streakeagle

You don't have to find him, you just have to offer him enough money. TK didn't just suddenly decide to make First Eagles. Someone paid him, at least in part, to do that. For the right money, TK would surely make any exporter you want, and there is no one more qualified to do so.

TK may have never won the masses, but he got some of the most dedicated military aviation fans one could ask for. Choosing the first purchase can be difficult. I favor the F-4 and think Vietnam first, then Israel (I love recreating historical missions). But from a practical standpoint, SF2 Europe is the way to go. Diverse plane set and compatible with many mods (I am not sure what NATO Fighters requires anymore, but it used to be just Europe). When you buy the Expansion Pack 2 for SF2 Europe, you get the mission editor instead of buying it as a separate addon. So unless you need aircraft carriers immediately, really love the F-14A more than any other plane, or have some other preference that isn't covered by SF2 Europe and SF2 Expansion Pack 2, those are the first two things I would buy. After SF2 Europe, the choices don't get any easier. Vietnam for plane set and carriers? Israel for plane set? North Atlantic for F-14 and really great naval action? Again, Vietnam is my preference, and in this case it makes sense given all the cool planes and aircraft carriers. But Israel has its own unique plane set and a great looking terrain. If you are an F-14 fan, no contest if you didn't already get North Atlantic as your first choice. If you get Israel at some point, you may also want Expansion Pack 1. The original Strike Fighters 2 with the fictional map and mercenary campaign is the last thing I would buy. A completely fictional map with completely fictional countries is not my cup of tea. I enjoyed SFP1 until WoV saved me from fantasy hell, but I seldom go back to that map. The one thing to buy this for is the mercenary campaign. It is cool to start with almost nothing and build up your own air force with money you earn flying. Then you can slowly work your way through any remaining DLC you might fancy. I bought all of it as it was being released, so it didn't seem like such a huge purchase. AI Plane Pack 1 and AI Plane Pack 2 are good candidates... lots more planes to shoot down or mod into being flyable.

If I were strapped for cash, I would buy one game per month. Try it out. Don't worry about mods. Just play that one new game that month. If you can't enjoy it without the mods, you won't enjoy it much more with the mods. So, if any point you get tired of it or just don't like it, you stop buying more SF2 games. Of course, along the way you will be able to use more and more mods. But the gradual expansion gives you time to appreciate what each game adds to the merged installation: maps, planes, missions/campaigns for the cost of a fast food meal each week. A fully merged install is amazing with the variety of stock aircraft, both flyable and AI only. Of course, you will find mods to make almost any/all AI planes fully flyable. Just a matter of whether a good cockpit is available. I bought everything TK releases as he released it. So I have no idea how much I paid in total. I have ALL of the games and DLC. Of course, as amazing as the stock game is, addons like NATO make this game even bigger and better. So many planes to fly, so little time to fly them.

When you consider that I had built the F-4 stick and almost NEVER used the Warthog stick, it is really disappointing. At most, the stick has been exposed to dust and the thermal cycles of my PC room: 82 deg F max when I am not home in the summer and 62 max in the winter. The only times I really used the stick was for playing Steel Beasts Pro PE and flying the A-10C. The throttle has been in continuous use and has zero problems. My Saitek sticks (X-36 USB, X-45, X52 Pro) were as good or better than this after years of continuous use. I have two thoughts: 1) Lack of use somehow causes a problem? But this is very simple electronics: a switch connected to a multiplexer board. So, 2) my joystick extension I just installed added resistance to the switch circuit, so it didn't like the extra resistance? Since when did decreasing the voltage/current make something break? It seems to be dumb luck and others with Warthogs have had much worse luck right out of the box. If this board doesn't fix the problem, I will probably save up money and buy another Warthog because I do like the sensors/precision. But I might try other options like the Mamba or better yet the high end F/A-18 stick under development if it ever becomes available for sale. One thing about this problem: the damaged board could be used to make my spare helicopter B-8 grip into a Warthog compatible stick. The B-8 doesn't have nearly as many buttons, so having one failed doesn't hurt a darn thing. I just need an interface between the board and the Warthog base (basically a modified PS/2 connector) and a way to connect the button wires to the board (normally done with these cool little white plug-in connectors). I can see good coming from this because I was too lazy to order the black silicon chip and build the multiplexer circuit myself. If everything goes well, my Warthog will be fixed by the new board and I will end up with a Warthog compatible REAL B-8 grip :) Now I just need to save up and order the Warthog compatible German grip I have seen on SimHQ. Thrustmaster missed a golden opportunity by never making any other grips compatible with its Cougar/Warthog sticks. I probably would have bought any and all versions if they were a reasonable price and replicated the real stick as well as the F-16/A-10 sticks have. But I would prefer authentic materials. My B-8's aren't metal on the outside. They appear to be some sort of resin/plastic permanently glued together around a metal pipe core. The metal on the inside gives them weight, but they don't feel cold to the touch at all. B-8's also have a diamond texture like 1911A1 pistol grips. B-8's are very comfortable compared to the cold, angular, metal Warthog stick.

