[PROJECT HALTED] Any interest in a more realistic alternative to already existing F-16 guides/manuals?

[SpaceMonkey037]

[PROJECT HALTED]Planning on creating a guide that aims to contain more realistic procedures and better system descriptions than already existing F-16 guides/manuals. This would be a guide for people who are interested in learning the F-16 deeper than other guides/manuals currently do. An advanced operation guide you could say. It's not supposed to be a true to life super detailed manual as those type of manuals already exists. The guide I would be making will contain advanced startup, takeoff, navigation, landing and shutdown procedures, while also having detailed system and switch description. The guide will also be aimed towards new ish players. People who know the FC3 stuff should be able to use this guide so that knowing the contents of the DCS:F-16 manual is not a requirement for this guide. The guide will most likely not contain advanced weapon systems or weapon delivery procedures, as that would require way more time investment from me than i am willing to do right now, but perhaps as time goes on I will add those stuff as well. The guide will most likely at first only contain information on how to operate the aircraft realistically in a non-combat environment. However the guide should be completely relevant for anyone interested in combat as well, just that the guide itself won't be covering those areas.
What i am trying to achieve with this post is to see how much interest there currently is in a guide like this. If anyone’s interested make sure to let me know and it would also be great to get some recommendations about content that should be included.

TLDR: I am making a more advanced/realistic guide for F-16. The guide is going to be aimed at people who at least know the basic FC3 stuff and who are interested in learning the F-16 to a more realistic level of detail than what other guides/manuals

 offers. If there is interest in such a guide, please give recommendations about what contents to include in the guide.
Have safe flights everyone!

Edited December 23, 2020 by SpaceMonkey037

[xavnl]

BMS manuals contain everything you need to know about the systems and weapons. Not the most eye catching ones but definetly worth a look.

[SpaceMonkey037]

2 hours ago, xavnl said:

BMS manuals contain everything you need to know about the systems and weapons. Not the most eye catching ones but definetly worth a look.

BMS manuals contain so much misinforamtion it's not even fun. Neither does the BMS manual explain things as well as I would like. It tells you the functions, but not the why's and how's. It's a manual, not a guide. This will not be another BMS manual.

Edited December 17, 2020 by SpaceMonkey037

[sharkfin61]

Would surely be interesting, but does the DCS F-16 module itself go as deep as further information will get?

I'd love to have that for the A-10C's CDU also, but I thing certain things aren't just programmed in out civil version of the sim.

Edited December 17, 2020 by sharkfin61
typo

[SpaceMonkey037]

5 minutes ago, sharkfin61 said:

Would surely be interesting, but does the DCS F-16 module itself go as deep as further information will get?

I'd love to have that for the A-10C's CDU also, but I thing certain things aren't just programmed in out civil version of the sim.

 

As I primarily will be going over the non-combat stuff, most of everything mentioned in the guide should be relevant to what is modelled in dcs. I know failures don't happen in dcs, but doing the tests adds a lot to realism and immersion. 

[llOPPOTATOll]

Shouldn't what your talking about be the DCS manual when its done? Goes in depth of system.

 

[DerekSpeare]

Are you conceiving your guide to be a more user friendly one that is comprehensive like TOGR1F16-CJ?  Anyone who makes an effort to make this game more fun/accessible/rewarding/entertaining has my respect. 

[Sarge55]

I presume you ask to gauge the level interest before putting in time and effort.

 

I would not be interested.  As noted above, I would rather wait on the official manual from DCS which will accurately reflect the F-16 they have developed.  In the meantime Chuck's guide is great.

[SpaceMonkey037]

12 hours ago, llOPPOTATOll said:

Shouldn't what your talking about be the DCS manual when its done? Goes in depth of system.

 

 

10 hours ago, Sarge55 said:

I presume you ask to gauge the level interest before putting in time and effort.

 

I would not be interested.  As noted above, I would rather wait on the official manual from DCS which will accurately reflect the F-16 they have developed.  In the meantime Chuck's guide is great.

