Diesel_Thunder

One thing that'll help is that most of Thrustmasters products have a 2 year warranty. Open up a case with them and they can send you a replacement part or you may be able to send it to them for repair. I ran into this for my Hornet grip, though the weapon select switch was what broke on mine. Dealing with Thrustmaster was pretty straight forward and I was able to replace that switch myself. Mine would stick going forward and aft, and I thought it would free up as I used it and "broke it in". It never got better and eventually stopped registering hits when going aft. The new switch feels much better.

I’m not sure if they still offer flights or not, it’s something I didn’t think to ask (also unaware they did that). And thank you, glad you enjoyed the video!

Had the opportunity recently to visit an airworthy Phantom, while she was undergoing a maintenance check and inspection. I was able to get the camera out during this time and created a video when they started her engines, plus I was able to talk with a pilot that actually flew the Phantom and get his insight on what it was like flying the Lead Sled. So while we wait patiently for Heatblur's F4-E, I thought ya'll would enjoy this in the meantime:

Open Beta hot fix went out today: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/changelog/openbeta/2.7.14.24228/

An update for the 62nd VFS: We're in the preliminary stages of having a dedicated 24/7 squadron mission server. We have been running lately a limited time server with operation on weekends and some weeknights, but have had a lot of fun when the server is running. Some of our wingmen have also hosted a mission from their PC occasionally where we've done round robin style BFM engagements and warbird missions. Here is a short video showcasing a mission that has quickly became a squadron favorite, which is called Foothold, as well as some of our operation as a squadron.

I believe that is correct. Sub version is the 5 digit number (initial release, hot fixes, etc.)

Thank you! Mine was straight from Thrustmaster, my wife ordered it from their website as a Christmas gift for me. Dealing with TM was pretty straightforward. It can take up to 3 business days for them to initially respond if you put in a warranty case though. I will say that after reading other posts about this switch, having to force it out of it’s hole is not uncommon when fixing these sticks. Thankfully since the grip is metal, it doesn’t seem damage the hole if you have to do that. The CMS switch on the Warthog/Viper stick has the same difficulty with removal, as it is mounted about the same way and you can only access one side of it.

There was a huge debate about this, and what it essentially boiled down to was that most real Vipers are wired for 3 and 7, some are wired for 3, 4, 6, and 7. So ED compromised and made it selectable in the mission editor whether a DCS Viper can carry and employ two or four HARM’s in a mission.

I recently did something similar with my Hornet grips' weapon select switch, which is mounted in a similar manner to the CMS on the Viper grip. One clip I could access and push in, the other was inaccessible. Ended up using a medium flat head screwdriver and giving it a firm push to force it out after pushing up the one side of the switch up and out of the hole slightly. Didn't damage the hole or the clip I couldn't get to either.

I've been having some trouble with the Hornet grip that I got for Christmas, namely with the weapon control switch. Mine would stick when thumbing it forward forward or aft, and recently would sometimes not register a button press in the aft direction. Opened a warranty case with Thrustmaster and they sent me a new switch with the instructions on how to replace it. Thought it would be a help to others that may have to deal with this so I filmed the repair and uploaded it to my channel.

Silly question, but is the Viper able to datalink targets (markpoints, etc) to other aircraft like the Hornet? I know Viper to Viper works, but not sure if the other aircraft are able to receive anything from the Viper.

Having listened to both the Fighter Pilot Podcast and the F-14 Tomcast, where each show featured an episode regarding a real barricade trap with the actual pilots. It seems that the barricade does save the crew for sure, and also recovers the aircraft. The aircraft usually sustains some level of damage from the net, but avoids having the crew eject and and losing the aircraft at sea. So I suppose the real answer regarding aircraft damage is, it depends. The one on the Fighter Pilot Podcast involved an F/A-18 at night that FOD'd both engines on launch because the catapult crew got in a hurry and forgot to remove the cat track seal. The catapult shuttle peeled the track seal up during launch and sections of it ended up in both engines. A decent length of that seal was hung up on one of the intakes as well, which was slapping the side of the fuselage for the duration of that flight. He had a wave off on the first pass, and trapped/barricaded on the second pass. Both motors were trashed, plus the fuselage damage, slats and tail leading edges, and anything else the barricade net pulled on/bent/removed on the trap. The one featured on the F-14 Tomcast involved an F-14 that ended up very low fuel and in bad weather so the boat decided to barricade them as well (both the pilot and RIO were guests on this show). They made it down safe but the aircraft was damaged during the barricade trap. The net bent a few of the slats on the wings, plus tore off a probe. Maintenance defueled the aircraft after and learned that this airplane only had about 90 seconds of flight time remaining before the tanks would have gone dry. In both cases, the aircraft went down to the hangar and stayed down there at least for a month while specialists were flown out to service them. Both aircraft were repaired successfully and flew again. The F/A-18 incident: The F-14 incident:

