DD_Fenrir

School boy error.

Thanks Swep, but I am putting together a skin pack including 487 Sqn, 464 Sqn and JG26 skins for this adventure. Will upload to vault closer to time.

Count me in you silly CloDs!

Jawohl!

Can't tell you much at the moment but can say that a Minimum of 12 volunteers needed for this venture, with total slots available up to 25. Maybe more, depending on interest. Mosquito FB.VI slots to be filled first, with Typhoon IB escort slots available depending on interest, but at least two (preferably three) Typhoon flight leaders required or all Typhoons will have to be AI. An unarmed Mosquito B.IV photo ship to film the raid (take track) can also be available for anyone with pacifist tendancies, or designs on a Hollywood directors chair! Mission date TBC - post SEOW most likely. Awaiting imminent HSFX 7.01 Hotfix to confirm fix to Mosquito FM. Potentially mission can be run as dogfight or co-op; for various reasons I would prefer co-op but it depends entirely on you gents and your enthusiasm. Please express your interest in joining and any preference (if any as) to what you fly. I will be taking a Mossie.

Ok chaps. Here are current allocations: Mosquito FB.VI 487 Sqn Red Section 1. Squawk 2. BluBear 3. Fruitbat Yellow Section 1. Sid 2. Friar 3. Pooka 464 Sqn Red Section 1. Fenrir 2. Sweper 3. Ovy Yellow Section 1. Rox 2. Jabo 3. Alpha Mosquito B.IV 140 Wing PR Flight 1. FT Typhoon Mk.Ib (Late) 245 Sqn Red Section 1. BadAim 2. Painless 3. 4. Yellow Section 1. Crash 2. 3. Artie 4. Green Section 1. Gec 2. 3. 4. As we can see still need more pilots, so please spread the word. Mission will be run as co-op, using the new taxi-to-takeoff feature. Speedbar will be limited to heading only. Icon settings as in SEOW. Map will show path but not player icon. For those who have already committed I have uploaded the skins that will be required on the big day, plus a practise dogfight mission for you to hone your low level bombing. Find it here: http://dangerdogz.com/forums/files/file/738-mosquito-training-skinszip/ Taxiing tips for the Mosquito in advance: for those with differential throttles, lead with the left and use ~35% power to get rolling the come back to 28% and 22% for left and right engines respectively, use rudder and brakes sparingly but start any corrections much earlier than you are used to in single-engined aircraft; with enough pre-empting and practise it soon becomes a helluva lot easier.

