Very cool! I last night I was wondering how the F-18 would tank. I figured S-3s…no? The KC-135 can be configured for probe & drouge, but it is not a favorite for Navy pilots. In fact we used to call it “the wrecking ball” for its tendency to swing widely and knock into nose cones, canopies, etc.
Still, I wonder if that is something that could easily be added to DCS World since the models-plane and drouge-are already modeled.
BTW, somewhere on the internet there should be a copy of an email from an FA-18 driver who had his canopy smashed by the wrecking ball while returning fro Afghanistan…a good read😎
Clearly, we need the super bug with buddy pod configuration!
Actually, if we’re doing big tankers, I’d probably just pick the KC-10 and call it good. I did the above because I was playing around with missile effectiveness vs the bug and ended up doing a bug vs bug gunfight. Thought about whether or not I could refuel from a IL78 and the above was the result!
Oh…not having a air-refuelable aircraft I never looked - back in LOMAC I don’t think they had that (I just dated myself)…and I forgot about the KC-130s.
And how do you mean you “dated yourself” ? Surely you didn’t mean people think you are old because you flew LOMAC? I also flew a lot of LOMAC, back before Flaming Cliffs, and I’m less than 25 years old.
And some formation flying with the Black Veal Squadron (this is our Longhorn desert paint scheme). Canopy names have been blurred to protect the guilty.
Correct back in LOMAC all you had was a KC-10 (shouldn’t have taken it out of the game) S-3 and IL78 for refuelers. Now you have both probe and drogue KC-135’s filling the KC-10 spot.
I too love flying this aircraft and really like the IRIAF paint schemes! Plus flying in the IRIAF gives you opportunities for many mission ideas (without going political) based on missions the IRIAF flew in the Iran-Iraq War.
So I went going about some mission development…with an eye towards an IRIAF campaign…
A couple of buddies of mine are KC-135 pilots, and they love telling stories about poor Navy pilots who has difficulty on the boom - mounted drogue, and would ask the boom operator to “lock” the boom.
The hose is too short and at the end of the flying boom which moves around differently from the tanker. I could go into how something like that can set up wierd harmonics…but I’m pretty sure that it involves differential equations…which most pilots, USN and USAF, have trouble solving, “on the fly”, as it were.
Yes, some really good paint schemes have been put forth regarding Iranian TO&Es. I would imagine it will get even better when the Iranian Assets Pack comes out. I have an older World Air Forces reference book that I use in mission creation and they do list the Chinese F-7 as the aircraft of several Iranian squadrons.
Every time I purchase a module from DCS, I always take a trip to the bookstore and get what-ever I can written about that particular aircraft. One, to learn about the aircraft I’m flying online and two, to give me ideas for missions to work on in the editor. I have been getting the urge to learn and fly the F-5E III and actually have a book written about the Iranian F-5E’s that fought against Iraq in the Iraq-Iran war. That ought to give me some ideas regarding missions.
LOL! You have to have imagination to begin with just to play DCS. Looking forward to those “Untold Stories.”
eBay is a great source. My wife got me actual AA 707, 727, Dc-10, and Eastern 727 manuals. She also got me an airliner pilot’s seat which makes simming even more fun.
I mean, the KC-10 basket can do (has done) it just as bad if you jack it up.
It was definitely a relief to find that your tankers in country were a mix of KC-10s, KC-30, A310, or the 135 configured with wingtip MPR pods. Right up until one of them falls out and you get read amends airborne for a surprise 135 night plug.