Uxi

The beautiful VF-103 CAG plane in game since launch has had F-14B Upgrade under it's stab.

I'll say again, we need pods allowed on 1B and 8B and having blue as well as red TCTS pods to go with the white one would be nice.

That was a bad move on Grumman's part. The PR would have been worth eating a loss. Wonder how much weight they could have ripped out, but still would have probably been a maintenance hog.

B should be the same. C:\Users\<user>\Saved Games\DCS\Kneeboard\F-14B For the current A, C:/Users/<username>\Saved Games\DCS\Kneeboard\F-14A-135-GR

I've been playing 6.0 primarily with F-14B the whole time and still running into a couple bugs... mostly inconsistent comms. I'm doing alot better than I used to. That initial turn to the downwind was beating me up but much much better. Serves me right for not checking for a new version. Touch and go grading sounds cool, too.

IIRC, there was also a huge inventory of Sparrows and DoD had the mind to kill the Tomcat since 1991 anyway. If the Cold War lasted 5 more years then the whole fleet is converted to F-14D and AMRAAM would have been a certainty.

Part of that is what they're used to, I'm sure. Alpha males tend to think their way was the best way and always go to bat for it. Basic fundamentals are always better especially fi the whiz bang tech should fail, though technology is what they call a "force multiplier." At least one F-14D pilot had a... different opinion of the Kaiser Aerospace HUD on the F-14D versus the F-14A/B and from his perspective was a "Hornet HUD on Steroids"... Being that the Sparrowhawk was something they found "off the shelf" and not purposely made, would sound like it was somewhere between the two, though reducing maintenance was a touted feature of the Sparrowhawk.

Yeah it's an issue in the core game, not supercarrier. Before supercarrier, IIRC there wasn't even had a carrier outline though so it was pretty rough trying to place anything.

Bio talked about the various kneeboard cards a few times in Tomcat Rio though mostly obliquely to whatever subject it was (Ernest Will, the Outer Air Battle exercise, etc) and sounded fascinating. Would love to build up a library around these, though ideally it could be tied to the Mission Editor.

Would love the modern HUD for convenience and because it looks cool. Quite a bit of utility in there, of course, which is why it was developed in the first place. PTID really isn't as interesting to me though can definitely appreciate the convenience it would offer RIOs with the all the context buttons along the edges. Full F-14B upgrade would be the tits, but definitely seems out of scope. Would happily pay for an upgrade, but realistically it would be a subset of a subset and probably not worth HB's effort, even if they could get access to documentation.

Would be nice to see some new bindings added every few patches.

Very nice. What are the DB9 for?

3/4 mile, wings level, on glide path and you have the ball in sight.

DCS having a functional TCTS system, including 3rd party client slots for observation/supervision would be the ultimate solution though blowing them up is more fun and the only viable alternative in the meantime.

Yeah Mover is definitely milking it. In a way, though the edits make it easier to find some of the stories since they did so many. Shoes needs to write a few books and do a movie for at least one of them.

They're very similar (which is why HB picked the models they did, rather than an early 70s A no with no A-G at all and mid 2000s B with fancier HUD, etc. Got two for the price of one effectively. 1) Most notably the engines: GE F110 of the F-14B (and F-14D) were much better solving two issues: compressor stalls (which could lead to spins) which were sometimes overstated but pilots had to train to avoid the behaviors causing the issue, not just mashing them forward and back at will, especially when low speed or high AOA (landing and dogfighting). They had much more thrust which changed takeoff dynamics for purposes of engine failure (rare, if ever in game), where losing an engine could immediately lead to asymmetrical thrust, so the F-14A had to launch with afterburners with any ordinance and the F-14B was restricted to mil power. I've never seen an engine failure on takeoff in the same way we don't ever break hooks or cables on trapping, so that latter part is probably moot. CN: In game terms, the F-14B accelerates quicker and you don't really need to be at all cautious with the throttles. 2) The F-14A-135-GR was effectively the same with RWR and other improvements. The only thing you won't notice is the Sec mode engine switches, which you'll probably never use anyway. They both have LANTIRN and full A-G, etc. Later, HB will do an early version that has an older and less effective RWR as well as an even earlier F-14A-95-GR for Iran that doesn't have external tanks and is far more limited in its weaponry. 3) For accuracy, every squadron had F-14A at some point while only a few (9 or 10 including the RAG) ever went to the F-14B. For those who don't care can easily drag livery into either folder and do what you want.

Jester Assisted Start is pretty good and covers almost everything you need in the game (except turning on oxygen). If you want to be complete, get one of the startup checklists and add it to your kneeboard in your saved games/DCS/kneeboard folder. I tried the clean cockpit mod but honestly didn't help much.

Been waiting for this one. This and Fear the Bones are just about guaranteed buys for me.

You said you didn't understand those who care about the dynamic modex. Already noted that buno and names are not nearly as relevant as the modex, which require much closer scrutiny zoomed in. As with carrier name, not really as pertinent since that might vary according to the mission and most players would probably want their own name on there for the planes though flying, though there is a smaller subset that does want complete historical accuracy for specific cruises and missions.

I'm already doing that. Not everyone has my HDD space. Nor is that at all feasible in multiplayer. And outside of the full squadron packs, hardly thousands available, especially in more than a 2 ship. This is done on Hornet and no reason it fitment be done in at least one Tomcat schema, particularly in the time period of our model era (moreso than early 1970s and 80s hi vis).

Well I like to fly with a wingman. The large number on nose and/or tail being the same sticks out more than the fine print you need to zoom in for our go under the fuselage to see... and some of larger livery packs include all 12 planes.

Unfortunately extremely unlikely without a dynamic system as that gets quite large fast. The custom skin makers should have you covered if you don't mind 20-30GB in livery.

Still my favorite plane in DCS. Been playing F-14A too much recently but should be back in the B and dreaming of sparrowhawks soon.

Maybe Victory is Shoes? probably unrelated, but what was Sluggers callsign before they took Jolly Rogers when VF-84 was disbanded anyway? Everywhere I look seems it's just Jolly Rogers info "Victory, etc"

Really? I've flown that a dozen times at least in the B and never noticed. Jester never mentioned it. Splashed plenty of the F-4 and Su-24...