Flight Qualifications Campaign

[Gliptal]

Sooo, I'm at BFT02 (missions, not the campaign) and having problems taxiing to park after landing. An F16 is in my way, hence can't end the mission.

 

 

Other than that, I noticed the instructor said I should approach 150KTs with no flaps, but as soon as I got close to turning on final he said "You forgot your flaps!". Is it because I turned too close to the runway?

[Sabre-TLA]

If the first taxiway is blocked then you need to take the next taxiway further down the runway. We put that in to simulate a broken bird blocking the taxiway. More an aesthetic than anything else. If the ATC was more functional it would have recommended the other taxiway.

 

For the flaps issue it's as you suspected.

 

Since you are flying on only one engine you should stay flaps up to maintain your speed until you are ready for the approach and landing. If you fly to the designated approach point given by the ATC then you can make a normal approach and put your gear and flaps down at an appropriate time.

 

This mission is to show that you can operate the bird successfully on only one engine and still maintain control and successfully navigate and land.

 

Sooo, I'm at BFT02 (missions, not the campaign) and having problems taxiing to park after landing. An F16 is in my way, hence can't end the mission.

 

Other than that, I noticed the instructor said I should approach 150KTs with no flaps, but as soon as I got close to turning on final he said "You forgot your flaps!". Is it because I turned too close to the runway?

[Gliptal]

Thanks. Indeed the ATC needs work.

[Gliptal]

Just passed BFT02, and noticed a behaviour from my wingman that I'm not sure is me doing something wrong or the AI being quirky.

 

Every time, when landing, my wingman takes a very close formation position on my 4 during approach, at about 3nm out he passes me on the right and takes a position at my 2, and 1nm from the threshold aborts and gains altitude.

 

Initially I thought I was supposed to give him space on the right half of the runway: I admittedely was going for centerline, since being on a single engine I thought I had all the runway to myself. Then I tried going for the left half but he still aborted like before.

 

Am I doing something wrong making it impossible for the AI to land in formation? Or is it just being quirky because AI? I'm not even sure formation landing in the A-10C is a thing.

 

Thanks, just a curiosity, it never impacted the mission in any way.

[Sabre-TLA]

That's all due to the AI. He rejoins when you RTB and appears to attempt a landing but will always break away when you get close to landing.

 

I've never seen a case where a formation landing with AI was done when the AI was following you.

 

It might work the other way around (if the AI was landing and you flew in formation to land with them).

[mwd2]

Do you think your missions will get any problems with upcoming 1.5 or do you prepare an update when 1.5 enter the stable version?

[Sabre-TLA]

Our understanding is that existing missions should still play properly in the new release.

 

However if that turns out not to be the case we will make every effort to ensure our missions remain functional.

[Gizzy]

On 'shutdown trainer' no previously saved 'user snapviews' are available - is there any simple remedy for this and will this state continue within any other campaign missions? 'Startup tester' is fine and so far the BFT seem ok but it is early days...

 

Cheers...

[Sabre-TLA]

Thanks for reporting the issue. We don't use snapviews so never detected an issue.

 

It appears the Shutdown mission is the only one with the extra config file. I've checked the BFT, AAT, and TTQ missions and they are clean.

 

I'll post an updated version of the Shutdown mission with the extra config folder removed soon.

[Sabre-TLA]

We have uploaded version 1.5 after confirming the config files have been removed and the mission retested successfully.

 

You can download the updated copy here.

 

Uninstall the current copy and re-install. Your existing mission key and password will work for this update.

 

Any problems please email us at mapleflagmissions@gmail.com

[Gizzy]

Thanks Sabre - sorted...

[DirtyFret]

Just wanted to say a big thanks. I just completed the BAQ which gave me a good 30+ hours worth of excellent gameplay in the A10C. Money well spent :thumbup:. Moving on now to Advanced.

 

THanks

 

p.s. Do you have any plans for similar campaigns for the Ka-50 or the upcoming F-18C?

[Gliptal]

And the M2000!

[Gliptal]

I can't seem to succeed in the defensive spiral. The briefing states that you're supposed to do three revolutions dropping 2000ft each: that's 15000-(2000*3) = 9000ft final. The triggers though state that you should be dropping below 7700ft, and do only two revolutions, where the first one has you dropping 5000ft, and the second one 2000ft.

