Community A-4E-C

[YSIAD_RIP]

Looking Good.

 

I've just published a beta version of v1.4. So once it gets the go-ahead from some testers, I'll compile it as a public release. Fingers crossed.

 

Here's the changelog so far. https://github.com/heclak/community-a4e-c/blob/develop/CHANGELOG.md

 

I am very happy to have the A-4E-C in my collection and I see 1.4.0 Beta 1 is looking good. Thanks for all your updates. 1.4.0 Beta 1 was a nice Birthday present for me. LOL. :thumbup:

Edited May 9, 2020 by YSIAD_RIP

[heclak]

For a long time I thought development had stopped. Thank you for your tireless work on this mod.

 

I had to go away for a while due to some personal commitments and have been holding on to most of the work for a very long time now. I feel bad that I didn't manage to release a patch before the end of last year. Most of the work was done a long time ago but I restarted a bit more this year and have a bit of time to try and get a patch out quickly now. It might lack a bit of polish but I don't want to keep hogging the updates.

[heclak]

Damn I wish I was as good a code guy as the crew behind this mod. SO hard to beleive it is free. All it is really missing is radio comms.

Just thinking here. Not comparing to RW. Israelies operated their modernized A-4s (unknown standard) into 1990's. Argentines have A-4AR which has NATO Link-16, F-16 radar and F-16 HOTAS bolted onto stick and throttle, similar to A-10C. Which means that Argie A-4AR could , carry LiteningII , and every weapon compatible with it and Link-16 bus. How could if we could have such a modernized A-4EC_M (my designation). An A-4 that carries pod on grafted starboard(right) chin, between right gearwell and center pylon. WIth ability to carry AIM-9M/X without HMD feature, JDAM, Mav-D/E/F/G/H. As awesome as having modern radar compatible with AIM-9X and AIM-120B/C/D would be in DCS: A-4EC_M, I get that it is too much work for free mod, so we can leave it out. DCS is best in air-ground (all weather), and daylight WVR ACM anyways. NVG would be nice also, but not a game stopper. Also, as awesome it would be having a CCIP pipper, it is not required for accurate visual bombing with MK series of munitions. Rocket aiming interface is already excellent. HIPEG gunpods are fantastic. Its like that GAU-8 failed experiment with GAU-8/A in a pod with 300 rounds mounted under F-16 in some ANG squadrons. USAF even redesignated those F-16A as A-16A. But pod shook the pylon and airframe apart, and project was cancelled. Russians ran into same problem when they podded AK-630 for Mig-27. The AK-630 pod shook so violently when fired, then pylon broke, internal components of Mig-27 came aprt. But I digress. In case of A-4 and HIPEG the system worked.

 

I would add in the guided weapons and maybe even do an A-4M if I could get the SDK/support for it and not have to be an official third party and under contract. We as devs would love to have the fun stuff too. But it's for the very reason that those weapons would not be possible without the SDK that the E model was chosen.

[heclak]

Thanks for the reply Heclak, I'll shoot ED a bug/feature request in transitions with the SFM. Was the EFM ever looked at to use or are you unable to work on the carrier with the EFM as opposed to taking the simple flight model route.

 

Thanks again for the updates! Will be looking forward to the push on git and all the upcoming Changes. Of all the paid modules I still find myself flying the A-4E quite often

 

I think they have abandoned the SFM and are working on a new FM for the AI. I'm not sure if that will be available to be used for mods. So the future of mods is uncertain. I've heard that the FC3 modules are now encrypted and FC3 mods are all broken now? I've not tested it though.

 

I did experiment with writing an EFM and got it to a flyable state. However, the design of the FM that I chose would not be able to simulate a damaged state of the aircraft accurate so it was just a quick trial and not suitable for the A-4E. Writing a combat-capable EFM is much harder than anyone can imagine and I'm not sure if any modders have invested in that yet. That being said, I am not pursuing writing an EFM but several people have approached me about it. If someone can follow through and contribute an EFM, that would certainly be a great contribution to the longevity of the module.

[heclak]

The panels APR25/27 are implemented?

 

Not fully. The missile and radar warnings are still there, the panel function has been improved with a test and startup sequence. But no azimuth display and threat filtering at the moment. Just didn't have the time to work on it. However, this still accurately simulates the early integration of the RWS on the E-model (non-F model) where there was a shortage of RWR displays for every aircraft. We're simulating logistics and supply issues too :D

[heclak]

I am very happy to have the A-4E-C in my collection and I see 1.4.0 Beta 1 is looking good. Thanks for all your updates. 1.4.0 Beta 1 was a nice Birthday present for me. LOL. :thumbup:

 

Happy birthday!! I'm glad that I managed to get that beta out in time for you.

[DmitriKozlowsky]

A-4M is Super Skyhawk II. Well it was compared to other A-4s in 1973. It had ARBS, like AV-8A/B. I think it may have had Navy/Marine version of Pave Penny as part of ARBS. It projected ARBS onto A-4 radar display. Radar in A-4E-C is kind of simplistic with limited utility. TPOD can feed into b/w display of A-4E radar repeater. Big difference is that it had a more powerful engine.

