DCS Hornet: A Crowning Achievement

[wilbur81]

To Wags, Mr. Grey, and the entire ED Team:

 

Just a quick word of encouragement and praise: Your DCS Hornet module, which I've been flying nearly exclusively since day one, and which was a day-one pre-purchase for me, is an absolutely amazing achievement.

 

The user-community has been spoiled (speaking, at least, of myself) by all that DCS has to offer at such a high level of fidelity, so there's often much (childish at times) whining and demanding that goes beyond helpful bug-squashing-constructive-criticism that is needed from the community to be sure.

 

However, I would still maintain that the Hornet is so good in it's current O.B., W.I.P. state, that it could easily stand on it's own if no other modules were offered in DCS. Keep up the good work on this jet! We are rooting for you as you keep bug-squashing until this amazing module is fully baked.

 

I was flying Baltic's Raven 1 a couple of days ago and thought, "my goodness... we've come along way since my days with Falcon 3.0 and Graphsim's Hornet." 

 

Your F/A-18C Block 20 is a masterpiece! Keep up the good work. 

Edited June 25, 2021 by wilbur81

[Kuna]

I can't agree more


Wysłane z mojego Redmi 6 przy użyciu Tapatalka

[dburne]

I agree as well. Finally after much blood sweat and tears put into my learning of the Hornet I am finally flying combat in a campaign and loving every minute of it!

[ruddy122]

I like the Bug

I get into PIO but it’s pretty stable

I just figured out AOA on Approach and Landing I was too fast had to get slower


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TheCoyoteHunter]

+1

The Hornet is my 1st Hi-Fidelity module, purchased during the Christmas Sale

And I gotta say the last time I had this much fun, I was into something that may not have been completely legal.

 

What I personally like about the Hornet...

1. Not afraid of water.

2. Really easy to land on runway, basically crash it onto the runway and you'll be just fine.

3. Does Air to Ground really well (I especially like the laser guided bombs with Targeting Pod of course)

4. No slouch at Air to Air either.

5. Great systems to lessen work load, master the auto pilot modes and the work load during targeting becomes much easier.

 

Carrier landing was a steep curve for me, but WOW, it is so satisfying, now, runway landings with any plane are easy.

 

I only have the FC3 modules to compare to, but the Hornet has a certain allure to it, best explained by Chuck in the Chuck's Guide for the Hornet.

(From Chucks Guide, page 5)

"The FCS (Flight Control System)
needs to be studied and understood if you want to fly “with it” instead of
fighting “against it”. Yes, you will have to tame the beast. That’s part of its
charm.
This aircraft gives you a great sense of power, purpose and achievement.
Learning to fly it properly is no easy task but the aircraft has such character
that it makes the whole experience very rewarding. Once you get that
exhilarating feeling of catching the third wire during a difficult carrier
landing… you’ll understand what I’m talking about."

 

My hats off to ED, for the fantastic module, which in my opinion in a bargain, considering everything this module can do.

And last but not least, my hats for Chuck as well, what an amazing guide he created for the Hornet.

 

 

[ruddy122]

The Bug is awesome and if they fix the F-16 that plane will be special also

The F-16 is good not great yet

Personally my two favorite planes

Russia I like the Flanker and the Felon looks cool


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[Wolf359]

DITTO! So far over 150 hours in the Hornet, all single-player. I haven't jumped on a campaign yet but will soon!

[Steel Jaw]

Yep, I have had it since Day One as well and love it, last Hornet I flew was Janes and the BMS "Hornet" which frankly is junk.

[GoodHope]

Ditto!!  I absolutely love the Hornet!  I've tinkered with the F-16, A-10 (I and II), Harrier, Gazelle, and Huey.  I always feel at home in the Hornet--it is an absolute pleasure.  And I'm an Air Force guy--go figure that I'd love the carrier!

Edited February 17, 2021 by GoodHope
clarification

[Wags]

Thank you for the kind words, Wilbur et all. It’s a true passion for myself and the team. 
 

Kind regards,

Wags

[wilbur81]

5 minutes ago, Wags said:

Thank you for the kind words, Wilbur et all. It’s a true passion for myself and the team. 
 

Kind regards,

Wags

And it shows, no doubt about it. Let's cross our fingers and hope that Top Gun: Maverick increases Hornet/Supercarrier sales, yes? 

 

Appreciate your work and passion, Wags.

 

W

[CBStu]

I agree, thanks ED for a wonderful experience. I am well through my 2nd year flying the 18 and am still learning. I started flying campaigns 6 weeks ago and wow, have they been a lot of work. I knew I didn't know as much as I would need to but now, instead of skipping over or half a$$ing a new weapon, I make myself do the work. Because otherwise I can't get to the next mission. So much fun and satisfaction.

[Sceptre]

it goes above and beyond being impressive. it's the most in depth simulation of a 4th gen fighter aircraft available on the civilian market. 

Look at the latest list of upcoming features for the next OB update. It's been 3 years but we are finally almost there

[wilbur81]

21 minutes ago, Sceptre said:

it goes above and beyond being impressive. it's the most in depth simulation of a 4th gen fighter aircraft available on the civilian market. 

Look at the latest list of upcoming features for the next OB update. It's been 3 years but we are finally almost there

100% agree. 

[Enduro14]

So I took 6 months off from dcs, just came back and beyond impressed with the f18, the new stuff that has been added makes this thing the true strike fighter it truly was in real life.  Truly amazed at the systems that are on this module.

