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VIRTUAL CARRIER WING 3


Jakob_VCW3

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Hi folks!

 

Following our introduction as we moved to DCS here https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3364758&postcount=215

 

I would like to use this opportunity to describe our training as we see some interest from the community. As we have some real life pilots with decades of experience as instructors we’ve been through all the steps a pilot gets through during his career as he builds up experience.

 

Generally, we are concentrated on realism and professional flying. After several years of P3D and now DCS flying with real NAVY training course it became obvious that this is not needed so we reduced the number of standard training flights to 10.

 

The first flight a pilot makes is an O-Flight (orientation). The purpose is to meet a pilot, see his expectations and level and determine what training is needed to get him ready for missions. After that a pilot is assigned to a squadron. That’s where his career and training starts. All the training is flown at Nellis AFB in your assigned airframe which is the F/A-18C or the F-14. It is normal to bypass some of the IQFs to expedite training for experienced pilot or even move straight to IQF-10. IQFs are as follows:

 

IQF-1: Nellis Launch and recovery procedures, VFR, TACAN and WP navigation, NTTR familiarization.

IQF-2: Formation flying. Covers all formation flying from basics to tactical formations.

IQF-3 and 4: Air-to-ground

IQF-5: SEAD.

IQF-6: Air-to-air.

IQF-7: Night ops.

IQF-8 and 9: day and night carrier qualifications.

IQF-10 is a checkride.

 

All the IQFs have standard detailed mission briefings available on the forums online. IQF-3 brief with a training video is available in my next post where i described our OPS. When a pilot gets to the check ride he is offered to plan and conduct a strike mission as a single ship or a 2-ship flight if he opted to go for a flight lead training. That said, we are always opened to suggestion from our students and modify our training to fit students needs. Also a student is no longer limited by IQF phase. IQFs are there to provide a standardized training sorties thus simplifying preparation for both instructor and a student. We have mission nights and all members are allowed to fly missions so everybody can have an exciting experience and learn from others. Based on everyone’s performance during mission a training is assigned.

 

We have flight time and joining requirements though. (http://www.virtualcarrierwing3.net/contact/) If someone doesn’t match the joining requirements application is still considered. As to flight time requirements reserve members need to make at least 2 flight nights per month while active members need to participate in 5 events per month two of which are a standard wing flight night. Flight night or an event counts if 2 or more pilots participated. One standard flight night per week is guaranteed with an instructor. On other nights instructor or ATC is available on request.

 

That’s pretty much it, guys. We are recruiting so If you have any questions or want to join feel free to ask here or contact me directly through a PM, e-mail or discord.

 

https://discord.gg/T2Z6Rsz

 

Squadrons available for joining:

 

VFA-131 (F/A-18C) as a line pilot;

VF-32 (F-14B) as a line pilot.

 

Experienced pilots will be offered an instructor-pilot and command positions but they need to pass IQF-10 for that.

 

 

Take care guys! And see you in virtual skies!


Edited by Jakob_VCW3
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Ok. Now a few words about our operations.

 

I joined VCW3 2 years ago with 21 year of flight simulation experience and 17 years of real aeronautical experience because I have always been looking for a group that shares my professional approach to flight simulation. I have always enjoyed “professional approach”, living a life of a squadron, making notes on how to fly a sortie and an airplane model in general that grew into a copybook that you could use as an academic course. If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail as the saying goes in aviation and at some point in my virtual flying I understood that I need less flight time but more planning and preparation time. So, I projected this and all my real-world aeronautical experience, to make VIRTUAL CARRIER WING 3 operations as close to the real world as possible within the sim limitations while at the same time not to make it a burden for everybody.

 

My job in VCW3 is to track training progress, scheduling, flight planning, flight dispatch, development of pilot checklist and training missions materials. I also do ATC sometimes. That said, I never expect others to do that. I do it because it is a useful experience and I enjoy every minute of it! This is what I call realism cuz flying is only a relatively small part of being a pilot. And the best reward for me is that those who fly with VCW3 enjoy it and have fun!

