25th June 'Three Bridges Too Far' debrief

"No plan survives contact with the Enemy!"

Spectre 1-1: RTB, 1 Mig 29 kill.
Spectre 1-2: Ejected.
Spectre 1-3: RTB, 1 Mig 29 kill.

It all started so well.  To keep the mission relatively brief, the take off from Mandumi was only a few minutes from our first target, and on Fencing out Spectre 1-1 (Skipper) couldn't get the TGP as SOI so passed the first bomb run on to Spectre 1-2.  Unfortunately Spectre 1-2 couldn't line up in time and had to make several passes over the first target, attracting more and more AA fire, eventually taking damage and being unable to release weapons.
Two Migs loitering about the area were dispatched BVR by #1 and #3, an SU-25 was spotted but no weapons were fired at it.
Spectre 1-2 was without NAV and HUD due to the damage sustained, and on trying to link back up over one of the target sites reported a fire on board and ejected.
Spectre 1 and 3 RTB'd at Mandumi, Spectre 3 rolling off the side of the runway on landing and damaging his gear.
Turns out my joystick 'Mode' switch was set halfway between Mode 1 and Mode 2, which allowed some buttons to work but not TMS Up/Down.  I'd normally have a little run through my controllers on a ramp start, check the MFD's were all set up to my liking etc so maybe we should be starting with Ramp Starts as SOP.

One Pass Haul Ass - hanging around over the target site is going to attract fire, so we need to work on getting bombs on target first time.  It's hard to keep SA up when were going back or holding at steerpoints, plus we'll not make our ToT which is very important if we are to work as part of a package.
A2A results were pleasing, Speedy picked the contacts up at 40 miles, declared and fired a long range shot, and I picked the second one up and despatched that a little earlier - we took at least 1 incoming missile as well which I assume Speedy evaded.

The second mission was the test flight with the LGB, AGM-88, Mavericks etc - MJ managed to destroy the radar station and Speedy blew up a Depot with the LGB (proving we can drop bombs when no one is shooting at us), MJ despatched the SA2 Radar with his HARM and evaded 3 missiles, and I managed to destroy 3 Kraz T255's with the Mavericks while neither MJ nor Speedy could get the Mavs to ground stabilise.  MJ took AA fire again over the bridge (your call sign should be 'Magnet') and we knocked it off for tea and cake.
Off the top of my head Mavs are -

Power up
Uncage
Change 'Pre' to 'Vis' (Pre is preset target, used for buildings and bridges etc).  Camera is now slewable and shows a little icon on the HUD but will move around with the aircraft.  I'd put the little icon somewhere near the target SP and use TMS up to stabilise - it will now stay where it is even if I move the aircraft.  Use 'FOV' or 'WIDE' OSB (can't remember now) to zoom in (there is a command for zoom as well I think) and then put the cursor over the target and TMS UP again to designate.  Wait for the Caret to be inside the long bar on the right of the HUD, fire and Uncage the next missile to watch the action.
Again considering we've not been on for a month it wasn't too bad, but still a long way to go.

Nice report. Good to see you guys back in action.

I really enjoyed getting back into this.

My problems were primarily not being sure of what button to press and when, and looking in the wrong place for swtiches etc! This meant I was heads down for too long and lost vis the rest of the flight a few times, an struggled to get set up in time for the HARM attack (looking at but not seeing the HAD button ), and was a little late on the LGB run, although managing to get a hit. All of this can be sorted with more practice, and better familiarity with weapons systems.

Satisfied with the Mig kill, and I did indeed evade his missile

Yeah good job on that Mig! With regards to buttons and release profiles for weapons, it's just practising on the Training Engagements and then being able to work the systems in the cockpit efficiently to get to the stage where you have the right weapon at the right time with the right SOI. It's a bit like juggling kittens, which is why we need to practice! Once the weapon delivery becomes instinctive, we can work more on timing and other aspects of coordinating the flight.

It was fun though, a little hectic at times, but good fun nonetheless!

Actually I only made one pass over the bridge and got hit by ack ack as I was turning to go back for my second run - and I'll have you know Speedy got knocked about by ack ack on the second mission more than I did! All I got for that one was a light prang and a frozen HUD.

Was a bit of an anti-climax to get knocked down by ack ack before even managing to do anything, considering I'd gone over the briefing and written down the callsigns and the package info and the frequency of the tower and drawn little maps of each bridge so I knew which one was which, but c'est la guerre as they say.

At least I got to blow some stuff up on the second mission.