rox

Al-Ghab plain, the north end of which was the site of some of the highest-intensity rebel vs. government fighting in the Syrian Civil War, when the rebels cleared the Idlib salient after taking the city of the same name, this is where they stopped and a lot of back and forth ensured. The government kept sending soldiers to defend positions on the M4 road despite the surrounding mountains being controlled by rebels with plentiful ATGMs. Tabqa dam south-west of Raqqa. This is one of two points at which the Kurdish-majority SDF (AANES)-administered area extends beyond the river Euphrates which borders them (the other is Manbij, not counting Tel Rifat pocket which is just a few villages really). As far as I'm aware, this is the biggest and most significant hydroelectric dam in Syria. There were fears that ISIS might blow it up as they were about to lose it (which made little sense as they controlled most areas downstream), and the US made an air strike on the control room at one point as well. Ba'ath dam, downstream of Tabqa, close to Raqqa. Sadly the third most prominent dam on the Euphrates in Syria, Tishrin dam, isn't modelled, despite being the most picturesque one. Kuweires airbase, SAA soldiers besieged by rebels and later ISIS for a total of three years, was relieved in late 2015. Only a third of the soldiers survived. Artillery Academy in south-west Aleppo, by far the most insanely intense battle in the city took place here shortly before the rebels lost the city. As the SAA encircled Aleppo, the rebels managed to break the siege by capturing this area and establishing a narrow corridor. For the next week or so this area was a meat grinder of near constant fighting, bombing and shelling as the rebels tried desperately to keep it and extend their control to the apartment block projects north and south (not modelled), ultimately failing.

Yeah in DCS you can use more than one radio in most planes, set frequencies etc, so that's where it makes sense.

Finnish pilots is great, if only they had historical plane choices though, and not P-38s on Kuban.

I'm in

I'll have a number 17 please, if possible.

More clouds visible here (and we have ECM in the Hornet now ♒ )

Haifa Panorama towers and the Sail Tower behind them (seat of district government). I thought this badass looking building is some security HQ, but it's actually a hospital. Baha'i Temple gardens Two shopping malls in west Adana Dust storm effect at very low camera FOV + dust setting in mission editor (setting is the same as above picture) Also the Sheraton, Hilton, another shopping mall and the second largest mosque in Turkey.

I misclicked while choosing my skin and took one with M, then realized it stood for Mick as a subconscious tribute to our missing flight leader. I then proceeded to make a fool of myself while taxiing, trying to not lose Friar and landing. It's a good thing it wasn't my usual plane, nobody has to know! Edit: and screwed up engine start too, luckily they restarted. The inexcusable part is that I was completely sober. On a more serious note, I think I understand why people couldn't restart engines after a botched startup. When you press the engine start key after a failed start, it initiates a shutdown procedure, the little HUD messages tell you which switches your pilot is flipping and he's basically doing the startup in reverse order, turning magnetos, and pumps and whatnot off. I think this shutdown procedure needs to be left alone until it's completed, before the engine is started up again. I suspect people pressed the engine start key before the shutdown procedure was completed and thus the engine on procedure started before the engine off procedure finished, confusing the game and screwing up the order in which the systems are turned on. Not sure if this was already known, but just something I noticed yesterday. If your engine doesn't start, wait until you get no more messages, press the engine start key once, and wait for everything to be turned off. Then adjust the mixture or what ever you screwed up the first time, press engine on again, and it should work. Don't forget to select the engine that's the problem, as in my case the right engine was running well as I adjusted the mixture before it spooled up. I think if you have one engine running and the other off, pressing the start engine key would turn off the good one and start the one that's off (haven't tested this, maybe I will today just to be sure).

