The Double D's

[Slartibartfast 153]

Well after a few days off recovering from my last escapde back into the seat again....

 

Well Fg Off Graham is still in the fight... after a unreasonable short stay in the hospital, turns out the shoulder wasn't too bad after all, I was kicked out and sent back to the Squadron drat just when the nurses where coming round to my way of thinking ho hum...

 

Well here it goes 3 sorties today and all of them where a handful...

 

First up was a CAP mission as to what happened I am still working that out. Got to the cap area okay and then the Mig's showed up and they where swingers as well Mig-23's mixed it with those for a short time but they all fell from the sky unfortunately the CAP area had a small problem ie... 2 SA-10 sites which knocked 2 wingmen down. One crew banged out but the others didn't get out. Didn't have too much time to think about it as we baled home 4 Mig-23's for the count...

 

Next up was a 2 ship intercept...

 

Nothing to it really up and back in 30 minutes 2 Mig-27's scratched on the scoreboard...

 

Sortie 3 4 Ship Cap again...

 

This time the capping was in what we thought was a relatively quiet area yeah as if thats going to happen... Capped the base and between us we took out 4 Mig-21's and then all hell broke loose 3 & 4 went off chasing some Mig-23's (Where are they all coming from) while my Wingman shouts out Flankers... crank the jet round and takes the first one out with a Skyflash surprised I was I only fired it to get him to plug his burners in for a winder shot anyway turns out the guy was a certified ACE Major Kumsonlov or something like that as we where advised by the elint boys... his wingie died shortly afterwards but he put up a fight... but a winder finished him off... and it was gather the lads up who had managed to bag a pair of 23's and home for tea and crumpets...

 

Screenie for the interested...

 

 

Looks like I am the killer of the squadron...

[+Cliff7600 1,148]

7^th mission

 

2Lt Henry Golfaurla

 

No. 350 Squadron, Brüggen – F-104G Starfighter

 

08/28/68

 

Take off : 10.37 – Landing : 10.59

 

Target : Bonn, CAS

 

Ford 11 : 2Lt Henry Golfaurla

 

Ford 12 : 2Lt Jan Peeters

 

Ford 13 : Capt Hans d'Aische

 

Ford 14 : 1Lt Hans Detal

 

Report :

 

What a nightmare… After a week of combats, we’re losing the war.

 

Today, we was tasked to a close air support mission. The F-104 were loaded with rocket pods and a bomb under the belly. Rockeye for no.1, 2 and 4, and no.3 will carry a Mk82, we needed to test that. We decided to follow the flight plan from the beginning until the end, to be the most efficient as possible.

 

After the take off, I realized that the flight plan was making us fly in the clouds. No problem, IFR for everybody, but I turned on the position lights, we don’t need a midair collision. We turned WP3 and then Tactical Control told us to RTB! What?! We go on, as scheduled, and we’ll try to drop our ordinance on opportunity targets. But we can’t see a thing, the weather is rainy and foggy. “Ford flight, triple A reported over DZ” All right, we give up!

 

And I turned my Starfighter to avoid the battle field. Jan radioed :“Ford one, two, there’s fighters”. Well, let’s see what’s going on. I saw a Fitter and decided to engage him. I called Jan to stay with me, I soon got his 6, but he was making a strafing pass. Too late, I didn’t caught him up on time. He made a 180° turn and I pushed to the max full burner. I decided to use the rocket pods, that would be perfect. But he was turning and banking and I fired all the rockets but all went wide. My Vulcan will shot him from distance. Perfect aim, a good long burst, and another, but nothing. I must catch him up! Full burner once again, but he had the time to make another pass over Köln-Wahn AB. What a mess! F…! A last long burst and he was still intact. I decided to RTB without playing anymore with my wingmen. As a fact, Ford 13 didn’t answer.

 

IFR conditions to get back home and I thought my landing was good until Control told me I lost my Rockeye on the runway. By luck, it didn’t explode and no.2 and 4 landed safely.

 

Capt. d’Aische was unharmed, and told us he was shot down by an enemy fighter.

 

Bonn is saved, and that’s what matters.

