Notso

I try to do an AAR for practice on every training sortie, unless I'm just doing quick exercises. I also like to do a full takeoff, pre-strike AAR, fight, (and sometimes post fight AAR) and then back to the pattern, land and taxi back. I find doing all the tasks in one sortie forces me to get better at them all and makes the flow more natural. For me, and I don't claim to be an AAR expert on DCS by any stretch, when I focus on simply flying formation with the tanker (whether boom or basket) I find I have the most success. The moment I LOOK at the boom or basket - I'm all over the place. This is true whether moving in to hook up or while taking gas.... DON'T look at the basket or boom! Focus on the tanker and maintain that reference and you will find you stop moving all over the place. It does for me anyway. For those just learning - I can't recommend enough to just fly formation with something. Just go to the wing of the tanker and fly finger tip for a while. Once you have the throttle and stick movements down to stay in place, then try to move back to try taking on some gas. I even fly around and stick some AI fighters out there to fly formation on just for practice. In some of the instant action missions where there are random fighters flying around, I will find them on radar and do a rejoin on them and then just fly on their wing for a while. Until you get good at formation flying, then AAR is going to be really difficult. Stop worrying about the boom or basket. Just fly formation in the correct spot and stay there and AAR is easy.

Ok I'll try to see if I can get a track tonight.

I was seeing this a lot today too. I had two bandits locked up on the nose in TWS auto - with an L&S and a DT2. Inexplicably, the radar would drop lock and all I would get are the red surveillance track files from AWACS. And I could never get them back unless I went back to RWS and then locked them in STT. Very frustrating.

Yep, spot on.

I had a buddy/co-worker who is an ex-fighter pilot (former F-16 driver) help me move some stuff with his truck a couple of weeks ago and while he was here at the house I asked if he wanted to see my VR setup I had been talking about at work. He said sure. So I put him on the runway at Nellis in the Viper and as soon as he put on the headset his first words were "Holy F___!!". The entire time he was flying around he just kept saying "Oh my god. Oh...my... god."

What are you flying IRL?

I just discovered Voice attack and LOVE IT!! And thanks for the Bailey F/A-18 v2 profile. It works really well. Quick question - is there not a way to use the actual words to give my wingman commands or talk to the Awacs or the tanker such as "Flight - go Spread" or "ready precontact". Rather than having to say "F1, F6, F3" as it drills down into the comms menu. Or is that just the nature of how the DCS comm menu is?

I had a browse through Amazon looking for VR face mask replacements. Lots of stuff here: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=face+padding+for+VR&ref=nb_sb_noss_2 But nothing at all for the reverb. I guess it's too new. Anywho..... it appears to me the Oculus face pad shape is much more similar to the reverb than the HTC Vive is. I tried pulling the one off my Vive Pro and it didn't seem to match at all. Anyone know which of the other headsets are most similar in facemask foam shape to the Reverb?

I'm curious, how do you define "proper A/A missions"??

I can't speak for other HMDs, but with the reverb and decently high settings and smooth FPS - spotting bandits in DCS isn't much different than IRL. It's hard in real life too.

That's SWEET!!

Understood. Thanks anyway. Enjoy. I'm totally jealous.

Wow, that's pretty amazing! Fantastic work @DobroDude! I'm trying to do a VR Hornet pit as well and what you have looks perfect. I assume all the switches, knobs, gear handles etc work correctly? Any chance you would be willing to replicate that setup? I'm happy to pay for the fabrication and time as there is no way I could do any of that. PM me if interested.

I have this one and I really like it. I'm working on some mods to add a small panel to mount some Cougar MFD's similar to the Hornet 3x PFD config. The only thing I don't like about it is there is no cutout in the seat for a center stick mount. I'm trying to figure out how to mod it. Anyone have any thoughts?