Mine has been limited for years... but if you look at the time of some of my posts here and on Facebook, I trade sleep for free time. But I am often too tired to play any games/sims and don't have the patience to do stuff like thorough beta testing anymore. I want games/addons when they are ready for prime time (or as close as they are going to get), no energy for debugging alphas/betas.

After all of these years of PC flying with some variant of a real F-4 Phantom's B-8 grip and stick, I have removed/replaced it with the Warthog stick that has been collecting dust for so long. The B-8 grip is impractical for any "modern" aircraft (if an aircraft flying since the '70s can be called modern?). The BU0836X was adequate as a USB stick controller, but the linear pot I was using for the pitch axis was high maintenance. If I didn't periodically clean it with alcohol, it was very noisy. The precision and accuracy of the Warthog is far superior with little or no maintenance. With a 15 cm extension from Sahaj, the "sticktion" and clunky transition across the center is largely overcome. I selected the extension to match the physical throw of the real F-4 stick (i.e. maximum linear displacement of the top of the stick from center). The Warthog is also mounted to match the height of the real stick. As nice as the new installation is, removing the B-8 comes at a price. The B-8, like the AR-15 and 1911A1, fit my hand perfectly. The engraved diamond checker pattern made it feel as comfortable as the stock 1911A1 pistol grip. The B-8 also does not feel like cold metal and angular like the Warthog stick does. I used some fairly stiff springs for the pitch axis on the F-4/B-8. Near the center felt smooth and light, but holding the stick back took some strength and even cause muscle fatigue if constantly used. Surprisingly, the Warthog springs have enough tension to self center despite the increase in weight and lever action caused by the 15 cm extension. But I can't feel any change in tension as I pull the stick back, so it is impossible to fly by "feel" the way I could with my hard sprung custom F-4/B-8 stick. The new installation did not damage the old one in any way, so I can always revert back if I want to. I also have a spare B-8 grip that could be adapted into a Warthog stick if I had the guts of a Cougar or Warthog to put inside of it. Here is the end result:

Some things were changed on the fly as I got more parts that were really used for the seat and/or adjusted to problems encountered during construction. Here are some screenshots of my original sketchup design, which is still a very accurate representation of what I actually built despite any changes/short cuts I ultimately took:

Great news! Relax, recover, and get back to business.

A simple sturdy box can be built to mount a Warthog stick similar to the above using only standard 1x6 lumber. It is smaller and simpler than mine since it isn't intended to look exactly like an F-4 stick enclosure. If a 15 cm extension is used, this box will put the stick at the same height from the floor as an F-4 stick with the same range of motion in the pitch axis. The placement of the Warthog stick mounting holes is only approximate, the actual spacing between the holes is a metric measurement of 60 mm, which is 2.362 in. The original metal plate that the Warthog stick is mounted on can be used as a template for marking/drilling the mounting holes in the wood. The image below assumes the actual dimensions of the lumber will be 3/4" x 5-1/2":

May you have the luck of a billion dollar lottery winner :)

Where's the beer? or the whiskey? or the rum? I am not too picky. Congratulations on joining an elite fraternity... or something like that

Nothing wrong with setting big goals. You might even reach them!

Not yet, but as far as I know, very soon.

Downloading it now!

It is a great game on a tablet. It is even better on a PC with a large screen :)

Nice link. I wish the US government would be more supportive of US fighters being privately owned and operated.

I principally used it in recent years for 1 v 1 against AI alternately flying the Spit and the Bf109. I also did lots of takeoffs/landings and aerial tours as well as flying the instant action missions against the huge waves of bombers with escorts. I can't recall ever having had even one CTD or other glitch over all that time. Maybe my hardware/drivers combo was just lucky? Since DCS released so many aircraft from the UH-1H, Fw190, MiG-21, Bf109, F-86, MiG-15... I have almost 100% spent all my flying time in DCS. I need to install BoB2 on the newer computer I have been running for some time now. My installed/flyable copy is on the PC I handed down to my son so he could play minecraft and Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare at decent speeds and quality.

I was always disappointed that A2A never went any further with this game engine. They had planned to do more in the form of an AVG P-40 game and to create a similar update for MiG Alley. BDG did a great job of finishing what Rowan had started with the original BoB. This game never got the popularity and credit it deserved from the combat flight sim community. Unlike IL-2, I really enjoyed the flight modeling and dogfight AI as well as the spectacle of engaging masses of escorted bombers at playable frame rates with decent 3d models and textures.

