Community A-4E-C

[Rudel_chw]

17 minutes ago, MagicSlave said:

...

I also attach here a training mission I use to practice landing patterns, navigation and aerial refueling in the NTTR, in case somebody wants to try it out. https://youtu.be/JU-2ltCMGCE

 

 

Thanks a lot for sharing the mission, very toughtful 

[Eldur]

Switched to the dev version now, great experience. Had some fun with the ultrafast one after dropping from CBU pods back in the first beta before that though

Wheel brake axes are now as in other modules, they use the full range, works well with my UJR setup (I kinda like to have that so I can decide not to brake differentially for slowing down just with the slider) and I had to invert the axes as well just like in other modules. I'm also very happy with the increased NWS authority now, so much better!

 

Just a few things I noticed (in the first beta and the dev ver I run now):

 

- I mapped the AFCS HDG SET thingto my throttle unit, but it doesn't take multiple inputs when held down which is very inconvenient for dialing in a heading as you have to click again and again for every single degree. Works OK when scrolling with the mouse or VR controller though.

- I can't scroll the reticle depression thing, neither with mouse, nor with VR controllers. I have to left click and drag, which is kinda weird with the latter. Being able to scroll would rock

- I somehow experience like having half the fps within the cockpit as opposed to being external or in basically any other module. Weird about this is I didn't have that on my first flight, after which I went into the special options and made some changes there including the trim speed down to 50%, which is the only one of them still left now. Haven't tried going back to 100% to see if that causes it though. Might do that on my next run and report back on it.

[Uxi]

I was able to land without exploding, which is great. Did the power cart change design? 

[Doc3908]

How do you aim in ACM? Given that the A-4 carries precious few rounds and that they don't seem to do all that much damage unless you are really close, it's imperative to make every round count. The F-86 had a lead computing gun sight, but the A-4 appears to have none. Do you just aim it like a WWII warbird and use your best guess and experience? And, yes, I know the A-4 is not supposed to be a fighter, but adding a lead computing gun sight would't detract from its light attack mission. And they even used the A-4 in the Top Gun school to simulate enemy MiG-17s...

[Rudel_chw]

14 minutes ago, Doc3908 said:

...  I know the A-4 is not supposed to be a fighter, but adding a lead computing gun sight would't detract from its light attack mission.

 

Did the real A-4E had a lead computing gunsight?

[jacobs]

1 hour ago, Doc3908 said:

How do you aim in ACM? Given that the A-4 carries precious few rounds and that they don't seem to do all that much damage unless you are really close, it's imperative to make every round count. The F-86 had a lead computing gun sight, but the A-4 appears to have none. Do you just aim it like a WWII warbird and use your best guess and experience? And, yes, I know the A-4 is not supposed to be a fighter, but adding a lead computing gun sight would't detract from its light attack mission. And they even used the A-4 in the Top Gun school to simulate enemy MiG-17s...

 

The sight on the A-4 is completely old school, you can manually change depression, and that it. It's like a rife's iron sight.

[Hiob]

On 2/19/2021 at 10:39 AM, Tomcatter87 said:

Thanks for that very cool update! Since I'm kinda having a hard time dogfighting in the scooter. I depart controlled flight quite often or end up bleeding all of my energy. From the Tomcat, I'm used to use rudder to roll, but the A-4 doesnt seem to like that. What about AFCS and stability augmentation? Leave it on or switch it off? Are there any advices what to do? What turning speed is the best?

 

First of all the A-4 is not exactly meant as a dogfighter - so I would think that is the first part of the problem.

Since the wings of the A-4 a somewhat delta-shaped I figure it has a typical high AOA at the expense of rapid energy bleeding character (like the Mirage e.g.).

Therefore I would always try to drop my nose when in need of turning rates.

I haven't seen any suggestions for best turning speed (probably because it's an "A"-4 and not an "F"-4).

[DD_Fenrir]

What also needs to be borne in mind is that the A-4s used for Aggressor training are very different beasts to the A-4E we have in DCS; they were often stripped of their avionics and their pylons, reducing the aircrafts weight significantly and thus increasing their Thrust:Weight and reducing their wing loading. Some also had uprated engines, increasing the T:W even further.

 

That said, bleeding your E in an A-4 dogfight is going to be an inevitability; with no afterburner you can't brute force your way through manoeuvres like the dedicated air superiority machines can. As Hiob says, you'll tend to nose low during sustained turns to try and mortgage some altitude for E but you'll have to fly smart and aggressive - and hope your opponent flies dumb - to be victorious. If your opponent hits the vertical anytime you try to force an overshoot or look like you're gaining angles, it's going to be a tough fight for even a hotrod A-4, let alone for you in a fleet standard jet carrying a lot of black boxes.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 22, 2021 by DD_Fenrir

[Zad Fnark]

Also, the aggressor A-4s probably had an extra 4,000 lbs of thrust in their engines.

