DCS Hornet training - What am I missing?

[Thelastpharaoh]

I just bought DCS Hornet with the Supercarrier in the sales and I'm just getting to it now. tl;dr version at end of post.

What am I missing? The in game tutorials are enough to get you "sort of" going with some of the systems but severely lacking any depth at all in comparison, for instance, to the A-10C in game tutorials. There's plenty of very basic systems that aren't even touched in the in-game tutorials (ground radar, TGP, mavericks..etc). There's a series of "qualifier" missions that come stock with the module but they just seem like a cocktail of different training missions with no specific order, are those supposed to be the training?

I've found some really great videos on YouTube (Mainly Wags' videos, RedKite's tutorial series and 104th_Maverick's videos) which are really helpful, but again they're not really structured in a "zero to hero" method firstly, and secondly they're made with what seems to be a very early access version of the hornet and do not feature many things that have since been added.

Obviously there's the manual (and Chuck's Guide), both of which are great of course, but has no one really at all made at least a forum post or document with bullet points on how to get "good" with the hornet? Am I missing something, or has everyone just read the manual and built their own training missions? (nothing wrong with that, just want to know)

tl;dr

What is the best way to train from "zero to able to complete a single player campaign"? I noticed there are some "qualifier" missions that come stock with the module, is there a certain order they're best completed? They're currently in alphabetical order. 

 

Edited February 26, 2023 by Thelastpharaoh

[SharpeXB]

Lots of practice and repetition. There’s not an exact method. Go at a pace that suits you and take learn from as many places as you like. I don’t know that it matters so much what order you do those missions in. 

Edited March 25, 2023 by SharpeXB

[unlikely_spider]

On 2/26/2023 at 1:02 PM, Thelastpharaoh said:

What is the best way to train from "zero to able to complete a single player campaign"?

I think you've got the right idea already... any new module that I'm interested in, I take the three-pronged approach that you've already identified. Do the training missions in-game, read the Chuck's Guide and/or the official guide, and watch a bunch tutorials on YouTube.

Just like real flight training, knowing the capabilities of the aircraft allows you to focus on whichever areas you're weakest in. There are a good number of playlists on YouTube from various creators so that you can brush up on specific topics before a particular campaign mission requires you to use them. And if you're not familiar with carrier ops or AAR, for example, just jump into the instant action missions and practice the specific techniques until you're good at them.

The good campaigns in DCS (like those from Baltic Dragon, Reflected, Ground Pounder Sims)  have great documentation so that you know what you're getting into before jumping into the cockpit each mission, like which weapons you need to be familiar with. I guarantee that if you do all the training missions and read the manual you'll be good to go with the technical stuff before long.

[Dscross]

I would train the hornet in the following ways. 

1) Basic flight, take off and landing. (If you want to operate from the boat, make these Carrier landings and carrier patters.) 

2) NAVIGATION! Learn the nav system FIRST! learn how to input coordinates, how to fly to a waypoint, how to program Lat/ Long Standard, Lat / Long Precise, MGRS, and MGRS precise. Learn how to program and fly to a tacan station. Almost all the air to ground weapons in the hornet rely at least partly on the jet knowing where it is. Once you learn NAV in the hornet, everything else falls into place easier. 

3) Learn the Air to air radar. Know what the settings are, TWS / RWS, azimuth, bar scan, and PRF. Know what all those are, why they matter, and when to use which. 

4) Learn CCIP and CCRP bombing with UNGUIDED bombs. 

5) Learn the Ground Radar modes. Know how to find a ship using the SEA mode of the radar. Learn how to find a Ship using the MAP mode of the radar. Learn how to find a ground target (fixed target like an air point or breakwater)

6) Learn the targeting pods. Know how to slave the TGP to ground level, how to slave the TGP to the AA radar to VIP targets. 

7) Learn how to AAR. The options for what you can do in the hornet expand considerably when you can stop and tank up with gas. While this isn't mandatory, if you practice it will become second nature to just go and hit a tanker whenever you can. Suddenly you can fly that just much further, stay on cap station longer, and you don't need to push bad approaches to the boat because of a low fuel state. Learn to tank and the only way to do that is to practice, practice, practice. 

8 ) Learn how to use IR guided weapons, IE the Walleye, the AGM-65F. Learn how to slave those seekers to the TGP, or a helmet, or a point on the air to ground radar. You can't always use the targeting pod, so that air to ground radar can prove super useful as DCS is programed to ALWAYS put a cloud over ground units. (I'd bet money it's in the programing somewhere.) 