[Slartibartfast 153]

Another sleepless night ensued as we now have an F-4 squadron doing night ops not good for the old sleep thing...

 

Anyway 2 more rounds with the reds today before Lunch...

 

Standard loadouts

4 Ship

 

First up was a nice escort mission escorting a 4 ship of F-111's at least we can keep up with them down in the weeds...

 

Anyway take off and join up was simple after a 30 minute flight we approached the F-111 IP so we popped skyward rapidly and found a pair of Mig-21's willing to play but they didn't last too long and then it was back to nothing to do apart from walk the F-111's home... 2 kills

 

Sortie 2

 

Standard Loadouts

8 Ship

 

Yeah it was one of those flights 8 of us on an Intercept near Madburg to allow our ground forces to advance and to stop close air from the Reds screwing it all up... Anyway we blasted over there just under the Mach andfound a 4 ship of Su-17's working over our guys right soon put a stop to that I thinks but no I found myself going nose to nose with a Flanker everyone scattered on order and picked their targets I popped a sidewinder into the first flanker and down he goes which surprised me while my number 3 bagged his wingman and the other 2 flankers fell as well but they nailed one of our guys no chutes from that bird just disappeared in a ball of flame... After the escorts had gone it was down to low level and tidying up the Su-17's which the second flight had practically demolished and then the bosslady's in trouble with a Mig-23 in front of her and a Mig-21 behind not a good place for anyone her wingie flamed the 21 and she got the 23 as I nailed another 23 which was setting up for a gun attack on her... after that it was home for lunch... 3 kills...

[+Cliff7600 1,148]

8^th mission was the last for Henry Golfaurla, shot down near Trier, by the Beagle tailguns he was chasing.

 

Lt., you're far ahead. Well done!

 

I'm thinking about the next DiD guy, there's too much choice :)

 

Good luck for all!

 

Cliff

 

 

[Lt. James Cater 62]

26DEC67

 

The Air Force gave us a late Christmas present.

 

It turned out wrong though, we lost LT Webb.

 

It was routine until we made a few bad decisions that doomed Webb. Coming in right on the heels of the strike on the target, we looked for something to drop what we had on but there really wasn't much.

 

I made a run on the sole remaing building at the POL site but missed with my bombs. Heading out i noticed an AA gun nearby and ordered Webb to hit it. Seconds later i realized that it was amongst a concentration of guns belonging the Vihn's southern defensive belt. As Webb began his attack run, a firey comet fell to earth as one of the flak suppressors of another strike was shot down. Damn it! So i picked a gun and went in also. Just as Webb called bombs away i strafed my target and pulled up and away at full throttle to get us out of there while giving orders to rejoin.

 

I was heading east towards the water at about 900 ft and hoped that Webb would come in behind me but his post drop turn was incorrect. He turned the wrong way and instead of having the guns at his 6, the oppisite turn meant that he would have to fly right over the worst of the fire. he almost made it. Perhaps 5 more seconds would have been good.

 

I remembered when we had that area so sterile, a Piper Cub could have flown anywhere near Vihn without drawing a shot.

 

This war is really getting old.

Edited February 7, 2010 by Lt. James Cater

[Lt. James Cater 62]

28DEC67

 

Had a strike mission and decided to bring the whole gang along. I was pretty aprehensive

about this one but it went way better than i thought.

 

The weather was fine so takeoff was a snap. It did take a while to join up and so that caused us a bit of a delay getting to the IP. A few more minutes were lost by having to manuver the force around one spot near our base that is over some AA emplacements.

 

As it turns out, we never had to hit the target. Some B-52s got in ahead of us and absolutely pulverized everything near there as well as taking out our objective. The flak was hot though, there were some navy guys taking on the guns and they had already lost a plane(A-7) by the time we showed up. We were loaded for bear and so i let the boys loose about 10 miles south of the river. I was hoping things would be good but was shocked at the rampage that ensued!

 

Some guns had been knocked out by the time we got there but we proceeded to wipe out everything from Chanh Hoa to the Arrowhead and west to the foothills. Man, we really rained down the pain today. The attacks were so frenzied that several times i would be in hot and watch the target vanish as someone beat me to it. We even managed to take out a few vehicles and a radar.

