NOW AVAILABLE: Community A-4E-C Mod

[norbot]

Hi, I'm using A-4 version 1.3, caucasus map only and FC3. Ground power doesn't work; menu works, but doesn't came the yellow pod and ground crew don't respond to my call.

 

Suggestions?

 

Nice work BTW!!

 

Your canopy must be opened in order to talk to the ground crew.

[airwolfmutley]

Your canopy must be opened in order to talk to the ground crew.

 

It is.

 

But I found what I´m doing wrong.

I pick up a saved mission and just change the airplane. The original one is a Su-25 related to the USSR. I really don´t know if the flag matters for the purpose.

 

So, instead of picking up a previus saved mision, I create a new mission placing the A-4 on the ramp and for the USA. Works!

 

Thanks!!

[salsantana]

YEAH, can't wait to start 'er up. I grew up essentially on US Naval Academy campus, attended Naval Academy Primary School....my bus stop was outside USNA Chapel where an A-4 and F-4 sat on display..... we'd climb inside the engine cavities hoping for a way into the cockpit :) The Blue Angels flew both of these in the 60's. The A-4's kind of the neglected kid of the bunch, but highly appreciated by many pilots. It may not have the futuristic styling of the F-18 but it was an agile screamer. THANK YOU for this....... a mild case of dream-come-true :) I'd love to see the F-4 Phantom added in future, especially after seeing so many Blue Angels' shows with those beasts and the many stories from pilots I worked with for a decade. There's no thunder like 6 Phantoms on full AB climbing for the fleur-de-lis..... such music.

[heclak]

Do you guys want me to record the sounds of switches and rotaries being moved so you may use them in your mod? In the coming months I will be acquiring more real A-4 Skyhawk hardware for my build.

 

 

I would be interested to what sounds we can get! Are you on discord? It would be easier to discuss details there.

 

In addition I hope in the future we will have some method of extracting the radar screen from the game so I may use my real radar bezel and superimposition in from of an LCD monitor.

 

 

I don’t believe the code has been written for exporting yet. I’ll need to find the time to get around to that. I’ll add that to the issue tracker.

 

I’m curious what connection does the radar use and if the internal display still works. It might be more interesting if the original display can be used.

[BlackLibrary]

For the Export: i got it the simple way.

i have defined the right and left MFD from the A10 that works with the most planes.

 

for the a4

 

add this line:

try_find_assigned_viewport("RIGHT_MFCD")

here: Saved Games\DCS\Mods\aircraft\A-4E-C\Cockpit\Scripts\RADAR\Indicator\init.lua

 

before the last one. ( startup_print("radar HUD: load end") )

 

made a lua for monitor setup:

 

LEFT_MFCD =
{
    x = 0;
    y = 1250;
    width = 550;
    height = 550;
}

RIGHT_MFCD =
{
    x = 730;
    y = 1250;
    width = 550;
    height = 550;
}

 

the valves are mine may not work for you

Edited April 21, 2019 by BlackLibrary

[DmitriKozlowsky]

So in v 1.3 (latest) bunch of things are screwy.

Bombs no longer release.

 

Master Arm ON

Pylon ON (center)

Fuse Nose/Tail

Function: Bombs

Mode Sel: Step Pair or Ripple Pairs.

AWRS: 2 Pwr On light is lit.

Sight set.

Aircraft in slight dive.

RELEASE WEAPON pressed.

 

and

 

No release. Nada. Zero. Worked fine in 1.0.2

[Mumby]

According to page 19 in this guide,

 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cUH7jpAoGHm-IzUDnv_NDhiZlvX55Q9WvpgR1d9ksYY/edit#slide=id.g51cb905973_34_5

 

"As station 3 does not have a station of equal priority, no weapon will be released from station 3 in STEP PAIRS or RIPPLE PAIRS."

 

So I would expect no bombs to drop, but I'm not sure how you made it work in previous versions. New feature?

 

Cheers

[heclak]

So in v 1.3 (latest) bunch of things are screwy.

Bombs no longer release.

 

Master Arm ON

Pylon ON (center)

Fuse Nose/Tail

Function: Bombs

Mode Sel: Step Pair or Ripple Pairs.

AWRS: 2 Pwr On light is lit.

Sight set.

Aircraft in slight dive.

RELEASE WEAPON pressed.

 

and

 

No release. Nada. Zero. Worked fine in 1.0.2

 

According to page 19 in this guide,

 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cUH7jpAoGHm-IzUDnv_NDhiZlvX55Q9WvpgR1d9ksYY/edit#slide=id.g51cb905973_34_5

 

"As station 3 does not have a station of equal priority, no weapon will be released from station 3 in STEP PAIRS or RIPPLE PAIRS."

 

So I would expect no bombs to drop, but I'm not sure how you made it work in previous versions. New feature?

 

Cheers

 

Yup. Both PAIRS mode will not allow the centre pylon to release weapons. I rewrote the weapons logic in v1.3 to update the operation of the AWRS. Earlier versions had the operation logic incorrect.

 

Edit: There isn't any warning to indicate a problem. This aircraft requires the pilot to be extremely familiar with the aircraft. Do let me know if you have any questions.

