F-18 or F-14?

Just about to pick up the F-18 in the summer sale. After over-hearing some chatter about the F-14 vs the F-18, I was wondering which one most ppl find to be more enjoyable? ...ignoring the "more recent is better" argument of course :smartass:

You really cant go wrong with either. So I say both.

F14 is a-lot of fun either by yourself or with a live RIO. If you have a friend to fly with multi-seat is a blast.

Pilot and RIO Animations are really well done. Would hope ED duplicates those animations. Too many pluses to mention with the Tomcat.

That said, just love the Hornet though. So its hard to recommend one over the other.

If you are a decent experienced Sim Pilot, neither is really that complex with systems being relatively easy to learn.

I frequently jump between the Harrier (a blast to fly), the Hornet and the Tomcat with no issues.

F18 is much easier to fly thanks to fbw and hud however is more technically complex with all the mfd's and broader range of weapons. Personally I find the f14 more fun to fly. The flight model is just more fun to play with and imo the visuals and audio in the f14 are much better.

If you only want to buy one of them, I recommend the F/A-18. You don‘t have to rely on a RIO and it‘s made by ED, which is a bonus in my eyes.

I would be really interested in just flying the Turkey. Is it possible to completely shut up Jester or does one have to live with his babble?

I would be really interested in just flying the Turkey. Is it possible to completely shut up Jester or does one have to live with his babble?

LOL! Jester is a comedian and adds a cool “human” aspect to a sortie!

If you only want to buy one of them, I recommend the F/A-18. You don‘t have to rely on a RIO and it‘s made by ED, which is a bonus in my eyes.

^^^^ Ditto.

I made the same decision a few weeks ago. Weighing all the pros and cons it finally came down to the fact that in a way I've always hated the Hornet. Also I already had the Viggen so I was not looking for attack capability. So I got the Tomcat.

Now, I've just started learning the Tomcat and so far I'm happy with my purchase. I do however feel that it would be nice to have a single seater sometimes. At the same time I appreciate Jesters company at times. Like when I struggle to catch the basket and he is being super helpful in the back seat. But most importantly when he is the only one to see that I got that 3 wire. I also look forward to trying MP multicrew, I haven't gotten around to that yet.

Honestly I don't know what you should pick. I think you might be happy with both, but the bug is probably the safer bet.

For myself I will probably get a 1 seater fighter at some point in the future. It might eventually be the f-16, but of course I hate that too.

I would be really interested in just flying the Turkey. Is it possible to completely shut up Jester or does one have to live with his babble?

You can shut him up completely.

I have both and I must say, I am having more fun flying the Hornet at the moment but only because my little pea brain can only absorb so much information in a limited period of time so I have concentrated on the Bug. I will say though, I enjoy flying the Tomcat around the boat a lot more that the Hornet. It just FEELS more like I am flying it rather than just jockying a throttle back and forth. Anyway, I believe that many have already said that you will probably not be disappointed with either one. The Tomcat though, is a real work of texturing art!! It is truly a thing of beauty inside and out. Not that the Hornet is any plain Jane milk toast example. I just find the Tomcat a beautifully done model. The only real bummer I can think of regarding the Tomcat is that you can't get into the back seat while in MP missions to operate the targeting pod and Jester can't do it. From that perspective, the Hornet is a little more capable as a multi role fighter. But then the Tomcat was not very often used as a multi role fighter like the Hornet is.

You can shut him up completely.

 

I enjoy flying the Tomcat around the boat a lot more that the Hornet. It just FEELS more like I am flying it rather than just jockying a throttle back and forth.

That's great news, thanx :) The Hornet is like most other FBW airplanes. When I flew my first FBW plane IRL I was surprised that the feel is basically completely gone.

It's like painting by numbers and I pity the poor pilots who never had a chance to fly 'real' airplanes.

You don't have chance to have such planes in other sims. So if you have a chance get them both..