 

Gotta love these kind of days.

[+EricJ 4,144]

Agreed, but sometimes it is aggravating when your target gets hit before you get there... but hey, nice AAR

 

BTW if you want a pretty PDF file of the locations in Vietnam I can make one up.

Edited February 7, 2010 by EricJ

[Lt. James Cater 62]

Agreed, but sometimes it is aggravating when your target gets hit before you get there... but hey, nice AAR

 

BTW if you want a pretty PDF file of the locations in Vietnam I can make one up.

Being late and having another flight take out the target has happened to me enough times that i secondary targets are really needed and planned for. Sometimes it's a great thing to have the target hit beforehand because either it is in a hairy location or a juicier target is easily available.

 

As for a file of the locations? I really think we ought to re-examine our older posts and update the info since the WOV GOLD mod had changed everything. For example, in the current campaign i've only flown as far as Vihn and in the past, those missions were milk runs. Go there casual and you WILL get shot down.

 

I can only imagine what's up in RP 5 and 6 now.

[+EricJ 4,144]

Okay no probs but since it's really terrain features it shouldn't be an issue.

[Lt. James Cater 62]

2Jan68

 

There was activity going on up North, but our orders were for an Armed Recce mission.

 

me and LT Wiggins took off into a godawful murk. Once into the clouds it was pure pea soup instrument flying. Good thing we weren't going that far from Pleiku.

 

The flight was stressing but uneventful. I sure hoped that our 8500ft flight altitude wouldn't put is into some mountain. lord knows how many times we've flown around here but you never know.

 

Well, we finally got near the base area we were supposed to patrol and as we got close under the clouds, were we fired upon by the most vicious barrage of fire that i have ever encountered over Laos. As we dodged frantically and prayed fervently that we wouldn't hit a ridgeline while we were flying blind, something interesting was spotted. An enemy truck

 

Wiggins seemed clear so i ordered him to attack while i tried to sort myself out and dragged attention away from him.

 

It didn't really work. I couldn't see a damn thing down there but the amount of fire was tremendous Both of us were under heavy fire and our odds of getting out in one piece were slim. I heard Higgins call bombs away as i broke out of the clouds again. Luckily he was carrying a full load of napalm and he dropped it all. The resulting fireball made for a nice navigation marker and so i turned towards the flames. Wrong moves it turns out, as the groundfire exploded around me again. Another bit of luck came about. A handy hill was in front of me and so it allowed cover from the fire after i went full throttle towards it.

 

In the meantime, i got some info from Wiggins. His plane was completely shot up. Left aileron and flap gone, holes in both wings all over the fuselage. By this time i had a good fix on the truck. Turns out we found a convoy! Seeing how bad the damage was to Wiggins's aircraft, i sent him home.

 

I will admit, my first attacks were rather cautious. I didn't want to get within range of the guns and the weather and terrain were not the best combination possible. Soon though, a rhythm was established and the attackes became a sort of gunnery exercise. By now i knew were not to fly so as to avoid the guns and so i had a nice time.

 

CBUs, napalm, WP, rockets and guns. Still had 20mm ammo left when i got the last one. Searched around for a bit more to make sure then went home.

[Lt. James Cater 62]

4Jan68

 

Got fragged for a Recce mission and considering the lousy weather, decided to do it solo.

 

Takeoff and climb was routine considering the conditions. Once above the clouds i settled at 10,000ft and cruised north over Laos.There was a flight of Huns hitting the place and so i set a speed that would give them plenty of time to catch up. To be honest, the mission wasn't all that important to me. You see, i was loaded with High Drag MK117s and really wanted to get the primary done so i could fly down and make a quick pass at the Chanh Hoa barracks. The place looks like it's getting reoccupied and so i wanted to say hello to whoever was in residence.

 

Anyways it was a fairly dull flight to the IP. Anvil flight(the F-100s) came up fast and on time. I reached the IP just as Anvil began their approach to the target and so swung into my approach and dove for the ground through the clouds. Trouble became apparent when Anvil came under fire. I hoped that there would be only light AAA in the area and i guessed wrong. So i did the only thing i could do, full throttle and tree top level. The closer i got the more the nerves acted up. Other than a 57mm gun, what else was done there?

