Let's see your grade sheets!

[arneh]

My grades. Not all of them are from first time, I did refly some unsats I got for mostly over-G during the BFM. One of them ask you to do 6.5 G, but give you an unsat if you're even slightly above. That's brutally hard to do with the G-meter hidden down in the bottom of the cockpit, while trying to keep eyes on the bandit.

Also struggled a bit the first time in the AG-missions to get correct distance to target on the downwind legs. Would help if the instructions gave some indication of how hard my turn needed to be to line me up the correct distance away (something like do a 60 degree 2G turn, or whatever is necessary). Took some attempts before I managed to get an acceptable distance.

Oh, and following the AI in close parade formation when entering and exiting turns I just found incredibly hard, so my unsat from there stands.

Edited December 30, 2023 by arneh

[Reflected]

That's a pretty decent score!

during g warm you need to pull 6 gs. You get an unsat above 7. You have the stick in your hand, you need to get a good feel for the airplane.

As for the AI, I know many players blame it for their bad grades, but to be honest, Paco suggested even more drastic turns would be realistic, so keep it in mind. It's not easy to graduate as a naval aviator  

The correct distance - just like IRL - is up to your eyeballs. As soon as Heatblur implements A/A TACAN for the Tomcat, I'll add it, but by the time you see it on the HSI, it will be too late. Follow the instructions to the letter, and use your eyeball, that's all I can say. Then practice, practice, practice.

Edited December 30, 2023 by Reflected

[arneh]

Quote

during g warm you need to pull 6 gs. You get an unsat above 7. You have the stick in your hand, you need to get a good feel for the airplane.

Sure, but that's one turn, at a different speed. It's very hard to know how exeactly hard to pull later on when you need to make a max performance turn. Of course I learn after I while, but that was after getting several unsats first

Quote

As for the AI, I know many players blame it for their bad grades, but to be honest, Paco suggested even more drastic turns would be realistic, so keep it in mind. It's not easy to graduate as a naval aviator

I don't think it's the hard bank which is hard, but the sudden very fast change of bank. I don't think they do it that fast in real life with a wingman this close. But I understand it's a limitation of DCS AI that you can't adjust how quickly they enter and exit turns.

Quote

The correct distance - just like IRL - is up to your eyeballs. As soon as Heatblur implements A/A TACAN for the Tomcat, I'll add it, but by the time you see it on the HSI, it will be too late. Follow the instructions to the letter, and use your eyeball, that's all I can say. Then practice, practice, practice.

Sure you learn after a lot of trial and error, but could be good to get a bit more instruction during the briefing how to best achieve the correct distance.
And to be clear I'm talking about the turn from spacer pass to downwind pass when doing the ground attack circuits. Of course I learn after a couple of unsats how hard I need to turn, and trying to guess if I was too close or too far away (it just says wrong distance, not if it was too close or too far). But just some constructive suggestion to add a bit more instructions for how best to achive the correct turn to put you the correct distance away so players don't have to go through so much trial and error to get it right.

Edited January 1, 2024 by arneh

[Reflected]

Ah the ground attack patterns. Look at your HSI, it's pointed at the target exactly and displays the distance.

Don't worry if you have to refly the tasks a few times, in real life they were repeated several times to practice. You don't have to get it right on the first try.

[Lime_Acid]

it's complicated and sometimes it feels like the scripts aren't working correctly
when flying in formation, Paco does not warn about maneuvers and does them very abruptly that I don’t have time to react. I flew online with people and we landed in pairs at Mig-21 without any problems because we were in touch and talked to each other BUT this is a wonderful campaign that taught me a lot. So far my rating is the lowest, but I will work to correct it, I hope you will continue to do similar campaigns

 

[Reflected]

3 hours ago, Lime_Acid said:

it's complicated and sometimes it feels like the scripts aren't working correctly
when flying in formation, Paco does not warn about maneuvers and does them very abruptly that I don’t have time to react. I flew online with people and we landed in pairs at Mig-21 without any problems because we were in touch and talked to each other BUT this is a wonderful campaign that taught me a lot. So far my rating is the lowest, but I will work to correct it, I hope you will continue to do similar campaigns

 

That's not a bad result, and the main point is that you feel you improved a lot. That's what matters.

I get a lot of feedback from people with lower grades trying to 'blame' it on the scripts or the AI, but the scripts work fine. They're just not forgiving at all due to the complexity of the missions. If you check on youtube you'll find some playthroughs where everything works as smooth as silk, because the player followed the instructions to the letter - like it is expected in the real life RAG. The more forgiving I make a mission, the more complexity I need to sacrifice, and with S&A I made no compromises. As for the turns, Paco suggested even more abrupt ones to be realistic, but I made it a bit easier for the DCS community. I made a video about it where I explain the details:
 

 

[Lime_Acid]

11 минут назад, Reflected сказал:

That's not a bad result, and the main point is that you feel you improved a lot. That's what matters.

