Review : F-86F35 Module for DCS By Belsimtek
Hi folks, I will outline my impression and experience with F-86F module for DCS here.
Third module from ED Partner Belsimtek, it is also the first early jet for DCS currently. Modeled block is F-86F 35, with LABS low altitude bombing system and GAR-8 (AIM-9B) air to air missiles. It has the 6-3 slatless wing with tiny wing fences, which gave it better overall performance across the flight envelope over the earlier wing, at the expense of higher takeoff and landing speeds. Though, I must say that it is among the easiest, most peaceful aircraft to takeoff and land in DCS. Currently, it is in open beta phase, certain features are not there yet and to be updated along the way. Traditionally, I used to be rather uninterested in this period, F-86 and MiG-15 were so-so interests for me at best, while I liked modern day and WW II. But reading up on just how legendarily close a match up F-86 and MiG-15 were, and longing for something new to try on DCS, I got quite interested when F-86 and it's systems were announced.
Boy, was I wrong for not being interested in these masterpieces. Now I'm eagerly waiting for MiG-15Bis too! First off, lets be honest, most of us tend to like planes because they are beautiful, and, F-86 certainly is quite the beautiful plane. Being always a lover of "pilot's planes", F-86 certainly fits the bill. It flies smoothly and nicely, yet is stable enough at certain speeds to be accurate in ground attacks. It feels simply agile and responsive. Fighting in it has more to do with flying it right, than with bazillion computerized procedures. Rolls and turns feel beautifully responsive, point the nose up and climbs pretty nicely without much of complaint at all. Gets pretty damn fast in a dive too. Level acceleration is rather nice as well. One thing it doesn't like too much is getting too slow, it starts to roll left as it nears stalling, and down low and slow where it matters, it can sometimes do this dangerously without any warning. At the other end of speed scale, as Mach number get past 0.9, control over aircraft gets less precise, less responsive, and uncommanded roll to left or right kicks in, and trim jumps between nose up / nose down as mach number changes.
Cockpit is roomy and has a very good vision, especially for air to air. Important instruments are at easy to see places, and there are not too many complex stuff to worry about in the plane anyway. That said, almost everything there is modeled, clickable with appropriate effect on systems. Though, there are some obviously bolted on, after-thought panels in cockpit does stick out a bit like missile control panel and manual pipper bombing control box. They are not too obtrusive anyways.
Since it's everyone's favorite question for DCS modules, let's have a look at what are potential matchups for F-86 in DCS currently.
As it is primarily designed as an air to air fighter, let us have a look first on this aspect, and then aircraft it can face.
A-4 gunsight of F-86, coupled with it's simple ranging radar, provides a good dogfight targeting system. When red light to the lower left corner of the sight is lit up constantly and not blinking, this indicate a good ranging lock by radar. As we uncage the sight, gun pipper floats to predict an impact point, and size of the pipper increase and decrease according to data received from radar, to reflect wing span of target. With stability of Saber as a gun platform, and with mild recoil, high rate of fire and flat long range trajectory from it's 6 x .50 caliber machine guns that positioned centrally, some pretty good long distance deflection shots are possible in F-86. Unlike K-4 sight in P-51D Mustang, sight either provides lead calculation, OR fixed aimpoint, but not both at the same time. For better marksman among us, using fixed sight for high deflection snapshots or in the saddle tracking bursts, fixed sight may provide a better result at times. But for average shooter like me, floating pipper is a better overall choice, and fixed sight gets it's use for air to ground or air to air missile uses.
Radar, being a primitive ranging only system, may not always have the best lock or decluttering, and if pipper is jumping about and red light is blinking on and off irregularly, it is better to decrease the scanning range of radar using the rheostat next to lock indicator light. Ground and clouds both interfere with radar's scan, and are good reasons to use this feature. If there are multiple contacts in windscreen, choosing a target goes like : press and hold electical caging button to stabilize the sight in middle position, maneuver the aircraft to put the sight on desired target and keep it on for a second or two and press target select / lock button on your hotas setup, confirm radar lock light is constant and not blinking. Now release the electical caging button, pipper should be floating, providing you with lead solution on your chosen target.
Final option for air to air combat is primitive and highly limited AIM-9B (GAR-8) air to air missile, one of the first Sidewinder variants. This missile is tail aspect only, usually only providing a lock tone when seeing exhaust pipe almost directly ahead, can only be fired at about 1.5-2 g to hope any successful tracking of target, and just loves flares. So it is a challenge to use, but seem to explode pretty damn good when and if it hit something.
