Bozon

I don’t want to put pressure on the devs - this is our one chance to get a high fidelity Mosquito sim. I have been waiting decades (quite literally) for this, and I will not get another like this for probably at least a decade more. This is better done well, even if it means delays. That doesn’t mean that some things that are finished cannot be shown to the customers that are eager to throw their $$ at this module. Usually before EA we get to see some tutorial vids: Start up procedure, about the weapons, navigation, etc. like was done recently with the Mi-24. We have not seen any like this for the Mosquito.

Announced a couple of days ago, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) will upgrade Sri Lanka’s Kfirs. This will give them generation 4+ level of radar and avionics and extend their service by another 15 years. This means that the Kfir will reach 60 years of service, which started in 1976 in the Israeli air force. https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/50649

So 60lbs and 25 lbs rockets. Awesome! I wonder if DCS models ships underwater, and if so can the 25 lbs rockets deliver hits below the water line. - 500Lb MC Short Tailed Type Bomb I suppose that one if for the mossie

That is a good idea Now if only I was able to figure out how to get this ringtone into this iphone I got from work…

Hi @BIGNEWY, I know we sometimes nag, but this is because we are biting our nails. You see, some of us… well at least one of us, has quit other games and picked up DCS just because the Mossie was announced. In the mean time we bought other modules, terrains and assets, that we do enjoy, but the main attraction is still the Mosquito module. Throw us a bone while we wait from one Friday news post to the next. Something to scratch the itch a little - we know so little about this module that is supposedly near EA state. - does it have navigator AI like Petrovic or Jester? - with multicrew, what can the navigator operate? Does he have navigation aids, like maps, rullers, or is he supposed to navigate on F10? - Does the HF radio do anything? - is Gee modeled? If so, how does it operate in the sim? - is it modeled with Merlin 25s? - how do we operate the dual engines throttles (can they be operated with one throttle axis? - can we fire Very flares? - what weapons are planned? 60 lbs, 25 lbs rockets? Underwing rails or the 2x2 tree? - cannons ammo load? 150, 180, 220 RPG? So many things that the devs can throw our way to prepare us and to build the hype.