 

I have no problems with the lazy 8, even though I found the single missions instructions a bit confusing: why do they tell me I'm supposed to push on the stick? Pulling negative Gs in the manuever makes no sense, you just roll the wings slightly more than 90° and let the nose fall due to gravity.

[Gargoil]

Still waiting for a Su-27 qualification campaign

[Gliptal]

BFT06 and 07 are quite a dip in quality as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure it's the trigger's system fault and not a lack of ability on the creators part, but they can get really frustrating.

 

Executing the same manuever in the same way twice and getting failed once and succeded the other, no direction on what exactly is expected, perfectly done manuevers that count as failed, obviously botched manuevers that count as success, wrong/imprecise briefing documents.

 

It feels like I'm going with trial and error to understand what the triggers are and succesfully land them. An example is BFT06's lazy eight: on the single mission it's shown as two 360° degrees turns, on the campaign as two 180° turns. Funnily enough, if I do it as the single mission says I get a success, otherwise a failure.

 

The defensive dive is plain luck, there are so many ways you can approach it, with different dive and bank angles. Same for the corkscrew.

 

I can't get a loop to not fail even if I perfectly end up at the same altitude and speed as started. The immelman counts as succeded only if my nose dips down at the top, which shouldn't be happening as far as I know.

 

All the previous missions were really fun and informative, these are really testing my patience though. I guess the fact the A10 bleeds energy so fast when pulling Gs doesn't help. There is no way I can pull a 180° 4G continuos turn without stalling for example, and that's listed as required in BFT06 (although you pass the manuever even if you pull only 3G).

Edited September 26, 2015 by Gliptal

[Sabre-TLA]

Just wanted to say a big thanks. I just completed the BAQ which gave me a good 30+ hours worth of excellent gameplay in the A10C. Money well spent :thumbup:. Moving on now to Advanced.

 

THanks

 

p.s. Do you have any plans for similar campaigns for the Ka-50 or the upcoming F-18C?

 

Glad you enjoyed the missions. Yes we have plans for all the DCS aircraft and will be updating our website soon.

[Sabre-TLA]

I can't seem to succeed in the defensive spiral. The briefing states that you're supposed to do three revolutions dropping 2000ft each: that's 15000-(2000*3) = 9000ft final. The triggers though state that you should be dropping below 7700ft, and do only two revolutions, where the first one has you dropping 5000ft, and the second one 2000ft.

 

I have no problems with the lazy 8, even though I found the single missions instructions a bit confusing: why do they tell me I'm supposed to push on the stick? Pulling negative Gs in the manuever makes no sense, you just roll the wings slightly more than 90° and let the nose fall due to gravity.

 

Sorry you are having problems with those maneuvers.

 

Here is the link reference for BFT06 - Advanced Handling trigger checks: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1286141&postcount=219 (this is an old post so the Lazy Eight checks were updated (simplified to align better with the current diagrams).

 

For help with the Lazy 8 maneuver here is a youtube video from UND Aerocast that we used as inspiration for the trigger checks:

 

[Sabre-TLA]

BFT06 and 07 are quite a dip in quality as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure it's the trigger's system fault and not a lack of ability on the creators part, but they can get really frustrating.

 

Executing the same manuever in the same way twice and getting failed once and succeded the other, no direction on what exactly is expected, perfectly done manuevers that count as failed, obviously botched manuevers that count as success, wrong/imprecise briefing documents.

 

It feels like I'm going with trial and error to understand what the triggers are and succesfully land them. An example is BFT06's lazy eight: on the single mission it's shown as two 360° degrees turns, on the campaign as two 180° turns. Funnily enough, if I do it as the single mission says I get a success, otherwise a failure.

 

The defensive dive is plain luck, there are so many ways you can approach it, with different dive and bank angles. Same for the corkscrew.

 

I can't get a loop to not fail even if I perfectly end up at the same altitude and speed as started. The immelman counts as succeded only if my nose dips down at the top, which shouldn't be happening as far as I know.

 

All the previous missions were really fun and informative, these are really testing my patience though. I guess the fact the A10 bleeds energy so fast when pulling Gs doesn't help. There is no way I can pull a 180° 4G continuos turn without stalling for example, and that's listed as required in BFT06 (although you pass the manuever even if you pull only 3G).