Along with release of F-86, an AI MiG-15Bis is also added to sim. Just like F-86 has, MiG also has a gorgeous 3D model, and is one of the more challenging AI rivals in game, especially for F-86. To be honest, it does feel like some of it's current flight model is possesing a bit UFO like properties. Like, when in trouble, lifting off to orbit by just raising the nose, regardless of energy difference between player's F-86, and just saying good-bye to them with this climb. Though, it certainly is a welcome challenge that really takes effort to win, compared to other AI dogfight opponents in DCS, which range from clobbering poor baby seals in easy skill levels, to bullying kids younger and weaker than oneself in so called excellent... Neither too challengine and sportsmanly I'm sure you'd agree ;) That is one thing differ significantly among BMS vs DCS currently, AI in former really make you fight for it even at lower difficulties. With MiG-15Bis apparently already being in development as a fully featured player controlled module, future hold an awesome multiplayer matchup for us.
Though, it's possible matchups aren't limited to it's historical archrival at all. Currently in-game possible rivals are more diverse and numerous than that ;
- L-39 does a well match-up too. It seem to turn a bit better than Saber, and takes some hits to give up for good. As a full fidelity player controlled L-39 is in works as well, this holds another future potential for both modules.
- Su-25, being many people's secret favorite ground pounder due to being another "pilot's plane", can actually share same multiplayer "what if" space just fine with this old bird. Since Su-25 tend to be employed in lower threat environments compared to other modern ground attack craft in DCS, F-86 itself can also do a pretty decent air to ground role on these scenarios. Besides, F-86 does pretty good as an air threat to Su-25. Su-25 has potential advantage of having R-60 that can be fired from most aspects, and with F-86 having no counter measures, it can be deadly. Su-25 can also outspeed and escape the F-86 if it's clean, giving the Saber a mission kill, but living to fight another sortie. But, in my tests against AI, R-60 is still escapable when not fired in ideal circumstances, and a loaded Su-25 or one that try to fight F-86 instead of running away is no match for the Saber in air combat. Tried with even a very good human Su-25 pilot trust me :). Saber has AIM-9B, while very limited, if employed in surprise attacks from behind, does a pretty good work on Su-25. Su-25T with R-73 may pose a somewhat greater threat due to missile, but otherwise is even more susceptible to be outflown by the Saber.
- P-51D and Fw-190D : Both MiG-15 and F-86 went up against late war prop fighters, and in a few cases prop fighters even came up as victors. F-86 generally holds the advantage by large, but if prop fighter has height / position advantage, fight gets very interesting never the less. Though, if the Saber try to turn with them for long, it may find that those old prop fighters have some tricks up their sleeve. With both, I've fought against AI and human F-86s, it is fun and feasible indeed.
- A-10A&C : While armament of A-10 is clearly superior in both missile and gun area, F-86 can still intercept and threaten this slow aircraft without any air to air sensor just fine. Especially if A-10 is laden like a truck as it tends to be in multiplayer.
- Any helicopter : Enough said :)
And, when we look at potential match ups in announced or soon to be released aircraft :
- Hawk : While the Hawk T1A has overall advantage in armament and flight performance, it is not to the degree that they can't fight each other in a challeging way.
- MiG-21Bis : MiG will have overall advantage, somewhat significantly too. This is lopsided in favor of MiG but not to the degree that F-86 can't threaten and put up a fight, especially if the MiG is heavily loaded for air to ground. Even when clean, if MiG resort to low speed turning, Saber will out do it just fine, but if MiG use vertical and boom / zoom tactics, F-86 will run out breath very quick. If MiG is restricted to R-3S only, which is pretty much the same as AIM-9B/GAR-8 of Saber, fight may prove even more interesting. This is kind of reminiscent of MiG-17 vs F-4 matchup of Vietnam, where MiG-17 proved much more of a threat than it was thought.
- C-101 : Like Hawk and L-39, although is more modern, it should provide a close enough performance point to offer some good dogfights. Again, a heavily loaded air to gorund tasked C-101 will also make a good interception target, besides usual dogfight scenario.
- Most of the prop warbirds, especially the later ones : Like Mustang and Dora, the announced prop warbirds from varying eras too would offer varying degrees of challenge for the Saber.
