So, err... what's up

10 days without a post in this forum. Screeching halt indeed

Is this thing on?

Real Life is doing it's thing....

Yeah, I can dig it.

Still, mighty quiet in here.

I'm as much to blame as anyone as I've gone off to do other stuff, not real life, just a different game.

Feeling a bit of a Falcon withdrawal maybe. Need someone to ask questions about cluster bombs or campaign strategies or something.

Hey DBond -

Any tips for using cluster bombs? And what strategies do you use to be successful in campaigns?

Kinda hypocritical of you considering how you "jumped ship" from one Viper to another!!

Personally, have not flown much as the main rig has been in the living room for the past 2-3 weeks as I was demo-ing the HTC Vive to a few friends. Cleaning up the game room now, hopefully be back upstairs by next week. Also following the E3 stuff regarding DCS Hornet, getting a bit excited about it and looking forward to finally experiencing DCS in VR. Carrier ops in VR... oh boy!!

Yes, why thank you. I would respond by saying that cluster bombs are a good strategy in campaigns

Ice, old chum, I know you're putting us on with that one. Or maybe not... actually I will admit to a bit of interest on the F/A-18

I've made no secret of my weakness in the Hornet and the Tomcat. Probably still won't have enough to capture my interest for longer like BMS does, but would be cool to get to know those two aircraft's systems. In VR. With carrier ops.

Doing submarines at the moment but I did have a coop-campaign with one of my swedish Falconeers yesterday (they are really hard to wake up), that Balkans/Brnik as 22nd Sqn again.
Naturally we started off with a few HARMCAP's the first few flights

Hi Oden, HARMCAPs are the way forward Give 'em hell!

Oh you know...working long days because it got busy. Had no time for the bombsgedruppen.

Bombsgedruppen haha.

Luppen bombsgedruppen auf ze stuppen und puppen pixeltruppen

Guess my German needs some brushing up eh?

You guys ever read the book Viper Pilot? I've been reading it again and it's amazing how loose Hampton flew. Like when you read Rosey's book everything is by the book. No chances. Hampton's book is him doing like everything you'd think would be forbidden

In Vipers in the Storm one pilot was sent home for even pointing his nose at a SAM site like he was going to strafe it. He didn't. But that was enough to be sent home. Hampton did this stuff like all the time. Interesting to compare the two.

I'd be happy to get some online time in with either the Viper or Hornet CV ops...

BTW, Viper Pilot, yeah awesome book.

Where is that in Vipers in the Storm (strafing SAM site)? I have both books.

Not at home so can't give you a page. But there's a spot where they talk about a pilot being sent home. I recall there is a passage where one of the other pilots says to Rosey something like 'He wasn't the guy we know, he was a wild man' or something like that. He was sent home. A member of the 4th TFS I think.

To be clear, he didn't actually strafe, but 'pointed his jet at various SAM sites'

Finally had some time to give it another try. Luckily my wife had a girls night out and I had plenty of time.. because I needed it.

Spent about 30 trying to get my controls to work. Then took on some DEAD missions in Tiger Spirit. I grabbed this screen...



Then got blasted out of the sky by an SA-3 while I tried to figure out how to use SBDs. Re-flew the mission about 4 times and kept screwing up weapons deployment or setting of steerpoints ahead of time.

Switched over to a Iron Fortress campaign with some shorter flight times. Jumped into another DEAD and lost 20K feet of altitude in about 20 seconds while I dodged 3 (Three!) SA-2's. Got the radar with a HARM though. Landed and saved the campaign to keep plugging away at.

Nice one! Keep baiting those SA-2s! I love doing defensive maneuvers against those telephone poles!

I have never seen another sim that has the visual immersion and sense of excitement that this 0ne pulls off when a SAM launches.

I just read Viper Pilot on an overseas business trip. Excellent book and really got me motivated to try this dim again.

How do you guys set up your graphics? Are you usingbin-gsme settings or over riding in the gpu control panel?

In-game, with the GPU set to max performance.

Real life certainly has gotten in the way of my FLCS/TQS USB conversion process. I've got most of the parts I need, I'm just waiting for some additional parts to arrive from China. (AliExpress FTW!)

However I've been on the road a lot for work, which isn't do that project any favours though I do get to pick up on my reading.
Now reading "Angles of Attack", which the Desert Storm journal of a VA-145 Intruder pilot. Pretty good read so far, been sitting in my bookcase for years so I finally got around to reading it.