Edited April 21, 2019 by heclak

[Mumby]

Thanks heclak for all the hard work! :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

[wereferret]

Hey if you are still building out components for your A4 simpit I just noticed there are a couple of ARC-51's and, randomly, cockpit vents up on ebay:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Aircraft-Cockpit-A-4-SKYHAWK-Control-Radio-Set-UHF-C-6476-AX-ARC-51AX/141326900454?hash=item20e7bd5ce6:g:PVYAAOSws65TpnpX

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/A-4-Skyhawk-Cockpit-Vent-Ducts-Navy-and-USMC/133028530697?hash=item1ef91e4a09:g:3zwAAOSwmblZ2QZN

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/USN-USMC-A-4-Skyhawk-Oxygen-Quantity-Indicator-Gauge-Instrument/372473223823?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3Dcdfb174f07134474b591ff7cca4048e2%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D2%26sd%3D133028530697%26itm%3D372473223823&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

Edited April 24, 2019 by wereferret

[Robert31178]

I can drop bombs from center pylon in 1.03. Just ran down a convoy using high drags the other night. Not sure why it is happening for others.

[heclak]

I can drop bombs from center pylon in 1.03. Just ran down a convoy using high drags the other night. Not sure why it is happening for others.

 

 

 

Are you doing it an AWRS mode that isn’t STEP PAIRS or RIPPLE PAIRS? It is correct to be able to release from the centre pylons from the other modes. It should not release from the centre pylon in PAIRS modes. That is an accurate weapon logic.

[Robert31178]

Any sound modders wanna tackle this? Be really neato if we had that Skyhawk sound!!

 

[Baco]

Well the AR has a completely different engine, its a more powerful : Powerplant: 1 × Pratt & Whitney J52-P-408A turbojet, 11,200 lbf (50.0 kN)

[Baco]

Actualy the AR is a compelatly different beast it has an Westinghouse/Northrop Grumman AN/APG-66V2 (ARG-1) radar. A downgrade ffrom the F -16s AGP 67. both A/A and A/G.and a pletora of modern avionics including a glass cockpit with two color MFD.

[Rick50]

This is amazing!! Fun jet to fly!

 

 

Any chance of including another airframe without the "Camel hump" though? That way the Blue Angels can look like the Blue Angels? According to Wiki they flew the Douglas A-4F Skyhawk II

[eugen]

Hello ! Will the bug on Stennis be fixed, the plane randomly rolls back.

[Robert31178]

Hello ! Will the bug on Stennis be fixed, the plane randomly rolls back.

 

If you use your brakes then wheel chocks it stays put just fine. If the jet is running then a little bit of thrust will keep you from rolling backwards.

[eugen]

Thank you

[heclak]

Hello ! Will the bug on Stennis be fixed, the plane randomly rolls back.

That isn't a bug with the mod but a bug with DCS. But I don't think its a priority for them since they don't have an SFM carrier aircraft.

[eugen]

And you will bring to mind the system

[Nealius]

I just hopped in the Scooter in VR to see what it was like, and it was incredible! The only problem is that, for some reason in VR only, the "hitboxes" for the switches and knobs are a good 2 inches or so away from where the actual switches and knobs are.

 

Also, that bright red spot on the starboard intake appears to be a gouge in the 3D model with some kind of transparent layer over it. It should be visible in this screenshot:

 

[heclak]

I just hopped in the Scooter in VR to see what it was like, and it was incredible! The only problem is that, for some reason in VR only, the "hitboxes" for the switches and knobs are a good 2 inches or so away from where the actual switches and knobs are.

 

Also, that bright red spot on the starboard intake appears to be a gouge in the 3D model with some kind of transparent layer over it. It should be visible in this screenshot:

 

 

Hi Nealius,

 

Yea. The VR issue is on the issue tracker. Unfortunately, I don't have a VR setup to troubleshoot this. I'll try to look for a solution soon. However, there are some people who have come up with a solution for it, something to do with switching in and off of the aircraft. Do a search in the thread for it.

 

The bright spot is the probe light. It's not animated yet but we're aware of a transparency issue with the lights. Working on it now.

[Nealius]

Oh cool, didn't know it had a probe light.

 

Also, has something changed with the AoA indexer and the catapult logic? A few months ago I flew on v1.3 and had no problems with either, but when I flew tonight I had some buggy behavior:

 

1. AoA indexer. It was telling me I was on-speed at 130kts level while on the downwind, then when I added power for my groove turn it was telling me I was slow (green) at 140kts. While climbing after a bolter, it told me I was fast (red) at 120kts. It seems to only be reliable when level: When climbing or descending the on-speed range seems to be an incredibly small margin.

 

2. I could not hook to a catapult no matter what I tried. I pressed the LAlt+1 command while in the green box as in the manual, but the message said that I "wasn't close to any catapult." I tried hooking up about every meter between the JBD and the cat shuttle, and every meter for about 10m past the cat shuttle, same result. I have the Stennis steaming at 20kts, no other ships in the group, and only one waypoint. Not sure what's going on, as I didn't have any issues with the LAlt+1 catapult logic a few months ago.

 

I deleted the Stennis from my mission and placed a new carrier to make sure it was alone in the group. Same problem. Does the Stennis have to be steaming at 11kts and no faster?

Edited April 29, 2019 by Nealius

[Nero.ger]

11kts is actualy fine, as long as its moving at all, is the speed at the spawn the same as waypoint 1?