Real World F/A-18 Pilot Will Test DCS F/18 If Donations for Hurricane Victims Met

It may be a bit longer of a video. I'll try to give a bit more of a detailed comparison in my final thoughts. I'm also looking at comparing it to some actual hornet footage I have in editing.

 

I know you guys take this seriously, and I appreciate that. But to me, it was just a fun time.

Your offer to make the DCS videos was for a good cause, so thank you.

However, a more nuanced and patient approach to your DCS session would have been a better way to go in my opinion. It would have been helpful if you took a bit of time to learn the controls and maybe fly a bit before recording your video.

Doing a start-up, taxi, takeoff, pattern and landing following normal F/A-18C NATOP procedures would have been much more useful. Watching you jackass around in the sim was not very beneficial or entertaining.

The video really came across as disrespectful to Eagle Dynamics, the DCS Community, and your wingman. ED has put a tremendous amount of time, effort, and research into the F/A-18C. Additionally, the DCS Community is very passionate about Aviation, and really appreciates feedback and insights into the real world aircraft. They are eager for in-depth information and procedures.

The majority of DCS fans are not real pilots, and flying DCS Modules is as close as they will ever come. Those of us who have flown real aircraft, and especially those of us that are privileged enough to fly for a living would do well to keep this in mind.

Your offer to make the DCS videos was for a good cause, so thank you.

 

However, a more nuanced and patient approach to your DCS session would have been a better way to go in my opinion. It would have been helpful if you took a bit of time to learn the controls and maybe fly a bit before recording your video.

 

 

Doing a start-up, taxi, takeoff, pattern and landing following normal F/A-18C NATOP procedures would have been much more useful. Watching you jackass around in the sim was not very beneficial or entertaining.

 

 

The video really came across as disrespectful to Eagle Dynamics, the DCS Community, and your wingman. ED has put a tremendous amount of time, effort, and research into the F/A-18C. Additionally, the DCS Community is very passionate about Aviation, and really appreciates feedback and insights into the real world aircraft. They are eager for in-depth information and procedures.

 

 

The majority of DCS fans are not real pilots, and flying DCS Modules is as close as they will ever come. Those of us who have flown real aircraft, and especially those of us that are privileged enough to fly for a living would do well to keep this in mind.

.... You can't possibly be serious.

.... You can't possibly be serious.

Concerning any seed of doubt that we are all sitting in our mother's basement in flight suits........well, he wanted to eliminate that completely.

.... You can't possibly be serious.

Personally , i agree with much of his post....

Personally , i agree with much of his post....

Although he was rather too direct, I agree with much of it as well.

I think as a community , most of us thrive on so called 'realism' and emulating the 'correct' way of doing things. We enjoy learning about these aeroplanes and how to operate them. The opportunity to get a RL hornet pilot to contribute to our hobby is rare....anyone can just goof around...youtube is full of it. But maybe Mover was approaching the experience from the opposite side of the spectrum, and that's ok too.

@Chops: sometimes I miss the rep system to quietly send a :thumbup: to a deserving post like yours.

Nope. All in good fun. I had a great time. I never expected anything else.

 

Flying with Carl was the best part.

Can ED then count on your support with a Hornet sale? er.. and Intel, Nvidia, Thrusmaster and Oculus?

Who says you can't goof around and learn? Goofing around is a great way to learn. Once you're finished goofing around, then you can take a deeper dive. Expecting anyone, RL pilot or not, to be able to jump into DCS and give a deep dive into the complexities of DCS and how it compares to a real aircraft in 6 hours is slightly far fetched, don't you think? You had me right up to the disrespecting part. Give me a break.

To the contrary, I learned quite a lot of useful information from this experience that I have yet to see posted in any vid or these forums. Take a gander.

1. Dropping eggs is a phrase best reserved for describing fallopian processes and not ordinance delivery.

2. Carl doesn't know how to load a flight plan in the Hornet.

3. ED's default F-18 Warthog map is nothing like the real thing.

4. Not all PLFs are good PLFs.

5. Touching a fighter pilot's hand while he is engaged in DCS can be a dangerous endeavor resulting in immediate excoriation.

