StrongHarm

Check out the training ingame @ Training > A-10C > Aircraft Operation > Landing. Reading the manual (or atleast parts of it) concerning instrumentation and HUD symbology. It's a good pre-req for the training. Have fun!

Not sure if this is the problem causing your CTDs, but it was a work around that allowed me to finish the campaign: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=2215065&highlight=Army#post2215065

Yes! That's a lot learned in a short period of time. If you don't mind a suggestion for philosophical shift (not criticism); if you want to get the most from DCS, consider looking at it from a different angle than other games. It's called a 'Study Sim' because the intended audience are those who are interested in the fine details of the bird (although, there is a 'game mode' for others). There's a reason there aren't Steam Achievements in DCS A-10C. The competition isn't with other people to become proficient on a certain timeline with milestones, the task isn't 'how quick', but rather 'how well' you understand the bird. Click learning this product is an option, but you're looking at about a 6 month learning curve to learn 50% of the bird. The better option, in my opinion, provides 80% in 3months: Read the Manual (find the self discipline to do this.. you'll be SO glad you did) Go through the training tasks to make the manual 'click' Familiarization Operation Combat [*]Use manual as reference as you perform repeated practical training to close the gaps in your understanding of each subsystem [*]View training videos from the community My favorites are from Gerry Abbott, but that might be because I dig his accent :) [*]Search the forums (or ask questions) to close the gaps in advanced understanding [*]Join a squadron [*]Make your own missions tailored to your ongoing training and proficiency. Here are my personal missions for ongoing training: Live Fire Exercise Tank Busting 101 I believe that the philosophical shift from 'leveling' to 'learning' will increase your enjoyment of this product exponentially. However, at the end of the day you get out of it what you put into it.. and it's a matter of personal preference. Perhaps your level of interest and commitment are different than mine. Enjoy the bird, and welcome to the community!

If you trim rudder to maintain a funnel or sideslip for evasion purposes, having to hold the rudder pedals steady for a long period of time becomes more than a drawback. I compensate by using the (RCTRL+ENTER) Trim Overlay. If my rudder pedals are out of center after trim, I can clearly see it on the indicator. But again, I think it's nice to have the option available to turn it off for those who don't rely on rudder trim.

I too like that this option is available. ED does a pretty good job of restraining their artistic license and keeping things realistic, while still providing us with useful but non-intrusive deviations. I won't be using the option personally though. My procedures prevent me from ever being a stationary target, so I'll usually trim into a 50kph side slip or funnel while I engage targets. It's difficult to set up this flight profile properly at first, and takes serious SA of terrain, but it's extremely effective for evading fire. After you get your muscle memory used to trimming this profile, it takes seconds. Seems to take tank round probability of hit down below 10%.. and ATMs to 0. Anyone else use this method?

It's my understanding that it depends on threat vector, wind, terrain, previous sortie IPs, and clear view of the target. Really, between IP and target, you need to have as little threat as possible so you can concentrate on delivering your ordinance, and you need enough time to set up the drop. Me personally, I like my IP to be 10-15nm from drop at a 45-90deg angle from target. This way I can get a clean visual while not flying directly at the target (makes you a harder target). That's high alt. Low alt NOE I like my IP to be 5nm with good terrain mask. These are just personal preferences. I'm sure there's a bunch of people more knowledgeable on procedure that can give you better answers.

Initial Points are inserted using an icon on the left bar under OBJ that looks like a circle with a broken horizontal line through it. You can get more information from the DCS User Manual page 206.

From an interview with Producer Matt (Wags) Wagner:

From an old post:

As stated previously in the thread, the Warthog's sensors are decades ahead of the Blacksharks. Where Blackshark demands a lot of skill, Warthog demands knowledge and procedure. The airframe is much easier to learn and control, but the weapons and sensors are orders of magnitude deeper. If I had to rate these birds (1-10) on difficulty of flight control and investment in learning sensors I'd give them: Blackshark: Flight Control - 8 Sensors - 3 Warthog: Flight Control - 3 Sensors - 6

Oh, I forgot to add.. RTFM.

Yurgon, my best guess is that there's two reasons: One, the earth isn't actually round, it's ellipsoidal. Two, check out Universal Polar Stereographic(UPS) which changes the lettering at the poles. Here's an excerpt: The lettering scheme for 100,000 m squares is slightly different in the polar regions. The row letters go from A to Z, omitting I and O. The column letters use a more restricted alphabet, going from A to Z but omitting I, O, D, E, M, N, V, W; the columns are arranged so that the rightmost column in grid zone A and Y has column letter Z, and the next column in grid zone B or Z starts over with column letter A. The restricted column alphabet for UPS ensures that no UPS square will be adjacent to a UTM square with the same identification. Of course it's dry reading.. did you expect they'd throw in some geospatial humor? :)

Attached is a paper that should give you a complete understanding of UTM and MGRS if you're interested. MGRS.pdf

