I have to admit I'm one.
I fly FS2002 a fair bit, using payware addon planes that can take me around 15-30 mins to get off the ground, and fly online under air traffic control guideance, as per real world procedues.

I also fly some Falcon 4 with SuperPak 4. That is amazing...it is a sim in ever sense of the word. I have a new found respect for the fighter pilots...they have so much to do.
To fire a maverick missile, you must:
a) Select radar mode (Air/Ground)
b) Select sub mode (Ground, Ground Moving, Sea)
c) Select weapon.
d) Change right display to missile seeker head.
e) Turn missile on.
f) Uncage seeker head.
g) Identify target on radar.
h) Lock onto said target.
i) Identify target using IR on seeker head.
j) Lock onto target using seeker head.
k) Fire missile.

The total time you have for this is about 5-10 seconds.

While doing this, you must:
a) Fly the plane.
b) Keep watch around you.
c) Keep an ear open on the radio.
d) Keep an ear on the threat receiver
e) Keep an eye on the threat reciever
f) Watch for ground fire

Its such a huge workload! And this probably isnt all the stuff in the real plane!
And I love it

Post your...

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Founder of the Massassi Brute Squad (MBS)

B'tduz: A popular dwarfish game which consists of standing a few feet apart and throwing large rocks at one another's head.

"Yes, it's a bloody flying alligator setting fire to my city!" - His Grace His Excellency the Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes.

Morituri Nolumus Mori

I used to play Silent Hunter on full realism mode. Pretty much the only thing I let the computer do was aquire the firing solution and do the trigonometry for me.

Quite a hard task to stalk a convoy for the duration of a (simulated) day, staying ahead of it's destroyer screen.

Waiting until nightfall, checking the moon and cloud cover, waiting for the recon-planes to leave.

Then slipping in between the destroyer screen, just between it's zigs and zags on silent running speed (5 knots or so). Raising the periscope for several seconds only at a time to check locations.

Empty all forward torpedo tubes at the freighters starting at the most distant to the closest (so that they all arrive and hopefully detonate at more or less the same time so no one has enough time to get alarmed and evade).

Checking for hits, misses and duds. Fire rear tubes at stragglers and escort ships, leave one torpedo in the tube just in case. Emergency dive to 270 feet, trying to find a warm layer of water to hide underneath to distort the sonar pings of the escorts.

All of this while the screws of all the nearby ships drum on in a deafening crescendo.

Nailbitingly tense stuff.

As for flight sims, I prefer flying in the radial and in-line engine era. Much more simple. You, your wire and canvas kite, and a pair of Spandaus or Vickers synchronized to fire through the whirling wooden prop. I'd love to see a WWI flightsim with a modern engine. Having to spot airplanes simply by the sun glare off the polished wings, hiding up high in the sun, with lovely fluffy clouds at ten thousand feet. No airspeed indicator (or if there's one, it's strapped to one of the struts to the left and measures the wind spinning the little catcher), just Oil, altimeter, tachometer and fuel. Luverly.

As such, I tend to stick to airplanes and especially seaplanes from the 1920's to the 1950's in FS2004. I haven't tried MSFS online yet though. What kind of stuff do people do there? Air Racing, Formation Flying or General Aviation and pretending to shuttle cargo or passengers keeping in ATC contact with that VATSIM stuff you linked to on another thread?

[This message has been edited by Daeron the Nerfherder (edited March 13, 2004).]

I used to play Red Baron II, that came out just after, I think it was "Dawn Patrol", those were the last WW1 flight sims I've seen come out

RB3D had an 11meg 3d patch, and ended up looking kinda good

hehe, it wasn't high-tech, it was hard though, you basically had a control column and a trigger button. Oh, and a couple of buttons, "u" for unjam gun when it gets jammed, and "jjj" for jump out of plane(no parachutes in the RFC)

I almost always flew on max realism, could never seem to get the planes to go into a spin, but was pretty good at ripping the top wing off some of the earlier biplanes. got 12 kills in one go once, rather proud of that. that was on full realism and about medium AI.

never mind missile locks, try riding a motorbike and coming to an intersection :/
left foot tapping down gears, right foot rear brake, left hand puling clutch in, right hand letting the throttle out, putting the indicators on and pulling the front brake all at the same time