6. Sixty-nine is the A/A TACAN frequency real fighter pilots prefer.

7. You do not have to retract your airbrake prior to takeoff if your aircraft is equipped with afterburners.

8. Takeoff rolls with NWS HI engaged separates the men from the boys.

9. Assuming section lead without permission results in waypoint zero appearing as the selected waypoint on your DDI.

10. Real fighter pilots and simmers like the same color automobiles and prefer Chevrolets.

11. A TrackIR hat w/clip sitting on your desk in a video in no way guarantees that you will not be accused of not having a TrackIR.

12. Eating hamburgers with a real fighter pilot makes them taste better.

13. And lastly, I learned to never invite a neighbor over to hang out with a real fighter pilot because he may stuff his hand under his shirt to control his fighter pilot chubby on camera for all the world to see.

Speaking to Lex's Youtube channel. He hasn't posted anything in 5 months. I have to wonder if he didn't get a knock on the door one afternoon. "Disrespect" was in reference to CHOPS' post.

To the contrary guys, Lex is extremely involved in the DCS/Hornet community.....so much so that he has his own discord chanel, his own squadron, and his own server.

Sweet.

I for one am grateful to Mover for posting that video and hope some of the comments here don't discourage him from continuing to share his thoughts on the DCS with the community.

He was "goofing around"? So what? Guy is not allowed to have fun because he's a RL pilot and is under some sort of obligation to "study" the sim for us?

Some of you guys are taking this whole thing too seriously..

Exactly^^

Who says you can't goof around and learn? Goofing around is a great way to learn. Once you're finished goofing around, then you can take a deeper dive. Expecting anyone, RL pilot or not, to be able to jump into DCS and give a deep dive into the complexities of DCS and how it compares to a real aircraft in 6 hours is slightly far fetched, don't you think? You had me right up to the disrespecting part. Give me a break.

 

To the contrary, I learned quite a lot of useful information from this experience that I have yet to see posted in any vid or these forums. Take a gander.

 

 

1. Dropping eggs is a phrase best reserved for describing fallopian processes and not ordinance delivery.

 

2. Carl doesn't know how to load a flight plan in the Hornet.

 

3. ED's default F-18 Warthog map is nothing like the real thing.

 

4. Not all PLFs are good PLFs.

 

5. Touching a fighter pilot's hand while he is engaged in DCS can be a dangerous endeavor resulting in immediate excoriation.

 

6. Sixty-nine is the A/A TACAN frequency real fighter pilots prefer.

 

7. You do not have to retract your airbrake prior to takeoff if your aircraft is equipped with afterburners.

 

8. Takeoff rolls with NWS HI engaged separates the men from the boys.

 

9. Assuming section lead without permission results in waypoint zero appearing as the selected waypoint on your DDI.

 

10. Real fighter pilots and simmers like the same color automobiles and prefer Chevrolets.

 

11. A TrackIR hat w/clip sitting on your desk in a video in no way guarantees that you will not be accused of not having a TrackIR.

 

12. Eating hamburgers with a real fighter pilot makes them taste better.

 

13. And lastly, I learned to never invite a neighbor over to hang out with a real fighter pilot because he may stuff his hand under his shirt to control his fighter pilot chubby on camera for all the world to see.

I loved the canopy "rule of angles" idea. Impossible with TrackIR, but using canopy as a guide of sorts makes sense in VR.

There were plenty of cool tidbits in the vid.

I for one am grateful to Mover for posting that video and hope some of the comments here don't discourage him from continuing to share his thoughts on the DCS with the community.

 

 

He was "goofing around"? So what? Guy is not allowed to have fun because he's a RL pilot and is under some sort of obligation to "study" the sim for us?

 

 

Some of you guys are taking this whole thing too seriously..

Yep,

It would take him quite sometime to get used to the sim, you can tell Lex was very much acquainted with DCS / Tir very well before doing those great videos.

Still not acquainted enough to do case 1. Well not yet anyway, perhaps he will soon.

I don't have any experience on F-18's, but if you hop in a real life A-10C you won't get very far in the startup procedure using DCS knowledge. At least one crucial step was omitted, or can probably just be assumed to have already been performed by the time you're sitting in the cockpit. You'll need a hand with the ladder there too. :thumbup:

I'm actually curious as to what that one step would be? Venturing to take a guess, is it uploading the DTS chip data onto the plane?

Some thoughts having watched many of mover's vids in the past in relation to this one.