In terms of Falcon. Well because my FLCS/TQS mod isn't progressing, I'm using my original FLCS/TQS (SWF22) under XP to get back into BMS again. I've given up on trying to get 4.33.1 or 4.33.2 to work under XP. They just don't work - at random points, the BMS executable just crashes during the campaign.

So I'm now flying BMS 4.32.7. Sure it's not 4.33 (damn, no trees!) but so far it's running pretty stable on XP. I'm having no troubles getting my campaign sorties in (and getting my rear handed to me regularly) but at least I'm back in the air again. Sadly no one is flying 4.32 anymore so I'll just toodle along in single player. Just being back over the FLOT on Day 1 in Rolling Fire after more than 10 years is just such great fun though.

Considering that I stopped flying Falcon back in the BMS 2.0 days (2007-2008?), I think BMS 4.32.7 is pretty awesome and enough to keep me happy for a while.

Why does it now work outside of XP? Doesn't even work in Win7 under WinXP compatibility mode?

My SWF22 chipped FLCS+TQS will only work under XP. I've got the gameport to work under Windows 7 as a hardware device but without the SWF22 drivers (which do not work under Windows 7), Windows 7 won't recognise my HOTAS as a multi-axis controller that also spits out keyboard commands.

I have a second FLCS and TQS awaiting USB conversion (Hempstick) but I haven't gotten around to it and I'm also awaiting a few bits and bops from China.
Probably also need to get a new base for the FLCS 3D printed as the current one is not large enough to accommodate the SAM4S-XPRO board.

Got around to a few campaign mission in the last few days. First one was a simple air interdiction. However, I didn't realize that I needed to uncage AGM-65Ds and spent the entire mission trying to figure out how to do it. Eventually I just made tree-top strafing passes until I was shot down...

A couple days later, I read up on it and tried again. However, this time, I accidentally lowered my landing gear when I tried to uncage my AGM-65s, and was flying fast enough that they were stuck extended the entire flight. Then I spent way to much time trying to boresight the AGMs. I made a first pass on the column with CBUs and got some kills, and took some fire since I was flying slow with my gear out. Tried to get off some Maverick shots but none of them tracked. Not sure if it was user error or due to damage from my CBU passes.

Last night... I got a nice easy GBU-24 strike on a bridge. Took off and cruised up to 22K'. Picked up the bridge easily on the TGP. Direct hit with a big BOOM!. Flew back and landed.

Looking forward to getting another shot with the Mavericks.

Anyone know of any good TEs that can be downloaded that start you out on the ground? The AG training missions are nice, but I'd like to be able to modify my loadout to try some of these weapons that I never get to use.

Also, what burst altitude and spacing do you guys find works well for CBUs?

I still haven't worked out Mavericks. As I've said, they are too 'heads-down' and I can always do a least as well with CBU, and more quickly and with less stooging about. But Mavs are fun to shoot.

As for the TE, I'd say just make one. You can whip one up in ten minutes easy, if you're so inclined.

For CBU, which is much more in my comfort zone, I tend to use BA's between 2000 and 3000 feet sometimes higher, sometimes lower...

Here's a thread where we discussed CBUs over at the BMS forum

https://www.bmsforum.org/forum/showthread.php?30829-Any-good-tutorials-on-using-cluster-bombs

This mission was four lofted CEM's with a BA of 3000 feet and spacing of 777 feet against a SP artillery column or some such.



If you haven't, try lofting. It works too well in BMS, because falling ordnance is not affected by winds, so it's very accurate, and safe.

Thanks Dbond. I'll have to refresh myself on the lofting procedure and give it a try. Never done it before.

Wreaked havoc on a fertilizer factory last night. I was able to use the TGP to have the wingman attack different buildings in the complex. Getting pretty comfortable with LGBs and CBUs. Need to get Mavs figured out and then work on my two weakest points - HARMS and Air to Air.

The campaign and base I've picked give me lots of quick missions. 30 minutes from the time I sit down at the computer until I shut off BMS and go watch Netflix.

I want to play Guess Da Base

Hmmm, let's see.... Kunsan, KTO Iron Fortress?

Yeah, looks like Kunsan

We are in agreement then, sir.

Of course perhaps it's Seosan in Rolling Fire. West coast, clearly. The plot thickens....

LGB's look badass hanging on the wing.

Canned missions... *yawn*

But hey, I'm preaching to the choir.

Well, carrier ops **ARE** essentially canned missions