As for the DCS manual: The DCS F-16 Manual super simplifies systems, contains some faulty stuff like the checklists. Lastly it's not a guide, it will never be easy for an FC3 skill level person to know what to learn and why etc. and how to employ the things into a mission. Same goes for chucks guide really, although he sacrifices a lot of the realism for simplicity. The guide that I will be making would be a guide that gives you a very high level of realism when flying, while also being easy to understand. Neither the DCS manual nor chucks guide gives you any kind of high realism, so I think a guide that teaches you how to fly the F-16 realistically would fill a gap in the learning experience for people.

[SpaceMonkey037]

12 hours ago, DerekSpeare said:

Are you conceiving your guide to be a more user friendly one that is comprehensive like TOGR1F16-CJ?  Anyone who makes an effort to make this game more fun/accessible/rewarding/entertaining has my respect. 

Correct. I will be taking the most important information necessary to fly the F-16 vey realistically, at least compared to what other manuals/guides currently offer. The guide will be made easy understand for almost anyone while also teaching you how to fly the thing. My goal with the guide is to teach people of all skills the ins and outs of the F-16, so that you can operate it as close to real life as practically possible and doing it efficiently so that minimal time investment and effort is needed. Pretty much spoon feeding you F-16 knowledge.

Edited December 18, 2020 by SpaceMonkey037

[Bog9y]

Interested but just curious, what would make your manual more realistic than others?  Have you got real F-16 time?

[SpaceMonkey037]

3 minutes ago, Bbow said:

Interested but just curious, what would make your manual more realistic than others?  Have you got real F-16 time?

I do not have real F-16 flight time, but I do have a couple hundred if not thousand hours in F-16 flight manuals. The guide will definitely be a lot more in-depth than other guides/manuals aimed at the more "casual" market, so to say. Think of the guide as a stepping stone into the world of realistic simming.  Going from chucks guide to the real flight manuals is a BIG jump if you don't have any real aviation experience. The manuals are designed for people who've already completed a lot of pilot training. The goal of the guide is to explain the most important subjects of the aircraft in an easy to understand way, so that people with very limited aviation knowledge will be able to eventually fly the thing at a very high level of realism. In short: Giving people of next to no experience the knowledge required to operate the aircraft at a high level, while not using thousands of hours of studying.

[Rudel_chw]

Hello,

 

I'm one of those people that like to learn the aircraft systems in-depth, and while I do find Chuck's Guides very useful, I actually prefer to read the Pilot's manual of the real thing ... so, probably I'm not on your target audience. However, I once did a realistic Cold Start Training mission for the Viper (https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3309476/) and it got 600 downloads, so that may be a gauge of how many people is interested on this type of approach.

 

On 12/17/2020 at 5:59 AM, SpaceMonkey037 said:

Planning on creating a guide that aims to contain more realistic procedures and better system descriptions than both chucks F-16 guide and the DCS:F-16 manual.
...
What i am trying to achieve with this post is to see how much interest there currently is in a guide like this. If anyone’s interested make sure to let me know and it would also be great to get some recommendations about content that should be included.

Edited December 18, 2020 by Rudel_chw

[SpaceMonkey037]

14 minutes ago, Rudel_chw said:

Hello,

 

I'm one of those people that like to learn the aircraft systems in-depth, and while I do find Chuck's Guides very useful, I actually prefer to read the Pilot's manual of the real thing ... so, probably I'm not on your target audience. However, I once did a realistic Cold Start Training mission for the Viper (https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3309476/) and it got 600 downloads, so that may be a gauge of how many people is interested on this type of approach.

 

 

Very interesting. I am planning on releasing the guide in iterations. First iteration will most likely be going over normal procedures and giving a checklist as a supplement. Going in depth into the why's and how's of preforming the tests, and not just giving them straight like the dcs manual or chucks guide do. Goal is to really teach people how the aircraft works, making people understand the procedures, not memorizing them.

[Wildwind]

22 minutes ago, SpaceMonkey037 said:

Very interesting. I am planning on releasing the guide in iterations. First iteration will most likely be going over normal procedures and giving a checklist as a supplement. Going in depth into the why's and how's of preforming the tests, and not just giving them straight like the dcs manual or chucks guide do. Goal is to really teach people how the aircraft works, making people understand the procedures, not memorizing them.

