First ever DCS: F-4E Phantom II Feedback Thread - May 22nd 2024

[Sedlo]

On 6/3/2024 at 11:58 AM, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

I just did the Have Doughnut mission by Sedlo. I really enjoyed the concept of this mission but I have a few small remarks:

- The briefing mentions evaluating the performance of the MiG-21 but switches to "MiG-29" a but further down. It also mentions HMD, and I didn't think the RL MiG-21F-13 had one.
- Is SOUND 1 supposed to have unlimited flares? The mission has unlimited weapons available but that causes also the countermeasures to never run out. I got into the MiG-21's control zone quite quickly, waiting for the flare spam to end but that never happened. So I ended up firing multiple Sidewinders until one connected.
After the reset and Fight #2, same thing happened again: flare spam as long as I am in the control zone. Given the very poor CCM of the equipped Sidewinders, this is fairly annoying and wastes fuel: after all of the engagements I had 2200 pounds left and landed with about 1300 pounds.
The F-13 is simulated by our MiG-21Bis which didn't have internal CM but required an external pod. Did the RL MiG-21F-13 use CM pods? I opened the mission in the ME but the MiG-21 doesn't have a pre-defined loadout so it must be trigger based?
- Small nit-picks: SOUND 2 has a loadout of 4x AIM-9JULI which afaik were only used by Spain IRL, not by the USAF. It also has 3 Sparrows equipped which seems odd since the mission requires either a Sidewinder or gun "kill".

 

Noted, thanks!  Will adjust.  Flare spam was supposed to have been fixed, I will have another look.

[Baldrick33]

9 hours ago, GrEaSeLiTeNiN said:

I know the F4 module is very well done. I have the F14 and it wasn't my cup of tea and I rarely ever fly it. I'm more into modern stuff like the F18/16 and Apache and fly solo. So just wondering, is there anyone like me out there who still went ahead to buy the F4 and how has it been so far? Thanks!    

Trying not to veer too much off topic but many years ago as a modern F1 fan and avid sim racer I was on the fence about Grand Prix Legends. I had little interest in 1960s F1. It proved to be the de facto race sim for many of us for many years and communities were built around it, nothing came close, it was a milestone in sim racing history.

I feel a bit the same about the F-4E, whilst I recognise it as an iconic aircraft much like the F-14 I wouldn't see myself as a fan. Until I got to fly it and both the way it is modelled and how the systems work just seem to fit like a glove. I have been a DCS fan for several years and have flitted between many aircraft which I have enjoyed doing but this feels like I have finally found the one aircraft I want to invest the time into learning and flying. This feels much like my Grand Prix Legends moment and the 1960s F1 cars I didn't know I wanted!

 

Edited June 5, 2024 by Baldrick33

[IronMike]

Thank you all once more for the very kind feedback, the kind words, and great input and suggestions since the release of the F-4.

As the hotfix is out, I would like to kindly invite you all to continue the discussion there:
 

 

Thank you again, from all of us at Heatblur.

[Kirk66]

18 hours ago, Elf1606688794 said:

Not every pilot put his helmet on immediately. Most of them did, but some didn't.

Bolded part. Red Flag twice with F-15's from the 21st TFW. Sortie surge? Yeah, plenty of times. Seymour Johnson we had 104 F-4E's and every squadron (4 of them) ran surge operations at least twice a month, once for the entire wing and once for each squadron. If your performance wasn't up to par then you got to run surge ops even more. (During our surge ops we sent 4 aircraft at a time on their missions and takeoffs were staggered throughout the day.) At Elmendorf we only had 1 fighter squadron when I was there so we didn't do surge ops as often.

Something I noticed as a weapons mechanic is that the jet engine noise (and -60's) didn't affect your hearing unless you were on the same parking spot or right next door but even then, if there was an aircraft between you and the offending engines you could still communicate in normal voices.

Ever been on the ramp during an Elephant Walk? I have, 104 F-4E's participated in that one. That's a noisy ramp. 

