Mistral Testing

Hi all,

Firstly thanks Polychop for the Mistral version, it's great to have a heli with A2A capability and I've enjoyed shooting stuff down.

Got some questions though..

I just tried going up against some Russian helis in SP mode and could only lock on from about 2km ish on an Mi26 and couldn't lock at all on a KA50 (but couldn't get behind it properly so guessing that's why).

What is the range of the Mistral for heli targets and fixed wing jets? Is it the same as real life?

Also anyone noticed the game crashing with the Gazelle when you take fatal damage?

The latest Open Alpha 2.0 and the 1.5 version both crashed to desktop when I took anything more than light damage from the enemy KA50 cannon or a Vihkr strike.

Has this been noted elsewhere or is it just me?

I've not tested it with other aircraft yet but will do later.

Cheers.

What is the range of the Mistral for heli targets and fixed wing jets? Is it the same as real life?

It been reported the Mistral IRL has 6km aircraft and 4km helo range, is all aspect and has a 12-14s self destruct timer. It should be fixed in the next update.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2878988&postcount=4

Also anyone noticed the game crashing with the Gazelle when you take fatal damage?

...

Has this been noted elsewhere or is it just me?

CTD problems in the Gazelle Mistral have been reported and acknowledged, to help track the cause, please .zip and post dcs,log and crash .dmp files in the bug forum, so the dev's have a wide range of .log and .dmp files to work with.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=172643

Great, thanks Ramsay.

Self destruct is actually a little bit more, but I am not sure how classified it is.

Are there any tutorials on using the Mistral? I haven't had the opportunity to try it yet.

Are there any tutorials on using the Mistral? I haven't had the opportunity to try it yet.

it s quite easy and it the same procedure and switches as rockets and cannons

I tested the Mistral against all flyable Helos and I could not hit Hueys at all. The Missile will launch, get close and then basically fly a turn around the Huey before going dumb. Like a forcefield or something. ^^

Thanks my friend :)

I tested the Mistral against all flyable Helos and I could not hit Hueys at all. The Missile will launch, get close and then basically fly a turn around the Huey before going dumb. Like a forcefield or something. ^^

You should talk about it with BST then ;)

You should talk about it with BST then ;)

Of course. :D And while I manage to talk to BST developers, I shall also get the pope to promote atheism and bring democracy to North Korea. ^^ Old joker you.

Didn't know that that might be a thing BST would have to look into, since all other heatseekers can and will actually hit a Huey in my experience, but hey, never stop learning.

I tested the Mistral against all flyable Helos and I could not hit Hueys at all. The Missile will launch, get close and then basically fly a turn around the Huey before going dumb. Like a forcefield or something. ^^

I had a similar experience with AI Mi-8s. I'll try to cook up a video demonstrating this and try also with other AI helicopters.

Sorry to be dim. Do you get a tone when missile finds a target?

I experienced this with an AI Mi-8 as well. Only had the one missile though, spent the other three on two Su-25s. Not reading too much in to it, but definitely had good tone. OTOH, they've already updated the missiles quite a bit (all-aspect etc.) so I'm not sure there's much value in performing extensive testing of the ones we currently have.

I experienced this with an AI Mi-8 as well. Only had the one missile though, spent the other three on two Su-25s. Not reading too much in to it, but definitely had good tone. OTOH, they've already updated the missiles quite a bit (all-aspect etc.) so I'm not sure there's much value in performing extensive testing of the ones we currently have.

0, missile is fixed in development with knowledge from people who seriously know their stuff. :D

The missile we will get is pretty much so different, that testing atm is just testing the performance that will completely change on next release. :)

Nomdeplume, microvax

OK, that's good to know. Won't be bothered then :)

Thanks guys for this update. It's fantastic to finally have an AA capability on a chopper.

A few things that you might want to consider for the Mistral:

- In its manpad version, the mistral is cooled by some compressed gaz bottles to provide the necessary cooling to the heat seeking element. This means that the mistral got a limited time to acquire a target (about 30 seconds per bottle). I don't know how this works for the Gazelle, but I assume the cooling is working the same way, maybe with different time out? Nonetheless, there should be a limited use time for each missile.

- The black covers on the head of the missile is supposed to open when the searching/locking sequence is engaged. I don't think I have seen these covers doing anything in DCS.

Thanks my friend :)

you are welcome! :)

Thanks guys for this update. It's fantastic to finally have an AA capability on a chopper.

A few things that you might want to consider for the Mistral:

- In its manpad version, the mistral is cooled by some compressed gaz bottles to provide the necessary cooling to the heat seeking element. This means that the mistral got a limited time to acquire a target (about 30 seconds per bottle). I don't know how this works for the Gazelle, but I assume the cooling is working the same way, maybe with different time out? Nonetheless, there should be a limited use time for each missile.

- The black covers on the head of the missile is supposed to open when the searching/locking sequence is engaged. I don't think I have seen these covers doing anything in DCS.

on the "timer" wouldn't that generally start when pulling the trigger? Just from observing the ground based ones, and other manpads, seems that you can "soft" acquire before using the coolant.

I would assume it will work like this, Acquire target visually "possibly slave it to target with optics", Pull first stage missile gets coolant "1 sec"+ gyro spin up "2 sec" + missile cover is blown"0.2 sec"> soft launch "0.5sec" > main booster for "2.5sec".

I would also assume the airborne mistral pod might hold a different method of cooling, by looking at it seems to have some sort of container, "all speculation here"

How the Black missile covers open up, not sure if they close after fire.

Also @BAd CrC, from what I found out "talked to some dude that trained on them he didn't give details but best estimations" is that self destruct starts after main booster cut off, but according to some it starts a bit after that how much i Dont know, so the 14 sec will possibly have another 3-4 sec before it starts. I would assume an estimated 25-30 sec total in combat, the 12-14 seems to be more for training fire.

Hi Sirscorpion.

Yes, you can use whatever optical system to align the missile with the target within the detection cone of the heat seeker (it's only a few degrees, can't remember). But then the lock confirmation if given by the missile itself. For this, you need to press the trigger to open the cover then let the heat seeker lock on the target (the cover is activated by moving back the fork you see on your picture). Once target acquired, you'll get the firing sequence engaged.

Self destruct is 17 seconds.

German wiki lies says the manpads version has enough coolant for 45 seconds of seeker operation. For the ATAM version I would honestly expect there to be an compressor for cooling.

Hey guys. Just got the Gazelle tonight and can't get the Mistral to fire. Doing what the manual says, master arm, power, covers, switches, sight; but I don't even get the rings on the sight. I can fire rockets and guns just fine. Thanks in advance

Hey guys. Just got the Gazelle tonight and can't get the Mistral to fire. Doing what the manual says, master arm, power, covers, switches, sight; but I don't even get the rings on the sight. I can fire rockets and guns just fine. Thanks in advance

I can get it to fire but don't have a reticle in sight

Same issue.

I can lock and fire, but no reticle in sight.

Same here. Lock and fire yes, recticle no. No clue where it´s gone :-)

Interesting... Working OK on my end. Maybe try wiping the module and reinstalling to see if that fixes it? Sometimes things get messed up during patching