CBStu

Charly, I just found the thread I was thinking of from a few weeks ago. I will send you a PM. For others reading this I want to say that I may not have worded my comment above as well as I could have. I use your Guide very often and find it super helpful. I also realize it is probably impossible to cover every iteration completely, especially when we now have the pod which puts a whole nother layer of technique on top of those we have been using.

Rob and Ziptie, thanks again. I tried it this AM in my own practice bombing mission and it definitely worked. I was able to place the FLIR symbol over a target waypoint on the SA page and that had the FLIR close enough that I could find the target and lase it. I had two laser guided bombs and two GBU38 and 4 targets so it worked fine. Even though I didn't use the FLIR for the GBU38s I found that when I hit waypoint designate on the SA screen, it automatically moved the FLIR there also. Fun to watch the tanks get blown up via the FLIR image.

It is working fine for me in both DCS missions and campaigns written by others.

Also be careful w/ Chucks or any tutorials that it is teaching exactly what you are trying to learn. 1- There was a thread recently where a flyer was trying to learn Mav Es- the laser guided version. Chuck went through a process that was close but....not quite what the DCS mission needed. I don't remember the details but somewhere he said something like, if you are self lasing do 'this'. Well that was fine except he didn't elaborate on which steps in the process should be ignored and which step to back up to do 'this' instead. 2- Also some tutorials are a little older and may no longer be exactly correct due to new systems that did not exist when the tutorial was first put together.

Rob10. Thank you so much. I will try this tomorrow.

There is a key combination to do this but I have my screen set up so buttons for the web and for my files still show across the bottom when I have dcs running. I use the pause and active pause buttons a lot. So when I am having trouble w/ anything I hit pause and open either Chucks Guide, some text documents I have saved, or go to youtube and search for a tutorial. W/ any of those open, I often pop back and forth between it and dcs. Read or see video on how to do steps 1 and 2, go to dcs and do them, pause dcs and look for step 3, see how to do it, go to dcs and do it, etc etc. I am way into my second year w/ dcs and the FA-18 and am still learning. If you get frustrated, stop what you are doing and run a mission you like and shoot down some planes or blow some buildings, or just do 10 landings. The FA-18 is not an easy learn so sometimes take a break from learning and have some fun.

Although this is coming up in this campaign I think it is a more general question(s). 1- On several occasions, I have completely run out of missiles and even gun ammo so I am useless. I look for some way to tell Wizard this but see nothing in the comms drop down list. So I ask for a vector to the carrier thinking maybe he will realize I am RTB. But he keeps giving me BRA calls. 2- Same w/ fuel. I know it is my fault in a way since I am still not able to refuel from the tanker, but am I expected to hang in the area until I run out of fuel? BTW, I am having an absolute blast w/ this campaign so thank you Bunny for all your hard work creating it.

Please elaborate on this. I am not aware how this works. Thank you.

I don't understand. I wrote a long post w/ 5 pictures. I used Flickr just like I always do here and other forums and when I was done, all the pics did not appear, just the links. Then I saw the note at the bottom of the window saying max size 5 MB. Figured 5 pics is probably over 5 MB. So I tried a second post w/ just the beginning of my text and one pic. Same thing, all I see is a link, not an actual picture.

Here I am NE of Senaki. On the F10 map I clicked on the black circle w/ yellow slash which brought up the info in the lower left. Tacan is 31x and as you said runway is 270. So on the left display I bring up the HSI page.(double click the center lower button and click on HSI button on left side). [url=https://flic.kr/p/2kBikGr][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50938931661_9a06f7487c_z.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2kBikGr]Senaki 1[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/152454123@N04/]craig stuard[/url], on Flickr I don't know WTF the problem is but I give up. PM me and maybe we can email directly.

Here I am NE of Senaki I don't know what is wrong. My pics don't show up. Trying to fix.

Download 'Oil in the Water'. I am having a blast w/ it. I had to 'cheat' some on the night mission where we are supposed to take out 'armed power boats' w/ Mav E and a pod. I rearmed to MavFs and ditched the pod. The starts are hot but then you get to learn how to go to the cat and follow the man's instructions to get launched. Really fun!

All I can say is I am superbly happy w/ the FA-18. I have been flying it for 2 years and still have a long way to go to be fully proficient. It is pretty difficult, there are many, many steps for some functions to work. But I find that as I learn about how to use one weapon, often the next weapon will be somewhat similar so a lot of learning weapon 1 transfers to weapon 2. I recently flew a night mission. At first it was a shock looking at the cockpit. But, as I started to prepare different systems just as I always do, there were a couple toggle switches a little hard to confirm their position but, otherwise it all came naturally. Over that time I have avoided some missions because I didn't know that weapon. But at some point I just realize I can fly the same stuff over and over, or I can invest the time, learn a new weapon or procedure, and move onward.

On the page DCS opens to click the gear at the top to go to 'Options'. Click 'Special' across the top and then down the left side click 'FA-18c'. Look for the little box labeled 'Realistic TDC slew' and be sure there is no check mark in the box. If there is, uncheck it. I am not sure if this will help you or not. W/ a Warthog this is meant to be used so the normal procedure of 'push down on the slew button and keep it pushed while you slew' is not needed. It is worth a try.