... of reasons to get back into Cliffs of Dover, then please indulge me a few moments of your time. I have recently updated the game to the Team Fusion patch 4.0 available here: http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6321 Now version 3 was pretty good; fixed a great deal wrong with the game but there were still issues - visibility of aircraft at crucial air combat ranges, clouds, visibility of ground objects etc, but it was pretty good work all the same. A good effort and hopefully a portent of things to come. So here's what happened when I popped onto the ATAG server after our SEOW tonight... I joined just as a new mission map had loaded; joined RAF and read the brief. Seems Jerry was after our airfields at Biggin Hill and Kenley and industrial targets in Sevenoaks and Gravesend, meaning they would have to cover a lot of ground over Kent to make such deep penetrations - interesting. Usually the maps degenerate into a series of low level furballs over coastal bases, typical dogfight server fare, so it was good to see efforts being made to force some more realistic air ops. The server was sent up to prevent RAF planes camping the Luftie bases and give them time to gather formations (if reds crossed the frontlines, their aircraft disassembled themselves!). I on a whim decided to fly from Biggin in my trusty Spitfire Mk.Ia (100 Octane) QJ-F despite there being closer bases. Turns out this was a good idea.... I took off smartly and once cleaned up, took a heading of about 110 degrees climbing all the way, watching my temps carefully and trying to juggle RPM and Boost to give me best climb rate without cooking the lovely Merlin. I arrived over Ashford about 10 minutes later at Angels 20 and started getting the gen from the controller of all sorts of trade building over the Channel. Working my way further southeast I had a brief scare when I spotted a contrail above and behind me but soon ID'd the blighter as another Spit and resumed my slightly less solitary patrol over the coast between Dungerness and Folkestone. It wasn't long before a friendly reported spotting a formation of 27 (!) bombers pushing out from Cap Gris Nez; no height was given as he was engaged and shortly thereafter had taken silk, information that certainly made me swallow a bit and inspired a bout of Messerschmitt twitch. Not long after as i scanned out to sea I saw a collection of faint grey dots upon the horizon - a great deal of faint grey dots, getting darker by the second. Having throttled back to cruise power as I maintained my sentinel status above the beaches of SE Kent it was time to get into fighting trim, RPM to 2700 and Boost to 6 PSI as I rolled onto a southerly heading. "Christ, lucky I was wafting about up here at 23000 ft" I thought to myself, "that formation isn't appreciably lower!" As the Spitty picked up speed in a shallow dive towards the rapidly oncoming phalanx of enemy aircraft I grimly noticed an ever increasing number of smaller dots in front, behind and above the formation - fighters! 4, 5, 7, 9, I stopped counting as I had no way to recognise which if any were friendly and had to focus on keeping the Spitty trimmed and pick out a target from the bomber formation. Would not matter much anyway, if I could blast though the formation head on before the escorts had time to react, I could worry about them afterwards. I also noticed and tried to ignore an inky black smoke trail above and behind the bomber formation that was etching it's way steadily earthwards. Those last 2000ft of range passed awfully quickly. At the last moment just before I was about to hit the trigger I recognised my target as a Do.17Z and struggled to put my pipper gently on his nose; I didn't want to ham-fistedly over control and in doing so make a collision an even more likely outcome than it already was. At the moment I judged best, I opened fire. As it was, we weren't quite head-on and the slight crossing angle made my shots go wide; I was aiming for his right-hand engine and a saw a brief ripple of incandescence on his right wing tip when a fraction of a second later I flashed by him at something close to 550mph. I immediately pulled up, promptly but not too hard in an effort to not overstress the airframe and also make the most of my zoom climb. As I floated over the top inverted I looked down, heartened by the sight of a number of other Spitfires and Hurricanes wading into the bombers from all sides, but also sensing a twinge of anxiety as I spotted yellow nosed 109s also amongst the aircraft below. As my Spitfire accelerated downhill in an inverted dive a rolled her upright, and then dropped a wing, left and right, clearing my tail in case I'd picked up any uninvited visitors. Looking back to where the bombers ought to be a saw them slightly further West then I'd expected but immediately ahead I saw two aircraft in long trail formation heading North and away in a slight right hand turn. Somehow something didn't seem right, and the more I looked the more I was sure the trailing aircraft was on an intercept course with the first. I dived on in pursuit of a situation that was looking increasingly unpleasant. Sure enough as the range decreased I recognised the trailing aircraft as a 109 and it soon transpired he aircraft in front was his intended prey - a Hurricane. Fortunately the chap in the Hurri was awake and spotted the 109 as it was about to nail him, breaking into climbing left hand turn. The 109 opened fire as I desperately tried to cut him off, still out of range. I was coming in fast though - a bit too fast as it turned out because as I reefed into a vertical climb to follow I saw that I closing on him much too fast for a well sighted accurate burst. I had just enough time to get a snap shot at him before I thundered past, the tearing of my gunfire coinciding with a series of smoke puffs on his right wing. As I continued up I saw the 109 roll away and dive for the French coast. Hurriedly i cleared my own tail, expecting to find one of his cohorts on my 6 about to ventilate my aircraft. Luckily I was not being trailed. I let the 109 go; no sense in chasing him, I'd never catch him and besides, there were bigger fish to fry. Having done my Samaritan bit for the day I endeavoured to catch up with the bomber formation that was no doubt ploughing it's way on to paste one of our valuable targets. I saw the formation a ways West of me and very slightly higher and made heading to intercept, all the while keeping paranoid vigil on my vulnerable six. I caught up with the group just Northwest of the airfield at Lympne at around Angels 19, disconcerted to find most of the aircraft having dissipated and the bulk of the remainder as friendly - two Spits near and slightly above me were on a converging course to a contact ahead - a solitary Dornier. The chap above and ahead closed faster than I and whether he missed or had run out of ammo I saw his attack come to nought. I checked around quickly to ensure I wasn't about to collide with a friendly and couldn't see anyone. Where that second Spit went is anyones guess. Also a quick chance to make sure no 109s lining me up as their next victim. All seemed clear. Satisfied that I wan't about to meet my maker I settled on a good solid guns solution on the Dornier, again surprised at the speed with which I was overtaking him. There was time for couple of one second bursts producing some light smoke, fuel leaks and a noticeable lurch from the bomber before I had to break off hard high and right in order to avoid collecting him. As I reefed around in an off vertical loop to drop in behind him again I confirmed the trails of grey smoke and obvious fuel vapour as well as the fact that he appeared to be drifting right in a gentle turn and apparently was loosing altitude to boot. Again checking for 109s, I levelled off behind him and was nicely in range with a good shot to his right wing root; a good second and a half burst produced a cloud of black smoke and a flicker of flame. Got ya! Now where are the rest of the brutes? To be continued....

