After my eye-opening dry run sortie though the battlefield east of Sukhumi I’m abandoning my shot up Su-25T and taking a spare straight Su-25 back up the coast to return to my home base. My instructors back at home are anxious about my proximity to the front lines and I can hear the battle drawing every closer as enemy forces converge on the airfield. Time to get out of Dodge! Strapping into the Su-25 I notice some similarities with the –T but there are some significant differences as well.



As soon as I hit the electronics ON switch the gyros start spinning up and I notice the threat receiver is chirping loudly in my ear. Someone in the area (friend our foe?) must be using their radar.



Another pilot will be ferrying out another Su-25 and he is still in his hardened aircraft shelter as maintenance finishes up some final items on his aircraft.



Meanwhile I get my engines started and prepare to roll forward toward the departure runway. The last of the men remaining at the base are due to be evacuated shortly after our departure in the IL-76 cargo aircraft further down the ramp.



As I start moving forward I hear a muffled “crump-crump-crump-crump” and stare with my mouth open as a line of explosions rips across the airfield from north to south.



Holy crap! Air raid! Air raid! Looking up through my canopy I can see the lone Tu-95 bomber screaming across the airfield at several hundred meters. Obviously the anti-aircraft defenses around the airfield have already been dismantled or abandoned.





Cont…

As the explosions march off across the runway and bombs continue to explode out to the airport perimeter my wingman (unwisely) emerges from his hardened aircraft shelter, no doubt ready to get out of here while it is still possible.



I start taxiing for the departure runway and as I roll down the taxiway I see another line of explosions marching east to west across the field, this time the bombs crash into the large aircraft hangars and buildings on the east side of the field before the string starts impacting among the hardened aircraft shelters. The bombs going off are muffled through my headset but I can still hear the impacts.



I see the shadow of a Tu-22 flash across the ground as he completes his high speed, low altitude run.



As I taxi by numerous airfield buildings are engulfed in flames and several collapse as they burn. Obviously this was a coordinated attack meant to put this airfield out of business and I wonder what is coming next. Now I wish I’d gone into fighter training instead of attack training!



Pulling out onto the main runway I’m waiting for my dawdling wingman to arrive when I see another shadow eclipse the sun! What the hell?? Paratroopers?? The mystery is solved when the rocket motors ignite on the runway cratering muntions driving the warheads into the pavement and causing massive slabs to erupt upward.





A massive explosion just misses my aircraft at the end of the runway.



Cont…

Other MiG-27s coming racing over the airfield dispensing their payloads of BetAB bombs at multiple impact points on the runway.





I give my wingman a wave, wish him good luck and figure I can just barely squeak by on the left side of the cratered runway. Once on the other side of the crater I hope I have enough room between chunks of missing pavement to lift off.



I pull the aircraft off the runway as soon as I can, burbling on the edge of a stall as the AOA spikes. Pulling up the gear and retracting the flaps the brave tower controller tells me to “buster South” and wishes me good luck.



As I accelerate out over the open water I hug the deck and pray that the MiGs are concentrated more on their airfield attack than a lone attack aircraft. My fears come true when I see a few tracer rounds go zipping over the canopy.



I push the throttle forward so hard I think I’m going to bend the metal, I’m soon rocketing ahead at 900 kph and the airframe buffets in protest. I scissor back and forth and several times I see canon shells stitch the water around me as the MiG angles for a shot. Just then I get a warning tone I’ve never heard before on the threat receiver and I assume he has shot a missile at me!



I crank my jet over into a climbing right turn and pop flares and chaff continuously as I wonder how much longer I have to live. In a flash the missile passes behind me and wanders off to explode harmlessly. That was close!



”Sorry little man..” I hear over the radio. As I see a friendly MiG-29 zip behind me getting ready to fire another missile, this time at my attacker!



Cont…

Boom! Splash one MiG-27!



My heart pounding terror turns to elation and morbid curiosity as the 4-ship flight of MiG-29s comes roaring over the airfield engaging in a twisting and turning battle with the MiG-27s. I try to keep up with the action but it is difficult to tell who is who in the melee. Flashes of missiles and their smoke trails dot the skies and occasionally a puff of black smoke denotes a hit as debris rains down on the sea and airfield area.



The Fulcrums show excellent flight discipline as each picks an individual target to chase down, as though they have sorted the bandits prior to engaging them.





I cheer every time I see a brown plane go down in flames and I am particularly gratified when I see another take a hit and see the pilot eject near the airfield. Hopefully the surviving airfield combatants can snatch the pilot and bring him out with them when they complete the evacuation.





It’s all over in a matter of minutes and the score is 4 dead MiG-27s and only one MiG-29 loss to a guns shot by a lucky MiG-27.





Cont…

With the immediate air battle over I take a look at my map and cycle my waypoint to my airfield refueling point (Gelendzhik) where I’m supposed to stop for fuel and drop off some parts for other sick aircraft that need to be ferried out of the forward battle area. I settle in for the 300 km trip up the coast and am comforted by the fact that the MiG-29 fighter sweep is continuing out in front of me to clear the skies.



