[Mika]

Oh yeah, Battuta, how many hours have you logged in AF?

[chief1983]

Heh another Finnish flight sim junkie.

[Dilmah G]

Of course in Falcon the aircraft trims itself and you don't have to worry.

Except when it gets damaged and the control surfaces get stuck. If you haven't flown 30 minute returning trip to home damaged and haven't applied full banking force with all the trim maximized, you are missing something. Especially when the flight control system changes the stick gains when landing gears are extended and locked (barrel roll at ground level anyone?).

Yeah, landings with combat damage are probably some of the hardest, most rewarding parts about Falcon. Or most hardcore sims in general.

Falcon 4 and derivatives really require a lot of effort in learning the simulation (this is not really a game any more), but rewards the enthusiast by never repeating itself.

And this is what I think is the best part about Falcon. It's not a game, it's a simulation.

If I had more time, I'd probably enjoy playing Falcon with a few other guys on here. I'm looking at buying a new HOTAS/rudder setup in the near future, so be warned, I may PM you in the future, Mika.

As for the mention about rudder, I was referring to the expression 'stick and rudder operator', rather than literally meaning that one had to use the rudder.

[lostllama]

I finally decided to get a copy of Falcon AF last year and have recently been going through the training missions. Still trying to get a good landing score. I think I'm OK on position and touchdown, usually anyway; much less so on speed, but I can get it to land in one piece. I have yet to cover the combat side of things in detail. So far I've only really experienced that through the instant action option.

I also have Lock On Gold and was thinking about buying Flaming Cliffs 2, but having read the possible DRM-related issues I think I'll stick with the original and AF for the time being.

(Edited for spelling correction).

[chief1983]

I think the DRM in FC2 was toned down.

source

[Dilmah G]

I found lengthening the downwind leg of the circuit (where you fly parallel to the runway) a fair bit quite helpful for landings the first few times (as a general thing, I can't remember how the F4 training missions are set up), since you have plenty of space to play with and get the aircraft all set up as well as a breezy looking final.

Downside being that sometimes if incorrectly executed you end up with no altitude to move around in.

[Nuke]

I believe that either LOMAC:FC2 or BlackShark have had their DRM patched out, either by Ubisoft or the subsequent developers.  I would check on whether FC2 still has it.

thats good to know, because there are some drm schemes i dont trust on my computer.

[chief1983]

I hear you Nuke.  There's a lot of games I really wanted to play save for their draconian DRM.

[Mika]

I finally decided to get a copy of Falcon AF last year and have recently been going through the training missions. Still trying to get a good landing score. I think I'm OK on position and touchdown, usually anyway; much less so on speed, but I can get it to land in one piece. I have yet to cover the combat side of things in detail. So far I've only really experienced that through the instant action option.

I also have Lock On Gold and was thinking about buying Flaming Cliffs 2, but having read the possible DRM-related issues I think I'll stick with the original and AF for the time being.

(Edited for spelling correction).

About landings, I recall that the AF manual lists a wrong landing landing speed - the landing becomes tricky with such a small margin between stall and flyable condition. I usually land around 150-160 kts when undamaged - if I recall correctly. Optimal landing speed depends on the payload and the available fuel of the aircraft. I find landing easiest with just using the runway as a reference and flight path marker to show where I'm aiming at. The three landing aid lights help immensely (sink rate), they are located next to the HUD. I don't usually watch altitude or speed at all when at final.

My landings could be described like this: At approach I keep flight path marker positioned at the runway threshold and don't care much about the sink rate, when runway gets closer I pull the nose up and do slight thrust adjustments and move flight path marker to the end of the runway, and then make sure that the green ball is illuminated, doing minute thrust adjustments all the time. You might use different cues, but just make sure you have green ball (sink rate OK; landing gear withstands touchdown) next to the HUD during touchdown and you won't damage the aircraft. Also make sure that when you flare the nose of the aircraft (gun cross at the top of the HUD) doesn't exceed ~ 10 degrees so that the engine nozzle does not bury itself below the asphalt.

Once you get it down, it is really easy and becomes really a routine. I haven't crashed during landing for years.

[lostllama]

@Mika - Yes, I thought something might be wrong about the recommended landing speed (and fuel flow setting) in the manual. Also, your technique is somewhat similar to mine. Basically I line up the velocity indicator on the threshold, and use throttle to control rate of descent, only touching the joystick for minute corrections if I have to line up better, and for flaring prior to touchdown.

I have yet to try landing with a full payload though.

[Herra Tohtori]

I wish Team Daidalos would include heat seekers on the IL-2 1946 4.10 patch...

[Mika]

I wish Team Daidalos would include heat seekers on the IL-2 1946 4.10 patch...

Korean era heatseekers were notoriously inaccurate. Though they could be used in gaining situational advantage.
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Now wait a minute... perhaps that was just your point?

I personally don't like virtual me getting scorched with Archers fired 15 - 20 nm away. So lesson learned: don't go head on with Su-27s and expect that they don't launch missiles - sometimes I think they have made them more challenging than they actually are just for the sake of gaming and challenge. Modern all-aspect IRs are quite accurate, a fact that has to be factored in the dogfight style (don't dogfight with modern fighters).
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Now wait a minute... perhaps that was just your point again?

[Roanoke]

I've wondered if Rockstar could muster a decent Heli game. The Apache in San Andreas was really good. I've no idea how accurate it was but the way it operated on a kind of momentum principle seemed right to me.

[chief1983]

The vehicle physics in the GTA series in general have been better than most arcade games.  That's why I spend so much time play MTA:SA.

[Swifty]

As part of their Read It - Do It series, SimHQ's BeachAV8R has recreated the Israeli F-16 Osirak strike in Falcon Allied Force and made a badass and educational video of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOPM4Bsffu8

[Thaeris]

Well, from this, I'll state that I'm now trying to get my hands on FreeFalcon... Thank you to whoever brought the subject up.

...Furthermore, it seems Abandonia has an upload of Hind, should this be of service to anyone...

[lostllama]

Furthermore, it seems Abandonia has an upload of Hind, should this be of service to anyone...

IIRC, you may require zeckensack's Glide wrapper in order to emulate the 3dfx Voodoo cards' native Glide API in order get Hind working on a modern computer.

EDIT: Then again, there is also the Hind available in EECH Central's update to the original Enemy Engaged series (both of which are available from GOG.com). I think the gunner's cockpit has yet to be modelled - one of the members of the EECH forum (arneh) is really good at cockpit artwork; his upcoming Apache MFDs look promising.

EDIT 2: Having done a bit more research, the above Glide wrapper doesn't seem to be a solution. Anyone interested in getting Hind to run in Win XP might want to check out the solution about half-way down this page. Not sure about if it's possible to run it under another OS other than Win 98 and XP.

[Mika]

As part of their Read It - Do It series, SimHQ's BeachAV8R has recreated the Israeli F-16 Osirak strike in Falcon Allied Force and made a badass and educational video of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOPM4Bsffu8

Ingress below 100 ft and keep on doing that for about 1000 nautical miles? Bob-up a couple of nautical miles before the reactor? Egress speed of 620 knots just above ground level, and 1800 lbs of fuel for the return trip? Quite a stunt from those Israeli! No wonder the aircraft warns of low fuel state before landing!