DCS Academy

If I was you from personal experience I would get the a10c and c101 plus the nttr and Persian gulf maps to start with when I got in to dcs I bought everything I could some I never opened up a single time as I recall oh get the three A-10C training campaigns. The c101 is what the dcs academy uses for basic flight training from my research. I would and plan on doing it my self after trying to learn the huey a year ago I thought I was good enough to go multiplayer but it wasn’t I thought they would teach me but I didn’t have enough experience or ability in the huey. So I figure it’s better mastering the training missions and then I’ll join dcs academy to learn the rest before going to a virtual squadron.

Re schedules, most of the phase 1 instruction (intro to flight, VFR, IFR, formation flying) is done by three instructors, one of whom is in Europe. We post our availability, you just have to keep an eye on our subs and make an arrangement. We are very careful not to admit more cadets than we can handle.

Re modules, they are like pokemon, gotta get them all. I agree with BlacleyCole, definitely C101 and if your career bird is on sale, get it. PG is such a huge map in DCS, you might as well get it when you can.

As for other aircraft --

-- There's been a lot of interest in the Yak-52 lately, worth a look

-- F5 is very popular, a real aviator's jet, good for A/A training. On sale? Shoot. I'd buy that. In a minute.

I personally have my eye on the MIG 19, I think that would be a really cool opfor aircraft

DCS Academy isn't just for pilots, we have a couple of extremely experienced instructors who are putting together an amazing RIO school.

A Tomcat team -- pilot and RIO -- that go all the way through this program together would be truly, truly frightening.

What would the rio need as far as skills and mods. The one thing I wish the f-14 had was a ai pilot so a rio could practice. I know you have jester for the rear seat I’m not aware of the ai pilot although I have the mod I haven’t played with it since I’m not interest in being a carrier pilot.

^ The instructor will fly the thing for you while you're in the back seat. Beyond that I expect there will be plenty of pilots looking for a RIO. I'll drive you around any time.

To start, all you need is the Caucasus map and our mod pack, which includes:

-- A-4E

-- MB-339

-- 476th range targets

-- Navy equipment

-- Civilian Aircraft Mod

We also have about a bajillion liveries you can download at your convenience.

You might want to google up OVGME, which is a mod manager. A bit of a learning curve that could save you some aggravation later on.

After your introductory lessons, you'll need NTTR. Pick it up right now today, it's on sale.

C-101 is highly recommended -- in fact it's required for budding drivers -- although I can see a path where a RIO cadet can get enough stick time in between the MB-339 and the A-4 if you don't mind missing out on some of the IFR training. Note, the C-101 is also on sale right now and it's a fine mod, at thirty bucks it's a steal. 7

You'll need SRS and it's helpful to get it running beforehand. SRS is seamless within DCS but it can get kind of twisted up between windows, discord and oculus settings so it might require some troubleshooting.

You'll need tacview advanced eventually. Believe me, in AIC training the question "What just happened???" comes up a lot. if you don't have it yet, wait because we do group buys.

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My last two checkrides were with retired air force pilots who are current commercial pilots. They were gracious with their time and generous with their knowledge -- they will be great to train with -- and as you would expect, they are moving up the ranks quickly, so we will announce openings in the next day or two. Watch the discord. (And don't get intimidated, we can take people at any level if they are sufficiently self-motivated)

Deltamike I have everything except your mod pak already. What skills would a rio need?

Deltamike I have everything except your mod pak already. What skills would a rio need?

I can take this one:

IRL (or at least when I went through the NFO pipeline) we had 25 hours of stick time before being put in the back seat to do navigation and other NFO things. Going through the DCS Academy pipeline will help build the airmanship skills that will transfer to being a good RIO. From there, systems management for a RIO is not much different from being a pilot in a full fidelity DCS module. However, acting as a RIO (or any NFO role) is learning a mentality and being proactive. If I’m your instructor this summer, I’ll go into that.