 

Most operations in VCW3 are planned and briefed through our calendar and forums so that you can prepare. If you’re subscribed on the calendar you can see all the events in all your mobile devices which is very convenient. However, there is always a place for fun flying like 1v1 MiG-29 vs F/A-18 or an occasional flight on who’s available basis. In the end we are all here to have fun!

 

The typical sequence in flight operations in VCW3 is as follows: standard flight nights are Saturday evening CST. Other days can be scheduled if most pilots want it. We get availability time for the upcoming week from our members and all the requests on what do they want to fly. Based on who is available and when we build our schedule for the next week. Sometimes we fly in European time because we have 3 guys from Europe. This schedule is published on the calendar with a general description, timings and server info and other essential general info as well as links to forum briefing for every flight. In one click from the calendar a pilot gets to his flight briefing thread on the forum where he finds some flight specific information and a briefing package which he can extract to Saved Games Kneeboard folder. We value our online time so the forum briefing is meant to give a pilot all he needs for the flight. Verbal briefing is normally limited to timings if there are any corrections to previously announced and questions and it takes usually no more than 10 minutes.

 

We use CombatFlite which I think is a masterpiece for flight planning and in addition I use a datacard of my personal design which is an excel spreadsheet that imports waypoint and then makes a detailed flight estimates including fuel. Sometimes I use PowerPoint to generate mission materials. I personally think that flight planning skills are just as important as flying skills and a good planning is a key to mission success. However, this is a graduate level stuff so we don’t require all our pilots to do that until they go for a flight lead upgrade.

Here is an example of briefing and briefing package:

 

https://virtualcarrierwing3.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=405

 

and a standard mission briefing:

https://virtualcarrierwing3.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=417

 

At published brief time we meet on discord, make sure we understand what exactly we are going to fly and in 10 minutes we are already checking in with the flight lead on a prebriefed channel. With an online ATC flight lead asks for clearance shortly after that however most of the time we just make an advisory calls for everybody around to get an idea of where we are and what we are doing. We use real world procedures for Nellis and the boat adopted and simplified to an adequate level, so we don’t make things complicated and confusing.

 

Once at the range we go to a range frequency and make our attacks. In our dynamic training mission we can also activate adversary aircraft, SAMS and missile trainer or get a 9-line from JTAC with laser codes through the F10 menu. We do all our flights as close to the real-world procedures as we can get and for training flights we use real world NAVY flight training instructions (FTIs). You don’t have to read them though because our training program includes PowerPoint presentations we call “standard mission briefings” and training videos made IAW those FTIs to keep it easy for you to learn. This is a typical sequence for A2G training. Combat Missions are a little different story and dictated by the mission objectives and situation. Sometimes we fly on a blue flag and DDCS servers.

 

Although we try to keep it real with all the comms phraseology and brevity we take it easy if something goes wrong. We still want to have fun doing this, right? We use tack view for debriefing. Just like the real life debrief we keep it positive and concentrated on what can be done better next time and what can we learn from this flight.

 

Usually all suggestions from members are considered because command stuff and instructors are there for our line pilots and SNAs, not the other way around. We do our best to share our real world flying experience and make it fun and an exciting experience for everyone. We use a NAVY ranks, but we never make a big deal out of this. That’s just another part of realism!

 

This was the first year of our DCS operations after several years of MSFS and P3D and I’m proud of what we have achieved. We developed the webpage that has everything for a pilot to learn the NAVY stuff, the training program based on the original real NAVY training we used in P3D but simplified and adopted to DCS and a dynamic training mission with a 24/7 server.

 

To get an idea of how we fly you can check our YouTube videos:

 

 

 

Also, I would like to share our PILOT CHECKLIST: https://virtualcarrierwing3.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=225

 

 

Virtual aviators, if you feel that this is something you want to be a part of, you are welcomed to join. We are also looking for cooperation with other groups that share our approach to flight simulation. I personally think that cooperation is the future of flight simulation and we are looking forward to a day we can speak of the big virtual navy :thumbup:

 

For joining please contact us on the email or discord. Also, you can use the form on our webpage. For cooperation please contact us on email or discord/

 

 

Our web page http://www.virtualcarrierwing3.net/

Our forums: https://virtualcarrierwing3.net/phpBB3/index.php

 

Discord https://discord.gg/T2Z6Rsz

 

Emails:

 

Wood (CAG) Wood@virtualcarrierwing3.net

Jakob (O/S Officer) Jakob@virtualcarrierwing3.net

 

Hope you enjoyed the story and have a great NAVY day!

