I don’t know offhand if you can do it on the ground. I’ve never tried.
To go to RDY, they have to be selected on the STRS page (i.e., boxed on the top row) for three minutes.
hrm… ill give it a shot when the little ones are put to sleep. toobad that stopwatch on the loqer left dashboard rim dont work. guess ill time it with a real life stopwatch.
You guys shame me. I have so much to learn!!!
Naw man, dont feel ashamed. We both spend a lot of time learning all this shit. Dunno 'bout @Fishbreath but I have been living and breathing MilAv stuff since I started to decipher english at the age of 9 or so. The terminology, tools and tactics are not new for me, but that makes me a huge nerd if nothing else lol.
And as you see in the exchange between me and sir fishymouth, I am pretty much a n00b on a lot of stuff. Up thread you can find him schooling me on the intricacies of the Ka-50. Fun little monster that, haven’t driven it for far too long due to navy fast jet allure.
Ok, I just did a little test flight. The IRMav never went from sby3 to rdy. But they uncaged just fine and I shot up two targets with two missiles, spewed a hilariously unaccurate spray of hydra 2.5" rockets all over the survivors and then flew back to the Tarawa for my first ever completely successful vertical landing! Yay me!
And now I’m taking a break because sweaty, crampy hands and VR.
Huh. Odd—I don’t think I’ve ever seen that with the Mavericks, but if they work, they work. As far as the Hydras go, that’s less you than the rockets. The Russians are eating our lunch when it comes to rockets.
Re: vertical landings, bravo! It’s a great feeling nailing them.
One of my earliest memories of PC gaming is firing up Falcon 3.0 at roughly the same age, then being shocked to discover I had a bunch of previous saved games.
Yeah man, vertical landing in a harrier is by far the hairiest thing I ever done in a simulated aircraft. Unlike a helicopter you have almost no power reserve. It’s also unstable and squirrely as hell, despite all the Stability Augmentation Systems. Fun times. (Day) Carrier traps in the hornet are easy joyrides compared to this.
Actually the zuni’s are mad accurate in the harrier. I can zap things with single shots with those. It’s the hydras that go all over the place. Big salvoes and a cluster bomb effect are obviously the way to do hydra.
It’s odd that rockets differ so much between aircraft. In the hornet the hydras are far less hilarious and its impossible to do the single shot zap with the zunis. odd. like they do not share the same weapon files.
It’s entirely possible they don’t. There are a number of duplicate weapons between modules, especially between ED modules and the rest.
Funny bug in the bug: you can’t turn off the radar. That means you are not sneaking up on anybody rocking an RWR (IE anybody).
I have a little practice scenario where you go up against two F-4E’s armed with AIM-9M and AIM-7Ms. This thing is far easier in the F-5E with the radar turned off. You go low and fast. Curve up when they are overhead and blast the tail off the wingman and then BFM lead for a turn or two until you get guns on.
Should be even easier in the Hornet, but it isn’t. They always know you are coming and give you a hot reception with a sidewinder to the face.
I cant attach the mission because this forum only allows me to attach pictures. So here’s a cat.
Some glamor shots from after air-to-air refueling practice.
Why practice air-to-air refueling? Because I ran out of gas trying to hit the tanker in an actual mission.
Me summarizing the Mudspike forum thread on Air to air refuelling:
" So what you are saying is:
Get close to her. Appreciate her beauty. Get comfortable being intimate with her.
And then you plug it in :blush:
Edit: If you still have trouble plugging it in, it might help to grease your hog. (see below)
sage advice man, if only I’d had known back when I was 17."
I have only managed a microplug, for like a second or so. (just the tip, ok?) so I have a lot to learn before I can reliably refuel my machine. PIO is a bitch. And there’s a bunch of other things to do in the sim that I find more fun. (carrier traps! blowing shit up! neeeeaaaaoowwrrr!)
I 100% cheat in the Harrier. The real procedure doesn’t call for speed brakes or flaps. I set STOL flaps so I have more throttle room to work with. Since the Harrier’s stupid probe is out of forward line of sight, I use some line-up tricks. Put the heading caret on the edge of the prop disc for the KC-130 or the center of the engine nacelle for the S-3, and fly the Ready light on the refueling status panel right at the middle of the basket just above the hose. Look left to watch the probe go into the drogue.
It still takes me three or four attempts, even when I’m doing well. In the same vein as Mudspike’s remarks, for PC simmers, refueling is an exercise in seeing how little your joystick will respond to.
I think that’s my best landing in a sim ever. I was aiming for the helicopter centerline, not the runway centerline, as a bit of a personal challenge.
Impressive! Now try landing a MiG-21 intact lol. I haven’t managed that (consistently) yet. Just the one or two occasional landings that did not end up with a prang.
I used to have a pretty good grasp on it, back in the day. The trick is that you absolutely can’t cut the throttle below a certain setting, because that turns off your blown flaps and kills what little lift your stubby delta wings make. Also, half of the runways in Georgia are too short for the MiG anyway.
Very different creature than the Harrier, that’s for sure.
Huh, Perhaps I should use that to stop from bouncing on touchdown. That’s my problem, like a taildragger with tundra tires my balalaika tends to go right back up on touchdown, with an AoA to scare an F/A-18 and then plop back onto the runway in a fashion its landing gear is not built for.
Well I guess it’s time…
Didn’t realise it was still early access though. When is this thing due to be finished?
RAZBAM, the guys making the harrier (and the mirage) said they intend to finish up the harrier this year. It is prety damn near done tho. Definately worth the 35 bucks. There’s considerable crossover between harrier and hornet, in their cockpit layouts and the way their MFD’s work. Some of the more esoteric things such as guiding your own laser guided bombs are still a bit wonky. Landing, taking off and shooting stuff all works fine tho. Bombs, rockets, maverick missiles andweird radar-seeking sidewinders. The harrier gun is pretty good, almost as fun as the A-10s except that the harrier is an actual honest-to-god fast jet. Soon it will receive a campaign and training missions.
They also announced they got the license to do the F-15E! Mudhen! Also on their roadmap are a couple of MiGs; the -19 and the -23.
The latter especially should be interesting as it has swing wings, a rough-field landing gear, 70s avionics and a whole slew of dangerous aerodynamic quirks. I mean just look at it:
