streakeagle

I found it odd that I couldn't find even one downloadable PDF reference for this book. Either google is blocking links to less than honest file hosting sites, or this book is really rare and not very popular.

Amazon may be a giant evil corporation slowly taking over the world, but they are great for finding odd things and getting them shipped internationally, books and toys especially. I had to get a Gormiti toy from the UK via Amazon once because my son loved Gormiti, but they never caught on in the USA whereas the UK had nearly everything ever released for Gormiti.

Navigation in Europe for low level was usually by practicing routes visually. i.e. I know for a fact that A-10s only had the map on their leg and their experience flying the expected routes during training. The A-10s flew low and slow enough to actually get under weather that other aircraft weren't even allowed to fly through. If the cloud cover/fog was low enough to shut down the A-10s, no one else was flying low either without terrain following radar like the F-111. One can only imagine the expanded capabilities in night/adverse weather once A-10Cs had gps rather than just the Mk 1 Eyeball of A-10As.

There are two keys you need to learn and/or map to your stick. 1) the key that cycles air-to-air weapons. 2) the key that cycles air-to-ground weapons. By default, your DirectX Button 1, usually the trigger on most flight sticks, will always fire the guns. If this isn't working, you have somehow changed your stick mapping. Your DirectX Button 2, usually a button on top of the stick, is the default button for firing other weapons like missiles or dropping bombs. You have to use the appropriate weapons select button to cycle until you get to the weapon you want to use. In the case of LGBs, you need to cycle the air-to-ground select button until you have selected LGB. I don't normally use LGBs as I am more of an air-to-air guy and typically used dumb bombs and rockets when I pound the ground, but if I remember correctly, you need to select a ground target using one of the target select keys. Once a valid LGB target has been selected by one of the various target select buttons, if you have a way to lase the target, you should be able to drop the LGB using the DirectX Button 2 or whatever have mapped for releasing secondary weapons. I don't recall the ways to lase the target in the SF series. Does it require your aircraft to have a built-in designator or pod? Or can ground units provide designation? I don't recall. A veteran ground pounder will have to step in and clarify game mechanics for that aspect of using LGBs.

Is this a trick question? It is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Avro-CF-100-Larry-Milberry/dp/0969070306

But, if you have to use PGM, I don't like GPS based guidance of any kind. It may be convenient against low-tech threats, but a real enemy will be capable of corrupting GPS signals, or in an all-out war actually taking out the satellites. Laser guidance done right requires an undetected ground team, but even if you have to use an aircraft to spot your bombs, it is far more secure than gps delivery. But if GPS is up, you can't beat the stand-off range, and GPS combined with B-52/B-1/B-2 platforms is a nightmare for an enemy unable to defend against them.

I don't like either. I prefer B-52s carpet bombing. Nothing better than turning everything within the target area into moonscape.

Congratulations on your new rig. It sure looks pretty, but can it run DCS World? Have you tried VR yet? I have the Oculus Rift. Despite its horrible resolution, the experience is so good that I split my flying time almost 50% between VR and flat panel/TrackIR.

Once again I have defied my better judgement and gone for the DCS pre-purchase. But if the F-14 is as good as the AJS-37, it is a good investment. I have a DCS beta install, but it is on a slow 7200 rpm hard drive, so I don't run it very often. I use it to pre-stage files for the stable version updates. Therefore, I have the new MiG-29, but probably won't fly it until the stable release gets updated. The Hornet is great, but I prefer older, less digital aircraft, so the F-14 may be a better fit for me than the Hornet until the F-4E floats back on ED's priority list (apparently the F-16 has become the priority after the F/A-18). But it is hard to favor any one aircraft. I fly the F/A-18 a lot due to its fantastic flight model and excellent gunsight, but I have all of the other modules and still alternate between most of them to keep up proficiency and enjoy each one's unique handling in both combat and takeoff/landing. DCS World had already become my preferred flight sim a long time ago when it added the MiG-21bis, UH-1H, and F-86F. With the addition of the MiG-15bis, Bf109K4, and Fw190D-9, I seldom played any other sim. But from the 2.5 release forward, combined with VR and the upcoming aircraft modules, it just keeps getting better exponentially despite the painfully slow development time for any one project. I can expect a MiG-19, MiG-23, F-4E, F-16, Mi-24, AH-1S, P-47D, F4U-1D, and who knows what else beyond the F-14 and Christen Eagle. It will never have all the minor versions that SF2 supports, but what they already have is amazing: simultaneously a plane specific detailed hard-core sim and a wide variety survey sim.

