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What missions are you running? Perhaps the briefing freqs are not correct. I've seen that a few times. The best way is to go into ME and click on the tanker itself and then see what Freq it's set to over in the dialogue box on the right side. Whatever that freq is, that's what you want to set regardless of what the briefing says. Or change the tanker freq there to match the briefing if there is a mismatch.

DM sent.

Use HMCS and -9x, cash a bunch of energy in and shoot the bandit across the circle. And hope it works :music_whistling:

Speaking of the 3 wire, when you successfully trap - how do you know which wire you caught? Is there something that tells you or do you just have to know based on where you stopped on the deck? I can usually tell a 4 wire since I'm almost up to Cat 1. But for the others, how do you know?

That's true only if you have a donor aircraft (AWACS or another fighter) who is able to interrogate for you and then display that via MIDS.

Has anyone tried to do any form takeoffs and landings as the wingman? I can't get AI to formation takeoff or land with me as the lead and I've tried a couple of times to formation TO and land on a random AI. But they don't behave all the well and obviously fly to the centerline of the runway. Does anyone have any suggestions for setting this up? Ideally, this would be best with a human lead, but I haven't gotten to MP yet.

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.