What percentage of DCS Pilots can Reliably Air Refuel at least one Airframe?

When I first came to DCS, I was using some rather well worn CH equipment and I had a dead area in my Pro Throttle which happened to fall right where I needed to be the smoothest to AAR in the Warthog. This made me have to jack the throttle back and forth like I was scrubbing the deck on a sailboat. Made it work though.

The upgrade to a TMWH stick and throttle was a revelation.

Difficult to put a percentage on it, but I'd say the majority of those who fly in multi-player.

Those who exclusively fly single player might struggle

Or are you just being pointlessly controversial...

After all, if its just MP players that can AAR...the answer to the OP "What percentage of DCS Pilots can Reliably Air Refuel at least one Airframe" is therefor obviously...only a small minority of the DCS user base...

It's impossible to estimate, because not everyone in here owns all modules.

I've been playing DCS since 2014 and none of the modules I own is AAR-capable.

This is funny, if you take what you wrote literally. You mean to say you learned to AAR in 5 minutes? Really?!

Or do you think those “many hours of practice” had as much or more to do with getting it?

You still needed many hours of practice, not just a new stick.

Of course that practice on old equipment counts when you buy a new one. I just wanted to say that, frustratingly, you can practice a lot and get nowhere due various reasons.

This is personally one of my favourite things to do in dcs and i quite often just jump on to do a quick AAR . I find that because i jump from aircraft to aircraft quite often it makes it harder but when i stick with a certain aircraft for a period of time it becomes much easier. I have all the AAR capable aircraft and they all have their personal quirks regarding AAR. I personally find the Hornet the easiest for me. As for the hardest i really couldn't say except i haven't tried the Jeff much probably less than 3 times so it's still new to me and probably my most difficult due to lack of familiarity. I remember when i first got the tomcat i was shocked at how different it felt to refuel and had a bit of a hard time learning it until i figured out to scooch down in my seat with my TRACK IR so i see under the windscreen frame. Then i could see the basket and then it made it so much easier to get a reference point to go off. The Viper and F15 and Warthog wasn't difficult once i learnt to trust the Refueling lights and just relax and fly formation. I suppose the key for me to getting AAR done was to relax and breathe lol. My logbook say's I've done 134 AAR which is much less than I've actually done due to me not remembering to save my logbook when I've reinstalled DCS. Anyway happy flying folks and enjoy those smooth AAR that just go right and feel so satisfying and rewarding when you hook up without dropping out. Cheers:thumbup:

AAR is just formation flying. If you can do that reliably, you can also AAR... On that note, most the playerbase can't fly formation to save their ass in my experience, so I'd say ''relatively few''.

AAR is just formation flying. If you can do that reliably, you can also AAR... On that note, most the playerbase can't fly formation to save their ass in my experience, so I'd say ''relatively few''.

I'd suggest that AAR is substantively easier than formation flying...your baseline is either straight level and stable speed or in a gentle even turn, throw in the fact that you're staying very close (holding formation counter-intuitively gets easier the closer you are) in a static position relative to your baseline have only a single "sight picture" to master and no turns/transitions and its easier to master!

AAR is just formation flying. If you can do that reliably, you can also AAR... On that note, most the playerbase can't fly formation to save their ass in my experience, so I'd say ''relatively few''.

This probably isn't the right attitude for enouraging more players to try multiplayer.:(

The real question is how many think they can AAR until they enable wake turbulence

For some reason I can do it really well in basket type aircraft: jf17, m2000c and especially the f/a-18 because I use the basket as a reference point (which probably isn't the right thing to do but it works well for me). I haven't yet mastered the f14 and harrier though.

On the other hand I literally can't fly formation well enough to get refueled by the boom on the f16c or f15c, I'm pretty sure it's because I personally can't find an easy enough thing to follow on the belly of the aircraft to keep stable.

I haven't yet tried to do it with the a10c though, might want to do that one day...

Yeah, I play 100% SP and I clearly haven't trained enough in anything related to formation flying, that's why I'm bad in those boom planes

The real question is how many think they can AAR until they enable wake turbulence

That shouldn't be a problem since aar aircraft and equipment are designed in that way to prevent disturbance as much as possible. You will not find wake turbulence under belly of KC135, or around basket position behind KC130.

For some reason I can do it really well in basket type aircraft: jf17, m2000c and especially the f/a-18 because I use the basket as a reference point (which probably isn't the right thing to do but it works well for me). I haven't yet mastered the f14 and harrier though.

On the other hand I literally can't fly formation well enough to get refueled by the boom on the f16c or f15c, I'm pretty sure it's because I personally can't find an easy enough thing to follow on the belly of the aircraft to keep stable.

I haven't yet tried to do it with the a10c though, might want to do that one day...

 

Yeah, I play 100% SP and I clearly haven't trained enough in anything related to formation flying, that's why I'm bad in those boom planes

Lack of peripheral vision is really detrimental here.

