I disagree! I use them to soak up missiles aimed at me! hey are good at that! 
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Just a thought.
Just like during Mi-8 Hip Month, we are starting to “discover” issues that are a bit beyond the manuals and YT tutorials.
What if, in a couple weeks time, we compiled them and shot off a short list to the developers from Mudspike - nothing too demanding just a nice, “We really like the jet!” and “We were wondering, how much does setting the doppler NAV system to SEA with overwater flights? What about coastal areas?” Thoughts?
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Love that idea. My jedi boy and his trusty little droid are about to revisit the wookee planet. Once I’m done with that game imma catch up with you guys.
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I’m reading through Chuck’s navigation training exercise for the waypoints and TILS - looks great, ticks off a number of boxes. I’ll recreate that soon and get comfortable with the various ways to add / alter waypoints.
I am sure this stuff will become second nature soon enough, but I haven’t really used flight computers and awful lot before so it is a bit of a learning curve…and some nights I only have concentration left to do a bombing / rocket run rather than bend my brain to the nav stuff. 
The one-pass-haul-ass nature of this aircraft and the way it forces you to pre-plan your flight is something quite different and cool. In DCS, especially PVM MP servers, I often take off with no particular plan and loiter around enemy targets at leisure…I think the Viggen kind of teaches me to be more purposeful and think in a mission-centric way.
Also, that’s some sharp pop-up footage, @MBot! Nice work.
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I feel the same @Bearhedge, the focused attack run and scarper back to base thing is really cool. I’m enjoying the planning side of it. I do the same in the other planes, take off in a bug, maybe have one or 2 targets in mind and then loiter for targets of opportunity till Winchester and then back to base.
This whole mach 1 at 50 ft and pop up attack is new to me, but I really like it.
@MBot’s short videos were super helpful above to get me to visualise the attack run. The pop up and roll into the target to identify it super easy once you have it set up in your mind. This is a seriously cool aircraft and I’m only scratching the surface so far. Its actually fast becoming a favourite aircraft, I’m looking forward to getting an hour or 2 in single player to run through some missions and the campaigns
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It also depends a lot on what air defense systems you are facing. I tend to concentrate on the Cold War era so am using SA-6, SA-8 and Shilka. While these are deadly systems when they engage, they have a 30-60 seconds reaction time which provides a window for a pop-up attack. Once you are facing SA-15 and Tunguska with their nearly instantaneous reaction time, that window is gone. I think the widespread equipment of the Soviet army with these systems in the late 80s/90s would have put an end to the whole low level attack business. In reality this never happened as the Soviet army ceased to exist. Low level attack was still discontinued, but for other reasons (suddenly the medium and high altitudes became safe to use).
As for IR guided systems such as MANPADS and SA-13, these have such quick reaction times in DCS that they can’t be avoided. Continuous flare expenditure is a must during the attack. Combined with speed and maneuvering, these will protect from most IR SAMs which will be launched at you.
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Pretty much impossible reaction times - even with a MANPAD it takes a bit to grab it, put it on your shoulder (inset the battery if an SA-18), find the target, elevate and shoot…call it 30 seconds minimum.
I’ve been working with trigger zones centered on a SAM. When an opposite coalition aircraft enters the zone, it trips the SAM ROE from Weapons Hold to Weapons Free. After that, it launches pretty quickly. Each SAM type, terrain and kind of attack would factor into reaction time so it is an iterative process to set the radius of the zone to the “correct” size - and it is more conjecture as to what “feels right” in a given circumstance.
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I am falling behind on my Viggen time already! Love reading all of the info and action here, though!
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I did think the other day that while the GOTHQ routine has been amazing in that I’ve already added 2 birds to my repertoire, it does take quite a bit of commitment to fully get across an aircraft in a month - and I thought about skipping next month.
But then I thought, even if some months all you do is follow the thread and go through a few cold starts and patterns, that still makes it easier to pick up that bird later down the line So far it’s working brilliantly for me - I’ve managed to overcome my oft-experienced reluctance to learn new procedures on week nights.
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My problem at the moment is that I am still stuck in the Mi-8! Stupid mission editor/lua addiction!
This coming weekend is a long one, and since there is no where else I can go, I can look forward to some Viggen time. The other hurdle for me, at the moment, is learning enough and getting a good enough kneeboard so that I don’t have to keep taking off the VR goggles.
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The hardest part is the codes, what they mean and when to apply them. Apart from that most things are low maintenance, depending on what your doing obviously. But it will come to you. Sticking tooltips on help immensely
I’ve been stuck in BK-90 wingman hell for the last few days. Many months ago I had figured out the correct AI orders to get Mr. Wingman to shoot BK-90s. That doesn’t seem to be working now…nothing seems to be working now. But just plain AI Viggen does work, and fairly easy at that. So I set things up as 2 separate groups, a player group (that would be me) and an AI group of one. I worked out the timing so that we both should be hitting weapons release about the same time.
It works! 
Not only works but is much more fun.
That’s me in the trail position.
The “lead” has just hit the IP and beginning his turn to the attack heading.
He calls his turns (altitude in feet though) which provides more SA than the AI Wingman’s “Roger” calls.
Here we are rushing low over the deck on our final run in…
…at this point I speed up and take the lead so my weapons will be first over the target.
The TID function becomes important to ensure you are getting to the WPs on time. It seems much more like what I think a real mission would feel like.
Yesterday was the tests and practice. Today we do it for real…well…simulated real.
More gratuitous Viggen screen shots.
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Especially for the Viggen I bought a small external bluetooth numpad which I put on the right side in my homepit. I then remapped the CK37 keys to the Numpad. Feels great to punch in the codes like that.
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I am not sure, that truer words, have ever been spoken . I am working with, and soon as I can get my damn passport renewed, for a Game Developer out of Canada on a Southern European Turn Based game from the Cold War days .
It will be titled FlashPoint : Southern Storm . The first offering from the team was Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm .
If I can get my hands on my highly expensive but Valid Passport before the game is finished , and the engine code is just now being completed, I will hopefully be cleared by the Canadian Government quickly to join the team as the Primary In-House Tester for Southern Storm.
Any of you ever dealt with the US Gov in a normal time on getting a Pass Port made or renewed know what I mean, its not something that is very efficient, but what is anymore from any Government, that does not involve them getting their hands on your money anyway.
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I had a personal (blue) and government official (brown) both done in a week - back in 2006 - could be different now.
Ooh I loved that. Played far too little of it. Smart game. Too little time in a week lol.
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Great idea, I get so frustrated with viggen wingmen be nice to be 2nd in flight for a change in SP
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Way different. Three months for me in 2015.
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