CBStu

SSDs are getting cheaper all the time. 6-7 months ago I did a mirror replacement of my 1T hard drive w/ a 1T SSD. It was < $150 including the kit w/ the usb wire to do the mirror.

I think the easiest way to support them is buy modules. Doesn't matter if you never fly them. And who knows, some rainy afternoon you might try one just for the heck of it.

I also notice that some of these buttons don't seem to have the entire square active. Seems I sometimes need to be very accurate at hitting the center.

Wow, that was very interesting. Thanks for posting.

I swear in the built-in missions, they seem to have one heck of a lot of flares available. Definitely more than I have.

I just had a thought. About a month ago I switched the setting for 'synchromize w/ hotas at startup' (or similar) to be on. Prior to that, when starting one of the built-in missions on the carrier, the flaps were always automatically set to 'half'. Now the flaps are automatically set to what ever position my switch is in. I am learning to always check it now because it depends on how I ended the prior flight. If I had landed and then hit 'restart' my flaps switch is in full so I'd be starting in full. If I hit 'restart' while flying the flaps is in 'up' or 'auto'. So maybe some problems for some people might depend on their 'synchronize' setting.

While speed is not the important factor in an approach, I do like to monitor it. I fly in SP and do the included missions and I like to land afterwards if the is an airfield or the boat near by. So I end up at varying weights. I have also inadvertently tried landing w/ half flaps. So checking airspeed is a handy guide.

I am not sure this will be what you are looking for but I will mention it anyway. If you go to the F10 map and zoom in on an airport you could print screen. I do this for other uses a lot. Get exactly what you want on the screen because you will end up w/ all of it. Hold down control and hit the PrtScn button. This puts it onto your clipboard. Open a picture editing app (I use paint.net) and click Edit and then Paste in the dropdown list. Now you have your screen shot ready to edit however you want.

For me per Chucks guide weapon select left is guns.

I know it's expensive but TrackIR is a game changer. It may not be VR but there are actually advantages there too. It took me a couple of days, and then an hour here and there as I came across tips for it's use here, to get it set up to my liking. I would hate to go back to buttons or hats to control my view. I have mine set up w/ a center dead spot of about 7-8 degrees of head movement before the view actually moves. It is really surprising how much we move our heads w/o realizing it so this helps calm everything down. I then have curves for screen movement vs head movement that allows me to turn my head 90 deg to the side and get a 180 deg view movement. Yes, you can watch for that Mig behind you if you use labels. The label will show through your plane. BTW I have a couple of solid color beach towels that I can stick on door or window frames w/ push pins when the sun is in the wrong spot and messing me up.

Thanks guys. I thought that might be it.

Last week up popped a little window that said I could now download two planes. One was the F14 so I thought why not. It took forever on my satellite internet but finally got it. Flew it a little and immediately had a problem w. the default view. Messed w/ that for maybe 10 minutes and decided to come back to it when I had more time. Now when I start dcs I get a window saying something like it's not authorized and I have X hours and Y minutes left. Well dang, it was offered, I took it, and now it's not authorized? So what is the deal here? A trial period?

I upgraded my VKB GladiatorII w/ the space grip. In the last couple of weeks they released this combination as a purchasable unit. https://vkbcontrollers.com/?product=gladiator-k I have the Premium right hand version and it is absolutely fantastic. Specifically, the off center feel you are looking for is perfect. This grip has so many buttons and hats that I don't have them all assigned yet. It doesn't mimic any specific fighter stick so it will work well for any plane. BTW I use it w/ a TM Warthog throttle. The built-in throttle is OK for everything except carrier traps where it doesn't have the long travel needed to make tiny changes.

To add a little to DasPenguin's post and assuming you are running the upwind at 350 you can drop the flaps on the upwind because they won't actually move until speed drops below 250. You get the flaps full illuminated on the panel but it is orange so you can confirm it is set and it will turn green once they actually drop. I wish they would have set the gear up this way but I guess there is a reason they haven't. So, as I am in the turn I periodically look at airspeed and hit the gear button at <250. I have my 'gear down' on a button on my stick base (desk top VKB stick) that is easy for me to hit w/o needing a lot of searching for it. One thing I do is have the HSI screen on the left display and have the carrier's tacan entered. This gives distance (on the HUD) and direction to the carrier. On the upwind I pass the ship and start my turn when I get about 1.2 miles beyond the ship. On the downwind I watch the small 'direction to the ship' triangle come down the left side of the HSI and initiate my turn when it is a little below 90 deg. This is equal to watching to view the round down on the back of the boat but for me it's easier than constantly looking 90 deg out to my left.

I know that some of the VKB sticks have a box but mine does not. I see what you are saying that the VKB stick has a set of buttons and so does the TM throttle. I may not have anything assigned to the matching button on the throttle so haven't had a problem.

You can also assign the labels toggle to any keyboard key. I had mine using the letter L key until I got a new joystick w/ a lot of buttons.

yes, see the horizontal line w/ action, category, keyboard, etc? There is a thin vertical divider line for each. Grab it w/ your mouse and move it sideways. You may lose some of the description as the columns get narrower but you can always move it back if that becomes a problem.

Hopefully you have a 4 way hat on your stick that you can assign trim to. If not you can use keyboard keys. Either the arrow only keys or the number pad keys 8, 4, 6, 2.

I use my VKBK w/ a TM Warthog dual throttle. I don't use Target at all. I set everything up in the DCS controls section. I fire up TIR5 and wait a few seconds for the left hand green LED on the camera to come on. Then I fire up DCS. I have seen something about having TIR5 start DCS (or maybe it was the reverse) but haven't bothered to try to make that work. It just isn't a big deal. While waiting for DCS to become active I use the time to set up TIR5. I do F12 and also play w/ the position of the headset which has the TIR5 thing attached so I get the proper range of looking up and looking down set.

Unfortunately most of that is way over my head. All I know is that it works. I used to use the F1, F2, F10, and F12 buttons on the keyboard. Since I got the new stick I have more buttons than I need. Using the keyboard has always been a pain so I decided to try to move those 4 functions to the base of the stick. I did that easily and it is working fine. BTW I do not use the TARGET stuff so maybe there is a difference.

Mine shows as 136GB. Last Oct I upgraded my old PC w/ a 1TB SSD. It was about $150 for the drive and the connector tool to clone the old drive.

I have thought the same thing a few times. It feels like the angle of decent is too low. I guess our DCS FA-18 has good springs and shocks.

I use a VKB Gladiator 2 stick and have one of the buttons on the base set to center TIR.

To add a little more re; cross wind. If you notice you VV and ladder off to one side of the HUD you probably have a cross wind. Hit your cage/uncage button and the VV will center in the HUD w/ kind of a ghost VV also on. The ghost VV is your steering cue to compensate for the cross wind. You still need to be in line w/ the runway, but once in line put the ghost VV on the tire marks in the landing area.