- Other early jets like Meteor, Vampire, Hunter and even Me-262 : They will have varying degrees of challenge, from slim for Vampire and Scwalbe to stiff in case of Hunter.
- While they may progress slow due to being hobby projects, we have F-100D and MiG-19PM in works, which would do well as potential dissimilar challenges. While, like MiG-21, and to a degree like modern trainers, these too would be superior to the Saber. But for some of us, trying to come up with tactics against superior foes and achieving some success with those is more rewarding than just steam rolling opposition in best technology ever ;)
So, it already has lots of current and potential future match-ups and challenges up in the air. But most of us are air-to-ground lovers too aren't we? How does the Saber fare there?
It is very fun to attack ground targets with. While primitive compared to other jet aircraft that can attack ground targets, it provides you with more targeting options in comparison to old prop warbirds. For dive bombing we get an actual floating pipper on sight, an early CCIP, and, you can choose a target point of sorts, and switch to auto release mode, giving a simple hybrid of dive bombing and CCRP, where bomb gets automatically released by the aircraft when it believes it will hit the target. Well at least somewhere around it anyway :). These are by no means precision at all, but still provide a close clue. For rockets, we get a depressable fixed pipper. While difficult, I've found that with practice it is possible to be pretty decently accurate, and 5" HVAR rockets pack a surprising punch even with near misses. Saber can either carry 16 x HVAR rockets, 2 x AN/M64 500 lb bombs, or 8 x HVAR rockets and 2 x AN/M64 bombs.
Threats like BMP-2, Bradley, BTR, ZU-23, even Shilka and Vulcan are well within repertoire that you can tackle with this old bird with some practice! Gepard is possible but is a bit pushing it, and missile threats should better be left to more modern aircraft, obviously. Though, you can peacefully stay above maximum effective altitude of known IR missile threats while they are being tackled by others, and if feeling adventurous, may even try dive bombing / dive rocketing them. Not likely to be too accurate, but it seems Saber has quite a low heat signature, and IR missiles fire quite later than they do on other jets. Although Saber lack any kind of warning system or counter measures, I've found that if you know the launch, and it is not a high PK shot, you can still ditch missiles from MANPADS to R-60M. Anyway, like I've said, that is on the adventuring side of things.
Loaded up
Third module from ED Partner Belsimtek, it is also the first early jet for DCS currently. Modeled block is F-86F 35, with LABS low altitude bombing system and GAR-8 (AIM-9B) air to air missiles. It has the 6-3 slatless wing with tiny wing fences, which gave it better overall performance across the flight envelope over the earlier wing, at the expense of higher takeoff and landing speeds. Though, I must say that it is among the easiest, most peaceful aircraft to takeoff and land in DCS. Currently, it is in open beta phase, certain features are not there yet and to be updated along the way. Traditionally, I used to be rather uninterested in this period, F-86 and MiG-15 were so-so interests for me at best, while I liked modern day and WW II. But reading up on just how legendarily close a match up F-86 and MiG-15 were, and longing for something new to try on DCS, I got quite interested when F-86 and it's systems were announced.
Boy, was I wrong for not being interested in these masterpieces. Now I'm eagerly waiting for MiG-15Bis too! First off, lets be honest, most of us tend to like planes because they are beautiful, and, F-86 certainly is quite the beautiful plane. Being always a lover of "pilot's planes", F-86 certainly fits the bill. It flies smoothly and nicely, yet is stable enough at certain speeds to be accurate in ground attacks. It feels simply agile and responsive. Fighting in it has more to do with flying it right, than with bazillion computerized procedures. Rolls and turns feel beautifully responsive, point the nose up and climbs pretty nicely without much of complaint at all. Gets pretty damn fast in a dive too. Level acceleration is rather nice as well. One thing it doesn't like too much is getting too slow, it starts to roll left as it nears stalling, and down low and slow where it matters, it can sometimes do this dangerously without any warning. At the other end of speed scale, as Mach number get past 0.9, control over aircraft gets less precise, less responsive, and uncommanded roll to left or right kicks in, and trim jumps between nose up / nose down as mach number changes.
Inbound for a nice, peaceful landing...
Cockpit is roomy and has a very good vision, especially for air to air. Important instruments are at easy to see places, and there are not too many complex stuff to worry about in the plane anyway. That said, almost everything there is modeled, clickable with appropriate effect on systems. Though, there are some obviously bolted on, after-thought panels in cockpit does stick out a bit like missile control panel and manual pipper bombing control box. They are not too obtrusive anyways.
