If I may take a moment to pass on some mournful news: Jeff “Rhino” Babineau, the founder of the 209th Virtual Fighter Squadron, “The Delta Hawks” has died from a long illness.

He may not be familiar to most, but he is a distinct part of Falcon History. Since 1994, Jeff with the help of like-minded friends gathered once a month for LAN parties to test fly a little known flight sim known as Falcon 3.0. Their only desire was a “longing for missions where the wingmen actually had skill”. As I understand the story, this evolved to Spectrum Holobyte bringing them on as full fledge Beta Testers. They grew in size, status and technology being the first to use online communications by means of a Shoutcast server. And thanks to co-founder Dan “Crash” Crenshaw, gave us “How to Live and Die in the Virtual Sky”.

For those who do remember Rhino, you know of the wild accounts in the basement of his Stockton, CA home known to all as The Bunker. Catch a glimpse of what that was like in my previous Youtube post above. https://forum.falcon-bms.com/post/367152

In RL, Jeff attained the rank of Captain and served with distinction as a tank commander in the Army National Guard.

He is noted in the exit screen credits, along with other members of The Delta Hawks gang and memorialized among the photos in our Logbook as graphic M_W_3_18.

I don’t know that he had much family outside of his Falcon family, so a simple request from the remaining Delta Hawks is, during any future Falcon LAN party, please honor Rhino’s memory with a pint.

A few of the remaining Delta Hawks. On the left: Maestro & Tango. On the right Godwerb. And in a Zoom call was Shockwave.

Cheers,
Jolly

This is probably a superfluous post. (I mean really, who among us needs any F-16 based motivation??) But if you need a quick and easy F-16 fix feel free to reference it here.

I’ll start off with this video from the Hill AFB’s museum’s YT Channel. If you ever find yourself in Utah (it’s not really a major vacation spot) try to find your way to the “Mecca” of F-16 here in the U.S.

Until then…enjoy the video.

Cheers,
Jolly

And more of Gilman Louie (circa Falcon AT Days. His interview starts at about 5 min)…

I’ve posted this video elsewhere, but it deserves to be here. The 209th Delta Hawks in all their glory…

<p>@Razzamattaz Possibly another option for you. <br /><br /><a href=“https://forum.falcon-bms.com/topic/21078/foxvox-free-voice-control-software-for-bms?_=1647705025651” target="blank">https://forum.falcon-bms.com/topic/21078/foxvox-free-voice-control-software-for-bms?=1647705025651</a><br /></p>

@mustangs6551 said in Brain freeze when getting jammed, need help with BVR tactics.:

**1. Assuming it was one pair of 23’s jamming me, should I have turned?

Was the jamming worse because 2 pairs, maybe 3 pairs were jamming me?

Campaign wise, how should I have proceeded? Should I have ran all the way home, requested help, or moved further south in safer territory?

What are the campaign repercussions for say “heck no” and going home?"**

1. Regardless of whether it’s Mig-23/29’s or Su-27’s, IF You do not have the upper hand, turn back toward friendly territory. There is ALWAYS Safety in Numbers and in BMS, 2 v [Anything] (other than 2v1) is a risk of getting shot down.

2. The fact that there is extra aircraft jamming really does not have any affect on engagements. What does help is “narrowing your radar beam” and putting a concentrated energy on the target.

3. Again: THere is Safety in Numbers, so do not try to fight alone. The AI works pretty well at attacking when given a chance. But AWACS does not always send help, so you will need to turn toward friendlies.

4. The only repercussions is that you have more aircraft for future missions when you turn and run. If you look at the ATO, you will probably notice that other missions for the same target are being generated, so you’ll have many opportunities.

5. Just a recommendation: Join a Virtual Fighter Squadron and learn from others. It’s the best way to learn this game.

Not sure whether you’ve flown in the latest Balkans theater, but its creators have done a wonderful job redesigning the airports/airbases…TO Include civil airliners on the ramp!

Other than that, there is no real reason to have airline traffic over a combat zone! As proof, I direct your attention to the empty void currently over Ukraine.

@airtex2019 The best part of this “deal” 'Tex, unlike DCS, is it’s FREE!!!

To elaborate on jayb’s comments…the short answer is Yes, Tanker & AWACS code is still buggy, so please keep this in mind and be patient. It’s being worked on.

With that said, looking at the UI map, and considering the early departure of Texico, it could be close to min-fuel. If there are a lot BARCAPs or HAVCAPs with aircraft that have small fuel loads, the AI will refuel much more often and thus reducing the tanker’s endurance.

To avoid this in the Balkans I ensure any tanker I expect to refuel from still has at least 1+ hours on station at my takeoff time. If it doesn’t, and there are no other tankers during the sortie, then (if time permits) I’ll create a new tanker sortie using the “Add Package” option.

As for the Briefing TACAN vs. UI Map TCN, it is a known bug. Best I can say is AWACS does have the correct TCN and I’ve had some luck with repeatingly using the “Vector to Tanker” & “Vector to Nearest Tanker” commands in the comms menu.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Jolly

A quick answer is no. Especially with a simulated jet. The only person that will get upset with you pulling too many G’s is the simulated crew chief you give the jet back to at the end of the sortie.

