Kyot54

dad, roger that on the slatted Navy/Marine Phantoms, thanks Took a J Phantom against a -17 1 v1 earlier, because even though I've fought them countless times in Campaign/Missions, never really gone 1 v 1. It was mostly some of the same ol' same ol' until I was finally able to lure him into following me into the vertical, having him run out of juice and then reversing down on him, but I miss timed it the first time and overshot. Second time was a charm, mile and a half out front, low, Winder zapped him real good. Sorry I don't have more screenshots, I need to work on working that into a fight more. That being said, what app do y'all use to video tape the engagements? Peace, J

Quick P.S. : most of the USAF (and early Navy) air to air losses in Vietnam had more to do with inflight "policies" than anything else: Using the same routes into the North day in and day out, only the flight lead doing the attacking, using intercept tactics (mostly Navy F-4s here). One of the things Topgun did more than just introduce dedicated DACT, was to stress the "loose deuce" policy that had helped the Crusader community achieve a 6(+)-1 kill ratio while everyone else was languishing at 2 to 1. While DACT is awesome, once you get past the 1 V 1 scenario, flight and element tactics play just as crucial a role to success. That's where the Air Force Phantoms were really falling short.

Do, Have you read "Scream of Eagles" by Robert Wilcox about the establishment of Topgun by the Navy? They found that down low (under10k) the phantom could turn pretty decent at combat weight. It's just that you couldn't turn with a MiG, at least under 450 knots. Above that the Phantom could outturn the -17 at least, thanks to hydraulic boosted controls. Duke Cunningham used this to his advantage for two of his MiG kills on May 10th '72. If I remember, all the Navy Phantoms were hardwing until after Linebacker was already over, please feel free to correct me on that if I'm wrong. Keeping up over 450 kias also helped prevent some of the stall problems, since you were getting plenty of airflow over the wing.

Correction and add on to this mornings post, since I was in a hurry and didn't check behind myself We initially passed at 200 yards apart, not 2 (yikes! What was the range? Two meters. More like one and a half, he was right there. What were you doing there? Communicating. Communicating? You know, giving him the . . .) Sorry had to do it, LOL. Obviously the text editing saved single missions worked, thanks again to Caesar for that. I've done a couple so far, including F-14D vs MiG-29C Went into the vertical per usual, fight would have been over in 15 seconds if the dang Winder hadn't wimped out on the flares AGAIN. Descending left hand turn, round and round til we are both slow as snails (220-250 kias). Wasn't gaining any angles 'til I lowered the flaps, finally pull lead, he reverses in an attempt to get away and get some energy. Bad move with a 14 just hovering behind you with a set of 9 Mikes. Boom! Sorry no pic for this one, will have to refly and make sure to get some. I beginning to believe the Tomcat can almost outturn an A-10 when it's wings out, TO flaps! Did a couple of missions to set up for some F-8 vs MiG-23 DACT. So far really disappointed, even on Normal, Flogger pilots just want to shoot and scoot. The only turning engagement was still over quick, he was turning like Foxbat at Mach 2. However, I did bring something away from the experience. In the set missions it was 2 v 4+ MiG-17s. More than one ended up on my tail close, just a few degrees off, just enough to keep me alive. I remembered some of the commentary from Cdr Dick Schaffert's 1 v 4 engagement in Dec '67. When in a similar situation, he did a negative G (pitch down) tuck and half barrel roll down and away from the turn. The roll rate of the MiG-17 is horrible, so you get some good separation and some time to unload and gain energy. I'm pretty sure this works in the Phantom too. Definitely want to kick a lot of rudder in. I remember seeing a post about tactics versus the -17 yesterday at some point, so I thought I'd throw that in. Although, it might be in here somewhere already. Peace all, J