That is one roomy, well lit office right hereSince it's everyone's favorite question for DCS modules, let's have a look at what are potential matchups for F-86 in DCS currently.
As it is primarily designed as an air to air fighter, let us have a look first on this aspect, and then aircraft it can face.
A-4 gunsight of F-86, coupled with it's simple ranging radar, provides a good dogfight targeting system. When red light to the lower left corner of the sight is lit up constantly and not blinking, this indicate a good ranging lock by radar. As we uncage the sight, gun pipper floats to predict an impact point, and size of the pipper increase and decrease according to data received from radar, to reflect wing span of target. With stability of Saber as a gun platform, and with mild recoil, high rate of fire and flat long range trajectory from it's 6 x .50 caliber machine guns that positioned centrally, some pretty good long distance deflection shots are possible in F-86. Unlike K-4 sight in P-51D Mustang, sight either provides lead calculation, OR fixed aimpoint, but not both at the same time. For better marksman among us, using fixed sight for high deflection snapshots or in the saddle tracking bursts, fixed sight may provide a better result at times. But for average shooter like me, floating pipper is a better overall choice, and fixed sight gets it's use for air to ground or air to air missile uses.
Radar, being a primitive ranging only system, may not always have the best lock or decluttering, and if pipper is jumping about and red light is blinking on and off irregularly, it is better to decrease the scanning range of radar using the rheostat next to lock indicator light. Ground and clouds both interfere with radar's scan, and are good reasons to use this feature. If there are multiple contacts in windscreen, choosing a target goes like : press and hold electical caging button to stabilize the sight in middle position, maneuver the aircraft to put the sight on desired target and keep it on for a second or two and press target select / lock button on your hotas setup, confirm radar lock light is constant and not blinking. Now release the electical caging button, pipper should be floating, providing you with lead solution on your chosen target.
Final option for air to air combat is primitive and highly limited AIM-9B (GAR-8) air to air missile, one of the first Sidewinder variants. This missile is tail aspect only, usually only providing a lock tone when seeing exhaust pipe almost directly ahead, can only be fired at about 1.5-2 g to hope any successful tracking of target, and just loves flares. So it is a challenge to use, but seem to explode pretty damn good when and if it hit something.
Along with release of F-86, an AI MiG-15Bis is also added to sim. Just like F-86 has, MiG also has a gorgeous 3D model, and is one of the more challenging AI rivals in game, especially for F-86. To be honest, it does feel like some of it's current flight model is possesing a bit UFO like properties. Like, when in trouble, lifting off to orbit by just raising the nose, regardless of energy difference between player's F-86, and just saying good-bye to them with this climb. Though, it certainly is a welcome challenge that really takes effort to win, compared to other AI dogfight opponents in DCS, which range from clobbering poor baby seals in easy skill levels, to bullying kids younger and weaker than oneself in so called excellent... Neither too challengine and sportsmanly I'm sure you'd agree ;) That is one thing differ significantly among BMS vs DCS currently, AI in former really make you fight for it even at lower difficulties. With MiG-15Bis apparently already being in development as a fully featured player controlled module, future hold an awesome multiplayer matchup for us.
A hard earned victory, bagging my first MiG-15BisThough, it's possible matchups aren't limited to it's historical archrival at all. Currently in-game possible rivals are more diverse and numerous than that ;
- L-39 does a well match-up too. It seem to turn a bit better than Saber, and takes some hits to give up for good. As a full fidelity player controlled L-39 is in works as well, this holds another future potential for both modules.
- Su-25, being many people's secret favorite ground pounder due to being another "pilot's plane", can actually share same multiplayer "what if" space just fine with this old bird. Since Su-25 tend to be employed in lower threat environments compared to other modern ground attack craft in DCS, F-86 itself can also do a pretty decent air to ground role on these scenarios. Besides, F-86 does pretty good as an air threat to Su-25. Su-25 has potential advantage of having R-60 that can be fired from most aspects, and with F-86 having no counter measures, it can be deadly. Su-25 can also outspeed and escape the F-86 if it's clean, giving the Saber a mission kill, but living to fight another sortie. But, in my tests against AI, R-60 is still escapable when not fired in ideal circumstances, and a loaded Su-25 or one that try to fight F-86 instead of running away is no match for the Saber in air combat. Tried with even a very good human Su-25 pilot trust me :). Saber has AIM-9B, while very limited, if employed in surprise attacks from behind, does a pretty good work on Su-25. Su-25T with R-73 may pose a somewhat greater threat due to missile, but otherwise is even more susceptible to be outflown by the Saber.
