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If you take off from land, the flight performance is correct, even after landing and rearming on a carrier. Its starting on the boat that somehow adds additional unrealistic weight (and probably some drag too).

Maybe this: https://www.brunner-innovation.swiss/produkt/cls-e-joystick/?lang=de?

No FFB on any virpil base AFAIK. FFB sticks are generally rare these days...

That sounds very promising, thanks for sharing your experience! Guess I'm sold :D

Looks nice! How does the quality compare to the TMWH? . I've read the grip is mostly PU plastic, does it still feel good in your hand? Thinking about getting one too, the lack of reviews though holds me off a little.

As someone who flies exclusively in VR and is rather picky about having the correct virtual seating position, I can tell you that the canopy frame is indeed quite obstructive. Being able to move your head around within the confines of being glued to your seat doesn't help much actually, so I guess real pilots had the issue as well.

Maybe, who knows ;) The 1.1 floating around in the internet is a preliminary one AFAIK. But you are right in that if one is to use that document as a reference, the DIs in there should be used. Anyway, with the current let's say not entirely perfect drag system in DCS (I recall an increase in drag after firing a PH from station 1/9), such details won't matter right now.

Indeed. I didn't look in the 1.1 for drag. Other sources on that seem to differ. Don't know about the 'jive' but more specialized documents state unambigiously that the drag index per PH on either station 3,4,5 or 6 is 10 suspension plus 12/8 missile. I think I misunderstood you. I thought you were proposing carrying for tunnel mounted PH but omitting the forward fairing. When carrying them on stations 1/8 it is of course beneficial to remove the center weapons rails altogether if no stores are carried there. I would prefer tunnel mounted PH however , since it results in far less weight asymmetry if you happen to use only one missile.

I'm fairly certain that each weapons rail has a DI of 10. Also, I've never read about substracting 5 for tunnel drag. That doesn't mean it's not true, it seems a little illogical however, since it would mean that 4SP would have less drag than 4 open cavities. Anyhow, the DI for 4 tunnel mounted PH should be 80, not 45. There are three variants AFAIK: A, C and C+(also called ECCM sealed). Only the last one does not require cooling. The normal C, which I believe is the one we have in DCS, needs cooling just like the A. In any case, I don't think you would omitt the forward fairing since it does provide an aerodynamic benefit at the cost of only 100lbs.

The main reason for using the paddle is if the AP/SAS starts doing strange things like this For combat (or anytime you anticipate high AoA situations), you only deactivate roll SAS.

I can't as per forum rules :/. It appears though as this has been changed sometime during the Tomcat's service life. We will have to trust HB that they did it right for their particular Tomcat.

The more you sweep the wings back, the less lift they generate at a given airspeed and AoA. So when you sweep back, you will need either more speed or more AoA to produce enough lift to keep you level. Since tanker speeds are often preset, the latter is your only option. Sweeping wings back for tanking makes sense for two reasons however: First, with the increased AoA, your tails drop further below the tankers jetwash/wake turbulunce. Second, as the wings sweep backwards, the center of lift shifts backwards, making the airplane more stable in pitch. So sweeping back makes sense, however, 55° (i.e. bomb mode) may be too much for low tanker speeds. Try using 40° or lower if your AoA gets too high.

Manual wingsweep actually worsens the situation, as it increases AoA and therefore decreases the AoA margin for maneuver flaps deployment (unless you sweep past the flaps interlock, which you don't want to do). This doesn't mean you shouldn't use MAN sweep, just make sure to choose a wingsweep setting that gets you way below maneuver flaps deployment AoA (approx 10 units). If/when (some) circuit breakers are implemented, you can pull the maneuver flaps CB to prevent them from deploying.

That is most likely from the preliminary manual from 1970. More recent manuals say otherwise

The engine tapes I assume, although I never heard that abbreviation either

The manual for the non-DFCS tomcat clearly says that pitch and roll SAS switches move to off with paddle depression (I can't post it unfortunately) That should be incorrect indeed Looking at the sweep schedule diagramm I can read pretty much the values you provided. I assume the values provided in the FCF section are rounded for simplification. In the B its actually the backup ignition switch and is exactly that, a lower power backup ignition system for ground- and airstarts. Not sure what you mean by "ignition button"

+1

Good catches,a few comments though. The SAS switched are spring loaded to the off position and solenoid held in the on position. Once they switch to off (which they do upon depression of the emergency disengage paddle), they must be manually moved back to on. The switch from BOOST/AUTO to MAN and engines to SEC does only occur with WoW upon paddel depression (although I'm not sure whether you tried this on the ground or not) The stabtrim shift with speedbrake deployment was implemented earlier. However, it did not result in correctly neutralizing the pitch down moment caused by the speedbrake, so it was removed, along with the speedbrake pitch down moment. This means that the plane behaves correctly (i.e. no pitching moment with speedbrake extension) but not from two aerodynamical forces cancelling each other out like in the real plane but from omitting these two alltogether. HB said this will change someday but is low priority at the moment AFAIK. Looking at the wingsweep numbers you provided, they seem to match up with the appropriate documentation. Or are the numbers you postet what you are expecting and the sim shows different?

You are most likely referring to the NATOPS for the upgrade F-14B with Sparrowhawk, PTID, EGI and what not. This is not the plane we have in DCS. Anything written there about navigation capabilities is as useful as something from a hornet manual. Again, the non-PTID tomcat (the one we have in DCS) does have NAV GRID functionality, which is also independent of any nav-database. The bullseye grid display (i.e. having bearing/distance from a track file to a reference point displayed) is a different mode and I'm not sure if the non-PTID birds had that.

no, NAVGRID is part of the "normal" TID

Direct Lift Control. Smartass out.

I may be wrong but AFAIK you don't do that in the tomcat. Just go reciprocal BRC. Start turning at about 6-7nm slant range to the boat. Assuming your abeam distance is 5nm, 40° AOB at 350kts should get you right on the ships centerline 3nm behind the boat. While the heading displayed may be off due to magnetic interference, the tacan radial deviation bar on the HSI should still be correct, as it does not rely on the aircraft's heading reference. This means that if you have dialed in the correct BRC, the tacan will show the correct deviation from the ships centerline (i.e. the BRC radial), regardless of heading errors.

I've had a blown tire at 150kts at Al Dafra once, TOW 70000lbs. Shouldn't happen IMO since the max tire speed is 190kts, bet then again, FODs happen.

FYI, the angle marks on the VDI are (from inside to outside): 0, 10, 20, 30, 45, 60

Thats prototype #12, not a fleet aircraft.