CARRIER OPERATIONS in Falcon 4.

0 - HowTos and Bugs

by Chewbakka, v.9, 02/23/06 Contents Intro Game Options Notes on Allied Force Landing Takeoff Bugs Screenshots Links

Intro: Inspired by BeachAV8R's Training AARs (http://www.mudspike.com/falcon.htm ) I decided to make a little manual for carrier operations in Falcon 4.0. This is mainly to explain things to myself and to newbees who don't want to search thousands of threads in forums. It is also intended to collect and summarize all bugs and issues that still remain to be patched or worked upon in this corner of F4. There are some instructions on carrier operations in the SP3 manual (p.146), but those did not help me a lot. It still took a lot of twonking and a few dozen aircraft and aircraft carriers until I got to the point where I get 80% of my landings right. I know "...this is an F-16 sim so quit bitching about the carriers...", but while the carriers are there and landable we might as well try to have fun with them. If you think Falcon 4.0 is for F-16 enthusiasts only, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER. I have no intentions to describe real carrier operations, there's plenty of material about those around. I want to point out what can or cannot be done in Falcon 4. Carrier ops in F4 are one of the most unrealistic features of F4. Procedures that work in F4 do not at all resemble procedures on a real carrier. So DO NOT TRY THIS ON YOUR CARRIER AT HOME! I also want to point out the many bugs that are connected to carrier ops in F4, hoping they'll be fixed in future versions. However, some of them can be worked around (see section BUGS). All my testing has been done with SP4.2 + BMS2 so things might be different in other versions of the sim. Recently I have done some testing with AF and included the results. Thanks to Wolfhound_32 for his for contributing his procedures for the F-14D and for pointing out a few things about RL operations. Contents GAME OPTIONS - How to set up the sim for carrier ops: Landable carriers can be found using different methods: 1. 2. Use one of the 'carrier landing....' TEs that came with SP3. Make your own TE. This is rather difficult, so you should use the 'naval_template..' TE that came with SP3 as a template. This way you'll already have a bunch of carriers of both sides already available and you can place them where you like. In the template you cannot take off from all the carriers, but you can land on all of them. To find out which carriers you can take off from, display battalions or assign flights of the different F-14 and F-18 variants and they'll be placed on the carriers automatically. To take off from the Kuznetzov, change to red side and assign a flight of Su-33 Naval Flankers. If you want AWACS to vector you to the carrier group - don't forget to include an AWACS flight in your TE or uncheck "AWACS Required" in F4Patch. TEs made with this template often cause CTDs for reasons unknown, but it seems to help, if you delete all the ships you do not need. If you know how to use TacEdit, you can put whatever aircraft you want on the carriers, but unfortunately this does not work well with SP42BMS2. Click on a carrier in a campaign and join one of its F-14 or F/A-18 squadrons. Use one of the TEs I have put for download here and add your own planes (these are my test TEs and have the Truman and the Kuznetzov spaced about 100 miles apart so you can practice hops between them. I made the Kuznetzov friendly so they do not shoot at you. She is actually easier landable than the American carriers although the darker deck is harder to make out against the dark sea. Unfortunately the jump-ramp does not work - you take off right trough it.) See Screenshots for the first visit of a F/A-18C on the Kuznetzov.

3. 4.

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Note: only the carriers of the Nimitz-class and the Kuznetzov are fully textured in SP42BMS2 - so if you want eye candy, make a TE and pick one of those (see TacRef to find out which carrier is Nimitz-class)

