updater.exe. And that will start the sim after checking for an update. That’s what I had tried first. The same is true in the start menu.

Yes, if the crosswind component is more than 3 m/s (6-ish knots). It's fine from 0-3 m/s. At 4 m/s, it becomes problematic. The velocity vector will begin flashing from time to time and the system starts leading you off course. It might steady again and bring you back into alignment. Then begin flashing again and leading you off course again. Whether or not you make it to the runway depends on when it fails and when it begins working again. At 6 m/s you're screwed until moments before touchdown, when it suddenly knows where the runway is again. The problem is that the ADI doesn't start indicating the glide slope until 4.3 nm out by which point you might be lost in IFR conditions. If the real system works this way, fine. But I doubt it. And I'm sure the ADI shows the glide path more than just 4.3 nm out. The ADI in the F-15C and the HSI in the FC3 Russian birds have that same 4.3 (8 km) glide path limitation. (None of the American birds are my normal ride. So I hope I'm not just doing something wrong here.) F-15C ILSN 3 ms crosswind OK.trk F-15C ILSN 4 ms crosswind Problematic.trk F-15C ILSN 6 ms crosswind Fail.trk

“ЦEНТР ЗОНЫ СТРОБ.” including the period.

The text on the stick is labeling the manual cursor slew button. The label on the throttle marks the ENTER button. In the sim and real life, it’s the target lock button. In the real world it is also used to manually enter range information for aerial targets and to enter the anticipated aim mark against ground targets, when using the OEPS.

Excellent. Thank you!

FWIW, since in this image there’s a button identified as “lock on ?”, I’ve seen that labeled as the laser control button.

Yes, “discard”. EDIT: сбросить: among other meanings, “throw down, drop”. So it probably is for countermeasures.

You might not want to write "Countermeasures" just yet. I've seen it labeled that elsewhere which is why I posted what I did. But "сброс" actually means "reset".

The bottom button is countermeasures. The switch above it is the airbrake. Pulling back extends. Punching forward retracts.

Since the pod is merely amplifying exiting light, has the moon risen in the mission? Without moon light, you won’t be seeing much of anything.

Thanks for checking. I’ll make a report soon, then. As for the ILSN directing the player into the ground, I don’t know. Haven’t been in the F-15 cockpit since this thread. If no one else checks, I’ll try to do so soon.

Excellent. I should get around to posting a bug report for the Flanker's ASC Landing Mode. It's been around for years. Or is it something they're aware of?

There's no struggle in the FC3 MiG-29. And you don't need to wait for the FF version. My flying is rusty but I'm not going to spend more time on this either because it was damned close as was. TRK attached as well. MiG-29 Power vs Video Test.trk

Duh! Talk about overlooking the obvious.

Sorry. My error. I use the Windows power shell to start the updater and I thought that starting the updater from the Desktop would work the same way. But it doesn’t. Unlike using the power shell, starting it from the desktop will also start the sim. If you want to try the power shell approach, use file explorer to navigate to the “bin” folder in your DCS installation. Highlight it. Hold down the SHIFT key while right clicking on the folder. In the context menu that opens, select “Open PowerShell window here”. In the window that opens, type: CMD The cursor will drop to a new line. Type: DCS_updater update Done. If there’s an update, it’ll update. If there isn’t, it’ll tell you that you’re up to date. In neither case, will the sim start.

There should be a large one in Vidsel, Sweden. But I'm still many hours away from the map finishing its download. So I don't know if it's on the map yet.

The easiest way to handle it is to link the updater itself directly from your Desktop. That way you only start the updater and not the sim.