CBStu

Thx Tholozor. Maybe things will improve.

I have never figured out the reason but sometimes TACAN won't pick up the boat. My work around is to go to Waypoint 0 and use that. Eventually, as I get closer, TACAN will work .

A typical taxi to cat I pinky twice. First turns on NWS, second makes it 'HI'. I notice that it isn't just wings down that will turn off 'HI' it is wings 'LOCKED' that does it. I discovered that because I move wings down soon after I start rolling and usually taxi all the way to the cat and stop, then 'LOCK' the wings. But one time I hit lock 2/3 of the way to the cat and bang, 'HI' went off. So then I had to hold the pinky button to keep 'HI' active.

Be glad you have an actual mfd w/ buttons. It is harder hitting those buttons w/ a mouse while using left hand for the stick.

But a MavF beats the heck out of trying to enter 89 items to launch a Harpoon so it can fly around out there and pick it's own target.

I read all the above explanation but still, it seems DCS has some problems w/ this. Contact a tanker and he tells you altitude and speed. It is never correct. It is in the ball park alt is + or - 500, speed is + or - 20-30. Look at F10 map and read the altitude of other planes. It is never correct. Click one of those planes and look at the speed in the popup window. Never correct. I just live w/ it but do wonder sometimes why. OTOH, I have no idea how they make DCS as super as it is so I fly on and enjoy.

I downloaded a user file mission where you make a fun canyon run on your way to try to blow a Russian AWACs plane. I get maybe 3/4 through the canyon and a Mig29 pops up on the EW screen and soon fires a missile at me. I have tried keep flying and eject flares or chaff. I got blown up. The idea of the canyon run is to stay off radar which seems to work since this isn't a SAM problem. But the 29 has me. I was hoping that staying in the canyon would lose the missile tracking but no luck. The 29 shows on EW but not on radar so no way to launch a 120c. At that point should I come up out of the canyon to be able to make evasive maneuvers or ?? Come up out of the canyon as soon as the 29 shows on EW and try to shoot him first ?? Any suggestions will be appreciated.

95% of my landings are on the carrier but the 1% didn't work for me either. My initial 180 deg turn is at 30deg bank. As I run the downwind leg the tacan readout gives me distance from the boat or landing strip. My final 180deg turn will be at a bank angle correlated w/ the tacan distance. 1.6 might = a 25deg bank. 1.2 might = 30 and 1.0 might = 32 bank. I also agree w/ dmatsch, run the down wind a little long so, if you don't come out of the 180 lined up, you have a bit of distance to correct it.

Me too. It is another reason I don't like laser guided bombs. I almost always change out to GPS guided.

A couple of comments; - L Shift R is your friend. When you get shot down or otherwise screwed up just hit L SHift R and start over. - Do like I did and mess w/ your screen size numbers (and set DCS to 'play in a window') so you still have that lower band across the screen w/ your internet browser and file explorer icons showing while you are in DCS. When I need help I hit pause, then I go to my 'SIM FLYING" folder for stuff I have saved. Or I hit the web for 'Chucks Guide' or any of 100s of youtube tutorials. I often swap back and forth maybe once or maybe 5-6 times between DCS unpause make a change (learning a new bomb or missile setup) pause and go back to my help. - There are times I get frustrated and think, OK screw this, I got into this to have fun. So I get out of whatever is frustrating me and spend my last 15 or 30 minutes flying a mission I enjoy.

Be aware that you can usually get enough trim to make it fly level and straight. But when you then go into a turn that heavy wing is a killer. IE; drop the left bomb and then trim to level. If you then make a right turn it will be dang near uncontrollable.

I have never looked at rpm so not sure if I can see it. But I balanced my FOV, head position etc to get me as wide and tall view as possible w/o making all the labels too small to be easily read. Beyond that Track IR5 let's me move my head around to see something specific on the panel better and I do that a LOT.

Isn't TOO w/ 'waypoint designate' using a waypoint w/ 'precise' coordinates fairly accurate? Or does DCS make it seem more accurate than it is in RL?

