Do335

eeheh good ol' thunderbolt!... but hell the eagle and tomcats for that matter are so excellent bvr platforms they're sorta wasted close in. my last flights in falcon was the online pvp on the north side so went up against the wall of eagles. we're maneuvering above 30k ft just trying to keep the viper afloat, while the f-15s on the other side was lofting slammers our way from 50k doing mach1.4 or something thereabouts... when ya fly the f-16 for long a mental note takes place that 30k is high as you go for normal ops but apparently the big guys are in a completely different realm, above that the viper feels like a brick and the eagle is like a kite with power!...

hey yeah molnibalage, did remember that.. besides what u said, in the world where source code could be modded it became somewhat a data hack imo, plus the restricted AoA would be on the player too when he's in control. don't you find the F-15 FM in falcon does bleed ultra fast once past a certain alpha, altho the rl jet indeed is a flying tennis court or so they say so gotta keep it fast.

For anyone interested... through some extensive google search I found the "-1" of the F-86F on the net. Dash 1 is the pilot's bible so everything one needs to know about the aircraft is in there! http://www.fayloobmennik.net/3980653 I only found the picture format of the F-86E here http://aviationshoppe.com/manuals/f-86_flight_manual/f-86.html?pageNumber=4

hey a hard earned victory dude, well done.. (v)beer in bound!

^ yep I've checked out DCS. Would be nice to get some MP in. But it still got the old "empty" feeling to me... dunno. About SF, I guess we have different definitions of "lite". But reason I like it is it's got atmo... campaign is (semi) dynamic, quite well done with all the chatters and whatnot. Throw in some challenging AI you got a good game. Pits, avionics, FM, Multiplayer.... many other sims do 'em a lot better like DCS, falcon, jane's. Depends on what one prefers i guess. might move in on the DCS Sabre after they fixed the Mig-15 FM anyway. will see...

Merci capitaine :)

Streak, I get what you mean, kinda harsh to bash SF due to lack of a control knob. But it's more to do with me having flown the modern era to death, lest of joining the aviation industry I don't think there's anything more significant to learn out there so SF's liteness just doesn't resonate. But an early jet age where none of the shiny new toys have came to known, based on a immersive game engine, hey can't find one anywhere else atm.

I consider anything to do with radars in SF unrealistic... Since TK did not implement radar antenna elevation, for a start. It's either props or 50s jets for me. The dogfighting AI puts up a challenge... compared to the missile dodging one.

doesn't that thing turn and bank at 90knots? no wonder the AI crashes trying to gun it!..

stratos, guess my point was, one is due to radar modeling and the other the AI. come to think of it falcon AF hits the sweet spot for sparrows. it's even got updated FMs for them and models missile mechanical and warhead failures. eeeh...

eh... I otoh think the sparrow in BMS is too weak. the issue is confounded by: there is some kink resided in bms' radar locks, causing STT and TTS (two target SAM) to break lock very often; once the lock is broken, the sparrow goes ballistic. about the first, it directly comes from RL viper pilots, the real radars don't lose lock nearly as much taken into account obvious factors like bandit beaming, chaffs etc. about the second, if my sources are correct, the M and later versions can resume tracking if radar lock is temporarily lost. but i'd love to hear some definitive info on it. for the sparrows in SF, i think it is more geared towards vietnam era, where missile mechanical failure and ground clutter is simulated, to the degree that it's the main reason for a miss; and the AI is dumb enough not to (significantly) beam or drag the msl, to reflect the early EW equipment and under developed msl fighting doctrines (or it's just Tk slacking off due to lack of money...), resulting in sparrows having a higher Pk. just my 2c.

@saisran thanks. the sabre is such a joy to fly. i believe the Fury is using the same flight model. Getting busy with RL again. will be back. Keep up the reports!

bloody hell... yes it was. I think at the end of day i'll take a D/H/G winder and just shoot him to save all that trouble. The gunpod weighs almost like a mk84 2000 pounder and is twice as draggy. in campaign mode you can use it to get some opportunity kills but in 1 v 1 where he's always got eye on you... it's pretty hard. what's worse is the gunpod is declined 2 degrees below the nose to facilitate ground strafing, but in a2a it's a hindrance. iirc the eagle as an air dominance fighter has the gun inclined upwards even.

