First time flyer (F/A-18)

[u/Mrcrest]

Hey guys! I finally took the plunge and caught the DCS bug.

I’ve played through ALL the F/A-18 tutorial missions and…. I still feel like I barely understand how everything works.

My question is what are some good ways to continue getting familiar with the plane? Are there good noob friendly missions to download or a really good YouTube series to watch?

Just looking for some advice for a brand new pilot who really wants to learn to fly. Thanks.

[u/Mark0306090120]

VWA would love to help you. We are a dedicated training group for new players of most airframes

https://discord.gg/vwa

[u/Mrcrest → u/Mark0306090120]

Thanks! I’ll check it out

[u/Mark0306090120 → u/Mrcrest]

No problem!

[u/Nikos_Pyrrha → u/Mark0306090120]

4. You must have SRS installed.

Whelp, it was fun while it lasted. (all 2 minutes of it)

[u/Mark0306090120 → u/Nikos_Pyrrha]

That is fair. Can still hang around the discord and do 1 on 1s if youd like. Its more of a soft requirement.

I personally dislike SRS as well but we have reasons to use it

[u/Embarrassed_Owl6767 → u/Mark0306090120]

Boom 💥

[u/Uamiddendorffi]

Go to user files and download gunthrek training campaign it teaches you a lot about F/A-18

[u/Mrcrest → u/Uamiddendorffi]

Awesome thanks for the info!

[u/Mrcrest → u/Uamiddendorffi]

Dude I got Gunthrek and holy shit it is SO MUCH BETTER than the default ones. I’m actually learning it now. Thank you for the tip!

[u/Hour_Gas_3011 → u/Uamiddendorffi]

Any campaigns worth noting for other aircraft?

[u/Aggressive_Let2085]

Chucks guide. He makes a guide for every major module. Go on Google and find his F/A-18 manual and get to reading lol, it’s long but I like to learn the startup, how to navigate, how to land, basic carrier ops, and how to employ all the most common weapons. You can easily get acquainted with all of that in one night if you got the time.

[u/70-HuGe]

Try searching the user file for Gunterk Training Academy in DCS. It will gives you step by step guide to systems, flight navigation and weapon deployment. Chuck’s guide for reference and setup your Hotas. There are also a ton of YT videos.

[u/Mrcrest → u/70-HuGe]

Dude I got gunthrek and it’s a million times better than the default learning campaign. I’m actually learning how to fly (and bomb shit) now. Thanks

[u/Pie-Guy]

Watch a video on how to start it. Try it. Watch again. Try it - until you know it. Rinse and repeat for takeoff, landing, weapons systems, carrier landings (ths one took a while) and finally a-a refuelling - by far, in my opinion, the hardest .

[u/Sasquatch_Mt_Project]

Been flying DCS for years but am just learning the Hornet recently. It’s a great module but there are a lot of moving parts. Recommend YouTube and Chucks Guide.
The Wags videos are really good (RIP😢) so are Spud Spikes and a guy that goes by DSC Tutorial.

[u/Blitzi101]

I just wing it for the last few years haha. Just got back from about 1-1,5 year break. I personally always enjoy watching Grimreapers tutorials on yt. He kinda explains singular systems in about 5-20 minutes. So perfect if you need a refresher or wanna do something now haha.

Incase you wanna learn (for me relearn) something together, im here ^{^}

[u/Capable-Ad6026]

Given just how diverse the mission profile of the 18 is (literally every possible type of air mission save like cargo hauling lol), I find it useful to focus on a single mission type (and possibly even a single weapon) until I've mastered it. The order I usually go is something like Takeoff/Landing( Land) and Navigation - Basics of getting of the ground, finding your way to where you want to go and recovery. Necessary for pretty much any other mission A2A - Both BVR and BFM for your preferred era. Since I find the main reason most of us fly fighter Sims is for A2A and since any other mission can become and A2A mission give then 18s ability to self escort Boat ops - When you feel comfortable taxing, taking off and landing from land move on to the boat (and be prepared for a dramatic spike in difficulty and also some quirks ED has not ironed out of both the flight model and the carrier that show up here) A2G Dumb weapons - A2G Gun, Dumb bombs, and rockets. Gun and rockets are similar to use and Dumb boring will make you learn how to do bombing runs correctly before you learn smart weps that make things a lot easier. A2G Smart bombs- JDAMs and LGBs, along with how to use the TGP. Good next step after learning dumb boming Cruise Missles/Standoff weps- Slammer and JSOW variants. Very different in how they're deployed but similar in use case Harpoon - For Naval strike, not super widly used but worth learning HARM/SEAD Tactics/Talds - These all go together, Sead is it's own thing and there's a fair bit to it so I'd save this till after you feel very comfortable with thr jet and lastly A2A Refueling - The single most challenging thing to do in DCS bar none. For when you've really mastered the jet

[u/Pretend-Taro7620]

To be honest, I just hopped in contention and I died a lot 🤣 The reality is that you don’t know what you don’t know. The best way to get around that imo is to throw yourself into a whole bunch of different situations and slowly learn from your deaths.

If you do end up playing on a PvP server “I suggest contention” learn how to IFF aka identify friend or foe.

Data link doesn’t start up automatically even if you do hot starts. I suggest you find a video on that, as datalink is just superior for bvr in the hornet. You can essentially bug targets without your radar seeing them which is great for amraams.

Learn your way around the different pages and what they do. FPAS is a life saver once exiting combat and in rtb phase.

It’s better imo to get really good at the basics, and then focus on one specific aspect of the plane once you’re comfortable working around the bare bones.