beachav8r

Note - For this mission I've made a small change. I've switched to the Thirdwire A-6A model and imported the RAZBAM A-6 cockpit. The reason for this is simple - the RAZBAM A-6 3D model only supports the original RAZBAM paint schemes. There were a couple of problems with this - most notably not having the period specific paint of the squadron being flown during the campaign, and also the inability to see different tail numbers on each aircraft. Thanks to Homefries and malibu43 for putting together the superb A-6 Superpak 1.51 that provides us with all these great campaigns, skins, and other modifications. I wish I could name all of the modders that contributed to that package, because it is a collaborative effort drawn from dozens of resources. I'd also like to thank CrazyhorseB34 for providing me with a specific 1965 A-6A VA75 skin you see in this report... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our mission for today is to strike the POL storage facility at Ben Thuy. This is another big strike package in the southern region of North Vietnam. For this flight, I'm going to try the low and fast tactic since it is such a short distance from the shoreline to the target area. As such, I load up with 20 500 lb. Mk-82 Snakeye retarded bombs. As a backup, I load my wingman with a pair of 2000 lb. bombs in case his clean-up is necessary. Having lost my most experienced squadron member on the last sortie, I try a change in strategy and give the FNG with the least experience a go at the mission. I'd pack an overnight bag if I were you Ensign Greer. Our first look at the awesome VA-75 skin provided by CrazyhorseB34...sweet!! And off we go.. We tick off the waypoints in the flight plan and I order my wingman to widen out and drop back a bit to give us room to maneuver after we cross the beach.. I put the wing leveler autopilot on and hit the F12 key - which is great fun since it zooms around the theater picking up on all the action going on. I watch with some surprise as a flight of F-4s manages to get the drop on a flight of MiG-19s..they pull right in behind the MiG flight without them even noticing until the last second.. Meanwhile, I stay a few miles behind my escort which is a flight of F-8 Crusaders that will clear a path across the shoreline.. We drop down to low altitude and skim the waves at two-hundred feet... As we flash over the coast something catches my eye. Oh man..that is a Jake Grafton target right there! To my surprise, the cluster of torpedo boats is also coming alive and firing sustained bursts at the F-8s and us..! Despite the temptation to drop a few bombs on the boats, I stick with the mission plan and forge ahead. The city area is jam packed with AAA and the explosions pop all around us. I lean a bit more on the throttle and realize it is all the way forward... The flak is withering even at low altitude, but at least they don't have a long opportunity to track us as we pass quickly overhead... Another nice touch with the Homefries/malibu43 mod is the addition of the modified bomb dropping symbology. It looks great! I tap the labels key to help me spot the target (a concession to not having the greatest visual acuity in the sim I tell myself..).. At the last moment I realize I have forgotten my wingman again and I quickly dash off the "ATTACK MY TARGET" command.. I figure there is no way he has time to engage and worry he will yank up and try setting up for an attack - risking getting shot down in the process.. My bomb fall line crosses the POL facility and I don't really have time to adjust to hit anything specific. I just press the pickle button and hold it down while all of my bombs ripple off.. Holy crap! The explosion is massive and I worry for a second that I might have killed myself as the glow flashes in my cockpit. I don't know what the minimum release altitude is for the Snakeye..but I don't think I would want to try that any lower! (Is there frag pattern modeling that you can take damage from?) My wingman roars over the target and to my great surprise, he pickles his bombs too.. Nice job! I roll to the left because I know that is a southerly heading. I have no idea what the MiG situation is behind me, but I stay low and pull for all she's worth..nearly blacking out in the process.. I level off briefly and take a quick look to my left and can see the smoke rising from our strike. That looks pretty good! I realize I've pulled a bit too hard for a bit too long though as my heading is more back the way we came from to the east and I should be evading to the south southeast. I jink back to the right and take up the proper course to get me toward the south side of the DMZ via a direct route.. In case my wingman gets any crazy ideas I ask him to rejoin. I also query him for his status and he tells me he has no more weapons and no damage. Yes! We head south and I can see a bit of a furball is going on just offshore, so I elect to keep flying southeast to clear the area without attracting any attention before turning offshore.. Feet wet! Soon I pick up the carrier task force on the air-to-ground radar. I have to be careful though because there are three different carriers out there and it would be pretty embarrassing to land on the wrong one.. Meanwhile, back over the port the Crusaders are paying a steep price for loitering. This one takes a shot from some AAA... I finally spot my carrier and get configured for the landing. The ship is in mid-turn so I have to make some odd corrections... The turn throws me off a bit and I end up getting a bit fast and high. I think I have it all sorted out so I'm surprised when I land a touch long and miss all the wires. Bolter! I hit the power, stay configured, and come back around for another pass... This time the pass is pretty good - maybe even a three-wire..! The mission is a great success. The low level attack was really exciting and I was very happy my wingman came through unscathed. The timeline is pretty compelling to study because it shows just how compressed the action is - basically 60 seconds from getting shot at while crossing the coast to getting shot at as we leave the target area. Our bombs were released nearly simultaneously but mine did the damage. He might not have gotten credit if my bombs destroyed the target first (?). I'm now a decorated aviator! Can't wait to fly the next sortie. Once again, thanks to all the modders that have worked to make this Vietnam campaign so much fun..I appreciate all the advice, suggestions, and assistance. <S> BeachAV8R

