CBStu

I am w/ the OP During the sale I bought the Persian Gulf map and the Normandy-Assets pack. Already own the FA18 and Mustang. Fly the FA18 in PG and there are maybe 15 new missions added to the list I already have in Caucusus. Cool. So then I go to Normandy in the P51. First it is set many months after the invasion so what is there to do at that time? I was thinking to fly the P51 to be able to help w/ the advance through France. Guess not. Second, there are maybe 5 missions. Takeoff, land, free flight and I forget the other two. So I do free flight and land immediately so I can get armed w/ gun ammo and 10 rockets. Take off and try to find a train to take out. There is nothing moving anywhere other than a few other P51s. So why do we get 15 usefull missions w/ the PG map and 5 nearly useless ones w/ Normandy?

I thought that was a dang nice trap. As of now, I can't do that well w/ no wind at all. I know this may be heresy, but I see nothing wrong w/ using the stick to help out once in a while. I do. To me AOA is important but it's greatest importance is having the plane at the right AOA over the deck so the hook grabs a cable. When I am somewhere on the downwind leg, and suddenly realize I am 1-300ft high, yeah I can use the throttle to fix that, but I can use the stick and fix it a lot faster.

I've been back a little less than a year. I bought a cheap stick and headset at office depot. Headset is fine, the stick crap. I upgraded the stick to a VKB Sim Gladiator. This is a really well made stick for $99. It has a throttle and twist for the rudder so it can do it all. The only negative to it is the throttle is a small lever w/ maybe 1 1/4 inch of travel. When I started getting serious about carrier traps, I found it just too difficult to make tiny adjustments. Works fine for every other type of flying. I upgraded to a Warthog throttle which is wonderful but lots of $. I also have TrackIR and can't recommend it strongly enough. I'd dump the throttle before I'd dump TIR. One side benefit of TIR is it free's up a lot of button usage by taking the place of at least 12 of them. I also fly XP and another bene of TIR is it works the same for both. Previously I had to remember two sets of buttons because the view buttons are not all the same between XP and DCS. I agree w/ you on your PC upgrade but would look carefully at what you really need there. Mine is a 6 yr old Dell w/ i7-3770CPU, 16G memory, AMD Radeon Pro WX 3100 GPU so far from the top. As long as I watch graphics settings I run the FA18 at 30-35 fps which is fine. Just saying 'maybe' you can back off on the PC for a little while. OTOH, w/ my PCs age, I am going to replace it in the next 3 months. I have looked at upgrading the HD to SSD, better GPU, etc but the whole thing is old enough, I could spent $500 on upgrades and then have something else die and the $500 would be gone. Good luck and welcome.

I agree. Save, steal, do whatever you need to to get headtracking. It transforms the game.

Yesterday I bought the Persion Gulf map and the Normandy+WW2 Assets package. So I fire up DCS, go to my FA18 and click missions. OK, a bunch of new missions are in the list. Nice. So I fly a bit and decide to look at the Normandy map etc. Click on my P51 and go to missions and there is maybe one new one listed. I go to quick action and there are 5 new ones. I also realize maybe I should have read the details more since I see the Normandy map is based on months after the invasion. I was expecting a lot more from the Normandy map just based on what I see came w/ the Persion Gulf map. Am I doing something wrong?

VKBSim Gladiator has twist rudder. I use w/ the TM Warthog throttle. It's only $99 and is a very nice quality stick. https://vkbcontrollers.com/?product=vkb-sim-gladiator

I hope it works out better than in another sim. There, if you bank into a slightly longer turn of course you are pulling the stick back for the whole turn. When you roll out level the thing thinks you still need a bunch of up trim so the plane climbs like crazy. It made the FA18 nearly unflyable. And even in normal straight level flight, it didn't do a good job of keeping the plane at the same altitude. OTOH, that is exactly what led me to find DCS.

I am not sure that is the correct binding. I often hit pause, and then escape, to change a binding, or tune a setting. When I am finished making my change I close out of that menu and it goes right back to my flight where I un-pause and continue flying. Is it working ok for you?

I will buy the new carrier ASAP and i just fly by myself.

this looks like a great step up so I will patiently wait for the stable version.

I am a 71 yr old w/ maybe 8 months on DCS. Started w/ the P51 and then tried the A10c which was WAY over my head. No problem flying the plane, just the systems. Did a few tutorials and didn't know the meaning of a lot of the phrases. Then there was a sale on so I bought the FA18 because I really enjoy carrier landings. This is almost all I have flown for the last 4 months or so and still not great at the carrier but getting better. One thing I found that I really like is a slightly different screen setup. In Windows my screen is the common 1920x1080. In DCS I set it to 1920x1000. This way, while in the DCS game, I still have the bar across the bottom w/ the icons for Chrome, and File Explorer, etc. So when I have a question, I pause DCS, and go to either the web, or some text or pdf info I have downloaded and saved, get my answer, and un-pause DCS. BTW I use the VKB Gladiator stick because it is one of the few better quality sticks that also has twist for the rudder. I do use the Warthog throttle. I held off for a while because it's about $240, but it is a fantastic piece of equipment especially for the tiny throttle changes needed to do the carrier approaches. Maybe pedals some day but, for now, I don't see the value per $. BTW2, I fly the FA18 90% of the time but there are times I get frustrated so it's best to walk away. Then I flip over to the P51 and fly some of the instant action missions. Always fun to have unlimited ammo and blast the crap out of some tanks or troop carriers or take a transport out of the sky. Edit to ad; One other upgrade that is absolutely worth the $ is TrackIR5. Getting rid of all the keyboard crap for changing you view makes the game 100% better.