I get a lot of feedback from people with lower grades trying to 'blame' it on the scripts or the AI, but the scripts work fine. They're just not forgiving at all due to the complexity of the missions. If you check on youtube you'll find some playthroughs where everything works as smooth as silk, because the player followed the instructions to the letter - like it is expected in the real life RAG. The more forgiving I make a mission, the more complexity I need to sacrifice, and with S&A I made no compromises. As for the turns, Paco suggested even more abrupt ones to be realistic, but I made it a bit easier for the DCS community. I made a video about it where I explain the details:
 

 

Yes, I first read the documentation for the missions and found a walkthrough on YouTube. Mostly i understand my mistakes. A small question regarding overloads in air battles, the plane shook for a moment and that’s it -overstressed jet - unsatisfactory when everything else went fine. Isn't that too harsh? 

[Reflected]

1 minute ago, Lime_Acid said:

Yes, I first read the documentation for the missions and found a walkthrough on YouTube. Mostly i understand my mistakes. A small question regarding overloads in air battles, the plane shook for a moment and that’s it -overstressed jet - unsatisfactory when everything else went fine. Isn't that too harsh? 

No, if you overstress a jet IRL at the RAG, that's a down. No questions. The structural limit in the NATOPS is 6.5 g-s. If you go above that the ground crew needs to check the jet for bent parts before it can fly again. It's very much frowned upon during training. At the fleet, however, it was pretty common occurrence according to Paco, and nobody really cared.  In practice, the F-14 is very sturdy and could take a lot more than what was officially allowed.

[Lime_Acid]

1 минуту назад, Reflected сказал:

No, if you overstress a jet IRL at the RAG, that's a down. No questions. The structural limit in the NATOPS is 6.5 g-s. If you go above that the ground crew needs to check the jet for bent parts before it can fly again. It's very much frowned upon during training. At the fleet, however, it was pretty common occurrence according to Paco, and nobody really cared.  In practice, the F-14 is very sturdy and could take a lot more than what was officially allowed.

Got it, thanks for the answers!

[Lime_Acid]

I couldn't leave it, I worked on myself

[Reflected]

Well done!

[Dragon1-1]

Here you go. Considering that "Average" stands for "average for a naval aviator", I feel like a badass.  Some of those were reflown, once or twice, and the night CV qual is the last trap, not the first. That said, I did fly 10 day and 6 night traps.  Funnily enough, I feel like night traps were easier, either because I got in my practice when doing day qual, or because of the long run in and more opportunities to look at instruments.

I have to say, the hardest part was probably not going into over-G in a dogfight. I got dinged quite a few times for pushing the plane too far. I suppose if I could feel the Gs, it wouldn't have been a problem. Of course, winning a dogfight while sticking to that limit and doing it fast enough to satisfy the instructor is another thing entirely. Either way, that was fun, now for the real deployment... and then, Zone 5.  

[cesarferrolho]

Here goes mine, not at first try. The last dogfight was lots of tries and only after the latest update did i reach the Unsat. lol 

 

About some observations people made, i should add that:

-The AI does not use the same physics, it's easy to see them accelerating too fast without burners and when Paco AI "jumps" from side to side behind the tanker.

-The AI will overstress the jet (Paco's F-14, 7G + ), even when you can't.

-The AI behaviour may change with DCS updates (mostly dogfights, i think).null

Edited December 10, 2024 by cesarferrolho

[Griefhard]

Finally... 't was hard. But rewarding. Although I was swearing quite some times and got frustrated, I learned the jet much better than many others. Impressive campaign. Now the assignements come and I will be off to the Marianas...

*Edit: Not first scores. I have to admit, some I needed to do quite some times and others I didn't understand quite well at the first try. But that's ok. For me it is.
*Edit 2: After the last DCS patch and update to mission 8, I was able to AVERAGE Run 2 also. Great thing and very satisfying! Thanks again!

Edited June 13 by Griefhard

[Tulkas]

Well, I finally got the time that this campaign deserved. I loved it, I've gotten some "unsact" which I have marked, in my defense, I don't think it was always my inability, but my lack of understanding of what was suppose to do. Paco is really good explaining, but he won't answer any of my subsequent questions for clarification 

I did complete the deployment to the Marianas also. I was very happy not having to repeat any of the missions... until I got to those two pesky Mig21s in the last mission. They shot me down twice. Until I decided not to wait there like an idiot and maneuver to the left when Paco turns towards me close to the merge. That gave me turning room to the right and was quite easy to shoot both down. I hated the night mission, I did not use NVG, so intense and disorienting. I wanted so badly to be over with it and get to the carrier! I have never felt such a relieve in the sim as I felt the aircraft decelerating after the cable trap. Bravo!    

Flying everything in VR. I felt flashbacks to the original TopGun movie when flying the formation portion, those Tomcats over the desert... and the beginning of the last flight, the fly over, it's a showcase of how good DCS can be -with all its shortcomings-  in the hands of talented people, I was mesmerized observing the taxing of all those F14 in the packed flightdeck. Beautiful, I just felt recording it in video, for the heck of it.

This was my first campaign. I have actually never really payed attention to offline campaigns but I got curious when I read about the collaboration of Paco, Slick, Bio and the others... and it did not disappoint. Excellent work with passion for the detail and realism. Now I have Zone 5 for after the summer. And maybe Mig Killers and Red Flag when I decide to start with the F4.

Edited June 13 by Tulkas

[Reflected]

@Tulkas thanks so much for the feedback and the kind words. That grade sheet is pretty good actually, well done!

MiG Killers would be a great follow up for this one, although for a different airframe. Zone 5 is a logical sequel too