F/A-18C on the Truman Available aircraft: Sorry to disapoint the reality-freaks, but it seems that in Falcon 4.0 SP42BMS2 you can actually land every flyable plane on a carrier (even a C-130). And most of them can take off again too - using the simulated cat-shot method described in section Takeoff. If they don't have a hook in RL you can still simulate the hook in F4 (Alt-h, Ctrl-h). If you cannot see the hook in the outside view, use the standard F-16 cockpit and check the position of the hook switch to make sure it is down. This is a list of aircraft that are know to be carrier capable in RL. For most of them you'll have to make your own TEs to try them out. Choppers are not flyable in F4. A-1 Skyraider: not flyable in SP42BMS2 - too bad A-4 Skyhawk: is very easy to land, flaps out and you can get her down to 130KIAS landing speed, makes pretty good trainer, just pretend it's a T-45 Goshawk A-6 Intruder: has manual LEFs and TEFs - so figure out the key-combos first A-7 Corsair: watch that speedbrake in outside view, it opens downward and gets actually below the wheels - I wouldn't think you could land with the speedbrake open in RL - in F4 you can AV-8B / GRMk3 Harrier: This one is fun - You don't get true STOVL in SP42BMS2, but you get pretty good STOL. The SP3 manual describes the handling of the Harrier on page 136. The flaps simulate the thrust nozzle vector so full flaps will give you max lift, also pop out the speedbrakes and deploy the hook (there is none, I know, but you can actually hear it extend ?? and it is needed to come to a full stop on the deck - see screenshots). I got her down to 45 knots and since the carrier is going 27 knots itself I touched down almost vertically. For takeoff just pull up the virtual hook, set full flaps, leave the speedbrake out and hit the throttle and you'll pop up like Tigger. (See ACMI in the te.zip ) C-2A Greyhound COD: not included in SP42BMS2 E-2C Hawkeye: this one is easy EA-6B Prowler: see Intruder F-4 Phantom F-8 Crusader: she's a beaut, flap keys tilt the wing F/A-18A-D Hornet F/A-18E/F Super Hornet F-14A-D Tomcat F-35 JSF: we're still waiting for this one KA-6D Intruder-Tanker: not included in SP42BMS2 MiG-29K: not included in SP42BMS2 MV-22 Osprey: not flyable in SP42BMS2 - too bad Rafale M: not included in SP42BMS2 S-3 Viking: not included in SP42BMS2 Su-27K: not included in SP42BMS2 Su-33 Naval Flanker: seems to be more stable in the air than the F/A-18C, takes off like a missile, took off from Cat 1 and was airborne before the end of the deck

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Super-Etendard: not included in SP42BMS2 T-1 Buckeye: not included in SP42BMS2 T-45 Goshawk: not included in SP42BMS2 - use the A-4 instead Contents Carrier OPs in Allied Force: Allied Force offers almost the same opportunities for Carrier Operations as legacy Falcon 4.0. Here are some notes on AF: You can land every plane on a carrier, using the principles described in this manual There's rumors that you can fly any plane in AF by accidentally renaming or deleting a certain file ;) AF carriers do not seem to have the "wheels sunk into the deck " problem, but as of Patch 1.05 they have only very few textures and look plain ugly Many of the AF aircraft in question for carrier ops are still lacking textures AF carriers seem to be harder to sink and to survive more crashes on their decks To take off from a carrier in AF you have to land on it first. I have not yet found a way to set up a TE where you can take off from a carrier. It is easy to place a squadron on the carrier and set up a flight from it, but if you want to enter the plane before take-off you'll get a "Runway has been destroyed" message and your flight gets cancelled. Contents LANDING ON A CARRIER Since landings are the hardest part I'll try to explain those first: This is a general description that is meant to fit a variety of planes and allows you some time and safety margin for your preparations. For more 'aggressive' and refined procedures see Wolfhound's here . The factor that makes the biggest difference for the different planes is the landing speed. Try to find the best landing speed for your plane before you attempt to land at a safe altitude: pop out the flaps, the speedbrakes and the gear (below 300KIAS) and then slow down and try to find the slowest speed you can hold an AOA of about 3-5 degrees while maintaining level flight. Some recommendations: (min Speed in KIAS): F/A-18: 142 F-14: 125 / 135 (w tanks) E-2C: 118 S-3: 117 (Thanks to Brewdog, DonQuijotte, JData for discussing this at Frugals: http://forums.frugalsworld.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=49275) Preparations Send your wingmen (or is it wingpersons now?) to RTB as soon as you're feet wet and clear of enemy fighters. AI pilots don't land on carriers (since the term AI implies at least some intelligence these guys probably know better than to try a 'controlled' crash of a million dollar plane on a billion dollar ship). They will go for the alternate and it makes no sense to have them burn their fuel just to watch you land. If you have just accomplished the best mission you've ever flown, killed 117 ground movers and six bandits and you are sure you're in for at least a DFC - head for the alternate. There is a good chance you'll have to discard the mission when you mess up your landing on the carrier (see Bugs). You can get rid of unused bombs now. This is not strictly necessary in F4, but the lighter your jet is the easier it can be controlled on final. If you decide to keep unused your ordnance it is OK too - it does not make the explosion any bigger whey you crash. RL pilots tend to bring unused ammo back on deck nowadays since the ordnance has become more expansive and procedures have become safer. Call AWACS for vectors to the carrier group (QQ7). AWACS will give you vectors and, what is more important, the TACAN channel of the carrier.

