rossmum

The R-60 came back specifically because it is no longer all-aspect capable. It was only removed in the first place because red players felt it was unfair to have a weapon that could sometimes make head-on kills (right on the edge of its Rmin) while blue was stuck with 9Ps. The R-60 is an agile missile but has a weak warhead, often taking 2-3 hits to definitively kill something, and a relatively short range. The AIM-9P doesn't turn as well close-in, but reaches out a bit better and will almost always kill or at least cripple an aircraft in a single hit. The solution to the 9P not turning as well is learning not to ripple off your missiles at less than half their minimum range, which is something F-5 pilots do so predictably that deliberately baiting them into wasting their missiles is a common tactic for MiGs in the server. Just like we need to avoid firing R-60s at longer-range targets because they won't catch them, blue pilots need to learn some actual trigger discipline. The 9P is fine when you use it at its intended range, and in the F-5's case, you have two fairly decent guns and an excellent radar gunsight for shots inside that range.

Magnitude R-3S and Razbam R-3S aren't synchronised AFAIK (or at least, they weren't before, not sure about now). The 19's missiles refuse to launch above 2G and frequently fail to track. They're not totally useless, I'd rate them above a GAR-8, but they're hardly fantastic either. Your best bet is catching someone unawares, or slipping in as they're engaged with someone else. Timing is everything.

For reference, the MiG-21 was the first module I flew, and out of ~2000 hours in DCS I think probably a bit over half are in the 21. I adjusted to it before I adjusted to any other modules, so if I hit switches the wrong way it's in the other modules rather than the MiG :D

That would definitely be a really nice feature. I find that some of the day ones can be a bit hard to read, while others are good enough - an analogue dimmer axis would fix that. It affects a bunch of modules but having it in the 21 would really set it apart. As for changing the switch direction... that might be a special options job. I've spent so long in the 21 that I've adjusted to it and any change would seriously screw my muscle memory up, but I definitely see how it can trip up people who fly it less or spend more time in other modules.

It's the ground clutter. At higher altitudes or with the radar off, it won't be an issue (or older drivers). As you stalled the nose probably dipped low enough to fill the scope with clutter.

The M2K does have washout, IIRC.

I glance back and forth if I have to. You develop a feel for the correct stick deflection to ride the edge after a while, but it's not foolproof and I find the less I glance back at the UUA, the more I wobble. It's worth noting though, the 21 was known to not develop a stall buffet at low speeds - it only did so at higher speeds, well beyond where you're likely to be running into problems in DCS. Really, it seems like one of those things you just won't quite get until you're holding the real stick in your hands, with the correct position for trim and such. Without a FFB stick to trim it's really annoying as trim position can throw out your sense of how much you can pull.

I think you've misunderstood him. He was stating that he was unable to pass 15 and that real pilots attest to 20, but Czech syntax and English syntax are a bit different and so the word order appears reversed. e/ reading is hard. Looks like most questions have been answered here so my input beyond the above is not really adding anything.

I've noticed that when I kill player-controlled ground units, either with another CA unit or with an aircraft, they often teleport about 20-50 metres and then catch fire. It's very strange but seems to happen pretty consistently. Just DCS things, I guess. :doh:

Above 800km/h, she shakes violently and sheds parts. Below 800km/h, she stalls out and flicks into spins. At precisely 800km/h she turns like a thing possessed and out-rates F-5s with ease :lol: Apparently there's an FM issue which means speed bleedoff is too rapid with an AoA above 12 degrees, which means that soon it should be a little more forgiving. Definitely a very challenging bird though.

Had an incredible time yesterday, finally figured out how to not be useless in the MiG-19 in Catch Me If You Can and then there was a massive, ~5-6 hour play of Hold The Line. The server was absolutely packed to the gills and didn't empty out until Red finally won, just shy of noon Sydney time. Incredible teamwork from everbody involved and some really unbelievable furballs forming around Blue's middle FARP as both team's GCIs directed fighters to try and get air superiority. It seems more and more people are starting to try out the server, which can only be a good thing! Even some of the guys I usually see in modern jets are turning up regularly.

I actually flew the module for a full year and a half before I found out about it (by being told) :lol: It was like discovering a whole new plane. R-3R as a dogfight missile was hilarious.

Not sure if this is actually a bug, or if the fix was finally implemented. The radar should not be able to enter a locked state in fixed-beam mode. You have to fly it on by keeping the pipper on the target now, as you would need to in a real MiG (albeit one with an RP-21 radar, as the 21bis' RP-22 isn't actually compatible with the Grom at all, but was handwaved to give us more toys to play with). The ability to lock the beam before was not a realistic feature, and could actually be exploited to act as a boresight lock for air-to-air use as well. On a real bis your fixed beam is for slant ranging during A/G attacks.

Wake is only a minor inconvenience to the Cold War birds, unless the 21 now rips from it (I haven't tested). It's stronger than it should be but it's a worse problem in the M2K, which we don't have anymore. Don't feel you have to remove it, Alpen - just brought it up as the topic was mentioned. It doesn't seem to be affected enough, then - the turbulence that comes off a normal-sized fighter (say, a Hornet or 16) is pretty lethal to a similarly sized jet flying at a similar speed, which doesn't quite seem right. I could be wrong on that, though. The reason the Mirage breaks is because the wake turbulence frequently causes it accelerations exceeding 12G.

For what it's worth, in every instance where I saw this happen I would be surprised if the aircraft was less damaged than it looked - we're talking direct missile hits, bursts of cannonfire right down the wing, etc. Perhaps a desync between the actual FM/systems and the DM proper, rather than the visual model? It seems very similar to the issues the MiG-21 used to have with FM not being affected much or at all by evident severe damage (although systems were affected as you would expect). I'll have to keep an eye out for the next time this happens and see if I can get you guys a trackfile, so far it's been several hours into a MP session. It seems to have been less consistent recently (I'm still seeing it, but it feels like it's less often), but it could also be from encountering less Viggens in the servers I frequent.