Check your control assignments mate - unfortunately in DCS unlike Il-2 you can assign two axes to the same function so it maybe that you have another axis giving throttle input - as default the game assigns all axes equally so throttle quadrant axis y is mapped to exactly the same as joystick axis y and rudder axis y. Straight out of the box you'll have an impossible task trying to fly it so getting the controls all ironed out is a must! The crucial point here is to clear any input devices other than that you want it to be from the various input fields. Hope I am making sense. Otherwise post a screenie of your controls page for me.

Hello Dave, Buttons wise the only thing I can think of that I have mapped that's important for start-up & takeoff is Open/Close Canopy (shift/ctrl-C IIRC) and you might wanna map rudder trim to an axis or pot or something. If you have the facility to map left & right wheel brakes to an axis, I would also recommend. But more of that later. Otherwise I am doing everything via clickable cockpit. Most importantly though is your pitch axis - make sure you have a curve set. I find 22 a good compromise between sensitivity and controllability. Start-up is quite prompt when you can remember it! The in game tutorials are always good for that. Taxiing. Very little power is required to keep the mustang rolling, so whilst you might need a bit of oomph to get her started you'll find she saunter along quite happily with the throttle only fractionally open. Turning whilst taxiing is not quite as easy as Il-2; firstly even though your tail wheel is steerable, there are limits to it's range of motion, 6 degrees either side of centreline. This is quite sufficient for shallow bends,S-turns whilst taxiing and essential for takeoff. This steerable mode is engaged simply by holding the stick aft of centre. In contrast to fully unlock the tail wheel and make it free castoring, hold the stick forward of centre. Useful for spot turns etc. The best way to get it going is, rather than to apply rudder. to lightly tap the brake in the direction you want to turn. The tail will quickly - and I mean quickly! - start coming round. It will also accelerate as the tail carries round and converts your forward momentum into a ground loop VERY quickly so be ready to catch her with a dab (or three!) of opposite brake as she comes round. remember if you are bimbling along doing about 20mph without much throttle on you'll have bugger all in terms of rudder authority so just hoping the rudder is going to catch it is a fools hope. Be sparing with the brakes though, cos a nose over is not out of the question. Take-off. Get nicely lined up, and make sure that the tail wheel is locked in the steerable mode (stick aft of centre) and more importantly that it is centred. I have seen so many people get all nicely squared but their tail wheel is at almost right angles to the direction of travel where they've made a 90 degree turn to get into position on the runway. They wonder why the plane suddenly veers as they power up! So after you have pulled on to the runway just run her forward gently a few feet until you're sure the tail wheel is centred in the 6 degree steering mode. Last checks - 1. Close canopy 2. Flaps UP 3. Dial in 6 degree of right rudder trim 4. Stick held slightly aft of centre - no need for it to be in your gut 5. Take a brave pill. Power up smoothly to 45 inches Manifold Pressure (MP) - that's all you need for now. Cobb the engine and she'll get all gyroscopic and squirrelly on you the moment the tail lifts. Just ease up the power to this mark, it's plenty for takeoff and concentrate on keeping her straight on the rudder - I find tiny little darts and jabs of rudder far more effective than sitting on it. It's tricky and the visual cues are almost imperceptible but you have to be on top of them real quickly and preempt - I can't stress that word enough, PREEMPT! - any movements you think might be happening. If she starts to get away from you then by the time you've got enough control authority to pull her back things just start getting real unpleasant. Then providing you haven't ground looped already in a ball of incandescent avgas, your massive correction will turn into a massive over-correction (cos you didn't release the rudder fast enough) and you'll end up ground looped in a ball of incandescent avgas... only this time on the other side of the runway. If you've kept her somewhere near straight during the initial power up then you'll sense she wants to lower her nose as the speed builds; just let her do it in her own time. Relax a little back pressure and be prepared for a little dance on the rudder as the precession takes, though if you let her do it in her own time it's barely noticeable. If you force the tail off in anything but a feather-light manner she'll ground loop and kill you in a heart beat. Ok by now you should be roaring down the runway doing something approaching 100mph - TBH I don't even look at the ASI, I just let her get on with it. With the horizon now on the nose I ever so gently bring the stick gently back a fraction of a smidge and wait till she's ready to lift off - if you keep hauling back until she reacts you will A - at best be wondering why nowts happening when she suddenly leaps into the air and scares the bejezus out of you - then you'll spend the next 10 seconds correcting and then over-correcting, porpoising around like a noob, or, B - at worst she'll leave the ground too quickly and snap stall and roll on her back only a few feet off the runway. Cue the ground looped in a ball of incandescent avgas - again. (Though in truth, this is more of a full on air crash.) Once airbourne that rudder trim you dialled in for Take-off will make itself painfully apparent so get on the trim, get your gear up and come back on the prop pitch to 2700rpm. Voila you are flying the P-51! Hope this helps mate.

