Uxi

F-14A-95GR is as early as I think I want, though US Navy more than Iran. And of course later F-14B-155GR with DFCS, GPS/CDNU, Sparrowhawk and F-14D-170GR

The Cheney thing is a meme at this point and not an accurate one. Cheney wasn't the main guy in DoD opposed to the F-14D. He was mostly echoing David Chu who's job was to weigh the merits of major weapon systems and argued the low rate production was simply to keep the Grumman line open. He was right but did want to keep the rebuild program going. This is where Cheney's "job program" comment came from. The issue was price and heavy maintenance requirement and diminishing threat (and defense budget) even before the Soviet Union fell so it would take the USSR getting much more aggressive to counteract that. https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a282162.pdf

Would be very cool if tilted for Forge. Different cushions would rock. Maybe tears or stains? Would BuNo be tied to livery or just a random number?

Should probably be a ground crew option. It's all just for show unless we ever get the iron maiden in game as a wrecking ball cracking canopies and tearing off probes, etc. Can the engines even be damaged by FOD in game? Not sure there's anything other than SOP making me go to left air source when refueling, etc either. Don't think we can suck down any vapor or droplets or anything like that.... Dangling masks and cop caterpillars would rock.

Do we have a documented list of bindings available out of the game?

Right. Isn't there a duplicate or mirrored nacelle that isn't right? Maybe it was already corrected... or maybe there's no plan to, but if it were it seems some work still needs to be done in that regard beyond pulling out the D features we see... or maybe that got dropped and I missed it. That never really bothered me that much tbh, though I understand some were and thought it was basically decided to correct but I might be remembering wrong. WRT TARPS are you talking about the aft Sparrow slot that gets covered or something else? I was kinda suspecting that be seen as minor and it would just be mounted like a large piece of ordinance. Preferable to not getting it at all if it's too much work.

Most of the mods are based on FC3... and haven't seen anything touching the Tomcat unfortunately or someone might have done an ST-21 by now.

OTOH, it basically could be a F-14A-95GR for both US Navy and IIAF. If the base F-14A model is really being sorted out from the composite F-14A/F-14D we have now, that's an excellent opportunity to do that one without the pylons. Definitely recognize it's work but it's work that's already kinda being done though maybe not on the lower nacelles, so another feather in the cap maybe to have complete. I for one would love to see the proper VF-84 Final Countdown version (which should be a 95GR without pylons). Glove vanes would just a bonus.

The thing is that the behavior changed. For going on two years I've run SP missions with long way points so I could hit 2 and practice RIO stuff either radar looking for C130 or F-15 or F-16, etc doing race tracks or LANTIRN looking at cars and casinos on the strip. It's been a month or two so not sure which update did it. Maybe the autopilot rework. If I have time tonight I'll make note of speed and altitude... I would guess about 21 to 24k ft at Nellis on Nevada map heading south about 300 to 350 kts or so.

I'll set the throttle about half for cruise, turn on the autopilot so I can hop in the backseat to practice radar and LANTIRN and I'll hear the afterburner start puffing (in the A).

I just did it today in the F-14A and took about 12k pounds with no problem after a couple months. Easy in first try and stayed connected.

He does it in flight, too.

Iceman won't maintain speed anymore. I used to be able to dial the throttle back to about 70% or so and he would stay there. Now if I jump to the backseat I always hear the afterburner puffing (in the F-14A) shortly after unless I tell him to set speed.

Yup, I regularly practice in the Tomcat. I do wish the airborne spawns were a bit farther out maybe about 20nm or so. I'm rushing on that very first pass. By the time I was getting everything set, practically entering the break. Having TCN set should help a little though. Trying to get used to new headset so not the best passes by any means.

This guy did a few panels. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5179447 Hoping he does more....

Wing sweep on ground works for me but I never see the flag indicator telling me I can go to oversweep anymore. Is that deliberate?

Nice to see the added stuff especially the DZUS rails, though shapeways pricing is oof. If you don't want to share the STL, you should considering doing something cults3d or etsy maybe. Lots of sim stuff there for those of us with printers.

An ultra realistic campaign would include these. The maintenance and logtrain being huge issues. Looks like quite a few BuNo were lost to TF30 engine fires or explosions but see one or two F110.

How did you get the red TACTS pod? Mine still look like they're white.

I use DLC on the final glide slope. Analog on my VKB MCG Pro is anecdotally a bit better than the digital hat switch (even if the latter is in a better position) and tend to fly DLC up, releasing when I need to drop then raising again as default.

Without Real World limitations on budgets and cost, let alone maintenance trap weight, etc and you can just drop them if you need to, in most cases you'd be fine with 2-4 Phoenix and all Sidewinders on the gloves. Don't want too many dragging you down but using them as big Spamraams has no real lost... at least when they're not borked like they appear to be currently which is something with ED's tinkering with the missile system IIRC.

Dynamic campaign system should definitely include some sort of maintenance pool to factor in attrition. Weapons inventory and limits on Phoenix, etc would naturally be a part of that.

I could have stayed with it a bit longer with the cans lit, too, but wanted to trap instead of running out of fuel.

I got a bit past Mach 2.1 in the B though had to drop my bags to get past the hump at 1.8 ish. Hit bingo and did an idle glide back to the carrier to trap.

Yes, there's a fuel cut binding for each engine. I have them bound to buttons on my Virpil throttle which with fine on startup but don't work for shutdown since they don't stay but go back to idle when I release.