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Yes we are limited by what the trigger system can provide but at the same time the triggers don't change from attempt to attempt so if you fly the same routine the triggers should behave the same every time.

 

The practice mission package needs an update on the lazy eight diagram and triggers as that was corrected in the campaign but we have not updated the practice package yet (another thing on our crowded to do list).

 

See my previous post about the triggers used for the defensive spiral and if you watch

you can see how it can be done successfully. Use 60 degrees of bank not 30 as indicated by the text. The lazy eight in the video is incorrect and needs to be updated as well.

 

The triggers for the loop are pretty basic. There are 3 checks, the 1st checks if you are pulling back to enter the loop, the 2nd checks to see that your heading in the opposite direction (at the top of the loop) and the 3rd checks to see if you are back at your original heading.

 

The triggers for the immelman are similar. 2 checks are used. The 1st checks if you are pulling back to enter the maneuver. The 2nd checks to see if you are heading in the opposite direction with a level pitch (the actual pitch trigger test is between -5 and +10 pitch values).

 

The G Awareness test states: "Now perform your G-Awareness test by making 2 180 degree left turns pulling at least 4 Gs." The mission editor doesn't allow us to test the G condition so you can pass with less than 4 G's but you should try to hit 4 G's at some point in the maneuver.

 

We have done our best with the current triggers that are available. Hopefully someday the mission editor will have a better capability for testing aircraft maneuvers and if that happens we will update our missions to use them.

Edited September 27, 2015 by Sabre-TLA

[Gliptal]

Sorry if I came out as a bit harsh, I still love the package.

 

An instantaneous 4G is totally feasible, the voiceover though makes it look like you're supposed to pull a continuous 4G, it may be a bit confusing.

 

Is the pitch trigger displaced for AOA or is it absolute pitch? That may explain a few things. I use the FPM when leveling, and on top of the Immelman for example actually leveling out without losing altitude (due to the high AOA) means pitch is still around 15° when I do my roll out of inverted flight: I actually lower it when extending. If the trigger is looking for pitch (and not actual TVV) this may flag as failed the manuever.

[Sabre-TLA]

No problem. We appreciate the feedback and want to make the missions the best they can be.

 

I'll consider your G-awareness suggestion for the next package update. I agree it pays to be crystal clear for any instructions.

 

I believe the pitch trigger is looking for actual pitch based on this description from the DCS User Manual:

 

"UNIT'S PITCH IN LIMITS. When selected, a UNIT drop down list, MIN and MAX fields will be displayed below. From UNIT list, select the unit that will activate the trigger when the pitch angle is within the MIN and MAX values set in the corresponding fields. Note, negative angles denote negative pitch (nose down) and positive angles denote positive pitch (nose up)."

 

So we have chosen between -5 and +10 so I believe this means your nose must be between these values for the trigger to register correctly.

[Gliptal]

I must be doing something wrong here.

 

In BFT08, the last part requires you to land in MRFCS. Both hydraulic system failed, I set her for MRFCS flight and landed no problems at Kobuleti (not the abandoned airfield). The end mission trigger didn't fire though.

 

My feeling is I missed some key part of the procedure though, because I had no problems landing in MRFCS, like none whatsoever. Isn't it supposed to be extra hard?

[Sabre-TLA]

Not sure why your mission didn't trigger properly.

 

How did your flight compare to Recon Stewart's video:

 

[Gliptal]

The only dfference is that I landed on the runway from the other side. Maybe the trigger is placed only on one end of the runway? I also didn't get the continuos alarm tome like in the video, and didn't damage the aircraft in any way.

 

He talks about trim, are you supposed to be flying with that in MRFCS? Because once the mode is engaged the stick works fine, albeit a tad more sensitive than normal (in roll especially).

 

I'll try again tomorrow, maybe it was just an unfortunate combination of events, triggers are like that.

Edited September 27, 2015 by Gliptal

[jasonstory44]

Hi Sabre, just want to say thanks for your amazing campaigns. Learning so much. I have a question about the flare illumination campaign mission. I've run it a few times and seem to be illuminating the targets properly but keep failing. I know at one point one of the DCS updates broke the triggers but thought that was resolved? Any guidance greatly appreciated. Cheers Jason