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I set myself the challenge yesterday to land on the Mall in a Spitfire and taxi up to Buck house for a bit of sightseeing. (Normandy Map) It was a challenge indeed, the most difficult part being keeping the bugger straight on the roll out and not clipping a wingtip on the walls! Excuse the dodgy VR screenshots!

Our DCS Server: (This one was massive, over 100GB download and unpack, took several hours!)

Hi all, As I am sure you have all noticed we are currently experiencing reliability issues with the web site and TS in its new hosting environment. In order to remediate this I will need to take the site offline for 2-3 hours, I expect the impact to TeamSpeak to be less disruptive (about an hour) so will endeavour to carry out this work today August 12th after the advertised scheduled meetup sessions (as shown in our calendar). I had intended to do this work after midnight UK time, but have struggled to fit this in with my own schedule. Apologies for the inconvenience@ Rog

So following a last little test last night of mission saving and restoring, thanks @fruitbat Syria Mission Control, we are confirming go-live at 20:15 on Thursday. It will start with a small scenario and game play brief. The actual mission will then start at 20:30 for this first mission. Following missions will start probably around the same time, maybe 20:00 but obviously it will live action from the start. I will not be running through the brief again if people join later, which there is absolutely no problem with you doing so. If you need to leave before the end, no problem, just bank your scores. I will NOT be doing the brief multiple times as people join. Happy to answer the odd question when applicable, but that should not be a problem as there will have been lots of people attend the brief so we all know what is going on. I will NOT be acting as a General for this campaign so will not be making tactical decisions. I will advise on potential next objectives but that is all. So please do not ask me "what should I do next Friar?" I have built quite a bit of randomisation into the campaign so even I know may not know what is going to happen next. The mission will also be run with "FOG OF WAR" settings. Icons in game but limited information on the F10 map.

WiWishing you and your family all the best and thank you for all the fun times flying with you during the year. CHEERS

As a veteran of Discord I can wholeheartedly endorse its adoption; it also comes with some pretty cool functionality that IMHO rather makes TS seem limited and somewhat antiquated. For example, the inherent ability to stream your screen or app so that others can see what you’re doing on your computer is a massive advantage for briefing/debriefing or instructing others or even just allowing someone who’s not flying - maybe due to illness, tech issues or just not feeling it - to join in the social side of the dogs and still have visibility and therefore some understanding of what’s occurring.

With the release of the CH-47F a few people have been commenting on the FPS drop in certain scenarios. Whilst reading through the thread myself and Fruitbat came across the same post and have tried it tonight with much success. THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CH-47F. It seems to be helping across the board. We both had textures set to HIGH and have changed our texture settings to Medium and not had any impact on the look of the sim but both our frames have shown a better performance, in Fruitbats case he has reported a significant improvement with the Phantom. Give it a go. Its a simple change that can be done from the game launcher.

Got fed up with DCS being slow so ordered this Corsair 3000D RGB Tempered Glass Case - BLACK AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3D 8 Core, 16 Threads, 4.5Ghz Turbo Deepcool AK400 Performance 220W CPU Cooler Asus PRIME B550-PLUS ATX Motherboard Asus DUAL RTX 4070 SUPER EVO 12GB Graphics Card Corsair CX750 750W Bronze Rated PSU Corsair 32GB Vengeance RGB (2x16GB) 3200Mhz DDR4 Memory - BLACK Western Digital SN850X 2TB NVME M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD - Read 7300MB/s , Write 6600MB/s Should arrive next week

Well done old chap! From the Classic Wings facebook page: @DD_Bongodriver

It's alive master,,, https://photos.app.goo.gl/NVJnCVxwwq1Wrz157

Aa Colin says, on my system running in 4k, this has made a big difference. Because some of the newer modules use extremely big textures, it causes the vram on your gfx card to completely fill up, particularly the phantom and the chinook (12gig in my case), and this results in a massive fps hit as it then switches to on board memory. By switching to medium textures I went from 20 to a solid 60 fps on these modules. I can't even notice any downgrade in visuals although one would assume there must be something. This will be even more effective in vr, which Is more vram dependant.

So... Butchery complete: It's awesome. Me verry happy Fenrir. Big thanks to @BluBear for the loan of the jigsaw. It worked flawlessly and as a bonus I managed to keep all my appendages!

That just about sums it up Colin, it was a magnificent show! In my opinion, the best airshow since peak pre-Covid Flying Legends. Here's a collection of my smartphone snaps from the weekend, whilst we wait for Nick's pro shots! https://photos.app.goo.gl/GFfCF5DgvfcqLFZ37

DCS Server updated to ... latest!

