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27-03-13 - 19 Squadron Training Session Debrief

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Post  Skip19 Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:47 pm

Ok, a few things to take from our first successful(ish!) training session in Falcon BMS!

Connecting was pretty straight forward - host sets his port forwarding and gives his IP address, clients connect to it and enter their bandwidth and it should all work fine.

  • Version - It's important that everyone is on the same version, the version number appears on the bottom of the main game screen. Another important issue is that you must be set to the same 'Theatre' or you will get the 'Failed to Connect' message as well.

  • Ramp Start - I expected that I could just talk MJ through the ramp start, but it didn't seem to work - it only takes one missed step to naff up the whole ramp start, so I'll post a walk through up here somewhere and we can make sure we practice starting the jet from cold.

  • Joystick Button settings - As I had discussed, I don't know the key settings for things like 'designate target', and as everyone will have different joystick/throttle set ups, it's important to ensure that everyone can easily access a 'TMS UP' button or a 'DMS RIGHT' button. Check the 'Operational Conversion' thread for further details.
    https://19squadron.darkbb.com/t1229-operational-conversion-unit

  • DTC Set up - The DTC (Data Transfer Cartridge) is used to set up things like MFD's that appear in certain 'Modes', and also Countermeasure settings (Chaff/Flare settings). This can usually be set to personal preference, but if you haven't set it up before your flight (and you don't have a DTC file saved) you won't be able to load it up and subsequently your MFD's will be blank for each mode (Dogfight, AA, AG or NAV) meaning you have to manually click the buttons to achieve useful MFD settings.

  • CCIP Bombing Release - Practice. Designate with pickle, fly through the line and your bombs should drop off. Practice other bomb release profiles too (DTOS/CCRP) Krause Video Tutorials are an excellent resource for this.
    http://www.benchmarksims.org/forum/showthread.php?5822-Krause-s-BMS-Tutorials

  • Battle Break Landing profile - I was going to go through this before we landed, but didn't get chance. I'll cover this in a future post.

  • Refuelling - Flying the tanker manually doesn't seem to allow you to release the boom, which is a little annoying!

  • QNH Setting - As I've got my local settings on UK for QNH (Bar) the tower will call QNH using that setting, so you need to go into your config (on start up) and find the check box that says 'QNH Pressure in Bar' and tick it, rather than have the US style 'mills of Mercury' setting.

All in all we did some good formation flying on that tanker, the game was pretty stable and myself and MJ took off, flew a sortie, bombed the targets on the KOTAR range and landed successfully.

Obviously it was all a little loose with regards to comms and procedures etc, and there was an accidental missile release incident which could have had nasty consequences Shocked but overall a pretty successful evenings flying, and also remember this was the first time 'Serpent' has flown any multiplayer flight sim, and he took to it completely naturally and should be a great asset to the squadron.

Feel free to post your own thoughts and findings here, it's good to get feedback and discuss how you guys think things went, obviously it helps us all to learn and progress as individuals and as a squadron.

I think we need to nail this KOTAR mission as a three/four ship flight before we can move on to any more complex missions for now, but I would definitely recommend everyone flying offline through some of the training missions, getting familiarised with radar modes (AA and AG) and bomb release profiles, and getting to know your way around the cockpit.

More resources will become available to help out there, I just need to find the time to do them!

S!



Last edited by Skip19 on Fri Mar 29, 2013 4:36 am; edited 2 times in total
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Post  speedy77 Thu Mar 28, 2013 8:21 pm

Skip19 wrote: but I would definitely recommend everyone flying offline through some of the training missions, getting familiarised with radar modes (AA and AG) and bomb release profiles, and getting to know your way around the cockpit.



I am concentrating on the above at the moment, before I venture into a multiplayer:

I can taxi around well enough, take off, do a circuit of some description and land by eye rather than using any ILS instruments. As above I need to get more of a handle on the MFDs and Nav settings. I am also trying to map the main commands to my stick/throttle as I when I understand what they do!
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Post  Skip19 Thu Mar 28, 2013 8:52 pm

sure speedy, but having the stick set up as close to the actual F16 stick is the best bet, as I'm sure they had many millions of dollars spent on ergonomic design and HOTAS concepts. when you are in the combat zone, you need everything to be accessible on the stick/throttle.