I am really missing the B-8 stick after so many years of flying with it. With the extension, I have no feel. The return to center force is pretty much constant no matter how far I pull the stick back. I also need to try one or more of the online solutions for "sticktion". The extension reduces that effect, but does not eliminate it when I want to make very small corrections. Also, the cold anglular metal of the Warthog doesn't feel as good as the molded resin rounded and checkerboard textured grips of the B-8. I need to do two things at a minimum: retrofit a spring between the front of the Warthog extension and my home built stick cover box so that I can feel how far I have pulled back on the stick and figure out which lubricant will eliminate sticktion without damaging the Warthog. I don't know if I will get around to doing either one anytime soon, but it drives me crazy in a dogfight. Almost enough to bolt the B-8 stick back in despite the high maintenance pots. But I need the Warthog for the extra buttons/hats for more advanced aircraft and really like the extra precision of the virtually noise free 16-bit hall effect sensors. I guess I need to make an adapter to mate my B-8 grip with the Warthog for flying the F-86 and UH-1 and any other aircraft old enough to have similar button/hat/trigger configurations.

The Imageshack host of all my online images is no longer free and slowly deleting/blocking re-posting of all the images I had uploaded over the years. The SF radar tutorial that I had posted here (a locked thread in the knowledge base) and at Third Wire is now missing most/all of the images. Bunyap's Weapons Delivery Manual still has the full tutorial if you can find that in the downloads. I have recovered most of the images from imageshack and grabbed the first two that were missing from Bunyap's manual, so here is a repost using CombatAce uploaded images: Using radar and radar homing missiles like the AIM-7 Sparrow on Hard settings seems too hard for many people. With a little review of the way radar works and what the display indications mean, it really isn't that difficult. A basic summary: 1. Use Search Mode to detect a target on your display (vary the range scale using the <PAGE DOWN> key if necessary). 2. Use the <HOME> key to move the cursor to the target. 3. Use the <INSERT> key to lock on. 4. Center the steering dot in the ASE circle. 5. Launch when "IN RANGE". 6. Maintain target lock on until missile hits, or missile will miss. Note: Once you have locked on, you can use <CTRL><R> to visually acquire the target, which also identifies the type of aircraft (an unrealistically accurate form of IFF). Then use either <F4> to padlock the target from within the cockpit, <SHIFT><F8> to padlock the target from an external player-to-target view, or <F8> to see the target up close. Alternatively, steps 1 through 3 can be bypassed when engaging targets held visually: Select Boresight Mode and hold your gunsight exactly on the target until a lock on occurs. Then continue with step 4. The idea behind radar in the 1960s was that radio energy could be used to search for contacts by rapidly sweeping an antenna from side to side while transmitting radio energy pulses and receiving "echoes" from targets hit by those pulses. The antenna has a "beam", which is the pattern or shape of the radio transmission. Ideally, this beam is very narrow since it determines the elevation and azimuth resolution. The radar display graphs the azimuth (bearing) of the antenna versus the time (range) of the echoes. In the case of the F-4 radar as portrayed in SFP1 and WOV, the elevation of the antenna alternates between a look up and a look down angle. Each elevation angle is referred to as a bar. The F-4 radar's search pattern in SFP1 and WOV is a 2-bar scan. The F-4 has radar azimuth limits of +/- 60 degrees, which means it can see targets in a 120 degree cone centered on its nose. Illustration of horizontal aziumth sweep pattern: The 120 degree horizontal search cone is quite large, but not every target will be covered by it. There are four ways to get a target into your seach sweep: 1. Arbitrarily change course by +/- 120 degrees to cover a full 360 degrees. In reality, you should know what is behind you, so check turns of +/- 60 degrees is probably adequate. 2. Point your nose at RWR contacts. 3. Steer to the targets in the verbal reports from the ground controller. 4. Use the <M> key to bring up the map to see where to turn your nose to acquire targets known to ground control. The F-4 has radar elevation limits of +/- 60 degrees, but does not scan over that entire range. It merely permits the radar to continue a full horizontal sweep when banked 90 degrees. The vertical search is constrained to two elevation bars at +/- 1.875 degrees. The radar beam is 6.7 degrees wide and the two elevation bars overlap providing about 10 degrees of vertical coverage. Illustration of 2-bar vertical sweep pattern: While this was outstanding for its day, it is easy to see that targets might be above or below the 10 degrees of vertical search. The F-4 must periodically pitch its nose up or down to get more vertical coverage. Of course, the F-4 does not have look-down radar. If the nose is pointed down too much, the radar will be cluttered heavily with ground returns. In reality, the F-4 had major problems trying to use the radar and Sparrow missiles at low altitudes or against targets flying at much lower altitudes. The game is not quite so picky, but a target can try flying very low and using ground clutter to break lock ons and/or decoy Sparrows. Here is a typical search display from an F-4 radar in SFP1 with two targets: Once you have found a target on your search display, you have the option to acquire/track/lock on to the target. This means the radar stops sweeping rapidly and instead tries to keep the antenna pointed at the target at all times. This provides very accurate information on a single target, which is needed to launch and guide radar guided missiles such as the AIM-7 Sparrow. Tracking a single target does not permit searching for more targets. The F-4 radar has a cursor that allows you to choose which target you want to acqire. Press the <HOME> key to move the cursor. If the cursor is not on the desired target, then continue pressing the <HOME> key until the cursor is on the desired target. Here is what happens if you push the <HOME> key while a target is displayed (the cursor moves to the target): Once the cursor is in the desired position, simply press the <INSERT> key to track/acquire/lock on to the target. The sweeping strobe stops on the bearing of the contact, all other targets disappear from the display, and a range gate sweep moves up the strobe until it finds the target's range. At that point, lock on has been achieved. Here is what happens if you push the <INSERT> key while the cursor is on a target (the radar enters acquisition mode): If you successfully lock on, the radar displays additional information: closure rate using a rotating ring, allowable steering error, steering dot, and the min and max ranges of the selected weapon. There is even an IN RANGE light to let you know when the target is within firing range parameters. The notch in the range rate circle rotates to indicate closure rate. If the notch is at 12 o'clock (top of the circle), then there is no closure. As the notch moves clockwise from 12 to 3 to 6 to 9, it indicates an increase in the closure speed. As the notch moves counter-clockwise from 12 to 9, it indicates that the target is opening rather than closing. In other words, the target is moving away from the radar. Here is what the display looks like while locked on: Sparrows have two primary launch requirements: 1. Locked on to the target. 2. Target between Min and Max range limits. But just because you are able to launch a Sparrow, doesn't mean it has a chance of hitting. Other launch requirements that should be considered include: 1. Launching aircraft should not be maneuvering violently. 2. Steering dot should be within the ASE circle. 3. ASE circule changes size with range. In general, the larger the circle, the better the chance to hit. Try to hold fire until the circle is close to its maximum size. 4. Aspect of the target can render Sparrow shots impossible. The AIM-7 likes direct head-on shots form long distances and rear quarter shots from short distances. Crossing shots at the targets front quarter and beam may prove difficult, if not impossible to hit. 8. Launching aircraft should have as high a speed as practical since the missile can maneuver better, fly longer range, and impact sooner if it has more energy at the moment of launch. Here is what the F-4 radar display looks like when close to optimum firing conditions (the ASE circle is very larget and the steering dot is almost centered in the circle): If you get too close to fire an AIM-7 Sparrow, the radar displays a big "X" (the phrase "too close for missiles, switching to guns" should come to mind):