Oh yeah, notice the mig-17 dubbed "ufo" in my report. caesar mentioned this a few posts back and evidently, the mig17 made by thirdwire has no problems turning at 450+. one last vid... this is a campaign flight, but i thought... hey it's what dacts are for so why not. I was tuning the landing speeds in the fm so AIs could properly land themsevles and this was only a test flight. But it got exciting and decided to film it. We were doing a sweep northwest of wonsan, about to go home and things went for the worse. being an actual mission the flight has more to do with incomplete info, mutual support (or saving wingies) and fuel ammo considerations. I illustrated the different situations with subs and pics, so will save the wall of text here!

oops, sorry for the net fluctuation induced text duplicate.

ok, as suggested, hard wing F-4E vs Mig-17 aka the UFO, both clean guns only, 10,000ft. 2 engagements. Probably my last as free time is winding down again. First engagement, separation 25miles. Went nose low full burner, accelerated to mach 1.3 at the merge. Pitched up into a loop, mig follows, he ran outta juice and started pitching down into a left hand turn, regained some of his speed and started pitching up again. I came back down, the mig was high, not enough turning room, no nose on no shot. Rinse and repeat for a few times, the mig would always end up above me as i was going for a nose on. I then became a little more aggressive in my pulls and started to let the rhino buffet a bit. This ended up in me putting the pipper on his tail pipe, but not enough to lead him, so again no shot. OTOH, I bled too much energy in return and as I was starting to climb back, the mig's guns opened up. Thankfully my speed reserve was still good enough to out run him. This lasted until I was down to 3000lbs of fuel. The mig had 1000lbs+ and was still in the fight. So I decided to end it and call it a draw. Me being totally unsatisfied ofc. Fires it up again into 2nd engagement. Accelerated, merged, pulled up, came down to find the mig at an odd angle, same deal. The 2nd loop, I was able to get on his tail with him doing 120ish kcas. I was hanging there at about 270 and had very little nose authority so had to let him go and went nose low to accelerate. The futile loops repeated for a few more times, then it dawned on me what went wrong. I had so much speed pulling up, and the rhino's turn radius being huge, I had gained so much horizontal separation traveling upwards that it made my downward turn too early, and left me with too much angle off towards the mig. So the next time as I arrived on the apex of the loop, I stayed there, 170~180kcas, wings inverted, still maintaining a bit climb rate to maintain altitude advantage, until judging the mig was at the right angle to start pulling down. This resulted in me sliding right back on his 6 at about 1nm with 400+ kts to spare. The mig was again floating at 100+ kts, started a right hand turn but this time was unable to escape and the rhino came out victorious. All in all, while I am fascinated by the phantom, I deem its flying characteristics less than satisfactory for a fighter jet. Its turn radius is the size of texas and easily goes into buffeting at the slight onset of alpha without enough airspeed. I can fathom enough awe and respect for the airmen that fighted them against the agile migs but am more thankful for the 3rd gen teen fighters that came into being because of this... ok, as suggested, hard wing F-4E vs Mig-17 aka the UFO, both clean guns only, 10,000ft. 2 engagements. Probably my last as free time is winding down again. First engagement, separation 25miles. Went nose low full burner, accelerated to mach 1.3 at the merge. Pitched up into a loop, mig follows, he ran outta juice and started pitching down into a left hand turn, regained some of his speed and started pitching up again. I came back down, the mig was high, not enough turning room, no nose on no shot. Rinse and repeat for a few times, the mig would always end up above me as i was going for a nose on. I then became a little more aggressive in my pulls and started to let the rhino buffet a bit. This ended up in me putting the pipper on his tail pipe, but not enough to lead him, so again no shot. OTOH,%2

affm i use the mission editor, have yet to find another way as convenient. however the saved single missions (.msn files) are in text format, so... a simple text editor should do the job too. alas going vertical with buttloads of energy at merge seems indeed to be a good idea. i did that in sabre vs fagot, and found one of caesar's (i believe) old vids which has the same happening in the first engagement with fast kill results (edit: ooot, note! video is caesar's!) but it also reminds me of exceptions, where the oppo has excess energy and comes up to get you. i think one of mine resulted in a series of vertical scissors, and i always hate scissors in whichever shape or format. but it depends on what the AI was thinking and how he was doing energy wise i suppose:p

nice one out turning the flanker! looks like the ai puts up a good enough struggle as well.