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Hit T-ILS on the ICP, enter the channel, push ENTR, push the DCS up once to get back to the scratchpad and push 0 on the ICP to change the TACAN band from X to Y (for dynamic TACAN) then push ENTR again. You can do all this on the backup panel as per F4 manual if you want, but by using the ICP you can keep your eyes on the instruments.

Switch the ILS/NAV switch to NAV and if you are in range for the TACAN you should be getting bearing and DME to the carrier on the HSI You can also head for the waypoint that is supposed to be over the carrier, but the carrier will have moved and is usually between 5-15 miles away from this waypoint. Switch your radar to SEA-Mode and SP - if you sea a lot of returns in an area of about 2 miles around that will be your carrier group.

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Now that you have found the carrier you need to find out which way to land. DO NOT CALL INBOUND - well you can - but do not push T1 - you will more than likely get an immediate CTD (see section BUGS) Do a low pass over the carrier (you've all seen TOP GUN - just like that). Since AI pilots don't like to land on carriers the airspace should be clear. Try to fly parallel or straight over the carrier's landing deck (on US carriers this is the one that is at a left offset angle to the direction the carrier travels) and note the heading it is pointing at. It should be pointing into the wind, but since the carrier has no way of knowing you are inbound (see previous) she wouldn't have time to turn into the wind (and I'm not sure this is modeled in F4 anyway). The number on the "runway" does not indicate a heading - that's the number of the ship.

Click on the CRS button of the HSI and enter the heading. Now head the opposite way the carrier is going and keep going for some miles (the further out you go the more time you'll have to get set up for approach. Approach Now use your HSI to do an instrument approach as described in the F4 manual. You have not read that? Well, turn about 90 degrees to intercept the radial that you have just entered for CRS (190 in the example below), when the middle part of the needle starts to come closer to the center turn to the heading that you noted in the Top Gun scene.

7 miles out, needle is coming down to the center, time to turn right 190 This is by no means a precision approach like ILS would be, but at least you are coming in from the right direction now.

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Note: When you need less time to make your preparations for landing, skip the part above. Just stay in visual range and line up visually. Start preparing your aircraft now: get down to about 1000ft MSL and level out turn Radar Altitude on and set your ALOW to 100 ft. The carrier's deck is 97ft (Nimitz-Class) above MSL so if set at 100 ft and your ALOW is flashing you'll be already below the ramp and likely hit the stern. slow down , pop the speedbrakes all the way out when you're below 300KIAS drop your gear. When you are flying the F/A-18C/D your speedbrakes will automatically retract when you drop the gear (at least in BMS2). So if you need to loose some more speed in an F/A-18 wait a little longer before you drop your gear unlike RL your weight (well your A/Cs weight) does not matter for the landing on the carrier except that your plane handles easier when it is lighter. So if you'll feel more comfortable you can dump some fuel, but keep at least 2000lbs (depending on your A/C) in case you have to go around. if you are flying an aircraft with manual flaps or have your F/A-18 set on manual flaps - start deploying the flaps when your airspeed approaches 200KIAS. If you put the flaps out above 225KIAS you may get a flashing 'RDC SPEED' on the HUD - so slow down first. The modeling of flaps and speedbrakes for the various aircraft depend on the Falcon version you play. Check the manuals for the correct settings. Flaps should be all the way out and speedbrakes will sometimes retract automatically when certain criteria are met. the key to getting arrested (trapped, stopped, kept on board) on a carrier in RL and F4 is to have the arrestor HOOK DOWN. Do this now (unlike in MS FlightSim your not going to fall out of the sky when you do this). make sure you have DriftC/O turned off and be prepared for a crosswind landing (you've practiced this before have you?) - push SEQ on the ICP DCS to display wind info in the DED. The contrast between the dark sea and a bright blue sky can make it difficult to see everything in your HUD with the standard green symbols. Switch to red - this can be seen equally well against bright and dark background. The usual stuff: Master Arm OFF, Laser Off, landing light on, position lights on, be polite to the deck crew and turn your radar off (not RadAlt), blow your nose and wiggle your toes You should be in level flight at 1000ft and about 200KIAS by now - keep it that way until you are about 1 mile out

