Spurts

Iceman is programed to try and hold the conditions of when you jumped into the back, so if you are accelerating in the front and jump in the back he will try and hold the speed you were at when you switched, same with climbing.

You do know that F-15C/E also have AESA radars, EW, Datalink, etc, right? The Eagles ability to actually be supersonic is the game changer there. For all the Rhino's electronic wizardry it is subsonic with any real payload. The way I heard it put best from someone who flew all models of both Tomcat and Hornet/Rhino is that "The Rhino is an incredibly dangerous and lethal jet, to anything that flies into it. It simply lacks the ability to reposition and control airspace."

Seconding what @Marsvinetsaid. Do those two things and the gun becomes a great weapon for ground targets, even at night (thanks to the FLIR HUD)

While I did not record the fight, here is a Tacview of another F/A-18 Ace AI BFM set. It isn't my best flying because I was trying something different with my stick input setup, but it shows how the Tomcat gives the tools for absolute contempt of the "2-circle rate fight". I like @IronMikevid, using the vertical to just wait for the right time to pounce. That tactic would have defeated what I did in this Tacview. Tacview-20221120-122112-DCS-AI test.txt.acmi

And the ability of the Tomcat to pile on the AoA and to show pure/lead pursuit from almost anywhere across a circle puts a lot of pressure on them.

Correct

OTHER than the NASA paper about an empty AIM-54 Shell

15 hardpoints is not technically enough. 3 on each wing, one centerline, two for TPODS (we know there is a variety coming so that will be a "hardpoint" in ME), and 8 per CFT (the 6 for bombs and the 2 for missiles are separate but mutually exclusive)

Oh man, back when you had WAY too much power.

That's not what I experienced, at least not against the F/A-18C.

This is based partially on what an old pilot says, but the gist is that inside 30nm the range is too short for it to loft properly but inside 20nm it is either a massive Sparrow or pitbull within a few seconds of launch.

Haven't done that mission, but maybe this weekend I will give it a go and record my fight.

that's the joy of "failures on demand", if you have no demand, you have no failures. easy.

I'm in that crowd of wife/kids/job. I learned abbreviated procedures for startup for that reason. IFA is your friend.

That is not what happened, so wherever you heard those stories from is not being honest. There has never been a canopy melting failure on the F-16. The pilot that died did so because he exceeded 850KCAS in a dive and the older F100 engines did not have adequate self protection so the engine tried to keep up with the speed, the compressor disks expanded and cut the engine wall, things fragmented, the engine exploded, and the pilot ejected. Both arms and both legs broke hitting the supersonic airstream, the pilot drowned. My source? People who flew F-16s at the time and knew the guy, worked on the F100 engines, and wrote the 800KCAS limit into the flight manual prior to the incident.

You just aren't happy unless you have something to calibrate. In all seriousness, I would love more manual control over the brightness, contrast, and gain for the TPOD. Maybe then I can stop water from looking like lava.

Get high, 40k plus. Center the T and keep the nose level. Don't shoot between 20 and 30nm. 90nm can work for fast bombers head-on, wouldn't do more than 50nm against a fighter. 30-50nm against a fighter could still result in them dodging.

Be careful with your climb angle and you can stay fast even an 50k, but yeah you are on the right track to maximize Phoenix performance. You shooting TWS or STT? What kind of range?

Ward Carroll has a video with real callsigns used by different squadrons, that would be a nice touch.

Winner winner chicken dinner.

Yes. The AIM-54 has a fixed drag index value in the sim so shoulder mount and belly mount have the same drag. This is an ED thing, not a HB thing. Also, I can get that loadout to 1.6M at 50,000+ft in the F-14A so you need to be aware of the profiles used by real pilots to pass the transsonic. Hint- it's not in the NATOPS for intercept profile.

isn't that already an option?

Hmm, maybe if "Lock Friendly" made him engage BFM mode against said friendly provided not tanker or awacs?

Maybe, maybe not, didn't matter once the fight was below 300kts. Pretty sure paddle won't do anything under 330-350 as the Hornet is lift limited at that point.

Most of my testing and BFM is from this year, but you bringing up the old FM two years ago does remind me of when I once maneuver killed a Hornet using Mil Power in the F-14B. So I do remember when the Tomcat had too much power. As for every trick, it includes knowing when it is safe and advantageous to use the landing flaps (never when nose low or when speed is above 180), but so much more such as when to turn level, high, or low, when to hold 15-20 AoA for sustained turns, when to tighten down to 30 AoA for min radius, knowing when to pull max AoA (40-60 for an instant before settling back to 30) to either gain nose position or force a one circle overshoot. It's knowing when in a scissors to reverse and whether to reverse high vs low and how to ride a cross control stall when doing it to increase the roll/yaw rates without over shooting your roll and ending up in a spin (very dangerous in the A). It's knowing when to get out of afterburner when in the B (almost never a problem in the A). The above are all things I had to do in my last fight against a Hornet and I lost because I didn't do the last one one time and gained 100kts without realizing it. The Hornet is the hardest thing to fly against for me because excels in the same regime and never has to worry about over controlling or losing control. It just does it. I have to try and force situations where I can out corner the Hornet, such as a low speed scissor, sub 150kt. That's when the landing flaps are called for. I hope this answers your questions.