Magnate

If you haven't already sorted this out, then this might help. I had this problem myself. In the Mission Editor the newer weapons and the TGP aren't shown in the sample loadouts. So, you need to create/edit a new loadout and then go to the (empty) centre station and then select the TGP from the drop down menu. It may take a right click to access the menu - I'm away from my DCS computer. Once you've saved a loadout with the newer weapons/systems they'll appear in the Armament Loadout page for future missions.

A bit of feedback from another new user of the Rift S: After dithering for several months, I finally ordered a Rift S last week and had it on Friday in time for the weekend. I'm used to playing on a 65 inch 4K TV which looks fantastic. I'd endorse most of what I've read on this forum, in that the sense of immersion is great, but after a 4K screen the resolution is very poor. However, the poor resolution is only problematic part of the time. The chief issue is with things in the middle distance. So a tanker in the distance is just a fuzzy blob, and the same is true for the carrier. However, once you get close this ceases to be an issue and the sense of immersion takes over. You see the whole of an enormous C130 floating above you, and refuelling becomes even more fun than it already was. Being able to see the precise relationship between the basket and your refuelling probe is great - no comparison with the 2D version. The carrier is a blob until you get close, but those last few seconds as you land there's a real sense of the size of ship. Reading cockpit instruments is not a problem for me, and of course there's the zoom function if you ever do have an issue reading a particular figure. I understand that the Rift S is a big improvement in this respect. Speaking of cockpits, the sense of being inside a cockpit is extraordinary - no amount of TrackIr is a substitute for this. The inside of the canopy actually exists as a real 3D object, and the HUD is also transformed. Lighting effects - sun's glare - and volumetric clouds also work very well. I had been a bit apprehensive about narrow Field of View, but haven't been aware of this as a limiting factor. IRL a helmet would limit a pilot's FOV to some extent in any case. Sense of height and speed is enhanced and I occasionally found myself with a moment's vertigo. However, I see this as an endorsement of the realism, not a problem, and I didn't feel unwell at any time over many sessions over the weekend. Mountains, hills and valleys all become far more 3-dimensional - flying low and fast over a ridge feels real - there's a genuine sense of an actual hill top. I'm a ground pounder rather than an A2A fan, but I did fire up a WW2 dogfight and the first time you have an enemy zip past you in the initial merge is a revelation. The only problem with dogfighting is going to be resolution and identifying aircraft. My hardware is decent - 32 GB RAM, 1080 card - but not extreme, and I can say that I haven't yet been conscious of any performance issues. I've found the headset as comfortable as one could expect, and no problems as a glasses wearer once you work out a routine for putting the headset on and off. I just loosen the retaining knob at the back and rotate forward from the back so that headset falls clear of my face. Could I go back to my pin-sharp huge TV with TrackIr? Probably not, but I'll certainly be looking at upgrading to a higher resolution VR headset before too long, I suspect.

Tips for first attempts at aerial refuelling For people who are in the early stages of learning to do aerial refueling in the F/A-18C one of my first tips would be not to use the mission in Instant Action, but to either download one created by the community or make your own. For a start, the Instant Action mission features the S-3B tanker. This is more challenging to refuel from than the KC130 - far less forgiving in terms of maintaining position once you're connected. I've wondered whether the S-3B has a shorter hose, but not got around to checking this. Secondly, in the Instant Action mission you're flying a clean Hornet - no tanks or munitions. My advice - increase the weight of the aircraft so as to make it less responsive to pitch inputs - give it a bit more inertia so that it will be less inclined to bounce around. One of the most challenging things about learning is that your airspeed for a given throttle position never seems to remain stable for more than a few seconds - you're constantly either accelerating or decelerating. The result is that you'll either find yourself closing too fast with the tanker or slowing down just as you thought you were about to make contact with the basket. Frustrating! Maybe it's just my hearing, but I can't detect any change in engine sounds as I make minor throttle adjustments. I don't know whether this mirrors what happens in real life, but I found this frustrating when I was learning. So, I was constantly having to divide my attention between my approach to the basket and monitoring my speed as shown in the HUD. This makes for an increased workload. One recommendation I'd make is that if you miss the basket while your airspeed is in the accelerating phase, don't immediately throttle back/airbrake to fall back for another attempt, but continue as if you had successfully connected, and then try to stablilise your position behind the tanker. This will involve throttling back so as not to overshoot. You're going to need to learn this skill to stay connected, so you might as well treat missed approaches as an opportunity to practice this. Don't try to inch up to the basket foot by foot - your lack of binocular vision as the basket is in the last few feet of your approach makes it impossible to judge distance. You''ll have the frustrating experience of being sure that you're about to make contact and then the basket just passes magically through the side of your probe. Possibly in VR this isn't an issue? So, my advice: go for a steady confident approach and learn how to manage the higher rate of closure which this entails. Don't ever dart at the basket - if you do connect your sideways/upwards/downwards acceleration will be hard to manage and you'll end up being even more frustrated than if you just missed the basket. Plus, you're possibly going to collide with the tanker. Another thing - which I've learned through painful experience - is to force yourself to be patient. If you miss an approach, fall back a decent distance, stabilise and then make another deliberate attempt. Trying a second rushed attempt without stabilising will only add to your frustration. Aim to have the line of the hose vertical in the gap in your pitch ladder before you start each approach. When it comes to joystick input - less is more. Try to position yourself in what you judge to be the right place for your approach and then see what happens - better to learn to recognise a picture of what a successful approach looks like, than to be constantly making adjustments. With experience I can now see - very early in an approach - that I've got a good line and I then just leave the stick alone, despite what might appear to be an arcing path between the probe and the basket. I won't give advice on what you should be lining up with what - everyone will use different features of their aircraft/HUD and different features of the tanker - use whatever works for you. (Actually, for what it's worth, I put the caret on the heading tape at the 8 o'clock position on the refuelling pod as my starting point.) Watch the tracks of your missions in external view - you may find that you're actually doing better than the view from the cockpit suggests. This way you can get a more 3-dimensional view of how you're doing - you may be closer to success than you think! The first time you stay connected for 30 seconds is a milestone, and then, finally, those magic words "Transfer complete" are a reward for all the effort you've put into learning this challenging task.