Hornet is much more modern and capable. Can fire almost everything. And still getting weapons and avionic updates.

Tomcat..tomcat is tomcat, no need to say anything else. Even looking at her is a superb thing

F14 if you want a real airplane, F18 if you want a toy. (;

By the way I have both, and either one is very well done.

Both. But as you mentioned the summer sale, go for the 18 first since the 14 isn't on sale anyway.

The F-14 is a crazy hot chick you met while skydiving on your 21st birthday. The F-18 is that girl next door you've always had a crush on.

Or insert your favorite gender wherever you want... it is 2019 after all... but that's my analogy.

The F-14 is a crazy hot chick you met while skydiving on your 21st birthday. The F-18 is that girl next door you've always had a crush on.

 

Or insert your favorite gender wherever you want... it is 2019 after all... but that's my analogy.

Ha! Great analogy. As for being 2019... there's a plus. I'm not a fighter pilot. But I don't have to be. I just identify as one.

Flying the F-14 is a real joy. Difficult to master, great feel of buffeting and adverse yaw and other things. FAST! Employing weapons is fairly simple and interacting with Jester is a unique way to handle certain things compared to any other jet. You can have him deal with radios, radar, countermeasures, tacan, datalink, all for you so you don't have to know those systems.

The Hornet is like flying a computer compared to the Tomcat, but is still very nimble and fun. The FBW means you can pirouette and do some neat tricks at low speed. The real great thing about the Hornet is the wide variety of weapons. Mavericks, JDAMs, JSOWs, AIM-9X with JHMCS, eventually TGP and Harpoons, SLAM-ER, and A-G radar. Employing those systems and weapons is going to be tons of fun and tons to learn.

I guess I'd say the Tomcat feels really powerful, has a fun flight model with lots of quirks, and is an air-to-air beast with secondary bomb capability. The help from Jester can make some things like radar management kind of "easy" for the pilot, but that's the point. Online multicrew looks fun but I haven't tried it. Hornet has a more "sterile" FBW flight system, so the joy of flight isn't there quite so much, but it has tons of high tech weaponry and capabilities.

That's great news, thanx :) The Hornet is like most other FBW airplanes. When I flew my first FBW plane IRL I was surprised that the feel is basically completely gone.

It's like painting by numbers and I pity the poor pilots who never had a chance to fly 'real' airplanes.

No pilot would ever start on a FBW aircraft. Everyone starts on a full up mechanical flight control system.

No pilot would ever start on a FBW aircraft. Everyone starts on a full up mechanical flight control system.

The KAI T-50, Yak 130, Leonardo T-100 and the Boeing T-X, all these trainers are FBW planes.

Flying just the minimum hrs during training with a low performance basic trainer isn't what I had in mind when I wrote my previous post. ;)

All the copilots I've flown with in the last few years are flying the A320 as their first airliner and I doubt that they will ever have a chance to fly a non FBW airliner.

They will most likely never experience how e.g. a heavy 767 'feels'.

I own both modules. Like others have recommended, buy both if you can.

However, if you can only get one at this time here's my recommendation:

The bug should be your choice if you want to work more with the systems than flying the aircraft due to FBW and the amount of tech. in the pit. The cat should be your choice if you want an aircraft that you really have to fly over managing systems as its few systems are fairly easy to manage and it's a true "pilot's airplane" (of course there's more systems if you decide to go RIO over pilot).

The bug should be your pick you looking for a broad multi-role capability, it's a true jack of all trades. On the other hand, while the cat can do attack missions it really is an air-to-air platform first and foremost being designed around it's radar/phoenix combination.

I routinely fly both in one evening and make my choice primarily based on the differences above. Both are great fun!

The problem with the F-14 is that the present FM seems to be questionable in a few areas, which is bad if don't want to shoot, but only fly.

Still waiting for a more realistic MiG-21 FM since many years, so I'll wait until the F-14 (and maybe even the MiG-21) FM are corrected.

FA-18C for ease of flight and modernity.

