DCS F/A-18C (Open Beta) Initial Impressions AAR

I just remembered vaguely seeing something about catapult trim being set by gross weight, as that rotary seems to set stab 12 regardless of weight. I might have dreamt it though, especially as I can’t find it again. No worries! :slight_smile:

I’ve seen enough people mentioned it that I’m less convinced I’m correct. If you find it, let us know!

EDIT1: Nothing in the ED manual. I’ll use the mighty CTRL-F on NATOPs when I get home.

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Excellent idea - got it. https://info.publicintelligence.net/F18-ABCD-000.pdf

Page III-8-5

Now I’m fairly sure I’ve never read the entire thing, but sort of recognize that table at the top. :thinking:

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Yeah…it would be kind of cool to have a “pop up” IFLOLS view.

Indeed. The sounds are just awesome. Coupled with the new bomb effects we got with World 2.5 and things are looking fantastic. And the ocean…just looks awesome.

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Can’t comment on the Hornet’s flight characteristics, or avionics, as I’m no expert, but this was money
well spent!

The PG terrain is superb. You can feel the heat of the dessert while sitting on the runway, and the
water effects are so believable.

Flying the Hornet off the carrier is a rush waiting for the catapult to go off. And the Hornet’s detail…
Been waiting for this sine Jane’s F/A-18.

Great job ED/DCS. Hope it doesn’t take “years” to finish.

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Finally got the performance back to where it is playable in VR again, and tried the Hornet.
I really like it! Looks really nice in VR. The HUD is very easy to read in VR! Good job there!
Other details are of course harder to read, but zooming or leaning in works. And the cockpit layout is really intuitive, which makes it easy to remember which switch does what. :slight_smile:

As other have commented, you need to mind your speed in the pattern. Surprisingly easy to fly the AoA, I think.
Setting half flap causes a very abrupt pitch down, which I find a bit strange, especially on a FBW aircraft. I’m guessing it will be tweaked. Or does it behave like that IRL?

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I have never flown an f-18, so don’t know. But an a320, even though fbw will upon selection of flap 2 experience a huge “balloon” in vertical speed. You can be descending at -500 ft per minute and momentarily see +300 ft per minute on configuration change.

So, not knowing if the f18 half flaps pitch down is real or not, in my mind its in the realm of possible.

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I think it’s the pitch down effect that is confusing people mostly given how FBW the aircraft is overall. I would expect ballooning no matter what. Although perhaps that is exactly what the FBW system is trying to counter.

Absolutely plausible.
I just didn’t expect it to pitch down that hard and fast.

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Its Love at first flight. MiGs 21 Ai is Super fun to fight against.

As a real DCS fan I have to find something to complain about…

It makes the F-15 feel like a dog… THERE, I found something.

Congratulations to Wags and the ED team. This is a Home Run way over the fence and the crowd is going WILD. Thanks ED!!!

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Keep high and fast and your eagle should eat bugs all day long. Just be patient, the bugs need a little time to expend their precious little energy.

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Wags has said they are investigating the flaps issue, apparently it is not supposed to be doing that.

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Curious what your settings are - and are we still using Oculus Tray Tool and ASW in concert with DCS World?

For those of you guys using the TM Warthog, how are you setting up your flaps in the Hornet? Are you putting them on the flap switch and how are you handling the “auto” position which I’m assuming would be the middle position on the 3 position switch? I can only seem to map full up and full down…

I’ll check and get back to you on that.

I haven’t installed OTT on my new PC…yet. Not sure I will, as DCS has its own PD setting, and I can just use the ctrl-NP1-4 to handle ASW. I am using ASW. I managed to set DCS up so I almost never hit ASW, but that’s just not possible with the latest version. But that’s how these things go. One update giveth, and another update taketh away :wink:

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In your key bindings screen theres flaps up, flaps down and flaps up or half and flaps down or half. These are tailored for the warthog flaps switch.

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Might be sacreligous, but I just use F shift F and Ctrl F for the flaps. If you have to take your hand off the controls to manipulate something in the real plane, I don’t mind mapping the keyboard.

I have a trackball on my left side when I’m flying, so I can use either hand to manipulate stuff in the cockpit.

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A very valuable skill indeed!

Short report from me:

  • Number of successful aerial refuelings: 3 (but very hard to do with my crappy joystick despite curves 30)
  • Number of successful landings: 10
  • Number of successful carrier landings: 1 (not very good at that yet but I always err on the safe side)
  • Number of Hornets destroyed: 0 (!!!) (although I came close a few time, at low speed mainly)

Haven’t tried weapons yet. I have worked through the basic lessons and I am doing some nav training and a lot of landings for now.

I hope the MPCD contrast is fixed soon, that’s pretty annoying

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