Talking to A-10 pilot, with a DCS Connection

[Jetguy06]

So, I was at the Barksdale AFB airshow this past weekend, and got a chance to talk to one of two Indiana ANG A-10 pilots who were there. This one was a Lieutenant Colonel.

 

 

 

Since the A-10 is my favorite aircraft, and I have flown the -C extensively on DCS since ~2011, I was incredibly excited for the chance to talk to a real A-10 pilot one-on-one.

 

 

I was asking plenty of questions that, honestly, seemed to be catching him off guard. He finally just came out and asked me, "How do you know all this?"

 

 

I told him that, although it's a simulator, and hardly comparable to real life, I fly the DCS A-10C and have for about eight years now.

 

 

His response? "Ohhhh!!! DCS!! I know that sim!!"

 

 

Apparently, when he started in the Hog, the -C model upgrade had not started yet, and they were flying -As. According to him, when the wing got -Cs, they used the military version of our -C model to train on.

 

 

Once that connection was made, he absolutely lit up with excitement. We talked for a good ten or fifteen minutes about different things about the Hog, and I got the impression that he was relieved to not have to "dumb down" his answers. He was talking shop with someone who knew his stuff!!

 

 

Once some other spectators showed up, I decided to cut the conversation short so the others could talk to him as well, but I have to say... for the first time ever, I truly felt like I was part of the Hog community. Or, at least as close to it as I ever will be and ever have been before.

 

 

It was a fantastic experience, and I thought the community and developers here would like to know that not only did he know about DCS, he was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the module. He even mentioned looking up the commercial (our) version's manual.

 

 

His words (paraphrased): "I looked up the sim's manual, flipped through a few pages, *mimes flipping through a book* and 'wow!! This is our flight manual!!'" He laughed about that. He really was quite impressed.

 

 

Anyway, I just wanted to share this incredible experience. Thanks for reading!!

[Vitormouraa]

Awesome!

 

We have many Hornet pilots around here, but I wish we had a bit more of the A-10 community (pilots) with us right here.

 

Thanks for sharing!

[Sniper175]

That is awesome, to share such a love and passion for that airframe with an actual pilot. They did great work for us and continue to. That had to be allot of fun. Did you get to sit in the pit?

[Jetguy06]

That is awesome, to share such a love and passion for that airframe with an actual pilot. They did great work for us and continue to. That had to be allot of fun. Did you get to sit in the pit?

 

 

I didn't get to sit in the pit. The jets were roped off for some reason. Also the general rule, for safety reasons, is that civilians are not allowed to sit in any seat that is ejection-capable, even if the seat is pinned and/or unarmed.

 

 

But I did get to look into an A-10C pit from a maintenance stand back in 2011 or '12 (again, at the Barksdale air show).

 

 

I was pointing out all the switches to my (then) girlfriend, and the crew chief (who was sitting in the seat) asked me how I knew all of the switches, and if I worked on Hogs. I told him it was from flying it on DCS. His response was more of, "Oh, okay." And that was it.

 

 

The only thing I wish was different from this weekend was that the Hog pilots didn't bring any patches to sell. I got quite a collection of patches from this weekend's airshow, and the Chennault International airshow in Lake Charles two weeks ago (Mother's Day weekend).