- P-51D and Fw-190D : Both MiG-15 and F-86 went up against late war prop fighters, and in a few cases prop fighters even came up as victors. F-86 generally holds the advantage by large, but if prop fighter has height / position advantage, fight gets very interesting never the less. Though, if the Saber try to turn with them for long, it may find that those old prop fighters have some tricks up their sleeve. With both, I've fought against AI and human F-86s, it is fun and feasible indeed.
- A-10A&C : While armament of A-10 is clearly superior in both missile and gun area, F-86 can still intercept and threaten this slow aircraft without any air to air sensor just fine. Especially if A-10 is laden like a truck as it tends to be in multiplayer.
- Any helicopter : Enough said :)
And, when we look at potential match ups in announced or soon to be released aircraft :
- Hawk : While the Hawk T1A has overall advantage in armament and flight performance, it is not to the degree that they can't fight each other in a challeging way.
- MiG-21Bis : MiG will have overall advantage, somewhat significantly too. This is lopsided in favor of MiG but not to the degree that F-86 can't threaten and put up a fight, especially if the MiG is heavily loaded for air to ground. Even when clean, if MiG resort to low speed turning, Saber will out do it just fine, but if MiG use vertical and boom / zoom tactics, F-86 will run out breath very quick. If MiG is restricted to R-3S only, which is pretty much the same as AIM-9B/GAR-8 of Saber, fight may prove even more interesting. This is kind of reminiscent of MiG-17 vs F-4 matchup of Vietnam, where MiG-17 proved much more of a threat than it was thought.
- C-101 : Like Hawk and L-39, although is more modern, it should provide a close enough performance point to offer some good dogfights. Again, a heavily loaded air to gorund tasked C-101 will also make a good interception target, besides usual dogfight scenario.
- Most of the prop warbirds, especially the later ones : Like Mustang and Dora, the announced prop warbirds from varying eras too would offer varying degrees of challenge for the Saber.
- Other early jets like Meteor, Vampire, Hunter and even Me-262 : They will have varying degrees of challenge, from slim for Vampire and Scwalbe to stiff in case of Hunter.
- While they may progress slow due to being hobby projects, we have F-100D and MiG-19PM in works, which would do well as potential dissimilar challenges. While, like MiG-21, and to a degree like modern trainers, these too would be superior to the Saber. But for some of us, trying to come up with tactics against superior foes and achieving some success with those is more rewarding than just steam rolling opposition in best technology ever ;)
So, it already has lots of current and potential future match-ups and challenges up in the air. But most of us are air-to-ground lovers too aren't we? How does the Saber fare there?
Rockets away!It is very fun to attack ground targets with. While primitive compared to other jet aircraft that can attack ground targets, it provides you with more targeting options in comparison to old prop warbirds. For dive bombing we get an actual floating pipper on sight, an early CCIP, and, you can choose a target point of sorts, and switch to auto release mode, giving a simple hybrid of dive bombing and CCRP, where bomb gets automatically released by the aircraft when it believes it will hit the target. Well at least somewhere around it anyway :). These are by no means precision at all, but still provide a close clue. For rockets, we get a depressable fixed pipper. While difficult, I've found that with practice it is possible to be pretty decently accurate, and 5" HVAR rockets pack a surprising punch even with near misses. Saber can either carry 16 x HVAR rockets, 2 x AN/M64 500 lb bombs, or 8 x HVAR rockets and 2 x AN/M64 bombs.
Threats like BMP-2, Bradley, BTR, ZU-23, even Shilka and Vulcan are well within repertoire that you can tackle with this old bird with some practice! Gepard is possible but is a bit pushing it, and missile threats should better be left to more modern aircraft, obviously. Though, you can peacefully stay above maximum effective altitude of known IR missile threats while they are being tackled by others, and if feeling adventurous, may even try dive bombing / dive rocketing them. Not likely to be too accurate, but it seems Saber has quite a low heat signature, and IR missiles fire quite later than they do on other jets. Although Saber lack any kind of warning system or counter measures, I've found that if you know the launch, and it is not a high PK shot, you can still ditch missiles from MANPADS to R-60M. Anyway, like I've said, that is on the adventuring side of things.
