A bunch of quick newbie questions

[Sunjammer]

Hey everyone,

 

I've been playing, and by 'playing' I mean 'learning', DCS A-10C for most of the time since its release. I bought a TrackIR5, the HOTAS Warthog stick/throttle set, and a new graphics board++, and every time I make an upgrade, the game feels better to play, and thus more rewarding to learn.

 

At this point, I've got a fair handle on the essential avionics and sensors, and I can use most ordnance with relative success. I'm still very inefficient, and spotting targets or dealing with information overload tends to bring me down. But hey, still having lots of fun learning :-)

 

I figured I'd just put down the stuff I'm unsure of here, and hopefully you guys can tell me how wrong I am, or if it's normal behavior or not.

 

1. Every mission in the first campaign (only campaign I've seen) starts me off with nosewheel steering sharply to the left, or veering off to some direction until I hit the wheel brakes or adjust the nosewheel. Since all missions always seem to start me off with throttles at 100% on the runway, this means every mission becomes a dash to readjust. Kind of annoying. Is this a known issue?

 

2. How normal is it to rely *heavily* on wingman or JTAC spotting for you? I have an ugly tendency to feel like I should be pulling more spotting weight myself, and end up searching for way too long.

 

3. When pulling into a turn, an alert goes off, first rapid beeping, then a solid tone the tighter the turn gets. I understand this means I'm bleeding speed/energy, but is this "bad" in all cases? When I'm landing I use this to slow down before my approach..

 

4. What's the extent of the A-10's maneuverability really? I'm sort of battling the plane trying to do things like split S'es, and I don't know if that's just me being a bit shit or if the plane isn't supposed to be doing them.

 

5. Are there any tricks to setting up a steady orbit of an area to keep it in constant view of the TGP when I'm trying to do some sort of FAC? I can never seem to get this right...

 

6. I'm very TAD dependent for situational awareness, and during JTAC I pretty much require the digital to know where to go. But I still don't know exactly what positions called out to me actually mean. So for instance when I hear "bulls 080 for 100", what does that actually *mean*? haha. Or 'Magic, BRA, 279 for 110, 7000, hot'. This stuff confuses the bejebus out of me.

 

Anyway that's all I can think of right now. I hope some day I'll feel competent enough that I can join some multiplayer flights :-)

 

Cheers

[GGTharos]

1. Every mission in the first campaign (only campaign I've seen) starts me off with nosewheel steering sharply to the left, or veering off to some direction until I hit the wheel brakes or adjust the nosewheel. Since all missions always seem to start me off with throttles at 100% on the runway, this means every mission becomes a dash to readjust. Kind of annoying. Is this a known issue?

 

It's normal due to the wheel's off-center position, as well as any possible asymmetric payload that you might be carrying. It -may- be a little exaggerated in the sim.

 

2. How normal is it to rely *heavily* on wingman or JTAC spotting for you? I have an ugly tendency to feel like I should be pulling more spotting weight myself, and end up searching for way too long.

 

AI have it easier than you do, but learn to rely on ground cues.

 

3. When pulling into a turn, an alert goes off, first rapid beeping, then a solid tone the tighter the turn gets. I understand this means I'm bleeding speed/energy, but is this "bad" in all cases? When I'm landing I use this to slow down before my approach..

 

Those sounds sound out your doom if you're hearing them near landing. Read about their meaning in the manual, and google around for terms you might not understand.

 

4. What's the extent of the A-10's maneuverability really? I'm sort of battling the plane trying to do things like split S'es, and I don't know if that's just me being a bit shit or if the plane isn't supposed to be doing them.

 

Then you're doing it wrong in some way, whether entering with too little speed, at too high an altitude, with too high a weight, pulling too hard/not smoothly.

 

5. Are there any tricks to setting up a steady orbit of an area to keep it in constant view of the TGP when I'm trying to do some sort of FAC? I can never seem to get this right...

 

Level flight, bank in the direction you want to go, engage 'ALT' autopilot.

 

6. I'm very TAD dependent for situational awareness, and during JTAC I pretty much require the digital to know where to go. But I still don't know exactly what positions called out to me actually mean. So for instance when I hear "bulls 080 for 100", what does that actually *mean*? haha. Or 'Magic, BRA, 279 for 110, 7000, hot'. This stuff confuses the bejebus out of me.

 

Anyway that's all I can think of right now. I hope some day I'll feel competent enough that I can join some multiplayer flights :-)

 

Cheers

 

 

The manual. It's there for you ;)

[-Ice]

1. Every mission in the first campaign (only campaign I've seen) starts me off with nosewheel steering sharply to the left, or veering off to some direction until I hit the wheel brakes or adjust the nosewheel. Since all missions always seem to start me off with throttles at 100% on the runway, this means every mission becomes a dash to readjust. Kind of annoying. Is this a known issue?

