Ok. Now a few words about our operations.
I joined VCW3 2 years ago with 21 year of flight simulation experience and 17 years of real aeronautical experience because I have always been looking for a group that shares my professional approach to flight simulation. I have always enjoyed “professional approach”, living a life of a squadron, making notes on how to fly a sortie and an airplane model in general that grew into a copybook that you could use as an academic course. If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail as the saying goes in aviation and at some point in my virtual flying I understood that I need less flight time but more planning and preparation time. So, I projected this and all my real-world aeronautical experience, to make VIRTUAL CARRIER WING 3 operations as close to the real world as possible within the sim limitations while at the same time not to make it a burden for everybody.
My job in VCW3 is to track training progress, scheduling, flight planning, flight dispatch, development of pilot checklist and training missions materials. I also do ATC sometimes. That said, I never expect others to do that. I do it because it is a useful experience and I enjoy every minute of it! This is what I call realism cuz flying is only a relatively small part of being a pilot. And the best reward for me is that those who fly with VCW3 enjoy it and have fun!
Most operations in VCW3 are planned and briefed through our calendar and forums so that you can prepare. If you’re subscribed on the calendar you can see all the events in all your mobile devices which is very convenient. However, there is always a place for fun flying like 1v1 MiG-29 vs F/A-18 or an occasional flight on who’s available basis. In the end we are all here to have fun!
The typical sequence in flight operations in VCW3 is as follows: standard flight nights are Saturday evening CST. Other days can be scheduled if most pilots want it. We get availability time for the upcoming week from our members and all the requests on what do they want to fly. Based on who is available and when we build our schedule for the next week. Sometimes we fly in European time because we have 3 guys from Europe. This schedule is published on the calendar with a general description, timings and server info and other essential general info as well as links to forum briefing for every flight. In one click from the calendar a pilot gets to his flight briefing thread on the forum where he finds some flight specific information and a briefing package which he can extract to Saved Games Kneeboard folder. We value our online time so the forum briefing is meant to give a pilot all he needs for the flight. Verbal briefing is normally limited to timings if there are any corrections to previously announced and questions and it takes usually no more than 10 minutes.
We use CombatFlite which I think is a masterpiece for flight planning and in addition I use a datacard of my personal design which is an excel spreadsheet that imports waypoint and then makes a detailed flight estimates including fuel. Sometimes I use PowerPoint to generate mission materials. I personally think that flight planning skills are just as important as flying skills and a good planning is a key to mission success. However, this is a graduate level stuff so we don’t require all our pilots to do that until they go for a flight lead upgrade.
Here is an example of briefing and briefing package:
https://virtualcarrierwing3.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=405
and a standard mission briefing:
https://virtualcarrierwing3.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=417
At published brief time we meet on discord, make sure we understand what exactly we are going to fly and in 10 minutes we are already checking in with the flight lead on a prebriefed channel. With an online ATC flight lead asks for clearance shortly after that however most of the time we just make an advisory calls for everybody around to get an idea of where we are and what we are doing. We use real world procedures for Nellis and the boat adopted and simplified to an adequate level, so we don’t make things complicated and confusing.
Once at the range we go to a range frequency and make our attacks. In our dynamic training mission we can also activate adversary aircraft, SAMS and missile trainer or get a 9-line from JTAC with laser codes through the F10 menu. We do all our flights as close to the real-world procedures as we can get and for training flights we use real world NAVY flight training instructions (FTIs). You don’t have to read them though because our training program includes PowerPoint presentations we call “standard mission briefings” and training videos made IAW those FTIs to keep it easy for you to learn. This is a typical sequence for A2G training. Combat Missions are a little different story and dictated by the mission objectives and situation. Sometimes we fly on a blue flag and DDCS servers.
Although we try to keep it real with all the comms phraseology and brevity we take it easy if something goes wrong. We still want to have fun doing this, right? We use tack view for debriefing. Just like the real life debrief we keep it positive and concentrated on what can be done better next time and what can we learn from this flight.
Usually all suggestions from members are considered because command stuff and instructors are there for our line pilots and SNAs, not the other way around. We do our best to share our real world flying experience and make it fun and an exciting experience for everyone. We use a NAVY ranks, but we never make a big deal out of this. That’s just another part of realism!
This was the first year of our DCS operations after several years of MSFS and P3D and I’m proud of what we have achieved. We developed the webpage that has everything for a pilot to learn the NAVY stuff, the training program based on the original real NAVY training we used in P3D but simplified and adopted to DCS and a dynamic training mission with a 24/7 server.
To get an idea of how we fly you can check our YouTube videos:
Also, I would like to share our PILOT CHECKLIST: https://virtualcarrierwing3.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=225
Virtual aviators, if you feel that this is something you want to be a part of, you are welcomed to join. We are also looking for cooperation with other groups that share our approach to flight simulation. I personally think that cooperation is the future of flight simulation and we are looking forward to a day we can speak of the big virtual navy :thumbup:
For joining please contact us on the email or discord. Also, you can use the form on our webpage. For cooperation please contact us on email or discord/
Our web page http://www.virtualcarrierwing3.net/
Our forums: https://virtualcarrierwing3.net/phpBB3/index.php
Discord https://discord.gg/T2Z6Rsz
Emails:
Wood (CAG) Wood@virtualcarrierwing3.net
Jakob (O/S Officer) Jakob@virtualcarrierwing3.net
Hope you enjoyed the story and have a great NAVY day!
Regards,
Jakob