Which is why your minimum requirements are

Cursor Control
TMS 4 way
DMS 4 way
Fire/Pickle
Chaff/Flare

Secondary is
Missile Step/NWS (Nose Wheel Steering)
Dogfight mode
MRM mode
AG mode
Trim controls

In a BVR dogfight, the seconds taken between getting a contact on the radar, locking him up and switching to missiles can be the difference between him being in range of your missiles or you being in range of his missiles, especially when the closing speeds are Mach 2.0+, so we need to be sure that we can do these tasks quickly and efficiently.

Spooling about over the FLOT also gives every bad guy with a hand held SAM the chance to pop one off at you, so again in AG mode speed is of the essence.

But yes, this first training mission is simply ramp start, taxi, take off, form up, fly to range, drop bombs, form back up and RTB and land. Sounds like you would be more than ready to do that speedy!
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Post  Skip19 Thu Mar 28, 2013 8:52 pm

sure speedy, but having the stick set up as close to the actual F16 stick is the best bet, as I'm sure they had many millions of dollars spent on ergonomic design and HOTAS concepts. when you are in the combat zone, you need everything to be accessible on the stick/throttle.

27-03-13 - 19 Squadron Training Session Debrief Stick

27-03-13 - 19 Squadron Training Session Debrief Throttle

Which is why your minimum requirements are

Cursor Control
TMS 4 way (Target Management Switch)
DMS 4 way (Display Management Switch)
Fire/Pickle
Chaff/Flare
Uncage missile

Secondary is
Missile Step/NWS (Nose Wheel Steering)
Dogfight mode
MRM mode
AG mode
Trim controls

In a BVR dogfight, the seconds taken between getting a contact on the radar, locking him up and switching to missiles can be the difference between him being in range of your missiles or you being in range of his missiles, especially when the closing speeds are Mach 2.0+, so we need to be sure that we can do these tasks quickly and efficiently.

Spooling about over the FLOT also gives every bad guy with a hand held SAM the chance to pop one off at you, so again in AG mode speed is of the essence.

But yes, this first training mission is simply ramp start, taxi, take off, form up, fly to range, drop bombs, form back up and RTB and land. Sounds like you would be more than ready to do that speedy!
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Post  MJDixon Thu Mar 28, 2013 9:18 pm

I'll admit that missile release was somewhat unfortunate. Razz

I was still trying to drop my bomb that wouldn't release but accidentally put it into Dogfight mode, so it fired a missile rather than try to drop the bomb - but at least I know how to fire a missile, which is something!

Not sure what the problem was with the CCIP Bombing, used to do it all the time in Free Falcon without issue, unless there are minor differences between CCIP in Free Falcon and CCIP in BMS, but I was holding down the bomb release until I was way over and past the target.

I think one problem I was having was that to zoom in to look at the switches and such I use the mousewheel, but that also moves any knobs I have the cursor over, so I was fiddling with stuff by accident, so I'll have to watch where my cursor is.

It's my birthday next month so I might treat myself to a CH Fighter Stick and set up all the buttons properly - I was looking at the Thrustmaster Cougar as that's also a copy of the F16 Flight Stick and also comes with an F16 Throttle Quadrant, but it seems to have been discontinued, might try eBay (unless someone knows where I can buy one - or another F16 throttle copy?)

Although I suppose if we eventually intend to fly things like the Typhoon then the Thrustmaster Warthog might be worth a look, as it has dual engine control like a Typhoon, plus lots of fancy switches. Razz
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Post  Skip19 Thu Mar 28, 2013 10:32 pm

Couple more things to clear up regarding the FCR display.

The 'hot line' that extends from a radar contact is indicating the targets aspect - the directing the target's engine is pointing. So a line down indicates a target heading away from you (although you may be overtaking it) and a line up indicates a target moving towards you.

The blue lines on the side of the FCR are for radar elevation only, in 10 degree segments.

The blue lines at the bottom are for angle off nose in 10 degree segments.

The only way to tell if a contact is higher or lower is to check the 'angels' number next to the target return and to know your own altitude.

TA on the HUD on a bugged target is indeed Target Altitude.
F before the range is 'slant' range (i.e range taking into account height differences) to target.
B before the range is usually NAV mode ranges to steerpoints.

Dash-1 is your friend for this information!
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Post  MJDixon Thu Mar 28, 2013 10:55 pm

All that foreplay and Skip couldn't get his big end out - such a shame. Razz

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Post  Skip19 Thu Mar 28, 2013 10:59 pm

Laughing nice!
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Post  MJDixon Sat Mar 30, 2013 8:36 pm

*Watches the news*

Maybe you shouldn't have flown that tanker over North Korea, Skip. Razz
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Post  Skip19 Sat Mar 30, 2013 9:56 pm

crikey Shocked Laughing
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