Was too busy flying to get anything good enough for the screenshot thread.
She may not like pushing past the transonic, but the Bug will absolutely play right up to it. This is with 8x Mk-83s, on the deck, mil thrust.
Knowing your fuel state is going to become less a life skill and more a fetishistic obsession. The tanker was in an awkward spot and I figured I had enough to just jam it on the boat. One Bolter later and I’m landing with 230 lbs of gas. (these things usually have an accuracy of ± a couple hundred pounds). The FPAS page can’t come soon enough.
Overall it’s rougher around the edges than I anticipated, but it’s one hell of a platform to build from. The jet is beautiful, the radar is the most impressive sensor I’ve seen in any sim, bar none. The Powered Approach ¶ mode of the FCS is quite simply unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in a sim. I’ve grown cocky after years of FSX, Xplane and P3D. This jet wasted no time setting me right in my place (said place being the ramp). You will follow the IFLOLs and you will mind your throttle if you want to be successful.
ACM will take some getting used to. Years of the Eagle have taught me to enter the fight fast, and the Hornet’s FCS and engines simply don’t appreciate that. The -402s put out a enough thrust that above 400 knots the jet will happily maintain a 7G turn without bleeding airspeed: but that turn will be the size of Missouri. I’ll need to find some EM charts to form a cogent strategy, but the jet seems to appreciate the area around M .73 more.
There are some blemishes. The more data intensive DDI pages will sometimes wonk out. The store’s system doesn’t seem to update when you load new or different weapons after start up (they appear on the wing plan form, but aren’t selectable via the top DDI row). I’m going to have to look at the manual to see if some of the things the radar is doing is right.
But those are relatively minor. This is a spring board for great things in DCS, I haven’t been this enamored with the possibility since I picked up the A-10 back in 2011.
also real talk, is there a way to turn off that gosh darned moving map? The lack of contrast is killing me.