I will try to help w/ airfield landing. Let's start first in Caucuses map because nearly all the fields have tacan. Go to Chucks Guide Capter15 section 8. He goes over tacan well and that will help locate the field you want to land on. I recommend forget doing a pattern landing and forget any ATC interaction for now. Concentrate on the mechanics of flying the plane. Instead get your plane lined up on the runway at 2000ft 8-10 miles away and slow your speed to 250 and drop landing gear. You will see the E bracket appear on the HUD and it will be a little higher than the VV so add a little up trim till VV looks like this. See CG (Chucks Guide) chapter 6 picture 9a. Stay at 2000 altitude, cut throttle back to idle, and slow to 188-190 and drop flaps. . The E bracket will now need to be re-centered w/ more up trim. The amount of trim (in degrees) you put in doesn't matter so just get the VV centered in the E. The E and the VV will move around some but think of it this way- your trim is moving the VV- up trim will move the VV up in relation to the E. Don't do it too fast because at say 170 up trim will have the plane gain altitude. You will end up at about 135 so at about 145 start adding back in some throttle. Your goal is to be on trim, VV = E, and holding a steady altitude. You should be able to see the runway by now and you want to fly like CG Chapter 6 picture 12. Remember once on AOA you fly so throttle controls altitude and bank w/ the stick controls left and right. Keep the VV on the runway and keep flying like that until you touch down. As soon as you touch down pop the speed brake. Get down to 100k and pull the stick all the way back. This adds a lot of drag. Also at 100 go to full brakes. When you have practiced enough that this straight-in landing is a piece of cake then think about pattern landings.

Yes that mission is useless. I have made my own similar practice mission where there are no SAMs.

Brun I see your point. I guess I should have said >30 deg. I actually don't pay attention to the bank angle in the break but I know it is a lot. I was mainly trying to make the point that the bank angle has the effect of making the flaps dropping almost a non-event. One other thing I discovered this week is that doing a good Bankler recovery is a perishable skill. I hadn't flown it for 4-5 weeks and, when I tried it again, it took 6 traps to get my score >50 and several more to get a 62 which is my personal record.

I finally got through the night mission. I know it's just me, but I am not having a lot of success here (or anywhere else) w/ the targeting pod. And night makes it even less useful for me. So I swapped the MavEs for MavFs. The worst part w/ the pod is I have no idea where it is looking while I slew it. The degrees left, right or down don't help much at all. I find that I can see the boats better w/ the MavF screen and it is really nice having the down pointing triangle showing me where the Mav is looking. Sometimes I slew the triangle and sometimes I just fly the plane like I would w/ rockets. I keep hitting the TDC push button as I line up on the boat and the 3rd or 4th try I get a lock and fire. Overall I really like this campaign. I especially like the hot starts. In another campaign w/ cold starts I use the auto start cheat and that still takes a lot of time. I enjoy lining up for the cat shots following the yellow shirt's directions too. Thanks Bunny.

I didn't know you could use a MavF on an aerial target. Thought it was ground or ship only.

In the Caucuses try the missions; 'Combat Mission- Hornet 1989: Alert 5'. These guys shoot at you but there are maybe 10 of them and they are not real aggressive. It's a launch from the carrier w/ the plane ready to go. 'Weapons Qualification- AIM-120 Amraam'. I think there are 8 of these and they don't shoot at you. It's an air start. In all missions, when you get shot down, hold down 'L Shift' key and hit the 'R' key to do a restart. Like Pete, I also have my missiles and gun set to a 4 way switch on my throttle. If you don't have that, figure a way to set keys to AIM9, AIM120, and GUNS. These; [url=https://flic.kr/p/2kyTmp8][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50911618341_9717203987_z.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2kyTmp8]Missile select[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/152454123@N04/]craig stuard[/url], on Flickr Turn on the MASTER ARM switch and then you should be able to switch instantaneously between any of the 3 missiles and gun.

Sorry, yes their should have been. I added a link.

I'd like to have the option of choosing cold or hot starts. I am a beginner at campaigns so learning a lot of new stuff and I do auto starts. I can certainly see that cold starts can add to the realism/immersion but some of you may want to think back to when you were in your 1st or 2nd years flying DCS.

Yep. See this at about 10min mark. Matt does a real nice steady break. Mine has more altitude variation and I use bank angle to adjust. Less angle gains some height and more angle loses height. Remember for 90% of this 180 deg turn the throttle is at idle and speed is dropping so I can't adjust altitude w/ throttle. Once on downwind and also through the final turn throttle is used to adjust altitude.

I screwed up, hit the wrong button, and had to start over. The good thing is that flying right over the runway fixed my problem. No longer getting told I did something wrong in the pattern. And it's not like I got through the 2 missions w/o cheating anyway, so I am learning as I do my redo. Thank you.

Agreed. Til maybe 6 weeks ago I was happy just shooting 120Cs and 9Xs at other planes. I had tried bombs and I sucked so I mostly avoided them. Same w/ the pod, I sucked so I avoided it. Then I decided I need to put in the work. I see some improvement so I try a different mission and bam, back to I suck again. I just relearned that the pod actually has 6 different types of view available so I am going to start trying them. I also need to figure out that location thing the jtac provides. I had no idea this would be so difficult but in the end it is still a lot of fun.