It's five days after our first strike against the barracks and we are slated to fly again. This time we'll be tasked to take out a bridge spanning the river just north of Dong Hoi. As usual, this will be a big package with other flights performing their various duties. For maximum punch, I'll be carrying five 2,000 pound bombs and my wingman will simply be carrying a pair of them in case I miss. I go into the pilot roster and chose a more experienced wingman, LTJG Meyers since I'll need all the help I can get. The morning is dark and murky with very poor visibility in haze. It is a challenge just to keep the airplane upright in such "milk bowl" conditions... As I head through the waypoints I look down and can see various other carriers at Yankee Station launching their fighters to take part in the attack. The cockpit instruments glow in the dark and hazy conditions. It always seems like time compresses and the flight to the coast occurs very quickly. We continue climbing, hoping to break through the high overcast layer above... Sunlight! The attitude indicator in the RAZBAM A-6 has a steerpoint indicator that matches the CDI needle on the OBS - simply steer an intercept toward the planned flight path until it centers up then match the needle.. A Spad crosses inland to start pounding enemy positions... At the IP we turn inbound and I set my weapons to release three bombs at 140ms interval to give them a bit of a spread... Unfortunately, we need to descend back into the murk to get a visual on the target... The coast looms out of the haze... This time, just to be sure, I give my wingman the command to attack the primary target... To do so, I do resort to a bit of a crutch and turn the label system on to make sure I've designated the proper point. I've modified my install to provide a small 2 pixel box instead of the default large target box... With the bridge identified, and my wingman doing his own thing, I roll in as a bit of light flak puffs around us... Bombs away! Explosions in SF2 (enhanced by Stary!) are awesome... The bridge takes a direct hit from my bombs... A hard pull off to the left and I seek the safety of an easterly heading, not knowing if MiGs are in the vicinity or not... And then..it all comes apart. My wingman reports he is going down. My heart sinks. He is missing half his wing and the flames lap at the fuselage, but amazingly he continues to stagger toward the coast under control. In the back of my mind I'm hoping he can make it to the safety of the South China Sea so he can eject and our SAR boys can rescue him - but I know that is wishful thinking and that the AI isn't complex enough to consider all of that... He limps over the beach and the aircraft plummets into the ocean... I still have four-thousand pounds of ordnance dragging me down as I cross the coast I hit the jettison button to release them... I chose a maximum airspeed, slight climb to escape the coast... A look at the "AWACS" map shows multiple bogeys behind me, just offshore in pursuit... An F-104 zooms into the fray as AAA tracks him... To my relief, other flights converge on the airspace behind me and soon the MiGs are being dispatched one by one... Smoke trails arc across the skies and plumes of smoke rise from wrecked airplanes..gravity treats friend and enemy with similar indifference... I finally arrive near the carrier and it takes me a bit of time to find it in the poor visibility...I spot it making a turn.. For some reason (too high on the first and poor lineup on the second) I screw up two passes and decide to go around on both. I finally settle into the proper groove on the third pass but catch a dangerous 1-wire.. The mission is a success, but I'm really bummed that I lost my most experienced squadron member. A look at the after action report shows he was bounced by a MiG-17 about thirty seconds after the strike. Fortunately, he survived the ejection, but now must spend a long stay at the Hanoi Hilton. I'm not sure if I could have done anything better - perhaps waiting a bit longer for the CAP flights to do their thing, but there is a lot going on in such a short span that it can be tough to know what the right thing to do is. I'm still not sure how the SF2 campaigns work - so I don't know if I'm limited to sixteen airframes and crew members for the entire duration of the campaign, or if I will at some point be resupplied. It just makes me more aware that I have limited resources and mission failures and success can come at a steep cost. BeachAV8R

Yeah - I think that is correct. I might be better off just using the cockpit with the stock A-6 3D object perhaps.. That way my aircraft can evolve with the campaigns... Something to consider for sure.. Regards.. BeachAV8R