I'm interested.  One of my favorite movie quotes is from Star Trek II, when Kirk tells Savvik, "You have to know why things work on a starship."   Why?  Because it reflects my philosophy on learning and understanding technical systems.  Rote memorization will only get you so far; understanding the underlying logic will get you everywhere.  If you know why it works, it doesn't matter if you forget the details of how it works - you can derive the how from your understanding of the why.

[greenmamba]

Just do it. 

[SpaceMonkey037]

1 minute ago, greenmamba said:

Just do it. 

Yeah, because a lot of people seem interested in this I have already started work on the guide. It will definitely take some time, but it wouldn't be DCS without some waiting. Thanks for all the support so far.  

[greenmamba]

Anything that adds value to the simulation world and done in a constructive way is a +. 

[Sarge55]

On 12/18/2020 at 6:14 AM, SpaceMonkey037 said:

 

As for the DCS manual: The DCS F-16 Manual super simplifies systems, contains some faulty stuff like the checklists. Lastly it's not a guide, it will never be easy for an FC3 skill level person to know what to learn and why etc. and how to employ the things into a mission. Same goes for chucks guide really, although he sacrifices a lot of the realism for simplicity. The guide that I will be making would be a guide that gives you a very high level of realism when flying, while also being easy to understand. Neither the DCS manual nor chucks guide gives you any kind of high realism, so I think a guide that teaches you how to fly the F-16 realistically would fill a gap in the learning experience for people.

Sounds like an interesting project but I'm probably too casual of a player to take advantage your guide.  However, I imagine there will be some who will be quite appreciative of a more in depth guide so for them I would say carry on.

[SpaceMonkey037]

45 minutes ago, Sarge55 said:

Sounds like an interesting project but I'm probably too casual of a player to take advantage your guide.  However, I imagine there will be some who will be quite appreciative of a more in depth guide so for them I would say carry on.

That's another thing I am trying to do with the guide, make the world of realistic simming accessible to everyone, with minimal time investment. The guide will, in best case, work as a gateway into realistic simming.

[Fri13]

Why not make something simple as example, like take a some system or procedure that you can make in 2-3 pages. Just so you get feeling how to make it, and then later present it here as example.

[SpaceMonkey037]

16 minutes ago, Fri13 said:

Why not make something simple as example, like take a some system or procedure that you can make in 2-3 pages. Just so you get feeling how to make it, and then later present it here as example.

Example? I can give you an example no problem! This is an example of how to land the F-16, so ONLY landing procedure (keep in mind that this is straight into it, the guide will most definitely contain more information about different things to make the procedure easier for people, and then have another version that quickly explains how to land so that it's easier to memorize the procedure. 1 for leaning, 1 for remembering. I will also keep the guide more formal than shown in this example :  
*****************************************************************************LANDING START***********************************************************

To figure out the correct approach we first need to input the runway coordinates as a steerpoint. Choose steerpoint 1-25 for this and select that steerpoint. Then figure out the heading on the runway by any means and input the heading into the HSI’s course (that blue line on the HSI). I’m not going to go over correct VFR approaches, but I would recommend to somehow get infront of the runway, no matter the distance.

At 12-15nm away from the runway lower the landing gear under 300 knots and extend the speedbrakes. Once lined up with the runway intercept a 3 degree glide slope. This can be achieved by using the dotted attitude line that appears in the HUD with gear down shows you 2.5 degrees nose down attitude. Line up the dotted line slightly above the runway threshold and place the flight path marker on the threshold. Doing this will result in a 3 degrees. Then simply fly for 11 degrees AOA. 11 degrees AOA is preferred of 13, as 13 degrees proved to give too little room for error when flaring (11 degrees is achieved by placing the flight path marker on the top of the AOA bracket) Fly the 11 degree glide slope until you’re at approximately 2 seconds from impact when following the 3 degree glide slope. Here you will pull back on the stick, idle the throttle now, or a few bits later if you are heavy. When touching down you’re not trying to smash the plane down, but also not try to just kiss the runway. Smashy smashy style is self-explanatory as that will destroy stuff, however landing too softly increases the chances of aquaplaning with wet runways. For this reason, ALWAYS try to firmly place the aircraft down, not too soft not too hard. Even if the runway is dry it is a good habit to land it firmly.

