CBStu

I may be misunderstanding but, in another thread we are told that the 120 needs that long trigger press to send all the info from the plane to the 120. So, if that is true, why would anything that happens in the plane after the 120 is launched affect the 120?

So only a 120 needs this delay? A 9x works fine w/o the delay?

I will have to try it also. I had been thinking the ATFLIR was the more modern and hence better of the two but it is bugging me more than it should.

The recent 120 firing delay is supposedly more realistic. I hope it is because it sure is a drag. I am starting to load more 9X instead.

Deano87 I will check that out. I did look to make sure there were no double bindings but didn't look at dead zones.

I started DCS because I wanted a better FA-18 than another game had. I got it. I flew the missions that came w/ it for a long time and still fly SP only. One thing I have found to help a ton is set up your PC so you can pause DCS and go to a reference. I fly in a window so the banner across the bottom of the screen is always visible. So I can get to info I have saved ( I made a chart of all the munitions for instance), Chuck's Guide, or the web for youtube. My keyboard has a pause button which stops the entire game but will allow you to look at the F10 map. I also set my 'P' key to be an active pause. This stops your plane but everything else keeps happening. The advantage is everything in your plane still works. So you can go through, for instance Chucks Guide section on setting up a Jdam bomb, and pop back and forth between the guide and your plane. Or hit active pause and try to find a target w/ the radar or FLIR. If you have a wingman, he will just fly circles around you. One other thought, this is not easy, it takes a lot of stick time to be really good. So get used to using L-SHIFT, R to re-start. If I screw up or get shot down, I hit those 2 keys and start right over again. Don't let yourself get frustrated. You will find one of the included missions that you can fly fairly well. If you are going out of your mind on something, get out of it and go to your favorite mission and have some fun.

Look through here; User Files (digitalcombatsimulator.com)

Finger lift is the levers that you would lift to go to either ground idle or afterburner. See the right hand picture. I am not sure how Winwig does theirs but Warthog has you pull up on the throttle levers and then the levers will move further. There is also a mod which makes it feel like a detent that you just push a little harder to go through to get to afterburner. BTW I use TrackIR and I find I like the metal clip better than the electronic thing. I just wear an old baseball cap w/ the clip on the visor and head phone over the hat. My headphone is bluetooth and the electronic sensor needed a wire which was a pain. BTW2, I find that I use the rudder very infrequently in the FA-18. I was glad to realize that because it saved the $ and the hassle of another piece of equipment. My stick twists for rudder and that is more than adequate.

I flew a user files mission yesterday where they provided coordinates in a 4 pairs of digits format and reminded to click 'Precise' before entering the new #s. The waypoint was already in the system as a 6 digit #. The coordinates they provided in the text were N 43-26-26.48, E 39-55-59.73. I entered them as two 4 digit numbers. I tried to enter the first six digits but it would only accept four digits, hit enter, the last four digits. I got blown up by a SAM I think before having a chance to release any bombs so not sure it worked to define the target or not but that was the only way they could be entered. I am curious. How is this being used in RL today? Have they dropped all the less accurate formats by now? I assume that the several formats exist because at the time frame of the DCS FA-18, GPS was somewhat new and evolving. Is there just one format finally?

ATFLIR has been bugging me for quite a while so today I decided to do some research and went to Chuck's Guide. Problem I have is the FLIR is constantly designating a TGT on it's own. Then I turn the plane and FLIR goes nuts trying to stay on that target. It also, on the SA page, swaps a waypoint to TGT. Many times all I have done is use the FLIR to look around and try to find the target. So I don't find it, haven't designated it, fly on past it, go 8-10 miles, do a 180deg turn and try again. Now the FLIR is aimed at something like 180 deg, and I have to manually slew it back, or hit VVSLV. So reading in Chucks G and find this, "When either Scene Track or Auto Track is performed, the target point is automatically designated." Well crap, I did cycle through those because many times the retical has changed on it's own and can not be slewed, and I need to get to where I can slew it. For me it is a constant pain in the a-- and often forces me to hit active pause so I have time to get this straightened out. Anyone have an idea how to make this easier?

