Notso

Yep +100

That's sort of what I thought. Thanks!

I thought Taiwan was part of Mainland China, right. :music_whistling:

To the ED team, as I peel back the layers of the DCS onion, it continues to amaze me cool and immersive this study simulation is. However, there are still come annoyances that just don't make sense. Most of the following revolve around metric vs imperial units, but not all. The caveat to my post is that I am completely comfortable with metric, but international aviation is almost ALL imperial units. Windspeed, altimeter settings, cloud heights, elevation, altitudes, etc etc are generally always given in the imperial units around the world. For instance (not all inclusive): -- ATC clearances - everytime I takeoff from Nellis for instance, I get QFE altimeter settings. However i need a QNH setting to input into the F-16/18 etc for it to read correctly. -- Windspeeds in the mission briefings are given in m/s when the standard aviation unit is nm/hr in most places. -- in mission editor, I select altitude of the steerpoint in feet, but when it gets transferred to a JDAM via WPDSG - the elevation is input in meters. -- JTAC used only MGRS but some aircraft cannot accept that format coordinates. IRL, JTACs can give coordinates in whatever format is desired, although MGRS now is the norm. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, that was not the case. What I would like to see is a toggle button somewhere in the controls menu where the user can select the standard for units of measure for everything such as weather, ATC, JTAC, coordinate elevation, winds, altimeter settings, etc. So then the game would display either the imperial or metric units as desired and be consistent throughout the game. As it is now, it seems to be a complete mishmash of units and nothing is consistent throughout the game. I'm sure it has to do with whoever the coder was that worked on any particular module and they went with what they thought was the correct format. But there's little standardization of units throughout the game.

It's fixed. It was indeed working fine for NWS but would not work to undesignate in either A/A or A/G. So I went into controls, cleared the current map button and then just added the button again to the same place exactly as it was before and it's working fine now. No clue why it was FU before, but this seemed to fix it. <shrug>

Good, that's what I thought re AGR. Then what does FTT do? What does the radar tracking a fixed spot on the ground do for you?

Hmmm, I'll go try it one more time in both A/A and A/G undesignate and if still not working, I'll report it as a bug. Thanks.

Sorry for the stupid Q, but is FTT here the same thing as AGR in the Hornet? Typically, AGR as I understand it is just a ranging mode only and does not "track" anything. It is just a mode that has the radar fire down the LOS of something such as the CCIP pipper, gun or rocket pipper, the AUTO designation point, or along the LOS of the TGP if the laser is not firing instead. Therefore nothing is being tracked, but rather you are getting ranging to wherever the AGR spot is pointed at the ground. If I see the term FTT, it implies that something on the ground is being tracked in 3 dimensions much in the same way that an aircraft in flight is being tracked while in STT. That's an entirely different concept than just a ranging mode.

Thanks Wags. All clear to me and I appreciate your candid answers. I can only speak for myself in saying you guys are doing an amazing job and the product speaks for itself. I think people are being too hard on ED and don't realize not only the enormous complexity of this undertaking, but it also ironically simulates almost perfectly the actual development cycle of the real aircraft as bugs are worked out and new features added. Except ED's turn around time is often days/weeks or months rather than the years or multi-years it takes to make a change or add a capability to the real aircraft. Furthermore Wags, I appreciate your team's dedication to continue development work during this time of true global crisis. It would not have surprised me if you guys had shut down altogether like most of the rest of the world until this pandemic was in the more manageable stages. That you guys have carried on speaks volumes about your dedication and passion for getting the product right. I can only chuckle and facepalm when I read the amount of whining and crying on this thread given the circumstances going on out in the real world right now. So thanks again and keep up the great work. Stay safe and hug your loved ones.

I'm not understanding why there is so much angst for the ATFLIR. My understanding from some of my Hornet buds back in the day was that it was a POS compared to the Lightening Pod.

Sorry for the silly question, but What do you mean by aircraft and weapons cards?? What would this do? Thanks.

It's specifically not working to undesignate / drop lock on a STT contact. For instance, I had the tanker locked up to rejoin and then as I approached pre-contact position, I wanted to drop the lock. The only way I could clear the lock was to turn the radar to STBY with the console knob. AS I said, the NWS steering button on the ground works fine, so I know the physical button is not broken.

