Clara! The ball graphic doesn’t come up for me anymore. It’s possible that it’s associated with Viacom Pro installation, as that is about the time it stopped showing up.
I don’t see the ball listed in the controls list (not referring to ‘Call the ball’, rather a command to show/hide the graphic overlay). I searched for IFOLS and ball; anything else?
It said in the patch notes:
IFLOLS helper visibility fixed
Maybe you have to turn it on now in special options or something. I doubt Viacom would have caused it. Are you on todays update?
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I’m downloading the update now; didn’t see it earlier. Will soon see. Thanks!
Hmm. Something is very wrong. Now the menu keeps flashing on and off…
Can’t even get the wheel chocks removed.
Disabled Viacom and can work with the menu again. Will do some more digging.
Ah, the ol VA/VC flashing menu trick. Seems to do this on every odd update. I can’t recall what fixes it off the top of my head; it’s not just you, if that helps. Sorry.
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Just ran around the patch. The IFLOLS checked out good on my end. All voice commands ops checked good . I did notice VAICOM added around 10 words to the database. But still no “Tomcat Ball” for the kitty drivers.
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WHen I looked you had the option of “Hornet Ball” or “Ball”. But that was a few days ago.
It does help. Thanks. I might reinstall Viacom; I’ll do a little more looking around first.
I’ve bounced between DCS OB and Stable a couple of times and I know I forgot to toggle the release/openbeta switch; maybe that had some unwanted effect.
BTW, I created a custom kneeboard with the kneeboard builder to include the list of Voice commands from the Viacom manual. You may find this helpful.
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I’ll take that too please.
Ah, forgot. Someone u/l’d this somewhere before and, yes, very handy. May have been you? If so, thanks again…
And, on the flashing menu front. I think if you delete your export.lua (YOURNAME\DCS MAIN FOLDER\Scripts) DCS rebuilds it on your next load; VA/VCP re-insert themselves correctly.
Seems it “looses its place” and this resolves it. Or it has in the past. Caution though you may have other add-ons that expect entries in here so make a backup copy first. It’s just a text file.
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It wasn’t me. I just downloaded the Kneeboard maker and created it a few days ago. I’ll include the kneeboard in this post, but you might be better served to check out the utility (it’s free) so you can build whatever kneeboard you like.
Edit: this process does work and is detailed in the DCS user manual, under the heading, “Kneeboard”.
It turns out, all it is is a bunch of png (can also be jpg) files that the sim appends into the pages of the kneeboard.
This zip file contains the pages of the VCP/VA that list the commands available: F/A-18 Kneeboard
To use that, you would create a Kneeboard folder (if it’s not already there) in your DCS saved games directory like this:
Then unzip FA-18C_hornet.zip into the kneeboard folder.
contents of the F-18 folder looks like this:
If you want to do this without downloading the zip file, just create a folder in the Kneeboards folder called “FA-18C_hornet” (or whatever plane you’re customizing the kneeboard for - the name must be the same foldername found in the \Mods\aircraft folder).
With your aircraft folder added to the Kneeboard folder, drop in whatever graphics files you want to see on your kneeboard in flight [Rshift + K].
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Turns out I didn’t need to do anything more that make sure the stable/openbeta switch was in the correct position and just restart everything.
Oh, and also remember to switch between custom directory (which I use for the open beta) and the default install directory.
Something tells me I’m going to forget this again. And again. And…
Yeah, right after I read your previous post I recalled that item too. Too many Moving Parts in all this flight sim stuff 
What if you just say ball?
I’m glad I got the ball back, at any rate. When it’s not there, I fall back on the ILS needles and in close they lead me astray. It was back to cut passes and no grades.
First trap with the ball, though was very nice.
Hopefully, we won’t see any of this anymore:
Wingman would just slide in right in front of me.
Then, he’d get a WO:
I followed him around the pattern in a replay: he flies a, uhh, a pattern with opportunities for improvement.
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Yeah Ball works. What I meant is if you’re flying the Tomcat and want to say Tomcat Ball like Hornet Ball, well it’s not available.
But when I’m flying the Hornet, I think that Jell-0 replies, Roger ball! I’ll try to test when the kids go to bed.
What is it about Jello that gets to me? Dismissing the lack of practice lately, of course
I swear I can see his face, phone stuck into the side of his head with that furrowed brow and impatient look on his face. Then I get the “Wave Off”. Guess I’m a fan
Actually, can’t you add “Tomcat Ball” yourself, in the Keyword editor?
Open VCP
Type: Ball
Click: Add new
The Edit Box will now have “Ball1”
Click just behind the 1 so “Ball1” is no longer highlighted. (If you just type over the highlighted text, VCP will just start an autosearch and you wont be able to add a new keyword)
Now, type: Tomcat Ball, then erase the “Ball1” text in front of it.
Click Apply
Click FINISH and go through the steps of updating your VA profile (a dialog will pop up and guide you through these steps).
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Yeah Goblin that works, easy add. I’m just a little surprised the VAICOM developer didn’t add it to the initial supercarrier release considering the Hornet and Tomcat are the only 2 flyable U.S. naval aircraft in DCS. I suppose if you wanted to land an Su-33 on a supercarrier, we could add “Flanker Ball”. 
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