Wouldn’t the wings be in oversweep lol
YKC! (You know Correctly) 
- when I was in VF-32, I remember seeing that and asking the question - “a hydraulic thing” was the answer. I think full open was the hydraulics off position…don’t quote me on that.
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Speaking of lost tails…on the Hip…
So I’m reading Chuck’s Guide for the Mi-8, page 47, hovering take off and I run into a little gem of info. The max hovering TO weight chart assumes calm winds, 93% main rotor speed, disengaged PZU and disengaged engine anti-ice. [Emphasis mine]
When you set a mission in the ME to an engines on start, it takes into account the FAT and sets engine anti-ice on if it is cold. Likewise, the PZU defaults too on. Fortunately Chuck also provides the weight deduction for these conditions.
What does this have to do with broken tails? I have been trying to land with these systems on. I’m betting I’ll get more power margin with those two systems off on landing.…maybe. Thanks @Chuck_Owl!
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Nope, the IRIAF doesn’t always use the oversweep.
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Nevada F-14 free flight mission, landing at Nellis. AH-64Ds were hogging the taxiway and worst of all, were driving on the wrong side! 
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Couple of shots from @Franze and @Wes trying to help me not die instantly
Join up for Spring Sting 2 so you to can take screen shots like this!
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great fun tonight with my Mi-8
messed around with the graphics settings a bit and got a lot better clarity in the cockpit and better performance. I was really REALLY struggling before but now its a bajillion time better.
Gazprom skin was found so i just had to go to the oilfields and see if i could land on one lol
As i was in a multiplayer server occasional magic happens…this was one of those beautiful moments
my excitement is captured in the chat log 
(enough screenshots vic?)
AeroFlot skin and what i like to call “where can i land where i shouldn’t” or “how my tail didnt remove itself”
I wasnt convinced about the whole chopper thing when @schurem MADE me buy it…
im a total and complete convert now…my skill level is improving so so much each flight. i love the thing now
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On Hollo Pointe North tonight with @USMCBEANS and @Wes though I didn’t get any shots (I got a couple from the track but of course it goes off the rails in short order). Once again, Offensive Posture is the mission.
Me, F-14 on CAP:
Wes, F/A-18C on DEAD:
Beans, F/A-18C on DEAD, attack, and later AV-8B:
Tonight was a better result than we’ve had for the past few days, which usually results in a lot of deaths. I probably shouldn’t be doing CAP as I work better in the Harrier, but I’ve been trying to work on missile evasion via kinematic means. AI F-15Cs were running CAP over Gali, so I opted to cover Wes and Beans while running CAP along the west coast. On a technical basis, the Bug offers a bit more in this regard except endurance, speed, and Phoenix capability, especially given the comparatively short distance enemy fighters start showing up at. Still, the Turkey is credible and being able to stay in the air for a long time is handy in this kind of situation.
The battlespace; I was between the carrier group and the coast, F-15Cs were over Gali. They would shortly start engaging Fulcrums after I got my engines started.
When I started my patrol, Wes was just ingressing to attack a SA-11 site and Beans was just returning to the boat to rearm, so I held my position to cover Wes and anything that might come to the fleet. The F-15Cs handled most of the Fulcrums that got sent up as they were very eager to head toward Gali, only later changing their minds. Around the time that Wes made his third HARM attack, the F-15s weren’t in a good position to engage so I selected my Phoenixes and acquired one flying high, which I assumed was going to Wes. I couldn’t find the second one, so used STT to acquire the high one and lobbed a Phoenix from ~35 miles. Around the time he spiked Wes, my missile went active and shortly after splashed him; that was when the second one acquired me and launched a Alamo. Knowing chaff wouldn’t work, I turned cold and hit my burners, hoping to lead him to the fleet’s defense network. He didn’t want to play that game, so I turned back and acquired him in horizontal acquisition mode (vertical doesn’t work well). He was heading for Sukhumi by this point and the Hawk SAM was firing on him, causing him to turn away and fly right to me – at 7 miles I fired a Sparrow which went right into his face. Score two!