Right now, do the basic syllabus, then do the RIO training missions that come with the F-14 module. Everything you learn will be of use later.

Greetings One and All,

I do not have much experience with Discord, can anyone explain why they need member phone numbers to join servers? Thanks.

Salute,

Punk

Well I guess I’ll start the usaf phase 1 soon.then phase2 after that I’ll see if the rio position still appeals to me but if the oh-58 hit first that I’ll be my next step.

DCS Academy isn't just for pilots, we have a couple of extremely experienced instructors who are putting together an amazing RIO school.

 

A Tomcat team -- pilot and RIO -- that go all the way through this program together would be truly, truly frightening.

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Greetings One and All,

I do not have much experience with Discord, can anyone explain why they need member phone numbers to join servers? Thanks.

 

Salute,

Punk

That's just a level of verification so the channel isn't spammed by randos and bots.

That's something I'd be interested in once my work schedule calms down a bit. Any idea on how long the RIO school would be?

 

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Figure a month or two for basic airmanship, navigation and however much IFR training you want. As for after that, I imagine it never ends.

I'll let HomeFries give you an idea of what he has in mind.

Also keep in mind you'll probably want to take some A2G classes, and ride along for many, which essentially never ends (think about how complicated it is to get on target on time). Likewise, you don't have to take A2A school but you'll be riding along a lot. The extra set of eyes (and fingers) is part of what gives the Tomcat its edge.

After that, AIC training is an ongoing program and I don't know that anyone ever really masters that, too many variables. Ultimately we plan to have Red Flag style exercises, so there will be the matter of coordinating strike missions. Fun never stops. Which is what we are shooting for :)

I would consider the A2A school equally important as A2G. IRL, RIOs know as much about BFM/ACM as the pilots (providing insight and observations), and senior RIOs provide advice and direction for junior pilots in ACM. Also, since RIOs normally handle 99% of the comms, understanding the geometry and having SA is vitally important for communicating with the rest of the section/flight.

As far as a formal curriculum goes, I'll have to kick the can until late spring. Real life has me bottled up until then.

I would consider the A2A school equally important as A2G. IRL, RIOs know as much about BFM/ACM as the pilots (providing insight and observations), and senior RIOs provide advice and direction for junior pilots in ACM. Also, since RIOs normally handle 99% of the comms, understanding the geometry and having SA is vitally important for communicating with the rest of the section/flight.

 

As far as a formal curriculum goes, I'll have to kick the can until late spring. Real life has me bottled up until then.

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Can you please post the phase 2 chart so we know what is expected thru out the training plus please add in the timelines for each vs the exact flight specs lik first flight in7 day upon start of section checkride 3 weeks from start of section. Joe many flight and how often on my schedule or yours. I understand having live instructors limits the flesability tremendously I myself normally are in control of my schedule except for medial appointments some routine office visits others more intricate procedures. I’m wanting to fly multiple flights so it becomes second nature.i understand that I may free fly these missions on my own time.

 

 

Are you interested in learning the principles and physics behind whamakes military fighter aircraft able to perform the way they do?

 

Are you looking for a group of knowledgeable people who can answer deeply technical questions about military airborne operations?

 

Are you interested in being one of the best military aviators in the DCS community?

 

Are you willing to put in the required effort to learn this knowledge, train these skills, and acquire these abilities?

 

If you answered "yes" to all of the above, then you're probably ready for DCS Academy!

 

 

 

What is DCS Academy?

 

 

DCS Academy is a small community of DCS players who are interested in learning about fixed-wing military aviation "the right way", starting with aviation first-principles and working up to fighter tactics and concepts of operation for participating in airborne warfare.

 

Aspiring helicopter pilots have their own rotary-wing pathway as well, starting with basic/civilian helicopter coursework by our FAA-certified helicopter instructor and moving to US Army-inspired utility and attack helicopter training.

 

 

 

Who teaches at DCS Academy?

