Kira

It's official! https://flyingironsimulations.com/blogs/news/dcs-a-7e-corsair-ii-by-flyingiron-sims

In a word: FLAPS! Use them in turns, and at high altitude, but NOT above around 350-400 knots-ish as you will break them. No need for afterburner going downhill, but plenty of gas for using it uphill. Don't use flaps going uphill, as you need to minimize drag to maintain energy. If your wings start to sweep, you're going too fast in a turn fight. You can easily dominate a fight with use of either turn, due to the high lift of the sweeping wing, or you can use energy, as you have bagfulls of fuel. Use your mirrors to check your slats as your flaps are directly linked. Slats out? Your flaps are down.

Note that you can adjust the horizon bar on both the HUD and the VDI (the top big display in the pilot's cockpit), to put the horizon back to level regardless of nose angle. The knobs are on the lower right of the VDI. HUD knob is white, VDI is red. As set at mission start, the HUD at least is slightly low for cruise flight, which can be annoying. Adjusting once on speed for landing might help. Or it could just make things even more confusing.

As Fen says, landing mode worked great - in theory. In practice, it was so slow to respond that it was useless (by the time the information got displayed, you'd be, as you said, in the drink), so they used some other mode. Personally, I prefer takeoff mode for the vertical speed on the HUD.

I'd be interested, but can not guarantee availability for mission days. F-14B and A-10C for me, though I'm severely rusty with both.

Let it sit for a few days, and plugged it in on a whim today... It worked! Immediately bought the only 2 TB drive available, and am currently in the process of moving the files over to that one. Have the window open and the door closed, and it's COLD in here! But the files shall be saved! (In whole, I hope.)

Hmmmm, yeah. I might try that cooling possibly. Hate that I lost stuff all the way back to 2014, though. Eh, my own fault for not making multiple backups.

The other day, my computer (2 HDDs) wouldn't boot. I tracked it to my backup drive, a 2TB Seagate Barracuda, with a platter. Unplugged it, and the other drive booted fine, but found that the 2TB was rather hot to the touch. Not good. Did some research, found the dreaded "clicking", that is, the read arm skipping and resetting as it failed to read - and apparently grinding scratches across the 1s and 0s as it went. Confirmed it on another computer (with a quieter fan, so that I could hear the clicking). The drive (and all my backups!) are most likely gone, but the only possibility the internet gave me of even a hope of recovering anything was sending it to a specialist in data recovery, which the sources stated would NOT be cheap, and also not be guaranteed, bordering on not worth it based on the probability that the HDD platter was scratched from the read arm skipping on it, and that the data is destroyed. Thoughts? Other options? Thanks, all.

Rather steep on the approach, yes?

Totally missed this, too: Chuck was able to overcome whatever the issue with making a tutorial for the Tomcat was. Here's Chucks F-14 guide: https://www.mudspike.com/chucks-guides-dcs-f-14b-tomcat/

Counter-counter argument: By making something that is useful difficult to access, you open up a bunch of ability to 'make a mess of stuff' when you hide the 'useful to mess with' stuff in a place with all that 'stuff shouldn't be messed with' and the 'useful to mess with' stuff is finally found. So there! 😁

My thoughts exactly. The only reason to hide such a useful file location is to make it difficult on the end user.

Speaking of, I can't get my Reqium 6DOF profile to show up in TIR 5. It's in the correct folder (NatrualPoint/TrackIR/Profiles), but does not show up on the Profile tab under Profiles in the program. Ideas? I have hidden files viewable, which was the first thing mentioned on the DCS forum. No luck. NEVERMIND. It's NP being idiotic. Profiles are now WELL hidden, their location: C:\Users\yourname\AppData\Roaming\NaturalPoint\TrackIR 5\Profiles You'll probably have to un-hide hidden files to see 'AppData'. Grumble. So simple, yet so not.

On the other hand, they have to get paid too. They're the only group doing this with any slant towards realism, and if you find something you like, it's worth paying them for their time and effort, as well as providing them with operating capital with which to provide more. Remember, sim making is a back end paying job. You don't get paid until the product is out the door.

Side note from the U.S. side of the pond: I recall that the Navy calls home base "Home Plate" as in home plate on a baseball field. The symbol used in the chart above is very much like a baseball home plate marker on any baseball field.