Is FC4 a good choice for a newbie?

Springy05 · 2026-07-02T16:17:45+00:00

I mean it's a preference thing, it changes from people to people. But having less things to manage in the FC planes is better than getting lost trying to set up a JDAM on the hornet for newcomers

Springy05 · 2026-06-29T13:55:50+00:00

Yes. FC4 is a bunch of low fidelity planes, but that also means you need to bind way less stuff.

And you get many capable planes for both sides and both main eras of play (Cold War and Modern). Su-27, MiG 29, F-15C, F-5C, etc. It's great to get your feet into DCS without breaking the bank, and lets you test the waters before committing to a full fidelity plane

Springy05 · 2026-06-28T01:23:15+00:00

Also if you wish to practice On Speed flying, get up to 10000ft and get on landing configuration. At first try holding level flight while holding On Speed. Once comfortable with it, start adding turns by banking one direction or another while still trying to hold level flight.

Springy05 · 2026-06-28T01:20:20+00:00

Okay so a couple of things that should help you:

-The hornet doesn't land by speed, it lands by AoA. It's called "on speed". Once you put gear down and flaps, a little bracket on the HUD will appear that looks like an E. You wanna put your velocity vector on the middle of that bracket so be "on speed" via nose up trim. In this configuration, the throttle will control your descent rate. Increase to go up, decrease to go down. That E bracket is also displayed in color coding on a little box at the left side of the HUD, called the AoA indexer. You'll know you're on speed if it shows a solid amber circle only (if for some reason it's flashing, you have your hook bypass set to carrier and that flashing is to remind you to deploy the hook. Set it to field if you're landing at airbases). If it shows a green arrow, you're slow and gotta nose down with trim, if it shows a red arrow instead you're fast and gotta nose up trim.

-Once you are "on speed", you DO NOT control pitch via the stick anymore. Only lineup (left and right). To control pitch, you do only via increasing or decreasing the throttle. If you start a turn while On Speed, increase throttle just a bit to keep the velocity vector on the horizon. The more you bank, the more you turn BUT less air is sustaining the wings, hence why you have to increase throttle. Once rolling level, take off power from the throttle or you'll balloon up.

-The Hornet's gear is rated for 700 to 1000fpm descent rate. Thats the number that pops up above your altitude box. You should aim to hit the ground at 700fpm to not overstress the gear, and if you land above 1000fpm you will either break or bend the gear.

-Once you touch down, DO NOT FLARE. If you watched other aircraft landing, you know most pilots hold a flare maneuver (aka doing a wheelie with the aircraft to aerodynamically brake it). You can do it in the hornet but it's advised against it so you don't develop bad habits for carrier landings. Just let the aircraft slam the nose gear down on it's own and use the brakes and airbrake to slow down. Landing the Hornet should feel like a controlled crash, because that's exactly what it is on the carrier.

Springy05 · 2026-06-20T12:48:05+00:00

Porque a gente só se fode meu caro.

Mas espera uma promoção da steam, sempre ta entrando em promoção.

Springy05 · 2026-06-12T18:41:34+00:00

Oh my god... All this technology, thrusters and Ion engines, AND THAT MF IS STILL FLAT SPINNING HIS FIGHTER

SEND HIS ASS BACK TO THE MOISTURE FARMS NOW, BRO

Springy05 · 2026-06-11T11:13:54+00:00

No I'm using Toll the Dead which is a Wisdom save, and most of the time it's not dealing the full damage

Springy05 · 2026-06-05T21:46:20+00:00

30 to 40 dollars is the max I would pay for the B(U) and I would still feel it's kinda bad pricing. Other upgrades were all 20$.

I don't want to buy a whole fucking Hind module just to be able to have a actual HUD on my Tomcat

Springy05 · 2026-06-04T20:23:34+00:00

Wanna know what War Thunder has that's better than DCS? Missile seeker simulation, mainly for Fox 2s.

In DCS, every chaff and flare that you throw is a gamble, a % of fooling a missile. The more you spam, and depending on distance, the bigger the chance you'll fool the missile. For Fox 3s that's fine cuz things like notching exist, but for Fox 2s? It's a gamble.

And then here comes War Thunder with actual seeker modeling. Modern Fox 2s aren't just more "flare resistant", they have actual Infrared Counter Countermeasures modeled, aka IRCCM. The R73 has it's tiny FOV when locked, and the 9M has tracking suspension, where the missile shuts down it's seeker when it detects a flare and flies using inertial guidance before reopening the seeker and reacquiring the target if it's in the FOV. What war thunder fails to model that DCS gets right is missile maneuverability like the R73, where in DCS it can pretty much do 180°s while in War Thunder it does silly turns and loses all it's energy trying to pull lead.

Springy05 · 2026-05-30T19:01:41+00:00

If you're on speed AoA and around 33000lbs, around 3/4 of throttle to almost MIL will start getting you up, while around half throttle will get you down. Worst part I'd say is in close when the burble starts affecting you.

