Yeah thanks it’s true - as much as I fail miserably at not trying to ‘catch ‘em all’, I at least attempt to avoid buying planes that don’t have a campaign (or one on the way).
F-16 ended up in the cart instead!
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Nice to see you back, hope you visit a bit more often. 
I finally picked up the MiG-15 because it was so cheap and after having the F-86 for years finally wanted to see the other side of it. Also grabbed the WWII Asset pack to go along with Normandy 2.0 I picked up when it came out. I only have the P-51 for warbirds but that’s fine.
I use it for NATO training flights more!
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Is there not a campaign for it? - I’m pretty sure I have one called Kursant. I’ll go and look…
edit - yup. Okay it’s payware - but currently $4 is practically giving it away…
PS - that’s also training - this isn’t - and it’s free
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Was replying in regards to the Yak-52, but thanks I appreciate it all the same!
Don’t think I have ‘Kursant’, maybe I’ll pick it up -
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Ah… that age thing again - always a struggle to keep up!
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Really? I find regardless of my efforts to change its speed that my aging proceeds at a steady pace onwards and upwards.
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Well, as long as it doesn’t stop I shouldn’t complain… 
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So we’ve covered starting up the L-39 and getting around the VFR pattern. Next up is a mission that I actually found fairly challenging…in that it does require near constant attention throughout. Again, the old flight instructor in me disagrees with introducing someone to navigation at 1) night and 2) under the hood…but whatever. It would be interesting to put a non-IFR experienced person in VR into this mission to see how it would shake out. Perhaps my son can be the guinea pig someday.
The mission is to practice using the RSBN navigation equipment. Basically an HSI with azimuth and distance as well as the PRMG-4 ILS system. We are put in the cockpit at sunset…with just a sliver of the red setting sun horizon available for reference. The mission has a lot of voice-overs and instructions…and I found it quite well presented. I found the white cockpit lights to be a bit more readable in VR at night…
Navigation radios are preset…
After takeoff we fly a bearing and distance before turning according to the instructions. I found the mission pretty challenging and it can pretty much be flown heads down in the cockpit since external references are nearly nonexistent. There is also a point in the mission where the instructor pulls the IFR hood down as well…which was a pretty neat feature.
I basically spent the whole mission staring at the altimeter, attitude indicator, and vertical speed needle with glances at the bearing pointer. It was about a 45 minute long mission and I was pretty worn out afterward. It does require a lot of concentration.
Eventually you are given vectors toward the ILS…but the mission brings you in very high…above the glideslope. Not a fan of that…you have to dive down and get the needle centered up.
Down safely…
Our next mission we do some shooting with the S-5KO rockets. Again, a fairly straight-forward mission: fly X heading at X altitude, then turn X heading and look for the target range.
We spend some time on the ground setting up the weapons panels and reflector sight…
Off we go…
At the turn point heading to the target area…
Two trucks are each located in the center of a target range made up of a circle of shipping containers…also marked with smoke…
The reflector sight is supposed to be set to allow for a 30 degree dive angle…I end up a bit shallow…
It takes a couple of passes. I see that there still isn’t much splash damage in DCS World…
Fun stuff in VR…as always…
Next on the agenda is bombing with the FAB-100 bombs. I was not good at this.
Again found my roll in to be a bit early and shallow…
I hit one target and missed the other…
Finally, we head out on to the range to practice with the R-35 Atoll missiles…
Following instructions to the range area…it takes a bit of time to find the circling An-26B. Fall in behind and wait for the tone…
Damaged the first target…it would later die about 5 minutes later I suppose it crashed returning to base. The second An-26B I miss with my second missile…for some reason…
And that was that. A few quick and easy sorties. The L-39 panel does strain my eyes in VR…but it has a nice bit of power…
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I am not gonna lie, that nav training mission made me sweat when I flew it some years ago. A lot.
Same for the C-101 nav training mission.
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The C-101 would be a breeze for me. I flew that Sperry ADI and HSI combo for nearly 20 years in some of our King Airs. All that muscle memory makes flying the Russian style ADI a chore… Definitely makes me sweat.
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There have been accidents due to the differences in the eastern versus western ADI
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great to see you back in virtual cockpit.
I may be guessing here or may not, but the switches iirc function also like circuit brakers. so thats why individual systems.
correct, no accumulator. and the XP11 Yak52 mentioned by @stavka has it modeled that you need to fill the compresed air reservoir on the ground before takeoff. what is nice detail.
DC3 I am flying in XP12 sure has it also.
obviously more work in this regard went into the L39. seems like Yak was left in the corner unnoticed.
after that navigation mission in Yak you should be already up to speed on the nav equipment
but agree, feels definitely over the top for the first tutorial missions.
on the other hand, L39 is much faster than Yak, and you can get yourself lost quickly. thats the pre-gps times. so better to know how to get back to field 
I went through the L39 tutorials in the past also. wanted to progress to the Kursant campaign. never did.
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Congrats - it’s not that long since I made an effort with the L-39 - earlier this year, I think, with Rudel_chw’s training with English voiceover missions.
I failed the navigation miserably - although the training wasn’t that hard to get done (once tuning the radio for the cw signal was sussed - in itself an art) but when I did the practice bits I was well lost. Just couldn’t get it to work how I thought it should.
Always intended to go back and try again - maybe will give it a try in the next week or so (and all only in VR).
The Albatros is a lot of fun, but at the same time a bit frustrating and seems to be quite hard work compared to most western jets. Though I’ll take steam gauge over fbw/MFD any day in simming for fun factor. The Eastern approach is rather, well, interesting! 
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sometimes wonder why the devs dont use their artistic licence to make the cockpit dials and labels more readable.
I know rivet counters will get stroke from it but overall it will make our lives much better.
its maybe because of its age. C101 and even Hawk are younger designs.
went quickly through the list of jet trainers but the only closest one in dates I see to Albatros is AlphaJet.
it leads me to the idea that we are definitely having too little trainers available in DCS
how could it be that french baguettes dont have their own dedicated trainer ac!?
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Well we’ve got the Mirage F1 trainer coming very soon, so that will be another. Though not a dedicated training aircraft, it will do the job
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Useful mod just uploaded for the L-39:
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Those are loud enough to make a difference.
I mean… I understand that they want it as realistic as possible, but I have a Rift S, which doesn’t have a great resolution. So I agree with you that larger instruments would be a great option to be able to turn on.
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I use the VR Zoom to read smaller stuff in the cockpit. I have two levels set on a hat switch - one for looking at panels and a stronger one for looking outside at targets etc.
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Oh yeah I tried VR zoom as well. Sadly it was quite vomit inducing for me.
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Wrapping up the official (DCS provided) L-39 training puts us in the ZA model and we will be doing two simple missions to the weapons range to try out the GS-23 gun and the wing pylon mounted PK-3 machine gun pods…
Fun stuff the low-level strafing - I’m not sure if I could find a gun round remaining indicator (I didn’t RTFM)…?
Works good on trucks. Not sure how effective the gun would be on true armor targets…
Always lots of switches to throw to get something working in the L-39…
Spotting the target area and trying to get the right roll in angle for the sight setting…
Quick and dirty missions and I learned a few things. I may fly the Kursant Campaign next possibly…
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