Any time I load a mission and the jet has 7s on the wings, I hit 'R' and re-arm.

Sometimes I get mixed up on using the longer precise version also. One thing I discovered is that you can only enter so many digits, ie; just a portion of coordinate and then hit enter. It will then pop up some note (that I don't remember right now) and allow you to enter the rest of the coordinate and hit enter again. I 'think' you enter 6 digits and hit enter and then the last 4 digits and hit enter.

I got 2.8 maybe 1.5 weeks ago and since am having a problem w/ 120Cs. When not using the radar screen but using the small dashed circle in the HUD to aim, it used to be that you get a square outline and a 'steering dot' I think it was called. So fly the plane toward the dot and eventually the square and the dot will be inside the aiming circle. Now it seems like the square and dot are going crazy. The square will eventually get into the circle, sometimes it turns into a diamond (saying the plane is actually an enemy) but the dot rarely does. And we now have that delay after the trigger is pulled. All in all, it is now much harder to use 120s than it used to be. Is there something I may be doing wrong especially w/ the crazy dot and square? I thought it might be too early to find a new tutorial that includes any changes from 2.8 but if anyone has found one a link would be great.

My brakes are on two buttons so no partial brake possible. When I land, I hit air brake almost immediately. Somewhere I 'think' I saw to stay off brakes until 100k. So I wait until speed drops to use brakes. I pull full up elevator a little after the air brake. I have a twist stick for rudder and nose wheel and that is what I use to correct for any left or right drift. It is kind of touchy so I often give it several little quick short twists rather than a long one. I believe on the landing rollout the twist is actuating rudder only. At some point it starts actuating the nose wheel but I don't know whether it does that below X speed or how it works.

You can also choose any 4 way switch your stick has. I happen to use one on the forward surface of my throttle. So it is L=gun, R=120, UP=Aim9, DN=AIM7.

I never noticed a difference when I went to 3 deg pitch deadzone.

I just did a few Bankler traps in 2.8 Stable. YeeHaaa- we can now see the ships wake. Man is this an improvement. Thanks guys and gals.

Art and Tom thank you both very much. I have flown only the FA-18 for 2 yrs now so every time I get into controls I never even look at that left column since I never need to change it. So far, after just two missions in 2.8 Stable this is all I have found changed. I will see if it stays this way tomorrow.

Tom like one of the guys in the link you posted , UI layer?? Module dropdown list?? I see 'Module Manager' and 'Options' and I see nothing. I expect it is in 'Options' somewhere and I missed it. Any help would be great.

Did active pause go away w/ 2.8? I don't remember if it was something built-in or if I did it, but my 'P' key used to be active pause and 'pause/break' key was complete pause.

Realize one other thing. If you were to get to a perfectly straight and level flight at say 350, then increase speed to 400, the plane will climb. Drop to 300 and it will descend.

Go to thisPC; OS(C); Users; yourname; Saved Games; DCS; Kneeboard. You can drop them there. I think I remember that there are restrictions on file types as I see mine are all PNG. This will put them in your kneeboard no matter which mission you are flying. I don't know if there is a way to put mission specific info so it only shows when flying that mission.

Looks normal to me for a crosswind. When you cage it, it moves to the center which makes viewing easier for some things. But there is also a reference provided so you know there is a cross wind. If you do a straight-in approach to a runway w/ a crosswind, you use the reference symbol to line yourself up to the runway.

Glad you found the solution. I am far from a PC guy but I have noticed similar problems here over the last couple of years. Apparently some DCS updates change some things. I also have noticed w/ mine, and others here, that some sticks, throttle etc will have some assignments built in by the manufacturer. I think their idea is that you plug in your shiny new stick and it would be nice if you can do at least simple functions right away. I think the combination can have undesirable effects at times.

Good point NineLine. I doubt we could ever get them to comment on a plane that first went into service in 1983. I had to look up that date to be sure. Then I tried to remember what kind of PC I had in 1983. I think maybe we tried one in 1990. With that in mind I guess we need to give Boeing a break sometimes.