Cigar Bear

My experience was against F-14A+ and D’s, and I flew F/A-18 A/B/C/D’s. And a good variety of lot# and software loads. Both standard and EPE engines. Usual configuration was centerline fuel tank, tacts pod, captive AIM-9, so really not a combat load for either platform (and honestly once you start hanging stuff from any jet your mileage is really gonna start to vary...). Whenever you start to compare jets you need to realize that each individual airframe of the same type is going to handle differently - operating at the edge of these envelopes the differences can really become apparent- we’d always seem to have a bird or too that was “bent” lol... Anecdotally the F/A-18 had better operational thrust to weight, bled a whole lot less in turns, was fully controllable at a crazy low airspeed - when a Tomcat was departing, and had more reliable radar for in close ops - VertAcq was your friend... The Tomcat was faster (top end) and a much more sophisticated and powerful radar (long range contact with AIM-54 employment was awesome to behold) and had way way more gas than us - and in the real world that’s important. The Tomcat was also much larger than the Hornet, so (despite the “bubble” canopy) it was easier to pick up visually. Lose sight, lose fight. Hope that helps!

Sorry... absolute over complicated crud... and some strange reference to how an defunct aircraft corporation is assigned to your lineage.?? The F-14 was the only operational user of the AIM-54, the primary design characteristic other than carrier ops. While it could beat an F-4 or anything else the Navy was flying at the time in a one on one match (because the A4 still was underpowered) it was not equivalent to F15, especially since it lacked operational thrust to weight and bled a lot energy for turn performance.

Bet you had to really think hard to come up with that brilliant response. And I’ll be happy to tell that to anyone.

Unfortunately I’m not the one who’s flat out wrong... maybe your opinion is colored from too many reruns of TopGun, but as former Hornet driver I have pretty of HUD tapes of poor turkey drivers who believe that same stuff as you.

I’m not sure which episode of Sea-Wings your quoting, but in real life the swing was necessary for carrier ops and all combat aircraft since 1965 have big bubble canopies. Even OV-10’s oh, wait that must be a fighter too... Not.

Interceptor Remember that the F-14 was designed as an interceptor not a dogfighter... so in a close in fight, it was pretty average.

Those look pretty good, what I also need though, is the white round ones for the menu selection buttons... any ideas for that?

That looks like a very novel solution, I began my build with trying to adapt a 20 key keypad, but decided I needed something more robust. CB

Here’s the pics from the thread...

Thanks Tundra, there was a steep learning curve for me, but I’m happy with the end results.

I just finished my UFC build and my pics are posted at the end of Brun’s thread. I also mounted my MFD’s to it. I added 3d printed MFD toppers and printed MFD bases to make a complete unit. I used two arduino based controller boards, one from Bodner and the other I made myself from a $10 arduino micro board. The comm buttons are coded to the arduino micro, and work really well, other than the fact the buttons push to activate rather than pull... CB

For me it starts when I move the ADF selector switch to any position (1 or 2) and will not stop once its touched... CB

Just finished my own UFC Just want to thank Brun for laying all the great ground work for this project, just finished my own UFC, but I tried to make it just one piece to clamp to the desk when I fly DCS VR... So far works very well... Have a look...