CBStu

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.

You could also look at sticks w/ twist for rudder. I have this grip on their older base and am extremely happy w/ it. My base is 3+ yrs old and the grip is 1.5yrs old and both are still perfect. Gladiator NXT EVO ‘Space Combat Edition’ - Right Hand – VKB North America (vkbcontrollers.com) I use it w/ a TM Warthog throttle. Another option w/ the FA-18 is don't bother w/ a rudder controller. It really is only used minimally. I haven't looked but if there were a binding available that a button would move the rudder as long as you hold it and release the rudder so it snaps back to zero when you take your finger off the button, that would probably be good enough. Might be a little challenging taxing on the carrier but probably doable.

You could do your change and hit active pause so you can check if the changes actually 'took'.

I have had so little success w/ tpod + MavF that I just use the Mav F screen. I did notice a week or so ago that it seemed significantly easier to lock onto a line of 4 tanks one at a time. Next I will try using the tpod again. Do U prefer Litening or ATFlir?

Well dang, I love to learn something new. this seems to me to be similar to rebooting a PC or other device to get it to do what I was expecting. Thanks Recluse.

I think you are being too formal in your approach. I just started flying all the included missions. If you don't have the Persian Gulf map, get that because you get another batch of missions with it. Get used to Shift-R for restarting a mission. When you have a problem just hit Shift-R and start over. Also get used to Active Pause. That stops your plane but everything else keeps running. Really nice as a cheat when you can't find a ground target. Just yesterday I flew a mission where I needed to find and take out 4 enemy trucks. I hit active pause and 1 by 1 locked them and hit them w/ a MavF. Eventually I will be able to do that w/o active pause, but for now that allowed me to continue that mission and take out a Mig. If you have one wing man he will just circle around you while you pause. There is a key board shortcut to do this but I run DCS in a window so I have that bottom bar of buttons active while flying. Have a problem, hit Pause, go to that bar and go to youtube for a tutorial, or to your saved documents, or to Chucks Guide. I often swap back and forth between setting up bombs and following Chucks Guide steps for the bomb I am working with. To start flying carrier traps download Bankler's Case 1 Trainer mission. He starts you out in the air maybe 12 miles behind the boat at about 1200ft and 400mph. You want to fly by the boat at 800ft and 350. He already has the plane mostly set up for you but I like to use the ICLS so I get that going while getting near the boat. he puts critiques on the screen periodically while you are flying. You were high at the 90, you were low after the break etc. Once on the carrier stop and sit for a minute and you get a detailed critique of the whole flight. then hit Shift-R and do it again. As you work on the FA-18 you will get frustrated trying to do something. Don't beat your head on the wall, you are not a real pilot trying to get qualified. Fly another mission that you can do and enjoy.

Aston that is a good idea. I can try that. Thx.

Marlan I understand that bomb targets can be set up on the ground prior to takeoff. But that only works for stationary targets. Maybe some of the missions for DCS are not realistic, but there seem to be quite enough such as parked planes, mobile SAM launchers, etc that one needs to use FLIR to get the exact location. Then of course there are laser guided bombs using the plane's laser or the JTACs. Phantom is saying similar about only doing A/G or A/A and a few mission creators do comment that this isn't realistic. I remember one mission where one needed to fight through some A/A attacks to get to the bomb target which the creator definitely said is not realistic. Phantom your point about my TDC brings up a question. My joystick (VKB Gladiator NXT EVO ‘Space Combat Edition’ - Right Hand – VKB North America (vkbcontrollers.com) has three possible tdc switches/hats/mini-joysticks. I happen to be using the center one for tdc slewing which I guess is a 5 way hat. I had tried the mini stick but the press function is almost impossible to do w/o also moving it. Also it cycles a small indicator light on and off w/ each press. I have been using it for sensor select since I don't need a press function for that. I had assumed that all these worked pretty much the same electronically and are different physically mostly to give a tactile indication as to which one your thumb is on. Not the case?

Marlan I am not getting your 'they don't set A/G until they attack'. I wanted to check in case my memory is fuzzy so I looked through Chuck's guide. By far, the majority of bomb setup procedures have A/G as step 2-5 which automatically switches radar to surface. This is easy to fix but why should I need to. Let me switch radar modes when I want to please. The coupling switching on it's own to couple w/ something different than I already selected is an annoyance. It isn't too hard to avoid, I just deselect copl, set the BRC and then click couple again. But again why should I have to. Hulkbust I will need to do some checking and can't until Sunday but I will try SCENE and AUTO. To be honest I get the FLIR on screen in whatever mode it defaults to, mess around w/ light and contrast to get something I can use, and then try to look for whatever it is today. Often that mode won't allow slewing so I keep clicking the sensor select switch to get to a slewable mode. I usually don't care what mode, just as long as I can slew. I need to work on this more.

Several things are really bothering me; Why would I want a flir to designate a target every time I release the TDC slew button when there is a simple 'depress the tdc button' function that I thought would do that? If that is all it did it would be bad enough. But when I have the AP coupled to a waypoint and the waypoint has now been turned into a target...and the dang flir has locked onto that spot...and I can't avoid this because I have to let go of right (it locks on right there) to go to down since the tdc button is just a 4 way. Why would I want the radar to be switched from air (which I set it to) to surface just because I hit the AG button while setting up bombs. I am 100 miles from the target, I am using the time to get ahead on some tasks, and I want the radar looking for bad guys IN THE AIR. When I am on the way back to the carrier and have AP coupled to carrier tacan, and I do the 50 mile checkin, and they give me the carrier BRC, and I want to put that BRC onto the HSI screen, why would I want the AP to suddenly decide it should couple to the BRC? In every case the automatic changes actually create more work rather than helping me by making things simpler. Is there any way to turn off all this 'help' the systems are giving me?

Thanks to all of you. A lot of great info, maybe too much. I probably won't do it all, but at least now I know what I should do.

The definition I found is set cockpit switches as appropriate when going in or out of a combat area. Ok? I am thinking Master Arm on or off? AG or AA on or off? Anything else?

Thanks rob10, I got it working again. It is weird though. While flying if I hit ESC I get a screen headed 'OPTIONS" which has 'System', 'Audio', and 'Special' headers. I click 'Special' and get a list down the left side 'Capto Glove, Leap Motion, VR Free, and Supercarrier'. But if I get out of flying and go all the way back to the main DCS page and click the gear icon, I get a similar OPTIONS page but now w/ 7 options (vs 4) across the top and a list down the left side same as above but added to that now are all the planes I own. So click Special and then FA-18 and right there it is, Realistic TDC Slew.

I can't slew the Mav F screen. No pods just Mav F itself. Has the 'realistic TDC slew' been moved? I can't find it anywhere. It may have happened w/ the move to 2.8 but I am not 100% positive of that.