[Doc3908]

After a few hours of flying against various AI opponents, I'm quite comfortable with the way the A-4 flies. All the "enemy" is set to "veteran" except for the F-15 (because all it does on "veteran" is endless vertical loops). I did give myself a "handicap" - I start with 55% fuel, but the opponents are loaded with 75-80%. In all engagements against the AI, I was shot down only once and that's because I got distracted and let the F-15 get behind me. Of course, flying against a competent human player is a whole different ball-game - the AI is too predictable and limited in what they do. But at least this shows that the little Scooter is not as helpless as one might think. Hope you enjoy this video. (There will be part II at some point - against Red aircraft.)

 

 

[Rudel_chw]

25 minutes ago, Doc3908 said:

After a few hours of flying against various AI opponents ...

 

Sincerely, I don't get the interest on using the A-4 like if it were a WW2 fighter ... I prefer to use it for attacking enemy ground forces

 

 

[Hiob]

If you are into intense dogfighting (which I totally get!) than the WW2 birds are the way to go....

or take an F-16 against a Mig-29 or a F-86 against a Mig-15.

But why would you take a ground attack aircraft for dogfighting?

[WinterH]

I don't see anything strange with using A-4 as a dogfighter. It was after all used as an agile subsonic agressor for many years in pilot training. A lightly loaded scooter shot be interesting to put up against some other planes. Don't know if I'd go as far as Eagle. Not that I've even done it yet, I'm using it for ground pounding, but will eventually entertain it in some light air to air as well :).

[Hiob]

It‘s absolutely ok to dogfight with the A-4. It‘s a game after all. You can mess around as much as you like.

The thing was the „I had a hard time dogfighting in the A-4“....well, yeah, of course - bc it‘s not a dogfighter.

...and when you really are into dogfighting, then why picking an A-4?

We were just wondering - no judgement intended!

[Rudel_chw]

3 minutes ago, Hiob said:

... It‘s a game after all. ...

 

We have different focus, to me DCS is mostly a flight simulator ... if I wanted a game, I would be playing Arma 3 then

[Doc3908]

2 hours ago, Rudel_chw said:

 

Sincerely, I don't get the interest on using the A-4 like if it were a WW2 fighter ... I prefer to use it for attacking enemy ground forces

 

 

 

Point taken. I'm definitely into A2A but, in this case, I  just want to find out what the airframe is capable of. I used to fly the old ver.1.4 against F-16, F-18, and JF-17 carrying an assortment of AIM-120C, AIM-9M/X, and SD-10s - just so I can see what it takes to survive against a superior opponent. Flying against superior opponents helps improve my situational awareness and makes me look for non-standard ways to survive (and maybe win). All in good fun!

Cheers!

Doc

Edited February 22, 2021 by Doc3908

[Uxi]

Was reading I was supposed to delete my 1.3 bindings and I didn't... they're still there and everything seems to work...

[Tomcatter87]

11 hours ago, Hiob said:

It‘s absolutely ok to dogfight with the A-4. It‘s a game after all. You can mess around as much as you like.

The thing was the „I had a hard time dogfighting in the A-4“....well, yeah, of course - bc it‘s not a dogfighter.

...and when you really are into dogfighting, then why picking an A-4?

We were just wondering - no judgement intended!

 

Well, since (a different version of) the A-4 played a prominent role as a dogfighting adversary training american pilots, I think it's legit to test how the A-4 mod performs in that arena. After all, we fly it from the supercarrier without having regrets. And not to forget the Skyhawk had an air-to-air kill in Vietnam. With a Zuni rocket.

[faviou2]

Hi , good morning. I have an issue with new version 2.0. It never happens before with other versions like 1.4.

The issue is that when i select the slot, it brings me to a free camara on the air, and its unflyable.

Any help? Thanks!!! It is correct instaled.

[Mud]

Most likely this, Faviou2:

 

Source: installation help on the A-4 Discord channel:
The module is installed correctly, but I am unable to take control of the aircraft.
Ensure you have installed Microsoft's Visual Studio 2015, 2017 and 2019 Redistributable libraries. Windows users running DCS world are typically running x64, so you will want to download and install vc_redist.x64.exe (~15 MB) from the following page, install the library, and then restart your computer:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads-2647da03-1eea-4433-9aff-95f26a218cc0

[JNelson]

On 2/20/2021 at 3:48 PM, Doc3908 said:

 

The radio certainly works, but...

