SF2 Series DACT Reports And Related A2A Discussions (Game only)

[saisran 84]

That's pretty quick Eric. :)

 

Anyway just continuing the Delta series.

 

 

Here i took the Typhoon against the RafaleC-F4. Went Up High and looped back down Hoping to find the Rafale Bled Out of energy or at least on the defensive. The rafale carried itself well and we entered a long dragged out battle where i tried to find the optimum profile where the Typhoon has a definitive advantage. Well, as it turns out having the same engine and design layout made both planes identical at almost every aspect. We had a stalemate at Supersonic, Subsonic, 300+s and at 200+s. The Fight took 10 Mins from merge to finish and ended with my trying my best to get out fly the AI and a blind high deflection shot.

 

 

First half of the Video was against the Chinese J10A. I figured they have a high chance of going against each other if China got hot.

 

Went up and looped down on the J10. the J10 turned into me and went vertical himself but i was able to place the piper infront of his path and knocked the engine out. Despite seemingly loosing engine power the J10 was still gliding, and so i slid behind the fighter and mercifully gunned him down to save him the possibility of being tortured to death by the communist government for loosing such a valuable plane.

 

Part 2 of the vid, i took up the Jas39C Gripen vs the EF-2000 Typhoon. On my previous DACT the Gripen was destroyed an i wanted to see how the typhoon will handle under AI Hands.

 

Again the AI spawned behind me so i took the Gripen up to see if it can handle the same maneuver i was doing with the typhoon. Nope. The single engine configuration didnt gave the Gripen enough oomph to sustain the climb and i started loosing speed real fast. puled back and nose over and met the Typhoon on my descent. and we entered a a right hand chase. Trying to gather energy and maintaining an angle that will allow me to continue threatening the Typhoon was a difficult task due to the gripen's lack of thrust. However i did find out that at sustain speeds of over 300+ KIAS is able to take a smaller raduis that matches the turn rate of the Typhoon which the AI happily flies on full burner alternating between 300+ KIAS to Mach speed depending on out position. While balancing the Gripens angle and energy I managed to curl inside the Typhoon with timed throttle bursts and hard pulls. unlike the Typhoon the Gripen's tank is minuscule so i had to manage the throttle. After several attempts i managed to land a couple of hits which took out the typhoons wing. However despite loosing more than half of its right wing and damaging its engine, the Typhoon managed to glide away super cruising past the top speed of the Gripen. In th end i had to call bingo and slowly followed the Typhoon as it glides for hundreds of miles before it finally ran out of fuel and crash. At which point i myself had to land on the desert floor due to lack of fuel available for the return flight.

 

It seems that the Delta and Canard configuration is really a great choice for Modern Fighters. And the Typhoon and the Rafale is among the best of them. Ofcourse, i still think the Gripen is still the sexiest among them. SAAB knows how to make poster models.

[+EricJ 3,989]

Thanks and nice vids...

 

Overall I would have either gotten it done quicker or dragged it out as the constant blacking out drove me up the wall during that fight.  I fixed the issue and have to check it later on anyway.  But given past experience with the DID's version so many moons ago the EF2000 was a beast too, and enjoyed it immensely.  Though the Gripen is pretty cool though.

[+EricJ 3,989]

Me: IAI Lavi (not some BS Insky stuff), 4 x Python 5, gun

Opposition: F/A-18F Block II Super Hornet with 2 x AIM-9X, 8 x AIM-120C, gun

 

First off the Lavi in the pictures (I thought I recorded but appaently didn't) is a real Lavi and can be found here:

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/865151426909914/

 

Anyway started off and after again nearly having a midair with the Super the Lavi turned out to be a little too "joyous" and frankly, it was my first time flying it ever (I've had it on my HD for a week) so I rolled a bit more than I should have but keeping the Super defensive was fairly easy and without any G-Loc issues I was able to focus on the target and overall managed to keep him defensive and he managed to force me to overshoot and then I was defensive for the last couple minutes.He managed to try and gun me down (as in the log) and after throwing myself around I managed to get my Python on him and fired another "Hope this works" shot and connected after he fired his 9X at me, which thankfully missed (he was coming up, me down, much like the EF2000 match above) and managed to not splash myself on the ground.