A comment on learning. What I did was change my DCS settings a little so I could 'play in a window'. Then I set the DCS screen size (the 1920x1080 I think) a little smaller on the height number. So while playing DCS I still have the full bar across the bottom. This way when I need help on how to do something I pause DCS, then I can open saved files, or go to the web and watch a youtube tutorial or open Chucks Guide. Setting up a new weapon I may swap back and forth DCS to help 5-10 times doing each step as directed. Also I learned how to ad my own pages to the kneeboard. So I have charts on AA missle ranges, descent angles, etc that I can access on the kneeboard while flying. One other thing I found (or I may have bound it myself) I use the B key to access the mission briefing. It pauses DCS and brings up the briefing so I can scroll through it. Hit B again to resume flying.

Sedlo thank you. They have a very weird way of running that part of the editor. I did what you said adding in the Naval-3-1 and still wasn't sure if it worked. I hit the 'UP' after clicking my second activate and they swapped positions. I tried the 'DOWN' and they swapped back. Usually just the top one was bright white. But somewhere along the line they both became white. So I saved it and flew it and ICLS works. Thanks again!

I have been flying a user file mission where the creator activated TCN but not ICLS. So I open the file in the mission editor and decide to clone the command for activating TCN. I get that done and then click edit. I get the drop down list for the various available commands and as soon as I click on 'Activate ICLS' my new command line gets greyed out. I have tried everything I can think of including saving it as is and hoping......no good. How do I get this command to work?

I'd be happy if it would fly to the TCN and KEEP flying to TCN when I put a CRS line on the HSI. But it doesn't. It immediately turns the plane to fly that CRS from where ever I am when I hit CPL. I will try HSEL. Yes HDG hold might work OK if there isn't much crosswind. I wish the code writers would quit trying to think for us. Their idea of something that might be helpful when it is done automatically often creates a lot more work than if reduces.

rob10 thankyou very much. I thought I had tried every possible thing but definitely not that one.

How to get there. I gave up 2 yrs ago and just search 'dcs user files' in my normal web search window. When I go to the forum I get this. When I do a search for user files I get this Notice the User Files page has clickable 'Downloads' in the upper black banner. I have yet to be able to find something that will bring a 'Downloads' to the forum pages. Any ideas?

I don't know. I do know that I have had similar experiences elsewhere and by accident found that different mice scroll at a different speed. And Windows settings is not always able to adjust the speed. Do you have another mouse you can try?

That may be true for this instance but CPL has some idiosyncrasies. Flying to an airfield I get the tacan for it, cancel SEQ1 and CPL to the TCN. Cool working fine. Now I check the runway heading and want to set a CRS so I have a better visual idea of my approach. I know, if I just hit the CRS toggle the CPL will suddenly turn the plane to that heading. Ok so I unclick CPL, set the CRS, but I know if I hit CPL the same thing will happen. So I unclick TCN on the HSI screen, wait 10 seconds (no idea why but, what the he11, latest experiment), hit TCN, but now the CRS line is gone from the HSI screen. So I hit the CRS toggle once and the CRS line reappears but 1 degree off. No biggy, I hit CRS again w/ the other mouse button to get the correct CRS. Now maybe...I can hit CPL again. Nope, plane goes ape sh-t again, so I kill CPL and just fly to the symbol on the HSI screen. I guess a lot of this is just that the FA-18 was in the infancy of computer controls but this entire plane does a lot of stuff on it's own that I wish it wouldn't.

Jeez just fly the plane. Updates will happen when they happen. I don't think that asking all these questions will have any effect on the progression.

If the radio dialog box is on the screen F2 mousing control will not work.

In most of the missions I fly when I get to the catapult at some point close to being launched I get a popup notice to check trim. Usualy putting in 3 button pushes and the notice goes away.

I may have misunderstood but I thought he planned a stick and throttle purchase but insufficient $ for pedals. I thought he could buy a stick w/ twist and not need pedals.