"Intense" basic training...

These last few days getting familiarized with both the DCS World environment and the P-51 in particular have been one of my greatest experiences as a simmer, I have to confess :-)))

Lately I have simply been training circuits with increasingly bad weather conditions, including strong crosswind components, turbulence, various types of precipitation and ceiling.

On most cases I use crabbed approaches, but also sideslips. It's simply astounding the sensation of taking the aircraft down to a safe stop even with extreme (near max demonstrated) crosswind components, and the physics model, flight dynamics, ground interaction, and everything about ths sim is leaving me completely astonished with the level of detail and realism!

Of course, all of it in pure "Simulation" mode with zero aids (no auto-coord or takeoff assist).

You may say - this guy is nut's... he should be fighting ... not trainning circuits... but it's giving me a hell of a GREAT TIME!!!

My Christmas arrived earlier, that's for sure :-)))))))))))

Hey jcomm, hope you have been well.

Welcome to the world of DCS!

I know what you mean. I've been learning A-10C and P-51D simultaneously and I enjoy very much practicing the basics, flying the pattern, trying to get my landings smoother, etc. It's amazing how rewarding these aspects of the game can be when other games trivialize or omit them in favor of pressing the weapon trigger longer.

same here...im new to DCS.last week i bought the P51, and since i was just amazed about its details, i couldnt hold myself, and so yesterday i went into the next electronics store and found a DVD called fighter-collection including the A10 and the Shark+ another game which i dont even install, for cheap 20euros.

and im of the same impression,....just to learn to start up those crates, and the first take offs and landings are really rewarding.im really looking forward to get the hang of the different nav systems, and also to my first blind landing in horrible weather conditions in the A10....

its those little details, which make this sim so much superior to all the other sims ive played so far.ive never been that much immersed by any other pc simulation yet.

Exactly! The last time I bought a combat flightsim it was Flaming Cliffs. It was too heavy for my PC by that time, and I eventually gave up using it.

Sophisticated war systems also require a steep learning curve, and modern air combat feels strange to me, and very complex :-/

I am primarily a civil flight simulator simmer, but I decided to buy the P-51, and start investing in DCS World after a friend, who owns all modules, showed it to me. The P-51, being a prop aircraft is, IMO an excellent proof of concept of the flight and overall physics model that lays in the core of DCS World. I think this move to simulate a prop aircraft, a very powerful and tricky one, is probably the best way there is to proof that indeed ED DCS leads in terms of flight and systems models, and this way can attract simmers like me who, in the very first place, are looking for good / plausible /detailed / accurate flight dynamics, within an equally good, even if not extensive, scenery area, very good weather visuals and effects, "life" around to simply glimpse, or to cause serious trouble, etc...

I believe I have found it all in here :-) I believe the ED DCS World platform is capable of bringing top-notch models of many aircraft types, and I think it would be great to get at least one or two per year, properly modelled, acuurately designed, by tallented people like those who designed and programmed those that alreaady are available.

I remember that friend of mine saying he was somehow disappointed with the choice of the P-51, but as soon as he got the beta version and started using it, his oppinion changed 180 deg.

In RL I fly gliders at more than 25 yrs, and I do not own any engined aircraft pilot license (not even SLG or SSG because here in Portugal it requires having ULM in your license too), so, my experience even from a private pilot POV is limited, but I have long dedicated to aerodynamics (lot's of reading...) and used just about each and every civil flight simulator you can think of. I also bought the 1st version of IL2 Sturmovik, but was disappointed when the 2nd version was released because I felt somehow the things became easier than they should - moving towards a more arcadish-like feel of flight... I do not have the slightest idea how the newer version, and specially CoD are in terms of flight dynamics, but I was told by some users of both products that, while IL2 CoD offers a wide diversity of WW2 era aircraft, and an environment for that era too, in terms of detail and accuracy it can not compare to DCS P-51.

So... (sorry for my long posts...) I intend to keep investing solely in DCS. There is simply no more motivation to start either FSX, X-Plane, MS FLIGHT, etc... On each and every of those sims I kept searching for a realistic feel of flight. The closer that I could get to it was with MS FLIGHT and just as far as the Maule and Stearman included in the package go (the other, specially the cockpitless fighters are perfectly useless in as far as simulating their real counterparts goes...)