Still waiting, so here is another story: The last Hurra! or LW: Close encounters of the turd kind April 21st 1945. The war in Europe is just 2 weeks towards its end. Though the final date still unknown to the men of KG26, it was clear to them that the end is near. KG26 has fought through the entire war, on all fronts, mostly flying Ju-88s and specializing in anti-shipping. A truly impressive record. Towards the end of the war, only 2 of the 3 staffels remained: II/KG26 & III/KG26 based near Stavanger Norway. Being an anti-shipping specialists has made them the enemies of RAF Coastal Command which they have faced before over the north sea and the Bay of Biscay. In particular the Banff strike wing that has been operating Beaufighters and Mosquitoes against shipping in Norway since September 1944 has been a threat to them. With no hope of turning the war around, KG26 has planned a last ambitious raid on the British isle. This was to be their “last Hurra!”, before the inevitable surrender. 9 Ju-88A-17 of 6./KG26-II and 9 Ju-188A-3 of 7./KG26-III, each carrying two torpedoes took off around 18:00 hour and headed west towards Scotland at low altitude over the North Sea. The weather was awful with rain and bad visibility at low altitude. The group was to make landfall at Peterhead, then split, half the force would head northward to the Orkneys (Scapa Flow) and the other 9 would sweep for coastal shipping down the Firth of Forth. While still far over the north sea, about 150 miles east of the Scottish coast, the crews of KG26 spotted through the rain and mist planes to the north of them. These planes seemed to also be flying westward on a converging coarse. That was odd - who else is flying from Norway to Scotland? And what are the chances of crossing paths so far into the vast empty stretches of the north sea, and with such short visibility range?! The dots grew bigger. There were 41 of them, slightly higher and clearly faster. The dots turned to silhouettes and now took the appearance of twin-engined aircrafts… the cries “SCHEISSE” simultaneously from 18 crews must have been heard all the way back at Stavanger - these were mosquitoes, Ju-88’s nemesis. 41 of them… Earlier that day, 42 Mosquitos FB.VI (16 from 143, 11 from 235, 11 from 248 & 4 from 333 squadrons) of the Banff strike wing went out to attack ships in the Kattegat area that were spotted by FB.VI scouts from 333 squadron. The mosquito force was escorted by 24 Mustangs. Due to bad weather - rain and complete overcast, the strike force failed to locate the ships or find other targets of opportunity and unhappily turned to return home. Unlike the usual case where the Mosquitoes would return low on ammo and fuel and escorting damaged planes, this time they were returning with full ammo loads, no stragglers, and in formation - to the coming misfortune of the Ju-88s. At 19:50 hour, while RTB the leader of the Mustangs sought permission to press ahead as they had a big party planned tonight at Peterhead, their home base. The Mustangs peeled off and disappeared into the mist, not knowing that they were about to miss an even bigger party. At 20:30 hour, flying at 600 feet under the cloud base and poor visibility the Mosquito force suddenly spotted 18 aircrafts flying in six vics of 3 ships each at 200 feet over the water. It took a few seconds for the 82 astonished Mosquito crew members to wink their 164 eyes several times in disbelief before shouts of "JUNKERS!" filled the radio. What followed can only be described as “feeding frenzy”. Mosquitoes were crossing in front of each other racing to what may be their last opportunity to get an aerial kill in the war. Sq. leader Alec Gunnis recorded that the sea was ablaze with aircraft: "Five times I had a Ju in my sights and each time another Mosquito crew mixed in and shot it down before I could draw a bead". Leader of the strike force, Air Chief Marshal Foxly-Norris recalled: "Mosquitoes were pushing and shoving like housewives in a bread queue to get at their unfortunate targets". Flight Lieutenant Walley Webster: "Hit one in the starboard engine - caught fire and dived into the sea. Lined up a second, but the guns would not fire - fired off the rockets, but missed!" 9 of the Ju-88s were shot down into the north sea. Amazingly, the wild melee, the bad weather, and the fading daylight enabled 9 Ju-88s to escape (some heavily damaged) and make it back to Stavanger. No mosquitoes were seriously damaged. The Search & Rescue Warwick that escorted the strike force and was following 10 miles behind them called up on the radio and reported: "I say boys, an 88 has just passed me at 50 feet with the gates (throttle) wide open, going like hell for home!". This caused quite a laugh. Only 41 Mosquitoes took part in the melee. The missing one had become separated from the group on their way to Norway, over Denmark. He instead found a staff car with a swastika painted on it and strafed the hell out of it before turning for home - another unlucky German. At Coastal Command HQ Commander-in-Chief Sholto Douglas enjoyed himself by telephoning Fighter Command 13 Group (the escorting Mustangs) and offering fighter escort to their Mustangs when and if required. This would prove to be the last WWII aerial kills of the Banff strike wing, or any other UK-based fighter. What was supposed to be the "last Hurra!" of KG26 has become a glorious last victory to the Banff strike wing. The wing would continue their daily patrols and anti-shipping raids till the last day of the war, and even slightly after in fear of Kriegsmarine vessels that were not informed of the surrender or that refuse to comply. Sources: "A Separate Little War" by Andrew D Bird "Mosquito" by Sharp & Bowyer Since I don't have any picture from this raid, here is how a Ju88 looks like through the eyes of a Mosquito. This is NF.II over the bay of Biscay. A Ju-88 can really resemble a Mosquito from certain angles... The date 11-6-43 Means that FB.VI model just started entering service a couple of weeks before, and would soon replace NF.II in daylight and Intruder operations. 25 Squadron operated a mix of AI carrying night fighters and FB.VIs.

DEAR LORD - IT IS RIGHT ON THE EDGE OF THE TABLE! Save it! Save it!

That would be very fitting

RAZBAM has about 5 modules that they are supposedly developing - Super Tucano, Mig23, F-15E, Electric Lightning, Mirage III, maybe more that I can’t remember. There is also some map they develop. Of those above, the Mirage III had practically no mention in their forum section in the last year. I don’t follow reddit or discord, so I have no idea if they posted anything there. To me it seems that the Mirage III has been abandoned.

Took my P47 for a spin on the SoW server. I was crossing the channel and coming up to to the Normandy area at 30 kft looking to rendezvous with the bombers stream and admiring the new clouds system - but what I really wanted was to be down low, the wind in my hair and my trusty navigator/beer-tender at my side (and slightly back so this cockney does not get any ideas that he’s my equal), jolly hedge-hopping with my Mosquito on a day- ranger mission, or a low alt surprise attack on one of the mission objectives. Oh well, at least I can enjoy my Jug while waiting. Between the cowl flaps, intercooler, airflow doors, throttle, RPM and boost fiddling I managed to kill my engine. Then proceeded to glide half the width of the channel towards a belly landing on the beach, but fell short by 30 meters… turns out 7 tons of freedom do not float. At all. One day passed, one day closer to the Mosquito release.