 

Bliss would be a commercial full level DCS: A-4AR. As it would give us modernized A-4E with F-16C radar and F-16 HOTAS , two MFCD panels, modern munitions, ECM suite in spine blister. Any other goodies that ML and RAFAEL, ELBIT would care to share with developers, and developers care to put in.

Realism option problem is carrier operations. Skyhawks used bridle attachment, not gear oleo strut of all US Naval carrier based aircraft A-7 and later. However no US carriers , in service have bridle catch systems , anymore. Its those little horns that stick out from bow of the ship.

So any cheat, like for A-4E-C has visual discontinuity. A-4 gear is too weak for catbar attachment.

[heclak]

Thanks for your reply, could you explain how to put the rotaries for the radar warnings works?

 

You can check the last page of the guide. Inner knob controls the radar warning volume, the outer knob is the missile warning volume.

 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cUH7jpAoGHm-IzUDnv_NDhiZlvX55Q9WvpgR1d9ksYY/edit?usp=sharing

[heclak]

Just a quick update. We're still on our beta testing phase, currently on beta-4 and things are looking very stable. Hopefully, we can have a public release soon. Thank you for your patience.

[deltahawk2008]

Just putting it out there..is it possible that the a4 will work with the upcoming Super Carrier module?

[MAXsenna]

Just putting it out there..is it possible that the a4 will work with the upcoming Super Carrier module?

Hmmm... I guess we won't know until release, or if some of the YT dudes or others test it.

Also "working" might be a little subjective as I'm afraid it won't be able to use any of the SC's new features the way they're intended, except for that LSO station in MP. Hope I'm wrong thoug!

 

Sent from my ANE-LX1 using Tapatalk

[sc_neo]

If there was a chance to get the A-4 working with most of the stuff coming with the SC, that would sure make me buy the SC.

[Mig Fulcrum]

If there was a chance to get the A-4 working with most of the stuff coming with the SC, that would sure make me buy the SC.

 

Maybe i'm mistaken but the A-4 uses a different shuttle to launch from the carrier called "bridle", as far as i know you can land but you can't take off.

[SkateZilla]

Maybe i'm mistaken but the A-4 uses a different shuttle to launch from the carrier called "bridle", as far as i know you can land but you can't take off.

 

bridle is a line that goes from one hook to another and down through the shuttle and pulls the A/C.

[Mig Fulcrum]

bridle is a line that goes from one hook to another and down through the shuttle and pulls the A/C.

 

I know but the shuttle was different in order to grab the line better.

[Fusedspine33]

Can Hecklack and the team make it work, this is the question. I have no doubt they want it to.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[heclak]

Just putting it out there..is it possible that the a4 will work with the upcoming Super Carrier module?

 

Hmmm... I guess we won't know until release, or if some of the YT dudes or others test it.

Also "working" might be a little subjective as I'm afraid it won't be able to use any of the SC's new features the way they're intended, except for that LSO station in MP. Hope I'm wrong thoug!

 

If there was a chance to get the A-4 working with most of the stuff coming with the SC, that would sure make me buy the SC.

 

Can Hecklack and the team make it work, this is the question. I have no doubt they want it to.

 

I don't have the supercarrier module so I won't be able to work on checking/fixing how it works. Someone else would have to do the work and do a pull request on GitHub if they can get it working. I'm the only coder on the team so I doubt we'll be able to do it without help.

 

It definitely won't be able to hook up to the radio calls as we don't have radio SDK support at all. I do foresee some overspeed issues as the takeoff distance is different for the new supercarrier. The Stennis scale is smaller in DCS so the takeoff power was calculated for the Stennis.

 

The changes in the upcoming v1.4 should allow you to take off from the Supercarrier regardless, just not with the SC hooks and animations.

[shinyscouser]

Greetings. I downloaded and installed this excellent aircraft (thank you, by the way) but I noticed that on 2.5.6, when I come in to land on a carrier, it smashes into the deck.

 

I'm assuming this is an error due to the fact the Skyhawk was developed for older versions. Please clarify.

 

[Please note that I didn't read all 47 pages of comments so apologies if you already answered this question]

[heclak]

Greetings. I downloaded and installed this excellent aircraft (thank you, by the way) but I noticed that on 2.5.6, when I come in to land on a carrier, it smashes into the deck.

 

I'm assuming this is an error due to the fact the Skyhawk was developed for older versions. Please clarify.

 

[Please note that I didn't read all 47 pages of comments so apologies if you already answered this question]

 

 

Did you do an air start? If you do so then there is a bug in DCS causing the gear to collapse and explode when landing. Always start from the carrier or ground.

 

You can still explode if you land too hard but practice makes perfect.

[archer86]

Heclak ,thank you for keep on improving the skyhawk,

when you select the skyhawk as an ai aircraft without pylons , the first pylon on the left wing still appears there, could you fix this on next update?

thank you!

[Helles Belle]

And yet another ARDU skin....

 

And friends.

 

All WIP.

 

 

 

 

And just for fun.

[WinterH]

Sir, your A-4 skins are really awesome :thumbup:

[Helles Belle]

Thanks Winter,

 

I’ll try and get the ARDU uploaded soon.

The RAN ones I did a while ago but never got around to uploading them.

They should be ready soon as well, just fixing some old problems first.

[mastershotgun]

very nice

[Baco]

Awesom Skins!