1. MC Trev had it right before the vid was posted. It's about managing our expectations.

2. This community is devoted to DCS, Mover is not. This means a vast difference in perception.

3. Mover was on an unfamiliar control setup, this is a major immersion breaker for him.

4. He was looking at a screen. Maybe it would have been better if his original foot in the water was a track ride in VR where he could take control of the throttles and stick up in the air before anything else. His perception may have altered a little. You would be surprised just how much a simple thing like a seat shaker ramps up the realism in VR.

5. Mover is not a gamer. This is just a game to him, much as the likes of beat saber or tomb raider is to us.

Nothing in his experience added any level of immersion or reality to what he was doing. Not knocking bananimals setup, it is a good one, but not the best way of introducing a RL Hornet pilot to DCS if you expect him to be impressed and take it a little more seriously.

Even his view was in 2D without depth or scale and without one to one head tracking. Basically, he was visually still sat in front of a screen in someone's living room, not on an airbase. I recall the first time I sat in the Hog cockpit , on the ramp in VR, I could not believe how high off the ground I was or how large the ramp was.

Everything he touched and saw was completely wrong. How could he possibly be expected to take it seriously?

Lex, bless his cotton socks, loves DCS, but some have an affinity with gaming and easily become immersed and others cannot without more substantial visual stimuli.

Even I don't take flat screen DCS or other sims seriously any more and am unable to get immersed, even though my first sim was flight unlimited in win 95 days. In this respect, for me; VR is a dream realised and also a curse.

I thank Mover and Bananimal for taking the time to do the video. His reaction may have been disappointing to some, but cannot have been unexpected.

Once again I am not knocking anyone's setup or how they do things, I'm just trying to walk a step in Mover's shoes.

Some thoughts having watched many of mover's vids in the past in relation to this one.

 

1. MC Trev had it right before the vid was posted. It's about managing our expectations.

 

2. This community is devoted to DCS, Mover is not. This means a vast difference in perception.

 

3. Mover was on an unfamiliar control setup, this is a major immersion breaker for him.

 

4. He was looking at a screen. Maybe it would have been better if his original foot in the water was a track ride in VR where he could take control of the throttles and stick up in the air before anything else. His perception may have altered a little. You would be surprised just how much a simple thing like a seat shaker ramps up the realism in VR.

 

5. Mover is not a gamer. This is just a game to him, much as the likes of beat saber or tomb raider is to us.

 

 

Nothing in his experience added any level of immersion or reality to what he was doing. Not knocking bananimals setup, it is a good one, but not the best way of introducing a RL Hornet pilot to DCS if you expect him to be impressed and take it a little more seriously.

Even his view was in 2D without depth or scale and without one to one head tracking. Basically, he was visually still sat in front of a screen in someone's living room, not on an airbase. I recall the first time I sat in the Hog cockpit , on the ramp in VR, I could not believe how high off the ground I was or how large the ramp was.

Everything he touched and saw was completely wrong. How could he possibly be expected to take it seriously?

 

Lex, bless his cotton socks, loves DCS, but some have an affinity with gaming and easily become immersed and others cannot without more substantial visual stimuli.

 

Even I don't take flat screen DCS or other sims seriously any more and am unable to get immersed, even though my first sim was flight unlimited in win 95 days. In this respect, for me; VR is a dream realised and also a curse.

 

I thank Mover and Bananimal for taking the time to do the video. His reaction may have been disappointing to some, but cannot have been unexpected.

 

Once again I am not knocking anyone's setup or how they do things, I'm just trying to walk a step in Mover's shoes.

There was a problem with the TrackIR so he had to mess around with a mouse view,

seems to be the real distraction,

plus I'd say, someone who knows FA-18 keyboard commands should have had the keyboard in hand and he would than just jell out commands I'd say.

(better still put a VR on his head, but then, in particular and specifically, you need someone to pound in keyboard commands or something such)

My impression was that neither of the principals gave any forethought to the session , or made any preparations for it , resulting in a lot of , as another poster so aptly put it , jackassing around . Sad .

Thank you Mover for taking the time to do this.

The #1 goal of disaster relief was achieved so that is awesome and all that really matters.

It's too bad you weren't using VR or at the very least track ir. I would have loved to see you perform your own startup and fly a few patterns, pull a few Gs, and land. A detailed analysis of just that and how it compares to the real bird would have been pure gold.