I enjoy swapping war stories. Getting to hear your perspective on the noise levels of the ramp is interesting.

 

They had fuel bowsers on the flight line because of that very issue. lol

I think our (my?) misunderstanding is that once we got in the jet and it was time to start engines, we had helmets on and so did the crew chiefs - because they had just fired up the dash-60 for power. Of course, before startup, while strapping in - you could talk to the CC helping you, but once the -60 was running we had helmets on and it was hand signals or intercom. Some pilots preferred just go cold mike and do everything via hand signals - more fun that way. Just the perspective from the aircrew side.

It would be nice to really have hand signals - we are already using head nods in VR for formation takeoffs; if we could track hands in DCS and show them we could add a lot of hand signals for launches. 

Ever hear the story of the F-105 that blew it's tail off taking off from Holloman AFB when TA filled the water tank with fuel by accident? Thuds used water injection for AB takeoffs, and TA had their water and fuel vent recovery carts painted the same color...surprised the daylights out of the pilot when he started his takeoff roll and the back of his plane blew up! It got written up in a TAC ATTACK safety mag.

Cheers,

Vulture

[Elf1606688794]

1 hour ago, Kirk66 said:

Ever hear the story of the F-105 that blew it's tail off taking off from Holloman AFB when TA filled the water tank with fuel by accident? Thuds used water injection for AB takeoffs, and TA had their water and fuel vent recovery carts painted the same color...surprised the daylights out of the pilot when he started his takeoff roll and the back of his plane blew up! It got written up in a TAC ATTACK safety mag.

F-105's were a bit before my time but no, I hadn't heard that story before. Bad stuff happens when you don't do things (including maintenance) by the book. If this had happened to me I probably would have insta-pooped. lol

Ever hear about the F-15A that blew up over the Yukon River by Galena Alaska? Galena and King Salmon were our forward alert sites when I was stationed at Elemendorf. One day, the aircraft at King Salmon scrambled to intercept a Soviet aircraft off the coast, one of them returned to Galena with an ECS issue. Once it was fixed, the pilot asked for permission to do a high speed fly by for the troops and permission was granted.

He took off, came around to do his fly by (just under Mach 1), flys straight down the runway and when he got to the end, he stood that plane on it's tail and promptly ripped both wings off as the aircraft exploded in mid-air. This incident was totally preventable. The pilot didn't set up the armament panel correctly, he forgot to dial in his wing tanks so the OWS system didn't warn him of the impending over G. He drowned in the cockpit because he didn't arm his ejection seat and even if he had, the ejection would have likely killed him because he didn't buckle his chest strap. They used this event to pound into us the importance of ALWAYS following checklists, no matter how many times you've performed the task. This tactic was as effective as it was crude.

Edited June 5, 2024 by Elf1606688794

[bfr]

23 minutes ago, Elf1606688794 said:

F-105's were a bit before my time but no, I hadn't heard that story before. Bad stuff happens when you don't do things (including maintenance) by the book. If this had happened to me I probably would have insta-pooped. lol

Ever hear about the F-15A that blew up over the Yukon River by Galena Alaska? Galena and King Salmon were our forward alert sites when I was stationed at Elemendorf. One day, the aircraft at King Salmon scrambled to intercept a Soviet aircraft off the coast, one of them returned to Galena with an ECS issue. Once it was fixed, the pilot asked for permission to do a high speed fly by for the troops and permission was granted.

He took off, came around to do his fly by (just under Mach 1), flys straight down the runway and when he got to the end, he stood that plane on it's tail and promptly ripped both wings off as the aircraft exploded in mid-air. This incident was totally preventable. The pilot didn't set up the armament panel correctly, he forgot to dial in his wing tanks so the OWS system didn't warn him of the impending over G. He drowned in the cockpit because he didn't arm his ejection seat and even if he had, the ejection would have likely killed him because he didn't buckle his chest strap. They used this event to pound into us the importance of ALWAYS following checklists, no matter how many times you've performed the task. This tactic was as effective as it was crude.

 

"Came to become a hero, left as a Health & Safety case study"