Let's get down to business! Our first strike to kick of Rolling Thunder is a short hop from Yankee Station to a coastal target just north of the Ben Hai river/DMZ area. The close proximity to the coast and South Vietnam make this a good kickoff mission since we can beat a hasty retreat to safety. Our target is the Dong Hoi barracks. For the sake of simplicity, I choose to take a relatively light load of six Mk-83 1000 pounders. I could carry more, but I don't think I'm gonna need it - and I'm going to try to stick to the motto of "One Pass - Haul Ass" if I can keep my virtual fangs in. In retrospect, I could have left behind some gas as well, but I'm still learning fuel consumption rates. (Wish SF2 had tanking!) I forgot to adjust my wingman's load - so he is carrying a standard load of a dozen or so 500 pounders I think. On the catapult ready for launch... And we're off..! The SF2V world is alive with action. Dozens of planes are going about their tasks and the airspace is crowded over the DMZ. The North Vietnamese aren't going to take Rolling Thunder sitting down and they rise up to meet us.. (Anyone else notice the Russian trawler shadowing the carrier group?) Further inland, Thuds run the ridges on the way to their targets... At the IP we turn inbound - the ground mapping radar paints the coastline. I concentrate on looking for the target - which is quite easy to spot since it is a big compound. I let the CAP flights do their thing and catch a glimpse of a few aircraft bursting into flames. No telling if they are friendly or enemy at this point. We go feet dry and are quickly upon the target area. Flak is sporadic and light as I pull up, keeping the target area in sight out the left side of my window. I gain some altitude, roll over and pull my nose down on the target. As I'm pulling up I see a shape go whipping by my left side. Oh crap.. ..but I'm committed.. The small cross hair is the concession to not having a true bombing system in the SF2 A-6 - it is a psuedo-DIANE that helps get the bombs on the target. I roll level, a bit shallow, but not much can be fixed at this point.. I pull hard off the target and watch in awe as the stick of thousand pounders rips across the compound.. Woohoo! Cont.. My wingman - who I've totally forgotten about in the excitement, look down - unimpressed no doubt. As I pull off and instinctively search for the ocean to point at, I see green balls zip across the top of my canopy. Oh yeah..that guy! I enter some wild gyrations. I know I have a radio command for my wingman to watch my six - but what is he going to do? No gun - no glory! I'm just pulling up the menu to request assistance from Red Crown when I see the guy blow apart even as he is spitting bullets my way. Damn! Looks like I owe an F-8 Crusader jockey a case of beer! Back at the barracks another strike comes down from another flight (Thuds?) and demolishes more of the compound.. As I flee out over the ocean the smoke billows from the strike location.. In a few minutes the carrier is in sight and I get configured. I catch what looks to be a 4-wire and come to a halt. I feel bad because I never cut my wingman loose to drop his ordnance, but at least he survived! (Not sure if I need to be concerned with airframe counts in these campaigns - I'll learn more as I go..) The strike is a success. Sorry Ens. Wilson for the bad stats! All in all a really great first mission. Completely immersive and exciting with just simple flying and very few button pushes. I'm using the RAZBAM A-6 but I can't figure out why my wingman is sporting the same fuselage number as me - so I wonder if I can fix that. In short - the mission was all I wanted and expected it to be and I think this is going to be a lot of fun running through this campaign. I'll take all suggestions and advice too! BeachAV8R

I don't know where this is supposed to go - I don't have posting access to the AAR Forum here... If a mod wants to move it to where it belongs that would be great..! I've always wanted to fly a Vietnam era simulation/campaign but over the years I've sort of missed the boat while waiting for the perfect ship to come in. Various Thirdwire titles have languished on my shelf for years, only occasionally getting dusted off during lulls in my interest in other titles (Jane's, DCS, EECH, Falcon). After reading a thread about the possibility of some Vietnam era content coming down the pipe from DCS, I decided I couldn't wait that long for a fix. So here is my modded Strike Fighters 2: Vietnam AAR series. We'll be learning together. Please don't gripe over any historical inaccuracies - my install is a bit of a mishmash that might take a few liberties with ships, squadrons, and deployments. That said, the overall story should track fairly closely with the actual campaign thanks to the breaking up of the stock Rolling Thunder campaign into seven mini-campaigns (A,B,C,D,E,F,G) with more accurate geographic missions, new target areas, and a host of other improvements. These improvements can be found in the incredible SF2V Air & Ground War Expansion Pack v2.0 put together by eburger68 who pulled together the contributions of dozens of talented community modders. Many thanks to him and them. My list of SF2:Vietnam modifications is as follows: Strike Fighters 2 - Vietnam Green Hell 3.5 + Trees - Stary SF2V Air/Ground War Expansion - eBurger68 CVA-63 Kitty Hawk - MigBuster RAZBAM A-6A - Payware Formations.ini - SixGun/PureBlue A-6 SuperPack - Homefries Unified Effects 1.2 - Stary SARCASM 1.5 - Stary A-6 DIANE CCIP - MigBuster ..and a whole lot of help from the kind people at Combat Ace... I hope you enjoy the campaign - I'm looking forward to ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 1965 - Welcome to Vietnam. We spot the coast from a dozen miles out. A haze hangs in the air. From the C-141 the lush landscape appears pocketed with red dirt, villages, and rice paddies. The South China Sea laps serenely against the coast belying the violent tug of war occurring further inland. The Starlifter pitches over in a combat approach to Chu Lai... My ride to the fleet awaits. From this helo I will transfer to yet another that will take me out to my new home: CVA-62 Independence.. Disembarking the helo the noise, heat, and fumes assault the senses. Do I have what it takes? We'll see. BeachAV8R

