My pleasure! 
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Oooooooooohhhhhhh…
DCS F-16C Training Playlist…I don’t know why the link doesn’t work…
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If you look inboard of the throttle quadrant, likely above the harness lock lever, right between the UFC and the Standby HSI…
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I thought long press on the AR/NWS button changed missile type, short press steps to the next missile of the same type (though you don’t need short press in DCS - the 9X will dynamically change from missiles that are masked by the fuselage to ones that aren’t if you put them in BORE mode to use with the JHMCS)… maybe that’s why I couldn’t get it to work last time I tried it!
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OK…here is where we are going to split off from the stock training missions because I do feel they neglect a lot of very basic training. I just didn’t find it plausible that we went to firing Sidewinders before we knew how to navigate or use the communications radios. As such…we will split off from the stock training missions (but we will get back to them) and indulge ourselves in some additional training with user content. For reference…this is the order of operations for the stock F-16 training missions…you can see you go from 0 to 100 kind of quick…
There are user created missions that fill in some of those gaps…such as this massive collection of training missions of various types and skill levels by “617.evil”…available: HERE
But for today…we will be using one of AVADII’s low level navigation training missions to practice with navigation and coms…
Cold start using the checklist…I’m getting better with some of it…
Off we go. A low level navigation exercise. Navigating in the F-16C seems pretty straightforward. Cycling through waypoints on the UFC. It would be nice if the waypoints on the MFD were actually labeled with numbers (is that possible to display)…so you do have to kind of keep up with your mission profile and what waypoint is what…
I struggled with COMS a bit…trying to figure out why the tower wasn’t answering me. Then I realized I was using just the / key and not the CTRL / for specifically using UHF or VHF. I was entering the proper frequency…just wasn’t hitting the proper transmit button. Something I need to map to my HOTAS I believe…
Did a touch and go at our first airbase waypoint…then brought her home to the landing airfield. It was a good mission to get a bit more familiar with the navigation steerpoints…but the waypoints were so close together that things were happening a bit TOO fast…
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Gulp. We had to do it eventually. I’m sorry shoulders…I’m sorry for the tension and ache we are about to induce. This one is from 617.evil’s massive list of short training flights for the F-16C. It includes a great brief with some tips and tricks that I would not have otherwise known about…particularly the bit about mirroring the fuel level readout on the DED to the HUD. I’m not sure I ever knew to do that in the Falcon 4/BMS F-16.
Going through the steps to get the fuel info on the HUD: LIST > BINGO > DED DATA switch…
Going through the kneeboard checklist. Took me a while to find the radar silent switch…I thought it was something buried in a page on the MFD itself…
I took the suggestion of running the airbrake (speedbrake? still not sure what it is really called) slightly open to allow for a higher engine RPM and quicker throttle response…
Alright. Relax dude. Wiggle your fingers…wiggle your toes. That was what that one F-18 writer said to do…
Contact…fueling…err…it took about three or four connect / disconnects…so it wasn’t pretty or seamless…
Now showing 7104 lbs…not sure what the true very max for a clean F-16 is…I think 7,000-ish…so my cup floweth over…
And just for giggles…tried it at night too…
I don’t really know how to use the NVGs - I seem to recall using them in the A-10C and there is a cockpit setting to make the instrumentation more visible? I don’t know…mine was a muddy mess. I did adjust the NVGs contrast or whatever using the proper keys and at least found a good mix for the HUD and looking out the window. Do people just flip back and forth when they need to go heads down?
I actually seemed to do better refueling under the NVGs…the narrow field of view or something made it easier to reference the tanker visual reference points (just in generally…not necessarily the director lights…)…
That was the end of AAR training. Fun stuff. Looking forward to putting into to good use during real missions…
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Rest In Peace Oleksiy “Moonfish” Mes…who crashed his F-16 earlier this week reportedly while responding to the large-scale Russian missile attack across Ukraine.
“We would have had a lot of time to study the jet completely in peacetime, but we do not have the time,” he said, adding there’s enough to master the basic capabilities that Ukraine needs.
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Back at it this morning. The process of learning a new plane is fun…despite all the gnashing of teeth of how DCS is largely a module mill…learning modules is pretty darn fun. And I don’t agree with the sentiment…there is a lot to do with DCS if you seek it out. This morning I tried the ILS Approach and Landing mission. The mission isn’t really a tutorial rather than a scenario with some suggestions. As such…I used Active Pause a few times to sort through what I needed to be entering in the ICP to get the desired results…and I’m still a bit sketchy on it all.
The scenario is a good one. No waypoints on the TSD or MFD. No F-10 map view…so you have to figure out where you are with TACAN, ILS, and good old radar vectors.