 

The answer came quicker than i hoped. For a second or two i thought i was in the clear since i was so low, the heavier stuff couldn't possibly shoot at me. However, they had some heavy machine guns and i was a perfect target for them as all i could do was run the gauntlet.

 

Their aim was true, I saw the numerous flashes of hits to the engine and was scared witless by a burst of flame in my mirrors that turned out to be the rudder being shot away. A few more hits impacted the aircraft and the engine began smoking heavily. By this time i knew Chanh Hoa was a no/go and so i jettisoned the bombs. That saved my life i believe, well that and the sturdy construction of the SPAD. Once again the Douglas product was my saviour. In any other plane i was a goner.

 

The speed increase got me out of there. I kept the throttle open while the tracers hunted for me but the second i figured i was out of range i cut back to avoid an engine fire and climbed to avoid the hills between my position and the South China sea.

 

It was a long excruciating distance to the water. At any moment i expected the engine to go and so i spent some really anxious moments before finally reaching the Garden. Not taking a chance, i waited until i was about 10 miles off the coast until i headed south.

 

Once down near Hue i steered for home and made it.

 

Man, i have got to quit doing stupid things like that if i want to make it out of here.

[+Cliff7600 1,148]

Lt. you're crazy! You're playing with Lady Luck.

May I suggest you take one day off?

 

 

My new DiD pilot :

 

1^st mission

 

2Lt Sean Rosewood

 

87^th FIS, Wiesbaden-Erbenheim – F-106A Delta Dart

 

10/29/68

 

Take off : 11.14 – Landing : 11.44

 

Target : Eisenach, CAP

 

2 Il-28 Beagle

 

Buick 11 : 2Lt Sean Rosewood

 

Buick 12 : 2Lt Norman Howenton

 

Buick 13 : Capt Clifton Massen

 

Buick 14 : 1Lt Fred Sumner

 

Report :

 

First mission in Europe, the weather is horrible, thick fog.

 

We’re tasked to patrol near Eisenach with a 4 fighters flight.

 

As we don’t expect to carry the AIR-2 Genie, we choose to load an AIM-26B with the regular AIM-4Fs and Gs.

 

We took off and when we reached the patrol level (21) we were over the cloud. So they know what the sun is here! Tactical Control told us to RTB cause other flights did our job.

 

I decided to see what was going on there and we went down near the ground. Control guided us to the show and I locked a guy beyond vision range. Control confirmed fire granted and I tried the SuperFalcon, no success. Then an AIM-4F and it went wide. I made a 270 turn to get the 6 of my bandit, an IL-28 Beagle. My first AIM-4G buzzed instantly and I fired it. Bull’s eye! I saw the smoking wreck going to the ground. That was ok for today. I set the course to WP7, but… another Beagle was just in front of me. My MA-1 locked on him and I launched an AIM-4F which went directly in the bomber. Twooo!

 

We climbed over the clouds and get back home. With the fog, the landing pattern was difficult to perform and I made an awful approach. But the Six is maneuverable, and I landed without problem. Fred’s landing wasn’t nicer than mine :)

 

 

_

Edited February 10, 2010 by Cliff11

[Lt. James Cater 62]

Can you believe the SPAD withstood 20 14.5mm hits?

[Lt. James Cater 62]

8Jan68

 

This mission was about as good as it gets.

 

Had to do some Recce and took along Lts O'Neil, Clifton, and Pardo. We hit Khe Phat hard a while ago Wing wanted us to take a look to see if the North Vietnamese were doing anything in the area.

 

So off we went.

 

It was a nice flight. There were some clouds, but we still had plenty of visibility to work with. Khe Phat turned out to be nothing special so i decided to take us to the Arrowhead to check it out. As it turns out, the place was clean also. What a surprise! I thought about going up north of the Garden and probing the Vihn area but decided that it would be better to bring everyone the next time we have a Strike going on nearby.Finally we turned south over the beach and headed towards the river mouth east of Quang Khe.

 

Jackpot!

 

There were some trucks on both banks and sampan traffic in the river. Looks like we caught them waiting to be ferried across. Me and O'Neil went after the targets while Clifton and Pardo stayed back just in case of guns.