 

 

DCS Academy instructors are members of the DCS community at large who are interested in improving the quality of DCS pilots. Here is a list of some of the qualifications the instructors have:

 

 

1. Real-world commercial pilots,
   
2. FAA CFI or CFIIs,
   
3. FAA-certified rotary-wing instructor,
   
4. former military pilots or NFOs/WCOs,
   
5. retired military crew chiefs,
   
6. current or retired JTACs,
   
7. current or former military airborne operations trainers,
   
8. current or former/retired civilian airspace controllers (ATCs),
   
9. current or retired military air intercept controllers/air battle managers,
   
10. Chuck from Chuck's Guides.
    

 

 

 

How much does DCS Academy cost?

 

 

DCS Academy is free ! We wanted to improve the quality of pilots in the DCS community without locking it behind any type of paywall. The instructors all volunteer their time and expertise to improve the DCS community as a whole.

 

 

 

Does DCS Academy have its own server?

 

 

Yes! We supply our own servers and have a realistic implementation of the NTTR map where most of our training occurs, just like the real-world (in the USA at least).

 

 

 

When does DCS Academy offer its classes?

 

 

Classes are offered by instructors as their availability allows. Just like you, they are busy people with full-time jobs, families, and a life outside of DCS.

 

 

In general, you can expect classes to be offered around the same times you have availability (USA-based). There isn't necessarily a regularly scheduled time you can find each instructor unless their personal lives lend themselves to such regularity. The DCS Academy Discord typically has instructor availability published a week or two in advance in each instructor's classroom/channel.

 

 

 

What does DCS Academy offer that other places do not?

 

 

DCS Academy is focused on teaching principles first, which makes the advanced concepts easier (or possible!) to understand. As a consequence, it opens up possibilities for advanced, real-world military training in a variety of topics. We have the requisite people with the associated knowledge to teach you real-world military tactics, techniques, and procedures.

 

What we will not be teaching the public at large is anything that is classified or sensitive. Note the difference between the instructors' knowledge, skills, and abilities; versus what they will actually teach you.

 

 

 

Is this where the AIC training moved to?

 

 

Yep! The AWACS/GCI/AIC training that has been offered since March, 2019, has been incorporated into DCS Academy’s advanced (Phase II — A2A) training.

 

 

Sounds great! I'd like to sign up!

 

 

 

 

Hold up. Let's talk a bit about expectation management and skills, knowledge, and abilities (KSAs):

 

In a community for a technically challenging subject like study-level military flight simulators which are open to the public at large, the KSA vs. population distribution is best modeled by the Power law

 

DCS Academy is decidedly targeting people who want to be at the top, which means that based on a random sampling of DCS players, there is likely a considerable gap in knowledge, skills, and abilities from where each person is and where they want to be. Check yourself before you decide you want to invest your time in this effort and to forestall against the Dunning-Kruger effect.

 

Lots of people like to talk the talk; DCS Academy makes you walk the walk, and we'll quickly find out what you can and cannot do.

 

Everyone who signs up for DCS Academy needs to either take classes in basic aviation (Phase I) or test out of them to be graduated to Phase II where you get to fly your fancy F/A-18C or F-16C.

 

Phase I training takes place mostly in trainer aircraft (the C-101 or MB-339). You are expected to be active to prevent skill and knowledge atrophy, and so the instructors can monitor your progress.

 

Phase II training is where all the "cool" stuff happens, but you must have the requisite basic aviator skills or you'll embarrass yourself and hold up everyone else's training. There are several pipelines in Phase II like: A2A, A2G - Strike, A2G - CAS, and SEAD.

 

 

We've already had a few students progressing through the beginning levels. The quality of their flying and airborne operations is considerably higher than when they started, and considerably higher than most people who have not gone through the program and who have joined in on AIC training. This has opened up interesting advanced AIC training simply because the class isn't bogged down by people who didn't learn the basics of aviating enabling the class to focus entirely on employing advanced concepts.

