Lol, I just exploded and died while trying to land at Osan Air Base.

We were coming back from a very successful bombing run on an NK towed artillery unit. We executed a reasonably sloppy but passable overhead break. I roll out on the upwind leg, shuffle around until I'm lined up properly.

I put the flight path marker right where I want it, and just under 11 degrees angle of attack, right on the 2.5 degree down line. I have everything exactly as it should be, I'm flying down that 2.5 degree exactly as I should...

...and then kaboom.

After discussing with my wingman, I think what happened is that I was aiming for the runway overrun, not the end of the runway, aiming for my flare to put my touchdown right on the end of the runway. This is NOT how you are meant to land the Viper, but it's a habit I have from DCS where heaps of the runways are really too short for a Viper and so you want all the runway you can get.

Well, runway 27 right at Osan has a hill in front of it. I'm usually a bit nervous of it on landings. Chances are, because I was aiming short of where I ought to have, I simply hit the hill.

Oh well. Got posthumously promoted to Captain, for the 20+ vehicles I blew up. You'd think they'd dock points for getting killed. 🤷🏻‍♂️

E: oh! I didn't have my lights set to "landing"! They were still on "taxi"! That might have helped me spot the hill...

#FalconBMS #F16

On a forum, someone said they wanted to fly the F-16 but were having trouble learning in Falcon BMS, and wanted to know if they should get DCS to learn there. I liked my reply to them, and I thought I'd reproduce it here:

BMS inherited Falcon 4's fucking terrible manuals, and did nothing to improve them. I bought Falcon 4 long ago but couldn't get anywhere until over a decade later when my friend was all "get DCS, it's great".

If what you want is to fly the F-16 (as I do, it's my favourite fighter) then I would recommend you play FalconBMS but use Chuck's Guide for DCS. It's the same plane, but frankly BMS's campaign shits all over anything DCS has to offer. The one thing DCS has is sandboxy servers that imitate a proper campaign but don't do it as well. If hopping on a server full of randos is your thing, or you're interested in PVP, then DCS is the choice here. The singleplayer campaigns are a bit hit-or-miss; The Gamblers and Weasels Over Syria both have way too much fucking flying the whole damn length of Syria to and from the target, and I spent most of Gamblers not being able to find a tiny target in my TGP that my character confidently stated he could see. Also, the datalink in BMS is sooo nice. Way, way better than the DCS implementation. You also get way more toys to play with in BMS (like SDBs), but in DCS we'll never get anything the one specific Air National Guard Block 50 they based the model on didn't have in the one specific year they picked.

Then there's the fact that you have to be online to play DCS, or it decides you don't actually own any of the software you paid good money for and won't let you fly your Viper.

OTOH, trying to learn anything at all in BMS is like pulling teeth. There's a Discord, but you'll often find questions directed towards one of the stupid and impenetrable manuals, and some of the developers hanging out there can be jerks. And the software is pretty elderly and eccentric, held together by shoelaces and sticky-tape, so it's got its quirks.

Overall, I'm enjoying my time in BMS far more than in DCS. I've got a standing weekly session with a buddy, and we trade off who is flight lead, planning the mission, calling the plays, etc. And the air traffic control in BMS is really sophisticated, and again shits all over DCS.

#DCS #FalconBMS #F16

Had a really good FalconBMS session with my buddy recently. We've both been sick for a while and haven't pretend-flown jets for nearly a month.

We went after an SA-10 site that's been a bit of a thorn in our side. We've hit it before, destroyed most of the launchers and radars, but it still unexpectedly blew up my buddy afterwards. We didn't think it could fire with the remaining radar it had, but we were wrong.

Anyway, we set out with lots of fuel, me with 8 SDBs and my buddy with 4 SDBs and a HARM. I think it's really a good use for SDBs, because they have long range so you don't have to stay in the danger zone as long, and you can carry lots of them to hopefully prevent point-defences from shooting them all down.

At any rate, I released six bombs at that last launcher, but not before it launched all four of its missiles. Two at my buddy, one at my buddy's HARM, one at me. We got away unscathed, but got chased by two MiG-23s. Jettisoned the fuel tanks, went to full afterburner and, ran like buggery, but they were still gaining. So my buddy turns hot on them and blew em up, like a boss.

And then ATC kind of screwed around with us a bit, but we both landed safely. And no more bloody SA-10 site! the radar's still up, but we've finally cleaned out all the launchers.

#FalconBMS #FlightSim #F16

I made another kneeboard :D

#DCS #FalconBMS #F16

https://forum.falcon-bms.com/topic/25128/future-collaboration-with-microprose

This makes me moist!

#falcon4 #bms #falconbms #falcon4bms

Hmmmmmm

https://www.thrustmaster.com/en-us/products/mfd-cougar-pack/

Don't need to be able to see the MFDs, because I'm using VR. Having a ring of buttons to press, though, would be nice!

#FalconBMS #DCS

You're listening to The Slammer on Fox-3, 4GHz FM.

Don't touch that RWR!

#FalconBMS #DCS

Ok, it's kind of weird to mostly know how to fly a flight sim, but also still be *really bad at it*.

I know how to shoot my missiles, but not when they're likely to hit. Then I learn how to tell when they're likely to hit, but I haven't learned how to make that *more* likely!

Shit's complicated. Who knew?

#F16 #FalconBMS #DCS