9 Likes
I think I am slowly getting a grip on how to land this thing:
The key is trim trim trim and very tiny throttle adjustments
7 Likes
Me as well. All my landings today, Jester said they’re as sweet as PB&J 
Also slowly getting the hang of blasting fools with sparrows. Not easy, but seeing that big fokker guide to smash a bish up is a fun time!
3 Likes
Landings for me are still chaotic and fast, Jester has the chiropractor on speed dial. Modern tech has really spoiled me with HUDS and stuff.
As for A/A, about to get in to that. 1 thing I keep thinking about is this might be the first Blue jet with radar missiles and no Look down shoot down. Did see this video though they may help with those MIGs at tree top
I think Gabby Drake said the AIM-7 has like a 10% to 25% PK and they would fire them in pairs.
They didnt call it the Great white hope for nothing…
9 Likes
I did my first good landing the other night, and Jester cussed me out about having to tell the crew chief we broke the jet?! 
(I think it was because I had the anti-skid set off, so technically didn’t complete the before-landing checklist)
2 Likes
Reflected’s landing tutorial helped me a ton with my landings, I highly recommend you watch it if your landings give you trouble. The F-4 wants to be flown by the numbers, then it’s happy.
Quick summary of the most important points:
- Don’t go to idle in the break, keep at least 80% RPM, use the speed brake if necessary.
- Once on downwind extend gear at 240kn, flaps at 220kn then trim for level flight at ~180kn
- keep a speed of around 180 throught the base leg at 30° AoB
- once on final trim for on-speed AoA and then use tiny throttle adjustments to manage descent rate as well as trim to keep on-speed AoA. The fuel flow is a much better reference than engine RPM since the adjustments need to be so small.
- just before touch down pull slightly beyond on-speed AoA to flare and it lands quite nicely
8 Likes
Just ordered Palace Cobra and his other book on flying the thud
5 Likes
Good choice!
2 Likes
Also bought two audiobooks by Cobleigh also about flying in Vietnam. As it takes an hour to get to the sim I have started to listen to an audiobook on the journey
2 Likes
I can’t tell if my landings got better from practice or because I tried setting flaps to “down and out” instead of “out” but something improved.
Which brings me to the flap switch. I can’t make sense of it no matter how many times I read the HB manual and the TO -1. “Down and out” and “Out” appear to be the same with gear down. “Norm” and “Out” appear to be the same with gear up in DCS, but the -1 says the slats should be out in this config.
Takeoff settings in particular I don’t understand. The -1 says “slats out flaps down position” is recommended, but that could be achieved by either “Out” or “Out and down.” Which setting are you guys using?
I also keep getting the gear failing to deploy. Takeoff with flaps switch “out,” gear up before 250kts. Do some canyon runs, come back for an overhead break. Drop the landing gear lever below 250kts, lollipop doesn’t illuminate, gear indicated UP. Press G again, lever does NOT move, lollipop illuminates, gear comes out. Weird.
1 Like
Cobleigh’s War for the Hell of It is a good read/listen, but IMHO, the absolute best book about Vietnam air combat in the Phantom is this. Take four minutes and listen to the Audible sample with his description of his first combat mission. There’s the range method and what works in combat it seems.
I’ve listened to this book at least four times or more. Time to queue it up again.
Edit: deleted due to incorrect procedure given. Thanks @miRage!
2 Likes
the dive toss bombing is not bad … especially when you use a full load of CBU’s 
( and I managed to get sound with this video)
8 Likes
I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that!
3 Likes
Bravo Zulu Lee! Right on the money!
This afternoon, I couldn’t get DT to work with clusters. Gotta try again, because kentucky windage did not suffice for the 87s.
2 Likes
also been messing about with the Hobo tv guided bomb … they are fantastic for taking out bridges
2 Likes
I also tried DT this afternoon with no success. Not sure what I did wrong, following Spuds tutorial
1 Like
I obviously had trouble with it at Groom Lake killing most of the non-combatants with my pee pee poor bombing. So, went back bombing school to try to determine what I was doing wrong. I had all of the pieces correct except for the bombing calculator part. The WRCS only needs the drag coefficient for success, but… I was missing a step. I’d click the drop-down box to select DT and Mk82s and thought that I was done. But, until you add one of the other parameters, the drag coefficient will not auto populate. What you enter doesn’t matter, but just be sure that the drag coefficient is generated before you send to Jester.
Don’t bother with the Pattern section at the bottom of the calculator. Every time I completed this section, the bombs hit right or left. But get the bomb coefficient correct and you’ll hit the bullseye.
2 Likes
For me it’s pretty straight forward. It might be confusing that the same lever controls two different things
Flaps:
- Norm means Flaps up
- Out means Flaps stop (When they are up, you can put it in Out & Down for a few seconds and then return to the “out” position for some in between flaps settings. Works from both directions.)
- Out & Down means Flaps down
Flaps are automatically retracted above 220 kt
Slats:
- Norm means Auto-Deployed at high AoA only
- Out means always deployed
- Out & Down means always deployed (same as middle position)
Slats are auto retracted around 600 kts
The middle position “Out” might be useful in situation were AoA scheduled slats might be oscilating (maybe a slow tanker or formation flying?). Also for situation where you don’t want to use full flaps (asymetric flap due to damage?)
“Out & Down” is for takeoff/landing.
“Norm” is for normal flight.
1 Like
Who has already tried a landing from the back seat? Now that is wild 
4 Likes
Can you use the TGP or Mavericks to get a better view?
1 Like