Community A-4E-C v2.2 (October 2023)

[Gianky]

On 3/1/2022 at 5:09 AM, RealA4EPilot said:

Okay the honest, correct, and truthful one word answer to your question is a staunchly firm, "probably."

As evasive as that is, it fits because how one would answer the question would depend what time frame you were talking about. Here's what I mean. In 1965, Dixie Station was roughly 100 miles east of Quảng Ngãi, South Vietnam, and Yankee Station was roughly 100 miles west of the DMZ that separated North and South Vietnam. The first day in the combat zone of our second Vietnam Cruise, I walked into the VA-72 ready room, plopped down in a ready room chair, turned my eye to the PLAT TV and could not believe my eyes. The island plat camera was showing the coastal mountains of North Vietnam in the background, and a medium sized fishing junk a couple hundred yards from the carrier. Convinced that what I was seeing was a ruse of some kind, I sprinted to the flight deck to see what was going on. I'll leave it to you make my reaction earthier using appropriate anglo-saxon words where they are needed. As I looked toward North Vietnam I thought "Holy <fecal material>, our captain has <gonads> the size of grape fruit!!!"

Sailing this close to the North Vietnamese coast was a visceral announcement to everyone on the ship and those watching from the shoreline that the United States was taking a much more aggressive stance in regards to protecting the growth of democracy in South Vietnam and ensuring freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and the Gulf of Tonkin.

Although just a shade over six months before we were flying combat missions off of the Independence, Dixie station had all but disappeared, and two carriers were deep in the Gulf of Tonkin. One operating from noon to midnight, and the other operating from midnight to noon. So as I said above the correct answer to your question depended on what period of history you are asking about. In July 1965 the answer is yes. if you were assigned to Dixie Station you primarily flew air support missions in South Vietnam.

 

Thanks for sharing, RealA4EPilot!

If you can/want to talk about it, were the support missions in South Vietnam more or less like the modern on call CAS mission? I mean you took off, got to a spot over SV and waited to be called or the end of vul? Were you guided by a FAC or a ground controller, or were you put in direct contact with the troops on the ground? IN the latter case, were you free to choose how to conduct the attacks or under strict control? I'm guessing the answer is going to be again "it depends" but if you could elaborate a bit on it, I'd be grateful.

[RealA4EPilot]

3 hours ago, Gianky said:

Thanks for sharing, RealA4EPilot!

If you can/want to talk about it, were the support missions in South Vietnam more or less like the modern on call CAS mission? I mean you took off, got to a spot over SV and waited to be called or the end of vul? Were you guided by a FAC or a ground controller, or were you put in direct contact with the troops on the ground? IN the latter case, were you free to choose how to conduct the attacks or under strict control? I'm guessing the answer is going to be again "it depends" but if you could elaborate a bit on it, I'd be grateful.

Hi, Gianky,

Yes, it did depend. I can't remember the exact terminology, but there were areas in South Vietnam that were so infested with communist Viet Cong that they were almost free fire zones. The Navy A-4s never were in direct contact with the troops on the ground. The only radio in an A-4E of the time was an AN/ARC-27 which was an AM UHF-VHF radio. I believe troops had a VHF FM radio. The FACs could talk to us and to the troops. I don't recall working with a ground FAC, but I know that the Marines had some FACs with frontline units.

There we two different classes of FACs fast movers in something like an F-100F in the high threat areas of South Vietnam, but most FACs were in slower prop aircraft. I do remember one mission off the Independence where we ended up in a stack over a FAC along with a flight of A-6 Intruders from the Indy. We were loaded with either 250lb or 500lb bombs. The FAC was working a tree line next to a stream and calling us in one at a time.

All of a sudden he announced that he was taking fire from the other side of the stream and wanted to know if anyone was in position to roll in. The A-4s were all out of position but an A-6 called, the FAC fired a rocket with a white phosphorus warhead where he wanted the bomb and cleared the A-6 in Hot. All four A-6s were loaded with five 2,000lb bombs. When the bomb exploded, the FAC went wild . . . "Holy <profanity>! What was that? Do you have any more?" The Intruder driver told him he had 4 more and each of the three remaining A-6s had five of those bombs.

The FAC had each of the A-6s lay down a stik of bombs 50 meters down the tree line from the last bomb impact. A total of 20 tons of bombs tore the trees apart. If the Viet Cong soldier survived, I am confident he was more circumspect about choosing his targets after that. That wasn't the only time on a close air support mission that some Viet Cong soldier had the sky fall on him or her because a FAC was targeted.

 

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by RealA4EPilot

[Alpenwolf]

15 hours ago, Gianky said:

Hey Alpenwolf!

