One Aircraft a Month

Hi,
Just wanted to share a bit. I’m mostly an offline player. I was getting too flighty going from one module to the next. Then when something new came out I was so distracted. Last month I finnally settled down and took a month to fly ONLY A-10C. I learned things I been wanting to learn for years. Now I can ripple Mavericks and make CCRP drops. I can shoot straight. Sort of…
Instead of a day in the Wathog an hour in the Viper, then jump to a war bird…That was no good for me. I was never learning any one bird.
I’m happier now w my hubby. I am planning Hornet month soon. So much to learn in that module. On others i could maybe shorten my time blocks. I.e. the warbirds dont take 30 days to learn. But I feel this is a much better way to focus on aircraft. February is JF-17 month. Perhaps I’ll wear something green and eat some lamb. I’m really enjoying the PAF fighter.

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I think that’s a great idea @Maico

With the complexity of the modules I completely agree that a month is needed. I can pretty much cold start all modules now but I think to actually learn the systems and quirks properly you have to dedicate yourself to one fully for a while. I noticed this at Christmas when I was lucky enough to purchase All the Migs and the yak52. I really had to sit down and focus on the mig 19 and once I did I had a lot more fun and found an aircraft I really enjoy flying. I’m currently learning the hornet now a friend has bought it as well to fly together so I’m solely focused on that for the next few weeks at least …then its mig 21 time and I’m very much looking forward to it

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It’s a really a brilliant idea! :smiley:

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Yeah. I need something like this. We have a Paradox of Choice - almost too many options (I would never argue that developers stop, of course). Whenever I settle down to play something in the evening, I spend the tire arguing with myself over that it is I want to do … and then do nothing :slight_smile:

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This is my problem as well. I really have found this to be the ruin of a lot of my spare time. Structure definitely helps me focus lol

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I was fortunate in the A10 and BS1 as that was all we had to fly, although I have not kept up with flying the KA50 I can still do everything in the A10-C
I gave up learning the Mig21 as it was difficult and I got fairly competent with the F5 and Viggen I never mastered either.
I have also mastered both the Huey and Hip and have several hundred virtual hours with both and am at heart a rotorhead although the gazelle left me meh!!!
I am currently devoting all my time with the Hornet and am getting fairly accomplished Cat III landings are next on the list along with SA page and a greater understanding of all the radar modes.
Next will be the AV8B and the warbirds for me are all airstart instant missions :relaxed:

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I sort of fell into doing this, both figuratively and literally. After I could get back to flying after my fall, I tried out the three aircraft I had purchased in recent DCS sales, Mirage 2000, AV-8B and F-14. Of the 3, the Mirage 2000 really hooked me and I have flown pretty much nothing else for the last month. I find I have reached the point that I can run through memorized checklists and do everything from starting the jet, getting an alignment, doing a mission (working radar in various modes and employing any munition) come back, land and shut down.

My conundrum is that I have several other planes and helicopters (actually every helicopter in DCS). If I do a plane a month, by the time I get back to the Mirage, I will have memory dumped everything. I am going to have to focus on just a few.

Hmmm…perhaps Mirage 2000, MiG-19, MiG-21 and Viggen jets and Mi-8 and UH-1 helos…hmmmm :thinking:

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I subconsciously made that decision awhile back and have flown almost nothing but the Hornet since before the Viper came out. I spent an hour or so with the 16 but decided to wait till it’s farther along like the Hornet to really spend time on it.

I did spend some time with the Tomcat but I’ve let it idle. As the Hornet is still unfinished, I do get frustrated with it from time to time, but I know it and the Viper are still waiting to be finished as well.

I’m a little out of the loop, so could you all tell me from the following list which are still considered “in progress” and which are done enough to say I can safely dive in and really learn them?

AV-8B
Viggen
MiG-21bis (pretty sure this is finished but…)

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Just a thought, but we could try out doing this collectively - a bit like the HP WWII thing, but more single player oriented - picking up a plane to learn together for a month, sharing experiences re learning a particular bird and getting a bit of ‘peer support’ for the road.

Say we come up with a plane and a month (we could even vote).

For example “Tiger March” (just because it sounded good) - we start a new thread and everyone with an F-5 as a hangar queen picks it up and throws in a few casual AARs as they go.

Partly I’m thinking this would be cool because the main module threads tend to get massive and hard to navigate unless you were there from EA: as someone who tends to pick modules off sales, I always miss out on the group conversation of the early adopters.

A fresh thread on the ‘pick of the month’ would be easy to navigate for the participants and give the opportunity to ask questions without trawling through miles of thread.

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I kinda like this. I like the focus and the collaboration.

What things would someone cover? Obvious for the start of the list is startup, takeoff, landing, cruise and navigation. Maybe add in a few challenge missions like weapons delivery accuracy (not as a ‘test’ but just as a task to try), refueling challenges and maybe a little ‘challenging’ weather mission?

None of that intended to be ‘difficult’ but just something that we could all do AARs for, discuss and make fun of each other for?

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That is a good-un

Depends a bit on the aircraft, I guess? Let’s see (just spitballing here, no refined thoughts):

We could divide the learning into 4 weeks, for example:

  • Week 1: introduction, handling - read Chuck’s guide, go through cockpit, startup, takeoff, circuit/overhead pattern, landing (incl. the key speeds), climb, cruise, aircraft controls & handling, navigation basics
  • Week 2: maybe navigation? - I never pay enough attention to this area as I’m too keen to get to shoot stuff, so it would actually be quite good to follow up the basic handling week with some cross-country / navigation systems training. We could make a quick mission with some weather and waypoints etc. and maybe add a crosswind or asymmetric load takeoff/landing for some extra fun, since we’re now so experienced with the handling after week 1
  • Week 3 - weapons systems at the bombing range: really depends on the aircraft how wide a topic this is, but I guess on the more complex aircraft we could just pick a selection to learn.
  • Week 4 - mission time - come up with a simple mission with a bit of navigation, maybe some weather, a target to hit and some threats to shoot back

Something to that effect, maybe?

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I’ll be keen for this. I really enjoyed an excuse for the WWII recap on HPN recently. More things like that in a group would be great.

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It would be nice to make the first pick fairly inclusive, so probably need to set up a multiple choice poll to see which birds most of us have & want to fly.

To narrow down the poll a bit, the first one could be:

  • Fixed wing (we do have a few ‘helo-men’ here but I assume fewer than fixed wing)
  • Limit to jets maybe? Given the HP WW2 is a recent thing
  • 2018 or older module to capture the worst hangar queens?

Differing opinions welcome…also sorry @Maico for stealing the topic! Perhaps we need to take this elsewhere if it gets serious :slight_smile:

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Alas, my internet probably wouldn’t handle it. Not sure.

But I’ll throw in the Harrier, for the carnage that would ensue.

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Gives a chance to dust off the L~39 and the C101 and MiG21 etc :+1:

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I’d be super keen to kick it off with one of these birds but I didn’t want to say anything as they’re not everyone’s cup of tea…but they are actually pretty darn good at making one a better pilot, so I reckon it would be heaps of fun.

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And 2 seaters :blush:

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Oh hell yeah- 2 seaters would be/are going to be amazing for these kind of activities! :smiley:

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I hadn’t even thought of that! I think MP time would be a bonus for this stuff - given timezones, many of us would just have to do it singleton and report back a lot of the time…but I’d absolutely love some 2-seater trainer time with you guys!

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