Loaded up
Besides the dive CCIP pipper, other methods of bombing include manual pipper bombing and the interesting LABS which can be said to be an old CCRP / DTOS. With manual pipper, if you are savvy with calculations, you enter bombing / target altitudes, diving angle. Then the system places the pipper up or down on the aiming sight accordingly. Also known as manually depressable pipper, this method is present even in likes modern A-10C, F-16C etc as a back up way of bombing.
LABS is quite interesting and can be employed in 3 different modes, one of them being a fancy over the shoulder release right over the target at the end of a loop maneuver, to be used with tactical nukes (which aren't in DCS for F-86 currently). Though, LABS isn't completely implemented yet and predetermined parameters for targeting can't be entered before mission currently as far as I know. It will be interesting to learn more about this interesting system as it gets fleshed out and a full manual is available in future.
Last but not the least, our gun does a prety good strafing weapon besides it's air to air use. While it obviously is not a 30mm monster like GAU-8 or GSh-30-2, it has some pretty strong points going for it too. It's recoil is so mild, it is almost negligible. All 6 guns, accurate, of decent power, and rapid enough, are centered right around the nose, making strafing runs significantly more accurate and deadly than it was in P-51D, which too had 6 x .50 cals. Unlike Su-25 and A-10, Saber is pretty sweetly stable at high Mach numbers, at M0.7-0.9, you can still do decently stable, on point strafing runs with negligible fear of AAA retaliation!
LABS is quite interesting and can be employed in 3 different modes, one of them being a fancy over the shoulder release right over the target at the end of a loop maneuver, to be used with tactical nukes (which aren't in DCS for F-86 currently). Though, LABS isn't completely implemented yet and predetermined parameters for targeting can't be entered before mission currently as far as I know. It will be interesting to learn more about this interesting system as it gets fleshed out and a full manual is available in future.
Last but not the least, our gun does a prety good strafing weapon besides it's air to air use. While it obviously is not a 30mm monster like GAU-8 or GSh-30-2, it has some pretty strong points going for it too. It's recoil is so mild, it is almost negligible. All 6 guns, accurate, of decent power, and rapid enough, are centered right around the nose, making strafing runs significantly more accurate and deadly than it was in P-51D, which too had 6 x .50 cals. Unlike Su-25 and A-10, Saber is pretty sweetly stable at high Mach numbers, at M0.7-0.9, you can still do decently stable, on point strafing runs with negligible fear of AAA retaliation!
As for rockets, shallow-ish angle runs on columns along a road can work pretty damn nice, but if you want more accuracy on individual targets, or less regular slightly spread groups, steeper dive angles from 30 degrees on are much better. For gun strafing, you can get away with shallower dives, guns are great to just walk a line of fire on multiple targets from shallow dives! Rockets can either be fired in single shots or auto mode that release them in very rapid succession as you hold the button. You can, if needed, choose the number of hardpoint from which to fire the rocket, from 1 to 16.
Speaking of release modes, bombs too can either be released both simultaneously, or each seperately, with ability of choosing whether left or right bomb for sinlge release mode. Instant or delayed fusing is selectable for rockets and bombs.
One multiplayer air to ground session I remember very fondly was where we takeoff from one of the seaside bases, cruise to a mountain range, and engage a very crowded group targets that includes many ZU-23 and shilkas around a lake in valley between two large mountains. I was the only one who had F-86 and specifically requested my friend who was host to add it to mission. Two others were flying with Su-25, Su-25T and for a few sorties Ka-50. Especially the host is a very good Su-25 pilot in DCS. In my old bird, I did just as fine, at times somewhat better than both other pilots in more modern strike aircraft with better and more weapons! It was a great experience, took out about 6-8 targets with my first sortie with rockets and gun, returned to base, refueled and loaded up bombs and rockets this time, damaged some targets with bombs and destroyed yet more with rockets and guns. Utilizing high speed controllability, I made slashing strafing runs with relative impunity. Though after killing many targets, I finally succumbed to ground fire due to trying the ridiculous act of gunning a T-72 tank with machine guns only. Doh! For my second flight I took Su-25T with precision weapons loaded, and funnily did worse and get fewer targets with that :). That was the flight that most likely convinced one of my flight mates to buy the Saber himself. Though, in my not consistent at all performance as usual, I failed to do that good in that mission again :P.
