saisran

Happy weekend! Finally got some air time. If there is a fighter plane that can stand with the Tomcat in terms of aesthetic beauty, it's Saab's JAS-39 Gripen. I just love the look of this plane. Even if it shares the same delta configuration as the Typhoon and Rafale, he Gripen is just so sleek! The ridge on its back that connect to its vertical tail. the angles on the wings as it connects to the engine exhaust. the shape of that front nose and those sharp looking air intakes on the side. This bird is a work of art. Of course looks aren't important in combat so i decided to do a DACT with it to see how it fights. Jas-39C Gripen VS Mig-29C guns only. The fight started with me trying to figure out the gripen's FM. A series of circles and blackouts reversal and black outs and then this video that i hope you can enjoy. Even if its just a single burner, the small and light weight of the gripen gives it a lot of energy to spare. Someone who's better than me in managing his energy can keep up with a Mig-29 even with just minimal use of the afterburner. Also the Jas-39C ( in the game atleast) can out turn a fulcrum at any given speeds. It also can turn a cockpit pitch black faster than it can complete a turn. Without the pilot blacking out. This fight would have been over much too soon! P.S. this plane shuld be a perfect match for the viper.

I know i said id post a vid of the hornet vs a high energy fighter but as it turns out the FA-18F fight characteristics is completely alien to me. I did 3 fight against the Mig-29C. Two ended in the Mig crashing to the ground and 1 ended with a double kill. The second fight was over the minute the game loaded. The mig is rushing towards me with gusto and hes rght smack in the middle of my HUD. So we played chicken and we both got fried. First fight was the longest. we started with a 5NM distance at around 8Kft he was closing in at 0.93M and i was just increasing throttle. He passed underneath me and pulled up to a vertical. wanting to test the limits of the hornet i went ahead and pulled up from just over 600KIAS. I pulled hard and the hornet immediately pitched up past vertical and l bled my speed down to under 200 just as i was inverted. my nose already pointed on the mig down below trying to complete a turn.though i had a position of advantage my energy state was too low to do anything about it. A winder could be launched perfectly from my position but were only using guns. The fight ended in a circle at first having an advantage due to the quick instantaneous turn of the SuperBug, but the thing cant sustain its advantage and quickly looses ground to a speeding Mig. And as the bug seems to have a hard time hauling ass in a climb i was not inclined to use it. instead i found that the quick nose authority of the bug is excellent for pulling out of a dive. because of this the fight went low. the mig trying to turn its way round my tail. Almost always succeeding until i reverse my turn and got into a head to head or go inverted and dive in a split s. Between Fight 1 and 3 I can always get a nose on first but since its a head to head engagement i never had the gunnery skill to get a quick enough shot to kill the bandit. But since i've been forcing the mig to maneuver hard to keep up with the quick initial turn of the hornet, both fight 1 and 3 ended up with the mig either crashing or disintegrating in mid air. Im not sure since on both occasion it happened after a head to head pass. here's a snippet of the 3rd fight. Mig ended up disappearing all of the sudden Thougths on the fight: I'm not in tune with the hornet and i need sometime to figure out how to fly it properly. Eric J is an ace in it but it behaves very very differently from the tomcat for me to use it properly in a guns only fight. However in a close in All Aspect Heat Seaking Missile engagement i think even i can be lethal in a hornet. I truly believe that an FA-18F with an All Aspect Missile such as the AIM-9X sidewinder is the perfect combination. Got a mig on your 3/9 line? Just yank that stick in his direction and you got that seeker head pointing lead on the bandit. it will be that deadly. Also it seems like my flight sticks' dead zone and sensitivity was reset. i need to re calibrate it to ensure a much smoother response before i drive the hornet again.

I believe Eric J did this before. He usually fly the hornet while Caesar fly the tomcat. Maybe hell post a new vid soon. I'm not that good but ill check if i have an E model installed. You wont see perfect utilization of the hornet but you should be able to see how it handled when stressed.

Cool vid cougar. Been Playing around with BVR Missions where the tomcat squadron is outnumbered 3 or 4 to 1. Depending on the AI's skill the mission is either a flop or an annihilation by the tomcats. All of them are pretty darn long. Will try to post some DACT soon.