After this, I went back to my position east of the fleet to continue my patrol and cover Beans; Wes had finished up with his HARMs and was going back to the boat, while Beans was setting up to do a bomb run. He attacks the red FARP but a MANPADS ruins his day, so he switches to one of the Harriers at the our own FARP to better run ground attack. Unfortunately, by this point, two Fulcrums have come up and the F-15s apparently have trouble dealing with them – there’s a whole gaggle of contacts on my TID and I don’t want to lob a Phoenix into that mess, so I tell Chester to lock up an enemy and select Sparrow. I catch a MiG running fairly high and at 22 miles, flooring it hard and fast for the tankers! I fire a Sparrow, knowing fairly certain it’s got a good chance of hitting. Alas, Chester, being the smart cookie he is, opts to switch to Pulse STT at 15 miles and we immediately lose lock. I quickly cue up the horizontal search mode and press the boresight button, locking onto chaff a couple times before I finally get a lock on him and fire another Sparrow – fortunately at the closure rate and distance, it splashes him easy. Throughout all this, I lost track of the other Fulcrum, so I don’t know if he caught a SAM or the F-15s got him.
At this point, I’m down to a Phoenix and a pair of Sidewinders with ~9000lbs of gas, so I opt to hit Texaco (KC-135MPRS). While there, I get reports of further contacts and I’m not sure what they are, plus the F-15s are apparently not on patrol any longer, having run out of gas and are heading to the tanker. I get to about 13,000lbs and break off, preparing for further contacts over Gali, but upon tuning in find out it’s just a pair of Hinds. D’oh! I select the gun and close in on the one nearest our FARP, but the Linebackers and Avengers there chase him off. I prepare for a gun pass when he takes a Stinger to the butt, sending him crashing down, so I look for the other and see friendly tracer fire from the ground. I close in and fire 300 gun rounds, taking his tail right off – real close, I thought for sure I was going to collide with the tail and him, but I manage to duck right under and pull up with no damage. I get back up and Wes is on ingress, to which I inform him I only have limited stores to cover him with. Sure enough, Fulcrums start to come up and I look for them on radar, only able to get one. I opt to use TWS mode with the Phoenix, but midway through I lose track so it looks like my shot might not be good. Fortunately, it goes active and occupies my target, allowing Wes to focus on the other one. My Phoenix goes true and blows the MiG to tiny bits! Whew! Wes bags the other with a Sparrow and I opt to head back to the boat at this point – hard to do CAP with only a pair of Sidewinders.
Wes was packing JDAM this time around and he takes out Kolkhi’s runway and tower, stopping more Fulcrums from taking off. Things are lookin’ good! Unfortunately, things are cut short by the announcement of Flankers. I hesitate for a moment here as the F-15s aren’t in a good position (they’ve stayed out of the engagement since returning from the tanker) and I don’t have the weapons to really tangle with Flankers, but if I don’t do anything they’ll just fly right over Sukhumi and wreck our tankers. I opt to try to run a picket over Sukhumi and hope that the Hawk is up to task as the Flankers come full blast toward me. The F-15s are shot down in quick succession and I see the Hawk firing like mad on one of the Flankers – leaving the other coming after me! Before I know it, a missile launch warning sounds and I immediately turn cold, trying to get low so the Flanker will be exposed to the Stingers around Sukhumi. Around this point, the Hawk finally gets lucky and bags one Flanker, so I hope that it turns its attention to the surviving one. No, apparently if you’re a Hawk operator, downing an aircraft means it’s time to sit back for a 15 minute break and some beer – let the flyboys deal with anything else!
So now I’m left in a position of how to get my Sidewinders into this angry Flanker, who I’m certain is going to go for me. I make a southbound loop, ducking down to 10,000ft, then come up to fire at him on the nose, but instead he ignores me – he’s got his eyes on Texaco! I get a good lock with my Sidewinder and fire one, then notice I forgot to hit the beam lock so lock up the second one and fire it. Both go stupid for flares! Figures. I haul around and hit my burners; all I got left now is my gun. I know if he gets his nose onto me it’s all over, so I focus on trying to stay with him, but it’s no use – the AI has turned on its warp drive and is full blast ahead of me. Texaco eats a R-27ET after dodging an R-27ER. Damn it! Now I’m in some serious trouble, because this Flanker has altitude and speed over me, then a quick glance at my fuel gauge points to even worse: 5200lbs and dropping fast. My CAP mission is falling to pieces and despite the reduced weight and drag, I just can’t catch Mr. Sulu’s customized Flanker. I throttle back when he starts going for the fleet, presumably to attack the S-3 recovery tanker. If he does that, the destroyers will wreck him in short order, so I can afford to be patient. Well, Mr. Sulu apparently had other plans and does a sharp 9G turn around, 5 miles in front of me – I figure this is it! Then all of the sudden a missile comes off his rails and I think it’s coming for me, but it arcs right on past me when I realize it’s another Alamo. The hell? Alamos aren’t HOBS… The missile is going for Arco, the boom tanker! Back into burner I go, hoping that I can catch him in a turn, but he once again pulls ahead of me. His Alamo misses Arco and he shifts his attention to Sukhumi where I hope he’ll catch a Stinger, but he jerks the stick around right at the last moment. No, you slippery little $$&#&@! Eat lead! I get a nice deflection going, put the pipper on his nose, and spray rounds through him. I think it look like a bad shot at first, but I’m rewarded with his port wing coming off and Mr. Sulu ejecting. Must’ve lost his warp core.