Cougar, baby! (If you're a virtual Viper driver you should know what I'm referring to. Naz, don't forget boresight mode. Sometimes there just isn't time to find the target on radar. Just switch to BSGT, split-S, designate, lock, pickle, finally pulling up while dropping chaff and flares, switch to 3D cockpit view, look over your shoulder to watch for SAMs and make sure your Rifles hit. Then a quick Q-Q-2 (if I remember correctly; I use Shoot for radio in Falcon, so I just talk into my headset, using the VHF switch on the Cougar to activate Shoot's PTT) to get a vector to the nearest threat, and depending on that and weapons, etc, do it again.

I must admit though, I haven't flown in months. Haven't flown since I moved. My Cougar's in its box next to my bed. And I haven't VATSIMmed in a long time. I used to be an S3 in ZID back in the SATCO days, almost went for C1, but never did. Did have my /V though. I think it's time to get back into it though.

Naz, gimme your IM's. We should wing up sometime.

Oh, and Daeron, ever play Wolfpack? It's far simpler than Silent Hunter, but quite fun still. Plus you can play the freighters, tankers, and tin cans. And make all custom missions, of course. And set the time period from 1939 to 1945. SH sounds fun though. I remember seeing it in stores. Now I wish I'd gotten it!

Oh, and Naz, you probably already know this, but just in case you don't, it could make a difference. Remember that you can set up your MFD's for your attack before you actually do it. After you get up to altitude, before you cross the FLOT, you should switch to A-G and GMT and select the 65, set your radar range, perhaps SP if you're on CAS or interdiction, and then switch back to NAV. Then when you get to the IP, just switch to A-G and everything will be as you left it, saving some time. There're also some Alt-key shortcuts to save MFD layouts, but I haven't ever used them. Check the SP manual though. Oh, and two more tips:

USE Shoot! Imagine speaking all of the commands to AWACS and your flight, and even the tower, instead of Q-Q this, and W-W that. Feels so much more realistic, and saves time too. You can be locking up a target and call to AWACS or your flight at the same time.

And, of course, get a Cougar if you can. It'll make a huge difference in how easily and quickly you can manipulate your avionics. No more reaching for the keyboard or the mouse.

i prefer to have a little less sim when people are shooting at me

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wang is within all

I fly real airplanes. /jerk

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Shut up. I'm GOING to do this whether you like it or not.

Blujay:

sithnazgul(at)hot(bloody)mail(dot)com
Thats email and MSN

ICQ is 938(000)72

Ive never used boresight mode, I don't know if its SP4. I generally do set up things before I get into the area, but you don't always get the chance.
For CAS etc, I generally leave the radar on SP mode. STP gives me the sh**s.
How do you set up your counter-measures?
I think I have it on auto, and on selection 2 or 3. Jammers come on when I've been locked onto and they are in front or behind. I finally learnt how to use it properly

And you know how the AIM-120 has a Home On Jam...how the hell do you use that when you can't lock on anyway!



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Founder of the Massassi Brute Squad (MBS)

B'tduz: A popular dwarfish game which consists of standing a few feet apart and throwing large rocks at one another's head.

"Yes, it's a bloody flying alligator setting fire to my city!" - His Grace His Excellency the Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes.

Morituri Nolumus Mori

Tracer, shut up and let us poor wannabes alone.

SN, um, yes, BSGT is in SP4. It's in the real thing. It's even in 1.08i2. It's even in the unpatched F4 I think. You should learn to use it. It's also used for LGBs.

Well, you can set up custom chaff/flare programs through the DED, but I've never bothered. The four default programs are enough for me. I can't remember exactly which is which, but it's basically like, #1 is for A-A radar (BVR engagements), #2 for A-A IR (dogfights, also drops chaff), #3 is for high-altitude A-G, and #4 for low-alt A-G. Though I think #3 and #4 are probably wrong. Anyway, with the Cougar, I just select the proper program for the situation, and activate it when necessary. I activate the jammer manually, myself. Just like the bit of extra control over it.

The AMRAAM will automatically use HOJ if necessary and possible. You can't activate it yourself. "HOJ" will display on the HUD when it activates.

Added you to MSN and ICQ.