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There's a bunch of ships in view - aim for the biggest As soon as you can make out the carrier's deck start lining up. If you want more realism go for the offset landing deck that would be used on a real carrier. In this case you aim your nose a little to the right of the carrier first....

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(This is actually the Su-33, but I didn't have the proper cockpit installed yet) .... and turn left as soon as you intercept the runway heading. You need to Call the Ball now and do it loud - there is no ball on the carriers in F4, but your family will have some fun when you do so. If you like it a little easier, line up parallel and to the left of the carrier's sail. The deck is longer there and since AI pilots don't... the deck will be empty. ToucHdblackown You'll have to do a lot of things real quick now so be prepared: Depending on the weight and type of your A/C keep your AOA as low as possible i.e. keep your airspeed up. 200KIAS would kill you in RL, but are fine in F4. You should be able to bring the most planes in at 150-180 knots. Come in low, keep your glideslope low - as if you wanted to make a real low and slow flyby Watch your altitude - the deck is at 97 feet MSL if you're lower - you are not going to make it. Be careful when you have to come back up. If you throttle up too much you'll go up too high and your glideslope is going to be too steep Aim your FPM slightly behind the ramp

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F/A-18C about to land on the Kuznetzov... Some carriers have wires painted on the deck - ignore them. (For reality's sake you can try to catch the number tree wire and make sure you have ACMI running when you hit it.) All that matters in F4 to get trapped is to have all three wheels on the deck. Your airspeed and your throttle setting do not matter, as long as you get all three wheels on the deck you'll get arrested. DO NOT FLARE - you'd pop right back up and overshoot. The landing gear of naval A/C is build to take abuse - so slam it down. As soon as you cross the ramp pull back your throttle to drop the few remaining feet and at the same time push your stick all the way forward. You need your nose down before the deck ends. When you hear your main gear touch down and your nose drops, put your throttle in afterburner (if your plane has one). That way you'll have enough energy to take off again if you fail to get your nose down in time. If you see the opposite end of the deck disappear under your nose (you can't see it in the HUD anymore) pull up 15 degrees, make sure to hit AB, retract the gear and hope for the best. If you got all wheels on the deck before you fall off at the other end you'll be stopped - no not slowed down to a stop, but STOPPED . It's a bit disappointing - no deceleration at all. You don't even get the 1.2 seconds it takes in RL. As if somebody had cut out some frames of the film, you'll just sit on the deck, happy to still have your simulated life.

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"OK son, we got ya'. You can throttle back now, you're not going to make the ship go any faster." -->1 Wolfhound's landing guide for the F-14 In the F-14 I usually dump fuel to about 3000 lbs, so I can fly a more realistic landing speed Enter the case 1 landing pattern from behind the ship. Fly at 800 ft and ~400 kts in the upwind leg. Put the hook down (better be early than too late). Remember if you forget the hook and you bolter or the LSO has to remember for you, you owe the LSO's a beer!) Fly over the ship and count to 5 potatoes. Then bank the plane 80 degrees and make a 4G turn and turn to the downwind leg. If you're cool, don't count to 5 and enter the break right above the ship.

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Entering the Break (Screenshot-Wolfhound)

In the downwind leg go to 600 ft and dirty up the plane. Brakes out, gear down @ 250 kts and @ 200 kts flaps down. Make the turn to final and at 3/4 of a mile call the ball. In the F-14 keep your airspeed between 140 and 150 kts (depending a bit on your weight). Keep your flight path marker between the 2,5 and 5 degree line on your hud and aim for the 1 wire. This is a steeper approach than real life and goes against every rule of a real carrier landing, but this is Falcon. You should ignore the real life rules of carrier ops. Set your throttle at about 75% setting. Try not to go to idle thrust.

