DCS F-14 Tomcat Launch Impressions MEGATHREAD

After setting up my new joystick I did a few flights with the F-14B

I haven’t tried RIO stuff or weapons yet, but I like how it flies.

Some low level action

My first landing. Went fine.

Tanking left…

…and right. I will need some practice but it worked decenty.

Preparing to land on a boat. I actually forgot to take a screen afterwards, but my first three carrier landings all worked, wires were #4, #3 and #4. Seems… pretty easy actually.

Number of destroyed Tomcats: 0

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But it featured a J 35 Draken, as the bad guy ride, which makes it a really cool movie, after all.

No, it doesn’t. But you know what I mean

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I have to say I love flying the F14. It’s powerful, can get squirrelly, lots of vibrations and buffet. The operation of the wings alone is a marvel, with the variable geomerry wings, slats, flaps and spoilers. It’s far more hands on to fly than the Hornet. Probably why you needed a crew of two to be truly effective.

It’s a masterpiece IMHO. My only negative observation would be that the amazing artwork in the cockpit, which portrays the airplane as being very well used and weathered, makes somee of the switches and placards very hard to read in VR. It would be nice if we could get a second set of clearer switch textures for those of us who need them. It looks absolutely amazing though.

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I very much agree with that Paul - and I think they’ve had a look of feedback that a clean and clearer cockpit textures set would be great for VR. The existing one is a work of art, but it is hard to read. Ironically, I’m just sort of zooming in and now just memorizing a little on what stuff does, like a keyboard with the letters worn off. :slight_smile:

Perhaps when the templates are out we’ll get community cockput reskins anyway, like we did with the Ricardo A-10C etc.

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It isn’t only VR. I play on a Laptop with a 15.4" 1080p monitor, and I regularly have to zoom in to read stuff.
But then… yeah, just going to memorize them. Fortunately by brain works pretty nicely for that. :slight_smile:

I am starting to think it is a combination of things. For sure, my AoA management around the carrier was not great but I was also struggling with FPS (after reviewing the video I recorded).

I am starting to ask too much of this i5 from 5 years ago and my 1070. I have two small monitors behind my MFDs and the extra resolution, plus video recording, plus the heavy mission @near_blind was running was giving my PIO that extra little bit of lag :slight_smile:

It may be time for me to consider upgrading, because I can’t bring myself to reduce the number of toys that I have :slight_smile:

Yeah, that warning systems test rotary labeling is hard to read even in non-VR…

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That’s indeed the hardest one. Even zoomed in it is hard to read. :smiley:

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Git gud noobs :wink:

:slight_smile:

In VR without a zoom, it looks a bit like this, but then I know that I typically just need the first two selections on the left at start-up BIT

image

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We’re supposed to find and use the systems blindfolded anyway right?

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I’m sooooo glad that isn’t just me struggling with this

The good news is

  • you only need it during a cold start
  • you don’t have to remember all of them (a normal cold start will only use 1,2,and 3, and even in that order IIRC)
  • most people won’t use it a lot anyway I guess. :smiley:
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Good points. Once you are familiar with the cockpit layout it becomes a simple flow, and as mentioned, many switches really only come into play during a cold start (if you want to go through every check). Personally, when my life doesn’t depend on it (ie when I’m not flying a real airplane and I know the system will definitely be functioning correctly), I am all for an abbreviated start up. It then can become a simple ‘flow’. Some stuff though, I need to be able to read. :wink:

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I wish i could flip those switches on the right front console physically :slight_smile: I love that panel, with those chunky switches setting all the stuff so right.

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I’m personally of the opinion that worn pits should be optional. Just got a wonderful factory fresh pit for my Farmer and I love it. Even if it’s in Russian I can live w it. Facehuggers have our own set of problems…

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Honestly, what I’d like to see is the ability to hold/click and have tool tips pop up for everything in the general vicinity of the pointer/field of view. Kind of like the way some point and click games let you press a key to get highlights/tooltips of objects that can be interacted with.

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Funny, I am happiest with the filthy Russian farmer pit. I would like a clean kitty just for learning tho.

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I need a Tomcat pit that is all icons and pictures…like a Denny’s menu. Becaws I am uh derp pilot…

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Btw I solved my button problem by searching for my old VoiceAttack activation code and reinstalling the software.
I made myself a small profile, including

  • all F keys (I literally say “Eff zwölf” and such things because the speech engine of my Windows is of course made for recognizing German) so I can control radio stuff and views.
  • Ground power on and off
  • Ground air on and off
  • Hook to catapult
  • Salute
  • Pause
  • Jester “Check” and “Loud and clear” commands
  • Eject

Not many buttons to press there now.
Works fine so far. :slight_smile:

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The power of a single mark changed event handler and three loops checking wind conditions every five minutes have been known to smite even the heftiest of rigs…

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