That's a matter of taste really Blooze. I myself have endeavored to never be a burden to any man... maybe it's my military background. Sure, I've learned a lot from other people, but by the time I was flying with other people I had completed subsystem familiarization to the point where I didn't have to say 'wait, what's a TVV again?' while talking to them. I didn't mind getting method and procedure from people, but I didn't want to ask anyone to teach the airframe to me. For me it went like this: - Read full manual before first flight - Subsystem familiarization and ramp start procedures - Free flights with nav system familiarization - ED SP Mission 'Weapons Training' several times for weapons familiarization - Fully read the Manual again - More 'Weapons Training' - MP interaction and joined a squad - Build missions that further close gaps in my personal training - Use manual as reference and sometimes read it all the way through again simply because it rocks I don't begrudge you trying to learn from others instead of taking the task into your own hands. I've answer many questions in TS and hold no disdain for those people.. well except for a guy who came into one of my servers and said 'Read the manual?.. you need to get a life if you read that thing.. I can figure this out myself, it's easy.. hey why engine switch not start engine?!' BANHAMMER!

Can I give more than one? - RTFM - Make sure INS is fully aligned on the ground before you move the bird and before you switch from Ground to NAV (T = 4.0) - Activate Bullseye display on HUD (CDU: wpt>anchor>hud on) - Try not to stay heads down in sensors.. keep eyes out canopy as much as possible.. fully utilize the MK1 eyeball - After first attack, switch to Z mark and slave TGP to waypoint (easy way to help situational awareness +distance/direction) - RTFM - Learn to use fully utilize TAD - Learn to set SPI to TAD cursor - When low altitude, scope out multiple egress points with terrain mask before ingress - Use coolie down/long for quick DSMS look instead of switching pages - Give Maverick a stable platform (I like to set AP.Path while down pitch and throttles back a bit to keep speed) - Don't be afraid to wave off for another pass if it doesn't look pretty - Never get shot down with chaff and flares still in the pod - Also, don't forget to RTFM Additional missions for training and practice: Tank Busting 101 Live Fire Exercise HOTAS Reference: Spreadsheet here

Do a search for RTFM.

RTFM is not optional but required if you want to have any level of competence with this airframe. If you want just enough skill to watch the pretty esplosions.. then never mind the manual.. watch a few vids then get up there and release some ordinance, then move on to your next game. Thank you for contributing R&D/Dev funds to create the next ED studysim for those of us who get to experience the real wonder of precision and power. As for me, I eat the info from the manual with ravenous glee.. over and over. I feel sorry for people who don't have the self discipline to do the same, but I'm glad they're there to help fund ED. Go ED go! I'll take an Apache with a side of Kiowa please!

Hey Grimes. It was 30m south of the east edge of the railroad bridge in MM53. No, I didn't try to reproduce it. This is in a mission I've been building and I've only seen it happen once (out of maybe 50 flights), so I assume that it would be very difficult to reproduce. One other item of note: I hit this group of BMPs with a 105 just before one of the BMPs went under the terrain. The others were destroyed. The reason I propose a solution is because if a client is flying the mission and map objects are turned off, and their objective is to clear the trigger zone, they may assume that there's still a vehicle to be found but will look forever and not find it. Rare situation, but the mother of all frustrations.

The two new helos aren't attack choppers. I would highly recommend BS2.. it may have horribly outdated avionics, but there's nothing quite like it. Mastering this bird is an achievement that provides more reward than I can convey. Resolve in the beginning not to get discouraged when it gets tough.. keep at it and the pay off is enormous.

I agree Flagrum, but the 'terrain status predicate' provides a work around to mission creators in the case that all the terrain problems aren't caught. The better work around would be for core DCS to detect units below terrain and move them back where they were last in an 'above terrain status'.. but that might be a bigger fix that creates too much overhead, I'm not sure.

Give these missions a try. They have objectives, but they're training missions that guide you through familiarization and refinement of procedures while you blow stuff up. I have the procedures down but still fly them as I think they're fun: http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/1222074/ http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/1222073/

PROBLEM: I created a mission where all forces need to be eliminated from an area. One of the BMPs fell far through the terrain (can tell by the F7 angle) so the mission couldn't be completed. SOLUTION: Create a predicate within the editor that allows a trigger based on the fact that a unit is below the terrain.

What makes this mod worth $490? Do you personally use it? Can you give your impressions?

As Reaper6 said, I now simply switch the laser on to fire, then switch it off immediately after impact. It's now bound to a button on my HOTAS and is part of my normal procedure.

That makes perfect sense Flagrum, thanks. So if I want more precision I install an extension, or deal with compromises inherent to altering my axis setup. The other choice of course, is to surrender to the lack of precision and just learn to fly that way, as many others have stated in this thread. My personal choice has been to deal with the pros and cons of an axis setup that took weeks to perfect, and learn to fly with that. If I had to do it over again I may have leaned toward an extension instead.