Op Separatist Aggression

[Neil Willis]

Tonight's sortie will be day 1 of the Separatist Aggression mission set.

Attached are the PDF and Kneeboard pages for the first phase of operations:

[Teddy]

Made this with the information we have at the moment if any wants it, more to fill in at 1930 of course:

[Wolf]

This sounds awesome, gutted I can't make it... on a night shift tonight!

[David Lindau]

So, what happened?

[Neil Willis]

It was, as I thought, a less demanding mission than the Northern Plunder series. I is a LOOOOOONG scenario too, so we need to set up a few marathon sessions to do it justice.

IMHO I'd say the designer was a little over ambitious in the scale of events covered, but it was imersive, and enjoyable despite a huge explosion effect that marred some players enjoyment due to frame rate losses. We have no idea what it was or why it occurred.

It is however a good addition to our library, and I have no doubt it will be re-run soon. Also, it may be a good mission to leave running on the server on non-squadron nights. I left after two and a half hours with a lot of the mission still incomplete despite 50% more aircraft deployed than the original. There was plenty to get our teeth into, and not an over-burdensome concentration of anti=air defences to spoil our fun.

I will re-run this one on Thursday, and there are 3 more in the series, so we will run it for the next few weeks I think.

I'd like to hear everyone else's opinions please, did you like it? Hate it? Want more?

[Teddy]

Yeah I quite liked it last night, everything seemed pretty smooth, no issues with Aires which was a first.

Mission was fun, defintely a much more simple plan, I think its a good idea to run them for the next few weeks, might need a little more SAM threats as it was pretty simple, please can you make the tanker hang around for longer, it landed after a couple of hours, especially if it is going on the public server.

Thanks Neil.

[Flyco]

I found it a lot of fun, if frustrating. Still at least I intercepted another SAM before it hit a more productive member of my flight. I would certainly welcome this scenarios ready availability. It seems to me to give an excellent arena for a relative newly to practice in. I clearly need to refine my search techniques, particularly getting the TGP, Maverick, and me pointing in the same direction somewhere in the forward quadrant. An area to roam around, making mistakes without over-embarrassing myself would be very welcome.

I do have a few niggles, which I hope I can outline without offending anyone else, particularly since I am a relatively new boy. I am sure everyone knows the expression PPPPPPP - Piss-poor planning produces piss-poor performance. I would greatly welcome the opportunity to get greater details of the route by pre-sortie preparation, preferably using a map with route and known danger/no-go areas marked. I am not talking about target placement but when the brief talks about avoiding an international frontier it would be good to know where that is in advance. I have rarely moved to the server with more than a sketchy outline of what is happening.

My next point is the use of SOPs, and much of the content of these. Even as a new boy I don't find many of the advisory calls very useful. My eyes aren't as good as they were, but it is fairly obvious which side the leader is on the runway, when he releases his brakes and also when he turns 10 degrees left or right. What I would find useful would be an adherence to simple SOPs. Excuse my temerity, but something like:
T/O in pairs with 5 Secs between No 1 and No 2, and 10 secs between pairs.
Only the last man calling airborne, once he's cleaned the a/c up.
Leader calling freq change and alt setting etc
Standard climb speed (Say 200KIAS) with the leader setting full power less 3%
I also prefer use of say 'Tiger Lead' rather than 'Tiger One' to better clarify R/T
I also like a longer preamble on initial calls, to allow listeners to focus, before the crux of the call is reached.
Finally, I really hate the use of the expression 'Push'. As I read it this is used to indicate a frequency change, but it appears to have wider use to mean 'change'. Why not 'Climb to FL 200' rather than 'Push up to FL200'

Well, I think that's enough for now, after all I do want to be able to fly with you again.

I am also impressed with the weaponeering skills of those who I''ve flown with to date. So far, on about 8 sorties, I have only ever seen 2 targets and some other beggar blew those away, beforeI I'd even sorted out which button on my HOTAS to press first. I would greatly welcome some advice on how to carry out an effective search, how to use other people's target info, and how to bring my weapons to bear before the target is 10 miles behind me (I've seen ants move across the ground faster that my TGP crosshairs).

I apologise again if I seem to be wingeing, but that is a pilot's prerogative - after all has anyone met an un-opinionated fighter-pilot.

[Neil Willis]

Hi Alan,

A lot of what you say is definitely relevant, and I'd be happy to incorporate new ideas, and benefit from your real world experience. After all, you are the only military pilot on our books, so newbie or not, your input is definitely valuable.

The lack of written details on the briefings are really due to the limited amount of planning time available. There was a map that went with that mission, but It was a very low resolution one, and I suspect there were no triggers incorporated into the mission if the Russian border was crossed, so I suspect it was just a but of poetic licence in the briefing that went with the mission.

Searching the ground is definitely a very difficult task, and I also struggle finding targets. You can increase the slew rate for the TGP from within the cockpit - and I know you're going to ask me how next, so I'd better look it up! I suspect that might be a very useful training session for a Wednesday night.

The word push is probably an american term used in brevity code. We unfortunately don't have a UK set to work with. Again, we can look at simplifying it, or changing it.

The SOPs were also a working document, and I agree, we should keep chatter on take off to an absolute minimum in line with EMCON requirements. Maybe we can look closely at that and anything else that needs polishing. Your input would be very welcome.

Neil

[Flyco]

Thanks for your understanding response, Neil. I was a little worried that I might get up someone's nose.

I would be very happy to have a go at producing some outline SOPs for comment. I will concentrate on briefing and formation initially - I still don't feel qualified to go into tactics and weapons yet.

[Wolf]

It's a shame DCS doesn't employ a mission planning phase like in Falcon 4.0, always found that immensely useful being able to change flight plans in real time. There are some tools available, I'll have to dig them up. IIRC it uses a secure online system where players log in and can view the theatre map, the changes are saved (flight plans etc) to the mission file which can be uploaded to the server with the flight details saved within'.