When I bought my first PC in fall of 2000, there were so many choices for flight sims it was overwhelming. I was a "poor starving student", so I couldn't afford to buy them all and had to pick based on the features/aircraft/graphics listed on the back of the boxes. Years later, when I could afford to get most if not all sims available, the market had dried up. Right now is pretty impressive again. This sim is rapidly catching up to where IL-2 1946 was in terms of plane set and maps while overcoming the limitations that kept me from enjoying 1946. At the same time, DCS World is providing an alternative for those that want more systems and flight model detail / realism at the cost of historical maps/objects and plane set. Then there is FSX/P3d with TacPack that pretty much covers anything and everything not covered by IL-2 BoX and DCS World... and if you want a really diverse plane set at the cost of realism / detail, you can play the War Thunder / World of Planes type games. Not to forget the longstanding champion of realistic online massive multiplayer, Aces High. With a diverse market, adequate funding, and a machine that can run them all, my only problem is not enough time to appreciate them all. I principally fly DCS World with some time spent on Aces High. Every now and then I fire up IL-2 BoX. I only use FSX/P3d/TacPack for flying the F-4 Phantom. I have never even bothered to try the War Thunder / World of Planes type games, I just don't have the time or hard drive space... P3d with full Orbx files is a real hard drive hog and DCS World + DCS World beta installs isn't much smaller. This looks great, but given my time limits and how little time I spend on IL-2 BoX despite its being a first rate WW2 sim, I will buy this when it goes on sale... maybe Christmas this year or next.

I don't know if this is the correct webstore page, but the package available at the store describes the Strike Fighters package, but doesn't list it in the available choices dropdown: https://store.razbamsimulations.com/product_info.php?products_id=50&osCsid=0dd104452202071500f1e95f6bb948aa The F2H Banshee and A1 Skyraider packages still list the SF addons as being included in the download. I would contact Razbam to see if you can still get it. They have a Facebook page and probably answer that fairly quickly.

I went on a tangent while browsing and ended up here. I think it is fair to say Fighter Ops finally got released, but it is called DCS World: Nevada. Instead of the T-38, you have the F-5E. But if you are itching for a two-seat trainer, the L-39 does the job. There's no F-16 (yet!), but you can choose between the A-10A, A-10C, F-15C, and F/A-18C. It is amazing how much has changed and how much has stayed the same since this thread started. Third Wire no longer makes a proper PC flight sim. IL-2 is flown and for sale in three flavors: IL-2:1946, IL-2: Cliffs of Dover, and the IL-2: Battle Over series. Fighter Ops and Jet Thunder never reached public release. DCS World is pretty much the last man standing in fighter jet combat flight sims unless you count Falcon 4.0 combined with the free BMS addon. Prepar3d with TacPack deserves an honorable mention for bringing MS FSX to the brink of being a true combat flight sim and a hard core one at that.

This is the first modern fighter jet I have flown that performs better the slower you go. The Hornet has such a low max g limit that you have to get under 300 kias to do well against a the DCS AI MiG-21bis. It is like walking a tightrope... I either have too much energy and have to chop the throttle or have bled too much and have to go afterburner and unload to recover. But when you find that sweet spot with the speed, throttle, and AoA at optimum position, she pitches/turns like no other supersonic jet I have ever flown in a PC simulator.

The DCS F/A-18C Hornet has impressed me enough that I have considered ditching my quasi-F-4 home cockpit for a decent Hornet pit suitable for both VR and conventional monitor/TrackIR flying.

Looks great, but I am more interested in the MiG-19S, or more accurately the Chinese J-6 derived from it as flown by the VPAF.

While I very much want the A-4E in DCS World and I will have to settle for what I can get, I want a professional/external flight model. Also, I don't see how they will be able to model the ground search radar. With simple flight model and systems, SF2 A-4's remain the best way to fly in combat. Until DCS has a Vietnam or Israel map, SF2 still remains the best sim for either of those air wars. But a DCS A-4 would be nice for Nellis Top Gun themed missions.

They most certainly modified some F-5's to have twin tails, however crude it may look upon close inspection of the joints. The real entertainment was their display of a new stealth fighter which looked worse than a cheap kit-car conversion of a VW Beetle and taxied around like it weighed nothing. The test flight footage was clearly a small-scale radio-controlled model. I am not sure they could build decent jet engines even if they could make decent airframes. But the F-5E was an amazingly simple, cheap, effective design. It would be a good starting point for producing a first supersonic fighter and trainer. Suppose that they have actually produced one complete, functioning aircraft from scratch outfitted with modern avionics/sensors purchased from an ally... how many have they built and how fast can they build them? If it is only one aircraft built every 5 or 10 years, it is still nothing to brag about. But if they can finish one per month, they could start fielding a useful number of truly new aircraft. You know you are in trouble when they start leasing Su-27 Flankers from Russia for "flight testing/evaluation" like China did... then shortly thereafter announce a completely new airplane built locally that is a perfect copy of the leased aircraft.

