Tuesday 28th April 2020

[john (scooby)]

A gci would be a very helpful addition to complex missions like that, it was pretty messy from an a2a pov. Its near impossible to coordinate multiple groups on the fly as it were. I prefer not to touch the carriers because i hafe nothing but problems with them. Tacan hasnt worked for me for minths with them and last night was impossible to fly from it either

[Father Cool]

Bit wobbly this.

[Flyco]

Just flown the mission on my server (a separate machine from my main one). Don't have the F-14, so I boarded the F-18. I clearly saw the jolting effect, although so far as I could tell it was the aircraft rocking on the deck rather than the boat rocking. It was a little tricky taxying, but once I got hooked up to the catapult, the rocking stopped and the launch and initial flight stages on the F-18 were as usual.

I checked all the carrier's, and the escorts speed and, they were all oscillation around 24 -26 kt, but not excessively. They certainly weren't doing 40 kt as claimed.

I did see the boats speed varying on the F-14 video playback that Father Cool sent me, but I think that was the video speed rather than the simulation.

I will take a look at the Harrier, once I have dried the carpets here!

[Father Cool]

The track that I took the video from stated 40 kias while on deck on the bottom ribbon.

It is fair shifting though. It caught us all out the last time we ran the mission when recovering, the ship seemed to be getting away as we were coming in for final and had to give it a bit more to not hit the back of the ship, I ended up boltering as I was then on completely the glide slope and pulling up meant I couldn't get back down in time.

[Dutch]

The Harriers had the same issue, thats why i asked for hotstarts. Its a know bug since last 2 patches, they already posted it in their patch notes for being a known bug

[Neil Willis]

Will hot starts stop the collisions? My thinking is working from FOBs might be a simpler solution.

[Flyco]

Dutch, I am all for brevity, but I am not sure what is 'the same issue'. Are you talking about bouncing, colliding, or carrier speeds - or all of them? And do hot starts cure them? The problem with hot starts is that you will need to site there for 15 minutes burning fuel, unless everyone in the mission uses hot starts.

I think that, for the time being, we should abandon carriers in missions, as Neil suggests.

[Father Cool]

I seem to remember that bouncing and deck slip has always been an issue with carriers over 20 knots. I was advised early doors on the forums never to put a carrier in with a speed greater than that. As I said I usually run 18 to 20 knots with no issues at all.

Please don't take any of this as a criticism, I'm not being difficult I am just trying to help the situation as some people (Jack Crammer being one for sure) would not be happy ditching carrier ops.

[Flyco]

In the light of last night's experiences, I have produced an alternative, land-based, Northern Clout, for future use. I will retain the original, in case ED get around to sorting out their carriers.

Blue Forces are:
Up to 6-8 A-10s - route and role unchanged;
Up to 4-8 F-14s, based at Kobuleti - role unchanged, slight changes to route;
Up to 4-6 Harriers, based at Sukhumi - role unchanged, changes to route;
Up to 4-6 F-16s, based at Sukhumi - very little change;
Up to 2-4 F-18s, based at Gudauta - weapon load and route changed - no A-A role, SEAD targets the same.

Any flight which completes its primary task may land, re-arm, refuel, and rejoin: Harriers A-G in the valley, F-18s and F-16s CAP.

If there are any significant requests for changes, please make them early - and specific, with a cogent, coherent, detailed and workable outline. However, the author retains the right to ignore them if they impact other ac's tasks or survivability.

[Neil Willis]

Excellent, thanks Flyco.