Can't argue with that. That's absolutely right. Much appreciated advice. :) Sorry bout this. Due to the talk about Missiles decided to do some 2 vs mix of 8 BVR Engagement. Heroes: 2 F-14 Tomcat; 4x AIM-54ECCM Sealed, 2x AIM-7M and 2x AIM-9M Villains: 2x J-10, 2x Mig-29C, 2x Su-27, and 2x EF-2000 all with default Air to Air Long Range loadouts. Got confused with No 2. He was very selective with his targets. Probably due to having targets spaced wide apart. So i wasn't able to tell if he was firing on a single target or following the target priority in succession. Usually when you task him to fire Phoenix using TWS he'll do it in succession. because of this I wasted 3 Phoenix Missiles. Luckily no 2 did good on 3 of his four shot. it got a bit hairy later on when all i had left was winders trying to break lock and close in on fresh Flankers and had to ride the terrain. But its an overall boring vid, and not quite the BVR demo that i wanted. Try to enjoy it if you can. hehe.

As Caesar said. David "Bio" Baranek, and other Tomcat pilot in one F-14 Forum said this as well. In a 1v1 engagement and using guns only. The Swing Wing and the Flaps are one of the Tomcats major weapon. Most of the time other pilot would misjudge their speed and actual ability by manipulating the wing configuration. With missiles in the equation the Tomcat is the BVR king. Still wont mind flying by NATOPS Rule. Would be fun if SF2 has a multiplayer. Opponents will think you have reached your limit then suddenly... Bang! hehe.

Hi guys. Just wondering at what sort of screen resolution or aspect ratio are you playing at. My laptop has a standard Resolution of 1366 X 768 and since i project my screen on a Flat panel TV through an HDMI Cable i can select 1920 X1080. Choosing 1366 and 1920 render the game quite nicely as everything looks so smooth. The problem with the high settings is that the in game screen is cropped, I can correct this however by using 1280 X 768 Resolution but it doesn't seem to look as nice. Is there a way to select a higher resolution without cropping the screens? Thanks

I think there are other A-6 cockpit available here in CA. try digging through the Download section under cockpit. if theres none in SF2 there might be one for SF1 needs some tuning i suppose.

I really love the Fury but nothing beats being in the driver seat of the Mighty Tomcat! per Cougar's advise, i changed the mission type from Intercept to Fighter Sweep and sure enough the flanker did the musical chair dance. I wasnt able to record the good fight though. First engagement F-14B Tomcat vs SU-33 Sea Flanker. Spotted the flanker about 10Nm away at 1000ft low at about 450K. Climbed down and matched his speed and angels for a fair fight. He went for a head to head and i obliged. No one was able to hit anything. Burners to full and climbed> Flanker did the same for a bit, turned his nose towards my direction so i did the same. we passed each other on the down slope. I went back up while he turned low. I looped the tomcat round and he passed me on the way up. Were both in neutral positions. we repeated the process 3x more until i was able to dive down behind me while he was trying to gain more energy. He took a left hand turn and i followed we did a couple of circles coming from 500K to 300k. once we went below 300 the flanker started get away. i fulled a bit more tighter and allowed the tomcat to bleed energy until i was able to bring down the Flaps. sure enough as i down the Flaps on take off settings the tomcat nose began pointing inside the flankers flight path. He speed up to the 300 range and edge away from the sights a bit. Drop the flaps a bit more. the tomcat seems to find an updraft and was turning inside the Flanker even as i ease on the stick. The tomcat turned sharper and gained a bit more energy enough to close the gap for me to fill the front panel full of flanker. Trigger down and the sea flanker sunk into the dessert in a fireball. Second engagement is on the vid. I cheated and rushed to the merged. gained an advantage earlty on. eager to quickly end the fight, my bad habit of shooting too early cam out ( sorry cougar). Still a quick enough engagement that allowed for a quick upload.

