Part One: A Story
So keeping in with our recent WWII discussions - this one is for @BeachAV8R. Having taken off with my Spitfire, I promptly put the throttle to the firewall to get myself speeding along to the AO. Well, I didn't make it much further than having gone wheels up as a few moments later my engine lost most of its power and then continued to lose power until I was essentially a glider with a powered spinner on the nose. Having no nearby fields large enough to land in, my only hope was to stall into a belly landing and hope for the best. I managed to slow down, but still being heavy from takeoff I didn't make it to my intended field and instead fell short into a tree. Usually an instant death by fiery explosion, I simply snapped off a bit of wing and fell to the ground below with a bit of a fire from the broken wing. It was like flying a beginner's RC plane into a large tree.Part Two: Semi- Pointless Techniques
The other night I decided to try some different techniques to make flying the A-10C a bit more fun again without going crazy with the guided munitions. This first screenshot outlines a nice feature of night flying - using the IR pointer of the TGP along with the NVG to give yourself a pointer for a CCIP bombing attack. You also have the SPI marker, which is quite useful.
This also works in combination with a key feature tucked away in the IFFCC menu, which can allow or disallow other HUD symbology from overlaying the CCIP pipper. By default, the CCIP pipper overrides any other symbol by creating a box that clears any other symbols from appearing. This can be a bit of a pain when trying to place it over a SPI, which at night or low light - is a target you can’t pick out by eye. With the default occlusion, the SPI marker disappears, so your final aim is somewhat blind when the target cannot be discerned.
Turning off the occlusion fixes this but does not apply to the gun pipper in GUN master mode. However it does apply to the gun pipper in CCIP master mode, making the same low-light and night conditions a breeze for gun strafing. You can see that ease of use in the image above. Setting the HUD to the Orange Night mode is also helpful.