First of all, thank you for including the A-4E in your Cold War server... I don't understand why there aren't more people doing it! Can't wait for the Arab-Israeli war this weekend and I hope you'll include Scooter in more mission... I'm itching to use it more and more!

As for the options, beside what Calabrone told you, keep in mind, if you don't already know, that the ones about CBUs and CMS can be modified by the pilot on the ground, before starting the engine, so you don't have to worry too much about them. I'd suggest you keep the ECM, too.

Hi, Gianky!

Thanks for the information.

I myself refrained from including this legendary Cold War aircraft only because it's a mod. Featuring a mod means you'd have to make sure that everyone has the mod and they all have the latest version of it. In addition, I'd have to keep on updating it myself on the server's machine after every update. And if I'd forget doing that while the server's running with players having the latest update, but not the server itself, I'd end up having endless problems. So, it's not the mod or the A-4 itself that are the problem, but merely the fact that a mod in its nature brings its own workload and problems with it. That's all.

After the latest A-4 update quite a few things changed and it really looks very tempting now. Therefore, I decided to design one mission for the A-4 and have it run occasionally. Who knows, maybe I'll design another one if the community asks for it. We'll see.

[plusnine]

Hello, everyone. This first update since the 2.0.0 release is primarily aimed at fixing bugs, although a few other nice new features have been added as well.

Download: https://github.com/heclak/community-a4e-c/releases/tag/v2.0.1

If you are finding this page later, visit the project page at for the latest download at https://08jne01.github.io/community-a4e-c/

As always, please submit any bugs or issues on the issue tracker here: https://github.com/heclak/community-a4e-c/issues

Without further ado, let's get to the changelog!

Version 2.0.1 - 6 Mar 2022

Added

• Missions:

  • Option to disable the use of Night Vision Goggles equipment (NVG) in the mission editor.

• Liveries:

  • USN VC-10 Challengers, 1988.

• Quality of Life:

  • The A-4E-C can now be operated by many new countries. Liveries have been edited to match, Malaysia to the TUDM livery, for example.

  • Several new single input (momentary) bindings, and continuous inputs for AFCS Heading Select Pull-to-Set Knob.

  • Waypoint names specified in the Mission Editor are displayed on the kneeboard. Included missions have been updated to make use of this.

  • Fuel and aircraft loadout information are displayed in the kneeboard. This page automatically updates if the aircraft is rearmed or refueled.

Fixed

• Features:

  • Ground handling improved for greater control using differential braking (cleaned the oil out of the brake drums).

  • Improved pitch stability and more correct low speed/high aoa handling.

• Systems:

  • Altimeter updated to use more realistic realistic barometric calculations.

  • AN/APG-53A Radar AoA Compensation Switch now properly affects returns from ships. A/G mode uses the same monte carlo sampling for beam shape, taking a weighted average of intensities to determine the range.

  • APC light now turns off once the system engages (thanks pohlinkzei).

  • Fuel system getting no longer gets stuck in flight refuel mode. 3-position fuel system switches default keybinds now cycle between available positions.

  • Fixed IN RANGE lamp no longer flickers when MASTER TEST pressed (thanks nima3333).

• Weapons and Loadouts:

  • CBU-1/A, CBU-2/A and CBU-2B/A Cluster Dispensers now dispense an accurate number of bomblets with a minim amount of performance impact.

• Missions:

  • A-4E-C now properly represented by an A aircraft icon representative of the aircraft's role.

  • Unlimited fuel support in the mission editor works (thanks nima3333)

• Quality of Life:

  • Up/down mouse click behavior for 3-position switches that were inverted so that all such switches behave identically.

  • Hemisphere information on waypoint coordinates on the kneeboard now display properly on Nevada and Normandy maps.

  • Corrected documentation URL files.

Changed

• Systems:

  • AN/ARN-52 TACAN volume provides a better response across available knob position range.

  • CP-741/A steady gunsight position must be established to receive accurate raging information. The computer now accounts for ejection velocity improving accuracy in some regimes.

• Weapons and Loadouts:

  • Changed MK-77 napalm canisters to have a cluster effect which is much closer to actual napalm.

  • More realistic MK12 guns charging and clearance: Guns can be armed and safed a total of 3 times before available charging nitrogen is depleted. The gun arming and safing when these charges are dispensed is audible. The ground crew performing a rearm will replenish nitrogen charges.

  • More realistic MK4 HIPEG Gun Pods charging: Gunpods will now respond to charges only when their station is readied before engaging the gunpod switch to the CHARGE position. Setting this switch to CLEAR clears all gunpods on the aircraft, until the ground crew rearms the aircraft.

