Kira

Every once in a while, you get one of those absolute show stopper personalities. One of these types was a guy called "Hoser". His real name is Joe Satrapa, and he's a real character. A couple links: https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/The_Hoser_Chronicles/5-921898/ http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/tomcat-sunsetorg-staff/hoser-hereshoot/hardcover/product-20298856.html Audio from the 1989 Gulf of Sidra shootdown (the second to occur in these waters) of two Libyan MiG-23s by F-14As FastEagle 102 and FastEagle 107 of VF-32 of the USS Kennedy battle group: A Pakistani (of all people) website with some nice pictures and interesting statements about the history of the F-14: https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/17-photos-that-show-why-the-f-14-tomcat-is-one-of-the-greatest-fighter-jets-of-all-time.391362/

Just found this today. You beat me to it!

9:15 covers basics of carrier landings. Meatball, lineup, angle of attack.

Nice. We have the Maryland ANG go flying theirs down the beach regularly.

U.S. carrier: To clear the flight deck of FOD, it's "Sweepers, man your brooms!" Soviet carrier: To clear a flight deck of FOD, it's "Boris, man the jet-tractor!" https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/russia-straps-a-jet-engine-to-a-tractor-to-clean-carrie-1698096181

I hear that Spitfire's quite the challenge.

Is it flying? It's acceptable! Really, that's just an "it'd be nice". Currently, I'm getting more than enough jet time elsewhere, though, so don't hold back on my account, by any means.

Um.. "meow?" (Kira would like to be added to that list). Friday's probably best. I can almost guarantee that Saturday won't work for me. As an aside, and I know it's an unpopular one, I'm rather against props in DCS. We already have two dedicated prop sims, and DCS really does do jets best. Do we really want to force it as well into the props category?

I have found that a small paintbrush works well as a duster for delicate things. We use 1" around work.

Very nice, especially for $25. Also very dusty, apparently.

Here's an Air & Space article about them. Some things I did not know, for example, the fact that the oft repeated story of unknown U.S. contractors having sabotaged systems did not in fact cause the complete failure of the Iranian F-14s as is often claimed. All of those (only 16) missiles were returned to service - care of parts stolen from the USN. However, the missiles' batteries proved to be a (the?) real issue, resulting in fewer and fewer serviceable AIM-54s as the 1980's war progressed. An interesting read, particularly about the fragility of friendships. Case in point, the section talking about the fact that all but two of the original cadre of the U.S. trained F-14 pilots left the country, to include 15 still in training. "Javad (pseudonym) was one who stayed. He was arrested by a close friend at gunpoint, in front of his family. When the war with Iraq began, he was released." So next time you're country is taken over in a religious revolution, think twice before trusting even your closest friends. https://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/persian-cats-9242012/?page=1 More Iranian Tomcat stuff to follow when it is found.

Check out the throttle movement from 2:27-2:55. I believe this to be an F/A-18E or F. Goes to show why Navy engines tend to have a bit of wear and tear. He's attempting to maintain precise placement on glide slope, requiring constant throttle adjustment.

Carrier landings in DCS don't seem to be that difficult, at least with the current F/A-18C Lot 20. Granted, it took three passes, and I got a 1 wire, but I did get my first carrier landing last night. Now to figure out how to disengage the hook from the wire so that I can taxi for the catapult! Notably, no crash-and-burns were involved, just missed approaches. That's one of the nice things about the Hornet's computers. They do much of the work of keeping the thing stable, and thus make it a (relatively) easy aircraft in the actual flying department, which is good, considering the study done during Vietnam that found Navy pilots most anxious not in combat, as would be expected, but around the boat, contemplating, and during, carrier landings. The main critical factor, as with most landings, seems to be angle of attack and velocity vector placement. Another other critical factor (that I ignored, hence the 1 wire) is to maintain one's approach angle and just fly the thing right "through" the deck, despite the increasing feeling that you're going to overshoot the wires. Instead, I did a major Navy sin, the one called "diving for the deck", or as it's been called, "the famous 'We land NOW, Goddamnit!' one wire". Good thing there's no sightless, wining, LSO yet to give me a No Grade for that pass. Quite interesting and rather fun. Well. During the day, anyway. Night and/or bad weather? That's a totally different ball game!

That's it in a nutshell. You said it, exactly as I feel. I can basically only justify the cost of the aircraft directly from the detail. I've done research in the past, so I know the kind of time involved to come up with a polished final product.

For all its really nice representation of the real thing, ED and DCS can be a real headache. Sometimes not worth the time and/or money, it seems.