Not necessarily. Most typical military fighter training programs always start with basic systems, general handling (aircraft handling, takeoff and landing, etc) and then do A/A BEFORE A/G. A/A is where you really learn to max perform the jet and really learn to fly it away from the ground where you might kill yourself. Then A/G is introduced once a student has passed the A/A basics phase (BFM, ACM). A/G requires very precise aircraft control and precision to achieve weapons delivery accuracy. Well, at least before GPS weapons made pilots lazy, but that's a whole other subject for another time. Funny story.... I recall we had an F-15C pilot transition over to our community, which was mostly A/G focused. In the F-15C community, there was a longtime running joke that they could not even say the word "bomb" lest they would be fined. The closest they could come would be to literally use the term "The B word". That's how little this guy knew about A/G weapons employment when he showed up. Three months after he arrived, he won the Top Gun of the Quarter award for overall best A/G pilot. Someone asked him in the bar how the F*^k did he get so good at A/G so quickly. His reply was - "A/G is easy, you're just BFMing a point on the ground that's not moving." TFS. ;)

Yep

So my understanding is Vulkan is a GPU API and as such would have no impact on CPU usage? Is this correct? I am heartened to hear that ED are working hard on incorporating Vulkan. It seems to be the new "thing" in 3D graphics. Hopefully we'll see some good performance gains, especially in VR. Fingers crossed.

I very interested in your Hornet UFC panel for VR use. When do you expect to have any ready to ship? Thanks!

Open the AR door well before you get into precontact position. Especially if you have external tanks. I think the manual says to have it open like 3-4 min prior to getting on the boom so the externals can depressurize and receive gas. This will also allow you time to "warm up" on the new FCS gain settings. Another trick is to just fly formation off the wing of the tanker like you're in fingertip or in the observation position. Work on maintaining the same relative place there as precisely as possible as a "warmup" for flying formation underneath. Once you can fly formation well on the wing, you can do it in the contact position. Once there, Don't chase the lights or look at the boom. AS before on the wing, just try to fly formation and use the lights as a fine tune. If you're still within the range of being in the boom envelope, don't chase it to be dead perfect. If they are not moving, you're ok. Good enough is good enough. Use the lights to see trends developing so you can fix it before you hit the edge of the envelope. Finally, just crack the speedbrake a little and that will help with the sensitive throttle.

Oh no! This is the ORP vs BRP argument :doh:

Thank you, I was about to post the same thing. The only thing I would add to that is that PWIIIs glide ONLY if they have laser guidance. Without, they fall ballistically until and if they see the laser spot. For the rest of the group: It's important to understand that PWII are nothing more than dumb bombs with a seeker kit on the nose and guidance fins on the back. But ballistically they are essentially the same as their bomb body counterparts. i.e. the GBU-12 has roughly the same ballistics as a MK-82 LDGP. A GBU-10 ~ MK84 and so on. So for instance if you drop a GBU-12 and you either don't turn on the laser or the seeker fails for some reason - the bomb will hit roughly near the target just as if you dropped a Mk-82. WITH laser guidance, it's possible to "drag" the bomb long of the original designation point, but you will deplete its energy quickly and can only go so far before it runs out of energy and falls short. There definitely is no "glide or cruise" for PWIIs.

I don't understand the question. Your release conditions are the same for the same weapon. Are you saying the GBU-12 went 20nm while being lased and only went 6nm while being dropped ballistically without the laser on? The bottom line is, NO a GBU-12 cannot "cruise" for 20nm under any conditions.

Agree with this. The only effective way to check six with VR is to shift your body sideways as well as twist your neck. Which is the way it happens IRL. The main issue that most will have is - that unless they've built a simpit of some kind - is that to do so effectively, you need something to push against. In a real jet cockpit, you have the side canopy rails and handles to help move your body around and give you something to use for your hands to gain leverage with. It's hard to do that sitting in an office chair or in a sim racing seat. I have the latter and I have it right against the wall in the room, so at least I can push in one direction and it makes a HUGE difference. I now need to figure out a way to get something to brace against on the other side. So yes, adding a cheat view in VR to be able to check six is unrealistic and defeats the entire point of VR. Yes, I get that IRL, you have peripheral vision to see a bit further that is harder to do in VR with current limitations. But that's a limitation you can get over by moving your body a bit further off line. If you have physical limitations to doing the above, then the easiest solution is to "fly" from a swivel office chair. I had to do that for a while until my sim seat chair arrived after being in transit in the move. It was amazing how easy it was to check six with no effort in a swivel chair. ;)

F-15E, w/P&W-229s, AESA, JHMCS, and SDB. FTW. Edit: Of course it you want to keep it contemporary to the current 4Gen fighters in the mid-2000s - PW-229s, NVGs, Lithening Pods and maybe Sniper pods, JDAM, AGM-130, EGBU-15

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