tsgucci Posted March 21, 2023 Posted March 21, 2023 (edited) Hey Reflected and Paco! First of all, thank you very much for this excellent campaign! In a lot of aspect this is a unique campaign and I think no better could happen to the DCS Tomcat community to have this! If you do not mind I would collect here my thoughts and experience mission by mission! I just feel the need to share my experience because this mission set is truly remarkable! So SPOILER ALERTS! A little bit of myself. I'm a 20+ years flightsim player, in real life I had a PPL (not current anymore unfortunately). In DCS I started with A10, F18 then F14. I considerED myself as a quite good driver of the F14..... until now. Carrier landings are routine now, formation flying, AAR no problem. We have a small F14 virtual squadron where I use to write procedures so I know fairly well the NATOPS. I use to fly as RIO, radar management with ease, LANTIRN love. Than this campaign came. Oh man... Edited March 21, 2023 by tsgucci
tsgucci Posted March 21, 2023 Author Posted March 21, 2023 (edited) Mission 1 | Play 1, Codename: Total Disaster! Before anyone asks, I read all the documentation before even launching DCS. It helped a lot, but not enough! The intro, the spin-up, the message from Paco was spot on. I felt like "alright this is really it, no messing around this time, needs to be lazer focused, expectations are skyhigh". I was so nervous, I felt myself like when I was flying the Cessna in real life. I remember I had in the simulator several thousands hours, driving 737, 747 etc. and I was proficient. Then I sat in the cockpit of the real Cessna and I was lost, even did not know what to do after engine start, how to find the oil gauge etc... After a good engine start I immediately had a hickup, turned left instead of right, I realised half of the taxiway that I was taxiing to the wrong direction. To my defense the whole package of kneeboards confused me. Maybe 100 pages on this mission which contains layout approach and departure charts of every airport in the area, wow? I wish I could change the sequence of the kneeboards because the button I assigned on my joystick will be weared off at the end of the campaign Flying to the range was okay. Paco is a very good teacher. Of course when he asked about the flat spin I chose the wrong answer, I am mad at myself because I knew the procedures I even did a training video on that topic.... Again, too nervous. [there is a small misstype in the F10 menu. The B) answer starts with "A)"]. Flying the manouveres are no joke, they are extremely hard with the Tomcat as there is no correction from the aircraft you are responsible for every feet you make whether it is up, down or right, left. My first in-level turn was - as Paco said - sloppy. And he was right, I was everywhere but not on the numbers.... My second try was okay. The rest of the manouvers was okay. Maybe 2 other one I had to repeat. The squirrel cage manouver gave me hard time because I could not remember which manouver is what I was lost a little bit what comes after what. Too bad the manouvers are not repeated on the Kneeboard. The low speed manouver was a complete mess however Paco said it was okay (I was slow but I was everywhere...). After the Mach run I realised I had 1600 lbs fuel and we were 30 nm from the peak. I ran out of fuel just when I turned on final... Other learning: If you are too used to rely on Jesters call you might find yourself in trouble if he "forgets" to watch things instead of you. But I do not know if I could abort the tasks and telling Paco we are Bingo. Don't get me wrong, the mission is absolutely outstanding I am blown away by the immersion. I can't wait to try it again and to make new mistakes ! I really felt myself as I would be in a RAG and the stake is super high and if I do not complete the training with success I need to uninstall my F14 and cannot fly with it anymore! Real cudos to Meagen, it was nice to hear her again! Edited March 21, 2023 by tsgucci
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