Bunny Clark

Were they within your radar scan volume? Right now AZ/EL does not show datalink contacts.

Station 5 mounting is still entirely realistic for a shore-based USMC Hornet in our time frame.

It's not clear if this is a wiring issue, a mounting issue, or a stores certification issue. Hornets were already carrying Nighthawk on that station, and USN Hornets were receiving ATFLIR, so wiring for some form of video and data was clearly available. Your source also insinuates that some USMC F/A-18Ds already had the capability to mount Lightening (or maybe ATFLIR? It's unclear) to station 4, further confusing the issue. The source certainly raises interesting questions, but I wouldn't call it definitive. Especially since our module is primarily a USN one, with Lightening added mostly as a gap filler before ATFLIR was developed.

I've got a whole set of no-nonsense startup checklists, which are designed to be used as kneeboards in-game. You can find the link in my signature. I'm in the process of totally redesigning them right now. Here's what the Hornet one looks like:

The last update added the ability to use the RECCE/MARK button to toggle EXP mode on the SA Page. With Priority to the SA Page, the button will not work to toggle HMD blanking. If you move Priority to another page it'll work again.

That bug report has nothing to do with the VMU "LOCK" callout? I'm not sure what it has to do with this thread.

Correct. I'm afraid we'll need to wait for ED to update ATC for airfields to get proper baro info. Though, unless dynamic weather is set in the Mission Editor, the barometric pressure will be the same across the entire map anyway.

Engine sounds may or may not be relevant, as different F-16s have different engines. If that video isn't from a Block 50, it may have a totally different engine than our Viper. The cockpit sounds can also be a bit weird, as what a camera mounted inside the pit hears can be fairly different than what the pilot hears inside the helmet. Both because the helmet changes what it sounds like, but also because a microphone attached to the airplane can pick up vibrational energy translated directly from the airframe that simply aren't audible to a human at all. That said a few real life pilots have commended on slight sound inaccuracies before, and I expect that tuning of the cockpit sounds is still something that's being worked on.

This is a common issue in DCS with the ATC right now (and has been for a long time). American aircraft do not use QFE, so the altimeter is not designed with a wide enough setting range to allow for it in high or low pressure weather, or at high field altitudes. You should be setting QNH, which you can get from the mission briefing under the WEATHER section. On the subject it would be nice if ATC and the weather briefing would give the wind speed in knots instead of m/s too.

Yup, sure can. Here's a simple short track. Enable ATTH, set a +10° attitude using the trim hat, hit the paddle switch. No pressure is exerted on the stick the whole time. F-18C AFCS.trk

I'm going to necro this old post, because the problem remains on the current 2.7 Open Beta, despite unspecific changes to CSS. Others have posted in other threads about having the same issue, and for me it remains unresolved on both Stable and a fresh Open Beta install.

The primary factor that determines the outcome of any air-to-air engagement is the pilot, not the aircraft. Yes, each aircraft has advantages and disadvantages, but a skilled pilot will know how to fight with the plane they are in to it's strengths while avoiding it's weaknesses. Both the Viper and the Hornet are capable BVR fighters, but each has strengths in slightly different areas. Neither is really better than the other, just different. Survival in BVR combat means playing to those strengths, and in DCS it makes some sense to fly the aircraft with strengths that most closely match the way you want to play. Others here have done a good job describing each aircraft's capabilities, pick the one you think sounds like the most fun. That's a common legend, but not entirely true. The YF-16 was indeed intended as a lightweight purebred dogfighter, but the role changed before the design was even finalized. The F-16 was a purpose-built multirole strike fighter before the first production aircraft came off the assembly line. To be pedantic, the Hornet replaced the F-4, A-4, and A-7. Hornets served along side F-14s for decades. The Tomcat was replaced by the Super Hornet.

The AGM-65G does have sea mode, but it is not accessible in flight. It's activated by flipping a physical switch inside the missile.

I'm not sure what you're looking for. All the functionality is there, though it isn't quite as visible as the photo.