  • Fixed wheel brake default keybinds to a more comfortable LCTRL+W
    and LALT+W, to make differential braking easier for keyboard users and to be in accordance with more DCS modules. As a result, the Emergency Stores Release Handle (Jettison) has been reassigned to LCTRL+J.

• Quality of Life:

  • 4k- and VR-friendly asset for the loading screen. (thanks Tuuvas)

  • New mission briefing screen.

  • Kneeboard manual updated. Unified kneeboard font sizing across in-game dynamically generated kneeboard pages.

Edited March 7, 2022 by plusnine

[=Skywarp=]

Wow tks Plusnine!!

Will check it!!

[JokerMan]

Many thanks. This module, already exceeding all expectations, gets improved again. We've been flying the A4-E almost exclusively (i.e. jets) for the past three months now. Whilst we've mostly gotten used to the "old oil in the drums", the changes here will surely be welcomed.  The Wheel brake default binding changes are most welcomed also. S!

[YSIAD_RIP]

Wonderful.... And I just noticed the new Wallpaper!  lol. 

[Calabrone]

Just thank you for creating this wonderful module. Wet feet!

[nairb121]

Is anyone else having trouble with the CBU-1 and CBU-2 dispensers with V2.01? CBU-2/A and CBU-2B/A on single racks are almost 13,000 lb (looks like it's already reported on the GitHub issues page). I'm also having another issue where the bomblets (seems to be in all variants), instead of dropping out of the dispensers neatly, burst out in all directions (frequently hitting and destroying the plane). I don't see this one reported so I wanted to check if I'm alone.

[Biggus]

I've had this mod installed and briefly played with it for about a year now, but since this latest patch I've given it a really good look and I am utterly blown away with how impressive it is.  It's an incredible little plane and I would really like to thank the devs for all their hard work.  Last night, I was tasked with clearing out a convoy that my friend in his Hind was unable to engage safely.  I laid a stick of Mk81s along it with the wonderful computer designation mode and it was glorious!  Well done, guys!

[Gianky]

On 3/3/2022 at 3:37 PM, Alpenwolf said:

I myself refrained from including this legendary Cold War aircraft only because it's a mod. Featuring a mod means you'd have to make sure that everyone has the mod and they all have the latest version of it. In addition, I'd have to keep on updating it myself on the server's machine after every update. And if I'd forget doing that while the server's running with players having the latest update, but not the server itself, I'd end up having endless problems. So, it's not the mod or the A-4 itself that are the problem, but merely the fact that a mod in its nature brings its own workload and problems with it. That's all.

After the latest A-4 update quite a few things changed and it really looks very tempting now. Therefore, I decided to design one mission for the A-4 and have it run occasionally. Who knows, maybe I'll design another one if the community asks for it. We'll see.

@AlpenwolfI understand the hesitation, as demonstrated by the update posted above, including it in your missions implies additional work in maintaining them.

Anyway, I wanted to thank you for the Arab - Israeli war mission, I enjoyed it a lot (even though I managed not to drop a single bomb... I remapped the weapon release button on my stick that very day and costantly pressed the old one while in your server.... do'h! ); one question, since it was the first time on your server: the description says that dot labels are active, even though it specify "(local)", but I didn't see them during the mission, despite pressing shift + F10... did I do something wrong or were they disabled?

 

On 3/3/2022 at 3:53 AM, RealA4EPilot said:

Hi, Gianky,

Yes, it did depend. I can't remember the exact terminology, but there were areas in South Vietnam that were so infested with communist Viet Cong that they were almost free fire zones. The Navy A-4s never were in direct contact with the troops on the ground. The only radio in an A-4E of the time was an AN/ARC-27 which was an AM UHF-VHF radio. I believe troops had a VHF FM radio. The FACs could talk to us and to the troops. I don't recall working with a ground FAC, but I know that the Marines had some FACs with frontline units.

There we two different classes of FACs fast movers in something like an F-100F in the high threat areas of South Vietnam, but most FACs were in slower prop aircraft. I do remember one mission off the Independence where we ended up in a stack over a FAC along with a flight of A-6 Intruders from the Indy. We were loaded with either 250lb or 500lb bombs. The FAC was working a tree line next to a stream and calling us in one at a time.

All of a sudden he announced that he was taking fire from the other side of the stream and wanted to know if anyone was in position to roll in. The A-4s were all out of position but an A-6 called, the FAC fired a rocket with a white phosphorus warhead where he wanted the bomb and cleared the A-6 in Hot. All four A-6s were loaded with five 2,000lb bombs. When the bomb exploded, the FAC went wild . . . "Holy <profanity>! What was that? Do you have any more?" The Intruder driver told him he had 4 more and each of the three remaining A-6s had five of those bombs.