The Mud Eagle at work.. BeachAV8R

Ain't that the truth.

Perhaps you aren't picking a year that the models are available? Just a guess..

First grab the file that Spillone posted in post #10 above, unzip that to your mod EFFECTS directory. Then you'll need to go into the aircraft's data.ini file and add change these lines in the left and right sections of the engines section: ExhaustEmitterName=AV-8LEngineEmitter ExhaustEmitterName=AV-8REngineEmitter That *should* do it.. BeachAV8R

Flak over Kuwait.. BeachAV8R

From one of the single missions in the Operation Desert Storm mod for Strike Fighters 2.. A quick 10 minute hop north from a forward operating base to interdict enemy armor streaming south.. Not the best weapon against tanks.. Putting the "close" in close-air support.. This border outpost was getting overrun.. On final to the FOB.. Back in the revetment.. BeachAV8R

Thanks Dave.. Some eagle eyed poster pointed out that my Harrier seems to be missing an ejection seat (I would not have even noticed to tell you the truth). Is there any easy way to add one? EDIT - Found out how - just stole the seat from the GR7.. SeatModelName=Seat_MBMK12 //sj4 SeatPosition=0.0,3.70,0.60 //0.00,3.65,0.2 MinExtentPosition=-0.5, 3.80,-0.30 MaxExtentPosition= 0.5, 5.12, 1.00 BeachAV8R

Still spending a bit of time tweaking up my Strike Fighters 2 install. Trying to get everything just so before I start to really start playing some campaigns. I can never seem to keep my hands of the AV-8B though.. It is just so much fun to fly and has such a great dynamic feel to it. AV-8B - WhiteBoySamurai - bobrock - Crusader - The Viper Team - Nengajyou Aki - Europe Highway Strips by JSF-Aggie GermanyCE HR V3 - Stary -Part I - Part II - Part III SARCASM 1.5 (Skymod) by Stary On the highway strip getting ready to takeoff... Have to perform a rolling takeoff with nozzles at about 40 degrees due to weight.. Beautiful CAG skins.. Old video I shot a couple years ago flying the GR7... Fun stuff.. (Damn this sim needs MP!) BeachAV8R

Sure can.. (My Dad is a Vietnam Vet..not a pilot though..combat engineer..) Regards, Chris

Might be a stupid question - but hey, that's why I was put on this Earth.. - but are game generated parked aircraft just eye-candy or are they somehow resource tracked in the campaign? For instance, if I destroy a row of MiGs at an airfield that are parked - does that in any way affect the campaign or are they just there as scenery filler? (Would be cool if it was the former..) BeachAV8R

The other side of the coin... Thanks Two... Things just went pear shaped... Flash forward... BeachAV8R

Thanks for the kind words - like I said, I just threw together some clips..the real genius is in the mods themselves. That is the Razbam A-6 (payware) cockpit. It looks pretty good: LINK! BeachAV8R

Hmm...you must have been reading my mind..! <g> BeachAV8R

Just try to ignore the TER on the A-7.. Must have a screw up in my LOADOUT.INI.. <g>

Thanks for all the help getting these mods up and working. Switch it to HD and turn it up! BeachAV8R

Cool..!

I got and Chao is one.. BeachAV8R

Spotting..(how fun would this sim be with multi-player??!) Corsair II... :thumbsup: BeachAV8R

Spad! BeachAV8R

Haha.. I was just making a (poorly written) joke.. I was trying to channel my inner-Jedi sort of tongue in cheek. My smoke effects are fine.. <g> BeachAV8R