 

This is at least some evidence that DCS Academy is serving its purpose and allowing for interesting, advanced, real-world training you can't get anywhere else (short of signing up for the US military). We’re eager to introduce more advanced concepts to the DCS community!

 

 

 

 

Okay, I’ve checked myself and I won’t act the fool. Where do I sign up?

 

 

 

Start with this Discord link, read the channel topic, pinned messages, and check the #announcements channel:

 

https://discord.gg/MM9UyN5

 

 

 

I want to help out as an instructor. How do I sign up?

 

 

Follow the same Discord link and post that you’d like to be an instructor. We’ll give you a brief interview then ask you to make a course on any topic of your choosing to demonstrate that you’re able to plan at least one course.

 

 

When you’re ready, the other instructors will take your course, provide feedback, and then you’re free to offer that course or any others you desire.

 

Training/graduation must occur within the following timeline:

Phase I

Cadet Level 0) Must take your first class within 7 days of signing up. Must complete your first solo within 21 days of signing up.

Cadet Level 1) Must complete VFR qualifier within 28 days of achieving Cadet Level 1.

Cadet Level 2) Must complete IFR qualifiers within 28 days of achieving Cadet Level 2.

Cadet Level 3) Must be graduated to Phase II within 28 days of achieving Cadet Level 3.

Phase II

As a phase II pilot, you are welcome to hang out with us at your leisure without time limits.

You may audit Phase II instruction on a space-available basis without distracting or detracting from students who are actively participating in that lesson.

If you sign up for Phase II instruction (an A2A or A2G thread), you must complete the thread you sign up for within the following timeframe after signing up, and you must fly with us at least four hours per week to maintain currency:

A2A Threads 1 & 2: 42 days each.

A2A Threads 3 & 4: 56 days each.

A2G Thread 1: 28 days.

A2G Thread 2: 35 days.

A2G Threads 3 & 4: 49 days each.

As for phase 2 pathway, best bet is to swing by the discord to see how things are developing

I have and I see things are closed at the moment. If you will are a a suggestion to make it easier to understand had three sub channels ne for phase 1 and list the objectives for phase 1 there. A second for the USAF objectives and the third for h usn objectives that way only see what applie o your path. And also I know for phase one you sad one week for check ride and one month for phase out test iirc. But I do not recall time limit/standard for the other phases sections but it would be nice to kno if you go the usaf track from stat to finish you have x amount of time for the navy it is x time.

Compiling all the components to begin familiarization and stick time with the C-101EB, NTTR, Manuals, Simple Radio, Tacview, OVGME etc etc.

I'm motivated and can surely RTFM as I get stick hours in the C-101EB. Might be a month or two, depending on RL obligations and schedule. At some point will just stay on top of Discord and slots to gain entry to the Academy.

My concern is; I have ZERO experience multiplayer, Mods, servers, etc. etc.

Will there be resources available at the Academy (Discord) to learn these area's or should I be looking to come up to speed on these issues in tandem with my aircraft familiarization, pattern work etc etc. before applying?

Thanks!

I’m in a similar situation except the last part I’m familiar with the mods, some multiplayer experience. Imo in the mean time work thought the training missions and any tutorials, in this case they will be from the grim reapers. I think they can be monotonous at times because they don’t appear to be scripted and the one guy goes off oN tangents but that is my take. If you need help with mods I first suggest using ovgme to install them that way it is protected during updates whereas if you put them in the correct location manually then they get deleted every update, clean and repair you do from my understanding.there are written and video tutorials on setting it up and using it. As fare as most servers go and find one that allows newbies and prevent pvp actions. That way some experienced pilot does add you to his kill list.

Fly around the causcus and nttr until you take off fly around enter the pattern and land without too much problems

We have a technical support forum. SRS is pretty slick, people only tend to run into trouble when it conflicts with Discord and windows sound panel settings. Which is hard for us to troubleshoot. You just have to log in somewhere to make sure it's working, or fiddle with it until it does. (If you're running Oculus, you'll get real good at that, everything has to be re-done with every Oculus update.)

