Today’s mission is a rescue escort to pick up a downed Su-25 pilot in the Malka river valley.



We will escort the rescue Mi-8 helicopter and suppress the enemy while the helo extracts the pilot. After the pickup we will proceed to Nalchik Airport.





We pick up the Mi-8 as he flies over the top of FARP “TORBA”. I’m not very enthusiastic about this plan since we will be escorting the Mi-8 directly to the site. Were it me, I would have the Mi-8 orbit until we’ve had an opportunity to recon the area and eliminate any threats from standoff range.





I use my Shkval and laser range-finder to maintain the pre-briefed half click spacing behind the Mi-8.



For this mission we are carrying my most hated weapon – all rockets. I’m terrible with rockets. I set my salvo to medium so that I don’t have to press the trigger too many times to get a good spread of rockets.



I do like the encouragement by the Mi-8 pilot to “spare no ammo” however!



We top a ridgeline and descend into the Malka valley and fly toward the pick-up point.



I set my countermeasures panel to dispense from both sides, anticipating a hornet’s nest.



The Mi-8 drops down to the river below and he tells us to watch the treeline higher up on the slopes.



As he approaches the pickup point near a house gunfire erupts from the hillside to our right. We can see tracer rounds bouncing off the ground near the pickup point. Enemy infantry are laying in wait along the treeline.



I can’t see them, but I can see where the tracer fire is emanating from. I unload a couple salvos of rockets into the treeline hoping the gunfire doesn’t take out the Mi-8 and end the mission before it has even started.





I start popping flare just in case and order my wingman to engage any targets he happens upon.





As the Mi-8 enters a hover to pick up the pilot I race up the valley, pull up hard and execute a hard pedal turn to put my nose back on the treeline. I go to fire my rockets and can’t believe I used them all on the first run! Damn. I select the gun and use the fixed position to strafe the treeline as I roar back overhead.





The canon fire riddles the enemy troops as the shells explode. The Mi-8 continues the extraction and I have no idea where my wingman has gone.





The Mi-8 reports the pilot is aboard and he takes off down the valley. I order my wingman to rejoin and we race out of the valley at low level.



As we exit the valley the Mi-8 reports we are clear and gives us the mission success! I relax a bit and take up formation alongside for the flight over to Nalchik.





I’m bored and messing around with buttons in the cockpit (never a good idea) and suddenly realize I have a whole two more pods of rockets left!! After expending the first salvos I forgot I could switch to the other pylons (normally I would have Vikhrs there). Dumb!



From out of nowhere my wingman yells “SAM launch” and a second later the missile impacts behind us. My flares must have decoyed it since neither of us has any damage. I check and verify the Mi-8 is still flying along. Why he doesn’t drop to low altitude is beyond my comprehension. We are sitting ducks here.





In desperation I order my wingman to engage enemy air defenses, but he himself becomes engaged defensive as another missile flies up toward us from our flank.





The second missile misses as well and for a minute I think we are going to survive this ambush.



A third missile arcs up from the general vicinity of the other ones and this time my flares don’t get the job done. I take a hit and pray that it is only one engine.



No such luck. I become a brick as both engines fail. I bottom my collective and maintain my forward airspeed as I set up for an auto-rotation.

I glance out my left side and decide to head for the valley. I actually do a pretty good job of manage speed and keeping my rotor energy up as I approach the flare. As I raise my nose and start adding the stored energy via the collective to cushion my impact I get a bit of lateral drift however, and my great autorotation ends up with me tumbling over once. I’m surprised to find myself back upright and intact (more or less).









I kill the engines and the electrical system. I go to order my wingman home and realize he can’t hear me without any radios. I fire up the APU and give him the RTB command. It sure would be nice if the Mi-8 that we were escorting could come down and pick me up. Ungrateful #%&*$#!





The Mi-8 makes it unharmed to Nalchik and I think I’ll still get credit for the mission success, but after he parks I get a “Mission Fail” notice. I guess I had to make it to the Nalchik as well. Bummer.





Tough break for me. I’ll have to refly it and see if I can scrape my way through the MANPAD ambush.

BeachAV8R

You know...they should really put these AAR in PC Pilot. These are perfect little stories that highlight this sim and its fun factor. I bet PC Pilot readers would love this stuff. Nice job.

Thanks - but space constraints unfortunately. Print media is great, but you can't put as many large format screens or be as verbose as a web format. That said, I try to convey the greatness of these DCS sims in my 2000 word limit whenever I can..

Well tell them we need more DCS stories in there, or ROF...I'm so sick of FSX or FS2009.

Great write-up Beach!

kaRadi

True enough.

I used to flip through PC Pilot in the newsagent only, but I've actually purchased a few copies since combat flight sims have received more attention. Was re-reading the DCS A-10 review during ad break on TV before

Awesome AAR Beach. I've flown that mission few times, and I've never gotten the SAM launch. Usually I get the "Mission Complete" signal shortly after the pick up and quit out before flying back home.

That's great to hear guys. We have had some diversification away from FSX/FS9 (although that remains the core of the magazine no doubt). We've run articles on FC2, a 6-part series on learning the Ka-50, an upcoming BS2 review, and I think we are starting an A-10C series of articles next month. And of course the BMS article this month..

We are also fortunate that the editor (Derek Davis) is a fan of Rise of Flight and modern combat sims, so he provides us a bit of room for that content. And Adam Cotton does a lot of our WWII add-on aircraft for FSX.

I'm looking forward to more articles in the future and keeping our interest diverse. I'm convinced that if I can get FSX fans to try DCS products they will be amazed at what these standalone sims are capable of.



Funny because even though I first got "MISSION SUCCESS", then later "MISSION FAIL", my campaign still clicked ahead to the next mission. So at least I won't have to refly it to advance..

BeachAV8R

I'm really bumed that DCS Black Shark did not make the top 100 of PC Gamer.