cajundave

Are there directions on how to do that? I've been curious because DCS uses up almost all of my SSD, meanwhile I have a 1 TB HDD doing almost nothing.

I recommend starting to practice off of the KC-130. Its flat straight wing gives a good horizon reference point to use. You can line up the top of the HUD glass with the trailing edge of the tanker's wing. Once you get good with the -130, then move up to the -135 and S-3.

You can set it to be one push on/off. Instead of putting the modifier on the left hand list, put it in the right hand list (I forget what it is labelled). I was using that at first when I started DCS and was wishing it was momentary, until I figured it out.

As a real world pilot and instructor, I can tell you stall speed is a function of AOA. As you increase your bank angle, in order to maintain altitude, you need to increase AOA by pulling back on the stick, which also increases G loading and hence stall speed. At a 30 degree bank in a level turn, stall speed increases 10%. At a 60 degree bank in a level turn, stall speed increases 40%. Getting low and slow and banking, at low altitude, doesn't end well.

I believe 5 degrees nose up is the target in the Hornet, so the aircraft reference symbol should be on the 5 degree cross bar. No flare, just maintain AOA and pitch angle until you bolter.

Don't forget you are sitting on a rocket. Depending on the level of damage, controllability, and risk to the ship and pilot, it may be recommended to do a controlled ejection with the angel helo in close proximity for immediate pick-up.

Not necessarily true. Some runway lights are bi-directional in color, white one direction and yellow the opposite in the last 2,000 foot of the runway, red/green on the threshold, but most all do put out light 360 degrees. Some higher intensity lights focus the light more in some directions, but they still show 360 degrees of light.

As great and in-depth as DCS is, I will admit a small amount of disappointment the first time I hit a cruiser with a pair of HARMs, and didn't impact its defensive abilities at all. Obviously a HARM doesn't do much damage to the ship itself, but it would be great to see damage modeling implemented to the radar and other systems. I'd imagine that's a pretty big ask of DCS though. I'm sure that would be a complex task to determine system damage modelling for each type of ship with any smidge of accuracy.

If you haven't tried it already, practice off of the KC-130 instead of the KC-135 or S-3. The wing of the C-130 is nearly perfectly horizontal and makes a great reference point. I can usually align the top of the HUD with the wing, and follow that C-130 through any maneuver it tries. Once you get good at that, the others are a little easier.

Not as germane to DCS, but the SINKEX doesn't evaluate the real world function of those weapons as well as you think. The ship being sunk has no fuel, no munitions, and no crew on board. In WWII, most of the heavy damage that sank ships was not the initial explosion, but the secondary's as the fuel bunkers and munition stores blew the ship in half. Also what may appear to be superficial damage, may have injured or killed a lot of the crew. At the very least taken them out of the battle as they attended the damage to the ship and themselves. You don't always have to sink a ship to win.

Granted I haven't spent as much time learning the Viper yet, but I find the Hornet HOTAS and avionics more intuitive than the Viper's.

Totally normal and realistic behavior. You need to understand what Calibrated Airspeed (CAS) is, and understand the air is thinner as you climb, resulting in reduced CAS as well as reduced engine power.

I've tried in the ME several times to create ships leaving from a port in a mission, yet they never seem to move or move very far before stopping. Does DCS simulate the water depth and ships just get stuck if not deep enough in the port?

I'm a stable user, so going to have to wait a while longer yet. I'm curious though what happens if static aircraft are parked on the Catapult, such as they often do on Cat 1 while using Cat 2. Will the tower and AI still try to use that Cat? I've already seen the map of spawn locations for AI and players.

That explains how I shot down my own tanker. I had an enemy aircraft I was looking for, saw the red icon on the radar and shot it, just to find out I killed a friendly.