CBStu

I like the hot glue idea. I had been thinking of how to extend it but hadn't come up w/ an answer. Thanks.

Me too. I fly 90% the FA18 w/ TM WH throttle and a VKB stick. So I am already using an A-10 throttle to fly an FA18 which obviously isn't very realistic. I occasionally fly other planes so, for me, it's more important that if, I need to drop flaps for instance, it's the same switch no matter the plane.

Some of you have your desires and I can see that for sure. But I've been flying the 18 for 6-8 months and am far from being qualified on what it has now. Enjoying the heck out of it and happy it is as good as it is.

That is way more roll than I ever get. On the other hand I am usually cranking and banking all over the place so maybe I just don't notice it.

I can sure see why this stuff is tough to do no matter budget. Whether working a car, or a camera or other modern electronic device, I see a decreasing advantage to trying to do a lot w/ a little. Think about controls where you have menus and sub menus. Say there are 5 main menus #1-#5. each has 5 sub menus A-E. And each of them has 5 sub sub menus a-e. So now you are at 1,.B,e and need to do something else which is on 3, C, a. In a lot of cases it would be a heck of a lot easier to have separate buttons #1 -#5. I don't know how close the pilots usually are to the instrument panel (considering they need to be able to eject) but I could see that too much on the hotas could be less better than might be imagined.

I got a notification that I had a PM. It is from someone I don't know, who has 0 posts on the forum, and wants me to email them. I did not respond. Pls ban them or what ever action is appropriate. Thankyou. CBStu

I have been flying the DCS FA-18 for a bit less than a year now w/ the Caucus and Persian Gulf maps. It will be a long time before I am competent to get through the missions I already have. There is an 8 vs 8 mission that I lucked through and was still alive at the end for the first time yesterday. There are others I have never lived through. And I cheat w/ unlimited ammo/missiles.

I see some roll but nothing I feel is excessive. I usually just keep flying because I will be launching another 9 pretty soon.

I don't have a paypal account. I will look again because I know sometimes I use a credit card but paypal is somehow involved in the process. I do have the press assigned to another button. I will work more on the slew dead zones, curves etc because it sure doesn't work real well. Question; often as I am slewing I get close to my target and the thing jumps--never onto where I am trying to aim. Also when trying to aim at the side of a multi story building, which is usually nearly white, it prefers to lock onto the black roof. Seems the Mav does a lot more damage going in the side rather than sliding onto the roof. Are these normal actions?

I don't understand. For the last couple weeks I have been trying to get MavF slew/depress to work w/ my WH throttle. I understand there is a mod for the button available but not happy w/ having my credit card info sitting in some shop in Europe for the next 3 months so haven't ordered it. As of now I am better off leaving the Mav in boresight mode, flying the plane like it's gunsite, hit uncage and then hit launch. I keep reading it is something w/ the TM throttle hardware and so ED can't do anything about it. But it works just fine in the A10? Logic seems to say you have one controller and two planes and there is a problem with only one of the planes. So how can that be a controller fault?

And if you also buy the Persian Gulf map, that will more than double the # of missions you can fly.

When you buy the FA 18 it comes w/ maybe 6 QUICK ACTION and 15-18 missions all ready to go. Most of them start w/ the plane already running so you just move the throttle and take off. Many of the others are air start so, again, it's already running. I am about a year into flying the plane and have yet to bother to learn how to start it up. BTW, there are two pauses. The "P" key is active pause where your plane stops moving but all the cockpit controls etc still work and any other planes keep flying. The "Pause" key gives you a full stop of everything. Then if you buy the Persian Gulf map you get another batch of missions. I believe there are a few more than the ones that come automatically w/ the free Caucasus map so now you have 30+ missions to fly and learn from. BTW #2. Get your left hand trained to hold the left shift key down and hit the R key. This restarts your mission from the beginning. I use it constantly when I am far enough off in whatever way that it is just better to start over. Or when I get shot down.

I use a VKB Gladiator II and am very happy w/ it. It is one of the few w/ twist for rudder. And it's <$100 so a great deal.

So I have been trying to get this working experimenting w/ lots of different control options for slewing w/ my TM WH throttle button. I know there is an upgrade but out of stock so I am trying different curves, different keyboard buttons for the depress function, etc. But how do you generally fly the plane? Steady altitude? What altitude? What speed? I find it's hard to locate a truck (like in the training mission), then it is hard to slew and lock, and suddenly I am going over it. 6 story buildings are easy. Right now I am more successful in leaving the missile in bore sight mode and flying the plane to aim it but that loses what I think would be one of the main benefits of the maverick. Any techniques you have found work would be much appreciated.