(screenshot - Wolfhound) Keep this attitude until toucHdblackown. Once you hit the deck, pull back the throttle to idle and push the stick forward. (This goes against the rules of carrier aviation, but in Falcon it works perfectly to get the nosewheel on deck). Don't worry about the bolter. You'll find out soon enough if you can't get the

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nosewheel down in time and have plenty of time to go to back full military power if that happens. Once your nosewheel is on deck or if you do bolter, go back to full military power (if in the F-14B/D). This way you can take off again and go around to try again if necessary. Retract the airbrake and go around. In other (older) versions of Falcon4 the landing procedure was a bit different. You could fly a normal approach to the boat and in a normal attitude and try to aim for the 3 wire. Since BMS (I think, maybe SP4 alone too), you can't push the nose forward very easily anymore and you have to aim for the 1 wire and fly the steep approach to be able to stop in time. Note: RL carriers are hard to sink - F4 carriers are not. If you hit the stern of the carrier (came in too low) or the sail - the carrier will sink. It will not sink when you fall off the other end of the deck. This will not matter to you since you'll be resurrected for the next mission, but if you are in a campaign and want to use the carrier for the rest of it, you'll have to DISCARD (Esc-D) the mission after you crashed. Once the carrier is sunk and you have exited your mission Esc-E it will be gone for the rest of the campaign. You can still be tasked for missions from the carrier in 2D, but you will not be able to land on it or take off from it in 3D - it'll be gone. (see section BUGS). Contents TAKEOFF FROM A CARRIER That's the easy part. Preparations You can take off either right after you've landed (if you still have some fuel left) or... ...after picking a mission in campaign that was still in 'Briefing' status . In this case choose 'Taxi' or 'Takeoff' (see section BUGS first). Do not choose 'Ramp' since it is likely that your plane will be positioned on the edge of the deck with your nose pointed out to the sea. If you are real good at turning in place you can give it a try, but there is no way to get pushed back in F4. If you choose 'Taxi' you'll be positioned right behind two blueish or dark-grey lines on the deck - these are the catapults. For the sake of reality you can now taxi onto one of them, but you don't have to in F4. With a full load of weapons you might need a few feet more for takeoff so stay where you are or turn around and position yourself even further back on the deck. The deck should be empty - your AI wingmen will start the mission in the air (see section BUGS). Don't worry about blast deflectors - there are none. Be careful with your throttle when you taxi around, the acceleration needed for the takeoff is somehow coded into the surface of the carrier's deck and you'll accelerate much faster here even when you taxi. So keep your feet on the brakes.

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Su-33 ready for cat-shot off the Truman...this rocket doesn't even need that much runway Lower your hook - this is contrary to RL, but the only way to simulate a cat launch in F4. Set flaps when necessary and do your usual pre-take-off routine. Make sure nose wheel steering is off. Release the brakes and push your throttle all the way into AB. As long as your hook is down you will not move. When your engines have spooled up to max power .... ... retract your hook - you should now accelerate like a rocket. As soon as you see the edge of the deck disappear below your nose (but not a second sooner) pull back on your stick and get your nose up 10-15 degrees. Don't pull too hard or you'll stall. You can simulate a RL takeoff by trimming your A/C nose high before takeoff This way you can take your hands off the controls the way RL pilots do it. Make sure you attach a pair of handles to the top of your monitor and be careful not to hit yourself in the face when you accelerate to 150+knots in less than 3 seconds. Retract your gear before you reach 300KIAS, retract your flaps if necessary, reset your trim, call your wingmen to rejoin and off you go. The F-14 is a pretty heavy bird and you may have trouble taking off from the #1 and #2 cats (the two short ones on the starboard side). Here 's what works for those: Wolfhound's takeoff guide for the F-14: Taxi back to Cat 3/4. This one is longer than Cats 1 and 2 in Falcon. Once in position, drop the hook and do pre take off checks. Go to full military power (I fly the F-14D, so afterburner not allowed! ). Don't worry, from cat 3/4 you can take off in mil power, even with a heavy loadout. Don't try it from cat 1/2 with a heavy loadout, cause you will end up in the drink. Once you clear the ship you can hit the burner with a heavy loadout, but you don't have to.