 

There was no anti aircraft fire and so we made multiple passes and left things burning. I also found a couple of PT boats and shot them up as well. When i was winchester i gathered up the flight and we set off back to Pleiku.

 

It's official...Everything south of the Ca river has been taken care off. Only some buildings at Chanh Hoa to be destroyed.

 

Let's hope that the Pentagon types don't halt the bombing again. I sure as hell don't want to go through all the trouble again.

[MaverickMike 10]

Hey LT. Could you post a screenie of your pilot record? I dont think iv ever seen one as good as yours. I gave up on this DiD campaign long ago. Kept dying lol. Although I still do fly using the DiD rules.

 

Im currently flying for the VFA-115 Eagles in the new War for Israel mod. My pilot has flown 3 missions and has 12AA kills!

 

Mike

[Lt. James Cater 62]

7July68

 

Guess what? We had another bombing halt!

 

By now we all know that Washington is a bigger threat to us than the North Vietnamese are. EVERY single time we had the enemy on the ropes we let off.

 

Well, we got Chanh Hoa as a target and you can bet that the guns are there again as sure as can be. About the only advantages we would posses is a night time strike and a whole lot of flights hitting targets in the vicinity. More flying targets to disperse the fire and more flak suppression working a small area.

 

Well, we took off and set course. 8 of us loaded with MK117s, Rockeyes, and Napalm. I didn't want us to be late so we didn't bother circling, just flew on at a slow enough speed to allow everyone to get together before we got to a nav point just west of Da Nang.

 

As usual, what seemed routine soon went wrong. Even going slower than usual, we still were coming in ahead of the others and there is no way we should do this alone. At 15 miles from the IP we circled. Our flak supression flight had already checked in but there was no way they were going to make it ahead of us. Even if they were in F-4s, there's no way it was going to work out if we went straight in.

 

When the time was right we all went in. Me and Wiggins after the primary, the rest after the numerous guns. By then the area from the target to the river was absolutly filled with aircraft but we still drew fire. Wiggins drew some intense fire but he drove on in. I got lucky as i was above and behind him and so didn't draw attention until i was way into the dive. We blew away the target as well as other things down there, then began wiping everything out that we could find.

 

A fine time was had by all. We weren't alone in the action as other flights did their thing also. The mayhem went as far as the Arrowhead. That's where LT Sumner was shot down. I really wished he stayed nearby but when you let the boys loose, they will go far and wide to hunt down a target. Unfortunatly, the target can and will shoot back.

 

After i figured enough damage was done (and i was also winchester) i called them back together and we flew home. It was during the regrouping that i noticed Sumner was missing.

 

 

After the intial debacles in this DID challenge, i learned how to use the aircraft in a manner that would keep me alive. No hero types need apply. Going after a target requires a sense of timing that will allow others to assist you in completing the missions and staying in one piece. Knowledge of the operational area was decisive. It allowed for a safe approach and withdrawal with the least amount of exposure to the enemy defense as possible. Safe flying was also a priority. An altitude minimum was strictly maintained no matter what. It does no one any good to fly into a cloud only to find it has a rather large rock inside it.

 

The aircraft itself is probaly the single greatest factor in succeeding with the missions. I'm sure that i would have been shot down a half dozen times easily if i wasn't flying the toughest plane in the WO series. A few times i resigned myself to death but still made it home despite hits that would have reduced anything else to an earthbound mass of scrap. The added abilty to go slow and low also was a big plus. On some Armed Recce missions there was no way any fast mover was going to do a good job. The weather and terrain would have combined to wreak havoc on attempts go do the maximum damage. Forget about it, i would have crashed countless times in anything other than an A-1.

 

 

Too bad i can't keep flying this angel in further adventures.

 

Cater

 

PS-Those two shootdowns? I noticed they appeared after my comp crashed those couple of times. The campaigns won/loss has been bugging me for a few years now. Still can't figure that one out.

