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F/A18-C Hornet Complexity/Difficulty - Info for Newbies


zippydoda

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Lots of posts about this - a lot of them some years ago and, although perhaps not a major factor, this aircraft has added complexity since then mostly  in the form of additional sensors and weapons.  


First I’d like to establish the context for my comments as it may provide newish simmers (and this is really targeted to them) a basis on which to evaluate the validity of these comments for their particular skill and motivation levels.  I’m a long time flight simmer with DCS, X-Plane and MS FSs.  However I’ve only engaged in ‘study’ level simming the last 2-3 years. But I’m retired and with nothing better to do during COVID I’ve probably spent several thousand hours on all of these.  It’s definitely harder to learn and retain things when you’re older - so that’s been a factor.  My first DCS aircraft was the A10A then A10C - moving recently to the the A10C II Tank Killer.  I’m pretty good with those and can operate the sensor and weapon systems on those which are the most complex. I’m not to the place where I’m doing real-time multiplayer campaigns as I still have to pause the sim here and there to configure systems for the next task at times.  I like variety so I’ve also learned a number of civilian aircraft during this same time, some pretty complex.

That said,  none of those are anywhere close to the study level (I.e. in-depth operation of all systems) complexity and learning curve of most of the modern military aircraft of DCS.  I became pretty proficient in my first X-Plane two and four engine airliners within a week or so (with lots of previous smaller jet aircraft experience) It took many many months to achieve some level of proficiency with the A-10C.  In my experience the F/A18-C Hornet is a very large step up from that in complexity and learning curve even even with lots of A10 time.  And of course it’s all about the targeting, weaponry and associated sensor systems which are more numerous, varied and configurable. You can get a sense of complexity by looking at the table of contents in a manual like a Chucks guide (which I highly recommend btw).  For the Hornet,  the radar- sensor section toc alone has over 80 entries and the section is 180 pages long.  The whole manual is over 700 pages.  Granted there are a lot of diagrams and screenshots (which are extremely helpful), but still….
 

Basic flying (aviating), navigating and  communicating are very similar in most aircraft. So once you have the basics of those down in a couple of them you can do those in almost anything (rotary aircraft excepted), including the more complex military aircraft of DCS.  So if you get pleasure from those activities,  the F/A 18C Hornet will be fun too.   You might want to avoid the cold/dark starts to begin with.  Going beyond that,  if you like destroying stuff (and if you’re in DCS of course you do) there are a couple of weapon systems that are less complex to learn and operate.  The gun, unguided missiles and bombs are examples of those and the Instant Action missions are a good place to start.  YouTube tutorials will be your friend for those and everything else.  Speaking of those, and related to complexity, the GrimReaper series for the Hornet has over 80 videos….yikes!
 

If study-level is eventually your thing, the Hornet will be a fun and very demanding challenge and will be a great substitute for walking the dog, doing the dishes, streaming Hulu or raking the leaves. Or maybe you should do those to clear your head? In any case be prepared to dream of targeting pods, reticles and incoming air-to-air missiles.  What could be better?

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