Preendog

Less important, but the canopy and gear doors don't affect drag either. So if you can handle the noise, lose the canopy right away to get a better view.

Whether intended for moving targets or not, the HARM should still attempt to track the emitter, if it detects it. Not to mention that mobile SAMs are not supposed to track and shoot on the move, either, but they do in the game. edit: I tried HARM against moving Tor, and they do guide. If the Tor turns or stops or starts when the missile is close, the missile might not be able to adjust in time. (latest stable, SP mode)

I mean, in the track I see you mashing the RALT button, but the : next to the button never appears. Might just be a track issue.

Fatslapper, I didn't see altitude hold AP ever engage in that track. You must have the stick perfectly centered or it will not engage. If your stick is jittery, you have to do something about that. You also don't have to press the on/off button. Just pressing the BALT or RALT button is sufficient. You should see the ":" next to BALT or RALT when it engages.

Cool results, here's some more. 5,000 ASL, 20 degrees C, 29.92 in/hg, unlimited fuel, full afterburner. Speed recorded after it stabilizes in high time compression. Fuel Clean: 735 Center tank: 692 3 tanks: 628 The results are the same if the tanks are full or empty. A/G (Inboard pylons) 2 MK82s: 723 4 MK82s (doubles): 717 2 MK82s (doubles with one dropped): 735 (same as clean!) 2 MK83s: 718 4 MK83s (doubles): 713 2 MK83s (doubles with one dropped): 735 (same as clean!) 0 MK83s (two empty racks): 771 (faster than clean?) 0 MK83s (four empty racks): 806 (lol) 0 Mk83s (jettisoned double racks): 735 8 MK83 and 2 center MK82s: 685 4 MK83 and 1 MK82 (one bomb dropped from each point): 735 (same as clean, and my new favorite loadout :P) 2 Mavs: 679 2 HARMs: 677 2 Zuni: 588 4 Zuni (2 doubles): 571 A/A (Inboard pylons) 4 AMRAAMs (double racks): 635 2 AMRAAMs (double racks): 660 0 AMRAAMs (double racks): 692 Jettison Double racks: 735 2 AMRAAMs (single racks): 635 Summary Fuel tank drag is a little bit less than a bomb of the same size. AGMs are significantly more draggy than bombs. I guess this is because of the fins. AAMs are even more draggy than AGMs. I guess that's because they are carried with a downward tilt (when on pylons). Confirm that 2 AMRAAMs on a double rack have the same drag as 1 on a single rack. Confirm that shooting an AMRAAM off a double rack reduces drag partially. If you take MK82s or 83s on double racks, dropping one bomb from the rack will cancel the drag of the remaining bomb. This is basically the same as the double/single AMRAAM behavior, but more pronounced. The AMRAAM double-rack itself has a lot of drag. Two of them are as much as a fuel tank. You should jettison these when empty. Bomb double racks have negative drag (when empty). So, never jettison these, drop the bombs off instead. Rockets are the drag king in this lineup, and probably the highest drag object you can carry. Everything seems reasonable (or at least debatable) except for the weird behavior of multiple weapons on the same hardpoint, bomb double racks having negative drag, and the fact that pylons have no drag. Most of these were discussed in another thread some time ago, and I wonder if any will be addressed. Best speed achieved with exploits: M 1.91 at 33,000 feet.

In the sim the best way to land it is however you want. You could land sideways without adverse effects. I've tried hard to pop the tires or snap off a leg but it just won't happen. Someone even demonstrated that you can land on the gear while it's extending. Even if you break the gear, it doesn't actually affect anything, and the plane drifts better with crushed oleos (lower CoG, so it doesn't tip over so much). I hope it never changes.

The engines will start fine with throttles linked and in AB. Just roll in a circle until the second engine is started.

Mispost

The probe light is causing the issue. When you extend the probe on the ground, the light works normally. It leaves a light spot on the ground in front of you, and there is no bug. When you taxi away from your starting position, the light spot gradually disappears, and then the flickering begins. I want to say the flickering light always seems to originate from your starting position on the ground, or at least, is somehow related to it. Toggling external lights will stop the flickering. It's like the probe light is not attached to your plane, or starts jittering around when you start moving, or something. edit: lol, just realized this was already in the thread :) If you want to see the bug best, set the game to night-time, and repeatedly extend and retract the probe. The distortion moves while the probe is in motion.

Confirm cockpit and probe have a flickering lighting when shadows are set to flat or OFF. Additional clues: The shading artifacts often have soft edges, like a shadow map. This contradicts the "flat" and OFF setting. edit: The light is a circular projection map that seems to get bigger and smaller as you move, and wobble around as you change orientation. The command "exterior lights switch ON/OFF" will toggle the distortion on and off. My guess is that extending the probe creates an erroneous light source that has its shadow mapping forced on, and this false shadow is z-fighting with the flat shading.