The approach chart was not something that was useful at all…
And I had to keep in mind that the altimeter setting is given in QFE…something I’m not used to (altimeter will read 0 feet on landing instead of field elevation). Can’t say I’m a fan of it…
I messed around with the ICP and think I got everything set correctly…
The good news was that just using raw needle data I was able to fly the approach. It took me a bit to figure out to hit the PLS/NAV button under the HSI to make the instrument show the ILS…and I somehow hit the right buttons to display that on the HUD as well. I kept getting the TGP pod masking warning and couldn’t figure out how to turn the pod off (I did later after landing)…
I found using the steam instruments was more intuitive than following the HUD guidance and e-bracket and all of that. I’m sure the HUD is better…I just have to get used to it…
Starting to see trees and stuff…now I’m worried about my baro setting…but of course…an ILS beam doesn’t care about barometric settings…it is just a path to fly…so I was pretty confident I’d hit a runway (environment) eventually…
I finally see some airport buildings on the approach. It wasn’t perfect…but it was OK…
So between air-to-air refueling and managing the ILS…I think I can at least get around in the F-16…
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I run screaming from AAR and just will not try it. Life is too short.
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Beach, your virtual Viper journey is no doubt timely due to events in Ukraine, helping the readership better understand the complexity of the task, at least on flight crew side of ops. While it almost seems irreverent to discus an ongoing war tangential to our beloved hobby, let’s do it in the spirit of honoring the defenders of self-governance and self-determination. Long live the spirit of Moonfish.
To that end, thanks so much for doing the footwork for a Viper training syllabus.
I had been delaying starting until this arrived. It has purportedly shipped from China, from where obtaining tracking info has been elusive. Customs is probably having a fit over it 
. Expecting black helicopters any moment.
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Everything I ever got from Winwing seemed to take forever as well. They have a US disti center now, so maybe some things are faster.
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That is my intent. I don’t view Ukraine through rose tinted glasses…they have their issues…but they are fighting for their very survival.
I’m just flying the missions…the credit goes to the skin artists and the mission makers. The ED tie in is more complicated… I won’t say anything more than that. I hope more Russians realize that Ukraine should be restored to its pre-occupation borders. And I get that we aren’t perfect either. Totally get it.
I like that stick. I was just thinking having a force sensing stick would be so cool flying the F-16C. Way back a long time ago I had an X-65F shipped to me for review…but I think I sent it back to @guod or 20mm (man I miss that guy) to either give away for a prize giveaway or something… I think Joe Keefe actually wrote the review…I might have borrowed it for a PC Pilot review or something… I definitely remember having it for a few weeks…
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For this mission we will be using one of the included Quick Missions. We will leap over to NTTR for this exercise where we look at the defensive systems of the F-16C. I’m not really sure what all it can do…thankfully I had @Chuck_Owl’s Guide by my side to help me figure out some of the stuff.
We will be flying an F-16 with just primer paint…getting ready to be painted with UAF markings…
The F10 menu activates whatever SAM or AAA site you want…a really handy tool for practicing. I ran this mission probably 5 or 6 times…got shot down about 5 or 6 times… 
I mean…the goal is to figure some of it out…and I did…figure SOME of it out…
So from what I understand the TSD shows the rings for the suspected locations of the enemy sites right? Like…they could be on vehicle that have moved? And the TSD doesn’t update in real time I wouldn’t think?
First we went up against the SA-8 site. Fun stuff. Not terribly hard to defeat particularly if you have some terrain to help out with driving the missile into the ground.
I ran the SA-8 launcher out of missiles. I question how fast they can reload them…this one seemed to go active again in about 6 or 7 minutes maybe?
Does anyone use anything other than just manual chaff/flare? It seems the programs will run you out VERY quickly…
After the SA-8 I played with the SA-15. It tends to engage from further outside of its threat “ring”…and all it took was turning away from it to have the missiles run out of steam and detonate behind me…
Out of missiles…time to buzz him…
The ZSU’s are fun to mess with. Unlike the C-101CC…which could be a bit of a sitting duck…the speed and agility of the F-16 makes evading the firehoses of tracers somewhat easy as long as you don’t get complacent (I did a couple times).
Fun mission. I didn’t really explore the efficacy of the ECM pods. I assume it helps you get a bit closer before being engage? Is there any definitive guidance on whether they work well in DCS World?
I know…more questions than answers…
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For whatever reason this thread title didn’t appeal to me so I never peeked inside. I am visiting now to see if anyone had snarky references regarding the recent Ukrainian F-16 losses, including their two top pilots. Seeing none, let this be it (minus the snark). But I see now that I’ve been missing a jewel of a thread all this time!
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A BeachAV8R educational article. Yahoo!
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You probably wouldn’t want to hang out in a SAM infested area or reattack. Programs help you to cover your one pass before you… bug out
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Re Manual Chaff/Flare, I use SEMI - CMS AFT gives you whatever program the system thinks is most appropriate based on what the RWR is seeing, and I change PRG5 so that the slap switch gives me two sets of two flares.
I think in this mode CMS FWD fires whatever program the knob is set to still? I’ve been meaning to test this but haven’t got around to it…
And yes, I run out quickly once the shooting starts, but by then I’m usually out of weapons too.
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