So, Pre-order, or is it flying out the barn tomorrow? It would be a very nice surprise if they actually let us fly it tomorrow.
My bad, in my excitement I thought we were talking Harrier here 
.
I honestly think the F/A-18 needs a bit more time in the pressure cooker, considering Wags is waiting for parts of it to finish just to make his videos. I have hopes the AV-8B arrives soon, though.
edit: sniped by the paul himself 
Could mean New Caucasus 2.5 tomorrow? It looks like that’s where the screen was taken.
You all can Russian Cossak Dance around the meaning all you want, but is very clear that THE F-18 IS RELEASING TOMORROW!
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Don’t care a whit about the Harrier…Hornet please ASAP…been waiting on this for years.
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Mini update from Wags*
"Hey everyone, I answer this everyday on FB and YT, but I wanted to provide a little update here as well regarding the next Hornet video (start up). Most of the primary systems we need for an authentic cold start have been completed like electrical, hydraulics, fuel, AMAD/ATS, engines, display groups, and most sounds are done. There are certainly areas though we still plan to improve like the IBIT, DDI/MPACD fonts, cockpit art, and some sounds.
The big item we are still working on, and thus this hold up, has been the caution and warning system. This is a very complex system for the Hornet and the team has now completed most of the coding logic. This week, the team will hook up the display and control of those notices.
Once that has basic functionality is in place, we can move on to the next episode.
Thanks.
Also
"One of the big elements to get the Hornet to the point we can do a comprehensive cold start has been the Built In Test (BIT) system. Although there is still some tuning to do and some of the BIT elements to complete, the general system is now completed and functional with several options including:
AUTO BIT
SELBIT and pressing BIT Group OSBs on the main BIT page
ALL for a selected BIT Group
Selecting individual items on a BIT Group using OSBs 1-5 and 11-15
This brings us one step closer to the next video."
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Lovely cockpit I must say. I hope this year we will see this bird fly in DCS.
Cain’t wait! woooo!
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Another little snippet from Mr Wagner …
"As mentioned earlier, a lot of effort is currently focused on the caution and advisory system. This includes various indicator lights around the cockpit, voice message advisories, and tones. Another element are the advisories that are the displayed in the DDIs with their own set of display logic."
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The Hornet looks great, but frankly it also looks like work. This might be the aircraft where the amount of details prevents me from buying it.
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I sort of agree.
Gimme an F-100!
(or an Intruder with the other guy that actually does the war-work while I fly!)
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Also just looking at it, this looks like an information overload nightmare worse than a MiG-23 cockpit 
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I hope the Hornet follows American cockpit design philosophy and there is some logical flow behind the wide array of instruments.
The russians tend to go like “You see comrade, there was no space for this control so that’s why we put it on a panel on the other side. You will get used to it”
But I agree. Lot’s of study seem to wait for us.
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Ergonomics go a long way to helping with that. I for one am looking forward to the impending helmet fires this module will inspire.
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If you can handle the A-10C, you’ll be able to handle the F/A-18C. Only concern is things develop faster than the 300 knot slow boat, but that’s a sword that cuts both ways.
You need to think ahead, but you can also extricate yourself much faster as well.
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For anyone wondering, there is a new Mini-Update thread at the ED Forum here: Hornet Mini-Updates - DCS: F/A-18C Hornet - ED Forums
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Alright, for the lulz if you’re having trouble making heads from tails.
The Left DDI is showing the FCS display. This basically gives you a semi-graphical representation of what your flight control surfaces are doing and what your Flight Control System (Fly By Wire) is up to.
The Right DDI’s got a lot more going on. This is the STORES page, which is analogous to the DSMS on the A-10C. The center of the image is occupied by a graphical representation of stores currently located on the aircraft (in this case AIM-9Ms on the wing tips, Mk-82 Slicks on 2xMERs loaded on the wing and center stations, and a full load of guns. The cheek pylons are empty).
Let’s move clockwise around the RDDI starting at the top left.The top row of the aircraft are weapons currently available for the selected master mode (in this case the only option is Mk-82s for Air to Ground). If multiple types of weapons were available, they would show along this row, one weapon per button. Once all of each weapon type is expended the button option will disappear.
Along the right side of the DDI is the button for the M61 Cannon’s air to ground gun sight. Next is the step button, which will cycle the selected station between stations currently loaded with the selected weapon. Below that is the UFC button, which allows editing of the currently selected weapons program via the UFC. If you look at the UFC, you can see available options are QTY and MULT. QTY is the number of bombs dropped per pulse, or multiple. MULT is the amount of pulses or multiples. In this case the aircraft will drop a single Mk-82.
The DATA option is sort of arcane for everyday use. When pressed DATA will be boxed (like UFC is currently), and upon pressing the weapons release button, a block of information will appear below the PROG block showing information about the aircraft’s position and orientation at time of release. 0335 is the current time (time zone is configurable) in MMSS format. I dunno what tone does. I image it’s for testing the state of the sidewinder, but again, I dunno. The PROG button will cycle between pre-loaded weapons programs, again, similar to the DSMS in the A-10C. Each weapon can have up to four pre-stored programs, and that information is editable using the UFC button and the information on the left side of the DDI. Current program information is stored in program data block.
DRAG allows the pilot to select either low or high drag configurations for weapons AIR/Snake Eye type weapons. EFUZ and MFUZ have to deal with how the weapon is fuzed for delivery. This is a bit of an arcane science, and so far DCS has not simulated it, so I won’t go into detail. MODE cycles between the available delivery modes for the weapon. For everything that’s not a JDAM or UBER-WUNDERWAFFE-900, this means CCIP, AUTO (think CCRP), MANUAL, and Flight Director (which is a more controlled variant of CCRP).
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Starts reading
…pauses for a minute
starts again
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Thank You!