BEHill75

In flight, I only use them to wiggle the gun a bit to saturate a target area. Other than that, shouldn't need them that often, especially with fly-by-wire jets.

Since the free for all came out, I've been having this problem. I know I can't be the only one. I load the sim and it hangs up on the load screen. I can hear the music but that's it. I have to use task manager to close the program. I had early success in getting it to load after the first time it happened by deleting Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config. It loaded in windowed mode, but quit working when I changed it to full screen. Now all I can do to get it to work is to load it using VR. I rarely if ever use VR for DCS because of the heat buildup in my current rig setup. Could this be a video driver problem? Thanks for any assistance you can give. :joystick: :pilotfly:

Same problem here. It loads fine in my VR, but I don't use my VR due to the heat buildup it creates in my current computer. I turn off the VR and get stuck listening to the music and staring at the start-up/load screen.

I concur. Well done on the website.

As a newly minted helicopter pilot (375 total hours), I find sims very challenging. Especially the throttle vs collective controller interface. That Huey is a beast that I am sure would be easier to fly in real life. Flying with others makes it so much easier to gain mastery. When life gets back to some sort of routine, I look forward to simming in DCS again.

I vote for the region including Kandahar. I was stationed there in 2007-2008 with the 24th MEU supporting operations in Helmand Province. No particular reason, but that would probably be the closest I could get to leaving the wire, lol. It's not CAS it's punishment. VMA-542, (HMM-365 Rein) [bit of an inside joke = MALS-69, Takin it from both ends]

What do you want to do? Pound dirt, punish flyers, or both? Harrier is good at CAS, strike, armed recon, and helicopter interdiction. F-16 is a pure fighter with decent strike capability (a bit of both).

Yup, and it changed once again VMFA-122 Flying Leathernecks (F-35B) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMFA-122

I flew the opposite direction out of Nellis in a Harrier just to poke around. I live in Cedar City, UT (which is just on the edge of this map in real life) and wanted to see how fast I could go through the Virgin River Gorge. Turns out just a touch faster than I drove it in my Firebird. THough there are some structures flying along the I-15 corridor, they are less accurate the farther west you go. No Love's truckstop, Mesquite and St George are nearly non-existant (St George airport is missing) and there is nothing from St George on. Not complaining, I didn't expect it to be that detailed anyway.

Don't need wheels to do a running takeoff. I've done running takeoff due to high DA. You just have to be very careful as to not wag the tail and remain as close to straight as possible. Could get messy if one of the skids catches. Very dangerous, especially if high DA is due to high ambient temps (soft tarmac).

Historical note. Back then, a Marine expeditionary unit was known as a MAU (Marine Amphibious Unit). Great work though.

In regards to the modular gunpod. By that logic, the P-51 has higher capacity than the Warthog. The difference is the pod is 20mm compared to the Warthog's 30mm. Lot less penetration and hitting power, though still sufficient for lighter targets. Also, in regards to it being very heavy for carrier operations...well that's a moot point because this is not a naval aircraft. The F-14, coincidentally the result of the same project (TFX), was what the Navy went with. Several Air Force aircraft have or had tail hooks. This doesn't mean they were designed for carrier use. 100-series aircraft had them as part of an emergency stop system which many airfields are equipped with. In fact, my dad once told me a story where a crewman essentially had his face ripped off because he tried to use a government issue ball point pen instead of the standard quick release pin used to restrain the spring-loaded hook on the F-106.

The Patriot site we had in Afghanistan looked nothing like that. In fact, it was on top of the berm if I recall. Though that was about 12 years ago.

GAU-12 25mm gatling cannon doesn't sound even remotely the same as the SU-25's 30mm autocannon. But like most digital simulations, not much real effort is put into making the "pew pew" sound effects.

A-10 uses the GAU-8 (not a GAU-30). GAU-8 and GAU-12 actually have very similar performance against steel armor. Of course the 30mm APDU pack just a tad more punch than the 25mm, but they are surprisingly close.

Not livery per se, but you could correct the name of one of the liveries. VMA-542 (please correct from VMAT) is NOT a training squadron. I deployed with them in 2007 to Kandahar, Afghanistan with the 24th MEU. The only Harrier training squadron in the Marine Corps is VMAT-203.

Ugh, I hated rebuilding the BOV's. Never could find the tester so we would just pucker up and give her a good hard suck or blow. If the valve opened and closed with mere lung power, she was good to go. If you did your job, it would be clean and you wouldn't get a chunk of old gasket when you sucked on her.

I used to work on the engines for the might Carolina Lawn Dart. I miss being around this amazing and unique aircraft.

Having worked on both late model F402-RR-406 and the 408 Pegasus, I would say the particular model of N/A would be F402-RR-406, transitioning to the 408 (probably not the 408A and definitely not the 408B). When I was going through my MOS school at MCAS Cherry Point in 1995, we were one of the first classes of mechanics to fiddle with the F402-RR-408. At that time most of the fleet was still N/A Harriers. Over the next few years, the fleet would convert to almost exclusively Radar Attack birds (II Plus). By early 2000's there were few, if any 406 engines left in the fleet.

There is no such thing as a AV-8B+ Day attack. The Harrier II consisted of Day Attack (w/ F402-RR-406 engine), Night Attack (w/ F402-RR-406B/408 engine), and Radar Attack (the II+) (w/ F402-RR-408A/408B) engine models.

Thank you

I swear, on Tuesday, it was not there. I sent in a trouble ticket and now it is. I spent two days off and on trying to figure it out. Thank you for your assistance though. It's nice to know others in the community are willing to help us old farts out.

Yes. Master Arm is on, weapons panel is armed (tried both left and right pylons), the reticule is down. I know the missiles can only be operated from the left seat, but cannon and rockets should be right seat.

Just started learning the Gazelle and as usual, finding I am having issues with the weapons. When I try to fire the cannon or rockets, I get nothing. When setting controls to fire, there is nothing showing up other than the minigun. Is anyone else having a similar issue, or is this just an old guy getting senile?

No, not really classification issue. I mean, I just retired in 2014 and at least a year before I retired the Litening pod was still considered classified. And yet it appears on videos and in simulator games.