Edited February 12, 2010 by Lt. James Cater

[UnknownPilot 33]

I've been through several pilots since I last posted here. It got to the point where I just got embarrassed about it coming in every few posts with a brand new pilot. I figured I'd just spare everyone. lol

 

I did hit upon something though. It occurred to me that all of my pilots get killed or captured, and the furthest into a campaign that I've made it has been 8 missions. I'd guess that my average is probably about 5 missions per pilot. And here's the thing, it's all from flak. Now, I'll admit, early on I was really crazy and pushing the limits all the time (playing in the flak, trying to get more points, those damn fangs are just too big and keep ending up in my floor boards), but later campaigns I really settled down. Once I was home free - I did everything right, I had started rippling bombs 2 or more at a time, hitting the target, directing #2 for maybe once more, dropping my remaining load (if any), in a hap-hazard hurry, and telling everyone to bug out. On this mission, as many previous ones, I changed the route to avoid population centers and came in from mountains to the south, hit the target, rounded up everyone, was egressing, saw the trouble, and realized that the AI wouldn't fly NOE with me, so I just turned them loose while I bolted for the hills I had just come from. I crested the top, rolled inverted, and if it had been an open pit I could have picked flowers as I skimmed the top and backside. Once down, I knew I was safe, but I kept my head down and just played in the valleys, watching my radar on ground mapping to try to avoid potential flak. I did see something though, and couldn't help myself, I went after it, turned out to be a radar site, and I strafed and killed it, and got lucky, got the heck out of there and went back to getting home. At this point I was far clear of the heat up north and was climbing for cruising. Then puff started appearing all around me. I saw a dock that wasn't on my radar, I swung right to avoid flying over it, and then spied another mini-dock on the other side of a small hill to the right, so I cut back left to try to split them, more flak was trying to track me, I was within a quarter mile of the gulf..... BOOM! Nothing but incandescent gas and bits of shrapnel. A damned 100mm gun nailed me dead on, while I was jinking like mad at a high rate of speed, after a terrific mission.

 

Needless to say I had had it at that point. That was when I contemplated my pilot situation I mentioned above. I reasoned that, with behavior like that, it's just not feasible for someone to survive. We'd have no living pilots from that war, except for maybe those who started so late they didn't get more than a mission or 2 assigned to them. So I did some research here, and found entries for range finders and ballistic computers on the 58 and 100mm guns, and I dropped them from 6 to 5.5. I don't know if that field can take a partial value (since it was 6, not 6.0), so I don't know if the result is really what I wanted, but... I can say this, it's still dangerous, still scary, and I have straightened up my flying even more. So far seems so good, and I have high hopes. We will see I suppose.

[MaverickMike 10]

Hey LT thats just awesome. I guess it goes to show what can be accomplished if you put in as much as you did.

 

I believe congrats are in order

 

Are you going to be starting another DiD pilot?

 

Mike

[+Cliff7600 1,148]

Congrats Lt. you've made it. 40 flight hours and 33 missions, that's very impressive!

 

Talking about being embarrassed, I need advice about my current pilot, I don't know exactly what to do : end the campaign or go on with it.

The problem is I've just shot down my wingman and he's reported MIA. (We were chasing the bandit in the clouds)

I think it's unrealistic that the pilot can fly after that. Tell me...

 

Cliff

 

PS: With the F-106, all is beyond vision range, even the landing...

[UnknownPilot 33]

War is hell, as they say, and sometimes s**t happens. I would say the pilot would probably continue to fly. As to whether or not you wish to continue it is entirely your call.

 

But when you say that landing and combat are all BVR, what do you mean?

 

I personally have found the 106 to be a very good close in fighter. It's got great power and speed with reasonable turning ability. Armed with even the USAF's dud sidewinders and the 20mm gunpod, you should be every bit as good in close as with the 104. But it was really the landing comment that confused me, I don't know what you mean by that.....

[Lt. James Cater 62]

Thanks to all!

 

I've been looking at this pilot and i think he's going to make a career in the USAF. Somehow, i got the feeling that the "peace" in Vietnam won't hold and something is going to happen in the future.

[+Cliff7600 1,148]

Lt Col J. Sykes is going to be a Vietnam war veteran, are you planning a Linebacker campaign?

 

Unknown, the F-106 is great but you cannot see anything with the original cockpit because of the V windshield.