Ok, so, my first official DACT report: Me: F-14D (96) w/ 4 9Mikes, full internal fuel Bandit: Su-27, 4 Archers, full internal fuel, Training level: Normal So, we started out about twenty miles apart, bandit heading across my nose right to left (or starboard to port if you prefer). He finally pulls nose on me at about 5 miles. I'm at about.95 Mach. At 3.5 miles, I start casually popping a flare and tight barrel roll thanks to the creep on the earlier test run popping off all his archers at 3 miles head on, ending in mutually assured destruction. We pass about 2 yard apart, I'm inverted half-way through a barrel roll, so I cut throttle only slightly, and turn it into a low yo-yo, maintaining a one-circle fight orientation. Flanker comes back around and we cross about 30 degrees of nose to nose, at which point I plug into burner to keep up my energy and go vertical. Once over the top he was in a left hand turn, so I ruddered rolled down in behind him. Fox 2, good shot but got fooled by the flares. From then on I was pretty much just staying in the saddle. He would draw it into a scissors ever now and then, and would be just far off enough my nose for a gun burst to miss. Then I would lag pursuit a little to let him get back out in front for a Winder shot. 3 more shots, 3 more misses, all good tones too. Grrr. So I just finally settle in a work on getting a good gun track. He was bucking like a bronc, but finally he tried a tried a quick sustained turn long enough for me to padlock him at about .35-.4 or a mile. 20 mike-mike does the job:

Yes, Muchas Gracias! I haven't saved any single missions yet, so I haven't played around with it, I will now begin doing so. As far as the Campaigns go, they are in a separate campaign folder, I think one of them included some extra 1v1's, mostly Alpha 'Cat's against MiG-17's and 21's and such. But that's only looking at them from the textual side, haven't seen hide nor hair of them in game. I know I probably will have to wait on getting the Mission editor for at least another month. Thanks for the skins info, I'll play around with that. Admittedly I wonder if I play around too much sometime. just waiting for SF to crash on me for some line I changed :/ So sound like I need to be conscientious of file changes. That makes sense, I had modded FA and unless my wingman had the same mods, it either wouldn't stay connected or it would set us to defaults or something along those lines. Caesar, I get the impression you love the Tomcat as much as I do. You're welcome at my campfire anytime! Have you dealt with the gross injustice of the F-14 (B's and D's especially) being denied the AMRAAM because they self funded the LANTIRN? In game the Slammers can't match the Phoenix for range, but within 40 miles, the do clear the air nicely! I have seen a similar Bravo 'Cat vs. Flanker video on YouTube, was a bit of a marathon fight set to the tune of Last of the Mohicans? I take it that was you? Great vid and awesome music choice! I'll let y'all know how things work out from all this intel. Thanks again! Peace, J

Ok, so question here. I don't have the mission editor at the moment, case of myfundsalow. Is that what I am going to need to create 1v1 DACT missions? I've been playing around trying to get the AI to work Flankers into Single Missions over Iceland, Germany, and Paran, no such luck. I can get Fulcrums, but generally I am still mucking around with Floggers. Getting kinda ticked. And then of course there is the BVR aspect of the Single Mission which means I've got to smack a bunch of them in the face, hope one survives for some turn and burn. Also, I have a missions folder from some downloads (Operation Darius, Desert Storm), but they don't seem to want to show up when I go to the Load Mission part of Single Mission. How do I fix that? And on a side topic, I've done it once or twice, but I've seemed to lose the magic, isn't there a way to put a F-14 Alpha skin on a Bravo or Delta and keep the pipes and chin pods accurate? I love DACT, used to do it all the time in FA. Sucks that SF2 doesn't have multiplayer, is the MP in SF1 any good? I trying to convince a buddy to get WOV so we can fly together. I generally prefer Tomcats and Crusaders, but the Super Bug is growing on me, a little. It will never be as Sierra Hotel as the Tomcat. If Caesar or Eric has taken the Turkey up against the Rhino2, can you link it? There are 34 pages of DACT to look through :/ Or I might just get off my lazy bottom and do a search. As for me, I've found in what 1v1 after merge I have done Tomcat v Fulcrum, I tend to finish the fight quicker if I go vertical initially with a buttload of energy (450kts+) in burner. The MiG driver seems to be expecting me to turn with him and stays flat. I have had some marathon round and round we go one circle fights where a lot of patience comes in handy. Both times it ended with the Fulcrum driver eventually breaking for home, and in one case, out of Winders I had to close for guns. Fulcrum has some good guns D. I'm also looking forward to going Crusader vs Flogger. I've done it once or twice, can't remember the details other than Navy won. I like the Crusader, it really makes me focus on energy management and using the vertical. Anyway, thanks beforehand for any help, and for putting up with an SF newb . Peace, J