I'm competent in P-51, A-10C and Huey, plus can help you get off the ground and basics weapon management in F-15C or A-10A for those with FC3. If you chaps wanna book an evening in to get together then there are weapons training servers available out there already on the Multiplayer lists, which given the issues I have had hosting some DCS missions in the past would probably be the best idea. On a side note 1.2.6 is a little buggy in multi-player currently; it might be worth hanging on for the next update before committing to a date for any DCS evening.

Oooooh..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8vUOnoBVuE&feature=youtu.be

Arthur me old fruit - try an uninstall but also rename the folder found here - C:\Users\<Your User Name>\Saved Games\DCS <-- this folder - after your uninstall has completed. Then reinstall. I suspect the .lua files in this folder could be to blame; like RoF these databases can be a pain. When new field entries are referenced (i.e. a new assignable control function not featured in previous game versions) they cause all sorts of hiccups, crashes or performance issues. They aren't just used for controls but all sorts of data storage for the game. My bet is the latest versions of the game are trying to find a field in a .lua file in there that, whilst there is not precisely where the program is expecting it to be and therefore causing your issues. This will mean you will lose all your graphic settings - aaaargh!!!!- control profiles - double arrgh!!!! - and you can't port them across cos you'll be back to square one - triple aaargh!!!! - so will have to reset all your controls from scratch - quadruple fetid bollocks aaaargh!!!! One of DCS series' least user friendly features alas. If it's any consolation I've done it so many times I'm getting quite efficient at it by now.... If you want some TS time for me to talk it through with you mate, will happily oblige, Just PM me if so.

Although I already passed on my Birthday salutations via TS I thought I'd better do so here also, as I know how a person of your advanced years can get forgetful. Happy Bloomin' Birthday you magnificent fellow! HUZZAH!

Blubear - hell yes! You choose the mount & I'll fly it. Also if I could be greedy and have a solo spot too, I'd love to do a P-38 display.

Happy Birthday lads! May your festivities be... well... festive! Another year deserves another beer and all that. Have a corker!

I know some of boys will love this.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxvzYxptgHA&feature=c4-overview&list=UUd7riKT_-ZLPSLthPY6dGZQ Listen carefully and you can hear the gun ports whining under G... awesome!

Page 2?!?! The Great Aeroplane video thread?!? Fingers out chaps! Let's be havin' some more cinematic aviation goodness from you. I'll start with this. Naturally... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xubCaOlHJOE

Ok, here come the pictures (those of a nervous or sensitive disposition should grow some.. !) The night before: At the museum;more pipes then the organ at the Albert Hall! Oooh, matron!: The reason for the visit; A4 class locomotive 'Mallard', no.4468 of the London North Eastern Railway, who achieved the world speed record for a steam locomtive 75 years ago: and some idiot standing in front: Not only Mallard but ALL of her surviving kin have been brought together for the commemorative occasion, including two shipped across the Atlantic from Canada and The States: 'Bittern' still runs out on the Main Rail Network doing rail tours along with two others, 'Sir Nigel Gresley' (named for her designer) And 'Union of South Africa'. Bittern was recently cleared for a 90mph run on the East Coast Main Line between Kings Cross and Edinbrugh; not too shabby for a 75 year old!: Video footage of 'Union of South Africa' at what I believe scientists call 'a fair old lick': 'Bittern's 90mph run: That damn idiot again, this time in front of 'Sir Nigel Gresley': Me and my (long suffering) Carer: BluBear and his (not so long but soon to be suffering) Carer: Some grown up moron pretending that he's driving Mallard. It's not moving you chump!: Some bright young lad (who's a credit to his Mum), also pretending to be driving 'Mallard'. Bless.: AAAAAARGH! After that last picture, I doubt a simple adjust will suffice - where's my spare undies?: In all seriousness what a bloody marevellous time, thanks Painless, BluBear and Mark for your enthusiastic company and so too the ladies whose enthusiasm also was appreciated if mainly for the benefit of the lads; so sorry you missed it Nick, looks like we made it by the grace of good fortune before the queues got ridiculous. Hope you're feeling a bit better.

Strictly speaking Dom, a full length stick will give you better fine control and you won't need any form of exponential input shennaigans like the rest of us with short throw sticks. What are your numbers like at the moment (on your joystick curve I mean?)

Elllll-eeee-ohht... Looks like ET just lost his unique party trick.

I shall be online at 2030 BST and headed straight for the ATAG Server - if you care to join your company will be delightfully appreciated.

It must be said that Mr Arthur does take some exceedlingly good screenies... lovely work sir.