Diesel_Thunder

I'd like to share this picture I took of our Phantom this past weekend. We tugged her out to the ramp for display at our local air show (Wings Over Houston), and she attracted a lot of interest!

So I tried it again by going faster as suggested and that did not improve things at all. On a whim to make sure of my process, I loaded up the Persian Gulf map and flew around while scanning the ground. Quickly found Abu Dhabi International and had no problem with image quality. Starting to think the radar imagery for the Marianas map hasn't been completed yet, and is only at a functional level instead the high detail radar like on other maps.

So I tried again, and I still cannot get that sort of image quality, even at the recommended offset angles. I circled Andersen AFB (Marianas) both around 5,000 feet and again at 20,000 feet. Here are my results: At 5,000 feet And 20,000 feet:

I'm going through and trying to learn the various air to ground radar modes. I'm running into an issue, and it may be something I am doing wrong, but zooming in under EXP2 and EXP3 modes does not improve the image in anyway. Looks very pixelated also very difficult to pick out features. Here's an example of what I'm working with. The first image is of Andersen AFB, and you can kinda make out the parallel runways (24L and 24R oriented from bottom to top of the image). I can't imagine that I'd be able to pick out a target from that, not close enough to drop a JDAM anyway. Contrast that with the images from both the DCS F/A-18C manual, and Chuck's Guide and you can see my confusion. I'm either not doing something right, or there's something wrong. What I see: From the DCS F/A-18C Flight Manual: From Chuck's Guide:

Was curious about this with the upcoming C-130J. Will it be possible for player driven CA vehicles to have the ability to be driven onto and transported by the C-130? Maybe not airdropped but at least moved from point to point on a map. The ones that would fit anyway, as the C-130 has a payload limit of 42,000 lbs (21 tons), and a height/width limit of 9 feet x 10 feet. Main battle tanks wouldn't fit by being both too large and way too heavy. However most APC's and smaller vehicles would easily fit. This would certainly bring a really cool capability to DCS and Combined Arms.

Similar thing in the electrical world. Red lights or indicators means a circuit or machine is live/energized. Green (usually) means a circuit is de-energized.

I would never have thought to look there, thank you for pointing that out! Wow, that's a wealth of information for the backseater. Thank you for sharing that! Good to know!

Was practicing with ripple delivery of high drag Mk 82's which brought up a few questions. We (dual crew, me as RIO) had 14 Snake Eye's loaded, and were going to drop them all in one pass. I had the armament panel set up correctly; MECH fusing to N/T, ELEC fusing to INST, delivery quantity set to 14, Attack mode to Computer Pilot. I left the interval at it's default setting of 50 ms. Stations 3, 4, 5, and 6 enabled. We came in around 500 feet, 400 kts. Once we got over the target my pilot held down the weapon release and initiated a slight pull up as the bombs came off. After the last one released, we then dove down low and in burner to egress out with countermeasures in trail. Pretty solid attack run, though the bomb spacing was really close together. Which brings up two questions. 1 - The Computer Pilot attack mode, which I've come to understand is sort of like CCIP in the more modern jets. In a ripple delivery, does the pipper indicate the middle of the spread like it does in the Viper and Hornet, or does it indicate where the first bomb will fall? 2 - The manual does not have a bombing table that show that if you are at X speed and want Y distance spacing on your bomb impacts, then set the interval timing to Z. I didn't see anything similar in Chucks Guide either. Is there any advise or tables available to set the release timing?

Some squadron tanking

The screenshots of Normandy 2.0 look amazing! Looking forward to another area to fly my warbirds. The big question in my mind, is how hard is this going to hit my PC? I ask that because for me Syria runs marginally in single player, and horribly in multiplayer even when I drop the graphics settings to low. I really want to consider getting the new Normandy map, but my experience with Syria makes me hesitate a bit. EDIT: This post was made before I upgraded to my current PC. My old one ran 32GB DDR3, an AMD FX-8120 with a GTX-980 GPU.

I have a graphics preset specifically for the Syria map. In single player it runs ok so long as there isn't many AI units. Multiplayer is another story. It never runs smooth, ever. No matter how many or few AI units, it stutters constantly and has led to several hard freezes (those do not generate crash reports). And this is with my settings set low. I don't dare use my normal settings that I can use for every other map that I have (Caucasus, Marianas, The Channel, Persian Gulf), as that makes it even worse. My PC has 32GB RAM and a 32GB pagefile. I'm at the point where I'm about to uninstall the map to free up drive space because of how awful it runs. Which really sucks because the map looks great. EDIT: Just so no one is mislead, this was on my old PC (MSI 990 FXA, AMD FX-8120, 32 GB DDR3 RAM). My new PC (specs below) handles this map far better, both in single thread and multi thread.

Here's a great video that goes over everything to look for in landing the Viper:

Just curious as to when the C-130 will get it’s own subforum? Looking forward to flying the Herky Bird!

Updated to add a new feature to the channel, live action work to the only flight worthy F-4 Phantom!

I grew up on Little Rock Air Force Base, and got to hear and see E and H models flying on a near daily basis. Those to me will always be the classic C-130. J model is nice, and more capable than the H, but it did lose the iconic sound of the turboprops in the process. I too would have loved to have an H model in DCS, but I will very happily fly the J model! And I too am a sucker for steam gauges!

In the Apache release video, there was a UH-60 starting up in background, 24 seconds in:

Translated to 2022 dollars, that would cost you approximately $1,275

Skip ahead in my video to the 20:00 mark and it’s the part where I talk to an actual pilot of the F-4 on what it was like to fly. Lt. Colonel "Bluto" flew both the F-4 and F-16 during his time in the Air Force.

I've had this happen twice in multiplayer. The first was during a descent and the second while flying around 40 knots level. I chalked up the first one as VRS, but the second one had the same "failure" so now I'm not sure it was VRS. In both cases the aircraft starts shaking like it has an unbalanced rotor. Shortly after that you start descending, and collective inputs don't help at all. Cyclic has limited authority. There were no warnings on the EUFD and no audible alarms. Only until after well established on the descent would a "rotor RPM" warning sound. The helicopter crashed in both instances. I do have the track files. They are from multiplayer and are large. One is 37 MB and the other is 120 MB. Well beyond the forum upload limit, but if you have a way to transfer them I'd be happy to send them.

You're welcome! I feel pretty lucky that I have the opportunity to work on her, plus the ground equipment to keep her operational. I get out to the hangar about once a week, and I plan to have the camera with me as we do more work. I definitely want to see her in the air again! Another video will be out tommorow... I also am looking forward to Heatblur's release of the Phantom. They did an outstanding job on the Tomcat, and I absolutely enjoy flying backseat in that as a crew of two humans. I have a feeling I am going to enjoy riding backseat in the Phantom as well!

You have to change the round type in the HUD menu (IFFCC switch in the TEST position). I believe if it is preset from the Mission Editor, it should be that way in the HUD, but if you reload during a mission then you have to change it in the HUD menu. I don't think the A-10 has ever had tracers, either in DCS or real life. There's only 3 rounds available for the GAU-8 to my knowledge and those are the PGU-13 HEI (high explosive incendiary), PGU-14 API (depleted uranium Armor Piercing Incendiary), and the PGU-15 TP (target practice, basically a solid 30mm slug). The HEI and API being mixed together to produce the Combat Mix (CM).

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! My original plan for the channel was primarily DCS content, but since I've been involved with helping out and working on the F-4, I want to tell its story as well. She's one of the few, if not only, operational F-4 Phantoms in the U.S. I have more F-4 content in the works as we do more maintenance to her, plus the ground service equipment involved.