Doc3908

Ka-50 Landing on "Moscow" and "Kuznetsov" in a Thunderstorm

The Tomcat is definitely more challenging to land on the boat (at least for me) than the F-18. I'm at the point where I'm consistently getting "OK" or "(OK") with errors tacked to the description, but I have yet to receive an "_OK_" like I frequently get in the Hornet.

Sorry guys, my bad. I played again today, and the prop arc is definitely visible (faintly) in outside views. I still can't see it from within the cockpit, but perhaps it's supposed to be this way. Could be VR (I'm using Rift S) or the rendering settings. For some reason I seem to remember seeing the prop arc from inside in 2.5.5 (stable), but it could be my imagination. Again, sorry for "raising the alarm" unnecessarily. :)

I'm having a similar comm problem in the F-14, but only on the second approach. I'm flying the instant action mission with easy-comm enabled. On the first recovery everything works great. I land then take off again and call "Inbound". I am told to call "See you at 10", which I do almost immediately. Then I'm told to switch to tower, and the towers tells me "You signal is Charlie". I fly the rest of the approach, and when lined up on final, open the comm menu to call the ball, but the menu option is missing. The only option is "See you at 10". The LSO still talks to me, though, and grades my landing.

I recently switched to 2.5.6 from stable and today was the first time I flew the Bf109 in open beta. The prop arc is not visible at any rpm. The prop becomes visible only after you land and shut down the engine (last few revolutions). Will record a video and post tomorrow. Doc

Thank you so much, Redkite!!

Here's the video of my goofing around...

Practicing my Case 1 Recovery in the F-18: Flew the pattern, landed, took off and landed again. The LSO was very kind. :)

I think you are absolutely correct - the only thing that matters is how you fly after you call the ball. Just for the heck of it, I tried goofing around tonight: Flew inverted on the upwind and downwind legs, and only dirtied up on the base turn. I still got an "OK" pass - probably would have gotten an "_OK_" if I didn't make mistakes after I called the ball. Took off and flew the downwind way out - probably over 2 miles away from the boat. Made a VERY WIDE base turn, lined up and called the ball. Flew the rest of the approach more or less ok. Got another "OK" from the LSO... I'll keep messing with it to see what else I can get away with. :) Of course, what I really need to do is practice proper Case 1 procedures... The other thing that bugs me is that I can't go down in the hangar deck. I flew around the boat in the Harrier hoping I can get into the lower deck through the side openings, but they are all blocked. Bummer! :)

I just don't get it. Sometimes I fly what I think is a perfect pass - exactly by the numbers - and I get "---" or "(OK)". Sometimes I know I'm flying a bad approach, yet paddles gives me a perfect pass. Here's a video from the standard Case I mission: I did a horrible approach, but paddles gave me "_OK_ Wire#3". Then I took off, went around and did another trap - slightly better, but still lots of mistakes. And the LSO gives me another "_OK_ Wire #3". Here's the video:

:thumbup:

I agree. I just upgraded to 2.5.6 - just for supercarrier. I know I'm in the minority, but I really don't like open beta!! I thought about going back to stable (2.5.5), but... supercarrier is nice. And who knows how long it will be before the mod gets ported to stable (Thankgiving??? Christmas? Next year??)

Curious: The LSO gave me an "_OK_ Wire #4" tonight. I thought wire 4 is "---" at best...

MiG21 vs. F4E Had some fun in the MiG21 over Nevada yesterday. Hope you enjoy it. And I certainly appreciate constructive criticism (the keyword being "constructive")...

Let me say first that I'm a casual DCS player. I very much enjoy the simulation, but don't have time to read the manual through and through. So, while I've been flying the Tomcat for several months now, I have never had to deal with single-engine approaches. Today, in the middle of a furball, I got an R-73 going off close by on the right side. The right engine died, but my wingman dispatched the bandit and saved my bacon. I limped back to the boat on one engine and started finding other things that have gone wrong: First, the airbrake was dead, so I had to circle around a bunch of times to loose altitude. Then the hook won't come down, but I new how to deploy it in an emergency. Lined up, then the gear won't come down. Did the emergency deployment and it came down and locked. Then I realized the wings won't move - stuck halfway between all-the-way-forward and all-the-way-back.... Ok, now I'm lined up, coming in a little high on one engine, doing about 145-148kts. But the plane is rolling clockwise and yawing to the right. And I'm loosing altitude. I push the throttle forward, and the plane yaws more severely. So, I climb a little, then reduce the throttle and level off again, but start loosing altitude again. I kept doing this dance almost all the way to the deck. It wasn't pretty. In the last few seconds I came in a little high, then rolled level and tried to keep the AoA as best as I could. Somehow managed to get the 2-wire and rolled right down the centerline. I didn't get scared until after the plane had stopped. :) Tried to fold the wings again - nope, still stuck. The nosewheel steering was dead too, so I had to just sit there and ask for repair... :) End of the mission. Now I'm gonna go and read up the single-engine approach section of the manual. My landing purely instinctive - more luck than skill. I'm sure there is a detailed procedure for single engine approach that must be followed in situations like this. Curious what experiences with single-engine approaches others may have had...