For me, the jet does tend to drift to the right a bit, so during my takeoff roll, I need to use a tiny bit of left rudder to steer the nose wheel. I disengage the nosewheel steering at about 60knots as the rudder can now control the aircraft. The mission should NOT start you off at 100% throttles, unless your warthog is at full throttle and you have "Sync cockpit controls wit hotas controls" option ticked... so I suggest you un-tick it.

 

2. How normal is it to rely *heavily* on wingman or JTAC spotting for you? I have an ugly tendency to feel like I should be pulling more spotting weight myself, and end up searching for way too long.

IMHO the AI wingman spotting is useless anyway since unless you're really quick, you can't get a tally on the target anyway. Plus they see things up to 10nm off. JTAC is a bit better.

 

3. When pulling into a turn, an alert goes off, first rapid beeping, then a solid tone the tighter the turn gets. I understand this means I'm bleeding speed/energy, but is this "bad" in all cases? When I'm landing I use this to slow down before my approach..

That is you stall horn warning. IIRC the chopped tone is when you are 2 AoA units away from stall, and the steady tone is when you are 1 AoA unit away from stall. Or might be the other way around.

 

4. What's the extent of the A-10's maneuverability really? I'm sort of battling the plane trying to do things like split S'es, and I don't know if that's just me being a bit shit or if the plane isn't supposed to be doing them.

The aircraft is very slow/sluggish when fully loaded or even with external ordnance. Try your tricks on a 25% fuel, no external load setup.

 

5. Are there any tricks to setting up a steady orbit of an area to keep it in constant view of the TGP when I'm trying to do some sort of FAC? I can never seem to get this right...

Use the ALT autopilot. More bank angle means tighter turns so your TGP is masked for shorter time, but also means your view window is a bit smaller. Less bank means more view time, but also longer masked periods. Higher altitude is better too.

 

6. I'm very TAD dependent for situational awareness, and during JTAC I pretty much require the digital to know where to go. But I still don't know exactly what positions called out to me actually mean. So for instance when I hear "bulls 080 for 100", what does that actually *mean*? haha. Or 'Magic, BRA, 279 for 110, 7000, hot'. This stuff confuses the bejebus out of me.

You can make a mark point using those information. Go to the OFFSET page of the CDU and input the bull radial (80) and the distance (100) and it'll put a mark point on that location, slave TGP to that SPI and search for targets!

on the topic.

 

And as GG said, the manual is your friend. Peruse it at your leisure, but I hope my post has helped.

[Zenra]

Good advice from both GGTharos and -Ice. Just want to add my US$0.02 on maneuverability:

 

The DCS A-10C is very maneuverable but you need to do some work to keep it in its very tightly modeled flight envelope. When learning to fly any new aircraft a basic exercise is practicing all manner of stall maneuvers: power off, power on, accelerated, high bank angle, etc. Watching your g meter (top left of the HUD) and angle of attack (below the airspeed gauge) during basics maneuvering will help you understand the limits of the envelope (which, as GGTharos pointed out, varies with aircraft loading - weight and drag - also nicely modeled in DCS).

 

The Split S is a good means to reverse direction for an attack run (for example), but you really need to keep a constant g load, watch your AoA and don't overspend the aircraft. An arguably better, and perhaps more realistic maneuver for turning in is the wing-over, which allows you to keep eyes on a target area as you pass, but then pull back over and into it with a bank angle of 120 degrees (or more) to the side the target is on. I find this helps me keep SA and better control the aircraft when running in on a target that I've just passed.

 

Hope this helps.

[Sunjammer]

Thanks for excellent advice guys! I have to admit the manual is sort of dense to dig through for certain particulars, and the way I've been reading it (as a PDF on my phone or kindle) has not made it a particularly great experience for reference. Then again that's all on me, so no excuses ;-)

 

Understanding the offset page on the CDU has helped so much it's kind of ridiculous. Building an idea of where AAA is located with mark points has made missions much safer to fly, obviously. So thanks for that.

 

As for agility, the difference when flying an unarmed plane is really something else. I've had a lot of fun simply practising strafing runs, and the wing-over is indeed a smarter move.

 

As for #5, I suppose my problem was gauging the correct bank angle and distance versus the area I'm trying to circle; I've been banking with ALT ap since the start, but I can never seem to nail that perfect orbit. Guess it's time to break out the pen and paper and remember some of my trig lessons ;-)

 

Anyway, thanks again for all the advice! Really helpful <3