Yep, I am using the S key for nose wheel hi/undesignated. Waiting for VKB to get more handles in stock so I can have more switches on the stick.

To put a number to what I see most often in the provided missions I am at about 135 when on AOA w/ full flaps and gear down. Once in a while I fly something different that didn't really have landing as part of the mission, but I chose to land anyway. Then the plane is usually heavier (since I have unlimited ammo set which includes missiles) and then I will see more like 140-145. As mentioned above, speed is not a goal in landing, it is a result of AOA, weight, etc. But I find that noting it sometimes helps when things don't seem quite right, it may give a clue as to what is going on. The other day I was on an approach and things were not going well. I noted speed was not right so started looking around. Turned out that the day before I had switched my flap control to a different switch which works a little differently, and I was at only half flaps.

I have a dead zone of 7-8 degrees in both directions off center. IE; I have to move my head 7 deg either left or right or 7 deg up or down before the screen moves. About a month ago I added speed/angle to the curves beyond my dead zones so I would get more total screen movement. I can now look almost straight back lacking only maybe 5 degrees each side. I can look maybe 120 deg up and a little over 90 deg down. Works fine for me this way and I don't notice any problem as I get to the end of the dead zone and the screen starts moving. I also like that this gives me kind of a snap movement to straight ahead since it jumps from 7 deg to zero.

Exactly my thought. I use that characteristic because a partial extend seems to help tighten a turn. Also it has saved my dumb a$$ a couple times when I somehow find myself at 500+ heading for the dirt and suddenly realize I am too low.

In one of the missions the plane is loaded w/ missiles on every station. Just yesterday I ended up w/ the last of 4 bogies on my ass. This usually ends w/ me shot down so, as an experiment, I jettisoned everything missiles and mounts, and tried to out run him. I was still shot down but it was the first I ever saw 700+ in level flight. Since I only fly in SP I cheat a little on missions starting from the carrier. Before launch I rearm w/ a pair of 9Xs on wing tips and a 120 under each wing. I have unlimited ammo set in the basic options so I end up w/ a much less draggy plane and have plenty of missiles.

I have noticed that deploying the FA-18 air brake in certain conditions will add a nose up attitude change.

Not sure on your stick/throttle. On my TM Warthog throttle there is a slide switch w/ 3 positions. Forward it will stay there. Middle it will stay there. Back you need to hold it there or it will go back to middle. Holding it back will raise the brake as long as you hold it and it will stop and stay in whatever position it is in when you let go. Forward will retract the brake and of course there is no need to hold it forward.

Last week I bought a new Alienware monitor when BB had them on sale. AW2720HF. I thought it would be a good upgrade for my 7 yr old system. Just want to say I am very happy w/ the change. I haven't changed anything on the system or DCS settings except I experimented w/ the screen brightness using the buttons on the edge of the monitor. Everything looks a lot better but the most amazing thing is I can now see planes a little before the labels pop up. And on the Stennis I can now see the meatball so am starting to experiment w/ actually looking at it and using it. Before all I ever saw was a bit of a light which helped me ID that the boat I was heading for was a carrier. But there was no way to use the meatball as a landing guide. I am surprised at the improvement even w/ my old PC. And then cyber Monday rolled around and I have an Alienware PC on it's way

Yeah, no kidding it is a Monster. Just yesterday I had a really great trap going (for me) and thought this may be my best pattern approach yet. But then I must have lost attention, throttle was too low and....let's just say I did a really nice explosion against the back of the hull. I hope no one was down there watching.

On my Warthog throttle the slew doesn't work well at all if I try to hold it down. It works just fine if I just rub my finger tip across it. So I have another button set for the tdc depress function but don't remember what it is right now.

On straight in approaches I don't drop flaps til 180 or so. This way all that happens is you get a quick loss of speed and no ballooning. As the speed is dropping, I start bringing in some throttle (off of idle) at 145 or so, because I know my speed, once stabilized on AOA, I will be at about 135, and anything below that will result in rapid altitude loss. In a pattern approach, although it's not the standard technique, one could wait until on the downwind to drop flaps.