Version 1.3 - May 14, 2021
The A-10A is a great plane, but too few people fly the A-Hog. Why?
Mostly, because there are too few training missions available.
Let's change that. Here is a package of (currently) 19 (hopefully fun) missions that teach everything you wanted to know to drive the Hog: cold start, flying the pattern, firing Mavs, formation flying - all covered.
Note: These missions work especially well in VR.
Final version.
Version 1.3 final - 20210514 -- see below for changes
Important Note:
I was in the process of re-working all missions based on feedback. Some missions received optional "noise-overs", which is basically me reading the text out loud. And since I was forced to read my own writing, I've re-written most of the instructions for clarity. Also, many missions received some additional form of polish, being it in the form of dynamic scenery, background audio, or weather. About half of the missions have been upd ated. Improving these mission takes an incredible amount of time and dedication. Unfortunately, I feel that user reception doesn't justify the effort, and I have decided to discontinue developing this series any further.
CFrag's A-10A Tutorials are a series of missions designed to teach you how to fly the A-10A in Eagle Dynamic's fantastic DCS World. Emphasis is on accessibility and fun; some missions exchange realism for playability (examples: some training missions supply unlimited munitions, and in most training missions the enemy will not shoot back). I have designed these missions to be especially enjoyable with VR. They work perfectly well in pancake vision; in VR they simply "quadruple the fun". Many missions contain background audio which are not theater-realistic (I wasn't able to get my hands on audio from Caucasus towers) but from western sources.
This package is a free download; please do not re-distribute.
Requirements
- DCS 2.7 or later
- A-10A module (either stand-alone or as part of Flaming Cliffs 3). These missions do not work with the A-10C or A-10C II "Tank Killer" modules.
- (strongly recommended) VR Headse t
- (recommended) HOTAS controllers
Background
The A-10A is a great und fun plane: it has a sophisticated flight model, is relatively benign to fly, it's ugly as sin, and has tons of weapons it can deploy on the battlefield. But unfortunately it comes with no training missions.
None. Zip. Zilch.
That's doing the A-Hawg a big disservice, and so I embarked on my own mission to bring this fabulous winged pig closer to your heart. Learning how to start, fly, navigate and fight the A-10 should be fun. That doesn't always mean that it's going to be easy, though. Some of the mission (for example IMC landing or formation flying) are flat out not survivable without some degree of practice. I included them because of that sweet, sweet feeling of accomplishment when you eventually succeed. The missions are designed to build upon each other; with the exception of the IMC (bad weather) and Formation Flying missions you'll get a lot more out of them if you fly them in order.
Copyright Notice:
These missions contain original and licensed audio files that have been licensed to me (Christian Franz) for redistribution. That means that while I, Christian Franz, may include them in my works, you MUST NOT extract, re-distribute nor otherwise package or include any of the packaged audio files in your own works without written permission from me.
INSTALLATION
To install, unzip and move the entire "CFrags A-10A Tutorials" folder to
C:\Users\[your user name]\Saved Games\DCS\Missions\
or
C:\Users\[your user name]\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Missions\
TO START A TRAINING MISSION
Start DCS, then click
- Mission (Note: NOT Training)
- My Missions tab (upper left)
- CFrags A-10A Flight School
- choose the mission you like
MISSION ROSTER
- Start-Up
Start a cold, dark Hog on a fresh, early morning. Communicate with Tower, and taxi to runway.
- Take-Off and Fun Flight
Basically a joy-ride. Take off, and have fun taking the A-10A through a course marked out with green gates. Torsten rides shotgun with his axe. Try NOT to barrel roll out of sheer exhilaration. Alcoholic beverages not encouraged.
- Navigation
Fly the Hog to pre-arranged way points.
- Straight-In Landing
Learn how to land the Hog with this simple straight-in landing in good weather and without wind
- Touch'n'go Pattern
The standard touch-and-go pattern used across the world to practice taking off and landings. Good weather, no wind.
- Touch'n'go with crosswind
Efficiently practice taking off and landing the Hog with a crosswind component
- Airfield approach
How to correctly ins ert yourself into an airfield pattern for landing
- ILS-assisted Night Landing
Land at night and use ILS to help you remain correctly lined up for landing. Requires ATC procedures as demonstrated in previous missions because the operators at airfields only turn on the lights for flights that announce their presence.
- ILS Landing IMC - calm
Fly an ILS intercept and land in bad visibility. VERY difficult: descend through clouds and remain lined up using ILS. Skip this mission until you are good. Really good.
- ILS Landing IMC - bad weather
Bad weather / bad visibility landing, and MURDEROUSLY difficult. If you mastered the zero visibility approach, try the same with wind and turbulence. Not recommended for people with weak nerves.
- Brrrt!
Learn how to use the A-10's ridiculously oversized cannon
- The HYDRA
Teaches you how to fire Hydra unguided rockets
- Maverick School
Introduction to the Maverick TV/IR-guided fire & forget missile
- CCIP Bombing
How to use CCIP to put fuzed ordnance on a target
- CCRP Bombing
The more complex, less dangerous bomb delivery method explained
- Air/Air Combat (Sidewinders)
A lesson in how to, and why not, engage the Hog in A/A combat.
