The nose gear just collapsed as I added power. Didn’t touch my keyboard so it wasnt an accidental button press of anything. Weird. But funny. Look forward to trying again soon. Might be worth adding a tf51 or similar to see if we can get off the ground this time lol
Yep, I’ll add a TF-51 slot as well.
My buddy I want to get into DCS has the two included planes (TF-51 and SU-25T) as well as the L-39 and all FC3 planes I think, so I might add some of those as well. But I want to keep the mission thin, I haven’t tested the limits of this hardware yet. Probably pretty low.
But as soon as there is either a dedicated Linux server or I have a new PC I will probably host a few DCSW missions now and then. There are a few things I want to try and maybe I can get some of you to fly with me now and then. 
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Well I have the su25 tf51. fc3 planes. A10c and av8b. So if you want to try any of those im happy to mess around with you. I have Controls mapped for everything except a10c and mig 29 (I’m weirdly saving the mig 29 for a rainy day to cheer myself up)
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Has he tried out the A-4E? One of my friends didn’t like DCS until he tried out that one. Bit of a pain since everyone would have to have it, but opening the door to carrier operations does a lot for the game.
Not yet. Also a problem in that regard: I cannot fly it myself. I had it installed for a bit but I haven’t really tried the A-4 yet.
Also… he is a casual gamer, with no big interest in planes.
His status is:
- hasn’t landed a single plane successfully
- doesn’t know how to start up any plane
- doesn’t know how to read instruments in planes
- doesn’t really know how to fly (stuff like what rudders are for)
- flying around gaping at how cool flying feels in VR.
and most importantly:
Doesn’t really want to spend time or effort in flight sims. He won’t be the person to read manuals or something like that.
So the best I can hope for is flying in a two seater with him for a while, showing him how stuff is done and maybe get him interested, blowing things up or so.
Up to this point I set him up some controls and that’s it.
My plan is:
- Show him some basic flying and how instruments work in the L-39. Get him into DCSW, flying and blowing a few things up.
- Learning the L-39 instruments will help him fly the russian FC3 planes like the Su-25, then I can maybe transition him to the Su-33 or so, maybe have some dogfights. Maybe have him land the Su-33 on a carrier.
- Show him some western stuff. I personally prefer the HUDs in western planes like the A-10 or the F-15 and I am sure that the supersonic modern jets might be more interesting to him than the old ones like the A-4 or the slow ones like the A-10.
He likes the Hornet (from outside. That’s approximately how much he knows about planes) so once it is more complete he might actually buy that one. Multi-role, carrier-based, modern, super sonic, relatively simple to fly and fight in. That might be his thing.
That’s why I am a bit sad that the C-101 isn’t available on Steam yet (he is a Steam user), I would have loved to show him how to fly in a western trainer jet. But the L-39 will do I guess.
The A-4 is perfect then. The flight model is a lot more forgiving than the L-39 or Su-25T, there aren’t a ton of key presses to remember, it carries a lot of bombs and rockets, no funky HUD to worry about, the cockpit is English, and it’s a lot closer to the Turkey than the Bug is.
It’s ridiculously simple and costs nothing. The hardest part is probably just selecting weapons and stations from the weapons panel.