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No sorry, but that is completely wrong. Nothing wrong with straight and level. But if you're going to turn - always turn Away from the side the pod is on. Think about it, at release the TGT is directly on the nose, If you turn right with the pod on the right, it will then be looking through the intake as the target passes to the left side of the jet.

So a couple of things to look at in terms of technique: -- Nothing wrong with a point track if its a really small well defined target with lots of contrast, but most people will drop in Area track so you can better define the crosshair placement. It's typically a better way to go for the majority of target sets out there. -- Be as fast as you can up to a point - faster = more bomb energy. 540KTS or .9M is ideal. Any faster and you might overspeed the bombs. (not sure if DCS models this). -- Fly the jet as precisely as you can down the ASL line putting the flight path marker dead in the middle of the line. The closer you are to dead perfect, the less the bomb has to correct inflight. -- Hold the weapon release button about 5-10 sec BEFORE the release cue would go to 0 and continue to hold it until the cue flashes denoting the weapon has been released off the pylon. -- Check away with about 3-4Gs to the LEFT (always opposite the side the TGP pod is on) about 45-60 deg and then roll out wings level and stay there. Your technique of then checking back to parallel is likely the reason for the misses. The #1 concept is you want as stable a platform in the last 10-12 sec before impact as possible. So resist the temptation to maneuver the jet. Any crosshair movement in that last critical 8-10 sec means the LGB is chasing the laser spot and its running it out of energy unnecessarily. Even small movements on your scope are huge to the weapon inflight. -- To add to the above check away technique - depending on altitude, at worst you might have to make an ever so gentle turn away from the target if it appears that you will get some masking on the TGP by the jet pylons or wings. This is rare unless you are very low or you've over-turned the check away maneuver. But if you do see that, just a very gentle wing dip away from the target just to unmask is required. Something like a 3-5 degree angle of bank away is usually enough to unmask. - The final thing you can do is just a level straight through. The lightening Pod will handle that just fine. In fact, that might be a good way to practice the above delivery techniques and then once you're getting consistent hits, then add in the check-away maneuver. The level straight through is fine for a low to no threat environment. The check away is the more prefered in other situations because it gives you some standoff from the target. Practice practice practice!

These types of weapons from the late 90s to mid 2000s in DCS is that the Jet is not physically able to talk to the bomb itself to change settings. The pilot sets the bomb settings on the ground - fuze arm times, Fuze delay times, Laser codes in the case of LGBs, etc. Then the settings are matched in the aircraft SMS or weapons page so that the jet can correctly display the release and dud parameters. There are a couple of things the pilot can change what the bomb does in the cockpit such as selecting nose or tail or N/T together. This simply tells the jet which wires to pull and which ones not to. So in the case of cannister weapons, the pilot would set the function time or the HOB/HOF during preflight based on what the mission planned parameters and desired weapons effects are. Setting the HOF on the jet weapon page would not change the bomb at all. The CBU is going to do what its been set to do on the ground. The only time you can change actual bomb settings while in flight is if its a smart weapon that has an umbilical that is attached to the jet that can pass data back and forth. In DCS, obviously we can't preflight the jet and the weapons to set these settings. So the SMS interface is sort of a trick to get the weapons to do what we want. It would be really cool (and very realistic) if you could set all the weapon settings in the mission editor page like you can set the laser code. I would have the ability to set fuze arm times, delay settings, function times, etc. It would require more work during the preflight setup, but that's the way its done.

I checked that too. The first time I changed the time on the weather page, it did change the waypoint times to 0600. So I changed them all back to 1900 from the start point. It still showed a delayed start when I went into the mission. I wonder if the date is affecting it. I'm obviously doing something wrong, but I'm tearing my hair out trying to figure out what it is.

I did that. It’s still starting me with a delay.

I’m going crazy.... I’m trying to build a basic night bombing mission for practice and set the first leg of the waypoint editor time (Hot start from ramp) as 1900 and then added the waypoints from there. I also set all the targets to spawn at 1900 at well. But when I go to FLY the mission, it says Mission delayed for start time. I think it seems to be starting at the default 0800 time. I also set the time on the weather page as 1900 and the mission briefing says the start time is 1900, but I still get the delay start. The date on the weather page also says 21 June 2016. Do I need to set it to the current date?? This is making me pull my hair out. Not sure what I’m doing wrong. TIA!

What luck did you have with mod‘ing the face foam? I sent my initial reverb back because of the broken earpiece and just received the replacement. The face feels slightly better but the same issue still exists with the eye relief. I’m making it work, but it would be cool to have a more permanent solution.

Thanks, I think I have it on now. I simply removed the // in front of the motion reproduction mode : auto. I assume that is correct? If I did it correctly, it seems to be working nicely. I’m running on my laptop at the moment while I await my desktop computer to show up in my 40’ cargo container from overseas. It’s an MSI Titan GT75 with an i9-8950 and an RTX-2080 MOBILE. It runs well, but I can’t run the setting quite as high as my desktop rig in the specs below. The nice thing is the Reverb is running nicely and I really like it. The resolution is great. Well worth the money.

There is no position given to the weapon. Until we get WCMD, canisters (CBU-87/97, Mk-20, etc) are dumb bombs. The release point is calculated solely by the jet and you need to mission plan where your release point in space is such that you can meet the HOF numbers. If you release less than that number in HAT (not AGL) then they will dud.

