High Pucker Factor...

[Lt. James Cater]

Everyone has at least one.

 

A target that makes your hair stand on end when you draw it.

 

For me, my top hairy target is Kep. The location alone makes it a white knuckle experience. With no notable terrain features to mask your approach, multiple SAM sites and loads of triple A have a wonderful chance at you from altitude all the way down to the deck. What makes it even worse is that it's in the Hanoi area meaning that you are going to get hosed hard the closer you get. Of all the targets i can think of, this one is just as bad when egressing.

 

Hanoi is THE king kong of defenses. However, if you fly out of Thailand you can take advantage of Thud ridge to avoid the worst of it. If you swing north of Yen Bai and come in low and fast along the ridge you can get to your pop up point pretty much unscathed. Once you climb though, all hell breaks loose. If you come in at altitude expect the worst. One route i sometimes take is an approach from due west of the city. Once near the foothills (especially one i call "SAM Knoll)i KNOW that flak will be coming up and at least two SAM sites will launch at my strike. Can't do anything but cope with it. Egressing can be a nightmare here too. It's a long way to the hills or the water if you take critical damage.

 

 

Haiphong is similar to Kep but with only 4 SAM sites to deal with. Unfortunatly, they are closely deployed and so their coverage is tightly overlapped.

 

 

There is an airfield north of Than Hoa that i forgot the name of but it has 3 SAM sites in the area that are incredibly agressive. Navy pukes should be careful while heading north off the coast. It's a given that you will be engaged should you wander too close to the beach around there.

 

 

 

So let's hear yours.

[macelena]

Take a bombing run with a b-52 from Port Said to Deversoir

[+FastCargo]

My home field on a formation sortie with a student and solo student wingman, both of which are not native English speakers.

 

FC

 

Oh...you meant in the sim...

[WDH]

Landing a A-5A at night on a carrier in adverse conditions after surviving a Paul Domner's Bridge south of Hanoi and several near misses of AA,AAA,SAMs along with a MiG-19S that will not leave you alone.All of this on the hard level with the latest oct08b patch for WOV.Needed a crowbar to exit the seat after catching the third wire and a doctor to remove the seat cover.

 

Oh...you meant in the sim...<---FC,

 

Brady

[kct]

The runway. It is ALWAYS the runway.

[Lt. James Cater]

All right wise guys!

 

Seeing as Christmas is near, who knows how many out there might just pick up these sims and sooner or later find themselves here. Even if i read about the war in Vietnam since i was a kid i sure as hell wish i could have gotten more specific intell when i first started in WOV. For example, a hill i used to use as a nav marker and a shield to avoid SAMs was smack next to a SAM site with all the attendant AAA. I got zapped twice over that same terrain feature. I didn't find out about the site until i did some recce work and found it.

 

Head NE from Than Hoa and there is a stretch where you are under heavy 100mm fire for a rather prolonged period. I know the first time i flew that route i almost jumped out of my skin when the flak started going off around my plane. Dense flak areas rarely get mentioned around here.

 

Using Jaeger's settings, high altitude AAA is no longer harmless.

 

 

IN WOE i know the geography but have little clue as to the lethality of the target area. Perhaps someone can fill us in a bit? It's been a while since i last flown but i remember getting shot down once by ground fire due to my stupidity and ignorance of the area i was flying over.

 

WOI i have yet to get but so far here only a single mention of an area to watch out for.

[TeTeT]

SEAD around Hanoi is about the worst. No matter how you ingress, there are just too many targets around. Lingering over Hanoi to pick on them is asking for it. When doing an egress to the nearby hills, I usually have a very low motivation to do another run, even if there's ammo left.

[Jug]

SEAD around Hanoi is about the worst. No matter how you ingress, there are just too many targets around. Lingering over Hanoi to pick on them is asking for it. When doing an egress to the nearby hills, I usually have a very low motivation to do another run, even if there's ammo left.

Mantra repeat......ONE pass and HAUL ASS. Just do good on the one pass.....................

[Jarhead1]

Even if I miss with my string of bombs that I am carrying, I still just drop n go, hit n run, me and my wingman, if neither of us hit the target, oh well, we go feet wet, and linger around the carrier and wait, cause usually there is another alpha strike that hits it and then when I get mission accomplished, I get in the pattern and trap. Its a pain to pickle half my load, and then go back and pickle the rest on another run, NO THANKS. If yall think its cheating with what I do, oh well, its just like real war, sometimes the target is hit, sometimes its missed.

[Rambler 1-1]

Once, taking on a warehouse in the middle of the desert in a B-57B, I discovered that there were four ZU-23-4s all around it. That was an interesting run. I lost an engine, and elevator and an aleron, but got home safe. After a long flight, though.

[Lt. James Cater]

Mantra repeat......ONE pass and HAUL ASS. Just do good on the one pass.....................

 

If anyone doing strikes want to live long enough to complete their tour, i'd suggest you repeat the above to yourself endlessly and act upon it.

Edited December 21, 2008 by Lt. James Cater

[+comrpnt]

Into the hornets nest...SEAD into the outskirts of Rostock, April 1979... not expecting to come back after this one...

 

Edited December 21, 2008 by comrpnt

[TeTeT]

If anyone doing strikes want to live long enough to complete their tour, i'd suggest you repeat the above to yourself endlessly and act upon it.

 

No arguments on strike missions here, but doing SEAD does involve a bit of cat and mouse game and I believe the first in, last out mode of operation does apply.

[Lt. James Cater]

No arguments on strike missions here, but doing SEAD does involve a bit of cat and mouse game and I believe the first in, last out mode of operation does apply.

 

I really don't equate SEAD with your typical strike mission because it's a unique thing. Having to spend a prolonged period of time in the target area to make multiple passes at triple A sites is sure as hell not my idea of fun at all.