- Wing Commander
Command your wing to attack ground forces, form up and RTB. Careful: the enemy have some teeth.
- Formation Flying
Get close and personal with your flight lead. Difficult. Really.
- Free Flight Day Caucasus
Fly the Hog freely. Different start locations and se t-ups. Time: early morning, fine weather.
- Free Flight Day Caucasus
Fly the Hog freely. Different start locations and set-ups. Time: deep into night, fine weather.
To be implemented (discontinued)
- Air-to-Air Refuelling
- AOA and slow flight
- NOE, combined w/ rwr: the SAM on the hill
- SAM evasion - canyon run and the bridge...
- RWR, AAA evasion Missile Evasion and counter measures
- Add kneeboard with rwr codes
- otto
- formation advanced - fly and make some turns, level changes
Version History
V01.3 - 20210514
All missions received a DCS 2.7 upd ate. Note that unfortunately, changes to 2.7 currently break the Cockpit Highlights in VR (and possibly pancake. I seldom fly without VR, and need to check). More missions received voice-overs and content overhaul, some small scenery updates. Completely rewrote all ILS missions - and added a really, really challenging ILS IMC mission. DCS 2.7 threw a spanner into the IMC mission visuals, and they may require some additional tweaking. Added kneeboard improvements to many missions; kneeboard now opens on mission start for many missions.
Change Details
- all missions: DCS 2.7 upd ate to weather in lighting.
- start up and taxi
- added 2.7 compatibility
- joyride / fun flight
- added 2.7 compatibility
- navigation basics
- added 2.7 compatibility
- straight-in landing
- added 2.7 compatibility
- Kneeboard: added pages:
- A-10 Pattern
- Approach
- Cold Start Checklist
- ILS fix point calculation
- Morse Code
- Pattern
- Free Flight Day:
- Added Kneeboards
- Auto-show kneeboard on mission start
- pause mission until wpn fire
- some dynamic scenery at Kolkhi to spiff up cold start surrounds
- added mission image
- added A-10 APR to Krymsk
- radio chatter in background
- added 2.7 compatibility
- Free Flight Night (03 AM)
- added mission image (night)
- same changes as day mission
- added 2.7 compatibility
- Straight in landing
- reworked instructions
- Added AOA instructions
- Optional Gear Down at 10 Miles
- Voice-Overs (optional)
- Tower Chatter
- Added Indicators for AOA and Flaps
- added kneeboard
- open kneeboard on start
- added 2.7 compatibility
- ILS Night Landing
- changed name to ILS-assisted as we are flying a visual approach and a mock-intercept
- completely rewrote instructions for clarity
- moved gear down to 10 miles
- added mock ILS intercept
- added optional voice-overs
- starting alt 3k5, 230 kias
- added cockpit highlights for ADI, ILS Station
- new mission image: night landing
- added 2.7 compatibility
- ILS "Easy" - IMC
- removed wind and turbulence
- se t to start at 3k5, 230 kias
- rewrote all instructions
- added voice overs
- optional voice-overs
- added 2.7 compatibility
- weather needs more tweaking
- ILS "Armageddon" (new mission)
- based on IMC easy
- wind, turbulence, early morning, thunderstorm
- optional voice overs
- added 2.7 compatibility
- weather needs more tweaking
- Pattern calm
- se t pattern height to 1500 AGL
- re-calculated pattern speed, now 150-17
- slightly reworked instructions
- Added some AOA indexer and thrust/pitch hints
- added voice overs
- made voice overs optional
- added some static scenery
- display kneeboard on start, pattern page
- adapted pattern gates
- added 2.7 compatibility
- Split the IMC missions into easy and real, one with zero vis, calm winds, one at armegeddon conditions.
- IMC 'Easy'
- IMC 'Real'
V01.02 - 20220317
Summary: Main change are optional voice-overs and cockpit highlights for the first three missions (Cold&dark, Takeoff & joyride, Navigation Basics). The navigation basics mission has received significant re-writes. All missions have received some minor scenery additions to make them more interesting.
Change Details
- Kneeboard: added content summary, ILS Intercept page
- New Missions: Free Flight Day Caucasus, Free Flight Night Caucasus
- Cold & Dark
- Added voice-overs
- Added some live scenery
- 'Q' turns off/on voice-overs
- Improved instructions / wording for clarity
- Added cockpit highlights
- supports flaps toggle in addition to flaps landing position
- improved flag handling for re-enabling voice
- Takeoff & Joyride
- Added voice-overs
- 'Q' turns off/on voice-overs
- Improved instructions
- added minor active scenery
- added cockpit highlights
- supports flaps toggle in addition to flaps landing position
- supports gear toggle in addition to gear up
- Navigation Basics
- Added voice-overs
- 'Q' toggles voice-overs
- significantly reworked instructions, better included HSI, removed Otto entirely
- repathed final third
- Added cockpit highlights for HUD and HSI
- now supports landings in Soganlug, actively not Lochini
- added active scenery
- Straight-In Landing
- prepared for audio voice overs
- tweaked weather slightly
- IMC Landing
- enabled cross-wind and turbulences
V01.00 - 20210309 Initial Release
