eltorrente

Is the 9X really THAT much better than the M? I don't doubt that it's better, but the fact is that I always seem to hit when I fire the M.

So I checked last night with the amraams on the inner pylons and somehow I managed to fire the first two missles from the same side. It launched the pylon first, then one from the fuselage on the same side. I RTBed that mission with two amraams left, and both of them were on the right fuselage. I don't know how I managed that, but I had been switching back and forth from sidewinders to amraams as I was in and out of various ranges while fighting/searching in the mountains.

I'm pretty sure I tried both inner and outer pylons and it happened on both. I'll confirm when I play tonight. If it's a known bug then that's good at least.

I've noticed something interesting about the firing order of 120's in the F-15. I usually load 6 120's and 2 sidewinders when I fly online. I generally try and fire 2 120's at an aircraft in BVR fights. I just assumed that it would fire the missles on the wing pylons first, then from the fuselage. The other day, after firing two 120's, I noticed my wing was dipping down and I had to trim it. I realized it had fired one from the wing pylon, then the second missle launched from the forward fuselage on the opposite side, instead of the opposite wing pylon. I could have sworn it fired from both wings before that. After that I started paying attention, and noticed that sometimes it did in fact launch both wing pylon missles, and sometimes if was wing pylon then fuselage. Is this normal or a bug? What determines the missle firing order? It's just a little annoying and not game-breaking, but a bit annoying sometimes.

I thought I had a decent handle on SA when I was learning the plane and doing single player stuff. Since then I've been doing multiplayer exclusively on Growling Sidewinder server, and that was a real eye-opener and exposed my actual lack of SA. It just takes practice, of course. The main thing is being able to look at the RWR and through experience and trial and error, to interpret the ranges to various contacts. I can now look at a "16" on the RWR, for instance, and tell if he is getting fairly close, or if he is far enough away to not worry about. I can usually tell if he's trailing me and close to IR range, or if he's ~50miles away or so. Of course, lots of pilots will turn off their radar and try and sneak up on you also. I feel that the best way to learn is through PvP multiplayer, because it's so unpredictable and everyone has different tactics. You get shot down a lot, but you're learning the whole time - especially if you use TacView.

I served in the Navy on the submarine USS DRUM (SSN 677), from 89-93. I was a helmsman and was battlestations helmsman, so I was in the control room during lots of missions and training exercises against other ships, subs, and ASW aircraft. Several times we served as a target for ASW training missions. Every single time, we were asked to be in a certain area at a certain time, and to go a certain course and depth, and even then - they never actually found us. We had no fear of ASW operations, unless they knew right where we were - like if we were spotted visually first. I can't imagine flying an S3 or P3 and trying to find a submarine that didn't want to be found. That would be a long boring flight.

O.K. - I'm an idiot. I thought I looked for that first thing, but I didn't check the axis mappings - I was looking for button mappings. My grip has a lever for the pinky that acts like an axis, but also has a button press when you pull it in. Turns out the axis was mapped to both throttles, so obviously when i pulled it in to activate the button it advanced the throttles lol. Now I shall slooooowly begin figuring out this complex plane. I'm really liking it so far, it feels "alive" and I think it's gonna kill me. Thanks!

I've begun the process of learning the F-14. I learned how to cold start, taxi, take-off, and land -however there is something definitely wrong. When I'm sitting there at idle and get ready to taxi, as soon as I toggle nose wheel steering, it goes full power! I have to hit the brakes and move my throttle(s) slightly to reset it back to how I want. If I toggle the nosewheel steering back off, it does it again! I went in and checked my controls trying to see what could be causing this, but I don't see anything. What do you think could be happening? I have nosewheel steering toggle mapped to my Virpil pinky grip button, and my throttle is a warthog unit. I fly the SU-27T, F-5, and F-15 and haven't had any weirdness, so I doubt it's my physical controls. I think I have something mapped somewhere/somehow that shouldn't be mapped. Can someone help me figure it out?

I would love the F-111 because it's such a unique aircraft and very capable. If we got a Tornado instead of the F-111, I would still be very happy - both are super cool planes.