Sideburns

It certainly improved things for me, however I am noticed a lot of variation in stuttering with windows, graphics and driver updates recently. But I also run DCS BIOS and the UFC android app which can introduce their own latencies.

@DSplayera while back there was a similar but different issue spotted with the Rb24j, values affecting manoeuvrability were out and then corrected. The issue is described at But the key detail for your own report is "The Rb24J has been updated to be in sync with the AIM-9P parameters, should be in the next patch.". In my own brief research there were a variety of explanations as to what the Rb24j is meant to be, but the dominant explanation is an improved Aim9-B to Aim9-J standard with some local Swedish improvements (better seekers, electronics, guidance logic and laser fuse for warhead, etc) meaning it was equivalent to an Aim9-P series Sidewinder. Do you have a source for aligning the Rb24j to the Aim9-J base model? I think HB are deliberately modelling the RB24j to be an Aim9-P equivalent. https://www.aef.se/Flygvapnet/Notiser/Sidewinder.htm

I would also recommend changing process priority to see if this helps, you can obviously load the game up and use task manager to do this as a test rather than the registry or script hacks described here

Have you tried reading the manual? http://www.heatblur.se/F-14Manual/weapons.html#launch-modes

Same with the Forrestal, feels like it misses wire 4 by about 1-2m.

Great comments, just as an addition: The optimum AOA of 5 and 8.5 for climb and cruise are indicated on the AOA indicator as the square and the triangle for easy reference. Around 15-17 units AOA (the highlighted thick white bar in the middle of the AOA unit indicator, or just above it) will give best sustained turn at around 320-340knots. If you want to BFM in the F14 you should practice this to get muscle memory holding 320-340knots at 15-17 units aoa in your chosen F14A/B model for max sustained turn when you need it.* 320-340 knots at sea level is about the 6-7 o'clock position on the speed gauge, save time by not properly reading the speed dial in a dogfight but gauging it by position. As stated a million times before, when approaching 15 units AOA start using more rudder to roll. Once you are past 15 units AOA roll quickly become more dependent on rudder rather than the spoilers and stabilizers. *Note BFM is not just about max sustained turn, but it is good for this to be second nature / muscle memory so you can focus on the fight. Edit: Having watched Puck's interview on the Tomcat this also highlights manual control of wings and 25 deg at 420 knots can give some pretty good turn rates / G's as well.

Having just done a RIO session the cockpit looks a lot nicer from the changes, cheers.

Seems like a fair suggestion, leave it up to server owners and mission makers if they want to simulate war or training conditions.

I think some good points have been made on the significant amount of focussed practice required and practicing other types of formation flying really help get AAR done. But I would disagree a little with the hardware comment. Having gone from a Saitek Cyborg gold -> Saitek X-55 -> TM warthog and now a VPC Warbrd base, precise flying definitely gets easier with higher end joystick hardware, I imagine having an extension makes it even easier. It is still possible to refuel with a lower end joystick, but I found that having a "seamless centre", i.e. easy to move to and from the centre joystick position / uniform force, really helped and made AAR a joy rather than a frustration for me. Otherwise applying some curves to the joystick profile can help. Also in the F14 (you've probably seen this guidance before but just in case), setting wings to bombcat mode, trimming, using minimal stick movements, switching Jester on silent, practicing on a larger tanker and focussing on a reference spot on the tanker plane rather than the basket really help. Edit: Just to be clear, its takes most DCS and real life pilots a lot of practice to AAR, keep on practicing and you will get there.

Neat, some really good "just the facts" investigation here and good to see this finally formally reported. Hopefully these drag and speed issues can be addressed as part of finishing the Viggen off and soon.

I would also like to commend the effort that has gone into Jester and it's abilities, but as ever there are areas where Jester is frusrating. I agree with Starliners comments above and would add: IFF prioritisation - IFF'ing hostile datalink contacts or contacts that are closer / hotter first would be useful, but appreciate this would take some additional intelligence Radar pointing intelligence - once more a prioritisation of pointing the radar where DL or previous unknown hostile contacts are/where would be useful rather than having to manually drive this. P-STT / PD-STT locking intelligence - Jester seems to have issues making the right call on which locking mode to use for conditions and weapon types, and locking in general is very unreliable by Jester (similar to if a human RIO presses the a P-STT or PD-STT button to lock a TID track). Setting up jettison panel for fuel tank stations by default so acm jettison will function as it usually does for human pilot/rio combinations (i.e. giving the pilot the ability to jettison tanks using ACM jettison button) Tacan or DL nav fixing options for Jester Appreciate these may not all be easy problems to solve.

a) The Ternav works below 500m agl and won't work over water. Are you flying over 500m agl? b) I believe the Ternav data loaded into the cartridge is around intended waypoints, i.e. stray too far from your intended flightpath and Ternav won't have the data to do it's automatic fixing. Are you setting some waypoints in mission editor or F10 map and then loading cartridge, or manually entering? c) The Ternav fixing is really nice and automated but accurate to within about 1/2km. If you want really good accuracy you will need to do a manual fix, and it is recommended to do this alongside Ternav, before launching a Bk90 (or refixing your target waypoint). For quick guide to visual (overflying) and radar nav fixing, note that you ideally want to pick and set a waypoint over an easily identifiable landmark.