Over 10. In order to get it to do this, you need to either manually override the ARU, or make a very vicious pull as the ARU is transitioning modes, but speed is still relatively high. The MiG-21bis is rated to 8.5, so you weren't really stressing it at all there.

Wake turbulence seems to have the same intensity regardless of source aircraft size or configuration. It's known to be lethal to Mirages - getting behind, say, a Hornet cornering at 350kts while over that speed yourself is a fast ticket to losing one or both wings. The Cold War birds are thrown around a bit but I don't think I've seen one rip from it yet.

My bad, it was a touch-and-go without the nose dropping. Memory's getting hazy. :doh: I'll have to muck around and see if I can get it to work myself. I haven't had much luck aerobraking anything, though. It's a little awkward with no stick extension and the risk of a tailstrike.

I did some poking around (which is to say, checking parts of the forums other than this thread and the MiG-19 and 21 subforums, lol) and found a bug report for the moonlight glints. Seems it's unintentional and ED have been aware of it since April. Hopefully that means a fix on the way, though I'm not holding my breath. Best bet for a temporary fix is just shifting the mission to be a moonless night, I think.

Shmal posted a video of a successful aerobraking a while ago. It's possible, it's just difficult to do, especially if you're paranoid about a tail strike like I tend to be.

Once the sun began coming up and DCS switched from "it's night" to "it's day", lighting engine wise, the little moonlight glints vanished. I like Sneaky Bastards as a mission, but unfortunately ED's bungled moonlight implementation (do they go outside after dark?) kind of ruins it because you can spot any air or ground unit from insane distances, but as soon as you get close, they vanish into the darkness again. Make it any brigher, and you still have that glint plus sufficient ambient lighting to see them in close - goodbye helicopters. Take the moon out, and you can't see anything, and people will probably complain about not being able to navigate because they don't know how to do IFR, or they'll complain they have to fly high and suddenly they're visible on radar, etc. Flying the Mi-8 was actually a ton of fun, I wish I'd jumped straight into that instead of flailing around trying to fight when I couldn't see anything and had to fight the current ARU bug on top of that. My suggestion would be to take the moon out altogether, honestly, so there's a lot more emphasis on the helicopter side of things and the fighters can't molest them so easily. You could then give the fighers some fixed ground objectives (well, on top of the secondary airbases and FARPs, anyway) to keep them happy, IMO. If people begin flying higher and using their radar, and especially with GCI, night combat can be very enjoyable even in pitch dark. It just relies on people abandoning the Daylight Combat Simulator metagame of hugging the ground. Again, I love the mission, I hate how ED can never get spotting right :doh:' Seriously? I know a lot of people have some very stupid opinions about radar use, but that's just ridiculous. You have AI AWACS/EWR directing you onto them, they're at the perfect operating height for all the old radar sets we have, and they're visibly contrailing. Even failing all that... you know where they're going! Just fly a standing patrol and wait for them. Jesus, it's unreal how lazy some people can be.

I use about a 15% pitch curve and 1/3-1/2 back stick travel is safe with the ARU in manual. Not sure about forward stick because I'm almost as allergic to abrupt negative G as the 21's fuel system is.

Likewise, if you're in a 19 or 21 and your bogey dope shortcut isn't being replied to, it's contacting the wrong EWR and you'll need to go through the menu to talk to it.

Regarding the 7Fs... I think people need to get used to them. All the ones I saw fired yesterday tracked fine, I barely kinematically defeated one and ate two more. Jester is probably part of the problem, but you also have to bear in mind that the Tomcat's radar doesn't do its best work looking down and it's also relatively easy to notch (as is the 29). I don't know how it stacks up in terms of numbers or Pk against the R-27R - maybe someone who has the fancy version of Tacview and knows what to look for could test that - but I don't think it's near as bad as people think it is. When you're flying with Jester in the back you need to manage your expectations. With that said, honestly, I don't see an issue with letting the Tomcat and MiG-29 have their heaters back despite being all-aspect. It'll make things a little hard now and then for the older jets, since they don't have countermeasures, but the F-5, Viggen, and 21 shouldn't have too much trouble IMO. Of course, if we go back to all-aspects for everyone, that won't be an issue. I'll miss the gunfights, though.

Right, but bear in mind that anyone on the current DCS version should also have the current versions of those maps. As soon as you introduce anything outside official content, you're going to have people who don't know how to install mods, who can't find where to get them from, who can't read a simple set of instructions, etc. Things like that work best on a closed community PvE server (like, say, Hoggit's CW campaign) because most of the players there come from the same place the mod does, and either have it already or know where to find it. If the EFM fixes the FM issues, it might be worth investigating in future. I hope the DM sees some love too, as it's a bit hot or cold right now, and emergency landings kill you 100% of the time no matter how gentle they are :( Ka-50 - the helicopter was developed through the 80s but only entered service in the mid/late 90s - it was one of those late Soviet projects like the Su-33 and modernised Su-27s, and the ill-fated Yak-(1)41. It was in progress, but its adoption took forever. Funnily enough this has now become normal for aircraft pretty much everywhere... I think the ADF's Tiger ARH and MRH-90 have only recently achieved IOC despite being in development through the 90s, and they still spend most of their time grounded. With the 16 and 18, I think you can use the game's random failures function to force a 100% certain failure of the HMCS to remove that feature, as even without the HOBS AIM-9X it makes their lives a lot easier than they would have been back then. I'm not sure though, might need some testing. They'll still have fancier DL than they did back then, the glass pit for the 16, and more powerful engines for the 18, but it shouldn't be a big deal.