Yup, the AI stops way faster than it's possible for a human to do in the same jet. It's one of the features of their crazy simplified flight model. Why are you raising flaps on landing? Flaps should stay at full, speedbrake out, throttle to ground idle, full aft stick once the nose wheel is on the ground, and brakes as needed. Some GA aircraft will raise flaps during the runout to increase downforce on the gear for short field landings, but that's not a technique in the Hornet. I'm pretty sure at runout speeds the Hornet's flaps produce more drag than lift when at full, leaving them down helps you.

It's used for making fine adjustments to a held attitude when autopilot is engaged. For example you could set the aircraft to hold a climb and adjust the pitch with the stick or trim hat, or use the stick or trim hat to adjust your bank angle in an altitude held orbit. It's not a way to "fly" the aircraft, the plane doesn't respond quite that way, it's a way to change autopilot values with the stick or trim. Most people have probably used CSS already without even knowing it. If you've ever used the stick to make roll inputs while in BALT you've used CSS. You can use the trim hat to do the same thing, but at a fixed roll rate.

Officially, the preferred way to do it is in the air and from as long a distance as you can get a reliable Mav lock. I'm not sure how much it really matters in DCS, I think so long as you grab the same "object" and hit the button it'll be fine regardless of when or what. I usually do it on cruise in to the target area on a power pole.

Sounds like you're doing things right. In Boresight mode the radar will lock a target in the HMCS "egg" or the boresight cross on the HUD. It is limited by range, so how far away a target is can have an effect. At dogfighting ranges that shouldn't be a problem. ACM used to be pretty buggy but I've mostly had pretty good luck with it recently. It's always possible bugs remain though.

Yah, CSS has been in the Hornet for a long time. Years. CSS is available in pitch and roll in ATTH, and in roll only in BALT and RALT.

This is certainly a problem sometimes , but we have the ability to turn the sensitivity / saturation on any axis *down* if we want to. Having it be on the high side by default so that people can reduce it as needed would be better than it being too low I think. Of course things get more complex when a single axis controls multiple sensors with different slew rates. That's where things get crazy in the Hornet right now. TGT diamond slewing in the HUD is crazy sensitive while the RDR Cursor is downright sluggish. It'd be nice to get things leveled out a bit.

This is something I've struggled with as well. I ended up leaving the sensitivity at max and using a curve instead. That gives me good fine control around center while still allowing fast movement if I push the TDC to full deflection. I'm finding the new azimuth bumps to be really useful, and the range bumps on SA are very welcome too. Ditto on the cursor resetting after depressing a button. That's quite annoying. I wonder if that's how it works in real life or a WIP thing that will get changed. I hope it's the latter.

Yup, that would be the bug I was referring to. Just checked it again, and it still does that. So I'm really confused what changed today ...

CSS is an autopilot function which allows you to change the commanded attitude hold either by moving the stick or with the trim hat. I'm a bit confused what the patch notes refer to, as it's been implemented for ages. Though there was a bug before where using the trim hat for CSS would throw your trim irrecoverably out of wack.

Here's what I've found so far, using the patch notes as a guide: Things that now get a pop-up menu when you hover over them allowing you to make a selection with the TDC (like bars and azimuth do): -A/A Radar: RWS / TWS -A/A Radar: INTL / HI / LOW -A/A Radar: Age Timeout (weirdly, you can't select DATA with the TDC to access this) -A/G Radar: MAP / GMT / SEA / TA Things that you can now select with TDC Depress as if you hit the adjacent OSB: -SURF / AIR A/A Radar: -RSET -ERASE -TWS AUTO / MAN -TWS EXP A/G Radar: -EXP1, EXP2, and EXP3 -PEN / FAN -FRZ -RSET -SIL -Range Arrows (were these not clickable before?) -From EXP: FAST Additionally there are new "bumps" you can perform by moving the cursor out of the tactical space and back in quickly: A/A Radar Right Side: Increase Azimuth one step A/A Radar Left Side: Decrease Azimuth one step SA Page Top: Increase display scale SA Page Bottom: Decrease display scale The Cursor also disappears now from pages that are not Priority.

There is a point to MAN mode: the use of CCD/TV variants of the Maverick like the H and K which cannot auto handoff. But yes, quite a lot of the Maverick system isn't working quite right at the moment. I believe in either PRE delivery mode the Maverick should stay caged until handoff is commanded, right now the missile seeker always follows the TGP designation, making handoff in MAN mode pointless because it's already there.