Some nice fixes there, looking forward to trying them out.

ACLS still works but I found the pitch quite wobbly to the extent I would retake control if I wasn't testing it in a flight sim (in the past before AP issues it was fairly rock solid in normal, not adverse weather). Unsure if this was the engine response time or AP, so was just going to wait until the new patch.

When I saw this before, TWS reliably loosing track when launching head to head at targets, I did think perhaps the AIM54 was "blocking" the radar return of the target. Seems to be better these days and I found launching with a slight offset would reduce the chances of it happening. Quite often on MP though it was down to people doing a significant direction change manoeuvre after my launch. Have not tested since latest protocol version hotfix. @DoorMousetracking missiles is mentioned in this episode of the Tomcast, but hot rather than cold and a rather large naval SAM. (45:08 in case the link doesn't go to the right time, whole episode is worth watching for a great overview of the AWG-9)

Just incredible, nice work

When I've tested the parking brake issue I've found, with two toe brake pedals / axis set, you have to have both down and also rapidly bring them both up again once you have set the parking brake. Otherwise there is a good chance it will unset the parking brake if you bring them up slowly, and it pretty much always unsets parking brake if you bring up one or the other toe brake by itself. Edit: On Thrustmaster T.Flight rudder pedals (TFRP), but don't think that makes a difference here? Also clarifying some English to make issue clearer.

Yeah, I did mention this earlier and the ambiguity between the manual and in cockpit message. Regardless having tested them they don't appear to make a difference, and also there was a comment by HB in another thread basically saying they are not functional for now.

Great news, really looking forward to the F4 family.

Aye, just also found that post and a similar one from 2021 implying PD THRLD is not implemented but may be in the future, would be worth checking with a dev maybe. I guess the request stands for PULSE GAIN to be set to norm if this has any effect on helping to hold a lock and isn't just a search mode thing.

I will admit it is unclear if it is implemented. The manual implies it is, underneath this section of the manual it has "JAM/JET and ACM THRLD not currently implemented in DCS.", in game it has (no function) over these dials. I just spin them to auto in case they are, but haven't done enough testing to confirm function. The PULSE GAIN dial is clearly working though. Also thanks as ever for your blog / F14 content, most useful.

Problem: Jester doesn't appear to be getting the most from the AWG-9, if you switch to his seat during single player he has the PD THRLD CLEAR and CLUTTER as well as the PULSE GAIN in their sub-optimal, default positions.* While a skilled RIO will manually adjust these if required, a decent RIO will set them to their fully clockwise "Norm" position to let the AWG-9 control these automatically. From the HB DCS F14 manual: "On the lower left side of the DDD is located the PULSE GAIN control knob (20) which controls the radar gain in the pulse modes. This control affects the gain of the radar directly. Normally left in the detent at the fully clockwise position which allows the WCS to control it automatically." "On the left side of the DDD panel are located the PD THRLD (26), JAM/JET (24) and ACM THRLD (25) control knobs. The pulse-doppler threshold knobs (PD THRLD) controls the threshold at which an echo is regarded as a contact, displayed on the DDD and tracked on the TID in RWS and TWS. The CLEAR knob controls the clear region threshold (upper half of the DDD) and the CLUTTER knob controls the clutter region (lower half of the DDD). Normally left in the clockwise NORM detents, letting the WCS automatically control them." Improvement suggestion: As part of start-up or fence in for combat, have Jester set these controls to their fully clockwise "Norm" positions. *I am basing my observations solely off the positions of dials in the cockpit during single player seat switching, if Jester does in fact adjust these dials then my mistake but I have not observed him doing so in single player combat. Picture below shows Jester / default positions for these dials. But this might explain some of the frustration with Jester loosing targets readily.

Yeah, it may just be an F10 map issue rather than Viggen issue, the Enigma CW server uses a lot of drawings and markers on the F10 map where I first observed this.

Ok, so after removing the cartridge files I can't recreate the CTD issue (possibly some old one maybe... will alert if it comes back) On the F10 maps, tested in single player the F10 was becoming laggy if you had the Kneeboard open (in my case ground crew and cartridge selected) and you placed many markers. At some points the F10 map was failing to place markers or be grabbed to be moved around. I can't reliably get this to recreate so once more if I figure it out to be consistent will report back. Perhaps it has disapeared also with clearing out the old cartridge files.

Thank you again for that escort Myse, it was a pleasure flying with you. Your perfectly timed distraction of the fighters allowed me to laydown accurate HD bombs on the road base and escape safely. I did have the kneeboard open while in F10 map view, appeared to be an issue when selecting and laying down markers. As before will check both these bugs to try and come back to you with accurate "is it an issue" and "how to".