It isn't a problem for take off, the flying and the fighting, but when the landing comes, it's a guessing about where is the runway.

I know there is several guys who flew the NF4 campaign in the F-102 or something like that. I don't know if they find it easy to land without seeing anything ahead.

I'll ask that...

 

 

 

2^nd mission

 

2Lt Sean Rosewood

 

87^th FIS, Wiesbaden-Erbenheim – F-106A Delta Dart

 

10/31/68

 

Take off : 11.44 – Landing : 12.23

 

Target : Gûtersloh, sweep

 

1 F-106 (friendly fire)

 

Memphis 11 : 2Lt Sean Rosewood

 

Memphis 12 : 2Lt Roger Radeker

 

Report :

 

I’m in trouble!

 

This was a sweep mission over Gütersloh and the weather was really cloudy.

 

2Lt Radeker was my number 2 and we followed the flight plan to IP.

 

A bandit engaged us and we got the clearance to open fire.

 

It was really easy to get his 6 and I saw him pushing hard full burner to escape. I fired the AIM-26 and then an AIM-4F and both went wide. Then I switched to the AIM-4G and got a lock. I fired and I heard that call “check your fire”. F…, I’ve shot at the wrong plane. The bandit was still ahead and I pushed full throttle to catch him, flying IRF. I fired the remaining missiles without success. I called for Memphis 12. No answer…

 

Back to the base, I was informed that there was no other fighter than us over that area when I did the friendly kill. I’ve shot down 2Lt Roger Radeker over enemy lines…

 

_

[UnknownPilot 33]

Cliff, I don't mean to belabor the point, so I apologize, but honestly, I think this is a limitation of the controls. The thing to do is to get visual confirmation before shooting, but that can be difficult to do in the heat of battle whether it be via the F3 key, or the mouse keys. As you know, you have to be "zoomed out" most of the time to maintain SA and perspective, but when it comes to locating or ID'ing a target, I find it important to zoom in on it. The way I do that is with the zoom keys (left and right mouse buttons) mapped to my joystick, along with the main views as well (so I can either zoom straight in on something I'm looking at, or jump to a higher zoom view (like F3), then zoom furhter if needed, and then either zoom back out if I have time, or with a flick of my thumb bounce the view back out to where it started from, or to an even wider view (like F1 or F2)).

 

The arrow keys are their own limitation of course, but mostly it's about the view control. I think either something like the Cougar, with it's microstick and mapping functionality, or maybe even Track IR (much as I don't like the idea of being blasted in the face with IR all night long), would be what you need. That will give you greater control and speed. (even if you are using the mouse in one hand for view and the arrows in the other, the zoom is slow, so you need to be able to quickly change a FOV, but would have to either let go of the mouse and cross hands, or let go of the arrow keys)

 

 

Or.... use the cheat of the red square and yellow diamond as a worst case scenario. That way you will know what it is you have locked up and are shooting at. :)

 

 

The parachute is cool, I don't think I've ever seen that in SF2:V.

 

 

Regarding the landing, I picked up a bad habit from IL2 - what a friend of mine calls a "combat landing", which is basically what it is (since in IL2 online the idea to get down and stopped as quickly as possible before you get vulched, and thereby gain your points for kills and re-plane to get back up there) - and what I will do is basically dive the runway. If I'm coming in really hot, I use scissors and barrell rolls to slow me down.

 

But there is a benefit to this. You will find that if you go to F3, you see more up over the dash (at least I've found tha to be true in the Skyhawk, I would imagine it's engine-wide). However zoomed that far in you can't see your instruments, and all your control inputs are magnifyed (plus it's just hard to deal with such tunnel vision as well). Yet, when zoomed back out to F2, where I prefer to fly, the dash covers up more of what's ahead of you. And as you slow down for landing, in order to slow your descent rate, you get the nose up and then can't see anything.

 

However, if you go a bit faster and drop harder, you can have your nose down more, allowing you to see. This requires more altitude to start with, and results in basically "diving the runway". Of course it also results in a problem if you leave it that way as you'll slam into the ground and break the plane. So you have to arrest your vertical and forward speed at the last minute with a flair. The right amount of flair at the right time can result in the gentlist of landings from a rather steep and hard drop. Naturally this is made easier in some planes than in others (such as the F-104 lol).