Caesar, did a F-4J with gunpod vs mig-17 clean. I think the added weight and drag of the pod really slowed me down, when coming down from the loop with flaps extended everytime, i was unable to put nose on him. He otoh was able to point at me many times but due to my huge speed advantage never got inside 1nm, but that was it. A few loops later I ran outta juice, dropped down low, repeated the same trick of loops, and still no joy. Eventually the mig got down to ~500lbs of fuel and started running away which was when i chased him down and got him. I think this was a exact repeat of my earlier dogfights when flying the 'nam campaigns when was outta missiles. Simply put, tough bastard UFO he is indeed... actually it seems all the pipers in SF are 1G piper, i.e. the rounds will connect if the target is flying straight, but not if they're maneuvering. Therefore you still have to pull lead, just no need to calculate bullet drop and your own ac's G. i think it's one o'those simplifications TK chose. however i'm not sure if i even prefer the "full" lead computing gyro stuff, too jittery maybe. I dunno.

Caesar was there ever a good old hard wing phantom vs mig-17 guns only in here? figure that's where sf series started with. i can't ever get on his tail. best was run him outta fuel. or catch him with a heater shot if i had one.

OK my ride is ofc the F-86F, opping the Mig-15bis in two 1 v 1 engagements. First one went real quick. I spotted him about 5 nm out and was already doing mach .96. He was dragging along at some 300kts. We merged, he went down, I went up, he'd gone into a right hand downward spiral and.. was still doing it as i came down from upstairs and shot him with a fair bit of deflection. My aim went a bit to the right but the 50 caliber rounds clipped him in the right wing, tearing up the right aileron. After my firing pass the mig continued his right hand turn, but with the damaged wing he inevitably went into the flat spin of death, hence concluding the 1st engagement. Seeing how bad the AI is in the vertical I decided to make the fight fair. So in the 2nd engagement I slowed to 300ish kts before the merge, almost the same as the mig. As we went head to head I roll to the left to create some turning space and, avoid head on shots with the mig. I rolled back to the right just in time, and we went into a completely horizontal 2 circle. As I came around I was lagging him with some 70 degrees angle off, and so promply went into a high yoyo to create some vertical turning room. As I was coming down from it the mig does the same! I follow him up into my 2nd yoyo, decided it was close enough to press while on the apex, and so with the help of god's G and a tigher pull the nose gradually came up to the mig, when he was in a slight climb in his seemingly 3rd yoyo. The mig miraculously senses the imminent danger and bunts down the nose to spoil a gun fire solution. I opened fire, booted some rudder, and got some sporadic hits on him. I overshot to the right side high, he appears damaged and attempting to evade in a gentle left descending turn. I saddled in his six, boards open, and followed up with a few bursts. The last burst probably killed the pilot because the rounds were seen to go there and the canopy came off. I pulled up just in the nick of time to avoid becoming a human sidewinder, glancing back over the left wing to see the mig bursting into flames. You gotta admit, the 2nd engagement is more like a samurai's fight hence more exciting and enjoyable, but it is apparent which one is more efficient!

indeed, so once i reverted to an old 09 install to check something. When I brought '13 version back none aircraft were left flyable coz none of them had any skin entries in their inis.... I went berserk for a while coz thought i had borked my install.

thank you Caesar. my sf2 install is dated 70s and earlier so the latest match up I got between F-16 and Mig-29 was in falcon bms. Although i could feel the viper enjoyed a definite advantage there was no way i could get on his tail until low on fuel (except using game exploits or being a dogfight master that is..). looks like the 2 aircrafts are truely equally matched.

aannd the DACT thread is back and continues...:D caesar, i wonder what would happen if you went vertical at the merge with the viper like you did with the cat. the fulcrum albeit with twin engines cannot match the viper in the t/w department especially down low they say, it's sorta like a beefed up hornet. getting low and slow with the mig in a one circle altho unavoidable for me as well many times, should be imo tried to be avoided.

the roll is indeed fast. kink is it rolls very slow with initial stick input, and suddenly mounts up a lotta roll with further stick. which's a bit weird and hard to control.