 

Takeaways: Yeah.... I shouldn't take a jet out first try and DACT it, more or less spend some time just flying it around and so on.  But as a mini-review the Lavi can handle the Super Hornet quite easily and for the first half of the engagement I did have the Super Hornet dead to rights and could have splashed it easy.  Overall the fight did give me a workout and was rewarded with the kill (yeah it's my favorite jet but...) and managed to make it back alive.  Comparatively though the Lavi handles more like the Viper (which I'm sure what the modder used as a basis), with a recommendation to account for the added ability of the canards.  But I'm sold on it and think it's a nice aircraft, pity politics killed it back then, as it would have been the IAF's greatest jet.

[saisran 84]

That's one nice looking bird Kinda looks like an F-16XL. I though IAI only makes mirage replicas

[+EricJ 3,989]

From what I remember the Lavi was actually an Israeli indigenous fighter program, which through (from what I heard anyway) was cancelled due to politics, and the need to sell more F-16s:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAI_Lavi

[saisran 84]

From what I remember the Lavi was actually an Israeli indigenous fighter program, which through (from what I heard anyway) was cancelled due to politics, and the need to sell more F-16s:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAI_Lavi

 

 

Ah yes Politics. 

[+EricJ 3,989]

Yeah... been a bunch of that during the past week, and don't want to get started here either (maybe I should go to the Political Arena finally...)

[saisran 84]

Excellent call Eric. :) 

[+EricJ 3,989]

Maybe, I've voiced my opinion on Facebook so it's out there, but from what I saw there's a lot of things wrong with people, especially veterans.

[jeanba 1,918]

 

Took advantage of the F-1 Beta FMs, specifically the F-1C-200.  I took the bird up against a MiG-21F-13 "Fishbed C" and an F-100D Super Sabre.  I also checked out an F-14A against it, just to see how it flies against a familiar airframe.  Generally found the bird to be pretty good against the Super Sabre, and I never felt uncomfortable against the Fishbed C, though it took me a lot longer to get on its tail than the -100.  Here's the videos of the various combats flown:

 

I suggest you try against a Mig-23 MLD or similar late version : it's fun !

[saisran 84]

Kinda slow on the forums lately... Just a quick clip. On the way back from a successful intercept. Between me, wingie and no 3. we got made short work of 12 backfires and a badger. We were on the return flight. when a lone Fulcrum bounced our tail.

 

I saw tracers, panicked pulled tight across and above it and thankfully didnt get hit. Rolled over and saw that the Mig was hot on no 3. Dropped down behind him and pulled the trigger.

 

 

2nd part of vid was just some practice against 2 Mig21.

[+EricJ 3,989]

Good work, been working on a lot of Arma 3 stuff so haven't gotten around to this as of late. Just haven't gotten the motivation to do any more recently.

[cougar_1979 37]

Sorry to have been away for so long guys, but between work, surfing vacation and then some more work (plus flogging at work), i just hadn't any time to fly at all. When i finally got up again few days ago, i could barely keep the cat steady in the air, let alone tango with 4th gen fighters :P

I'll try to shape up ASAP.

[cougar_1979 37]

No videos yet, just some quick impressions (and possible base for a future mass DACT evaluation). I d-loaded the Hornet pack (A-D), and decided to finally go all out and fly everything against everything, both heaters and guns only. So far i flew F-18A VS F-14A (82), F-15C, F-16C, MiG-29A and Su-27. Then F-14A (82) VS F-15C, F-16C, F-18A and C, MiG-29A and Su-27.

At first i went SRAMs on both sides (and sometimes MRAMs for the bandits) just to practice the merge, but after remembering that chances of survivng it can never go much above 60% with current all aspect missiles, i went guns only and tried to evlauate how these planes fare against each other in both vertical and horizontal fights, energy bleeds, energy retention and energy recovery.

After more then a month of "ground work" i am pleased to report i still find the Hornet by far the easiest plane to fly with and take on the enemy bandits in WVR fights. Both with heaters and with guns. Especially with guns. What i found the most surprising was that it was also the plane that i found most easy to shoot down. I'm not exactly sure why yet. Maybe it's only natural to know the plane you are best with, "the best" and knowing its weaknesses gives you the edge? But it can't realy be only that, as i didn't really try to exploit those weaknesses. This also doesn't mean that the Hornet (when flown by me) fared equally well against all bandits. For some reason the F-16 went down most easy and the MiG-29 (when it didn't run itself into the ground) was the hardest nut to crack. Probably because the way the AI is handling the MiG, it will seldom go low and slow unless you really settle on it's six and because of the very light weight and superb T/W, it can really give you quite the run as long as it has any fuel in it (house rule: never gun a bandit when more then 1-2 degrees bellow LOS). When i flew the Hornet against the Tomcat, the best way to trick the AI into bleeding itself dry was to perform a couple of vertical revolutions when the bandit has you in sight. The AI will push its alpha and fall like a brick at the end of the second one, after which you just stick with him and don't let him recover.