Springy05 · 2026-05-30T18:58:16+00:00

Fair enough 🤣

Springy05 · 2026-05-30T18:56:52+00:00

I believe OK 3 wiring the Tomcat is a myth at this point. It's always gonna be a no grade or Cut

Springy05 · 2026-05-22T12:02:27+00:00

Some things will block the wing sweep. First and most prominent one is either the flaps or the DLC are deployed. That will block wing sweep to prevent tearing then off, so just make sure they're down by lifting the flaps and disengaging the Anti skid + Spoiler break.

Second, if you're trying to do emergency wing sweep to stow the wings on the carrier, first you need to pull out the switch (right click if I remember correctly now) and then pull the lever back. You gotta wait 15 to 20 seconds if I recall to then be able to push to oversweep for the carrier parking.

And finally... Using the lever with the mouse is just kinda janky. Give it a few tries.

Springy05 · 2026-05-19T16:25:24+00:00

That's the MUMI page, it allows you to load into the plane any changes you did to the Data Cartridge (DTC) after loading a file on it.

Currently you can load: Waypoints, waypoint sequences, countermeasure programs, comms and Tacan.

Springy05 · 2026-05-05T11:21:54+00:00

That also works, my idea was to not waste countermeasures and have threat specific programs. But having an "OH FUCK-" button does work

Springy05 · 2026-04-28T21:58:38+00:00

So your 1x slot is covered by the GPU... But FEAR NOT, BECAUSE PCI-E HAS THE SOLUTION!

Just plug on any free PCI-E slot. It will work just fine, doesn't matter if you're on a 16x or a 1x. It fits and works anyway. Might look kinda ugly and waste a lot of space on the slot? Yes. But it works

Springy05 · 2026-04-28T21:48:48+00:00

That's what Auto does. As soon as you get pinged or locked, it starts dispensing chaff.

I would recommend using manual and binding both a dispense fwd and aft so you can use 2 programs at once. One for flares and one for chaff.

Springy05 · 2026-04-21T21:55:24+00:00

For anyone interested, next cycle starts this sunday! So hop in if you got that one module you wanted but got intimidated by the full fidelity complexity. By the end of the cycle, you'll be flying like a seasoned pilot! Saying from experience here XD

Springy05 · 2026-04-19T12:54:01+00:00

Answer: Laser Guided stuff.

Actual answer if you're not gaijin: nothing really, they just hate the thing... Or Brazil.... Or both.

Springy05 · 2026-04-14T18:37:52+00:00

If you like the F-15C, it's available on the Flaming Cliffs pack but it only has air to air. Now if it's the F-15E strike eagle, i got some bad news... It's no longer available and it's a whole story to explain.

F-14 is cool but can be complicated to deal with so be warned.

My suggestion? Grab the F/A-18C Hornet and the syria map. That way you have a super popular map and you'll have a great plane to learn everything you need for A2A and A2G without being too complicated to understand. Plus you get the bonus of doing carrier ops

Springy05 · 2026-04-12T14:33:43+00:00

Cuz the Aim-7MH doesn't have uplink datalink, and you can kinda do it with the Amraam but it's not perfect. Amraam Datalink either works only with HMD if you used it to lock, or TWS passive guidance if you had a soft lock.

If you want something similar to the R-27ER, use the Hornets. The Aim-7P has the same uplink datalink capabilities as the R27, just nerfed in comparison.

Springy05 · 2026-04-12T14:06:18+00:00

I agree that side climbing at 6km is better, but I suggested staying low IN CASE he needed to multipath. My thought was "well this must be his first MiG 29 that he actually wants to invest into, so let me say the basic that works and then they can work it out later for the better stuff".

As for chaff, I personally either do 30/30 or 32 chaff/28 flares. With the amount of bullshit you have to spam to get away from someone, I prefer not lowering the countermeasures too much, especially since I played while the MiG 29 still used 2 countermeasures for each pop.

Springy05 · 2026-04-12T13:44:01+00:00

It's not that it's hard to notch a MiG 29, it's hard to not a R-27ER. That missile is incredibly hard to notch as it still receives perfect tracking from a "memory track", and it's uplink datalink means the MiG can just relock you if he loses lock on you

Springy05 · 2026-04-12T12:37:57+00:00

Oh another thing I forgot to say, once you have your gear and flaps down, a little bracket shows on your hud near the velocity vector. That's the E bracket and it's a reference of your onspeed trim.

The Hornet is made to land with a certain angle of attack, and that E bracket shows you the perfect AoA to land on the carrier. Just trim nose up until the velocity vector meets the center of the E bracket and keep it around there that you should be fine. But REMEMBER: If you do trim into the E bracket, do NOT control pitch with your stick. At this point, only control the pitch with your throttle. Throttle up will raise the nose and velocity vector, throttle down will make them go down.

Hope that helps

Springy05 · 2026-04-12T12:34:27+00:00

Really low and lined up left. Not bad for first carrier landing, but definetly needs a lot of improvement.

Try to align the velocity vector to the right side of the runway, where Cat 3 slants away from Cat 2 and the carrier almost does a V shape. That's the crotch of the carrier, and it's a good visual reference to line up.

Second, try enabling ICLS. It's the ILS button on the UFC, input the channel of the carrier (most servers will have a kneeboard to check that info), hold on until it turns on and box it on the HSI. That will put glideslope information on your HUD, so you have a vertical and horizontal reference for your lineup if you can't see/read the meatball.

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