Well, to your credit, it appears that the boat doesn’t have any of its lights on. You should at least be able to see the extended C/L that runs down the back of the ship.
But other than that…yep it looks like you almost “orphaned” your kids…and no Topgun for you! 
I’ve been messing about with the Supercarrier the last few days and it’s an incredible experience in VR.
Until you start trying to make the deck come alive with AI 
If you haven’t seen this yet, turn shadows, for objects, not terrain, down to Flat, or even Off. I had been on Low and going to flat got me back to close to normal.
I noticed that too. The overly bright cockpit with shadows flat/off really messes with my sense of orientation and movement, but I guess that can’t be helped for the moment.
Last night I turned off the shadows (both) and cockpit lighting. Wow! What a boost!!! Made me stay up later than I wanted to. Worth the improvement.
It would be against all gamer codes to not have that. That first launch made me think. “That sailors been at sea too long” 
Yeah…there is more truth in that than I am willing to admit… 
Forward, forward, aft, aft, left, right, left, right, NWS, Pickle is the code for the dancing shooters.
Article that popped into my news feed
Flying their Battle Ensigns! Very nice!
Excuse my ignorance but which is the battle ensign?
Edit: never mind thankyou Google
Do they have a specific name?
In the US Navy, onboard a US Navy ship, the flag of the United States is called the “Ensign”. In other countries, it is not necessarily the nation’s flag. The UK Royal Navy Ensign is a white flag with the Union Jack in the “canton” - the upper corner on the hoist side. Hence it is sometimes referred to as “the white ensign”
A Battle Ensign is just a very big Ensign.
Back in the days of wooden ships of sail, battles included copious amounts of gun smoke that seriously hampered vision. Plus, let’s face it, the ships looked a lot a like and then you sometimes had a ship that had been captured from an enemy fighting along side your ships…it could be confusing.
So to help avoid some of that confusion, in battle you flew your Battle Ensign …a really, really (really) big Ensign so that everybody in the battle knew which side you were on. The other side did the same.
Now-a-days it is a tradition thing. With missiles and the like, nobody is really looking at visually identifying an enemy combatant in the midst of a battle. However, when the word is passed that your ship has “run up the Battle Ensign” at the beginning of an operation, it is extremely motivating. Heck, I’m getting goose bumps just thinking about it.
I always thought the Battle Ensign was some really brawny dude that had to prove something before he could become an officer… 
I’m still not interested in whatever your selling, even if it’s an order to listen to the sales pitch!
According to page 72 of the latest SC manual, the PLAT camera (AKA LSO Main Screen Window) is supposed to open when you go to the LSO Station with LALT-F9. I can get to the station, which is really cool, but the PLAT camera is AWOL, other than the tiny one on both of the LSO consoles. Has anyone been able to pull it up and if so, what key command are you using? Or are these consoles replacing the “LSO Main Screen”. TIA
Edit: searching the ED forum, members have asked the same question going back as far as May 26. I assume that available resources have bigger fish to fry for the time being.
Holy necropost Batman!
Anyway
Has anyone noticed recently that, in the Hornet, post-launch physics is different between bow and waist cats? Same payloads, same 16NU trim, same weather, carrier speed, roughly same end-speeds, but Cats 1 and 2 will reliably throw me into +13 degrees pitch attitude that makes the clearing turn a little dicey, and increases my ascent so much intercepting that 500AGL departure is tough. Cats 3 and 4 reliably put me at +10 degrees pitch attitude and things are easier to handle.
Wondering if it’s just me.
I use whatever trim setting the FCS sets minus 1 (usually 11 or 12). The Hornet as imagined by ED pitches up quickly when the flaps retract to zero if they are allowed to do so automatically (as in, at a higher speed). So I retract them the instant I clear the deck and get the gear second.
Oh wait. Your question had absolutely nothing to do with flight characteristics. Sorry for not reading fully! But no. I have not noticed the difference between catapults.
Now that the Forrestal is out I’m seeing a major difference. Supercarrier throws me into a high alpha situation while the Forrestal is quite gentle. I’ll need to get some actual values but something’s wonky enough to make it difficult to level off at 500ft after a Supercarrier launch.