Once you’ve touched down slightly (very slightly) lower the nose to avoid floating back up into the air. Then a split second later pull back on the stick and aim for 13 degrees AOA. Do not exceed 15 degrees as you will tail strike above this. Keep the aerobraking for as long as possible. If your runway is long enough keep your nose up until it falls down by itself, once the nose wheel has touch the ground fully extend the speedbrakes by holding the speedbrake switch aft and give full back stick pressure to increase the drag of the horizontal tail. Keep in mind that there is no reason to lower the nose “manually” if you’re not going to brake immediately after the nose wheel as touched the runway. For shorter runways a shorter stop might be needed. Here you might need to lower the nose at 100 knots and apply brakes. For absolute maximum stopping “power” you will want to

aerobrake and apply full brakes while aerobraking. You will then lower the nose at 100 knots, keeping full brakes, full back stick pressure and full speedbrake once the nose wheel as touched the runway. Hot brakes is another consideration when landing. If heavy use of wheel brakes is necessary you risk getting hot brakes. Hot brakes can destroy the hydraulics in the wheel brakes and might lead to fires, so avoid this if possible. Unless you have a really light loadout (4k pounds and belove) you won’t get hot brakes no matter what you do. If you brake at anything under 80 knots you pretty much won't get hot brakes unless you have a heavy loadout. Anything under 7k pounds will be just fine. You can calculate your current weight by estimating each missile to 250 pounds and bombs to.. whatever bombs you have, and then of course adding on the amount of fuel left as it is calculated in pounds. Generally you want to avoid using brakes if you don't need to, as you will have to change out the brake pads more often, however changing brake pads is a lot cheaper than changing the plane. It's better to use them rather then not if you're unsure about the braking distance.

As for the actual braking technique, think like this: No matter the braking power you will always have the same amount of heat build up, meaning that it is better to brake hard over a short amount of time rather than braking softly over a long time. Same goes for taxing. With hot brakes i mean red glowing hot brakes. The only way to actually confirm that you have them is if a flight member can spot the brakes.

 

As for when you want to stop I would say slightly before the runway end, roughly 1/8 of the way down the runway or 1000 feet. Use a minimum runway length of 8000 feet. It is possible to land at shorter runways, but 8000 is a good “minimum” for most weights.
*****************************************************************************LANDING END**************************************************************

Edited December 20, 2020 by SpaceMonkey037
Typo

[SilverQuant1]

I’m a relatively new user. Very interested in this approach that looks very accessible and understandable. Thank you in advance for your efforts to put this in place. I already learned from your ‘example’. 

When can we anticipate a first release of your manual ?

 

 

[SpaceMonkey037]

7 hours ago, SilverQuant1 said:

I’m a relatively new user. Very interested in this approach that looks very accessible and understandable. Thank you in advance for your efforts to put this in place. I already learned from your ‘example’. 

When can we anticipate a first release of your manual ?

 

 

Great to hear so many people are interested in this! Really makes this a fun project to work on. As for a possible release date I don't think you guys will be having to wait for long if progress continues with the current paste. I would be expecting a release in no more than 2-3 months, but I really hope to be able to get the project really rolling over the Christmas and new year holidays, meaning that hopefully the release should be early after new year. Keep in mind that this is far from set in stone as I am a lone writer, and if anything happens progression might be completely halted for a considerable amount of time. I will try my best though! The first release will mainly be focusing on the normal procedures and the considerations that should be made to sustain safe operation of the aircraft. To be able to get some more specific feedback on the layout and general flow of how the end product will look like, I have made this Escape System description as an example of how I would expect most of the guide to be made. Do you feel like this will turn out to be a great guide, or a guide that you will fall asleep reading and won't get any sort of useful information out of? Highly appreciate all feedback as to how these system explanations should be made.  PDF document attached to this post. 

F-16 Flight Guide ESCAPE SYSTEM TEST.pdf

[Rudel_chw]

This preview seems nice, tough I would add illustrations on where the clickable controls are located and mention the default shortcut keys for each control. 

 

About the content difficulty, to me it seems to be very similar to a NATOPs manual, not sure if it is begginer-appropiate.