At this point, I start heading back to the boat, when midway through a little reminder pops up in my head: hey, I had 5200lbs of gas when I last checked, what am I now? 1800lbs… Wait… I’m 50nmi from the boat and 50nmi from the coast. Shoot. I coast at about 250kts, 15,000ft, keeping the throttle as low as possible, and fortunately by the time I can see the boat I’m at 1300lbs – I would have hit the S-3 tanker but he was out of gas too, in addition to opting for going to Sukhumi rather than the boat. I figure I got one pass to catch a wire, so I do a sloppy straight in approach which results having to hit the brakes and spoilers in a big way in order to slow down. I get a decent lineup and manage to catch the two wire in a somewhat sloppy landing, but we’re back on the boat. Final gas reading: 1100lbs. Close! If only I’d gotten more gas earlier instead of panicking over what turned out to be helicopters…
The remainder isn’t quite as exciting as this first sortie: Wes went out and hit Kutaisi runway, stopping the Flankers cold, while finishing off a couple more Gadflies. I switch to air-ground on the next sortie, grabbing Mk20s and help out at Gali, destroying a couple of incoming Red columns and then using my gun on some light vehicles. By the time I get back to the boat, we’ve secured Gali and have achieved one goal.
Total tally: 4 Fulcrums, 1 Flanker, and 1 Hind. Unfortunately, having lost one KC-135, I don’t feel as if my mission was a resounding success. Both Wes and Beans lost aircraft, rubbing a little extra salt in that wound. Still, compared to the previous nights, we improved ourselves quite a bit. In particular, I can say that one must act decisively when the AI is employing radar guided weapons, because they will not miss if you’re within the kinematic envelope. Chaff and ECM are absolutely unreliable when dealing with AI missiles, so forcing the missile to bleed energy is the only way out. In particular, I’ve quit trying to lock onto my aggressor to fire a shot after he’s fired his; his missile must be defeated first, because even if he breaks lock, it will home in on you.
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Tons of fun. I hopped on to practice with the F/A-18 and HARMs. Once you guys showed up it gave me the opportunity to use SRS for the first time (love it) and coordinate targets. Mostly I was doing a good job of getting the enemy to deplete their MANPADs and SAMs. Although I did manage to shoot down a MiG-29 and SU-27 with the Harrier. I’m embarrassed for those pilots. Although, pushing the nozzles down and yanking back on the stick results in the enemy AI basically stalling in a vain attempt to match speed and stay on my six. Easy pickings then.
Also don’t feel bad about your CAP. I didn’t get shot down by a single fighter. I did get shot down by a friendly stinger while I was attacking a Hind and I did smack a tree while trying to terrain mask myself while fleeing from the MiGs. But that is on me. And the tree.
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From my second airfield attack - those JDAMs are fantastic. Lobbed them into the SA-11 coverage zone then bugged out, was able to hit 50,000ft too!
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Oooh this gives me an idea!
Zoom climb competition! Screenshot of highest altitude… Any guesses to which plane wins? If everyone sets 1013 QNH we at least make it some sort of fair game.
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I’m in!
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My old screenshot back from when I still flew Steam version. MIG-29 at 96k+ ft.
Also here’s one from Su-27, sadly there’s no evidence of how high it was, but if I remember correctly it was easilly more than 100 000 ft.
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Air starts don’t count! 
Just kidding - good stuff!
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I always start from the ground, on the other hand sending AMRAAM from under a wing IS technically an air start
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That earth curvature pic is stunning
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