RustBelt

Try doing a full Repair, when weird stuff like this comes up that nobody else reports it’s a good practice. Updates don’t always go right for reasons….

Reviewing and/or PRINTiNG out the documents with a Reflected campaign is mandatory. It fills my 1990’s big old game box full of feelies heart.

Like 3 little bullet points with no pictures that I never even NOTICED until you referenced them now because I only ever used the NATOPS for Systems. Also not everyone is ALLOWED to have the NATOPS. You can't even share it HERE. They're OK. But they lack insight when you don't nail the maneuvers, so it's just a guessing game as to how you could actually improve. The Text is by far the more useful bit.

Oh, yea that goes back to the whole “Match HOTAS switches” or whatever setting that never works. I run a Warthog and I have to leave it out of cutoff detent when spawning in. Then click it down into Cutoff after the plane loads in because on the Warthog they’re “held” buttons in cutoff. Also prevents issues when spawning in HOT or in the air.

Idle is the opposite of cutoff. Whatever you have set for cutoff, the opposite of doing that gives you Idle.

The briefing PDF’s are pretty good. It’s literally the only source I’ve ever seen for actual formation sight lines on the Tomcat.

Already read the whole book. It’s incomplete, because the manual is incomplete.

The problem is both the Official manual, and Chuck's guide only cover the raw basics, so that's all any videos cover since they use the selfsame sources. Heck, the only documentation on the TID AVIA page is a Grim Reapers video. Fun bonus quiz, what actual button undesignates the LANTIRN pod? It's an assignable binding, but no source knows what actual button on the stick it corresponds to. My guess is S4 Left, but I have no documented proof, and no 3rd party instructions even speculates on it.

Also pilots have zero problems landing in a crosswind. Because that’s almost always what you have on land.

I can try.RIO clean.hpfRIO.hpf edit: no Idea if that's what you need. Might be?

Tomcat was more "Rippey" due to how far apart the engines were, lots of interaction between the individual engines jets and the disrupted free air between it. It made a wicked beat oscillation that sounded like space time was being ripped open. Most of the other twin fighters have the engines so close it doesn't quite match it. The 35, 16 and 18 Booms and the 15 and 22 screech. The only other stuff that gets close is the Su-27 and MiG-29 but those also have totally different tones due to intake geometry. (I got super lucky to see the 29 during the '91 "Friendship tour" at the Cleveland Airshow, which also had the regular tomcat show) Oh and the B-1 at full spank. it does it too although it's different because it's louder and lower frequency. My guess is the Concorde did it at full blast too, but never got to see that.

Oooooo good find! You don’t want to know how much the real ones sell for!

You also may not be accounting for the vertical lift increase as you roll back to wings level.

To be fair, 5 years ago, the idea that top end cards would still be bumbling around with only 6-8GB of VRAM today was absurd. But here we are. Progress stumbles barely on.

Yea I remember Top Gear once posted their whole audio kit and it was some very specific and pricey microphones to get good sound. Also vests don’t even do it. The air is so energetic it makes a standing wave in your ear canal. You hear it with your sinuses and eyeballs.

Not just VHS LP. Also cheap built in VHS camera omnidirectional mic clipped into the plastic case of the camera. Even Top Gun isn’t 100% accurate as the masters were compressed to work on 35mm optical audio track. If there’s ever a Criterion super restored remaster, then it might be right, for the few shots that weren’t filmed silent with a separate audio track in post. (Or that weren’t the RC planes). I experienced them in person at airshows in the 90’s. Granted from airshow stands distance, and Heatblur has it mostly right, except where your speakers can’t physically abuse the air the way Zone 5 AB does in the real world. It’s a full body experience then.

I think that may be a structural sub layer, not the actual “detent tracks” which screw on top of it. Or the detents are IN the pivot mechanism which would be more complex.

You’re doing gods work.

Yes, and all else is Quake. I restate my hypothesis.

I’m guessing by “they” you mean an infinitesimally small and fully insular group of players. Which blurrs the line between online and Walled garden multiplayer.

Great video!

Most of the tomcat’s service was puttering around a boat for an hour or two.

You mean PvE?

There has and will ever be only ONE online PvP play mode. Quake. Doesn’t matter if it’s an RTS, an FPS, a Flight Sim, and it doesn’t matter what play rules you set up prior. Once play begins it’s just Quake. Been that way since before even Quake. Just ask any hard core Doom Grognard or Air Warrior grey hair.

TACAN can reach pretty far at high altitudes. And unless it’s a hard ferry flight, you’re never going blue water for too long, or you’re flying with something with a more robust INS that can Link4 with you like a tanker every couple hundred miles. And there’s also the good old handheld Garmin GPS to poop out LAT/LON for you. The important thing is setting up and being gentile with the INS and pulling a fix as late as you can before a long stretch.