Always, Always, ALWAYS break into your attacker. In the most simplest terms "match roll axis and pull", which means to roll your wing perpendicular to direction your attacker is coming from and pull the stick back. Essentially this is "pulling up" on a 3 dimensional plane. Of course, given what was said earlier, you DON'T want to do this against a MiG-15/17, unless he is booking it at over 450-500 knots. One thing I like to do in the Tomcat, something it is known at being good at, is to break into the attack, once the attacker has overshot his angle, light the burners and pull up into a half loop pirouette, and then drop down on him like a ton of bricks from above. Also seems to work pretty well in the Super Hornet.

Yep, that was it, a little to copy and paste happy for my own good. What can I say, I'm a brilliant idiot :/

Ok, I downloaded and installed the F-8 skin packs, 1 and 2. But when I fly, the nose numbers and the danger intake markings aren't showing up? I see from pictures they should be there. Thoughts?

Nods to eburger on explaining the deckhopping and wing hopping that gave a variety of codes. Sometimes you even had the same squadron with different codes depending on whether it was a detachment or not. VF-111 flying the Crusader was a great example of this. While on Oriskany with Air Wing 16, they wore the "AH" tail code. Air Wing 10 aboard the Intrepid was unique in that it was an all-attack Air Wing, made up of 4 or 5 squadrons of A-4's. However, a detachment from VF-111 was assigned to them (of 4 aircraft I believe) and during that time the Crusaders wore the "AK" tail code of CVW-10. It was little nuisances like that that prompted me to ask which squadrons, ships, and air wings were you interested in? Could be it has the correct tailcode for the time and place, it was just an exceptional circumstance.

Granted, I don't have SF2V yet, but I do have the old WOV, and as far as I can tell, they have them right. There are a couple, such as VF-53, with the F-8, where the marking are blank. But as a general rule, given the year/model of aircraft, deployments, etc, they have them right. And being that I am one of those weird freaks that can tell you which squadron was with which airwing on which ship for the most part, I should know :) Out of curiosity though, what particular Air Wings, and aircraft were you interested in knowing about?

Ok, so, last night I finally broke down and bought the Campaign customizer from Third Wire because I am a Tomcat nut and I hate that I can only fly single missions with it in Operation Darius. I should also say I've tweaked the individual .ini files to allow me to fly it up to 2015, the D model's anyway. So, that being said, I have SF2, SF2E w/ Operation Desert Storm campaign, SF2NA, and Operation Darius, merged install but generally run separately. In order to install CampCustomizer, I had to download the Jul 2013 patch, I had been running it at Jul 2012 with no problems. The first time I brought it back up, only mainline SF2 would work, then I remembered about seeing a post about redating the build on the .ini file, so I did that and SF2, SF2NA, SF2E w/ ODS all work with the Customizer. However, even with redating the .ini, Op Darius will crash right off the initializing screen, I won't even get to the title screen. I haven't done a re-install yet, since there are a lot of mods I have with that package. Thoughts? ideas?

Thanks Eric, that seemed to do it. I deleted the old .exe, copied and renamed and it seems to be working now, at least it lauched and went into menu screens. About to see if it will handle missions. On a completely different topic: So far my main experience with Flight Sims was the old Jane's Fighters Anthology (Awesome missions creation ability imho, haven't tried tw's yet) and WOV/SF2 series. While SF1 series has multiplayer, sf2 doesn't. And I have a close friend, we used to wing up and 1v1 on FA, I'd like to find something we can do that on again, a bit newer. And it HAS to have Tomcats, especially a B or D. Any suggestions? Also, does anyone make an accurate D model cockpit for SF2? The instrument panel is off, as y'all probably know.

As per the first post link, A. it was only US Navy B and D model Tomcats, which I think falls under "nation specific" :) It's only Operation Darius that is giving me a problem, all the other ones are working fine. I did go and change the years like you suggested, no joy. Still crashing during launch