 

Give that a try and see if helps you maintain visibility with the runway for long enough. Just try it with a generic throwaway pilot in single missions (I made one called Generic "Interrogator" Testpilot, which I use for practice and to try out new planes - if he dies or fails, it doesn't matter).

 

As to target tracking in the wind screen, I actually don't have too much difficulty there, although you're right, it is poorer than others. Although I use padlock frequently as well which helps.

 

 

[Slartibartfast 153]

Well Flying LT Mark "Pirate" Andrews is still busy causing the Red Menace problems

 

Last 2 Sorties :-

 

Sortie one was an Escort run

 

4 F-3's

Full Weapons and Tanks

 

Took off nicely and was airborne faster than a fast thing with go fast stripes (Well thats what the boss lady said anyway)

 

Picked up our charges Anvil Flight 8 Jaguars about 40 miles out their target was an airfield 100 miles behind enemy lines beats running Intercepts all day long... Cruised in over the lines checked in with Sentry 1 and carried on cruising looking to do some brusing nothing showing 75 miles later about to turn of the IP point and 2 Mig-29's appeared out of nowhere Tanks dropped and turned to meet them got a sidewinder into one at 2 miles but his wingie was intent on the Jaguars and he sped after them at 600knots so popped into full burner and was after him closing the range rapidly as I was doing over 800knots (The old Chief Tech has really tweaked this bird to the max)... got within 2 miles of the Mig and fired my second winder of the day took what I thought was a scratch hit as one of his burners went out the other was still on full and then his Vertical tail on the Starboard side peeled off the airframe and goodnight was all she said he went into a flat spin and impacted the ground shortly afterwards. Caught up with the Jag's just after they had finished their working over of the airbase. Sentry one advised that there where a bunch of Mig-21's to the north so me and my Wingman went after them as I sent 3 and 4 home pointless them hanging about. Short story 5 Mig-21's later and it was home in time for elevenses....

 

Sortie 2

 

Basic in and out intercept

 

2 F-3's

 

Full load out and tanks

 

Launched and head to the Fulda Gap Sentry 30 advised that 2 low level joker's where after the tanks that where holding the area. Picked them up at 500ft and nailed number 2 with a winder his number 1 though was interesting as he fought like a demon but he was always going to lose as I had seen it all before from the Su-22's one sidewinder later and down he fell... HEaded home for tea and crumpets and 2 Mig-21's come up to fight damn they where hard to spot with the camo job they have... anyway that ended the only way it could do 2 splashed with a sidewinder and number 1 with the Miss 27mm Mauser...

[Lt. James Cater 62]

30Mar72

 

What did i tell you? I knew the end wasn't in the cards.

 

So i spent time back in the States as an IP and also got qualified on the A-7. Did the Pentagon thing for a short while and despised it as well as the the Cocktail circuit that comes with it too.

 

I called in some markers and got myself sent to Thailand. The timing was right and i got command of the 1st SOS. Intell gave some hints but the NVA really got ambitious this time. This is a really big attack from the DMZ all the way down past the Central Highlands.

 

Well, we got the call and we answered! Damned if i'm so new here that i still don't have the names of everyone here straight. loaded with 4 CBUs and 10 Napalm canisters each, we set out to lay some hurt on the foe when we got to them.

 

Quang Tri was our destination and we had to take a roundabout way to get there. Who knows what they got in Laos now? To avoid any nasty suprises with heavy AA, we fly down to Ubon before swinging east. About 30 miles out and we begin getting the calls for help. Everything made for a textbook Cavalry to the rescue attack except that i forgot to set my switches correctly and so didn't drop anything on my first pass. The enemy had no problems with their weapons though. I heard the sounds of the aircraft taking hits and saw tracers go by me. Damning myself for my stupidity i gave thanks that it wasn't anything major ( A pair of .51s) and set up for another attack.

 

Everyone was a pro and we took the pressure off the ARVNs below. 2LT Hefernan (sic) in particular, was especially ferocious in his attacks.

 

Looks like i found a new wingman.