Mission Download: TM03

Moving forward with our training syllabus this morning we will embark on a flight up to the Training Range. We'll take off and join up with COBRA flight and accompany them up to watch some live weapons fire. COBRA flight consists of two AT-6B Texan II who are in a more advanced stage of training. They will be doing some practice attack runs on static targets on the range. Our goal is to get a little formation flying practice and spend some time watching their attacks and keeping our situational awareness around the target area.



Our loadout will consist of just a pair of external fuel tanks.



We take off and start our immediate left turn to find COBRA flight who is just passing overhead the field. If we stay on our assigned flight plan we should end up within visual range to acquire them. They will be flying at 8,000' enroute to the range so keep maximum power to cruise climb up to join them.





This morning the sun rising in the east casts an orange glow on everything in the glare can be pretty tough when looking into it.



At a bit more than 3 miles we are able to use our targeting key (friendly target select = "Y") to select and padlock (F4) to acquire COBRA flight. I've edited my setup to make the padlock box very small and miniaturized the information boxes. With the information boxes you can compare your speed and altitude to your targets (definitely a cheat).



Closing on the lead aircraft I slide into position to his right. Between TrackIR and the padlock view I find it is easier to maintain position using a fixed forward view actually since the movement of both TrackIR and padlock can induce excessive corrective movements until I get more practice. The padlock good is great while maneuvering however and setting up a button to flip padlock on and off is helpful since the view rapidly pans from the center cockpit view to the padlock and back giving you a good sense of orientation (I don't know if canopy lift/reference lines are a possibility in other aircraft).





Care should be taken when flying in formation with AI aircraft when approaching waypoints since they can sometimes make abrupt course and altitude changes. Collisions are a very real possibility unless you give them some space to maneuver.



Reaching the Initial Point we start the run in toward the target and I let the COBRA flight take some spacing out in front of me.



Soon the target range comes into view through the mid layer broken layer.



Using the "coming in out of the rising sun" tactic...



At a distance of several miles, the first volley of shots from COBRA are stand-off Hellfire missile shots.





The targets for this morning are a dozen fuel tanker trucks that have been placed near one of the range "bullseyes" for easy reference. As the Hellfires slam into the target the explosions rock the range. * Thanks to "Stary" for the awesome Unified Effects package that enhance many of the effects in SF2!





The AT-6s are able to get off multiple Hellfire shots on the first pass and quickly there are four targets on fire. * NOTE - This should give you a "Mission Success" since your primary target is the same as COBRA flights. They need only destroy 25% of the targets for a mutual mission success. Since you have no weapons we are relying on them to accomplish their task.





After exhausting their Hellfire missiles, COBRA flight comes back around for a couple rocket passes. The smoke trails and impact effects are awesome to behold.







We use a combination of TrackIR and friendly padlock ("Y" key) to keep track of our position and deconflict over the target area. Obviously we don't want to insert ourselves between the attackers and the targets at any point. In order to track ground targets we can use the "target enemy" command ("T") as long as they are within visual range. We can then see an identifier box (if we chose to in our difficulty settings) and padlock the target if we chose.





COBRA flight is doing a good job cleaning up as they make their final rocket runs.





With their rockets and missiles exhausted they soon turn to their pod mounted cannons. I keep on the tail of one of them as he rolls in hot once again.



With their guns blazing the COBRA flight rips up the target area, but all of their shots appear to be long and they get no kills even after multiple passes.







On pass after pass they miss with their gun passes and I suspect something is messed up with their gun aiming logic.





Eventually they exhaust their cannon rounds and we all head back to base.



This flight was a lot of fun and I finally got to see some stuff get blown up. The AT-6B Texan II is an awesome looking aircraft.

The AT-6B is a combination of efforts by Dels, Dave, and FastCargo available HERE AT-6B Texan II. Very nice job by those guys and I can't wait to take one to the range.



The mission is a success and my 3rd mission goes down in the books.





Thanks to all the folks here at SimHQ and Combat Ace for all the hints, tips, and advice. I know I'm high maintenance with all my questions and requests.

Stay tuned for more training missions to follow.

Regards!
BeachAV8R

I've not bought any of the Ver 2 Third Wire sims mainly because of the lack of MP, but I'm being tempted by your training missions!

BeachAV8R are you still looking for manuals on flying the T-6 Texan II?

Keep the first gen sims for MP but get the 2nd gen ones for SP! There are so many minor improvements as well as some major ones that it really is a must for SF fans.


The Jedi Master

Well, I'll put it this way - it is what it is.. While there are certainly things about SF2 that can be frustrating, overall it is a fantastic and fun sim-lite that is a lot of fun to play. Very moddable. It would be nice to have some MP action for sure.



PM Sent..

BeachAV8R

Great read

The addtional aircraft aren't appearing on my mission... have I made a noob mistake again? I did complete the mission though - just blew them up myself