RAF AIR Multi SQUADRON Syrian MISSION 15th DEC 20

[Wee Neal 0414]

I volunteer my services for mission building!

[Danny]

I had an awesome evening, thanks Chris and all who took part.

It has been a while since I used LotAtc but after last nights refresher all is good. I re-learnt in one night what took me a month to learn in the past

Sorry for all those that I threw into the lions den as as soon as they were airborne but great effort in trying to stem the red tide, especially Funky who deserves a medal after his exploits. Apologies to all the ground pounders who I kept sending South and every time I turned them around, sent back South almost immediately.

Not sure if it was triggers, AWACS position or range setting but I didn't pick up any hostiles until they were about 30nm from RD and already at angels 20+

Might be worth checking the AWACS range in LotAtc config, although default is 400 Km which should be ok, just in case.

Apart from that everything worked from my side, comms worked really well considering.

[Mad dog]

The awacs was great thanks Danny. You successfully scared the crap out of me..twice! 4 pop up groups all at once and all around me. If I could have hovered in my tomcat, they would have shot each other in a cross fire haha.

After checking the tacview all the pop up groups appear at once about 34 minutes into the mission at around 20,000ft and almost right over the top of the armoured targets.

[0405 Andrew]

Agree, the AWACS was great for adding atmosphere and the A10s appreciated the calls.
Did you enjoy the role? It's different, but I can imagine you can get a lot of satisfaction from a job well done.

[Danny]

Yeah I had great fun.

Its a good role if you don't fancy flying or if you don't have time for a full op - you can dip in and out without disrupting a mission too much, if needs be.

[Alien]

Good skills, good effort, well done Danny

[john (scooby)]

looking forward to more human awacs in future. is there anything wrong with using the same chanel as ai awacs though so you get all calls?

[maggsy]

Can I add to the thanks both Chris for the mission and to Danny who gave us Awacs and those of us at Ramat had ATC too

As with many of my posts there is always a "However"

However
I know Chris will not mind me talking about this, but I did thank him for the mission, despite it being harder than he had planned and there were a few changes he made that did not work in the manner he anticipated it is still a very well designed mission. It did highlight many deficiencies in RAF Air pilot skills, I will be the first to admit it was rather overwhelming with AWACS and despite being vectored onto a target I was unable to use the information in a manner that impacted the mission, by the time I had separated the bogies from the friendlies I was already falling from the sky in a fiery ball of shame, TWICE... I suspect there are many other who also found they did not adapt to a more challenging mission from the norm of the default server style, where we choose the engagement and the redfor response is all too predictable.

we need to encourage members to try LoATC and perhaps volunteering to be ATC for the departure and recovery of the package working upto taking the AWACS role. The only way we can learn as pilots to operate under the control of real ATC, AWAC's and (Combined Arms) JTAC is to have guys offering their service, both for missions but as importantly for training.

Another observation from the mission on tuesday is the lack of inter squadron coordination , we simply do not spend enough time flying together ( ok 3(F) has been guilty of this for various reasons,) but this is not the sole failing of the F-16 squadron there is a lack of appetite for cooperative missions or better training across the whole of RAF Air. It is easy to pick out excuses but we have to ask ourselves why we are allowing this to prevail only we can make the changes. Encouraging our talented mission builders goes a long way to making this a reality.

The last point is the real elephant in the room, we keep losing mission builders, they work hard, create what they think is an interesting mission and we as a group either show a total lack of interest or bitch and whine about trivial stuff. Yes I am talking about mods skins virtually anything we do not personally pick to slap on our machines, if somebody has the gaul to request we install a small mod file to enable their mission to be as immersive as they can make, we as RAF Air are up in arms complaining about being forced to install stuff. Let me remind you if you want to fly on any map other than the default ones you had to download it, if you wish to fly any of the payware aircraft guess what you had to download that too ohh and the ED patches they are eagerly downloaded, but hells bells if the mission designer asks you to install a small mod file to enhance the mission they have provided for your entertainment, it becomes such a drama and the mission designers walk away again and again and again.

I apologise if what i say offends or worse angers, this not my intention , but as a person who appreciates how damned hard it is to create these immersive missions for all the A/C RAF Air flies, I am upset each time i hear a Mission Designer say screw it why bother and there goes another disheartened member .
We as a community have to better

[0405 Andrew]

I've started writing missions for 60 squadron, some good, some maybe not so good. Generally I've received encouragement and have found it worthwhile and fulfilling and will carry on. Come and join join us, copilot or door gunner, we now have multi crew helicopters, what better way to spend a Monday evening.

We all have busy lives, and mission editing isn't for everyone, but it's very rewarding and I've only received encouragement in my experience. I would encourage everyone to have a go, they can only get better.

When you think about it only about 55% vote in a general election, less get involved in political campaigns, real issues that affect real lives. I don't think RAF air is doing too badly.

[0405 Andrew]

I agree with your point about lotac, there's lots of fun to be had there. Does RAF Air need a lotac school, maybe there's one already?