The FAC had each of the A-6s lay down a stik of bombs 50 meters down the tree line from the last bomb impact. A total of 20 tons of bombs tore the trees apart. If the Viet Cong soldier survived, I am confident he was more circumspect about choosing his targets after that. That wasn't the only time on a close air support mission that some Viet Cong soldier had the sky fall on him or her because a FAC was targeted.

 

 

 

@RealA4EPilot thank you for your answer and for sharing another sea story with us!

If you can/want to answer, I'm wondering what was the usual loadout for CAS missions? Did you load bombs and rockets (Zuni or FFAR?), did you use the MK4 gunpod, napalm bombs or SUU-7 dispensers?

I'm asking because, aside for the historical interest in everything aviation, I'm almost done with the only A-4E campaign that I found and I was thinking about creating my first one with this little gem as a protagonist, and I'd like to be as accurate as possibile within the limitation of what DCS has to offer.

[Calabrone]

It's all right. Gianky. Thank RealA4EPilot!

Edited March 10, 2022 by Calabrone

[Alpenwolf]

6 hours ago, Gianky said:

@AlpenwolfI understand the hesitation, as demonstrated by the update posted above, including it in your missions implies additional work in maintaining them.

Anyway, I wanted to thank you for the Arab - Israeli war mission, I enjoyed it a lot (even though I managed not to drop a single bomb... I remapped the weapon release button on my stick that very day and costantly pressed the old one while in your server.... do'h! ); one question, since it was the first time on your server: the description says that dot labels are active, even though it specify "(local)", but I didn't see them during the mission, despite pressing shift + F10... did I do something wrong or were they disabled?

Glad you enjoyed the mission.

Dot labels are off. Not sure why it says otherwise.

The mission kicks off again for round 2 this Saturday, around 1900 zulu if you're interested.

[Gianky]

Thanks for your reply, Alpenwolf, I'll gladly give it another shot, even though no labels is a deal breaker for me (can't see squat without them in my Oculus CV1... can't really understand why people insist for not having them, it's not like DCS is comparable to reality vision-wise, not even at top resolution...).

[tmitch2315]

I'm  having a problem getting DCS world to see my A-4E-C 2.0 download on this computer.  Does not show up on the list.  I did the install exactly as outlined and have the same download on another computer and its runs fine from the same location on C drive.  Is there a number I can call or can someone do a screen share to see what the problem amounts to. I have checked security settings, etc and both computers are set the same.  I'm missing something but don't know what it is.  New to this game and everything else runs fine on DCS.  This was free, of course, but I don't want to have this problem if I purchase something.  Happy to pay for help if it can be made to work.  I was refered to this forum from the main one which was "a-4e skyhawk install issues"Thanks

[razo+r]

It does not show up in what list? In the mission editor? If yes, did you disable the historical filter?

[tmitch2315]

It does not show up on the bottom of the DCS fighter main screen that lists all the aircraft so its not available to use.  On my other computer it is listed on the bottom of the main page and can be clicked on to start using.  Thanks for your response.  For some reason DCS is not accessing the file I installed on this computer.

[=475FG= Dawger]

This file

occasionally causes an Integrity Check failure. Deleting it *seems* to have corrected it although I have only a few days of data with it removed.

It took several days with the A-4E mod installed before this cropped up both times this has happened. I have no correlating events to point to why it happens when it happens.

 

 

[One Eyed Ross]

Well, almost 250 hours in, and really, really enjoying the A4.  The new update is great, having the M77 cover more area.  And the CB2 changes work wonderfully.

Thanks for all you guys have done, and continue to do, with this.

 

[HotTom]

A little help please.

I can't get the ILS (ICLS, MCL) to work. I set the channel listed on the kneeboard for the airbase, turn on BIT and release it back to ON, nothing. In BIT, it shows it calibrating but the lines disappear when it goes back to O). I haven't seen any complaints in the forums so I must be doing something wrong.

Suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

HT

 

[Gianky]

@plusnine is it still necessary to delete the input bindings when updating from 2.0? Is there a way to save the old bindings, despite deleting the files, so as not to have to bind everything again?

[joey45]

From 2.0 > 2.1 I don't think you need to delete the old key bindings.

[Tshark]

You can keep the old key bindings.  Plusnine confirmed this with me on Discord and the upgrade has worked flawlessly with the old bindings.

[Gianky]

Copy that, guys, thank you both! On to 2.0.1!

Edited March 12, 2022 by Gianky

[plusnine]

unless you've done super-extensive bindings, you shouldn't need to do much. a few switches were inverted or behavior changed; the main things that had alterations that would affect most people's bindings are the fuel system switch default hotkeys.