A more indepth answer is concern yourself with your speed. Best speeds for an F-16 is about 350-ish to 440-ish (I think). (Anyone who knows specific numbers for the F-16 FM please correct me).

350 Kts is good for a tight turning radius & 440 is good for displacing yourself across the sky quickly.

Now with this said, mind you that if you pull above 5 G’s with bombs on your wings there’s a strong possibility that they will become hung stores and you will not be able to drop them.

@Slayer25 Yes

Double check that you have the folder “Add-On Israel” in your Data folder. You most likely do, but once you confirm, navigate to […Falcon BMS 4.37\Data\TerrData\TheaterDefinition] and open up “theater.lst” in Note or Note++ and make sure you have this line in that list: Add-On Israel\Terrdata\theaterdefinition\Israel.tdf

If not you can copy & paste this into that list…
Add-On Israel\Terrdata\theaterdefinition\Israel.tdf
Add-On Israel\Add-On Israel 80s\Terrdata\theaterdefinition\Israel80s.tdf

If they are there, or you cut & paste and it still crashes on you, try re-installing.

@airtex2019 said in IR Missiles Basic Training:

This sounds about right, actually… especially if it’s cloudy weather. It’s customary to yell “I can’t get a f-king tone!” on the radio while repeatedly struggling to get the seeker to track, uncaged.

(half joking)

I get it! Good one mate.

If I may take a moment to pass on some mournful news: Jeff “Rhino” Babineau, the founder of the 209th Virtual Fighter Squadron, “The Delta Hawks” has died from a long illness.

He may not be familiar to most, but he is a distinct part of Falcon History. Since 1994, Jeff with the help of like-minded friends gathered once a month for LAN parties to test fly a little known flight sim known as Falcon 3.0. Their only desire was a “longing for missions where the wingmen actually had skill”. As I understand the story, this evolved to Spectrum Holobyte bringing them on as full fledge Beta Testers. They grew in size, status and technology being the first to use online communications by means of a Shoutcast server. And thanks to co-founder Dan “Crash” Crenshaw, gave us “How to Live and Die in the Virtual Sky”.

For those who do remember Rhino, you know of the wild accounts in the basement of his Stockton, CA home known to all as The Bunker. Catch a glimpse of what that was like in my previous Youtube post above. https://forum.falcon-bms.com/post/367152

In RL, Jeff attained the rank of Captain and served with distinction as a tank commander in the Army National Guard.

He is noted in the exit screen credits, along with other members of The Delta Hawks gang and memorialized among the photos in our Logbook as graphic M_W_3_18.

I don’t know that he had much family outside of his Falcon family, so a simple request from the remaining Delta Hawks is, during any future Falcon LAN party, please honor Rhino’s memory with a pint.

A few of the remaining Delta Hawks. On the left: Maestro & Tango. On the right Godwerb. And in a Zoom call was Shockwave.

Cheers,
Jolly

Feel free to create your own using the Excel Key File editor found here: …\Falcon BMS 4.37\Docs\01 Input Devices\02 Key File Editor

Not bad. The F-18E is looking nice!

Looking forward to seeing more.

@BVT_9 But how does one add a separate monitor in the Helios editor?? This is not terribly intuitive.

@bbostjan Yes, STT mode is an option (or spotlight) but just take into account the 2nd aircraft. So either accept that risk of going 1v2 or command your wingman to attack the 2nd aircraft just to keep it occupied.

@mustangs6551 said in Brain freeze when getting jammed, need help with BVR tactics.:

**1. Assuming it was one pair of 23’s jamming me, should I have turned?

Was the jamming worse because 2 pairs, maybe 3 pairs were jamming me?

Campaign wise, how should I have proceeded? Should I have ran all the way home, requested help, or moved further south in safer territory?

What are the campaign repercussions for say “heck no” and going home?"**

1. Regardless of whether it’s Mig-23/29’s or Su-27’s, IF You do not have the upper hand, turn back toward friendly territory. There is ALWAYS Safety in Numbers and in BMS, 2 v [Anything] (other than 2v1) is a risk of getting shot down.

2. The fact that there is extra aircraft jamming really does not have any affect on engagements. What does help is “narrowing your radar beam” and putting a concentrated energy on the target.

3. Again: THere is Safety in Numbers, so do not try to fight alone. The AI works pretty well at attacking when given a chance. But AWACS does not always send help, so you will need to turn toward friendlies.

4. The only repercussions is that you have more aircraft for future missions when you turn and run. If you look at the ATO, you will probably notice that other missions for the same target are being generated, so you’ll have many opportunities.

5. Just a recommendation: Join a Virtual Fighter Squadron and learn from others. It’s the best way to learn this game.

Have you gone into Setup > Controllers tab and moved your HOTAS stick?? You should see the small control stick icon move in relation to your stick moving. And if you can fly around in Instant Action you should be able to control the aircraft (regardless of type) in any mission. There’s nothing else that you need to do with clearance to allow you to control the aircraft. Just Make sure you are about 150 Kts before you pitch up.

Also, try another training mission that drops you in in-flight to see if you are able to control the aircraft.