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F-14 in the portside #4 cat @ mil power (screenshot- Wolfhound) Contents BUGS 1. CTD when calling tower This one does not seem to have a solution yet, it appears that since the carriers do not have an ATC modeled, something goes wrong when you try to call them and you get a CTD - this happens very often, but not always. Workaround: do not use any of the Tower calls (call that you have to use the T-key for). 2. Wingmen get stuck in the air above the carrier Sometimes you wonder where your wingmen are or in fact your entire package has refused to join you on your journey into enemy territory. Check your HSD screen and you'll see their Symbols still in the vicinity of your carrier.

Go back to the carrier (or kick in the autopilot and use Friendlies-View) and you find them circling at 30KIAS!! above the carrier or climbing like mad into the stratosphere right above the carrier or they are just pinned to the sky AB blasting, but not moving at all or they're doing other strange things

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and most of the times they still have their gear down. This seems to happen very frequently when you assign an AI flight lead and you are in #2 or #4 position. There seems to be no way to get them to do what they're supposed to do - well, tell me if you find one. This is probably some strange NAVY-Bug - see 8 for this too.

Wingmen gone mad ... F-14 36knots@10903ft and F/A-18 29knots@24333ft Workarounds: wait in 2D for the package to take off and join them later . if you're flight lead call Rejoin to get them going Wolfhound: If I do fly as wingman I usually start the mission and take off from the carrier. Once I'm airborne I end/discard the mission and advance the timer in 2D world. When the timer is after take off time I rejoin the mission. Another workaround is starting the mission as flight lead and give your wingman the take lead command after take off. 3. Aircraft sinks into carrier deck This does not hamper the performance of your jet. When you do not use outside views you will not even notice. There is a cure to this however. It's got to do with the carrier's hitbox and you have to change some values with LODEditor. Check here for more info on this. Also check if your vehicle magnification slider is on . 4. Carrier has disappeared You come back from your mission (that you have joined in flight) , find the carrier group on the radar, there is a bunch of ships, but no carrier. Well, it has been sunk - probably by yourself on your last landing attempt. While carriers can take a lot of beating from other units (see 7.) they do not react well to pilots without 'artificial' intelligence crashing into their stern or sail. If you ended your last mission Esc-E after a crash then your carrier will be gone for the rest of the campaign. So always DISCARD the mission (Esc-D) when you have crashed trying to land on the carrier (if you fall off the other end of the deck it will not hurt the carrier). Consequences for the campaign:

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The mission planning ignores the carrier's mishap and keeps assigning missions to AI and to you to take off from and land on the carrier. If you watch the 2D map you'll find lots of A/C on missions that originated on the carrier. You can just not use it anymore in 3D. If you join a mission before take off you'll be dropped in the water as soon as the 3D loading is finished. So wait for your flight to take off in the 2D UI before you join and plan on landing on the alternate. 5. ATC gives no vectors for landing If you've survived a call to tower while on a carrier mission and did not CTD, you'll find that ATC will not give you vectors to the carrier. Work around this by following the chapter Preparation at the beginning of this guide. 6. AWACS gives no vectors to carrier Your carrier has been sunk - see 4 - or you forgot to put an AWACS flight in your TE - or some other reason I don't know yet.. 7. Battlegroup moves around in confusion For some reasons the ships of the carrier battlegroup sometimes start to move around erratically, changing course without coordination, driving into each other - apparently without damaging each other. This does not have an influence on your operations on the carrier deck. Just watch and enjoy the show.

8. Some Carriers have no or only few textures Well - make some for the others. Somebody got tired painting carriers during the development of the sim or one of the this-is-a-F-16-sim guys kicked him out of the shop before he was finished. Carriers of the Nimitz-class and the Russian Kuznetzov do have decent textures. Check TAcRef. 9. There are no other planes on the deck Your wingmen will start their missions in the air (see 2). F4 does not model AI takeoffs or landings. There are no static A/C on he deck either (see 8). You have plenty of room to taxi around.