1. You have to tune to the appropriate frequency (e.g. carrier) - if you don't, then easy-comm does nothing when in the air.

2. As seen in my video above, I contact the carrier and call "See you at 10". I am advised to contact the tower, which is usually automatic when I am close to the carrier. However, from time to time, I fly past the carrier and nothing happens (as was the case in the video). I even called "see you at 10" a second time and was, once again, advised to contact the tower, but there's no way to initiate such communication (that is a Supercarrier issue). 

3. TACAN and ICLS do not work with Supercarrier. The A-4 works fine with land-based TACAN stations and, apparently, with Stennis (haven't tried myself yet). But I have never gotten it to work with any of the supercarriers.

4. TACAN apparently also doesn't work with AAR tankers.

You don't actually need to tune the radio with easy-comm's on, you just need the radio on. Currently easy-comms will set the frequency however the display will not update. I recommend flying without easy comms though because the radio is fully functional.

 

TACAN is a workaround and doesn't hook into the CockpitBase code the same way the radio does. Unfortunately although completely possible to reverse engineer the TACAN, it is not possible to create an instance of the TACAN meaning the only way to create a TACAN device would be to write your own which would require the header files from the SDK. Which of course we do not have.

 

ILS can be hooked similar to the radio, however one cannot tune the native ILS device to the carrier frequencies. So there is no point in replacing the existing workaround we have anyway.

[Kilo]

I guess it's a bit late now but, here we go: The solution to the no cockpit problem that I had was the missing C++ Redistributable. With that out of the way, I can say that I am in absolute awe with this mod. A big thank you to those involved in making it and to those that helped me fix my issue!

 

Cheers!

[Jarhead0331]

Sorry for the stupid question, but how do you communicate with the ground crew on cold start using realistic comms?

 

Thanks.

 

 

NEVERMIND...ugh, the airbase was set to neutral. Sorry for taking up space.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Jarhead0331

[LanceCriminal86]

Has there been discussion around adding different helmet options? The current one is spot on for late 80s/90s Aggressor use, but something more like an APH-6 or perhaps an HGU-33 would be a closer fit for the general timeframe of the A-4E.

 

APH-6 Single Visor:

 

APH-6 Dual Visor, aka the Ram's Horn:

 

HGU-33, as seen in the Heatblur Tomcat and in Top Gun. Primary Navy fixed-wing helmet 70s to late 80s & early 90s:

This one possibly from a USMC A-4 Agressor squadron

 

https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/275108-bought-this-hgu-33-what-squadronaircraft/

 

The HGU-55 or rather converted HGU-33 style presently in the mod came about in the very late 1980s and into the 90s to present.

http://www.salimbeti.com/aviation/images/helmets/hgu34-13.jpg

 

 

One option may be, like the F/A-18, use an animation argument to add on the visor housing model, then control it through the livery file. Alternately set the whole helmet up in animation argument and swap out the pilot helmet or whole head maybe.

[MagicSlave]

I tried to add empty versions of the external fuel tanks to the loadout options of the community A-4E-C by editing some lua files in the mod. All is well otherwise, but I found out that editing the main A-4E-C.lua file in any way breaks the mod! I mean I managed to add the empty fuel tanks so that they are selectable in the mission editor and the AI A-4Es happily fly with them without problems, but the player aircraft does not respond to any control inputs anymore. 

 

Now I noticed that there is a big disclaimer at the beginning of the A-4E-C.lua: "--EDITING THIS FILE WILL CAUSE THE EFM TO FAIL." And it really seems that any kind of edit, even just adding one line of commented text, which actually does not do anything code-wise, causes the mod to break, as described above... So this is the file that is preventing me from adding the empty fuel tanks.

 

Do the makers of this mod follow this thread? Does somebody else know what's up with the main lua-file being so fragile?

 

I attach here the lua files I edited, in case someone wants to see what I was attempting to do, and maybe come up with a workaround. Or if the authors of this mod want to add these as an official update... The A-4E-C.lua is from the main A-4E-C\ folder, the A4E_Weapons.lua is from the A-4E-C\Weapons\ and the weapon_system.lua is from A-4E-C\Cockpit\Scripts\Systems\

 

Edit: you can quickly find the lines of code related to external fuel tanks by searching for "fuel"

 

 

A4E_Weapons.lua A-4E-C.lua weapon_system.lua

Edited February 27, 2021 by MagicSlave