CBStu

When you look at the map click on the icon in the center of the airport. That will bring up a chart w/ pertinent info. Nearly all the bases in Caucuses have tacan #s but few do in the Persian Gulf map. I usually do a full pause for this because it stops everything. Active pause stops your plane and leaves all the button etc still working so it is good for some uses. But active pause leaves everything else running so the carrier is moving away and any other planes will continue flying. BTW I have full pause mapped to the Pause key and active pause mapped to the 'P' key. BTW2 Also on the chart on the map you have runway length listed so land only if it's 6500+. And the runways numbers indicate their rough heading or course. Runway 22 is 220 deg and 15 is 150 deg. You can enter these numbers into the course on the HSI screen. That will put an arrow on the screen you can use for your final turn to line up w/ the runway.

When I fly the missions launched from the carrier I retract gear as soon as I leave the deck and flaps right after that. I hold climb at about 20 degrees and have no problem accelerating to 400+.

ED?

I fly by myself, no online flying. So I save things that maybe useful in a documents folder called Sim Flying. I have my screen set up so the bar across the bottom of the screen is still there when I am in DCS. If I need some help, I hit pause, open one of my saved docs or go to the web. I have printed a diagram of my TM Throttle that I have added labels to so I know what each switch does. I have printed a diagram of a carrier approach w/ a few notes added here and there.

Slant, I just realized I screwed that up. Those pics are 1-from Chucks guide and 2&3- from the video that David posted. I tried to snap a screen shot of my own approach but haven't got the process down yet. Unfortunately I am on a slow satelite web connection so I have to run youtube videos at 480 resolution. I think you may be right, Bankler is strict. I have always felt that as long as the VV circle is touching the ICLS cross hairs that is close enough that it's correctable. I guess Bankler's margin of allowable error is smaller than mine. Flamin, that is a very good point. I have noticed that my lineup may start fine right as the wings come level but gets worse as I get closer. I think it is the same thing you mention regarding altitude but on a 90 degree different plain. The boat is constantly moving; 1- away which affects planes altitude/glide slope, and 2- to the plane's right so I end up coming onto the deck at an angle. I just need a couple hundred more traps and maybe I will be reasonably proficient.

David, I refer to it as the VV because of Chuck's Guide. I like 'flight path marker' better but... VV by craig stuard, on Flickr Anyway, yes it is on the glide slope line or the line is within the diameter of the circle, so I am very close to correct on altitude according to that indicator ,but I constantly get the on screen comments saying I am way high. BTW, yes I am on speed in the center of the E bracket. At this point in your approach would you expect to be told you are way high? case 1 by craig stuard, on Flickr Here you can see the meatball but also notice the VV is on the notch. This is how I usually look and the LSO is saying 'power, power'. case 1 2 by craig stuard, on Flickr Razor- yes I do think that. Got used to that doing straight in approaches because I couldn't see the ball well enough to use it. Now I have a new PC and better screen I can see it. But now I am also doing (trying) the correct pattern and I see that, until very late (wings level and on lineup) the E bracket and other crap in the hud hides the ball. So the ball is good for maybe the last 10-15 seconds only. That 10-15 seconds is the 'groove' right? Overall this is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I have that diagram of the pattern printed and sitting next to the screen. I have watched Lex's videos twice, several other tutorials including WAGS a couple times each. Probably have done 150 traps on my own and now having discovered Bankler's excellent tool, another 100 or so . I am just trying to figure why I am getting what seems to be conflicting info. I really appreciate everyone's help.

I am really enjoying this mission but seem to constantly have a difference between what the ICLS is telling me vs the on screen comments and the LSO. In each case it's about altitude. During the final 180 I will have the VV circle maybe not perfectly centered on the ICLS glide slope but the line is within the circle. The on screen comments tell me I am very high. During the final approach the LSO keeps saying 'power', 'power'. Again ICLS glide slope line is within the VV circle, the top edge of the VV is in the notch at or very close to the edge of the deck. I add a little power and then float over the deck. May barely touch the deck or miss it. Why the differences? Edit to add. There is an arrow somewhere around the VV that moves from off the right and comes across the VV in the final 90 deg or so of the approach. Seems to be a tacan course line maybe? But I can't figure out what it is telling me.

I know land based practice is used in the RL but I just use 'left shift + R' to restart when I crash into the boat.

I am using the VKB Gladiator MkII for a stick and a Warthog throttle. The stick is very nice, has twist for rudder and it's own throttle lever. It was fine until I started doing carrier traps. For those you need very fine throttle control. But for every other use the Gladiator works great and it's under $100.

I have the screen resolution set to the standard 1920x1080 in Windows. I have the resolution in the DCS Options/System set to 1920x1040 and the 'Full Screen' is not checked. This keeps the lower bar across the screen visible at all times. I put the DCS and TIR icon in the bar. I also have my browser and 'File Explorer' buttons there. So I can hit pause in DCS, adjust TIR, or go to youtube tutorial videos, or look up things I have saved such as Chuck's FA-18 guide.

Yes, F12 is the default re-center button. I need to set it to something else though as I can barely reach F12 w/o moving my head. AndyT look behind you for bright sunlight. Sometimes I have to hang a towel on the front door because a blast of sunlight comes through the window and shines on the floor/wall behind me. I think the sensor picks this up and the screen goes crazy. Also, I have set 7-8 degrees of head movement before the screen moves. See this screen shot. TrackIR setup by craig stuard, on Flickr Look over to the right in the small chart labelled 6DOF at the yaw values. See how RAW is 7.2 and GAME is 0.2? That means my head moved 7.2 deg and the affect in the game is 0.2 degrees. Now look over to the left where you can see the yaw curve. You can move the small circles around to change the shape of the curve. For the ones close to the center, I hit the green UP arrow a couple of times, move the circles, and then hit the down arrow. How far up and down you move the overall curve, and how much of the curve is below the dotted horizontal line, affects how much dead zone you have in the center. With this setup, I have about 14 degrees of deadzone (7 to the right + 7 to the left) and enough movement that I can see straight behind the plane by moving my head a little over 90 degrees to either side. For me TIR was an absolute game changer. One other advantage is that I freed up a hat switch on my stick that I now use for aircraft trim.

Good luck. It's just the opposite on a screen. Look straight ahead through the HUD display, turn your head to the side and, as soon as the VV or AIM9 targeting circle appears, it is half the height of the HUD lower that it was in the HUD..

Bought a new PC and moved DCS to it. But I lost something and can't find it. I used to have a keyboard button "H" set to center the VV when in a crosswind. Then there was a second VV shown to use if needed. But I have scrolled though the entire controls setup list and can't find it. Pretty sure I changed which key to use because the "H" made sense to my small brain but I can't find the function to bind it to.

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.