One thing that kinda bugs me a little bit is the feeling that when I'm on the ground, inside the cockpit, most DCS planes feel like they are about the same height above the tarmac. I don't have any real life experience (other than Cessna 172 and Piper Warrior), but I'm guessing that the cockpit of a Su-27 or an F-15 should probably be a lot higher above the ground than that of an F5. Some planes, like the MiG-15 feel "right". Others feel kinda weird. Again, this is just a personal feeling not backed by real life experiences. Just curious if anyone else shares the same feeling... Doc

Title says it all. The Bf-109 is AI controlled with the AI set to excellent. Enjoy.

That's true. And yes, it's frustrating...

Congrats, Diesel! I've been flying the F-18 for a couple of months now and still can't trap the 3-wire consistently. My real problem is pitching deck in rough seas. When the sea is calm, trapping the 3rd or 2nd wire is usually not that hard. But when the seas are rough, I always end up overcompensating and either bolter or catch the 1-wire. Practice, practice, practice... :) Happy flying!

Hi everyone, Just wanted to share some first impressions of flying the Ka-50. I'm fairly new to DCS - started back in January, but since then I've picked up multiple modules including the Huey and the Mi-8. The UH-1 had a bit of a learning curve, but I quickly got comfortable with it. I hated the Mi-8 until I realized it has two throttles - I'd been trying to fly it on a single engine... :P. Now, it's my favorite heli! The Ka-50 wasn't on my radar at all until now, but with the free trial period, I decided to give it a shot. And I'm glad I did. First, it's a very different creature compared the Huey or the Mi-8. It feels less like a heli and more like a fixed wing airplane. It is certainly a lot more aerobatic and maneuverable than the Mi-8. It's also a lot more forgiving and, when I'm not horsing around, the Ka-50 feels a lot more stable. Perhaps it's my prior experience with the other heli mods, but I quickly felt very comfortable in the Ka-50. Had to go through the manual to figure out how to use the weapon systems, but with a bit of practice, it's easy to lock and destroy targets. By comparison, I still find the Mi-8 very challenging in combat - not only because it's difficult for me to employ its weapon systems accurately but also because a couple of hits from some guy with an AK47, and the Mi-8 is ready to go down. So, overall, the Ka-50 is growing on me. It's an interesting mod, worth purchasing and learning. In fact, I'd probably recommend the Ka-50 as a first step to someone with no heli experience over the Mi-8 or even the Huey (though both are a ton of fun!).

The MiG-15 was one of the first mods I got a few months ago, and I've flown it on and off. I found it hard to fly and particularly had to aim and shoot. So, I put it away ... until now. Having picked up the Sabre in the recent sale, I got my fill of it (for now) and decided to give the Mig another try. There's an instant action dogfight mission in the Nevada batch - two Mig-15s against two Sabres. Merged with the Sabres, pulled up and over, and came down on one of the Sabres and blew it out of the sky. Up again, down.... and the second Sabre was gone. All this time, I had been trying to turn with the F86s, playing their game in the horizontal plane instead of using the vertical. So, I just re-tried the Recon mission in the Black Sea missions set - two MiG-15s vs. three AI-controlled F-86s. This mission had been giving me such a hard time - could never get it completed. The default mission has the F86 AI set to random. This time I edited it set and set all three AI F86s to excellent. My stupid wingman got shot down in the first 30 seconds. So, now I'm up against three Sabres by my lonesome. Guess what - got all three of them. Yes, they are AI, not people, but for me this was an accomplishment - first time I got all three Sabres by myself (excellent AI at that). I need to get some more practice before I'm ready to go up against human opponents, but now that I'm learning how to fly the MiG correctly, it's quickly becoming one of my favorite DCS mods.

Just a quick comment: The I-16 is not a WWI airplane: It's a 1930s-40s bird and was widely used by the Russians in the opening years of WWII. It is also very different from all the other modules and very much fun to fly. You will be surprised how well it holds its own against the other WWII mods. It's slower than most, but if the other guy tries to turn with you, he's in for a nasty surprise. And, at close range, the firepower of the I-16 is stupendous. If you like a challenge and enjoy WWII dogfights, the I-16 is definitely worth considering. Cheers! Doc

Sunset flight over Batumi bay.

That was it! Thank you so much!!!

Hi, I'm new to the F86 - just picked it up a couple of days ago. I've been very frustrated by the following problem: In any air start (i.e. if I don't take off from a runway) the landing gear drops down automatically and then I can't bring it back up. At first I though it had something to do with the LG key binding on the HOTAS, but I disabled it - the gear handle now has to be clicked on from inside the cockpit. Even then, the problem persists - every time I start a new mission already in the air (e.g. instant action), the LG deploys before I can react and then it doesn't wanna come back up. Any suggestions for how to solve this problem? Thank you very much in advance! Doc