CBStu

Track IR was a game changer for me. As you use it more and more, don't be afraid to make adjustments to the curves etc. I have mine set up where I have about 7-8 deg of head movement in both directions in roll, pitch, and yaw before the screen picture moves. This keeps the screen steady around the center even w/ slight head movement. Then I have fairly steep angles. I can easily look straight backwards in yaw for example. I also find it's a good idea to check for proper pitch travel every time I put the sensor on. Seems I don't get my hat on at exactly the correct angle every time, and that is even more of a problem w/ the sensor on my headphone.

Unfortunately it is what it is. Just yesterday I decided I needed to learn how to use laser Mavs so I could try a new (for me) mission. Went to Chuck's Guide as usual but his Laser Mav section is using the new targeting pod. The mission is an older one and there is no pod but there is a JTAC. I finally found an older youtube tutorial that worked. Many, many years ago I was peripherally involved in some automotive technical bulletin creation/updating. The amount of work involved blew my mind. I was asked to help update a specific subject because I was technically knowledgeable. The amount of time I spent on simply finding or creating illustrations to go along w/ the text was unbelievable. I remember one I could find dozens of front views but I also needed a rear view. I spent almost a full day and found just two rear views but they were a slightly different model. My boss decided we would use them anyway w/ a caption saying it was a different model but that the portion we needed to illustrate was correct.

I use flickr for pics and found they don't like any other types of files. I did find that I had left thrust and right thrust bound to the Warthog dual throttle but thrust had a keyboard binding. I cleared the 'thrust' binding so will see if that helps. If it is still a problem I will look into other services to host the file. Thanks for you help.

This is the 4-5 time this has happened. Fly a mission, get back to the boat, trying to park the plane net to another one and wham, it goes full throttle and I push the other plane over the side or we both blow up. And I am accused of fratricide. I have never saved a track before so I hope this works. Well crap, it's over 5MB. What do I do to share it here?

This what I was referring to above. What is up w/ totally different coloring at 20 vs 40?

I agree w/ Stearmandriver. I use the ICLS also. I can't see any reason not to. It tells you your altitude way before you can see the ball. He also has a great point about using the tacan for finding the 90 deg. I use it to start my first turn 1.2 ahead of the ship, use it to determine when to end that turn, use it to know if I am too wide or too close to the boat on the downwind, and to know when to start the final turn. Why the he11 I never thought to use it for the 90 I have no idea. I commented in another thread couple months ago that it would be nice if the wake were visible to us in DCS. So thanks Stearmandriver for the tip.

Quigon and Zyll, thank you very much.

I hope you don't mind if I add a question. In the example, in the 'SCL 20' what does the 20 mean? Is the entire vertical distance of the map = 20 miles. Is it just the distance from the plane symbol to the top edge of the map = 20 miles?

Last week I noticed that as I change chart scales, at some point, the entire color scheme of the chart changes. I don't remember if that caused a problem w/ seeing fields or not but certainly could.

I have an Aleinware 27 monitor running at 1920x1080. I set my camera position so the side mirrors are just barely on the screen. (I don't actually have the mirrors on but that is a reference) Sometimes I zoom in slightly like when setting up bombs on the left DDI, or using the moving map. I can zoom in a lot more and everything is well defined so I don't see a need to go to 4k which is nice for my wallet.

Admittedly I don't do much flying from an air field but for me, I just put flaps at 1/2 and the plane kind of lifts off on it's own.

Just last week I decided to try some campaigns so I bought Raven One and Serpents Head. SO then on the home page I clicked 'campaign' instead of 'mission' for the first time. I discovered I already had a campaign called 'Hornet 1989 Task Force Challenger' so decided to try it. Turns out it is made up of the Caucuses FA-18 missions titled 'Combat Mission-Hornet 1989; Alert Five, Close Air Support, Fighter Sweep, etc. There is slight variation from the individual missions but they are all tied together and you get a score after completing each mission. This was great for me as I had been flying them already. I think this is the Campaign Ziptie is referring to. I will try Raven or Serpents next.

In the provided missions the weapons and waypoints are already loaded. If it's a ground or boat start you can hit 'R' for 'rearm and refuel' and it will bring up a window. You can change fuel level and armament there. It takes maybe a minute and he will announce 'rearm completed' or something similar. It's kind of fun to look back over your shoulder and see one of the missiles disappear and a different one take it's place. I understand it is possible to change waypoints using the clickable UFC etc but have not tried it yet myself. Chuck's Guide has the process.

In the FA-18 mission 'Interdiction' I have several times had the throttle go to full while I am trying to park next to another FA-18. I fixed that problem by not parking. But I just discovered a campaign that includes this mission so I flew it. Had to fly it twice but I figured it was an error on my part so no big deal. So second try I forget and go to park it. As I am just about to hit the brakes the throttle goes full and I push the other plane and myself into the ocean. But now I get a message that I committed fratricide and have lost all my points for the campaign. It was the 3rd mission of 6 or 8 so now I am screwed. Jeez.