If the ladder can be used as a weapon then I want it.

100-200kts is wayyy too slow unless you are actually 1 second away from a 100% shot. I'd suggest you start way faster, and ease off and go nose-low if you get slow (slow meaning anywhere near or below corner speed). And of course you dump your stores and be in full burner the whole time. If you ever do find yourself going too fast, it's easy to just go vertical or roll scissors, or something. The AI isn't smart enough to realize it can make you overshoot. And if you do, the F18 has enough high alpha stability to claw back behind the 3-9 line.

Does the game actually crash? Sometimes I get the 'not responding' message, but if I wait long enough it loads ok.

Steps to reproduce: 1. Soft-land on water with engines running. 2. Blow foam underwater with your still running engines. I imagine this was already reported, but F/A-18 has been out for a long time and this is still a thing. It makes no difference to gameplay since you can't take off again but, you know, c'mon.

Turning off the alarm altogether is pretty sweet, thanks. Off topic, but do we have access to a running bug list for the bug?

Does anyone know how to avoid the never ending alarm after a ground engine restart? I get it whenever I repair. For those not familiar with this cool thing, this is how you do it. 1. Be on ground, hot, in any configuration. 2. Turn off engines (via throttle idle-off or emergency shutoff buttons) 3. Turn on APU. 4. Start left engine. 5. Start Right engine. 6. Take off. 7. Bwee bwee... bwee bwee (the same alarm as the low altitude alarm) Every, single, time. All of the systems work, and I can fly for an hour with the alarm going. Strangely, if I do the above steps, but in the air (also with APU), the never-ending alarm does not sound. It only happens if I restart the engines on the ground. This magic is beyond me so I call out to a higher power.

Retarded bombs and cluster bombs seem kind of wonky compared to regular bombs currently. As always, I'm not sure which issues are bugs or features. For example, I just tried out MK82s and MK82 snakeyes with some odd results: Regular MK82 hits with laser-like precision in CCIP (like, I'm talking bombing 6 vehicle targets in a row from 10,000ft in a single pass), but MK82 snakeye always misses, even if it's set to FF. Regular MK82 CCIP pipper always shows accurately despite having an uncalibrated altimeter. With MK82 snakeye, an uncalibrated altimeter will cause the CCIP to be in an incorrect place (even above your aircraft, if your altitude is reading negative). Switching to radar altimeter changes the retarded bombs behavior, but it still always misses. Again, this is with FF or DRAG selected. FF and DRAG both show the exact same CCIP spot. The computer doesn't adjust for the increased drag at all. Best guess is that they are a work in progress. Which is weird, because you'd assume the ballistic calc of retarded bombs would be exactly the same as a regular one (just with a higher drag coef). edit: latest stable version

Uninformed answer: It depends on what you want to do. If you are taking off to ogle nearby sunbathers, you would be out of burner right away. If you are taking off to intercept hot inbound bombers you might stay in burner till you hit 40000.

What is that paddle specifically called in the controls menu?

Thanks, that did the trick! I finally recovered my first flat spin, and did a dead stick landing. I was hoping to do deep stall pirouettes or low speed knife edge with no altitude loss, but it doesn't look like it's enough. In a blinding flash of the obvious, I guess split throttle would be a smarter way to do this. Still cool though.

I want to turn a engine off to do sick stunts. I figure I can hold the throttle in the OFF position, but it just restarts as soon as I release it. Is there a way to properly cut off fuel to an engine or disable it somehow?

As above. It's nice you can turn the wing fold handle with the mouse (so no one has to use up keys for those commands). It'd be nice if you could also stow the handle with the mouse, somehow. By middle mouse, or scroll, or by clicking and dragging up/down (like you can do with the knobs in the cockpit)

That sounds perfect. So by 'finger lift' it means lifting a physical stop that normally blocks AB and full idle?

I use a little knob for a throttle with no detent, and I find it really hard to select full military power without sliding into afterburner. Is there a way to snap precisely to mil with a keypress? I didn't see anything like that in the controls (just keys for advancing and decreasing the throttle) Also, how does the real Hornet throttle handle this? Thanks

The height is the canister burst height above ground. Try setting it lower. The canister won't pop if it's too close to your airplane. Low altitude drops will not work, which is confusing as the CBU is called a 'RET' on the MFD. I don't know about specifics, but I use VT, INST and release the bomb a few thousand feet above my height setting with good results (latest release version, not beta). Edit: dropping single bombs in CCIP.