In 1973 Yom Kipur war most of the IAF kills were still gun kills. The table above says more about USAF tactics than about the weapon systems. AIM7 was still unreliable and highly susceptible to even primitive EW (more relevant to 1982 Lebanon war). The IAF still absolutely believed in the gun as a must-have in a fighter. By 1982 the missiles were making most of the kills, but still a non negligible fraction was gun kills (I don’t have the numbers off the top of my head).

The issue was with the slow response of the pneumatic differential breaks and also the tail wheel was not lockable. These, combined with a relatively small rudder and lots of torque made ground handling dicy at fast taxiing and transition speeds at takeoff/landing.

I’ll buy the F-1. If you make Mirage III I’ll buy 2. 3 if it affects the release date

F-4E most definitely. We need more 60-70s planes to supplement the F-5 and having a plane in that era without a gun is just silly. F-4E fits the largest variety of scenarios. F-4E represents the phantom at it’s peak as the major fighter/fighter-bomber of airforces around the world, while the latest “greatest” variants represent an aging platform past its prime that had a minor face-lift in order to still be able to play second fiddle to the F-teen series. After the E, some navy variant to operate it from a deck. I am willing to pay extra for both.

What we have is not fury - just simple disappointment. I have waited a few decades for a Mosquito sim, I can wait a little longer. While being disappointed.

I know. Mosquito airframes don’t survive the years so well. They were never meant to. It is just so difficult to imagine a time when these still-good airframes were just junk surplus and easy to obtain in the market. It happened to so many planes after the war. It amazes me for example that there are no Beaufighters that are air worthy. Not even taxi capable AFAIK. After WWII people were just worried about other things than preserving this heritage. The Americans were a little better at it, the Brits not so much, Israelis even worse (post WWII of course). Old jets are at an even worse state, being much more difficult to maintain by private enterprises. It pains me to no end to see Mirage III and Kfirs, lifeless and rotting on displays, like stuffed animals. The skies were full of these beautiful arrow shapes when I was a child, now gone the way of the Dodo. The Israeli Air Force was for a brief few year immediately after its creation almost an all Mosquito airforce. None remain, not even on display, and of the younger population, non but the most die-hard aviation enthusiasts even know about it.

The difference is that the Mosquito is a day-1-must-buy for me, and the Longbow is a very low chance of buying even in the distant future. Attack helicopters are not my cup of tea, not at all, so the Hind also generates zero hype for me. I am pretty sure that a much larger number of DCS paying customers will say the exact opposite though.

Not only that, they actually destroyed at least one real mosquito for the filming. Oh the horror!!

I don’t know exactly, but I believe that FB.VI was intended to use Merlin 25s from the start and it was simply an issue with their availability around May 1943, when FB.VIs started operations. I may be wrong though. There was a pressure to deliver FB.VIs ASAP, so to avoid delays, the first few batches used the Merlin 23s, and then switched to 25s. Since this change was only a minor effort, some of those with Merlin 23s were likely converted to 25s on the field some time later - since this would be done at the unit level and not through an order from above / de Havilland, it is difficult to find a source for this. By June 1944 and till the end, practically all operational FB.VIs were equipped with the 25s, so this is what we should get.

That is an interesting possibility! Not entirely implausible, and a good idea if they really do design the 3D model components to be modular this way.

@Kirk66 thanks, I didn’t know that OV-10 had this stick configuration. Are you aware of other US planes that have this?

First, you may want to look for the more “recent” print (2nd ed.) The cover looks like this: https://www.amazon.com/Terror-Starboard-Seat-David-McIntosh/dp/0773730893/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=terror+in+the+starboard+seat&qid=1621488682&sr=8-1 Don't buy this from Amazon. Look for smaller shops that still have new copies of the above edition. You can get it at half the price. Yes, it’s a pretty rare book.

I don’t understand what is this electrical ammo priming? AFAIK the synchronization prevents the guns from firing at certain prop positions, otherwise the gun is firing at its max rate. If it occasionally delays a discharge the gun can never fire at its maximum rate.

The allied planes suffer from convergence that is set too far out for air combat. For air combat the effective ranges are 200-300 yards, while the wing mounted guns seem to converge much father out, maybe 1000 yards. The latter is fine for ground strafing but makes 200-300 yards shot much less effective since your right-wing guns and left-wing guns hit wide apart, especially in the P47 due to the distance between its right and left guns. The above does not explain the lethality of the MG131s. They are in the nose, but still only 2 of them and they lose ROF to the synchronization with the prop. I wait for the Mosquito 4 hispanos + 4 303s all nose mounted and no prop in the way to slow them down...

Another Friday news and no mention of the Mosquito. I am not expecting much, but a word of the time scale to EA release, or something about what is being developed, or maybe what is left to be done - just to give is a feeling of progress and something to look forward to would have been nice.