I really like the TM Warthog throttle using the grey lever just right of the throttles as a zoom. I couldn't figure out what to use it for so asked here. 3-4 responded to use it for zoom so I do.

I am also not happy w/ the Target stuff. Can't figure how to use it so don't. But all the green lights on the TM Warthog throttle are lit. I used to go into Target to turn them off but couldn't find a way to save that so every AM, when I fire up the PC, I had to turn those lights off. About 3-4 weeks ago that quit working at all. So now I unplug the usb cord except when I am not flying. Love the throttle but Target, not so much.

How about the HUD color. F18 in another place has selectable colors which was very nice in adapting to different views. The plane flew like crap which is what got me looking for and finding DCS. Still i liked it selectable.

Speaking of ball flying, how the heck do you do that. My PC is pretty old so I can't run high graphics settings so may it is my problem. I try watching the ball and it is so indistinct that I haven't a clue where it is. From way out I see a group of flashing lights. The couple times I have tried to see the ball, I am only 1/4M out when it gets a little clearer and then there is that big white dome right behind all the lights which is no help at all. I can see the row of lights but where the ball is never clears up for me. Is it my PC?

I keep thinking this should work. I notice once I get settled in and have aoa correct, I am always at 135. I am not using speed as a guide, just noting it. If I drift low, I'll see 130-134. If I drift high I will see 136-140. I also notice there is some range allowed in approach angle, 1.5 deg maybe? So why not use auto throttle to hold speed and the stick to follow the glide slope as well as the localiser. Seems to me it would be a heck of a lot more natural so more easily done.

You have a funny definition for 'a bit' don't you? Ha, ha, ha. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I don't track it but I bet my approach attempts are >500 of which probably 75 are simple patterns my biggest problem is matching the radius of the two turns. so I actually end up behind the boat. I extend the downwind just so I end up further behind the boat to allow more room to correct but I have never yet ended up in line w/ the boat (well off the the right some to be in line w/ the 10deg deck). Flyguy, I have to make altitude corrections w/ the stick also. I completely understand that it is not the correct technique but when I am too far off it's either that or bag it and do a restart. I figure I need practice so I do whatever I need to to get back closer to correct. that's why even the real pilots have sims.

I agree w/ some of the above from perspective of a 6 month newbie. Doing the quick action intercept in the P51 I lose the transport plane. Hit F10 and have that tombstone shaped icon hopping along. The orientation of the shape itself has nothing to do w/ anything as far as I can figure. At the least, I'd like to see the rounded end pointing in direction of flight (an arrow shape would be even better) or a trail so I can figure direction of flight, and altitude.

I am still having a time trying to do a good pattern but have gotten reasonably good at straight in approaches. For me w/ gear, hook and flaps down I am around mid 135 kph. But I only use speed as a key as to when it is best to drop hook and gear (<250) and when to drop flaps (<180) and when to start feeding in throttle (around 145). As soon as flaps are down full, I start feeding up trim to get the VV centered in the E bracket. As long as speed stays between say 125 and 155 the VV will stay centered in the E w/ no more trim adjustments.. From then on, throttle keeps me on the glide slope ICLS line and left or right stick will keep me on the ICLS localiser line. I am using the TM warthog dual throttle w/ the friction as low as it will go. There are times when I am moving it like crazy but that tells me I am behind the curve. I always hope it will get to smaller and smaller movements as I get closer to the boat. When I am still using large movements i hit power and climb out and then hit shift R to do a restart. Edit to ad. I see Lex just chimed in. i would recommend you watch all his youtube videos and take any and all other recommendations he makes. Once you have gotten through the first vid, you will see why I say this.

Thanks, I will look into that.

Every time I start my PC the green LEDS are all illuminated. I can turn them off using the TARGET GUI but it is slow to load and I have to do it at every PC startup. Is there a way to make the default be LEDs off?

Lucky for me I don't know how to use radar yet so using it for a zoom is working real well.

I was using the standard mission for landing practice. But I got tired of the ship being hard to see, clouds in the way, and the reflections from the sun in my view. So I broke down and created my own mission. I have the ship on a heading of 270 deg and am doing it at 10AM. So I have the sun mostly behind me and the Stennis is a lot easier to see. Took a while to get it to work correctly but I like it. I also set both ICLS and Tacan on channel 1 so no need to type in a channel as 1 is always on the display. Just hit 'on' and then 'enter'.

Zoom it is then. Apparently it was pre-programmed this way. I had never moved it while flying before and, when I did, it zoomed the view. thanks guys.

The one w/ 'INCR' label at the forward end and 'DECR' at the back end of it's travel. It has a little detent at it's central position which could be ignored. Wondering what it could be used for in the FA-18.