So Ya Dont Wanna Kill Yourself...

[Tinkicker]

Had an afternoon sat in the front seat of a F14B Tomcat, getting launched off the front of CVN71 Theodore Roosevelt.   Its been awhile...  I need to use them more.  The carrier and tomcat modules combined cost well over £100, probably headed for £150.  I have in the region of £1k invested in DCS modules.

 

The takeoffs were OK.  The landings are better off not being mentioned.  If you want to live, do not attempt to trap aboard an aircraft carrier with well over 12 months since your last attempt and last flight in the aircraft.  Actually I only killed myself once, but I only trapped once in five attempts.

 

Then I remembered this short movie, a tribute to top gun.  Its quite a thing making short movies and clips from DCS footage.  You will have seen far more DCS than you realise when watching stuff.

 

I thought you would enjoy it.

 

Be amazed at all the stuff that is fully modelled both animation and real world physics wise, even though you never see it.

 

Top Gun...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 8, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

Yup.  Almost every news channel carried this one.  You will remember it.

This footage is a hoax.  And what is more, it was created with DCS freebies.  Not a penny spent to fool the entire media world.. In this case, the Daily Telegraph.

 

 

[Simon Davey]

The Top Gun clip is excellent, and would make for a great movie trailer, to think that it's DCS makes it all the more impressive. 

 

The Russian eject is incredible, I can see how it convinced people, but that impact explosion is a bit of a giveaway. However, that's easy to judge, because I know in advance, I too would be convinced otherwise. 

[Tinkicker]

My first love is always the A10.  I always go back to that.  I tend to buy a jet, study it for awhile, make short campaigns for it and then shelve it for a period of time before revisiting it.  Some I just dont get along with.

The Northrop F5 tiger and the F86 Sabre spring to mind.  Bought them and flew them a bit, then ignored them.  I do not even have them on my machine anymore.

 

Sadly, I think the F4 Phantom is going the same way.  Spectacular aircraft but just does not hit the spot for me.  I have had it probably six months and I would bet that I have no more than 10 hours in it.  For me, money down the drain.  It takes a lot of effort to produce missions and if I do not enjoy flying the aircraft, I will not bother.

The thing that these three aircraft have in common is that they need constant attention to fly well.  The trim button on my stick is in constant operation and they are very much eyes in cockpit types.  I like to kick back and watch the scenery drift by on the way to and from the target and these jets do not allow that.  Just as in real life.

 

Of course, the other thing is it is a two seater and you have to communicate with jester sat in the rear cockpit. The interface used is very immersion breaking and I seek true immersion.  With the hog, I am not sat in the spare bedroom, I am actually flying an A10 over Syria or Iran for three hours, such is the total immersion achieved.  Your brain suspends reality.

The F14 also has jester sat in the back and I do not fly that much either.....

 

Horses for courses.  Some join DCS for the flying, some for the killing.  I am the former I want to fly.

 

Shame because Heatblur have done an astounding job on it.  If you spent ten secnds in my rig with headset on, without knowing where you were, you would swear blind you had been sat in the real thing.  Its only when you start putting your hands out to touch things (as everyone always does the first time) and they are not physically there that the jig would be up.

 

 

I should really try a bit harder to get along with it.

 

 

How they do it....

 

 

Edited November 9, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Simon Davey]

Flippin' 'eck, you just wouldn't believe it wasn't real (if you know what I mean). 

 

Going back to the Top Gun video, having seen the original at the cinema, the score really adds to the atmosphere. 

[Tinkicker]

Well.  The Phantom was getting under my skin so designed a quick mission.  Simply a ferry flight from Anderson AFB on Guam to Saipan International, overflying Tinnian Island.  After a quick tutorial to get me back up to speed getting the thing fired up, I had a nice uneventful flight.

 

 

Tinnian Island from 25,000ft.  The partly overgrown runways are where Enola Gay and Bockscar loaded up their atomic bombs and set course for Japan.  Rightly, or wrongly.  They did knock years off the war and saved many thousands of  future deaths on both sides in doing so.  The tiny Island just above the mirror is called Rota and Saipan is about 15 miles at my 7 oclock position.  Guam is about 140 miles in the distance, way out of view.

 

Pic is rubbish after being compressed by paint, then Nikon NXT, then Flickr. then on here.  Very grainy.  In the headset, everything is pin sharp.

 

Edit.towards the right hand side of the island (south) you can see an overgrown concrete apron in the shape of a letter Y.  Each arm of the Y is where the loading pits are for the atomic bombs.  The bombs were too big to trailer under the plane, so they dug two concrete pits, lowered the bombs into the pits, towed the aircraft back until they straddled the pits and then hoisted the bombs up into the B29 bomb bays.

 

All these abandoned old WW2 airfields in the pacific are currently in the act of being cleared, repaired and brought back into USAF service in order to make China think twice about invading Taiwan.  They are expecting conflict with an ever more aggressive China gearing up for war over Taiwan around 2027.

 

 

 

Edited November 9, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

9 hours ago, Simon Davey said:

The Top Gun clip is excellent, and would make for a great movie trailer, to think that it's DCS makes it all the more impressive. 

 

The Russian eject is incredible, I can see how it convinced people, but that impact explosion is a bit of a giveaway. However, that's easy to judge, because I know in advance, I too would be convinced otherwise. 

 

Yes Ejecting from an aircraft in DCS whilst in VR is an incredibly violent experience esp if you have a seat shaker.