The real question is how many think they can AAR until they enable wake turbulence

Wake turbulence isn’t a problem if you approach the tanker correctly. Don’t fly directly behind the tanker, go to the correct holding position off to the side, then come in below the tanker. You won’t hit the wake.

yeah how do you even hit wake turb unless you're literally trying to

like everything aar related is well out of the way of the wake

anyways dumb thread that will self select for biased responses

most people who care but cant aar arent gonna out themselves, and the rest who simply dont care about aar probably care even less about responding

This probably isn't the right attitude for enouraging more players to try multiplayer.

its a truth tho

you do more of a disservice to a community by not weeding out people who can't handle the truth

besides most of the people who are too scared to play multiplayer can't be convinced regardless because they're just inherently cowardly people who crumple the moment they get shot down by anything whether its a pixel missile or some strong words

not saying theres anything wrong with that, whats wrong is trying to force others to 'help' people who can't help themselves

being scared of facing other people is their own issue, not everyone else's.

so back to the point yeah tons of people suck at formation flying because they never feel like putting in the time and effort to, because there is such a culture of low effortism created by too many people scared to death of 'losing recruits'. if you want to change that norm then you gotta be able to create an environment where people aspire to do better. being better doesnt come without its pains so you cant be scared of a few tears.

i take issue with the assumption in the first place that a game is something that is a 'try and hook' thing. that is literally an admission that a video game is transgressing from entertainment to a mental drug. of course its a big thing these days and its how the really successful games succeed without actually providing anything substantial, but that doesn't make it right.

its a truth tho

you do more of a disservice to a community by not weeding out people who can't handle the truth

I'm pretty sure nobody starts out magically capable in Formation Flying....just like AAR it takes practice...the question is does telling people most the playerbase can't fly formation to save their ass in my experience encourage people to give it a try and then get better...or put them off joining in with others before they've even started?

most of the people who are too scared to play multiplayer can't be convinced regardless because they're just inherently cowardly people

Oh jeesh

Actually most multiplayer servers are related to training and aerobatics... maybe those are for “cowards” :cry:

The the largest factor keeping people away from avid MP participation is that it requires you to maintain two installs of the game.

yeah i really do think so! there are all too many people who are eternal trainees who never think they're ready, and they never can be ready; every moment they spend training only kills their confidence more because they sink deeper into their investment.

because god forbid they discover in the 'real thing' that their hours training failed them

they are ruled by this fear, and what is that if not cowardice

of course there are more reasons than this but these people very much exist and i am using them to make a pointed example as to why you cant save everyone with gentle cooing

To enlist words like: "cowardly," "brave," "fear," "scared," etc. in a discussion about a bunch of people sitting in immobile chairs in their air-conditioned homes, mouth-breathing while staring at pixels is pretty ridiculous. :thumbup:

It should be visualized if someone re-post this topic as a poll thread.

its not ridiculous. its absolutely natural that gamers include some of the lamest of society, let us be lucid about it. there's a good reason why video games long held the stigma of being the purview of losers.

loser culture now being encouraged doesnt mean the losers have gone away, or are actually no longer losers.

don't take it personally. but think on it. deep down, you know it makes absolute sense why 'all our solutions never seem to work'

Probably quite a low percentage of virtual pilots manage to get past the frustration stage. It's a very dangerous job, being an AI tanker :D

What annoyed me at the start was that the difficulty of refuelling is compounded by DCS issues related to how you interact with the tanker crew. It's a good job that " return pre contact " isn't a phrase you hear anywhere else, if someone said it to me in real life I'd probably punch them in the mouth before I could stop myself :D

The general standard of flying in MP seems pretty variable. I see a lot of people who can't land a plane and a few who even have problems taking off. As long as they don't impact my enjoyment I don't care though. Maybe they just like blowing stuff up ? that's fine by me. DCS is a sandbox, do what you want with it.

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loser culture now being encouraged doesnt mean the losers have gone away, or are actually no longer losers..... you know it makes absolute sense why 'all our solutions never seem to work'

What?

To enlist words like: "cowardly," "brave," "fear," "scared," etc. in a discussion about a bunch of people sitting in immobile chairs in their air-conditioned homes, mouth-breathing while staring at pixels is pretty ridiculous. :thumbup:

Yea, that dude is just hilarious:megalol:

Oh jeesh

Actually most multiplayer servers are related to training and aerobatics... maybe those are for “cowards” :cry:

The the largest factor keeping people away from avid MP participation is that it requires you to maintain two installs of the game.

No this is just an incorrect statement. Not sure when the last time you checked however there are only a few training and i think 1 or 2 aerobatics, however the top servers are not. They are focused heavily on combat scenarios.

So for example the server i spend time on, DDCS, is a pretty high calibre, some very experienced people on there which is evident if we pop on other servers its becomes very easy. Also people that join from other servers often have a new learning curve to face if facing the core of the regular squad.

As for 2 installs, i don't understand why, i only have one now and only ever play MP. No point not running OB these days as stable isnt exactly bug free either so

SP is way too easy, actually can't remember the last time i got shot down even with AI maxed out and ground systems cranked up. Nothing compares to fighting human tac commanders with real GCI, to say otherwise is just naive.

This probably isn't the right attitude for enouraging more players to try multiplayer.:(

Reading the bias against SP players I can imagine one would not want to join those elitists online.

yeah i really do think so! there are all too many people who are eternal trainees who never think they're ready

Aren't most of us "eternal trainees" though...or at least those of us with open minds...if you want to be even moderately competent do we ever stop learning/practicing...and isn't DCS the perfect example of the Dunning–Kruger effectin that the more we learn & practice...the more we realise there is left to learn...and perfect...

Or maybe its just me...and you're already perfect in your prefered airframe (s)