Tuesday 9th June 2020

[Matt]

Alan we landed with around 2000lbs of fuel remaining, my bingo was set for 3900, however I could have pushed that down some....it was a rather conservative level to be sure, but i feel 3500lbs would be a fine bingo to allow for any go arounds on landing.

I think the mission for Colt is perfectly sufficient to be honest buddy, was nice to have the added task of the helo's too!

[Mad dog]

I have the tacview file if anybody wants it.

[0413 Luis]

One note about yesterday op for Hog flight.
Waypoint 6 FARP was not on the FARP. (Maybe altittude) It took a visual approach to understand where it was. Because I already know the mission, wasn't a big deal (in fact a nice chalenge) but I must say our intelligence have't done a good job .
Sorry in advance if I'm mistaken and if by chance I wasn't slewing the TGP as I should, but I remenber I did the WP as SPI and all I could see was trees.

[Flyco]

Luis, I try to put exact positions only if the attacking aircraft have a limited search ability. With a pod, it should be possible to look around to find and identify it. The exception is a fixed (or relatively fixed) object such as a blockhouse of SAM radar. The Tunguska is a mobile unit and thus able to move, making an accurate position a bit unrealistic.

[0413 Luis]

Luis, I try to put exact positions only if the attacking aircraft have a limited search ability. With a pod, it should be possible to look around to find and identify it. The exception is a fixed (or relatively fixed) object such as a blockhouse of SAM radar. The Tunguska is a mobile unit and thus able to move, making an accurate position a bit unrealistic.

Bo worries Alan, I just mention it to mission editor knowlege (I thought may be usefull) . I understand inteligence can not be 100% accurate, so, we must do some work as pilots. Nice one.

[Flyco]

Thanks Paul, I have now looked at the TacView you sent me. Apart from the A-10s, and the Harriers it does look as though few followed (or even read?) the brief. In particular at least one of the F-18 appeared to think that the Carrier force was the enemy, in that he fired at least two HARMs in their direction.

I do not think I will proceed with any more details of the de-brief - even if I could see through my tears.

Ah well - perhaps next time?

[Father Cool]

What part of the brief didn't UZI follow?

We were pretty on point as far as I saw, save for the gremlins causing me to have to restart on the boat and thus a tad late TOT and the gremlins due to the bombline and release cues not working at all. Despite that we pretty much accomplished all of the tasks in hand.

[Neil Willis]

In particular at least one of the F-18 appeared to think that the Carrier force was the enemy, in that he fired at least two HARMs in their direction.

That was me. I aimed it at the briefed SAM6 that had me locked up, and for the second successive mission, the HARMs just did a 180, and decided the Tarawa was a juicier target. I can’t imagine why it would be more concerned about a friendly radar emission coming from 4x the distance to the real target, and in completely the opposite direction!

I also had Issues with the TACAN for the carrier - but having lost my connection it really didn’t affect the outcome.

[Flyco]

The 'Mea Culpa' soft answer which turneth away wrath, eh Neil?

As for Father Cools protestations go - I apologise. I have looked again and can see that you were airfield attacking. I had forgotten that the plan had changed.

That said, I have just flown the airfield attack against Gelendzikh in a F-16, and it went OK. I presume that the "HUD" problem was its low intensity - certainly much dimmer than the last time I flew it. The sortie I flew was 90%+ over the sea and at 250 ft agl and 420 kias it was uncomfortable but do-able. It should have been a little easier against Maykop where around 70-80% is over the land. It would have been uncomfortable into real sun but DCS doesn't do real sunlight.

Nevertheless I am glad that most people seemed to enjoy it.

I was doubly cross, because when I gave my headset a once over this morning it was fine. I suspect that it was some sort of a disconnect in the software within the PC, and had I exited, switched off, and re-entered it would probably have worked.

[Father Cool]

No Alan the HUD problem was in the F14 it had glitched so I had a bombline which went at 45degrees to one side so the CCRP wouldn't pickle and the CCIP was the same but without the targetting pipper so all drops were 100% guesswork.

I know you don't have the F14 so may not be familer with the systems but it was a DCS issue with alignment or something. Either way it was a thankless task hitting targets on the night.

It was nothing to do with the sun, lighting or anything else. The instruments were simply borked. I think its multiplayer or server based as I don't have any issues in single player mode.

Iut of curiousity what are the wind settings for the mission? There is a known issue where wind settings that differ at certain levels can mess with the F14s bomb alignment.