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10. There is no Ball ... and no LSO Yes there is no MLS to guide you on the correct flightpath - I guess that would be too much to ask for. 11. When you enter 3D you do not get a full-screen picture but a little one in the upper right corner that shows an explosion

Well - you just sunk your carrier and your virtual self. You've been in the wrong place of the carrier's hitbox at the wrong time and the carrier is very sensible at this. This is not your fault - the game placed you at the wrong place at the wrong time and the carrier blew up immediately. Even before the picture could go full screen. Discard your mission (Esc+D) or you'll loose the carrier for good. There are a few workarounds you can try: save your campaign, close Falcon, start Falcon and try again pick a different mission and try again do not takeoff from the carrier, wait in 2D until your flight has taken off and join then (that is the safest way) do not use the -NoLoader option. When your A/C is placed on the deck before this has been fully loaded you'll fall through. try entering 3D using Taxi instead of Takeoff if you have changed the hitbox values - set them back to the original values (See here ) 12. Waves look like clouds and can be seen through the deck Can't do anything about it so far, happens on airfields too - clouds can be seen through the hangar walls. Try disabling 3D clouds if it bothers you. As far as I know it has to do with z-buffering so you might want to play around with this too if you can (no chance in BMS2). 13. The F/A-18 or F-14 is being refueled with a boom instead of a drogue Well, there are no tankers with hose&drogue systems around in SP42BMS2 (...its-an-F-16-sim...) so be happy to get fuel at all. You should get a drogue in FF3. 14. If I slew around in Orbit-View I can see through the deck Don't screw around in Orbit-View. Contents ABBREVIATIONS

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for fellow Germans and wuffos 2D - the map screen where you can watch the campaign develop and plan your own mission 3D - the virtual world you are actually flying your mission in AB - afterburner (burns a lot in the aft part of your A/C) A/C - aircraft (a craft for doing it in the air) ACMI - Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (a sophisticated video of what you did) AI - artificial intelligence (well.....?) ALOW - altitude low warning AOA - angle of attack (the angle at which your A/C attacks the air and other obstacles in front of you viciously) ATC - air traffic controller (Hawk-Systems on the runways are not (yet) airborne and therefore not controlled by them) AWACS - airborne warning and control system cat - catapult (device to throw heavy objects away) CRS - course COD - carrier onboard delivery CTD - crash to desktop (your head hits the keyboard real hard) DCS - data command switch on the ICP (the little joystick-like switch) DED - data entry display DFC - Distinguished Flying Cross (a cross you get for distinguished flying) DME - distance measuring equipment (this is how far away you are from the thing you found with TACAN) F4 - Falcon 4.0 FPM - flight path marker (that little thing somewhere in that bigger thing you look tru, that moves up and down a lot) HSD - horizontal situation display (displays your horizontal situation) HSI - horizontal situation indicator (just indicates at your horizontal situation) HUD - head up display (hold your head up to see it) ICP - integrated control panel ILS - instrument landing system (helps you land your instruments and other things) KIAS - knots indicated airspeed LSO - landing safety officer (those guys get a lot of beer) MLS - Mirror Landing System (The Ball) MSL - mean sea level (go down real low and find out how mean it is) NAV - HSI navigation mode RL - "real" life (define real!) STOL - short takeoff and landing STOVL - short takeoff and vertical landing TACAN - tactical air navigation (helps you find things in a tactical way) TacRef - Tactical Reference (F4s library of moving things you can shoot at and which will occasionally try to kill your simulated self) TE - tactical engagement (getting engaged for tactical reasons) twonk - trial without the necessary knowledge UI - user interface Please post comments, additional information, advice, new TEs or campaigns or whatever else you think could contribute at Frugals or send it to chewbakka@tattoine-skyworx.de. Contents Some related links: http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/2253/index.html http://www.biemiller.com/fstrap.htm http://home19.inet.tele.dk/airwing/ships/kuznetso.htm Contents Screenshots:

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I've always wondered what that hook was for.....

The Royal Navy pays a visit, perfect landing....

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The Russians are coming ... Su-33s buzz the Truman

Somebody is going to spill some coffee....

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Russians on board ... perfect landing

Once you've figured STOL out, the Harrier is easy to land....

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... even caught the #3 wire :)

The A-4 is great for practicing....

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F/A-18C buzzing the Kuznetzov ...

The first F/A-18 on the Kuznetzov ... I'll post a better pic as soon as I have her deck fixed...

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This is Allied Force: A F-16D-52 on the Kennedy. The ship still has no textures, but at least the wheels are on the deck without external fixing. Contents

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