I was sitting on the veranda and suddenly heard something approaching the village. I could get only one shot with my phone camera but I wanted to share it nonetheless. I had never seen one before in real life.

Tamiya Panther Ausf. A 1/35 kit. My first tank for a long while and it took some time to work out how to do the zimmerit. I ended up using Holts knifing putty spread over dry wall jointing tape and I think it worked out not too bad.

I have tweaked the icon settings and uploaded the mission ready for the next time. I have turned on the usual icon detail level but also put on fog-of-war, so its hopefully middle ground difficulty wise.

SESSION 1 REPORT Despite the Red forces putting up consistent waves of defending aircraft, the blue air force managed to stem the tide which assisted the ground offence to make some ground. Gaziantep which started out under Red control was re-captured and despite an attempt by Red forces to take it back (they managed to get a convoy very close to the airfield perimeter and were able to take out some of the NASAMS) it remains in Blue control. The ground team have worked hard and have managed to get one of the NASMA launchers operational again. The Alpha FOB is back under Blue control after being briefly taken by a Red patrol. The red held towns of Abu Talhah and Harim were targeted by helicopter and air strikes and have taken losses to their defenses but still need further attention before we can send in troops to capture them. The key Red airfield of Aleppo suffered many hits but still remains fully operational and must be considered a key target for the next attack if Blue forces are to progress into Red territory. Hatay remains the key front line airfield with flights of F4, F14, F16 and F18 being ferried there to be available for the next mission (see below) SCORES Fruitbat was the first pilot to hit 1000 points but was sadly killed on that "one last attack" so suffered a 10 point penalty....... MISSION TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE All players seemed to be reporting good frames (unlike previous attempts to run the mission ) so it looks like my changes have been a good step forward. I have loaded the mission up on my machine this morning in order to grab the screen shots and it loaded with no problems so looking good for the next session. Feedback regarding AI spawns was that it could be spaced a bit more so I will update the enemy spawn delay from between the current 5 to 8 minutes out to 5 to 15 minutes. Many thanks to all those attended and I hope you enjoyed the experience. Friar

PHASE 1 - SESSION 2 Red air resistance continue to be a constant threat, although not as intense as in the first engagement, however, they still managed to claim a number a victories. Blue air force certainly gave as good as they got, if not actually winning more duels and enabling the ground war to continue. Aleppo was again the main target and its defensive units taking multiple hits. It still remains operational however. Ground was made to the South East of Hatay with the town of Abu Talhah being captured by units of the 82nd deployed by Ch-47. Despite being taken there are still some Red resistance units in the area who will no doubt stage an attempt to recapture it at the next opportunity so some thought should be given to protecting the Blue ground units that are occupying. Alpha FOB became fully operational again for rearm and refuel following the arrival of a supply convoy. Harim has again taken significant damage and may well also be ready for an assault. Advise strongly that further recon takes place before committing boots on the ground. SCORES LOGISTICS Hatay was again supplied with ferried aircraft and the stocks are as follows During the course of the mission stocks of Hellfire type "K" missiles were nearly depleted and a re-supply mission was required. Stocks were flown in my Ch-47 from Incirlik. MISSION TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE No major issues were report and the session seemed to run smoothly. From the scores we can see that @DD_Fenrir has flown under different pilot IDs and his score has been split over the two sessions so far. It is therefore recommended pilots join the campaign with the same name to ensure your scores are maintained correctly. SUMMARY I hope you all enjoyed this session and I look forward to next week when we might finally get our hands on Aleppo. Friar

I have just added two new versions of the Caucasus map to our server. I have taken the current v3 (built by Fen) and made them a winter version and also removed the WWII asset pack for those who do not have it YET.... As of Sunday morning 16th Feb I have put the no WWII asset pack version up.

Hey chaps, I have just loaded up the mission as if we were going to run week 2. I am pleased to report that the mission loaded, took a while but it loaded all ok. Alpha FOB is still showing blue as it Abu Talhur, the JTAC is showing as being located there as well (I moved him to the FOB right at the end of the mission). and... The planes that were ferried from Incirlik to Hatay are showing as in stock. I also kicked off the enemy AI and planes started spawning in So... Based on this quick test, I am prepared to say that I think we are now in business to run the Campaign as I had hoped, at last! Many thanks once again for all your trust and patience to get this working.

Ramrod 564 DCS event will be hosted on Sunday 23rd of February; briefing at 2000 GMT. Mossies and Mustangs available. @BluBear @fruitbat @Friar @PapaBear @wingflyr @Zukker @Squawk @DD_Sheriff @FoolTrottel @delta7 @Perfesser @T_O_A_D

on a Friday, early in the evening... 🙃

Blubear Air-to-Air refueling "chuck us a sandwich mate..."

