Andy Bush

Beaming techniques as a form of missile defense work only against a pulse doppler radar and missile weapons system. The F-4 of this era used a simple pulse system...there was no "doppler notch", nor did beaming work as a means of "hiding" from the radar. A Sparrow will kill just as well on the beam as anywhere else.

Not Alconbury...Bentwaters. I left the UK in 1986 having flown Hogs there for 4 years. I think I remember Kemp's name...but he was most likely a FNG when I was getting ready to leave. My last squadron was the 511th at Bentwaters. Yes...it was a great assignment!

What "bias and dishonesty" have you seen in the LOMAC previews to date?

Bard How many previews have you written for the flight sim community? Here's a tip. Previews by their very nature are typically positive. Why? Because good things in a beta are seldom changed to bad...whereas poor performance in a beta is often remedied by the time the gold release comes around. Previews are meant to be "teasers", not in-depth critiques of a game's good and not-so-good points. BTW...try not to use the term "fanboi" from now on. Those of us that do this stuff for real may take offense.

At this time, this TISL feature seems to be just a helpful cue to assist the player in locating the target. I do not see any attempt to associate the symbology wirh any existing ground or air asset. I've tried the feature in a mission and it works great! I think you all will be surprised at how difficult target acquisition can be in this game...just as it is in real life. The TISL is a nice way to reduce the difficulty level...again just as was intended in real life.

Roll inertia and rudder induced roll are two completely different subjects. SFP1 has a problem with roll inertia...it does not have a significant problem with rudder roll. The roll inertia issue is bad FM aerodynamics. The rudder roll issue is exaggerated FM aerodynamics in most cases. In the game, the F-104 exhibits rudder roll, and this is incorrect. But it is correct for the other flyable aircraft. If the game has an exaggeration, it is in that the effect is too noticeable at low AOA.

When the pave Penny seeker head acquires a laser return from the ground, it displays a diamond figure on the HUD. The location of the source has to be within the field of view of the HUD for the TISL (Target Identification Set, Laser) symbology to be visible. The laser energy has to come from a designator, usually a ground-based one used by friendly forces. In the game, the current methodology for using the PP system is to activate this function in the mission planning stage. By assigning a specific target to himself, the player then can expect to see a TISL diamond superimposed over the target when he arrives in the target area.

Hi guys! Yes...the site went down last night...server problems again. What a hassle! No estimate for when it's going to be back on-line...soon, I hope.

The LCOS gunsights work properly in the game. The F-4B/C and A-4 do not have LCOS sights....the other aircraft do, but you need to be in A2A gun mode for the sight to work. In the F-4E, if you have both AIM-7s and 9s loaded, you will need to get rid of the AIM-9s before the sight will switch into A2A gun mode (this is a bug). Except for the A-4 and F-100, all gunsights depress 50 mils in A2G mode (all weapons). SimHQ has two articles giving specific info on how to use the gunsights, radar, and weapons for both A2A and A2G.

As I read your post, your question asked if others thought the patch situation to be "rediculous"...you didn't ask for a patch update. It seems you got your answer. You can use the search function to find out info from previous posts. BTW...your initial post isn't clear...are you still running the original Wal-Mart release? If so, you should update it to the "official" release version and then patch that with SP1.

There is nothing "wrong" with these pictures. You are operating in the Easy level of difficulty. In this mode, when you are in Search, the radar beam will rotate 360 degrees around your plane. You can lock on any target that is within the limits of lock-on range (50nm in the F-4). Once you lock on, the scope picture will change. The rotating beam will continue to scan 360 degrees and a second stationary line will extend out over your target. The target "blip" will show up on this line. If there are other targets nearby, they too will show up once your range closes in...usually around 10nm, you may be able to see multiple targets such as in a bomber formation. The F-4 RWR shows an identical picture to the radar scope...this is how it is in Easy mode. The easy mode is not a good representation of 60s era radar operation. I suggest players use either Normal or Hard mode. SimHQ will have an article on A2A radar operation and weapons delivery techniques up soon.

Use this link until we get the article posted on the Main Page. http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/air_comba...ing/index.shtml Real life A2G delivery was not easy and required the pilot to fly his plane to a specific set of parameters. These techniques will simplify this for you in the game...but you will still need to control your airspeed and altitude to allow the techniques to "work". There is no such thing as a simple "point and shoot" manual delivery method...so fly smart and you should find your delivery effectiveness improving a bit.

Thanks folks...hope it helps! We have found that one of the pictures in Leon's section is incorrect. You can get the correct Figure 9 from here: http://webpages.charter.net/alfakilo/fig09.jpg

We are hoping to get our new article on A2G weapons delivery techniques posted this weekend. The article covers level and dive bombing, rocket deliveries, and strafe. Specific techniques and HUD aiming references for each of the four primary aircraft are included along with tips for how to fly two types of attacks, the overhead and the pop-up. The SFP1 A2G radar is useful for navigation only at this stage of the game. In real life, the radar in an A2G role was typically used only for nuclear deliveries.

Thorchan Try this for a technique for dive bombing: http://www.simhq.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cg...t=003946#000000 In real life, we seldon used level deliveries...usually because this type of delivery resulted in too much exposure to enemy AAA and SAMs. When we did level deliveries, it was usually at low level...so I suggest a max altitude of about 500' or so in the sim. The gunsight will not be an accurate release indicator. Instead, you will have to learn to estimate the proper release "picture" from trial and error. Do this by practicing deliveries from a set altitude and airspeed. To escape the bomb explosion effects from a low altitude delivery, begin an aggressive pull up immediately after releasing the weapon.

Go here for info: http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/f4d.html

These aircraft did not have chaff and flare systems as do modern fighters. There were chaff dispensers in this era but they were external store pods that were used to lay down chaff corridors...they were not used as a self-defense measure. There were no flare systems as we know them now. Flares in this time frame were large illumination devices dropped from external store pods and were used to light up target areas at night. The chaff and flare function in the game is reserved for later game development.