Overall, I enjoy this version of the Hornet sims, although I wish it was the Super Bug, but maybe down the line. Anyway, it is quite good but I have issues with the flight model. At low approach speed she suddenly gets loose as a goose where pitch inputs throw the nose up, then drops it, brings it up, drops it. It's hard to make a precise trap or shore landing that way. Also, it seems as if the throttle has to be at 75% or more just to hold AOA in the E bracket, and there is no fine tuning of the throttle to stay on slope--you have to give it a huge throw to get the right amount of power then throw it back to compensate if you want to do your 3 part power corrections.

In a turning fight, I have often found that you can have your nose pointed down to the ground and whilst in the turn, you are actually losing airspeed. Granted pulling Gs will do that, but it even happens when I let go of the pole and stay in a turn with nose down attitude. How is that? No gravity effect here!

Trapping on the carrier--that's eye candy for sure. But I also question how realistic it is. Admittedly I've been flying F-14A/B and F/A-18E onto carrier decks on FSX using Aerosoft and VRS' F-14 and F/A-18 respectively, and their model in tandem with the vLSO add-on is excellent, if not on the conservative side (ie, don't give me a waveoff when I am literally 21 second from touchdown then give me a cut pass for it!!!!). But approaching in the DCS version, the first thing I notice is that the approaches tend to be too low and flat, even when I watch others' videos on YouTube. I can't see the ball until I am at the rounddown and even when it says I'm onslope, the sight picture says I am way too low. You should be able to see the ball at about 3/4 mile, maybe 1, but I can't. The "ball" I do see is actually that sensor sphere above the Fresnel which distracts you away from the real ball (which you won't see until you are at the rounddown anyway). I do love not knowing if you trapped a wire for sure though! One time I boltered and I sunk down to 10 ft above the water before she climbed up again. That was harrowing!

Maybe I'm spoiled because I flew JF18 for many many years (some of you may remember my serial fiction from 2003 or so), and I've been flying VRS Sims' Super Bug on FSX, which is, to date, probably the most accurate F/A-18 sim out there. I don't have these kinds of problems flying that sim model...but I dunno. Is it my stick? I set it to Chuck's settings, 30 curvature, 20 deadzone IIRC. What else do I need to do if anything?

Otherwise, I do enjoy the sim. I fly it more than the other DCS ones now (most of my time has been in the Warthog). I'm actually playing around with the mission builder now as well. I don't have much to complain about "politically" re: ED as I haven't followed that drama either. But overall, I'm satisfied even though I sound like I'm complaining alot.

v6,
boNes


"Also, I would prefer a back seater over the extra gas any day. I would have 80 pounds of flesh to eat and a pair of glasses to start a fire." --F/A-18 Hornet pilot