Thank you Mover for taking the time to do this.

 

The #1 goal of disaster relief was achieved so that is awesome and all that really matters.

 

It's too bad you weren't using VR or at the very least track ir. I would have loved to see you perform your own startup and fly a few patterns, pull a few Gs, and land. A detailed analysis of just that and how it compares to the real bird would have been pure gold.

Not after his baptism into the serious and deadly world of online sim-gaming:D or... perhaps he will one day:)

Thank you Mover for taking the time to do this.

 

The #1 goal of disaster relief was achieved so that is awesome and all that really matters.

 

It's too bad you weren't using VR or at the very least track ir. I would have loved to see you perform your own startup and fly a few patterns, pull a few Gs, and land. A detailed analysis of just that and how it compares to the real bird would have been pure gold.

They tried TrackIR in the beginning. But he didn't like the (jittery, I believe) experience and opted out. TiR does take some getting used to. But VR would have been nice to see. He mentioned during the video "hard to do when you can't see..."

Your offer to make the DCS videos was for a good cause, so thank you.

 

However, a more nuanced and patient approach to your DCS session would have been a better way to go in my opinion. It would have been helpful if you took a bit of time to learn the controls and maybe fly a bit before recording your video.

 

 

Doing a start-up, taxi, takeoff, pattern and landing following normal F/A-18C NATOP procedures would have been much more useful. Watching you jackass around in the sim was not very beneficial or entertaining.

 

 

The video really came across as disrespectful to Eagle Dynamics, the DCS Community, and your wingman. ED has put a tremendous amount of time, effort, and research into the F/A-18C. Additionally, the DCS Community is very passionate about Aviation, and really appreciates feedback and insights into the real world aircraft. They are eager for in-depth information and procedures.

 

 

The majority of DCS fans are not real pilots, and flying DCS Modules is as close as they will ever come. Those of us who have flown real aircraft, and especially those of us that are privileged enough to fly for a living would do well to keep this in mind.

That was never within the scope of this video, as I've made clear many times.

Can ED then count on your support with a Hornet sale? er.. and Intel, Nvidia, Thrusmaster and Oculus?

Unlikely.

My impression was that neither of the principals gave any forethought to the session , or made any preparations for it , resulting in a lot of , as another poster so aptly put it , jackassing around . Sad .

That is false.

Thank you Mover for taking the time to do this.

 

The #1 goal of disaster relief was achieved so that is awesome and all that really matters.

 

It's too bad you weren't using VR or at the very least track ir. I would have loved to see you perform your own startup and fly a few patterns, pull a few Gs, and land. A detailed analysis of just that and how it compares to the real bird would have been pure gold.

We did have Track IR. And we did all of that. In fact, prior to the footage in part one, I had flown for about three hours.

But, again, a detailed analysis was never in the cards. I never promised any such thing.

Bananimal was a gracious host. He did everything possible to make it enjoyable, and he too was disappointed when I chose to use the multiplayer footage over the initial stuff. So, that's on me if you guys don't like the outcome. He did nothing wrong.

There's a part two. It's more in depth. It's not a detailed analysis, a tutorial, or an instructional video.

As you may notice, my channel is not a gaming channel. I am a fighter pilot. I am not a gamer. I did this video because so many people were asking about me flying DCS in the comments of my other videos, and I saw an opportunity to support a very worthy cause.

It worked. I flew DCS as promised. I will give my final thoughts in part two, as promised.

That's as far as it will go. I'm sorry for any misunderstandings.

 

. On the other hand, I don't though. I remember in one of his videos he said he was hired on to an A-10 squadron, but it didn't happen because the base was on the BRAC list. Well, I doubt he wouldn't have come across DCS A-10C in the squadron, since it was made as a familiarization tool for them in the first place. Is it "just a game" to the squadrons?

I'm not sure what this even means. In 2005, the A-10C wasn't IOC. DCS didn't exist. No squadrons used it for IFFCC or Suite 3 PE.

In 2011, when I was hired by the 47th, pilots used the actual simulator. I never heard anyone mention DCS as a fam tool.

Wags and Eagle Dynamics may have been looking for further feedback on any inaccuracies between the DCS module and the real thing as well. That's just a personal observation though.

Wags and I have been and are in touch.