Check out the Georgia at War training server, nice place to get your bearings in the multiplayer world.

OVGME is definitely worth having, you just have to google it up. Most common mistake is getting confused about what goes in the Saved Games folder and what goes in the install folder. Simple answer is, it goes in Saved Games the vast majority of the time (which is true for all of our mods)

 

Check out the Georgia at War training server, nice place to get your bearings in the multiplayer world.

 

OVGME is definitely worth having, you just have to google it up. Most common mistake is getting confused about what goes in the Saved Games folder and what goes in the install folder. Simple answer is, it goes in Saved Games the vast majority of the time (which is true for all of our mods)

Thank you both for the suggestions. I will take them!

One more small inquiry if I may. If I want to become familiar with the Cadet 0,1,2,3 training grounds on regular basis as I become familiar with the MP world, where should I set my ME up to do pattern, navigation and other familiarization work on the NTTR map with the C-101EB? I have read through all the syllabus materials on the Academy Discord site. I can see some of the check ride routes there.

I also see the Tuesday Night NOOB server from Hoggit. Is this worth exploring also?

Edit: A little looking around and I see the Georgia at War Training server is the Tuesday Night NOOB. Guess I'll start there. I really am out in the weeds here. It must look pretty uninformed! I'll get there.

Thanks!

@swimbody, and @Home Fries.

 

I was (I think it was) VP-30 out of Pax River for training and a year with AIMD in NAS Keflavik working with a VP of P-3 Charlies there.

Hey Mac, I was on Kef from 84 till 87 ( I extended, it was great duty). I worked in AIMD, cal lab, and worked on all your test sets and many other systems including the aps 115 and difar. I was lucky to also be a collateral duty inspector so I went on a lot of flights (liberty) as the crew loved not having to wait when back on deck for customs, I did it ; )

Working on the electronics and liberty looking for subs for 8 hours or so, land in Europe and enjoy a day or 2, then look for subs again for 8 hours otw back to Kef.

Flew some there (civilian) and the wind was a mess! Take about a bitch ILS!

Anyway, just wanted to say hi and share.

O7

Mission

Watching these two vids will give you a leg up

Also, here's an NTTR practice mission I put together

-- Spawn in at Laughlin, figure out the runway and taxiway markings. Practice flying the pattern, note 16 has a right hand pattern, practice your radio calls

-- See if you can figure out how to get to, and land at HND

-- Spawn "air start" for formation practice and kind of a fun tour though the Death Valley portion of the map (including a run through Star Wars Canyon). Finish at IFP, I'll take a low approach to 16, you can either follow me in or take separation on the downwind

Doing those things will help you develop stick skills which should help

If you have that licked, and have time to spare, spawn in at Nellis, familiarize yourself with the airfield diagram. Probably worth practicing the visual approach from Dry Lake - Apex, the sloping terrain plays tricks with your eyes. The departure from 21 is a little tricky too, one exercise might be FYTTR departure from 21L, return over Gass Peak, hook right to Apex, practice your left overhead, keep it tight (see here)

death valley VFR challenge.miz

I can’t say enough good things about these guys and the program they run. The time I spent with the instructors was some of my best ever in DCS. I do think you guys (Radial, Blacley) are wise to get up to speed with SRS, discord, the mods, some multiplayer familiarity (I had none) etc prior to joining. I know a big mistake I made was joining and then trying to get all that stuff figured out (along with my Reverb HMD breaking and putting me out of commission for 10 days). I ran out of time to train and missed the 21 day deadline for my first solo and got booted. Really regretting it and now just waiting and hoping I can get readmitted. Take home message is these guys are amazing though and I for the first time in 7-8 years of DCS actually felt like I was learning and not just playing and winging it. Cheers, Jason