Funny enough, the same trick worked on the Hornet when fighting in the MiG. Not that the Hornet's AI needs just a vertical turn to bleed itself dry though. I typical AI will find itself down in the weeds after 3-4 revolutions anyways, which is what made the Hornet such an easy target i guess. Ironically, the F-14A actually fared much better against the MiG. The ability to regain energy in more then one way and to regain a high energy state easier then the Hornet (despite lower T/W and greater mass) made all the difference. To regain large chunks of energy in the Hornet, one has to unload almost all the way under full burner, a luxury one does not always have. In the Tomcat however, diving is much more energy efficient especially when helped by full military or AB power. Also once you get fast, you stay fast. You stay get faster easier, with less power and you stay faster for a longer time. In fact you can probably stay fast longer that anything in the air (this low) except maybe an 111.

Against the Flanker, the Hornet seamed equally matched. Maybe slighty handier in the high alpha, low KIAS regime. That's because like in the 14, 15 and 18, the AI likes to bleed alot in the 27. And at low to mid mach, both birds handle very similary. The F-15 was basically as easy as the F-16 except when packing A-A missiles. The large radar on the Eagle burnt much quicker through the jammer the likes of which the Hornet has. Actually, it felt like there is almost no jammer at all.

Well, so much for now. I may try recording soon (if there is interest). I am also open to proposals of any birds available in SF2 but not on the list above that you may want included in the DACTs.
Cheers and good night.

[saisran 84]

Was able to get some time in and figured i reacquaint myself with a quick DACT. I shouldn't upload this vid as i was all over the place but i figured this thread needs to be started again.

 

 

FJ-Fury vs Lightning F.2   i designed the Mission to have the Enemy starting from my six.

 

From the start i was having problems, as it turns out i was accidentally giving the Fury right rudder and i lost my orientation and ultimately lost sight of the bandit. I was lucky that i was up against the lightning instead of a Mig-15/Mig-17 as i was able to regain myself and get the kill.

[+EricJ 3,989]

I've been focusing on more Arma 3 related stuff than here as of late, as well as other things, etc. I did have a X vs. Lavi but so far haven't touched the game in a while.

[cougar_1979 37]

That was intense! How does the Fury compare to the Sabre?

[saisran 84]

That was intense! How does the Fury compare to the Sabre?

 

Just the same, although i seem to get a bit (but negligible) more drag and a bit more unpredictable stall characteristics. Probably due to heavier weight attributed to the tail hook and strengthening for carrier use? Haven't dived into the Ini's so i don't know if its simulated.

 

Had a couple more runs...

 

 

Fury Vs Chinese Farmer.

 

Early on i found that i can curl the Fury insude the J-6 fairly easy and i was able to play around on his six for a while. However, those twin afterburner engines are more than what the Fury can handle as the Farmer accelerated to a speck in a second and i had to drop the nose just to keep chase. Fortunately the Farmer re-engaged. Trying to keep my energy up i followed the farmer in a wide right hander. curling inside. as the farmer kept on a dedicated line i pulled my nose ahead of his path and squeezed the trigger for four 20mm thud and i harvested myself one farmer.

 

 

 

F-8H Vs Mig-21PF

 

I liked this one as i consider this as one of my better kills. 

 

Fishbed on my left i turned to plane to meet the enemy. He passed Low and i went high. Peaking at 30,000ft I dropped the nose aiming behind the Fishbed and we did a couple of vertical exchange until i was able to get behind and above the fishbed and he decided to reverse his turn. Predicting his path i pushed the stick forward to unload the Gs and and pulled the trigger on a Zero G state just as the Fishbed filled my HUD. Just one trigger press and under 100 Secs. i have to be satisfied with that.

Edited October 10, 2015 by saisran

[cougar_1979 37]

Impressive high defelction shot on that first video!

