Lt. James Cater

I love to buy a bottle or two just to tick off the politicians

Wow, i never knew of this and i spent a whole lot of times going up North in various aircraft, especially Thuds. The only time i comepleted a full tour was in a F-4C/D. Rolling Thunder is very difficult to survive with defenses on hard.

PC ROEs at work. Absolutly designed to give the OPFOR every advantage in the book.

From what i researched, CH products are pretty much designed to be incompatible with gear from other companies.

I think that perhaps a week or two from the official start we should officially state the aircraft,campaign and mods that we have chosen to use. I'm all set to do a WOV Thud tour and am now going through and making a list of all the mods i'm going to apply to a fresh install.

I got a severe case of sticker shock when i took a look online. CH Products incompatibility killed them for me and so it looks like im going Saitek in the near future. Knowing how i do things, i'm going to have to start with their rudder pedals and my Logitech stick( with throttle control slider)until about mid December or early January when i get the whole kit together.

Thanks for the info. I'm going to be out looking Friday and should pick something up along with TrackIR. HOTAS is something to get used to after years of doing things the old way. To be honest, i think i'll use it's full potential only in aircraft which actually had/have it. For older planes i'll still use the keyboard in lieu of "switches".

DD for teh win!

I was thinking of using a Javelin in WOE but i just might just go for a tour flying Thuds in WOV circa 1966 instead.

A truly amazing man. RIP Sir!

Get the vote out! Man, i can't wait until we get things up and running. I Haven't had this kind of feeling since the Mechwarrior days!

Sounds good to me. This is a great reason to get the comp rigged up for maximum results. To back the query above... What program can we find for taking debrief screen?

Wow, guess i should have paid attention to this great thread and concept! I've always done it DiD and so you can count me in the overall board concept as well. I also fly with pretty much everything hard except for a thing or two because i don't have the greatest comp/monitor setup around. As i was reading the thread i kept thinking what plane and nation i should go with and what era it should be? I guess provided a pilot survives the early ones he can go to the next? Looks i'm going shopping on Black Friday to get TrackIR for this.

Gina in action.

I've now flown two more missions in the Foxbat and have managed to avoid being shot down by enemy fighters. The first was pretty hairy because i was being tracked by F-14s as i was still climbing to altitude. Knowing that AIM-54s would soon be on the way, i decided to turn away from them while climbing gradually up to the operational height. They were really determined and chased me for a really long time but the onboard ECM meant that they couldn't get a lock at the range that was maintained. The enlightening part of the mission was getting downed over the target by a Hawk SAM. Damned if i knew that they had that kind of perfomance! However, i did learn something about them. The next mission was a complete success. By now i know not to be rigidly attached to flight plans. almost as soon as whells were up i was being tracked by enemy fighters and so determined that going up and away was the only potion. As it turned out, it was a flight of F-15s and so the object was to keep out of AIM-7 range and keep them at high speed until they ran short of fuel and had to turn away. The second shot shows the F-15s heading back to base at low level after failing to engage. Things were not to to be easy though because a pair of F-18s took off from the target area base and climbed swiftly to intercept. I duly turned 180 and the chase was on. They were faster than i thought and actually fired an AIM7 that was defeated by chaff and ECM before i opened up burners and opened the range. They were persistant but i knew that sooner or later they would run short on fuel and the misson will continue. The moment came and so i turned and once again headed back towards the target. I had a strong suspicion that SAMs would be fired but a big surprise was awaiting. The shock at the sheer number of Hawks coming up led to abandoning of the pass and pulling out of range to think things over. The second pass was even worse but i made it despite SAMs flying like a fireworks display! The thing that saved me was flying a weaving back and forth course. I figured that by the time the missles got to my altitude they would be ballistic and shouldn't have much energy for maneuvers. In any case, no fewer than 34 SAMs were fired. Note the distance from the target to homebase. An easy distance but nothing is easy about the difficulty of doing Recce work flying a Foxbat in ODS. I probaly flew 5 times the distance just avoiding being shot down.

I think i had maybe 2-3 dogfights in a MIG21. Every time it was coming in from 6 o'clock at high speed and letting fly with Atolls at near point blank range and then guns on the next pass if possible.

Well...on this mission i didn't bother to take screenshots of the plane since i was testing a new climbing profile and to be honest, expected to be shot down yet again. This shot is from an earlier mission. You can see my altitude and speed. The key is to get up there as smooth and quickly as possible while keeping speed and fuel consumption to acceptable degrees. After wheels up altitude is to be kept as low as possible until building up enough speed to prepare for the first part of the climb. Pull the nose up about 40 degrees and away we go. Since i already know that enemy fighters will be vectored towards me the direction of the climb is AWAY from the enemy. At about 10,000ft, hit full burners and hold until 25,000, then back to full throttle. Now comes the crucial point. By now the closest enemy fighters should be tracking and so it becomes very important to keep climbing at a decent angle, yet fast enough to make for a difficult missle shot. At 35,000-40,000ft, external tank is jettisoned. From 50,000ft things become more deliberate. From then until the desired altutude a stairway approach is done. Once at about 68,000ft. Things are green and the mission is officially on. Note that it takes a lot of time and distance to get to the desired altitude. Waypoints should be place appropriatly. As for the route? I decided to stay as far away from potential threats as possible. I've been downed multiple times by F-15s,F-14s,F-18s, and once by a Tornado. The best thing to do is to act like an SR-71 and use height/speed to make for a difficult interception. speaking of speed, it's about Mach 1.8 from what i've seen. don't know what the fuel consumption is because i haven;t been able to positively figure out the correct gauge (i have a suspicion) but i know that it's very economical up there. One really important thing. The F-18s got me when i was either flying routes at lower altitudes or was taking a direct route and was not to a sufficient height yet. F-15s and F-14s seem to be the main danger. The Eagles with the speed and ceiling ability and the F-14s with the unique AIM-54. At the moment of posting this i have my flight comp ready and so i will do another flight and see how it turns out using a similar route.

Getting hit by the tail gunner will happen occasionally. Personally, i try to aim for an engine or wing root to maximize damage.

About 500 to 1000 ft lower is alright. When they come in low, you will have a rather exciting time tracking them from just above the treetops.

Hooray! Finally completed a Foxbat mission in ODS! I got lucky as only a single F-4 fired a missle at me while i was still climbing to altitude and i seemed to have gotten a real break with enemy fighters at the end of their patrol times and heading back to their bases. Oh well, gotta take it anyway you can!

Funny that you mention this. Seeing as the AIM9Bs are so unreliable i developed attacks solely for the Iron Beagles. After launching missles, go down and close in at high speed until you are virtually underneath them. Then chop throttle, pull up hard and open fire. As you climb above, open throttle and repeat. The second is a porpoise like approach from their 6 in which you are timing the fire from the gunner. Done right, you can get in to about 100 yards and just hose that sucker into eternity.

Given a choice, i'd go with missles but keep guns ready just in case.

In the ODS mod i've found out it's virtually impossible for the MIG25 to carry out a Recce mission. On the last try i attempted to climb to 70,000ft but only was able to get the plane up just over 68,000. At that height and cruising at mach 1.1 i thought i was pretty safe if a F-15 didn't take a correct intercept vector. As it turns out, an even bigger problem came about. A pair of F-14s took of from a base near my flight path and i knew it was all over. The first two AIM54s missed but number three couldn't possibly fail to get me.

I second what Silverbolt said. Once you begin checking out the files, you'll end up with some sims that are truly hotrodded compared to the stock stuff.