Thanks for the tip cougar. I just edited the Phantom vs Mig engagements that came in the game. I think i tasked them for an intercept. Ill have to check. and maybe check on the way points if they are corect. thanks Do335. Great vid Do. love the way you fight. FPS145. I really should build a gaming pc for when i'm home.

Cool. Will try that out. Thanks.

I saw in one vid ( i think it was an AIMVAL vid) that the tomcat was used as a test bed for the AMRAAM. The tomcat wasn't cleared for AMRAAM as the coolness will reach level 9999 but based on that documentary i saw the cat can theoretically carry the AIM-120. What they said about the Radars AWG-9 and APG-71not being compatible with the 120s is bull. The AWG 9 was the first radar to have multiple track and kill capability and the APG-71 is basically the same radar installed on the Eagle, just bigger and more powerful.

This vid Finally uploaded. Same situation as the previous vid. Were flying at speeds above mach 1 and i lost patience. firing rounds trying to figure out where they are headed. \http://youtu.be/vk_gVtmiY6w @Cougar. when i fire the guns the bullet seems to pass through either the -o- fixed symbol on the HUD or the + cross hair symbol. I now think that the path of the bullet when maneuvering in a turn will follow the -o- symbol to the + cross hair. Fighting at Mach 1++ is kinda fun but i missed the turning engagement in the subsonic jets. unless i allow the bandit to get behind my 3/9 line. i don't think will ever go into a turning fight in the 4th gen planes. I have the latest patch update. what patch level are you guys using?

So I finally managed to get atleast 2 vids uploaded. Pardon the poor quality as its the best that i can do. after the earlier engagement with the F-15 i tried to record it again. Went vertical at the merge. blacked out a bit and found him above my nose about 1nm. F-15 started a right hand which i thought would developed into a full circle but mid way through it he changed his mind and headed to the other direction. As the F-14B can roll. I managed to get inside his turn. Fired several misses which i thought was good shots. ( where exactly should i place the bandit when the --o-- symbol and the + symbol are far apart? ) Basically i got pissed and started shooting randomly i clipped a wing. The eagle was incapacitated so without regards for dignity i made it rain cannon shells. 3rd fight was against an Su-33. the fight ended in a series of high speed breaks and rolls, and low speed breaks and rolls. which lasted for a very long time. Sadly the upload failed. This next fight was against a Mig-29K. He did what the F-15 did and basically punch the burners and raced my tomcat at Mach 1. I was shooting rounds here and there as i was still trying to re-acquaint myself with the dancing gun sights. half way through the fight i thought we was finally going to turn the fight into a circle so i mistakenly took the tomcat out of the burner. I raced to mach 1.3 in order to catch the Mig who instigated a couple of supersonic g mnouvers. The fight ended when the mig drifted under my F-14. Wanting to end the fight i rolled the tomcat on its back to get a better view of the mig and let a burst of cannon shell out as the mig pulled up right across my nose. The shells landed near center and totaled the fulcrum. Dying for a turning fight i went ahead and took out the F-16C from the viper team. This by far was the most intriguing fight and it highly frustrate me as i failed to capture any of the action that took place. Same scenario i merged with the falcon went to vertical and found my self chasing after a falcon going at mach 1. It was almost the same as the eagle fight except the falcon danced at under 1000ft at supersonic speeds. The turns and pitch changes was shallow but getting a lock on the small and agile falcon proved to be difficult as i have to contend with not hitting the ground as well. time and again we went below 200ft going blasting at mach 1. Then it happened... the falcon disappeared from radar and my gun lock was broken. The AI made a fatal miscalculation and crashed. I was given the Mission accomplished.