Well that would suck because the AI in SP sure have flares that work real well against my AIM9s.

In the FA-18 mission "Interdiction" I get back to the boat and try to park next to another FA-18. Suddenly it goes full throttle and I push the other plane and myself overboard. Been practicing that mission on it's own and just decided to stop before parking. So I just discovered a campaign which includes this mission. Forgot not to park it, it went crazy, and I get a notice that I committed fratricide and lost all my points. This was the 3rd mission, I was forced to fly it twice for some reason (I figured I messed up somehow as this is the first campaign I have tried, no big deal) but now I have nothing. Jeez.

As best as I can tell it is. I can barely hear the slight thumbs for each launch at least.

Yep, the Mission Editer is a whole other thing to learn. I can only do basic stuff but it has come in handy. I was trying to learn how to use JSOWs and the training mission for them has a ton of enemy SAMs flying at me and they also shoot down the JSOWs. So I created a similar mission but w/ an unarmed enemy that has 4 tanks along a road and each tank is a waypoint. I also put 4 enemy transport planes at one of their air fields figuring I could use them as targets for a lot of different ordnance. Trouble is they take off and do a big loop around the field and then land. Oh well, I made sure to have a few AIM9s on my plane too. Now I can learn much more easily.

Also, at least in the supplied missions where you take off from the carrier, you have to right click the dispenser switch and then wait a bit while it goes through it's self test. So I often do that while waiting to be rearmed. Once in the air, you can then go to the EW page. At the top of the screen, once the self test is done it will say 'stby'. At that point I usually hit the mode button a couple times to put it into 'SA' or semi automatic mode.

I don't know how I can look at your track but can make a comment based on others replies. Forget the pattern for now. I started by making 100s of straight in approaches. Using the provided missions w/ in air starts, I make maybe a 60 degree right turn. They start you straight behind the boat on the same heading as the boat. So, since the landing deck is at 9 or 10 degrees to the boat centerline, you have to head out to the right to find the ICLS localizer. Also I found that the little throttle on my stick was not a fine enough control of the engine. You need to be able to vary speed by only 2-3 knots because that is all the difference there is between being on glide slope or moving above or below it. Speed is not a guideline you use just an indicator. If you are perfectly on glide slope note your speed. If you see you are dropping below glide slope and take a quick look at your speed you will se it is only 2-3 different. When I bit the bullet and spent the $250 for a Warthog throttle it made all the difference.

I 'think' you can set height to zero and it will figure the actual ground altitude itself.

This is how I do it w/ HSI on the left screen. As I am coming down the downwind leg I keep watching that distance decrease. When at the 90 to the ship I hope it is 1.2. If it is >1.2, I will bank closer to the 15deg line at maybe 20. If it is <1.2, I will be closer to the 30deg. Of course my bank angle isn't rock solid, but I try to get it to 'average' out to the above. When using Banklers mission I will turn like Razor says so I don't get a 'too long on downwind' score deduction. If not using Banklers I will wait just a little longer. BTW waiting just a little longer before making the first break turn also makes things a little easier. 1.3nm beyond the ship beats 1.0nm.

Jeez, another system effed up on the 18? It is getting old trying new types of bombs or missiles, having no luck, and then finding out it isn't me.

Several of your replies are technically way over my head. I fly the provided missions in Caucuses and PG maps. I don't know enough about the radar to even chose different modes. How ever it is set up in the mission, that is what I use. Some times, as range to the enemy closes to 25 or less, I will shoot a few 120Cs by slewing across the radar screen to get a lock and then fire. I usually have no idea if I hit anything though because, as the planes get into visual range, it gets busy quickly so I switch to using the HUD as my sensor. Where it is an air start I am shooting the provided weapons. I have given up flying missions where I have only 7s. For 2 years they have never hit much of anything for me. Where it is a ship start, I often rearm and chose 120Cs and 9Xs. They have been working very well. But in the last several weeks the 120Cs are not much better than 7s. I haven't changed anything, the provided missions haven't changed, but the effectiveness of 120Cs has dropped way off.

I have tried that mission also and gave up. They must have a million SAMs on hand cause at one point on the F10 map I saw 6 flying at once. I watch the SAMs coming at me by flipping to F10, back to F1, and watching the timer count down, back to F10 etc. I tried 3-4 times firing one JSOW and bugging back out of SAM range, turn and line up again to try to fire another JSOW. So I avoided being shot down myself, but then realized the SAMs easily shoot down the JSOWs too. Bottom line is the SAMs have a lot longer range than the JSOWs, they are very accurate, so the mission is, at least for me, impossible. I have created my own mission where I have 4 trucks sitting on a road far enough apart that I also have them as 4 waypoints. I also have 3 IL76s flying around an airfield so, whether I get my bombing done successfully or not, I can always end up w/ shooting these down. I have saved several versions of the mission that differ just in the type of bomb I am carrying.