I think there's an F-35 somewhere off the coast of Japan. Maybe ED could raise $$ for an expedition to go recover it and then build the flight and systems model off of the inspection results. :music_whistling:

Yes, I said that in my 2nd paragraph about LST. The only visualization is the symbology that shows where the laser spot is supposed to be. I was referring to other sensors that can actually “see” a laser designator so that the pilot can actually view the raw laser spot reflected on the target.

It very well could be a bug, I haven’t played with Cluster bombs in game much. Maybe throw a track file to the mods to see if its messed up. One thing to think about if you are dropping them in mountainous terrain.... if the target is up on a hill and you’re dropping from over a valley - it could be that you are closer in range to the target that you think you are and releasing inside the HOF of the cans even though your altimeter shows you should be high enough. That may explain why they are dudding. Dunno. Next time I get a chance, I’ll play with it to see if I’m getting the same thing.

Interesting. I wonder if you could teak it by using the the "force IPD" setting in DCS. That should allow you to adjust the cockpit scale.

From the ALSA MCM Brevity code word book: ANGELS - Height of friendly aircraft in thousands of feet from mean sea level (MSL).

If you want a Naval training aircraft, I would go with the T-45 before the T-2. The T-2 is a slug and not that much fun to fly. The T-45 is a great airplane.

Cool, thanks. Great explanation.

IF we are talking iconic legends, the F-4 FAR surpasses the Tom Kitty. I’m quite surprised that the F-4 has not already been done by someone by now.

I apologize in advance for what is likely a stupid question, but I’ve been wondering recently why is driving VR so much more system intensive than sending the same 4K video to a 50” LED flat panel display? What is it about VR and their tiny little lower resolution TV screens that stresses video cards and CPUs?

FTFY.

Just so there is no confusion, the Laser designator and the IR marker are both lasers but are in a different wavelength and power band. The Laser designator is a much higher power laser that is NOT eye-safe and is used for ranging and weapons guidance. It is invisible to the naked eye and the IR target pod. There are some special sensors that can see a laser designator, but nothing that is modeled in DCS. The IR Marker is visible only through night vision goggles or Low Light TV cameras (which are not currently modeled in DCS to my knowledge). The IR marker, as the name implies, is used only for visual (NVG) marking of a target at night. It cannot be used for any sort of weapon guidance. Think of the IR marker as exactly like a handheld visible laser you might use in a classroom to put a red dot on something to point something out, except that the IR marker is invisible to the naked eye because its in the near IR spectrum - somewhere between visible light and the true IR spectrum that the TGP operates in. A laser spot tracker (LST) searches for a high power Laser designator band on a specific PRF. For instance, if a JTAC or another aircraft is lasing a target and you want to find that spot - you can use the LST function to search for the specific PRF and then lock onto it. But you never “see” the laser itself, just the HUD or TGP indications of where the spot is.

You are correct that large simulation companies do all of what you describe above as the end to end process is generally (but not always) under their control. However, you are missing the point of what I was discussing. I very clearly was talking about Features & capabilities not hardware or SW bug fixes. Of course any Sim company is going to have to issue patches to address glitches caused by many issues out of their control. But what I’m talking about is the slow drip of features and capabilities released over time. Imagine if Boeing sold their simulator of the new 777X aircraft to United or American but the Flight model was a WIP, the Cockpit FMS was incomplete with “buttons to be added later” labels, and the autopilot was not exactly the way it was supposed to be. But the promise was that these would be added over time. I doubt that would go over well. So again, I get that ED is not a Boeing or Airbus or Raytheon and they have a different business model. I’m in no way criticizing their choices for how they develop and market their products. This thread was simply asking the customers of that product which they would prefer. To wait longer for a product to have all the features and aircraft capabilities included all at once at release or to get a partial solution sooner and get the features added along the way? That’s all.

I used zip ties to mount the cable to the back of the chair so that there was enough play in the cable to move my head around without the cable getting stuck behind my back or get in the way in general. Worked well.

I have a bit and that’s very likely a better solution that trying to get a UFC. How well does it work? Are the finger controllers awkward to wear while still using the HOTAS controls?

A typical G-warmup exercise would usually involve a 90 deg hard turn up to about 6Gs and then a 180 deg turn with an initial 7-8 G and then sustained at about 4-5G through the rest of the turn. It’s usually done before BFM, ACM or ACT fight, so its accomplished at the typical fight altitude - I.e. 15-20K feet. To start, fly straight and level and then in Mil power, push over to accelerate to Corner velocity and then execute a level hard turn (not break turn) with AB as required to maintain about 4 Gs. At the 90 deg point, unload and roll out. Climb back up to your starting altitude. Once level, push over again and accelerate to corner velocity in Mil. Once at Corner vel, execute a break turn in the opposite direction to achieve an instantaneous 7-8G+ in Full AB and then back off the pull to sustain a 4G descending turn until the 180 deg point. Unload, roll out and climb back to the starting altitude for your BFM engagements. The G warmup serves two purposes. Mainly to get your body warmed up and see how you’re performing that day, get the blood pumping, etc. But it also gets your body and hands to be able to feel the jet and refresh yourself on how to break turn and then manage energy throughout the turn while G-straining.