 

Regards,

 

Jakob

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Hi, BlueJacketWarrior!

 

Check this Recruitment FAQ right here http://www.virtualcarrierwing3.net/contact/ I also updated the original post with this link.

 

Like I said, if someone doesn't match, the application is still considered to see what we can offer.


Edited by Jakob_VCW3
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Hi, BlueJacketWarrior!

 

Check this Recruitment FAQ right here http://www.virtualcarrierwing3.net/contact/ I also updated the original post with this link.

 

Like I said, if someone doesn't match, the application is still considered to see what we can offer.

 

 

Thank you. I sent in one and have joined the Discord server and will be joining the TS server here soon.

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  • 5 weeks later...

VCW3 public server

 

Gentlemen, we at VIRTUAL CARRIER WING 3 are glad to announce that our Nevada server with all the infrastructure for Initial qualification training is opened to public.

 

This is a server for all who want to train and practice, all who want his training structured.The password can be found on the forum as well as the course rules.

 

https://virtualcarrierwing3.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=440

 

FOLLOW THE COURSE RULES!

 

You dont need to be a part of the group to fly on this server. However for information purposes we need you to register on our discord as that's where we publish all critical information about server operation.

 

Also, you need to use a SRS as primary comms system in DCS while you are on the server and be on the discord so that there's still an order in flight operations.

 

You need either our modpack to join the server or simply mods that server asks you to have. Modpack is a one click install with the OvGME and an installation instructions are here

 

https://virtualcarrierwing3.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=322

 

Enjoy!


Edited by Jakob_VCW3
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  • 1 month later...

VCW-3 FLIGHT PLANNING GROUND SCHOOL

 

Gentlemen, a quick update on group's status. Flight nights are still Saturday evenings CST/CDT. For European part we also fly on sundays afternoon.

 

VCW-3 training policy is that we concentrate more on each pilot's professionalism and focus on 1-on-1 training while participating in big events together with other groups. Learning real world flying stuff ain't easy but like I said earlier instructors are there for our line pilots and we enjoy sharing our knowledge and experience.

 

This week we are offering a flight planning session on Saturday 3/30/2019 2200UTC. It will cover all aspects of flight planning like weapons delivery planning, ATC flight plans, construction of flight plans, airspace utilization, making a briefing package and kneeboard with maps and datacards and NTTR course rules. There are prerequisites for students. To keep it productive it will take some prep from students side. No requirement to join as an observer. I've got 2 students already.

 

We are seeking a deeper cooperation between groups and as a part of that policy I'd like to invite everyone to take part in this next event, meet and see how we operate. All are welcome to join.

 

We always welcome an opportunity to share something with the community and learn from each other. If you wish to take part, Just PM me. Our server is available for everyone who want to follow real NTTR procedures. We will talk through all those procedures and why we do that.

 

Here's an invitation to our discord: https://discord.gg/T2Z6Rsz

 

See you in virtual skies!

 

PS:

 

Docs and soft I will be referring to:

 

NELLIS ATC SOP: https://1drv.ms/b/s!Ao1DMSxuwh3Wnsok2gh-D2FTLBIGJA

CHART USER GUIDE: https://1drv.ms/b/s!Ao1DMSxuwh3WnzuBqpD0azLzxo43

AIRSPACE FOR EVERYONE brochure: https://1drv.ms/b/s!Ao1DMSxuwh3WwjiM3cqfRImW1h5F

FLIP GP: https://1drv.ms/b/s!Ao1DMSxuwh3WqUCqP2q0IvvtDaLh

GoogleEarth: https://www.google.com/intl/ru/earth/versions/

Combatflite: https://www.combatflite.com/


Edited by Jakob_VCW3
Corrected the date
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