I love this sim and if it doesn't take too much time, I am more than willing to help when others request it. If I wasn't spending most of my time flying DCS, I would love to go back and make a dedicated flight manual for each aircraft, mixing the real-world flight manuals I own with the stock flight model and system behavior of the game. Despite the "lite" aspect in some areas, TK should never have called the SF series "lite". In many ways, it was much closer to a hard core sim than LOMAC/Flaming Cliffs, especially for aircraft that didn't have multi-function displays. The user controls may be simplified, but the cockpits of F-4 and earlier aircraft are extremely close to fully functional in terms of displays/indications and the original missile performance and unreliability that got nerfed after SF2NA was more realistic than any PC sim I have ever flown. Only in the last couple of years has DCS surpassed the SF series in overall realism of flight modeling. It is still working on catching up to SF in weapons modeling. DCS has taken over my F-86/MiG-15/MiG-21 flight simming, but SF2 is still the one and only place to go for Vietnam and the 1950s with the F-4, F-8, F-105, F-111, A-4, A-6, A-7, and the whole Century series. I can only dream of a DCS F-101 Voodoo, but I have spent countless hours using Genies to nuke incoming Soviet bombers with the F-101B in SF2 or intercepting/dogfighting MiGs in the F-101A/C. The terrain is so dated, but the gameplay in terms of large scale air-to-air fights remains top notch compared to the competition.

Wrench, if you could modify the title in the knowledge base post to reflect the inclusion of the RWR examples, that would be great. Perhaps the title of the thread should be: SF Series Guide: How to Use the F-4 Radar and RWR

If I can still edit the new post, I will append the RWR info.

I knew the images were slowly going away. But I had a private message requesting a fix. It took a few minutes, but hopefully, with CombatAce hosting the images, it won't degrade over time again. Unfortunately, the F-15A radar and SF2 RWR strobe addendums in the same thread at Third Wire are also completely wiped. I think I still have the gif files showing the RWR, though. Don't know if anyone would like it reposted?