One multiplayer air to ground session I remember very fondly was where we takeoff from one of the seaside bases, cruise to a mountain range, and engage a very crowded group targets that includes many ZU-23 and shilkas around a lake in valley between two large mountains. I was the only one who had F-86 and specifically requested my friend who was host to add it to mission. Two others were flying with Su-25, Su-25T and for a few sorties Ka-50. Especially the host is a very good Su-25 pilot in DCS. In my old bird, I did just as fine, at times somewhat better than both other pilots in more modern strike aircraft with better and more weapons! It was a great experience, took out about 6-8 targets with my first sortie with rockets and gun, returned to base, refueled and loaded up bombs and rockets this time, damaged some targets with bombs and destroyed yet more with rockets and guns. Utilizing high speed controllability, I made slashing strafing runs with relative impunity. Though after killing many targets, I finally succumbed to ground fire due to trying the ridiculous act of gunning a T-72 tank with machine guns only. Doh! For my second flight I took Su-25T with precision weapons loaded, and funnily did worse and get fewer targets with that :). That was the flight that most likely convinced one of my flight mates to buy the Saber himself. Though, in my not consistent at all performance as usual, I failed to do that good in that mission again :P.
While I paid my praises to Saber for ground attack, on the other side of coin, it does show that it's not really a dedicated air to ground aircraft. It is not nearly as durable as Su-25 or A-10. And while it's cockpit has great outside vision for air to air, it's under the nose view isn't as clear as them. That nice bubble canopy and cockpit isn't nearly as protective as dedicated ground attack craft, and both me and my friends who fly F-86 had many times pilot shot to pieces in a nicely lined up attack run's first seconds. Strength of F-86 in ground attack is it's high speed nimbleness and diminutiveness to not get hit, but if and when you do get hit, it is not as dependable as those planes. As for payload, while it can be considered pretty damn decent, it is no where as heavy as more modern attack aircraft in sim. Also, it obviously has no precision attack options and while it has bomb targeting aid systems, bombing with F-86 simply isn't too accurate and needs lots of practice. I've found that preferring single release mode for bombs to ripple them by about half a second provides me a better chance at doing meaningful damage to point targets like vehicles. Guns themselves are while wonderful, certainly not 30mm armour banes either. With good accuracy in a long burst or two, they can kill stuff up to self propelled artillery, but hurting even the puniest tank isn't likely, and for heavily armored flavors of SPAAG or IFV threats, they should be approached with caution since they are far too dangerous to try gun strafing with F-86. Better leave those for your rockets. When one is fast, Shilkas can be tackled with guns though, as they are soft enough to kill with a quick and accurate burst.
Now if we get at what open beta means, I would say that while relatively early release and being able to have this great aircraft already is awesome, there are some stuff that are, well... beta... :
- There is only one skin, and that's for all countries. Though, community already have provided many skins, and for many of the countries that operated F-86 there is now at least one skin available.
- There are some slight eye candy bugs that occur at specific conditions
- High G damage on airframe isn't completely in
- Visual damage model is a bit rudimentary and failiures themselves aren't listed in event list
- Perhaps most importantly, there is only quickstart manual (with mistakes in it) and no full manual
- 3D model of GAR-8/AIM-9B currently is, of AIM-9M.
Overall, an awesome module of an awesome aircraft! One of the most fun to fly and fight, and can fit in many scenarios in DCS for future and present! It is so exciting, actually it made me look forward to early jets and Korea War period with enthusiasm, while I was thiking "meh..." about them before!
Now if we get at what open beta means, I would say that while relatively early release and being able to have this great aircraft already is awesome, there are some stuff that are, well... beta... :
- There is only one skin, and that's for all countries. Though, community already have provided many skins, and for many of the countries that operated F-86 there is now at least one skin available.
- There are some slight eye candy bugs that occur at specific conditions
- High G damage on airframe isn't completely in
- Visual damage model is a bit rudimentary and failiures themselves aren't listed in event list
- Perhaps most importantly, there is only quickstart manual (with mistakes in it) and no full manual
- 3D model of GAR-8/AIM-9B currently is, of AIM-9M.
Overall, an awesome module of an awesome aircraft! One of the most fun to fly and fight, and can fit in many scenarios in DCS for future and present! It is so exciting, actually it made me look forward to early jets and Korea War period with enthusiasm, while I was thiking "meh..." about them before!
Taking off for a multiplayer sortie
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