My F5 BFM Campaign Review

[Princess57]

 Hello everyone,

 

I have been playing this campaign for a while and would like to give my review from a noob DCS pilot point of view. I think this might be useful for new players like me.

BTW my sim experience is 250 hours of IL2, and about 90 hours DCS (probably 70 of those hours were spent binding controls lol)
I sarted DCS with the F15, and while I learned to fly, take off, land, and operate it's systems in a couple of days, actually using it in "combat" in the campaigns still felt completely out of my control. I could complete some missions, but only after several attempts of trial and error and sometimes I had to look for videos of other people completing the mission and copy their actions. I would like to learn how to make good tactical decisions myself, and eventually to complete missions on the first try. So I thought it would be a good idea to start with something simpler to learn the basics and build up my knowledge and capabilities from the ground up. So I got the F5 and the BFM and ACM campaigns (and hopefully the Red Flag campaign as soon as it is available!).

 

Now, to the campaign itself. It's quality is awesome. From the voice communications to the flight plans, excercise rules, documents, to the missions themselves, everything is very well made with an evident attention to detail.

I have seen some criticism because of the high apparent difficulty of the campaign, specially considering the AI flight model wich is kind of unfair. Here is where I think my point of view will help other new players.

The first few missions I played where extremely frustrating. Even though I learned to navigate with TACAN in the training mission, following the directions in the familiarization flight was almost impossible for me. It was too much information, and as soon as the subtitles dissappear I forgot everything. Then, the first duel with the F5's, It seemed completely impossible to ever shoot one down. After a few tries I was about to forget about it and play something else. 

BUT!

There is a big BUT. This topic below had all the information I was missing. After I read it I managed to complete the familiarization flight, and after a couple hours playing the different practice missions I can now kill my adversaries about 50% of the time, force them to the deck another 25%, and timeout the rest. I'm sure with a few more hours of practice I will be able to successfully complete this campaign. 

 

Now, a few suggestions.

For new players: 

If you are thinking of getting this campaign, do it. It is hard, it is challenging, the AI FM is unfair (not Maple Flag's fault), but if you take your time to learn all the things you need, you will improve and eventually complete it successfully.

 

For the developers:
Include those same hints and tips in the mission briefings. They make all the difference to a new player. Other small details like a picture of the small hill in INDIA in the briefing would help a lot too. 

Also, there is still a big gap between the included training missions in the F5 module and this BFM campaign. It would be awesome if you could make an advanced training campaign or something like that. Including things like visual aproach and departure, VFR, weapon employment practice, offensive and defensive BFM, etc. 

Thanks a lot btw, for me this kind of campaigns are what DCS is all about. 

Cheers,

Stefan
 

Edited December 8, 2021 by Princess57
Clarification

[Sabre-TLA]

Thanks for the feedback.  We will certainly take your suggestions to heart and make updates to the campaign to implement those suggestions.

With the new GFM (General Flight Model) coming soon we hope that will make the campaigns even more realistic and enjoyable for all users.

[Monkee]

Thanks a lot @Princess57 for your feedback.

For a beginner with a desire to learn things right, would you recommend to start learning BFM in a wwii plane before doing the F5 campaign?

Edited October 31, 2022 by Monkee

[=475FG= Dawger]

2 hours ago, Monkee said:

Thanks a lot @Princess57 for your feedback.

For a beginner with a desire to learn things right, would you recommend to start learning BFM in a wwii plane before doing the F5 campaign?

 

No.

This is a common mistaken belief. 
 

Get comfortable flying the F-5 to its limits, learn to fly basic aerobatics and learn as much as you can about formation flying (not just formation station keeping but rejoins and intercepts)

Basically emulate the process followed in the real world.

[Monkee]

Thanks a lot @=475FG= Dawger for your advice!

When you say fly it to the limit, do you mean that I should try to stall it in turns and with-out power or does it go further than that?

For all of these skills you recommend to work on, do you have some good material to study or mission/drills I could use?

[=475FG= Dawger]

6 hours ago, Monkee said:

Thanks a lot @=475FG= Dawger for your advice!

When you say fly it to the limit, do you mean that I should try to stall it in turns and with-out power or does it go further than that?

For all of these skills you recommend to work on, do you have some good material to study or mission/drills I could use?

I would start with traffic pattern work. 

A fairly standard overhead pattern at normal speeds and G levels until you are consistently putting the aircraft on the selected touchdown point within a runway centerline stripe distance.

And then work up to lower altitudes, higher initial speeds and higher G breaks in the pattern until you are coming in supersonic, and breaking at the edge of blackout.

Once you feel proficient there, a course of "airshow" aerobatics doing circular loops, Immelmann, split S, 4 point rolls, Cuban 8, and flat turns at constant 4 G.

Then move on to maximum performance aerobatics. Maximum G versions of all of the above. Practice flat turns maintaining a constant airspeed at maximum possible G (360 knots and 410 knots for example) Take maneuvers out of plane. Do Split S and Immellmann out of vertical (oblique maneuver). Get comfortable maneuvering in 3 dimensions.

Once all of that is complete you need another aircraft to maneuver in reference to.

Start with the reference aircraft flying in a straight line, level flight. Practice joining into close trail formation from every angle at the same altitude. Practice staying in formation but not to excess.

Once you can reliably end up in close trial from a head on  setup with NO time spent trying to catch up     you are ready to practice the same stuff with a reference aircraft maneuvering mildly but still trying to make it easy for you to join.

When that becomes reasonable easy it is time to start a BFM course.

It boils down to this. 

1. You need to be able to fly the airplane without thinking about it so you can devote all your brain power to the fight.

2. All 1 v 1 BFM is a simple matter of establishing a formation position in the weapons employment zone long enough for a kill shot. If you can't do formation joins on an aircraft that WANTS you to join on him you will be hopeless against one who is actively trying to prevent it. So if you think practicing formation joins is boring or silly, you would be wrong. It is a major fundamental stepping stone in the process.

There is, of course, a lot more to this but it depends on your level of interest and desired goals. If you just want to finish the BFM campaign, doing the above will get you there with some diligence. The AI are extremely predictable.

[Monkee]

Wow this is exactly the information I was looking for! Thanks so much @=475FG= Dawger, I really appreciate! 

Mastering all this will take me a while but I'm interested in the "lot more to this" if you don't mind giving me more steps to follow.

I'm always excited about "playing DCS" but I think I'm even more excited about doing a proper pilot training!

[BuzzLine]

Additional tip : use TacView to debrief your flights. It's great to understand where to improve. I recommend looking at the "total mechanical energy" value (EM) which helps a lot understand why the opponent is flying circles around you. null