If it is a re-manufactured existing fighter, it means nothing. If Iran can produce new F-5's from scratch, it is a huge step forward for Iran. Consider China, it has taken them decades, but they have finally transitioned from reverse engineering to designing their own aircraft. You can count the number of countries capable of producing supersonic fighters on your fingers. Despite the age of the technology and the fact that they copied it from, this is a real achievement... But if they just performed an overhaul on existing airframes, they haven't really achieved much more than they have already been doing for years.

I can remember when I got my first HOTAS, a Saitek X-36 USB back in the fall of 2000, not long after I got my first PC. I can't imagine playing flight sims all these years without one. T.16000M should get the job done very well. Enjoy! I hope you get the DCS F/A-18, it is incredibly fun to fly even with it being a feature incomplete early release will should be the perfect complement to your new HOTAS :)

Mostly off-topic... but I remember enjoying instant action on the original SFP1 Wallmart release over and over. I had an F-4E with an SEA Shark-mouth paint scheme with a full air-to-air loadout and a sky full of commies in front of me. It flew and played so much better than Jane's USAF and looked so much better than Jane's Fighters Anthology. It was the start of many years of fun.

Inspired by the off-topic derailment of the thread on flying the Arrow in SF2, I briefly clicked through the Third Wire online store for the PC SFP1/WoX/SF2 series. Something I noticed is that the prices have inflated. The games used to be $29.99 each and I think the original SF2 and/or SFP1 was only $19.99. Now they are all $39.99 and the SF2 expansion packs are $29.99. To own all the games and expansion packs would be 6 x $40 + 2 x $30 = $300, plus all the DLC (27 x $6 = $162 for just the aircraft variants/skin packs) for a grand total of $462! If you buy DCS World products when their prices are lowest (somewhere between 50-75% off over the years), you could pretty much own the entire DCS library for the same or less. I wasn't a beta tester for SFP1, but got invited in time for WoV. From that point on, I had always gotten a free copy of the game. But I always made the point of buying at least one store copy or later web store copy to pull my fair share of the weight of development for a game I spent most of my time playing for so many years. For me it was worth every penny. I am not so sure for people just getting into PC combat flight sims. They need and/or deserve a game that runs on modern hardware without having to tweek anything. But to date, there is no other combat flight sim that covers every thing from WW1 to the 1980s so well despite its dated terrain engine. Complexity aside, DCS doesn't have the maps or even the plane set to compete. FSX/P3D with TacPack is pretty cool for a civil air sim and realistic systems operation, but is but a shadow of what you can do in terms of missions and combat in dedicated combat flight sims. But SF2 is static. Whatever bugs remain won't ever be fixed. While a few modders are still at it and the Yankee Air Pirate Team is still scheming to make a few bucks off of modding for this sim, new mods are down to a crawl compared to its heyday. If I were 20 something and didn't have a lot of cash to burn, I don't know that I would buy even one SF2 title at $40, much less the entire collection... but my obsession with F-4s and nearly equal love for the century series and the MiGs they flew against would still probably push me to try at least one title... most likely SF2V so I could fly all the USAF and USN F-4 variants at their best and worst over the skies of North Vietnam. As for the topic of the best game cover, the original Wings Over Vietnam cover wins hands down for me as it reminded me of the cover for Avalon Hill's air combat board game Flight Leader.

While I had absolutely no need for this aircraft in DCS World, I bought it anyway. Like the P-51D before it, this aircraft is being used to develop new tech for DCS World. It was laser focused on producing the best possible flight model for a PC. One thing you can't say about DCS World is that the aircraft are even close to "feeling" the same. Even without force feedback, the response of each aircraft to control inputs with a "professional" or "external" flight model is unique. The F-86 and MiG-15 are very similar on paper, but they provide very different flying experiences in DCS World. This Yak-52 takes it to the next level. I only wish I had very realistic force feedback to fully enjoy all the work that went into this flight model. It may not be a fighter or even armed, but it is a joy to fly.

His only recent post on Third Wire FB was "Happy 4th of July" before that his last post was in Feb. Perhaps he is deep into coding a new project?

Like the other links, the Third Wire forums are accessible again, but the link from the Community page is still removed.

He may be abandoning sales/support of the old PC games, which makes sense given that the SF2 games were designed for Vista and Windows 10 just keeps moving further away from compatibility.