Like the song says, a little love’n is better than no love’n.
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Hopefully they can wrap up the Hornet soon. Progress on the Viper avionics has been nonexistent lately.
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I had some issues too with Mavs but now I find it easier, but no where perfect. I’ll try to explain what I learned and see if you find it useful.
In PRE mode you have to use the TGP to pass sensor information off to the Mav seeker head using handoff, handoff only works for a few types, one I remember is the D version. If you find that the target is not exactly and your waypoint where the TGP is looking, hit TMS up to ground stabilize the TGP, then slew it over the taget, and do TMS up short to create a point track. Now, the handover will commence. If you are out of range though your Mav seeker will not be able to lock.
To give it a better chance, put Mav weapon page on right mfd, TGP on the left.
As you approach your target, go soi on the Mav and change fov to narrow (zoomed in). Then go back to tgp. Lock up your taget, handoff will commence, then go soi on the Mav and make sure you’re seeing your taget, then TMS up and rifle.
If you fail to lock with the Mav, get a little closer and do TMS up again. Rifle.
Mavs can also be used in the other modes as you mentioned but since the seeker image is rather crap I don’t get a good lock until too close for comfort.
What’s the trickiest part is doing the TGP / Mav boresight process. That is really annoying. I’m practicing but it kinda sucks.
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Wow, that post reminds me just how far out of practice I am with that stuff. Been to busy with other stuff.
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Being a father of two, a husband and keeping my house from not falling apart and running a full time IT job I know what you mean but I’m impressed myself that I remember the stuff 
sometimes though, dcs feels like work, those days I’ll hit the couch with a beer and watch someone else do the flying 
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Oh yes, same here. The way I “enjoy” it is akin to work. Strange to some but it’s my peculiar version of escape.
I’ve come to admit that I miss the structure of the environment I spent decades working within (versus the chaos the ‘civilian’ world emotes) and this is a way to have all the good bits of that world and none of the annoying ones. Mostly.
But yeah, I enjoy just watching it myself, even if what I’m watching is simulated.
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I often take DCS (and/or Il-2) in small 20 minutes fixes of rote BFM exercise. Systematically easy, as it’s often just a single switch, or a couple at most, and satisfying. Just make a few fokkers go down in flames after work. Satisfying, never too easy, never too hard.
Truly studying up on new things is something I reserve for free days. Those are rare beasties indeed in my life these days! I find that studying up on a new system or procedure just doesn’t work for me outside of office hours.
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That’s pretty much what I do too. Sometimes just a quick fix is all I have time for. Longer missions are for those rare days when the daughter is in school, wifey at work and I’m off the flight schedule and to-do list… 
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Mine is: Launch from the boat; drop some dumb bombs (manual bombing is so satisfying); hit the tanker; do 3 traps. Covers the basics and I can get er done in about 45 minutes.
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The F-16 Mav mode selection is kind-of-sort-of tied to how well planned your mission is–or better still “where you find yourself” in a mission.
As the name implies, PRE for Pre-Planned, means you have got a good idea of your target or target area. So good that you placed a waypoint/steerpoint at the target. This opens up the AUTO handoff from the TGP.
You are correct in that it works with the Ds. Also, you need to be around/inside 7 Nm. That puts you inside some tactical SAMs MEZ so indeed…
Next comes VIS - Visual mode. Think of this mode as a not quite ad hoc targeting method but definitely not pre-planned. The target/target area is not located at a waypoint. Maybe you got a radio call with coordinates or a land mark? Maybe you saw some smoke? Whatever it is, you are going to use the Mav seeker to search for the target - using the HUD to put the MAV seeker cue over the target area then switching to the MAV display.
Finally BORE - foresight - is the pop-up, emergent, emergency, targeting mode. "Hey that ZSU-23-4 just shot at me! Oh look tanks!, "
Yep, You get the picture. 
On the HUD, put the BORE cross on a target, designate and shoot!
The AREA mode with the H and especially K (heavy WH) is especially useful for taking out buildings, bridges, or targets in close proximity (maybe an EW site). I’ve only use the K with PRE but can understand how they would work with VIS. BORE? probably not.
I am fairly sure that eventually there will be an F-16C Maverick training flight that will cover these areas. 
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Who’s eager for the awaited Viper fm changes? I can’t wait much longer. I had about 10 duels with a skilled Hornet pilot some days ago and got absolutely wrecked. He then switched to the Viper and continued to get my ass kicked but it was a more fair fight, I even scored a couple of kills.
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I’m eager for anything to happen to the Viper. There’s been not much happening on the avionics for the last few months.
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2.7 might be close friends…this just in…
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Same here, I dislike the cruise missiles and smart weapons. Their employment and handling is just systems configuration and autopilot flying more or less. It’s boring.
I much more prefer down low at high speed with the sams and valleys and forests in my Viper with Mk82s or CBUs. Tight flying, no room for mistakes, high stakes and so much more satisfaction.
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Meh JDAM. Boring weapon. But yay on increased dev time on the viper. I have high hopes for the flight model tweaks.
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Some progress on the DED and MFDs would be nice, but i’ll take JDAMs over nothing. Also at this point, markpoints would be really useful.
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The JDAMs are remarkably easy to deploy. Thank goodness 
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Dropped 4 GBU-38s this morning on NTTR. 3/4 hit exactly where I was targeting them with the TGP.
I’d call that a success.
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Ok how do you use the TGP to drop JDAMs? I tried in PRE mode but that just goes to the selected steer point, VIS mode required visual through the HUD.
I can’t remember how to make a SPI with the TGP? Apparently it is not like the A-10C lol.
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