Our DCS Server:

Our DCS Server:

I had a few Christmas bonus credit cards stacked up One that is soon to expire and I noticed WinWing had their stuff half the price it used to be, and I figured if I was going to do that I might as well spring for the GPU and upgrade from the Asus GTX 970 The Asus 4080 Super and the Winwing Throttle I'm miles yet from getting it configured and learning how. I just updated DCS and well that has certainly had some changes in the last 4 or more years. My trackIR is also not wanting to stay centered and programming a button doesn't seem to fix it either. I have DCS full settings at 3860 x 2160 on a LG 120hz gaming TV and it is absolutely beautiful with FPS in the 60-90's I'm still running my I5 at 3.6 too, so when it gets to being sick well LOL I also just went ahead and hacked my PC case I bought thinking would be big enough forever 12-14 years ago to make the 4080 fit in this case. It has a front rib cage for 10 or so drive bays, that I have never utilized, so when I cut out the obstruction area I made it the correct height to support the 4080, thus negating a need for a support stand or strap. I then split a piece of rubber tubing and laid it over the sharp edge for a soft cushion for the card. Luckily the 1000 watt PSU I put in back in back then too is well more than needed still.

I've been a baaaaad boi.... That's a VPForce Rhino base, a 20cm Virpil cranked extension, a VKB MkIII adapater and a VKB F-14 grip. Still waititing on a VKB Black Box controller to allow the grip to connect to the PC and then I will be obliged to indulge in some rather brutal furniture modifications (calling my woodworking skills carpentry would be an insult to the trade) to (a) provide a solid mounting surface so it doesn't throw itself around like some demon-possessed jack in the box, (b) provide an arrangement that will also trap the office chair roller wheels so as not to propel me away from the PC whenever I try and use my rudder pedals and (c) allow full free and unrestriced movement to the stick (currently the desk and the chair occlude it's movement). Time for a little surgery...

..taking long coastal and countryside walks, my wife keenly pointing out the views, the flowers and wildlife... ..me thinking about building a spreadsheet to help track the development of my Syria Campaign...

Thanks Arjen, not sure why it went offline but looking into it now. Colin: I'll get a proper SSL cert generated, then switch site to HTTPS and that 'not secure' will go away.

It really is a beautiful beast isn't it? Stunning restoration. I'd love to see this at a show over here, it's been a good 10 years since we've heard a Daimler Benz in these shores. If you can get your hands on a copy, I'd recommend the inaugural Vintage Aviation Echo (https://www.vaemag.com/preview-volume-i). Not only is it a wonderful publication, but one of the chapters is dedicated to Rote 12's restoration and test flight schedule, written by the pilot you see, renowned moustachioed RAF officer and warbird legend, Flt Lt Charlie Brown. Fun fact: Both Fenrir and I flew with this gentleman in a Boeing Stearman many many years ago as RAF cadets on warm summer's evening as a reward for marshalling at an airshow. Ahhh memories.

Here are some Screenshots I made of Chris and Tom flying in formation. Sadly I didn't know the hotkeys and i had to use the windows Screenshot tool so the quality is a bit lackluster

Hi Chaps, After Friar, Squawk, Alexandra and I had a session on Monday night, the fuel depot is now neutralised, and I made some efforts to degrade some of the SHORAD around the 'Insurgent Camp' some 10-20 miles East of objective "Charlie". I have annotated a satellite image to show you what I managed to figure out via my TGP: Be warned: there is still at least one SA-19 Grison/Tunguska on the SE side of the village, plus some HMG armed technicals on the Western side. Recommend at least one aircraft with LGB or Maverick dispatches that Tunguska prior to any ongoing ops over that target. Looking ahead, it will be challenging to operate over objective "Charlie" whilst the SA-10 near Sukumi (objective "Delta") is still up. To take that bastard down is going to require a saturation attack with multiple F-16 and/or F/A-18 launching HARMS from multiple attack axes. It's gonna require coordination.

Currenthill a Mod maker for DCS has been recruited to DCS. His Mod with be included into the game. I have had his Mods in my folder for years for personal enjoyment. DO NOT DOWNLOAD AS THEY WILL BE INCLUDED INTO NEXT DCS UPDATE. THIS IS TO CHECK OUT WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR DCS COMMUNITY FOR FREE. NOW I LOVE THESE TYPE OF MODS. Check out his wed site video and be amazed what he has contributed over the years for free. THERE IS ALSO A VIDEO BELOW ALSO, H.I.P. SERIES that highlight all that is coming and was released lately. Cheers. Currenthill MilSim Currenthill MilSim My assets are distributed in Military Asset Packets per country. You can browse the assets per country using th... DCS FREE ASSETS PACK | Current Hill & ED | Germany Map Resources | HIP Server Test Results - YouTube DCS FREE ASSETS PACK | Current Hill & ED | Germany Map Resources | HIP S...