Thanks Cougar for the tips. Because of the Wonderful DACT Report posted by Caesar i decided to take an F-14 up in the virtual sky. What followed was a weird series of 1v1 engagement that seems more like a race than a fight. F-14B vs the F-15C. I'm not sure which release version it was ( i once entered a state where i went crazy with the tomcats and tried to alter the FM a bit ) but flying it sure was awesome. 5nm apart .nose to nose, F-14B 14K ft, F-15C 5k Ft and Climbing to intercept. after the merge i went vertical. as i was coming from level flight my energy was much higher and i was able to loop my plane around the F-15. I was expecting the eagle to start a circle. Instead it nosed down and lit the cans. accelerating from 300Kts to Mach 1 in an instant. I was also on the burners and coming down from a higher altitude thus i was able to match the acceleration of the eagle. The eagle Kept on the burners and we accelerated to around the region of M 1.5. Due to the sheer Thrust ratio advantage of the eagle i wasnt able to close the gap of 1.2Nm however down at 2k ft it hink my tomcat found some tailwinds and my plane nosed up on its own without loosing speed climbed on its own up to 10k Ft. I rolled in my back and the lift carried the F-14 in an inverted dive accelerating to 1.78 which is faster than the F-15's average of M 1.7. I repeated the maneuver a couple more and my plane is now 0.8Nm from the bandit. I'm not sure if the eagle is trying to run me out of fuel or it just think my tomcat in clean configuration can't catch up. 5 mins after i guess the eagle reached the stress limits of its engine and cut the after burners. I was relieve as my own engine and oil temp have been on the read line for quite some time now. I followed the eagle in a series of shallow turns and rolls and gun it down when it cut right into my flight path. I'll tried to capture the same scenario on video but i wasn't able to simulate what happened in the first engagement. I thought that its just the AI not being able to handle bigger jets but when the Mig 29 ran straight in full burners. I was really perplexed. I hope i can upload the videos soon.

Thank you very much Cougar! I really appreciate it! I know how limited my knowledge and skill is towards aviation. Frankly i don't understand all the terminology involved so i welcome all advise and criticism. I'll try to post more videos and if you guys have time i welcome you all to dissect them and tell me what i did wrong and what i did right. I think it'll help me improve a lot. I have a bad eyesight (500/550) so that thwarted my dreams of becoming a real pilot. At least in the virtual world of strike fighters i can fly to my hearts content. Thanks!

So the engagement started with me trying for a head to head and missing. Pulled up and looped round and almost lost control, then followed by some blind shooting and a lucky shot. By then my wingmen took over. Demonstrating how bad a shot i was. Overshooting a couple of times and almost loosing it. My maneuvers aren't really that good by i managed to willed in a few kills. Yeah. Love my Fury!

internet cats! hehe

Thanks for the vid. I'll try to upload a video where the AI truly outclassed me. Haha. I kinda miss Eric and Caesar's DACT Reports. Those are always a good read.

Those guns really are awesome. Though they were a nightmare to fly with a keyboard. Glad i finally bought a flight stick. I'm not being grateful and no offense meant but could use some advise on how to work the FM of the Fury It has this tendency to nose up dramatically at low speeds ( great during dog fights) but nose down during high speed. Kinda tiring on the wrist during the long haul to and fro. other than that. ITs a Damn Sexy Plane!

http://youtu.be/fJTJV7VScYk Tried my hand on capturing game play. Pardon the poor graphics but my laptop isn't really that powerful so i'm using a software that doesn't drop the frame rates, and lost a lot of quality uploading to youtube. I was hoping to demonstrate how to use the AI wingmen but i got too concious on the recording part trying to make it as short as possible so i failed to do several things. 1. not to look too pathetic compare to the AI 2. Watch my surrounding and protect my squad properly 3. isolating targets and 4. not getting killed. If you watch the video you can see the AI is able to jump in close to the target and get a high percentage shot. i was just throwing bullets to confuse the bandits and got a lucky kill. However i failed to notice an enemy and no 3 got shot down. the bandit soon came after me so i tried to fly as straight as i can trying not to get shot down so as to allow no 2 and 3 and easier shot on the one trailing me. This is a good tactic when your in a fast fighter than cannot turn. Coz once the enemy fixated on you it wont defend itself. part of the command chain should be "rejoin" and guide your flight out of the fur bull. In the end i missed the vampire that flew over my canopy. I figured that it wont be able to make the turn and catch up but it did i died. To be fair to the AI wingmen. I had better success using this strategy in campaign mode than what is captured in the video. There wil be times where no 2 will say negative on the attack which means he got lost or something and cant get a visual on your target. Call him back to formation and once he's plane is close enough hell be happy to get the bandit off you.