After learning how to properly fly the Mustang I will jump to my first combat training sessions and only after that will I ever try to go online and join some of you on a nice air combat session :-)

Rotary wings are my other passion, and the only reason why I still kept X-Plane for so long. There is no way in MSFS to properly simulate that type of aircraft... Now, compared to the BS2 in DCS, helicopters in X-Plane, even the best, are a toy, not only regarding the complexity of the simulated systems but again, and particularly, the flight dynamics. Having read somewhere that ED intends to add a Huey made me start already dreaming of it..

For me, just as it is now, and as the foreseeable future appears to be, DCS World is my way to go :-)

Just one more thing, regarding the choice for a P-51, and being an oppinion from someone who knows nothing about air combat! When I served at the Portuguese Airforce, the cadets were instructed in Epsilons and Chipmunks! I once heard a very credited portuguese military pilot, with whom I had the chance to experience a delightful flight on a T-37, that all fighter pilots should get proficient in the very first place in a good prop / turboprop trainner, before going on to even the basic Alpha Jet for intermediate jet fighter training. It's probably an identical argument to Lufthansa in the early eighties still requiring their airline pilot candidates to own a glider pilot license....

A P-51 teaches a LOT, I believe, and, at least for me it is really helping, for the first time, to feel a WW2 fighter (probably one of the most powerful of that era) and learn to fly it. I did not have that experience when I "flew" the same model in either MS CFS1, CFS2, CFS3, or even in another game I loved - Jane's WW2 Fighters...

Oops... I'm tired... you must be too... sorry

You're quite right mate :). Now I've take some chances on combat flying with P-51, but at first I also enjoyed P-51 only for a walk, like MSFS. Just the pleasure to see all that systems working like it's meant to be, start using the procedure like I do often (it's like a big Cessna one!!) and just fly... may be a bit a navigation, or some touch&goes... and that's all, it's just the pleasure of flying... :):) May be lot of people don't understand that, but it's the same I do in a Cessna (but without paying for it... :lol:) I'm also "very old" to flight simming and this is the very first time I feel that in a simulator, so mate, I don't mind the limited map or not having another WWII era counterpart.

S!

P.D. 1: I fully understand what you say from every simulator you comment, so don't take the chance with CloD... I recently bought it in a 3$ offer... it's the worst spent 3$ in my life, it's rubbish, they screwed things completely with FM.

P.D.:

In RL I fly gliders at more than 25 yrs, and I do not own any engined aircraft pilot license (not even SLG or SSG because here in Portugal it requires having ULM in your license too)

P.D.: Where do you fly? I'm relatively close to Portugal in Spain and I fly around here.

Used to be Évora (LPEV) and some years ago also from Sintra Airbase (LPST - me helping one of my poor passengers before a K21 ride above Sintra ridges...) on their As-K21s, but it is now confined to Santa Cruz (LPSC) and Ponte de Sôr (LPSO, our most recent base of operations...).

Covilhã (LPCV) was closed :-(

There is also Bragança (LPBR) and Mogadouro (LPMU)

I wish we could have a motor-glider in DCS World... With a gun, of course!!!!!

Nice!! I usually fly from LEJU, near Seville :smilewink:.

S!

Used to be Évora (LPEV) and some years ago also from Sintra Airbase (LPST - me helping one of my poor passengers before a K21 ride above Sintra ridges...) on their As-K21s, but it is now confined to Santa Cruz (LPSC) and Ponte de Sôr (LPSO, our most recent base of operations...).

 

Covilhã (LPCV) was closed :-(

 

There is also Bragança (LPBR) and Mogadouro (LPMU)

 

I wish we could have a motor-glider in DCS World... With a gun, of course!!!!!

OT: I believe I still owe you a beer next time you come to LPSC :D

OT: I believe I still owe you a beer next time you come to LPSC :D

Imagine a glider in DCS!!! Even if one of those huge WW2 gliders ;-)

LPSC would be short for it ;-)