Hugging the coastline the mountainous terrain rears up from the coastal plains.



Using the map view (a bit of a cheat) I watch the MiG-29 flight continue up the coast and then watch anxiously as another enemy fighter group comes arcing in from the west to execute a perfect “stern conversion” on the unsuspecting MiG-29s. I do question the likelihood of this maneuver actually succeeding since the lead aircraft in the attack cuts across the nose of the two trailing MiG-29s; I find it unlikely that an enemy would survive such a maneuver.





Whatever the case, the MiG-29s eventually detect the MiG-23s and plug in full burner in an attempt to escape.



The MiG-23s close with and start picking off the Fulcrums.





Cont…

While I’m watching the show I become oblivious to my own danger until I hear the bleep of my threat warning receiver and realize that now I’ve become a target! The occasional bleep turns into a steady whine for a few seconds and I panic again realizing I’ve wandered far to close to the air battle. On the map I can see one of the MiG-23s coming for me and this time I know there will be no Cavalry coming to the rescue. I roll inverted and dive for the deck and accelerate up to top speed again, once again the rumbling and shaking of the cockpit bounces me around and distorts my view. As I dip into a valley my threat receiver goes quiet but as I crest the next ridge I get hit with a radar spike again. Over the course of a few turns, dips and dives the pursuit goes on but eventually I find a nice long and deep valley to stay hidden in as I race away to the east. The MiG-23 never reacquires and I skulk off at low altitude hoping to keep a low profile for the rest of the flight.





With me off their scope the MiG-23s turn inland and fly to Maykop to recover. The Tu-95 Bear that kicked off the attack also makes it safely back to base and I briefly wish I had some ordnance onboard to hit them while they are on the ground.



Staying at low altitude I work my way back to the coastline and continue following it to the northwest. Once in range of the tower at Gelendzhik they warn me of heavy enemy naval activity along the coast including ships landing troops and equipment and they also indicate that enemy anti-aircraft units have already encircled the airfield and that landing will be at my own risk. Soon enough I’m passing over the enemy cargo ships lying at anchor off the coast.



Squeezing past the surface warships that are staying a bit off the coast to avoid being attacked themselves my threat receiver picks up their scanning signals as I pick my way through toward the airfield, remaining a respectful distance away from the ship and the anti-aircraft units taking up positions around the airfield. It looks like the besieged airfield won’t be in business much longer, but I need the gas and the technicians need the parts I’m carrying.



Lining up on final I make probably my best visual approach and landing to date. No overshooting final this time when the consequences are so severe!





After landing the tower encourages me to taxi quickly into the hangar so that I don’t attract unwanted attention from air attacks. I ask about Sukhumi airfield from where I left and he replies sadly ”Sukhumi now belongs to the enemy.”

My experiences near the front have reinforced how important weapons training is going to be. Only the strong will survive for long out here. I must hurry to get back to my curriculum so that I can get back here to help out the cause.

- - - - - -

This mission can be downloaded here: http://www.mudspike.com/lomac/simhq07.zip

Notes on this mission:

Obviously I designed this mission, so the “surprises” really weren’t “surprises” at all as you can well imagine. Nor will they be to you now that I’ve disclosed the “story”. But I think it is easy to see where people that fly other people’s missions can be endlessly entertained by the design, quirks, and surprises that they can incorporate into missions. I’m only barely able to use the Mission Editor, and while it can be time consuming to hand craft a mission, what can be done is pretty impressive.

This mission starts out with a relatively spectacular first few minutes. My machine stutters for just the first bomb explosion or two then all the subsequent action is very smooth. I don’t know if those first explosions somehow get buffered and that is what causes the slight delay, but after that everything was smooth sailing on my rig. I ran through this mission multiple times to finally get it to where I thought everything works out, but the experience changes each time. I’d recommend NOT taking off until the MiG-27s finish their second bombing run or you might find yourself biting off more than you can chew! Also beware of friendly fire! Apparently those active homing radar missiles care not who lies in their path.

I’ve left all of the options open for things such as map views, enemy views, enemy and friendly icons on the map, etc. Again, this is where I can foresee a great mission designer to use his/her magic to really design a great mission. By limiting the amount you know about a mission before and during I think you can really add to the suspense and surprise factor. Since mine are “learning” tools more than true missions or a campaign, I’m choosing to let people see what is going on behind the scenes.



BeachAV8R

PS - We'll be getting back into the "training" (ie: learning) in the next couple missions. I thought it was important to show some of the additional "fun stuff" beyond just learning the systems in a stale kind of way. What I think is good about these missions is that anyone can fly them since all you have to do is drive around and use the stick and throttle pretty much. There are no weapons (yet!) so even the brand new LOMAC/FC pilot can fire these up and try their hand at just flying and surviving.

Very nice Beach, definetly like the story better mission than I could design lol.

Chris,
Those are some of the best sequences of screen shots I've seen.

Excellent.

Well done all around!

Another nice read. BTW, I notice that those MiG-29s that got bounced while sweeping ahead of you ran out of fuel--or the one(s) in your images did, anyway. That's probably why they were taken so easily.

Rich