crl848

I like mission recorders. Spent hours in the Chuck Yeager's Air Combat one around 20 years ago, fondly imagining myself in the ACMI range at Nellis.

Try here, a post by a former F4 driver. http://combatace.com/topic/27934-phantom-tactics-some-thoughts/

Yikes, I may have to reinstall FSX. But do I want to open that can of worms???

Er, two, you're pointing the wrong way and you're on fire. Oh...

Now that's what I call close formation.

Ok, I feel a bit like Homer Simpson for even considering extending my Dell warranty. I've got a 2 year old PC and have the option to extend. A month ago one of my dual video cards blew up and the Dell helpdesk was great at talking me though troubleshooting, finding the one that had blown and sending a replacement. I'm currently running the old NVidia 9800 GT and a new GTS 240 sent by them. So what do you think? Should I do it or is it a waste of money? Bear in mind that I'm not hugely comfortable replacing components though I did replace the PSU on my last PC. Thanks...

Yeah you're right, I suppose the cost of replacing the components is low as well, or an excuse to upgrade given that they're quite old.

I think this is it: http://www.virtual-jabog32.de/index.php?section=downloads&subcat=50&file=377&lang=en

Press E to target different ground targets when you are close enough. Then take out the radar with Shrikes or Mavericks. As for SAM avoidance, there are several classic techniques. When you see the SAM Launch warning in red text (applying to you), padlock the sam site (press R?), put the site on your beam (90 degrees to the side), and monitor the flight of the missile. You can then try breaking into it as it gets close, or barrel rolling around it while dropping chaff. These use up a lot of energy which means you can be picked off by the second missle. Another technique which I learned in LOMAC is to invert and pull down and away 90 degrees away from the missile. As you start at 90 degrees to it, you end up at the same height but pointing away from the missile. This saves you energy and spooks the missile into going too low and it can't climb back up. There's a LOMAC tutorial video on the internet showing this somewhere. I'm not sure if it works in SF though. Good luck!

I saw this on Have I Got News for You last week. Tres amusing. Would you give him a job?

Preliminary Accident Report 07/06/69 Aircraft involved: 1 Blackburn Buccanner S.mk.2, 809 sqn RN, HMS Ark Royal (RO9). Aircrew: TBC. Description of accident: Two Buccaneers of 809 sqn were scheduled to fly a training sortie to a disused airfield near RAF El Adem while transiting through the Mediterranian. Both aircraft were armed with 4x retarded 1,000lb bombs and 8x 540lb bombs. The flightplan called for a bunt retard attack on the runway using all 4 1,000lb bombs, followed by single manual dive attacks on various range markers. The lead aircraft (021, believed to be XN977) was cleared hot onto the range by the controller at 08:48 Zulu. The formation leader informed the range controller by RT that they were making a standard bunt retard attack, approaching at low level before popping up and releasing weapons. The second aircraft was unsighted at the time of the attack, when the pilot of the lead aircraft made a mayday call, reporting engine failure and possible aircraft damage. The second aircraft formated on the leader, and reported damage to the airbrake, flaps and undercarriage. The lead pilot informed by RT that he intended to try to belly-land on the flat desert floor near the range. The aircraft was observed to explode on impact and the pilot was killed. The observer opted to eject approximately 10 seconds before impact and survived. Preliminary analysis and interviews with the surviving aircrew and range personnel suggest that the cause of the accident was the release of 4x 540lb bombs instead of retarded bombs, resulting in the aircraft flying through the blast radius and thus sustaining the damage which lead to the crash. It is not known whether this was the result of aircrew error or mechanical failure. Furthermore it is not known whether the pilot was prevented from ejecting due to mechanical failure. The full accident investigation is expected to shed light on these issues. The attached photograph was taken by the observer of the second aircraft and shows what appears to be the lead aircraft having sustained severe shrapnel damage, and with inoperable undercarriage and airbrake. --- ENDS ---

It's a great time to be a fleet air arm pilot at the moment (c.1970).

Yeah, the Sabrinas need to go. Sorry, I can't help.

I know how you feel. Mine haven't reached the teens but I (& the wife) do lose cool occasionally. Sometimes it seems like they won't listen unless you grab them & shout at them. I do feel a bit bad, and couldn't I be more like my dad who was so hands off he barely did any parenting until we left home. Yeah, it's a weakness but you are who you are and unless you're going off on one daily/hourly, it's nothing to worry about.

I've been experimenting with real life Buccaneer tactics. The Bucc is not well-suited to classic dive bombing as it's a bit sluggish in pitch and it can be difficult to pull out of the dive. Real life Buccanner tactics were to bomb from low level, either laydown or an attack known as "bunt retard". No, that's not what the Nav said to the pilot when approaching a high-power electricity cable... It's a tactic used to get bombs on target and minimise exposure to the defences. Here's my take on this, perfected after lots of attempts. 1. Approach the target fast & at low level (<200 ft and c.550 knots). 2. Set your switches: open bomb bay, select 4 1,000 pound retarded bombs, ripple interval 300ms, throttle 50%. 3. Check your line-up at c.5nms away by zooming the hud in. It is vitally important to be lined up correctly, as the Bucc's modelled sensitivity in roll makes last-minute corrections difficult. 4. Pull up between 3 and 2 nms from the target, when the distance-o-meter is right in between. Select about 30 degrees of pitch. 5. Start to bunt (push stock forward) at about 700-1000ft. You will go over the top at about 1,200-1,500 ft. 6. Stabilise in a shallow dive and set up a sight picture similar to dive bombing, with the lowest HUS marker below the target. 7. Pickle when the target crosses the lowest HUD marker. 8. Stabilise for a couple of secs to allow the bombs to drop, then pull up and off. This technique should result in a shack, I've found it quite forgiving of errors except the line-up. I hope someone finds this useful. Best of luck! Some pics of the technique (in order): Ingress. Lineup check: target is the fuel tank to the left of the sight picture. Corrected line-up. Pull-up time. Bunt. About to pickle. Shack!

Yeah me too. Back to the range

So true, that's when the toss bombing modes would come in handy... Actually I read a quote, I think in the book I mentioned above, that come a shooting war in Germany the brass were loath to waste the Bucc on OCA, battlefield interdiction or, perish the though, CAS, when they should really have been held in reserve as Britain's only sensible tactical nuclear asset.

Thanks Ravenclaw. You've clearly done a lot of research and it shows in the quality of the model. I should add that I've been waiting years for this addon (I think my first CA post was about the Buccaneer after I moved here from SimHq). It's been well worth the wait, thanks. The bunt retard attack is a version of the MDSL attack in your 5th pic, developed so that the aircraft did not have to approach at 2,000 feet. I'm not sure if it was an RAF development - Graham Pitchfork's book "The Buccaneers", which was written by aircrew, implies that it was worked up by students on the RAF Buccaneer Attack Instructor course that apparently became the model for the Qualified Weapons Instructor course used throughout the RAF. Maybe using a Navy aircraft in my pics is anachronistic... It would be great to be able to model stuff like toss bombing, maybe in the future, but frankly I don't care and I'm having a blast anyway. @bwild, glad it works. IRL the laydown attack was made from 200ft I think, as a backup to the bunt retard method if the cloud base was below 1,200ft. I can't seem to get a foolproof bomb pattern at 200ft/500kts but practice practice practice I suppose.

Ronnie Barker in Porridge gives me constant amusement.

Modern Lovers, Roadrunner.

Touch n goes.

A great day. The number of times I have been checking CA per day recently! There goes my afternoon's work!!!!! Thanks.