Based on my experience flying campaigns. No 2 shouldn't be asked to cover your six. the only reliable command seems to be "attack my target or "Engage Air/Engage ground" The only way to keep them safe is to keep them within sight. Find a bandit at asked your flight to converge on them. When flying pre-supersabers campaigns. no 2 and no 3's gunnery has always been better than me. I find a target and hunt it down while repeating attack my target command. if i find a bandit closing in on my six i get no 2 and 3 to attack it and try my best to rejoin them or else they will be swarmed by a flight of faggots and be broken down to 1v1. Friendly AI gets dumb when under this situation. This was strengthened by my earlier flight. Decided to rest the F-14 and improve my piloting using a much older but more manouverable jet. Started a new campaign. My squad of Furys tangled with a bunch of mig-15s and meteors. Climbed up with my wings and dove in on the meteors. Targeted the trailer, ordered the attack and we cut through the flight guns ablaze... of course i missed but one of my wingie didn't. Got in to following circles with one of the meteor. the flight was spread apart so i got 2 and 3 on the next clossest bandit. after my quarry reversed his circle. my wingie bagged their target so i prompted them to go after the meteor trying to save his friend from me. was able to predict my quarrys' next move and bagged him after he reversed his turn, change his mind and reverse his turn again. By this time my squad has bagged the last meteor and the first mig-15 that joined the fight. i was able to hit one on a head to head (was a suicidal attempt to get at least two kills). No 3 is already out of ammo so its now number 4 that goes on attack mode. (Yup, 4 only goes active when no 3 is either dead or gets dry). At this point number 3 is a sitting duck and no 2 should be running out as well. Since the remaining migs are on escape mode i decided to do the same before enemy reinforcement arrives.

Your right. BVR is where the tomcat shines. When i play campaign mode. i don't really go in for guns unless i have run out of missiles and i have a wingman with me. the usual scenario is I find the bandits on radar. Lock 4 or 6 Bandits with AHM get no 2 to lunch all of his 54s, then lock on another group and get no 3 to do the same. After that i get to clean up the left overs. And when i fired them all up and have nothing left but the gun it usually ends up like this... i coral the bandit while no 2/3/4 goes in for the kill. If the AI was lazy i get a chance for a gun kill as well. That being said, I don't think theres nothing wrong trying to be good at close quarters. I just have to learn not to be too gentle on the stick. haha.

It's really funny. As i tried playing again with the keyboard only. I was able to play the vertical quite well the only problem is being accurate with the pipper. All i needed was to get a much higher elevation and speed get the plane turning due to lift. Cut across and behind the bandits tail and pull. This allows me to get a good lead on the bandit and if i'm lucky the bandit should fly straight into my spray. haha. Now flying the with the stick clearly show how poor of a pilot i am. I'll try playing with the sticks sensitivity to get a more intuitive response time. And maybe try to re learn flying against something that is less maneuverable and much bigger than a Fulcrum. ( But before that i'm going to wipe out a pack of fulcrums from BVR). Thanks guys. BTW what do you use to capture ingame videos?

So having got some advice on setting up the Ex 3D Pro Flightstick. I went on to play a 1v1 against a Mig-29C using the stock TW Tomcat. I had several go against it. First Engagement was a long drawn out 1 circle with me flying at around 200kts. And the AI jumping from Between 120 up to 450 and equalling or getting a better turn radius than my me. That Fight ended with my cat running out of fuel. (we all know that AI doesn't run out of fuel). The second engagement i tried using the scissors. I couldn't get the tom to roll and we also ended up running out of fuel. The third engagement i tried to use the vertical however, my gunnery is so poor that i couldn't get a good shot and i ended up following the Mig in a circle. The last fight i tried everything and i lost control of all my control surface with the AI managing to fly slower than me and was able to cut through my right wing. I don't know how i managed to get victories using the keyboard but damn do i suck with the stick! I was to gentle with it and i couldnt get the Tom to respond quickly. Does anyone know the best tactic with the TW F-14A against migs going circles all the time?