Starting up with Falcon 4 BMS
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It gets even more exciting when you start practising attacks using the TFR. The first time you try Roll & Pull in the dark when you get a TF-FAIL really gets your attention
It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you first start using the TFR in a combat or even practice scenario, which is why there really is no substitute for reading up on the -34 and Training Manual chapters first. When you can prosecute your attack at night, even when it’s raining you will be pretty satisfied though.
Remember the BMS LANTIRN system is modelled as closely as currently possible to the real thing, with input from guys still using this system for real. It may not be as intuitive as you’d like it to be or behave as it did in previous Falcon versions, but it is the closest you can get to doing it for real without putting your life on the line.
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RD,
No, I don’t fly FalconAF any more. I’ve been spending most of my time pit building since I quit flying AF a long time ago. (I’m sure you’ve seen my posts on VP as I build.) However, I’m starting to get close to a built state that will allow me to start flying my pit with BMS and learning it. Since I’m approaching that state, I’ve just starting to spend more time on this Forum to better understand BMS.
Just had a couple of cups of coffee and spent more time in the manuals your recommended as well as the Dash-1 and Dash-34 manuals. :munch:
WOW!! I now see that BMS is SOOOO much more realistic than AF!!! :woohoo: :hail:
Obviously I need to spend a lot more time in all the manuals in the BMS Doc directory. Basically I guess you could say :rtfm:
:rofl:I will RATFM – Read All the Fine Manuals – a lot more. It is now clear that what I knew via my experience with AF a long time ago is often just largely wrong. I know I’m going to really enjoy going through all of these BMS Docs, reading them and flying the Training TEs. I just hope that I get my pit completely built so I can focus on flying a lot more before this damn super aggressive Brain Cancer that I’m fighting kills me.
Again, thanks for the advice. Very helpful.
G. Beau “Willy” Williamson
P.S. I probably should have set up my Account here with a Username of “Willy” so it more closely matches what I’m using on other F16 Forums.
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Great news Willy ( I know it was you )
I’m glad you had a glimpse of how different and more accurate BMS is compared to your past experienceFlying the pit in BMS is all what it is about the attention to detail is amazing but the consequence of that is the steep learning curve
You will enjoy it big time and you know where I am if you need helpCheers
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RD,
BTW, it was the advances of BMS several years ago that was what launched me into pit building.
Way back when BMS first announced support for MFD displays on other LCD’s, I was like YIPPPEEE!!! I’m gonna build me a pit with MFD’s!!!
That building lead to a desktop instrument panel but I wasn’t completely happy with that, which got me into building a full sized cockpit of wood and then now to the metal “real” F16 pit using a lot of the real F16 items. All of that has taken years to get to where I am but I’m getting close to actually starting back to learning and fly BMS. To do so it is obvious that I need to do a lot of reading of posts on this forum (just started that) and reading BMS docs and flying.
Thanks again.
Willy
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I wouldn’t throw out that old original F4 manual just yet
yes, ignore everything in there about keybinds and avionics technical details, but it’s got a lot of interesting stuff on basic tactics, maneuvers, planning, and the like. It’s a good read. Written by Pete Bonanni (Art of the Kill video)
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As I said very often, the stuff we implement in the BMS docs with every new version of BMS render the old manuals more and more useless, it’s funny you showed these very pages as the next iteration will specifically emphasize my point
an example: if you read that F4 manual and try the same in BMS 4.33 (like bracket or single side offset, you’ll be very confused with the AI reaction So my opinion stands, these stuff are outdated and need to be documented according to the updates of BMS, not according to something that was released 20 years ago.
Another example:
that trail images in the F4 manual was wrong for the Falcon 4.0 released version. That ladder is wrong as well there are many more mistakes like this
(which doesn’t reduce the respect I have for hat document one bit) and there are many items that were correct for the Falcon 4.0 but are utterly confusing in nowadays BMSbetter stick to the document suite relevant to the sim you fly rather than it’s respected ancester.
The curve is steep enough. if you want to make it even steeper by reading outdated docs, that’s your choice, but new guys shouldn’t take that route at all !! -
fair enough… but what about the other 95% of the stuff I posted? Still a lot of interesting things in there.
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we can just stick with the small sample of pages I posted:
practical explanations of the FLOT, beaming, AAA fire, BFM, the slice, uses of various formations
just curious, where is the counterpart in the new manuals?
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Thanks for your input fellas. Again sorry for the delayed reply. I used to get a reminder in my email box but that stopped for some reason now!