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Been Flying the F-16? How do you feel?

rvn817j

rvn817j

Moderator
Staff member
I spent several hours flying the F-16 a day or 2 ago. The plane is stable and smooth in the air and finicky to land. At least that's my experience. (I have not done any dog fighting yet or releasing ordinance, so I have no opinion for those areas.)

Given its polished handling, I think it will be another DCS jewel.

What's the experience of those that have flown it? Thanks.
 
I had it on day one, saw where it needed obvious tuning on some aspects of it's flight dynamics and engine thrust also needing some tuning. Overall it's very nice. I haven't had time to fly it lately after getting my PC back up and running after it's MB/CPU failure last month. I just updated my X56's drivers and have not yet reset all my control bindings for each DCS module even though I have everything back in place.
I need to get that done ASAP so I can see what the latest updates have brought for the F-16C.

As far as the approach and landing, for me it is more stable than the F/A-18C in some ways. Just hold the AoA doughnut on speed and AoA at 140+/- and it thread down like a needle. Of course the stability and will vary between controller hardware and the DCS settings for each axis.
 
Been flying it since day one. Our group have developed an FTX (Fighter Transition) course which mirrors an abbreviated Viper B course. About 20 sorties. We're gearing up for BVR this week, and will be holding a capstone mission where we practice as a cohesive group. It's been a great module so far, and there's a LOT of new features coming.
 
Yeah I am loving the Viper too. Have only done some training misdions followed by some free flights, and about a dozen or so instant action dogfights, but love what I have seen so far.
 
I have a few passions in life,One being Aviation and a Close second would be Classic Automobiles,Allow Me to use the two here if I may?:mixed-smiley-010:

The Viper with it's Fly by Wire Avionics and very forgiving Flight model remind me of a New Corvette Sports Car,The cockpit/cabin is rather cramped,It has plenty of horsepower that will be controlled by a computer just in case the Driver/Pilot get a bit carried away in a steep dive or a hairpin turn.Making it somewhat "Idiot Proof"

Here's an example of one of The Vipers "Safety" Systems The Auto-GCAS

Now on The other side of the spectrum we have The TomCat:redfire: Which I would compare to an Old Chevy Muscle Car with Pure/ Raw Fuel injected/SuperCharged 800 HP of Pure Speed.....Goes like a Bat out of Hell in a straight line,Doesn't handle well in high speed turns....and if you don't stay a step or two ahead of her?...She will Punish you and take your Life!!!:devilish:

 
Day 1 here as well and like seeing the progress. My group has an abbreviated TX course that we run, but the pattern work was different (that flare thing) and of course AAR(so used to probe/drogue). Basic fighting in A2G was not much different from the Hornet, of course the early TGP work was limited.
 
That HUD footage was pretty amazing....17K to 5K in no time and, by the way, he was about 7K below the hard deck when he recovered. Fortunately we don't have to worry about GLOC (or cumulogranite) in our sims.

000Rick000 - I think we may have touched on this briefly in the past. Is your group open? Membership requirements? Specific time commitment(s)? I have a lot to learn, but multi-player could be a fun way to learn it. Thanks.
 
rvn817j said:
That HUD footage was pretty amazing....17K to 5K in no time and, by the way, he was about 7K below the hard deck when he recovered. Fortunately we don't have to worry about GLOC (or cumulogranite) in our sims.

000Rick000 - I think we may have touched on this briefly in the past. Is your group open? Membership requirements? Specific time commitment(s)? I have a lot to learn, but multi-player could be a fun way to learn it. Thanks.
Click to expand...

rvn817j,

My group, 65th AGRS. It is not an open group. We required a "Dollar Ride" to gauge skill level and compatability. Post Dollar Ride, we have an abbreviated IFF Syllabus with the following Sorties:

IFF

1. Tactical Formation.
2. OBFM & DBFM.
3. HABFM.
4. ACM.
5. Surface Attack.

We also have TTPs for SEAD, BFM, ACM, BVR and SA for more advanced employment.

We've recently started making some “Snack sized learning” videos, for the wider community, but admittedly, they can be (and will be) better as it's our first foray into this kind of thing.





We've recently transitioned to the F-16 (but we don't hold anyone to that aircraft), and have an FTX program which is like an abbreviated Viper "B" course. Consists of ~20 sorties from Day/night Navigation, AAR, CAS, SA, BFM, ACM, BVR. We’re just hitting the BVR segment this coming week.
We don’t have any time commitments, but members must remain proficient in order to participate. We hold everyone to the same standard. If you’ve been gone for an extended period you must go through some recurrent training so as not to diminish the experience of the rest of the group. This is pretty easy since we select those who are like-minded and generally keep the ratio of Real world pilots to sim-pilot greater than 1:1.

We just finished onboarding 2 new guys through IFF. We also host squadron interfly events and training for guys who don’t want to join our group but would like to have some more formal training in the IFF skillsets. We reserve the TTP’s and other stuff for internal use only.
We’re not recruiting ATM, but we do frequently. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for the interest!
 
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This is what I'm talking about...kind of finicky about staying upright.

000Rick000 - Thanks. I'll keep practicing until I hear from you. (I need a lot, so I understand it will be awhile until I do.)
 

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