F/A-18 for me. I did buy the F-14 as they are so cool but I find it more challenging to fly. I've flown the F/A-18 with friends and the data link came into it's own. Also swapping A/A to A/G is easy. In fact I find the 18 to be more relaxing to fly.

But then I jump into the F-14, nail that throttle and go to an external view and it's oh baby! :happy:

F/a-18c for the excellent weapons it can carry for A/G as well as A/A (jdams, jsows, mavericks, aim 120 and the aim9x with the jhmcs... ), the systems and also for the glass cockpit that can basically give you all the small details of your flight and also so much more options (or rather much more accessible options) than in the f14 (fpas, sa, fcs, stores...). Finally the plane is so much more easier to fly.

I think the two compelling traits of the f14 are the aim 54 long range missiles and the 2 seats that sorta makes it like you learn two aircraft for the price of one. But the f14 is Hella hard to fly compared to the fa18 (for example you can enter flatspins super easily when you try to evade at high altitude or you can even break your wings if you aren't careful, plus the super basic hud that gives no speed or altitude makes it a chore to land especially when you want to make a case I pattern landing where you need to monitor speed and altitude at every step of the pattern, in the fa18 you can basically do any ridiculous maneuver and the fbw handles it like this is nothing, you are basically totally protected by the computer).

In the end the f14 is very deadly in A/A if you use the aim54 under good conditions but dogfighting remains very hard against "normal" fighter jets with good pilots. A/G in the Tomcat is good with the lantirn pod coupled with the gbu's and because of the great payload it can carry, that makes it a formidable bomber.

The fa18 is very deadly in A/G as well as in A/A, in long range A/A engagements it might be taken out by the aim54's but in medium range the hornet has the upper hand with fox 3 missiles (that you can carry more if you use double racks), in short range it is unbeatable because of the aim9x/jhmcs combo and in a dogfight with cannons, the fa18 has far greater maneuverability so it probably wins if the pilot is skilled enough. In A/G, whilst the hornet carries less payload than the f14, it can carry more precision guided weapons like the gbu's 12 mounted on double racks that amount to 8 of them mounted on the 4 pylons. Also is has much more precision guided muntion options than the f14 (jdams, jsows, mavericks, harms and even more to come). And because of the sensors, systems and the glass cockpit, you can configure these weapons much more precisely. In the end the fa18 wins in AG in my opinion.

So as a recap the f14 is good for long range A/A engagement and bombing because of it's payload. It's quite hard to fly though and is gonna take so much more training to master

The fa18 is good for it's glass cockpit, excellent fbw, systems. It also has a variety of modern weapons that gives it an upper hand in medium/short A/A engaments and that gives it the obvious advantage in A/G because of the variety of targets you gonna encounter. The fa18 is simply more modern and easier to fly, you gonna spend less time trying to learn how to fly it properly and spend more time learning every option and systems with the mfd's.

In the end the fa18c wins by my book and is much more versatile than the f14.

I personally prefer the F/A-18 over the F-14. The F-14 is great for the "cool factor," being the jet from Top Gun and all, but I don't really enjoy flying as much as I thought I would. There are a lot of quirks due to it being this complex analog-digital hybrid from the late 1960s; I'm honestly more at ease in the purely analog F-5E since it's so simple. The Tomcat is a handful to manage in the Case 1 pattern with DLC and speed brake to worry about, in addition to the gear, flaps, and trim. You can tell the Cat was designed as a high-speed BVR fighter above all else with the poor forward visibility due to the "jailbars" on the canopy, too.

The F/A-18C has a lot more systems depth, a greater variety of weapons, and is an overall much more versatile jet than the F-14B ever was. Sure, it doesn't have range/endurance like the F-14, but that's what external tanks and aerial refueling are for, right?

The problem with the F-14 is that the present FM seems to be questionable in a few areas, which is bad if don't want to shoot, but only fly

Please expand on your “seems to be” assertion.