I finally got to record a bit this evening. I started with the Bug, but must have messed things up a bit. In the first video the Hornet i fly has a diferent gun sight then the one i am used to (like in the second one), which probably means i chose a wrong version instead of the intended F/A-18A. Also, i forgot to remove the air defenses so i ended up dodging SAMS as well...... Anyways, the intent is to start with the Hornet and fly against everything. Then repeat the process with other AC. The first enemy is going to be the Viper. The lightweight fighter program children face off:

This one is guns only. The vid starts just before the merge. I decided to role play a bit, and flew as close i could as if he had heaters on him. Ergo i ended up bellow him. Right as i start pulling up, the first SAM fires off. I kick off some chaff as i perform a high g vertical turn, using the energy gained in the dive. It turns out to be enough to spoof it. I roll the Bug over the egg and start looking for the Viper. His down there climbing up fast and we enter a couple of vertical turns, trying to get on each other's tail. I do my best not to pull too much alpha and slow down too early, which would allow the Viper to chew me up in the vertical. After 2 revolutions he's leveleing out to regain energy and go after him. The fight transforms into a shallow descending spiral, with me trying to keep the initiative. Just when i think i have him, i notice the gunsight is "strange" (i am used to the radial dials one, not the circle ring). As a result i keep missing good shots. Before i manage to run myslef out of ammo though, i get another SAM warning. So i let him go for a moment until i spoof the missile. Just as i am about to go on him again, the SAM is on me again! I am alsmot out of chaff by the time i evade it. I need to end this fight quickly. Me dodging SAMs has let us both build up our energy, so i try to use my superior nose pointing to force him on the defensice once more. The Bug appears to be very good at this and soon i am again on his 6, wasting valuable ammo, in my futile attempts to gun him. Fortunately his constant defensve spiral has brought him near the deck and having nowhere to go he levels off once more and then in profound display of wisdom hits the vertical. This provides me with a good clear shot at a largely motionless target and gun him down literally with my last rounds.

The second figt starts at the same spot as the first one, but this one he has 4 Limas and i have to Limas and two Sparrows (whicj i intend to use only WVR). The Bug loses airspeed much faster then the Turkey when out of burner, but i still manage to evade his 2 initial missile shots and procide to hunt him in the vertical. Just as i am about to complete the first 180 he launches a 3rd missile at me and i barely evade it with flares...... being in burner probably made this a much riskier maneuver. But this also means he is at my rear quarter. As i don't want to get shot at once more i try for a more violent turn and i pull more on the stick bleeding energy in a vertical break. The move works and i have my nose on him. And another good news.....it's the familiar gun sight again! I do not risk a high off bore shot though and let him pass, knowing that with the energy from the dive i can follow him in any turn he can make. I switch to winders,  and get a good tone oh nim as he appears on my HUD. I pull some lead, fire a missile..... it semas like it's going to track..... but his flares fool it .... the angle is now too off and the range too close for missiles. I go for a gun kill. He has bled too much and tries to jink and dive but this slow he just cant escape my nose. Few more short bursts and parts of him start to fall off...... Splash 2.......

Overall, the Bug is a good match for the Viper as long you don't bleed yourself too much too fast and let him chew you up on the vetical. Good energy management however, can get you on the attacking side and force him to fight on your terms. Once slow, your superb ITR and nose authority will complitely dominate the encounter, especially if all aspect IR missiles are equipped.

[saisran 84]

Impressive high defelction shot on that first video!

 

Thanks! He happened to be committed on his turn and i have a good lead so i took it.

 

Great Job on defeating the SAMs and the Winders. Just my observation, i believe your shooting behind the viper a lot. The hornet has great alpha so why not try to shoot a nose length ahead of the viper while easing off the Angle as you go. The last rounds would have a higher chance of getting a hit as there's a tendency for him to fly in their path.

 

Speaking of frustrating gun sight. the viper has the most frustrating one as the cone doesn't really simulate the real one on the viper.

Edited October 11, 2015 by saisran

[cougar_1979 37]

....

 

Great Job on defeating the SAMs and the Winders. Just my observation, i believe your shooting behind the viper a lot. The hornet has great alpha so why not try to shoot a nose length ahead of the viper while easing off the Angle as you go. The last rounds would have a higher chance of getting a hit as there's a tendency for him to fly in their path.

 

Speaking of frustrating gun sight. the viper has the most frustrating one as the cone doesn't really simulate the real one on the viper.