If you have the Marianas map, here are two of my training missions for Viper aerial refueling. One mission has the tanker going on long straight legs, the other is a circling orbit (good for practicing tanking in a turn). Both air start you at 20,000 feet with about 5,000 lbs of total fuel and 2 wing tanks (you need to tank at least 7,000 lbs to get full tanks). In the normal refuel mission the tanker is about a mile away, co-altitude, at your 2 o'clock, and flying the same heading. In the circling refuel the tanker is co-altitude, and about 8 miles ahead of you before he starts his orbit. Tanker frequency - 251.00 Mhz Tanker TACAN - 01Y Tanking is harder than doing it in the Hornet, as the margin of error is narrower, but with enough practice is achievable. Gentle throttle and stick movements are key. Pay attention to the lights but don't stare at them. You should keep an eye on the tanker itself and use the lights as a reference. It also helps if you pull the bingo page up on your DED so you can quickly glance down and see your current fuel (LIST, 2), and you can also use the HUD symbology switches and have the DED display repeated up onto the HUD. And I agree about general technique. If I'm heavy I'll do a burner takeoff, but once airborne I throttle back to MIL. I generally fly in MIL unless I have to cruise for a while and then I will throttle back a bit and save some gas. Burner only when needed. If loaded heavy, cruising in the mid 20's is good. When light, you can fly up in the 30's and low 40's. f16 guam refuel circle.miz f16 guam refuel.miz

The hook to eye distance is different between airframes (Hornet, Super Hornet, Tomcat, Intruder, Viking, Greyhound, etc), and the IFOLS is set accordingly by the ship's crew so that the pilot can fly the correct path for their aircraft and not be too high or too low on the glide slope and ideally catch the #3 wire. Currently, the IFOLS in DCS is only set for the Hornet, and does not adjust if your trying to land the Tomcat. The current workaround for the Tomcat is to fly the ball higher than the datum and ignore most of the LSO calls as the Tomcat landing speed is different than the Hornet.

Noted, and thank you for clarifying! I'll edit that segment of the video and upload the updated version.

For those that may run across this, I made a video detailing the operation of all the exterior lighting on the Viper. The confusion with how the formation knob interacts with the rest of the lights gave me the idea for this one, and I hope others find it useful.

Lockout is more of an emergency use only. The DEC does a pretty good job of running the engines, whether it is dual or single engine ops (ham fisted pilots not withstanding ). I believe the intent is to be able to correct for a malfunctioning governor and be able to return to base. No reason to use lockout so long as the rotor RPM and engine speeds are stable.

Unfortunately, the DCS manual does not detail the operation of lockout beyond it's activation and use. A manual that I presume to be the real one that I found on a quick web search went into a bit more detail (due to not wanting to violate any rules, I'm not posting a link). I'll paraphrase, but activating lockout is as described in the DCS manual and it disables (locks out) the Digital Electronic Controls from limiting/controlling functions except over speed protection. It also says to resume normal operation, that the power levers need to be moved to the idle position and then back to fly position. From that description, I can only assume that once activated, the engines will remain in lockout until they are either shutdown, or one of the crew moves the levers to IDLE and then to FLY. Due to the requirement that the levers need to move to IDLE, I cannot fathom ever doing that in flight. Once we can get more details from ED on the lockout functions, I plan on revising my video to include that. As far as limits go, these are what I've put together from the DCS manual: Turbine overspeed - Each engine has overspeed protection, and will shut down an engine if it exceeds 119.6 ±1% (the power turbine, or Np). Turbine Gas Temperature - with both engines operating the maximum TGT allowed is 867°C for each engine. If an engine shuts down in flight, or one of the engines torque output falls below 51%, the remaining engine will go into single engine operation and automatically increase to the single engine TGT limit of 896°C. If the engines are in lockout, the temperatures are monitored and displayed on the ENG page, though if the temperature limits are exceeded, the DEC will not do anything about it as the only engine protection in this mode are the overspeed limits. To summarize: Engine overspeed limit -- 119.6% Dual engine TGT limit --- 867°C Single engine TGT Limit - 896ºC

That could very well be a bug you found. AFAIK both sets of levers are supposed to do the exact same thing.

From my observations lately, it seems that if DCS starts and immediately minimizes in Windows, that the main menu music does not work. I have it set for full screen mode in the settings, so I'm not exactly sure why that DCS will minimize. It will do that right after the loading screen when the main menu should come up. Sometimes it will minimize, other times it loads like normal.

@Reflected I tried this out the other day, and dilution seems to be working. At least as of the current open beta (2.7.11.21408).

Good day all, Been seeing posts here about power lever use, and accidental activation of the lockout mode. So I put together a short video covering lockout use and an important setting in the special options menu that can get overlooked that can prevent pushing the power levers into lockout. Hope some of y'all find this useful.

No problem! I don’t use that feature in the fighters either, but instead use the detents on my TM Warthog. Very useful for Apache as lockout is very rarely used, and the power levers stay at full unless in the process of startup or shutdown.

There’s an option in the AH-64 special options to look for. It’s to use fingerlifts to engage lockout. If you use that option, then the power levers can go no farther than the FLY position. You’d then have to press a separate control which would pull up the finger lifts and allow you to move the levers into lockout. It’s similar to an option in the Viper, Hornet, and Tomcat. Those aircraft also have a feature that limit throttle travel to military power only, until that control is pressed, and then you can go into afterburner.