9) learn all the laser guided weapons. the GBU-12, AGM-65E, the GBU16, GBU24, GBU10. Know how to lase for yourself and know how to use the laser spot tracker to find a JTAC laser or buddy laser. Learn how to buddy lase and swap out codes, etc. 

10) Learn how to program and deliver GPS guided weapons in all modes. Use the SLAM and SLAM ER in pre-planned mode, and TOO mode. Learn how to use the man in the loop data link for the SLAM- SLAM-ER, and Walleye. Learn which JSOW to use on which type of target, and how to program and find those targets with the radar, the TGP, or from a message from a wingman or whatever. (also GBU38's and such) 

11) Low visibility / night and case III operations. Know how to fly the jet at night or in extremely bad weather, navigating to your target, then home again, with stops at the tanker. 

12) At some stage, and it doesn't really matter when, once you're at stage 5, learn to use the Harpoon anti-ship missile. Learn the difference between Bearing only launch, range and bearing launch, harpoon turn point, and couple that with the sea radar. Learn why and when harpoon turn point is useful, and when to simply hip fire the pointlessly useless anti-ship missile. (ship damage modes are very... bad. Harpoons don't kill ships, RB-04's and Walleye's do. learn it anyway.) 

If you've learned navigation, carrier operations, AAR, and how to use all the weapons, you'll be a fair hornet driver. There's more, much more you can do, but most folks don't have much interest in that. Here's my final piece of advice on learning the hornet. Make it a point to ALWAYS bring the jet home. No it won't always happen. But if you fly it with the purpose of bringing it home, you fly better, get better at fuel management, you'll get better at navigation, and obviously, you'll get better at landing. 

I hope that helps you out, and feel free to message me either here or on discord if you have any questions or run into something that's giving you trouble. I'm Dscross#3705 on discord. Good luck, and have fun with that jet. 

[Hammer1-1]

Honestly, the best way to get into a new module would be in EA. I wouldnt have put in the work had it just been one big system all at the same time, no I learned because one form of bombing was available, then something new developed a month later, then new radar modes to do A2A...then new weapons were designed and added to the system. If the F-15E comes out in EA, learn it while its in EA...its not so much a fire hose as it is a classroom session where its mostly learn how 2+2 = 4 and put it in practice.

Work on one thing at a time and start off with what YOU want to learn first. If its radios, do radios for a week. If its AGM-65 practice, put in AGM-65 practice for a week. Ditto with HARMs, LGBs and JDAMs and so forth. Learn how to work your targeting pod and start mastering the weapons thereafter. You build your experience from the pod at the top of the hill all the way down the hill because thats half the aircrafts mission right there. Learn how to place waypoints in the system. I have a bunch of kneeboards developed specifically for the Hornet that gives you a cheat sheet on how to do it while in flight. Maybe you download them, bring up your kneeboard and start following them just to get started.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3316751/ They do need to be updated, but Im not sure how out of date they are.

First:

Learn how to input coordinates in LAT LONG and MGRS.

Learn how to input waypoints.

Learn how to program your radios.

Learn how to use your ICLS, beacon, datalink and IFF modes.

Get used to working them all in a single mission.

Afterwards:

Learn the TGP and how to incorporate it with your helmet. <---most important

Learn the LGBs and JDAMs. By extension you will learn how to program the cruise missiles and the mavericks. The simplest smart bomb is the walleye. That is one weapon that you can control all the way up to detonation, and if you fly right, you can loft that thing over hills behind cover without ever being seen and guide it on the way out.

Learn the A2A and A2G radar and its modes.

Learn the HARM system.

Or pick and choose what you want to do in this airframe...you can stick to one thing and you'll do fine. It excels in both A2A and A2G, and many times your mission would be one or the other.

 

The very last thing I would learn would be how to aerial refuel and landing on the carrier. This is the mistake I see a lot of people doing because these are the most frustrating things one can learn and that alone will make you want to give up the module. Just...leave them alone until you are comfortable with your plane. Dont let anyone else tell you something different because you need to have your sim (and your mindset) set up to where you're comfortable doing those things. Build your confidence up first before you tackle these...unless you found out the first time you have a knack for it. That would the the ONLY exception to the rule.

 

Edited April 13, 2023 by Hammer1-1