It is quite possible. Both these flights were recored on my first go, and i have 0 experince with the circular sight (in the first video). As such i am absolutely clueless on the finer points of using it. If i encounter it again i will try to remember this shoot a bit higher. Another thing that puzzles me is why the simmingly identical AC in videos 1 and 2 would have diferent guns sights??? Is it possible i chose a later era F-18A by accident? Maybe Eric would know, after all he know the Bug better then most of us....

 

Ouch, yes! I flew the Viper with guns once and it was just terrible. Is there a way to cicle between that and another sight? In Falcon the "tube" is my favorite sight (put the wings of the bandit at the borders, the dot on hte plane and shoot), but it just doesn't work at all.

[saisran 84]

Now trying to reacquaint myself to the Tomcat i took an A+ (With the TW Pit) for a couple of bouts against the F/A-18F Super Hornet.

 

The bouts turned out to be a practice on patience and a reminder on the importance of having  total SA.

 

 

As always the bandit started from a position of advantage and i have to turn the tables. What i did was to slice down to meet the hornet in a pass and an aggressive climbing turn to get behind his 3/9 line. I realized that while i can maintain my turn and continue to threaten the Hornet my Tomcat is still pretty heavy to try anything worthwhile. So inevitably it was minutes of following the Hornet in a right hand circle while i tried some variations of climbing and diving increasing airspeed by following the hornet at shallow angles and then changing it up with more aggressive angles that bled my airspeed but not enough to get the kill. Despite being able to maintain a better rate the Hornet has better alpha and instantaneous turn capability that it can just pull the stick at the right moment to deny my tomcat the shot. 

 

About halfway in the i bled too much energy getting in a climb which actually gave me a chance for a kill i got too zealous lost a lot of energy and Trying to build up speed i lost track of the hornet as he reversed his turn. I followed his turn engines at full, trying hard to get too much speed and i overshoot. I turned again to meet him for a much closer head on pass. An attempt on a chandelle like maneuver got me behind him and in position to try a gun kill. Make a couple of bad aims as i misjudge his speed, angle and climb rate as he pulled hard across my  nose that forced another overshoot. A scissor iteration and i was bled hard. With flaps down i was able to turn the tomcat(now about half a fuel in the tank and more responsive) and point its nose on the Hornet . Now having a higher thrust to weight ratio i began overshooting hornet as the acceleration of the tomcat at half the fuel weight is staggering. 

 

Now a third head on pass and we met each other gun blazing. He with the intent to kill and me just trying to threw him off. Climbing straight up in to the vertical got me behidn the hornet once more. From here its jsut a couple more turns as the hornet opted to stay below the 300 KIAS mark. Modulating the throttle as needed i was able to stay behind and keep the honet on my hud. a good opportunity for a snap shot took with gusto and i got me a hard earned win.

 

 

 

OT: Quck question to Eric and Caesar. I seem to be missing some textures on 3rd party Jets. I believe i have the decal in the decal folder with matching names. They had it up to the point i rolled back drivers. any advice?

Edited October 13, 2015 by saisran

[Caesar 305]

Not sure; I did a driver rollback myself to get the game working again and none of the textures seem to have disappeared.  Sorry I haven't been around much recently; I've finally got the v1.22 release candidate together for the F-14, which now includes a 72-page flight manual that I was hammering away at for the past few weeks and a number of other tweaks, so, that combined with Real Life^TM has made me a bit more rare recently.

[saisran 84]

Not sure; I did a driver rollback myself to get the game working again and none of the textures seem to have disappeared.  Sorry I haven't been around much recently; I've finally got the v1.22 release candidate together for the F-14, which now includes a 72-page flight manual that I was hammering away at for the past few weeks and a number of other tweaks, so, that combined with Real Life^TM has made me a bit more rare recently.

 

Excitedby the release.  thanks for yoyr hard work. :)

[cougar_1979 37]

Not sure; I did a driver rollback myself to get the game working again and none of the textures seem to have disappeared.  Sorry I haven't been around much recently; I've finally got the v1.22 release candidate together for the F-14, which now includes a 72-page flight manual that I was hammering away at for the past few weeks and a number of other tweaks, so, that combined with Real Life^TM has made me a bit more rare recently.

Nice! Looking forward to any new features, especially the manual. Keep up the good stuff man.....