DO NOT UPDATE YOU VIDEO CARD DRIVER TO VERSION 576.02 RELEASED ON APRIL 16 OR YOU MY HAVE PROBLEMS WATCH THIS VIDEO I think NVIDIA is doing this on purpose now... New driver issues. BEWARE!!! I think NVIDIA is doing this on purpose now... New driver issues. BEWARE!!!

GBS Servers updated to latest version.

I need to get a bigger hard drive.. That map is going to push the limits of peoples computers me thinks. Not just the area, but the fact that its all populated, at least on the Syrian map there's plenty of sea and desert!

Ok chaps, I am hoping I have resolved the AI spawn, so,....... I am going to have one last go tomorrow (Thursday) with the mission. (starting from fresh). The score module has been updated so I am afraid you will loose any score that is not banked if you are killed. I will save at the end of the night and then re-load it before the next session to see if it works, rather than save during the first session and then perhaps waster your time if it does not load. Fingers crossed. Hope to see you all in the next session. Friar

Our DCS Server:

Full Briefing - Release V1 Scenario Red forces have pushed out of Syria from Jarabulus in the eastern side of Syria and taken control of the regional airfield of Gaziantep in Turkey. There are also signs that they are planning to push in and take the Forward Operating Base located West of Rayhanli, code named "Alpha". These actions must be countered. Having negated these incursions Blue forces should then commence the push back into Syria and take over airfields, towns and FOBs all the way down to Damascus. Blue forces will start their fight back from Incirlik, Hatay, Adana and Akrotiri airfields as well as a small output FOB at Nurdagi. There is also a Carrier fleet in the locality. Game Play Other than the Carrier, FOBs and Adana all bases will use the Dynamic Spawn capability and hot start will be an option. These missions will track your scores and the impact from any encounters will be carried forward from mission to mission. You should make sure you land safely back at a Blue occupied base to bank your points. The results from each session must be saved via a menu option at the end of play. Menu options allow players to their view their own score and also the score for other players. Some of these menus are specific to certain plane types so depending on what you are flying means you may not see all the menu options. You will also be able to get an update on the status of airfields and towns as to which side is in control via the menu options. Once the controlling forces of an airfield or town have been negated the area can then be captured by the deployment of ground forces. Each new captured area provides the opportunity to pick-up new troops. Captured airfields will also provide new spawn points for aircraft and/or helicopters, thus assisting the move down the map. However should the red forces loose control of a base, they will probably mount an attack to recover any lost assets. Captured airfields will have very limited air defenses and it is strongly recommended that Hercules out of Adana bring in supplies once the airfield is safe and as early as possible after capture. Captured bases may also have limited number of spawns per plane type available so you will need to think about not just throwing away your air frame. Home bases have unlimited spawns and resources. Some bases once captured will not provide new spawns but will enable the option to land and repair, rearm or refuel. Some of these bases will require extra supplies to be brought in by the Hercules. Some captured FOBS will require ground resources to be sent in after capture to provide fuel and supplies before any RRR can take place. All captured bases will provide an opportunity to land and bank any kills you have to save your scores. Threats - Army The Red forces will have multiple ground units placed around the map defending key areas. You can expect to encounter many types of ground and air defenses. Some units may be held back and out of sight until required to take part in the engagement, so do not underestimate their strength. Threats - Air Force The Red air force is made up of an aging fleet of Migs and SU designated aircraft, but do not mistake this for being an easy fight. They will be deployed to patrol and attack where required to maximize their strengths. Threats - Navy There is a limited threat from the Red forces Navy. The only information we have is that there are three "Grisha" class corvettes currently located in Tartus port undergoing refits. Two of these three ships are awaiting sea trials before their weapons systems become fully operational. The other is believed to have completed the sea trials and now has all of its weapons systems functioning.

I have just uploaded a new version which I hope will correct a couple of the issues. The crew chiefs should now all speak English I have removed the display of points / kills to stop the screen being obliterated when @PapaBear does what PapaBear does. Should also help VR users. You now only have to land at the airfield and stop for 10 seconds to bank your points. The whole airfield is a safe zone. I may be on this evening to check these out, but if you want to test it please do. The mission can be re-started via the comss F10 menu, where you will also find other features.

Dogz day out

Carrier break!