Confirmed

Although what happened to Beirut was tragic, the area adjacent to ground zero and much of the interior too that got the most damaged is literally the most expensive real estate in the Middle East outside of the Gulf. All of those fancy high rises with blown out windows? Don't worry, all these people got places to go, and they have the money to repair their multi million dollar condos. Mar Mikhael / Gemayzeh / Armenia street are the only areas that had a front row seat to the port that had lower and middle class families living there. There was a hostel/restaurant/bar/Arabic school in a cluster of buildings in Gemayzeh where I stayed, right across the road from the explosion, that was a great little oasis of greenery in this concrete rat maze of a city. It was called Saifi Urban Gardens and was a hangout for many in the city, not just travelers. The buildings half-collapsed in the explosion and it's closed for ever, it's remarkable that no one died there considering that I've seen photos of entire top floor rooms caving into the lower floor ones along with their furniture and everything. A major local hospital, St. Georges hospital is also nearby, modelled in DCS, got royally fucked in the explosion and closed down. Had this happened in the slums and refugee "camps"in south Beirut, the area would look like Haiti for the next ten years.

Some Beirut today Heart of Downtown Beirut, Nejmeh Square with its clock tower (that took me 20 minutes to properly land on), Al-Amin mosque, Maronite St.Georges Cathedral, and in the background, Catholic Armenian St.Elias and St George Cathedral and far behind it, the coolest looking high-rise in town, Sama Tower. Roman ruins behind the buildings in the foreground are also generically modelled. The grain silos that saved west Beirut during the recent explosion, as they blocked a significant part of the blast in that direction, and kept standing despite the explosion's ground zero being right next to them in the warehouse with the green lines on the side. The famous Pigeon Rocks are, well, funny There's supposed to be a natural arch under the helicopter, I assume game engine limitations can't handle holes in the terrain and they didn't bother making a separate model.

Good documentary on the history of the Mi-8. Two parts. I love this ugly thing.

Lol that heat seeker literally went through the pilot's hair. I've pulled the trigger on the Syria map and will be posting some screens and vids from that through he following days. Here are screenshots of my recreation of the only video that shows Ka-52 helis in action, rocketing ISIS on the edge of Tadmur (Palmyra) in Syria during the first battle to retake it in 2016 (it fell again in autumn and was retaken several weeks later). I was a bit too high, here's the RL video:

That channel is pure gold Kira.

Had a bit of a predicament yesterday. So I called in air support in the form of BluBear.

I was lucky enough to spot and bomb military vehicles conveniently parked next to schools, hospitals and orphanages Luftwaffe pilot hotels and officer's clubs that the German propaganda machine called "town buildings". (the first of my bombs on the first pic probably ended up in the window of the building just before the target) 😶

Do you have the I-16 by any chance? There was a file there I had to exclude from my antivirus because it's a false positive.

Confirmed for tonight. Just got back from a very tiring hike so my wingman is going to have to check on my wakefulness when in transit.

I was about to ask if some anti-ship ability of the Mirage sneaked in when I wasn't looking, until I realized what you meant by "hammering tankers".

Stable release? My hornet was anything but stable trying to land yesterday.

Hey Marc! Most of us fly IL-2 Great Battles co-ops on some evenings and also mornings twice a week. We also do a P-38 campaign about once every 10 days. Right now a few of us fly DCS casually about twice a week in the evenings (this is all Europe time, more US-based members fly at other times). This is all done on our servers and is mostly relaxed casual play, with plenty of members ready to help out and give advice. Fenrir and FT built us a nice DCS server with lots of air and ground targets, and a dedicated WW2 area of the map. What you want to fly in DCS is entirely up to you, we've been mostly doing F14/16/18 lately but also jump into warbirds every so often, and I know I'll be happy to jump into any other module any time to break it up a little. I suggest you get a DCS module that most fits what you're after. Mirage is probably the best entry-level full-fidelity jet as it's simple, fast and fun, but there's nothing wrong with starting in the deep end if you so desire.

That's cool, can give you a crash course tonight if you want. That gun sight and weapons switches look intimidating but are pretty simple to use once you know what's what. Radar beam riding missiles for blowing up bunkers and ships are especially fun.