[Wizard_03]

Well done ED! This is has been a long time coming, the hornet is an enormous milestone for DCS and flight sim as a whole. 

 

Thank you! 

[dburne]

Yeah I saw earlier the notes on the updates coming for the Hornet with next update.

All I could think was great, more stuff to learn augh!!

I have been knees deep in the learning process here lol.

[oldcrusty]

1 minute ago, dburne said:

Yeah I saw earlier the notes on the updates coming for the Hornet with next update.

All I could think was great, more stuff to learn augh!!

I have been knees deep in the learning process here lol.

 

Yep, that next update... gonna have to set aside some serious amount of time for putting that one through the wringer... FM, FCS, SLAM ER... ATFLIR (and patching teh LITENING) ... son of a gun!

[Smashy]

Great "how it started, how it's going" screenshots, @wilbur81!  I played Hornet 3.0 and Hornet Korea for countless hours in the past and it's one of my favorite all-time games.  I also had Jane's F/A-18 but am embarrassed to say that I was too intimidated by the level of detail presented to get very far with that one.  Call it being younger, impatient and lazy.  .

 

That's all changed and I'm really enjoying the complexity and challenges of the DCS Hornet module.  Of course, now there's so many readily available resources to help overcome the steep learning curve.  Before, it seemed the majority of my information came from documentation that shipped with the games and chatting about sims with others on comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim.

 

It's unbelievable how far PC sims have come and I feel fortunate that such a high quality product exists in such a specialized and small market.  To the entire ED/DCS team, thank you for the great work.  You keep shipping these incredible modules, I'll keep buying them.  The passion and excitement of the development team and the community in general is infectious.

[Steel Jaw]

BTW, tangent, is there a good discussion of the hornet flight control system and how best to interact with it and not "fight" it?

[Cytarabine]

18 hours ago, Wags said:

Thank you for the kind words, Wilbur et all. It’s a true passion for myself and the team. 
 

Kind regards,

Wags

It shows. The Hornet has turned into such a beauty, so many capabilities in one package.

 

Very excited for the next release as the Hornet approaches completion, though it is going to feel strange when things are complete, will miss getting another new feature on my Hornet. 

[HammerUK9]

21 hours ago, wilbur81 said:

I was flying Baltic's Raven 1 a couple of days ago and thought, "my goodness... we've come along way since my days with Falcon 3.0 and Graphsim's Hornet." 

 

Your F/A-18C Block 20 as a masterpiece! Keep up the good work. 

 

 

 

Hear hear. F/A-18 Korea was the first flight sim I ever played, and occasionally for a burst of nostalgia I'll fire up the training video. It's been a long wait for a proper Hornet simulator, especially given all the attention given to the Viper throughout the Noughties.

 

Thanks again ED!

[Cathnan]

It's without a doubt my favourite module and so much fun to fly. I haven't regreted buying it for a second and have had hundreds of hours of fun with it already and many more to come. I'm looking forward to every single update and what new features it will bring. And wondering how long it will take to master them . It was a steep learning curve because essentially I started out on DCS with this module. But it was every single bit as rewarding. Keep up the great work guys

[dburne]

14 hours ago, Smashy said:

Great "how it started, how it's going" screenshots, @wilbur81!  I played Hornet 3.0 and Hornet Korea for countless hours in the past and it's one of my favorite all-time games.  I also had Jane's F/A-18 but am embarrassed to say that I was too intimidated by the level of detail presented to get very far with that one.  Call it being younger, impatient and lazy.  .

 

That's all changed and I'm really enjoying the complexity and challenges of the DCS Hornet module.  Of course, now there's so many readily available resources to help overcome the steep learning curve.  Before, it seemed the majority of my information came from documentation that shipped with the games and chatting about sims with others on comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim.

 

It's unbelievable how far PC sims have come and I feel fortunate that such a high quality product exists in such a specialized and small market.  To the entire ED/DCS team, thank you for the great work.  You keep shipping these incredible modules, I'll keep buying them.  The passion and excitement of the development team and the community in general is infectious.

 

My goodness I sure remember those days of chatting on that forum. It could get pretty wild in there.

Yeah I had Janes F18 and I too was just a little too intimidated to really get into it.

So glad I did not let DCS F18 do the same to me. Well it did for a while but I finally dug my heels in and put in the work to learn it enough to at least start flying some combat with it. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by dburne

[BIGNEWY]

On 2/17/2021 at 2:25 PM, wilbur81 said:

To Wags, Mr. Grey, and the entire ED Team:

 

Just a quick word of encouragement and praise: Your DCS Hornet module, which I've been flying nearly exclusively since day one, and which was a day-one pre-purchase for me, is an absolutely amazing achievement.

 

The user-community has been spoiled (speaking, at least, of myself) by all that DCS has to offer at such a high level of fidelity, so there's often much (childish at times) whining and demanding that goes beyond helpful bug-squashing-constructive-criticism that is needed from the community to be sure.

 

However, I would still maintain that the Hornet is so good in it's current O.B., W.I.P. state, that it could easily stand on it's own if no other modules were offered in DCS. Keep up the good work on this jet! We are rooting for you as you keep bug-squashing until this amazing module is fully baked.

 

I was flying Baltic's Raven 1 a couple of days ago and thought, "my goodness... we've come along way since my days with Falcon 3.0 and Graphsim's Hornet." 

 

Your F/A-18C Block 20 as a masterpiece! Keep up the good work. 

 

 

Thank you for your kind words, glad you are enjoying the hornet, and we hope you do for many more years. 

 

Regards

Bignewy and the ED team