I'm not sure how realistic it is, but when I'm doing overheads in the hornet on shore, I fly it more like a USAF overhead rather than the long slow boat pattern. I know it's supposed to be the same for the USN/USMC whether its a boat or shore based pattern so they keep the same habit patterns, but I find the USAF overheads more fun and easier to manage. So in the break, slow down to <250 on the Downwind, gear down and HALF flaps. FULL flaps is where you get the huge nose change and need for lots of trim. I fly the airspeed right at around 190-200kts off the perch (touchdown point is 45 deg behind from the wingline) and then nose down and power as required to manage the airspeed around the turn. Once on final and lined up with the runway, I work to get on a 2.5 deg glideslope and power to maintain on speed/AOA (in the staple) to touchdown. i know that's blasphemy to boat guys, but it works. :music_whistling:

The tactical use of IFF in RL is way more complicated than what is being described above or how DCS appears to implement it. First of all, when someone says "IFF", the question is: Which one? Depending on the ROE and the level of the conflict - the rules could be to have ALL the modes and codes ON (M1, 2, 3, C and 4) or have them all OFF. For instance, in a low level threat conflict like Afghanistan right now, with no air threat and civilian airliners and cargo mixed in with combat aircraft - everyone is going to squawk all modes and codes at all times. In a very high threat, neer peer conflict with say US vs China or Russia - there will be much more strict EMCON procedures and likely all modes except M4 will be turned off crossing the friendly line outbound and then turned on approaching friendly airspace so you aren't mistakenly shot down by other fighters or friendly air defense. Mode 4 is encrypted for this reason. What I don't know yet is how does DCS implement IFF interrogation. When you press the IFF interrogate button in the cockpit, what modes and codes is it interrogating? Is it Mode 4 only or is it customizable like it is IRL? The ATO/ACO will specify the codes to squawk for each day. Do MP "wars" even use ATO's?

Does anyone have a suggestion to fix the double physical detent in this new shapeways plug? Has anyone bought from them before???

Straight line, yes. But not necessarily level. But you can be at 1G in a 45 deg dive as long as you're going in a straight non-curving path.

Yes, the bomb racks will have ejector cartridges similar to a shotgun shell that is supposed to push the bomb (or tank) down and away from the jet to achieve safe separation. But they are limited in how much they can do. Remember, you're talking about a small little push on a 2000lb hunk of iron. It's really not more than a nudge down rather than a violent push. Watch some videos of Edwards or China lake flight test weapons testing and you'll see that it's not a huge push away. To hit the bombs in flight, you would have to be likely less than 0 g, as in negative G. A bombing technique to achieve good accuracy on a dive bomb CCIP attack would be to gently be pushing the stick at release to ensure that you are stable at 1G or slightly less. 0.5-1.0g would be ideal. More than that and you risk not achieving safe separation. Go back and look at your HUD G meter when you pickled to see what it was when the bombs hit you. I'm betting it was something less than 0g.

You have the rest of your "life". :lol:

I'm not having any issues with STT holding lock. But I have seen TWS drop all L&N, and other contacts suddenly and inexplicably with non maneuvering targets. I've had this happen quite often right around 20nm ish range or just before Rmax.

So I've had zero issues with the WH HOTAS up until just the last couple of days. I am using the default mapping with both the WH stick and throttle and recently had to manually remap the entire throttle settings. All is well but now the undesignate button on the stick for A/A targets is not working, even though it does work correctly on the ground for NWS. I have A/A targets locked and hitting the NWS/Undesignate button does nothing. How can I remap that one feature since it's showing as being correctly mapped in the DCS controls page.

I most definitely have two distinct detents.

No, you're on the right track. I have my Warthog HOTAS mapped to as closely to RL F/A-18 HOTAS with a couple of additional buttons to make things easy when I don't want to hunt for the mouse. I've mapped my gear and flaps to a couple of throttle switches, same for the AAR probe and kneeboard, HMCS and NVGs. But other than that, I use a trackball for everything else in the cockpit. A couple of things to consider - I've just added Voice attack and Trackpad apps and they're a godsend in VR. I've also added two TM Cougar MFDs for the ability to touch all the buttons instead of using the mouse trackball. I'm about to add the 3rd MFD for the Hornet MPCD buttons. It works well in VR once you get some muscle memory of where they sit in front of you. I know some swear by it, but I haven't had any desire to try point control. YMMV

So I just received and installed my new shapeways AB detent piece. It works fine, but..... As advertised, you can now push through the throttle detent stop without lifting the fingerlifts. However, after that initial stop and push through, there is another hard stop detent just before the very end of the range of travel of the throttles. You can push through that one as well. So in essence there are now two distinct detents stops. That is not normal, there should only be one detent at the beginning of the transition of Mil power to Min AB. And then it should be smooth to the end of the stop at Max AB. Is anyone else seeing this? The 2nd issue is that AB doesn't start when you push through the first detent like you would expect. When you push through, you have to go a bit more before AB kick in. I played with F2 view looking behind the a/c to see when the min AB plum just started, and it's not immediately after the detent like it should. How do you adjust for this without messing up the linear nature of the rest of the throttle range. I assume you have to do a custom user value as just messing with saturation or curve in DCS changes the whole response feel. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

It needs both light and contrast in the room.

What altitude AGL are you guys doing loft attacks from?