Bozon

I don’t know what you mean by trackAI. AITrack can be found here: https://github.com/AIRLegend/aitrack It is a face tracker that broadcasts the solution on the local network so various software can use it. You can even use your phone camera if your phone’s wifi is connected to the same local net as the computer. The current iteration of it works very well, except I find that beards give it trouble. It handles glasses perfectly. I read mixed reviews of it, but they were based on older versions. Opentrack also has a built in NeuralNet face tracker. It works, but true to December 2023 the AITrack is superior on a shaved face. I only ran a quick comparison so this is not the final word and may change with future updates to both - so try both!

I now run OpenTrack with AITrack (separate software) as the tracker. It works way better than the Dalen clip I used before. AITrack is a face tracker, so I can use my regular webcam. Far better than anything I tried before. Works while wearing glasses and headphones. So much more convenient than a clip. The only caveats are: 1. You can’t have other people’s faces in the frame. 2. It seems to have difficulties with beards, so when I did not shave for a week it was unstable. Looks like it had problems deciding where my face ended (the chin) .

I can’t find the thread where this was discussed, but what my fading memory tells me is that the Mosquito used the same remote indicating compass as the RAF bombers, whose sensing part was a pretty bulky gimbaled unit. I remember something about the mosquito ground sitting angle being over the gimbal limit by a hair. Now this is pure conjecture - since it was made for big fat bombers, the gimbal limits may have been quite tight, which is fine for the bombers. Maybe we could ask the ground crew to lift the tail by a few inches so we could get RI reading on the ground?

Don’t use the P8 compass, it is intended as a backup. The RI is the main magnetic compass. It too is a bit tricky because the needle is hight above the plate so perspective changes the readings - either move your head to look straight at it (still easier than the P8) or use the rotating arrow, and bring the needle parallel to it (correct from any viewing perspective).

Ahh the 60s and 70s… when you could pollute like a steam locomotive and take pride in it

Normally I am happy if I can hold course within +-5 degrees…

Any landing you walk away from is a good landing. If the plane will fly again then it’s a great landing!

I didn’t try VR Mossie in other sims, let alone the real thing, but the Mosquito cockpit really was small for a tandem seats arrangement - for example, the pilot should have no difficulty reaching the switches on the right side panel. Unlike regular tandem, there are no instruments and controls between the seats, and the seats are slightly staggered so the navigator’s left shoulder could be behind the pilot’s right and thus squeeze them together a bit more.

A wrong model 109 while wearing FAA colours.

Don’t forget that this is summer in Normandy - it is not completely dark even at midnight. Most “night” missions would have been at “dusk” light conditions.

For a twin engine plane the Mosquito was actually considered as easy to fly on one engine. When not heavily loaded it had enough excess power to climb and do aerobatics as in the famous demonstration flight by de Havilland. As you mentioned the difficulties were with the landing and takeoff. @Skewgear post has all the important operational tips. My thumb rules: 1. Feather the dead engine, or look for a place to crash land. You cannot maintain flight with a prop acting as a speed brake. 2. Keep the speed above 170 mph - you can go a little slower, but it gets very tricky, so don’t. At 170+ you can open up with the good engine without losing control. 3. If you dropped to 150 mph you will not recover - reduce power and go for deadstick crash landing. 4. All the above mean that if you made it to a runway, come at 170 mph with a little excess altitude, lose altitude to keep 170 while the undercarriage lowers, and on final commit to a power-off landing. Extend flaps as airbrakes to steepen your glide angle while maintaining airspeed - It is best to come glider-style, i.e., fast & steep with a lot of drag extended so you can aim well at the flare point, and don’t float all the way past the runway.

If I read the above from @razo+r correctly, it means basically to set +7 boot, lean/weak mixture, lower turbo gear (if possible to maintain +7), and adjust RPM to “lowest practicable r.p.m”. What does the latter mean? Set +7 boost, then reduce RPM until I can no longer hold +7 boost? At moderate altitudes I expect this would mean full throttle forward and some very reduced RPM - will this not kill the engine in DCS? I currently never reduce the RPM below 2650 because every time I do the engine dies in a few minutes.

Thanks for the info @_BringTheReign_ and @Stackup. I was under the impression that the Navy Phantom was next in line. Too bad, I mean I am happy they went with the E first, but I do want a navy phantom too… in less than a decade away. Unfortunately I have 0 interested in the Eurofighter. The A-6 may be something to wait for.

The navy version will probably take over a year after the F-4E release.

Ahh that mustache has its own lift coefficient! Women today are much more liberated. They are fully capable of growing a mustache. Gone are the days when the patriarchy prevented them from flaunting full handlebars.

That put a big stupid grin all over my face Go Heatblur!

The Israelis did not test the defected Mig-23 against their F-4E directly AFAIK. The flights were against their F-16A and maybe also F-15A, I don’t remember. They were unimpressed by the Mig-23 capabilities except the acceleration which was excellent. The cockpit visibility was entirely unsuited for dogfighting. They concluded it was not really a match to F-16A or F-15A, but more in the league of the Phantom and Kfir.

I think this is the same content, or very similar: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/1980s-israel-developed-heavy-hammer-f-4-super-phantom-what-happened-44702

Well, it is hard and heavy - if it hits someone on the head it can cause serious trauma.

Mosquito wings come off pretty easily. Maybe too easily, but the exact value is not the root of the issue. The real issue is that the Mosquito modeling does not convey any feel or feedback to G load or any airframe stress for that matter. The purpose of the elevator counter weight was to add force-feedback to G load (plus some oscillations damping) to the pilot’s hand - we can’t feel that. There are little to no sound cues, no noticeable increasing vibrations - unless you look behind at your wingtip vortices trail you have no clue that you are pulling G at all. These feedbacks need to be enhanced - even slightly exaggerated, to compensate for the fact that our actual stick is connected to a simple spring, and our ass is seated in a stable chair at exactly 1G no matter how hard we pull on the stick. Only then it will matter if the wings come off at 4.9 or 5.5 G.

This is why we need to be able to plot and edit waypoints and routes on-the-fly from F10 map. Then your AI navigator can act and react relative to this route as in Reflected’s scripts. Currently on MP servers I have to make pen&paper notes of the route that I plan on the ground before takeoff. For low level navigation this is crucial, especially without an AI “hold straight & level” pilot so I can only mess with F10 for a few seconds before jumping back to “pilot” to correct flight attitude.

At some point, de Havilland made a modification that allowed a regulated continuous transfer of fuel from the DT to the outer wing tanks without venting fuel. There is a comment about this in the pilot notes. DCS FB.VI is modeled without this modification, so once the outer tanks are full, excess fuel that is pushed into these tanks will be vented.

@Terry Dactil thanks! Now I have to try Voice Attack - talking to my navigator seems like fun and immersive. So, do you have to alt+tab to switch profiles in VA when I choose a different plane in DCS, or can I also set a voice command to select a profile? E.g., “Switch profile Mosquito” (sorry for going a little off topic here)

Unfortunately that’s part of my startup procedure, drop tanks release cover too when I carry them. I don’t know what is the big issue with adding flares to the Mossie like the 109 has. It is not like this requires difficult crew animations - there is no crew!

The best book I found about the Banff Strike wing is: "A Separate Little War" by Andrew Bird. A very interesting chronological description of all their operations since they formed in September 1944 to VE day. In my old thread about "Less famous Mosquito Stories", the 1st one was about the wild "Boxing Day Raid" on Leirvik, based mostly on the above mentioned book: