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addam
Hussein & Libyan Col. Gadaffi are most likely the only two men
alive who have felt the full "Sting of the Hornet". It is the only
aircraft in the world that is capable of changing its role from
air-to-air fighter to an air-to-surface/ground attack aircraft while
in flight. Which is why, on their first combat mission in Desert
Storm, two Hornets carrying four 2,000-pound bombs each shot down two
MiG-21s without interrupting their bombing runs. It is also why they
are the aircraft of choice by the Blue Angels Flight Demonstration
Team. Hornet ground grew say they are easy to repair, and Hornet
pilots say they are a dream to fly.Once I installed F/A-18 Korea I quickly could realize and enjoy how much fun these 24 million dollar planes could be. Within a few hours with the help and instruction of a real Hornet Hero, Dave "Pooch" Putze (Major, USMCR), I was engaged in a Multi-mission assignment over Korea.
The training missions are extremely helpful. With full motion b/w
video and sound you are giving instruction on "Principles of Flight",
"Basic Aircraft Controls", "Cockpit", "Heads Up Display", "Seeing
the World", "Engine Starting", Taxiing and Airfield", "Takeoff",
"Flight" and "Emergency Procedures". I highly recommend viewing an
instructional video before you practice each session.
The Film Library provides an interface from which videotapes may be "Viewed". You can load any saved video from the Replay list, makes notes or search the list. F/A-18 Korea creates small, highly efficient files, which contain everything that happened during your flight.
The debriefing consists mainly of a printout on how you did on your mission. Number of kills and types of kills are printed out to show just how successful your mission had been. Don't get frustrated with the debriefing. I shot down a ton of aircraft and blew up a lot of ground targets before I could score credit on the report. The thing to keep in mind is you need to return to your home base and do a successful landing before the mission is credited.
Loading a mission is very straightforward. Missions have such names as "301-Orient Express", "Gas Station", "Easy Money", and "Green Pieces". Also, included are multi-player missions such as the "Free for All", "2v2 Setup", "VAD of B-17", "VAD of B-20", "Blue Strike", and "Red Strike". There is a great selection of Air-to-Air and Air-to-Surface missions to fly, as well as some multi-mission objectives as you become more of an advanced pilot.
The program gives you the choice of several theaters of operation. These selections are the "Hawaiian Islands" (which happens to be the training area), "Korea Tour", "Networked Play" (Fallon, NV Netcom - This is the Network Combat Training Area), and "Mission Editor".
The instrument panel may seem a bit intimidating at first glance but the key elements are learned quickly. After learning to start the engines, talk with ground control for permission to taxi, getting clearance from the tower and flying the pattern a few times I was right at home with the cockpit.
Because the F/A-18 Hornet is a multi-mission aircraft it can carry a
wide variety of weapons. The ordnance capability gives the Hornet its
combat flexibility. During an Air-to-Air encounter you have AIM-7,
AIM-9, 20 mm Ammo and Advanced Air-to-Air Missiles. While working
ground targets the conventional weapons consist of MK-82 SE, MK-82
LD, MK-83 LD, MK-84 LD, Rockeye II, LAU-10, LAU-61, LAU-68, MK-76,
MK-106, 20 mm Ammo and Mines. The guided weapons for ground targets
consist of Walleye I, Walleye I ER/DL, Anti-Radiation Missile, Laser
Guided Bombs, Imagine Infrared Missile and Anti-Shipping Missiles.Each weapon is described very well in the manual and each weapon has its intended purpose. A Station Loadout chart is located in your handbook once aboard the aircraft and it allows you to check off which of these weapons you want loaded for the mission.
Two critical keys to navigation are the understanding of "Waypoints"
and "TACANS."
The waypoint in aviation terms is simply a location on the earth. It is comprised of 3 pieces of information: a latitude value, a longitude value, and an altitude or height value. The F/A-18 allows you to store 20 different waypoints in its Mission Computer (MC) for use in any one mission. Starting a new mission will clear all the old waypoint information out of the MC and load in the new data required for the mission.
A TACAN, which stands for Tactical Aircraft Navigation Stations, is a radio navigation aid which tells the receiving station (aircraft) what their magnetic bearing is relative to the navigation aid. For those of you that are familiar with civilian VOR's, a TACAN is very similar to a VOR/DME. The TACAN is the military's version of their own unique navigation aids. TACAN stations are located all over the world, including on aircraft carrier and at all friendly airfields. I found it extremely easy to navigate using the TACAN once I had them programmed into the aircraft Mission Computer. The TACAN transmitters show up in the moving map aboard the F/A-18. After selection of the TACAN frequency you want to track an indicator pops up on the heading indicator in the heads-up display. Turning the aircraft towards this indicator and then centering it when it starts to move puts you right on track for your location. From that point you watch the distance indicator until you have reached the selected location.
It was a surprise to see the number of different ways the instruments aboard the aircraft could be used to help fly the plane. CPL (Couple) or aircraft and navigation aid coupling mode could be used to fly the aircraft down a localizer and glide slope beam to a perfect landing. ILS coupling can be use to initialize to the HUD and provide glide slope and course deviation information. Automatic Carrier Landing System (ACLS) can be used in the same way as ILS coupling to maintain the "on speed" AOA airspeed to ensure proper landing orientation for optimum hook - cross deck pendant engagement. Waypoint Steering and TACAN Steering are also available for autopilot navigation ability. It is really amazing how quickly you can get the aircraft to fly itself. After a few auto lands though, you quickly find yourself mimicking the actions of the old war dogs who would rather reach over and shut off the computer, take control of the aircraft and bring it in on your own.
The multi-player missions occur in a unique exercise area that is located in the airspace surrounding NAS Fallon, NV. The 4 players are divided into two teams. One team is from the simulated country of "red" and the other team is from the simulated country of "blue". The horizontal stabilizer on your F/A-18 will be colored to match your simulated country's color. The Fallon Multi-player Theater has 3 airbases and 2 aircraft carriers. There are also 2 target areas built up for your use.
At first glance it seems that the graphics engine used in F/A-18
Korea is of the polygon-fill type which indicated to me that things
would be boxy and have lots of square corners. It was quickly
apparent however, that the graphics designers when well beyond that
where it counted. Landscapes and buildings could get to be a little
boxy at times, but when it came to the important parts like the
airports, planes, ships and targets real 3D-models where used. This
enhanced the enjoyment of the program considerably for me all while
keeping the speed up. Once I started to see other aircraft in the
program it realized how great a job had been done on the graphics.
Textures over target territories also impressed me once I started
flying the missions. Some of the other aircraft such as helicopters,
Tomcats, Falcons, Thunderbolts, Stratofortress, Hawkeye, Spirit,
Nighthawk, Sentry, Boeing 727, Douglas, Mig-21M Fishbed-N, Mig
Flogger-G, Flogger-J, Flanker and Tu-20 Bear-F are only some of what
you run into while on a mission. All of these where done in great
detail.Night missions impressed me even more. The lights of the runway, taxiways and buildings set a mood before you even take-off into the star lit night. You rise high above the silhouetted mountaintops in North Korea heading for you next waypoint. The detail of the instruments lit up in the cockpit and the sound of your radio all make one of the most realistic programs I have played.
The recommended equipment is a 133 MHz or faster Pentium, Multi-function joystick, 4x speed CD-ROM drive, 32 MB of memory and 3Dfx-based 3D accelerator.
Two different configurations where used while I reviewed this product. The first was Pentium 166 MHz with 32 MB of RAM, 24x CD-ROM and PFC Flight Yoke and Rudder pedals. Without the use of any 3Dfx-based 3D accelerator the program ran smooth and very fast. I also noticed the program was happy with DirectX 3 and didn't require I update to 5.0 or later. I decided to move the program to my slowest system, a Pentium 133 MHz again with no accelerator. The program was lighting fast, very responsive and 100% playable. What the accelerator does for this game I can't be sure, but I can say that you will enjoy every moment of game play even if you don't own one.
The whole design philosophy behind building your own mission is to
set a specific objective that must be accomplished for the mission to
be successfully completed. You could even script certain events so if
they occur, it would immediately result in mission failure. Both can
be part of the same mission. But the mission editor is designed for
single mission construction only.
There are a number of targets available in all missions created including seven airbases and four bridges. The editor allows you to choose one optional ground target or none. The targets are three-dimensional models that will be placed within the Korean Theater for your mission. You can specify the time at which you want the mission will start, but all times are local. This affects whether the majority of the mission occurs in daylight or darkness. Five different weather options are available to control the weather within your mission. These are "Clear" - Good visibility in all directions, "Haze" - with reduced visibility due to high relative humidity and airborne smoke and dust particles present in the atmosphere. "Overcast" - which places a solid cloud layer at a given altitude and reduces the ground visibility. "Fog" - Significantly reduces ground visibility due to fog and mist. "Obscured" - Restricted ground visibility combined with thick cloud cover. This option is extremely challenging.
Here is a rundown of the book contents, chapter by chapter:
Chapter 1: The manual starts you off with a short list of keystrokes and explanations that get you up and flying very quickly.
Chapter 2: Then after you have had some fun and are ready to settle down and learn more, a whole chapter is dedicated to the capabilities and specifications of the Hornet.
Chapter 3: Introduces you to the sim taking you through all the features, screens, menus and options. An overview of the program sections and features accessed through the Ready Room is done. Then terminology and equipment is covered to get you ready for flying the aircraft.
Chapter 4: This chapter puts you in the cockpit and gets ready for take-off. Engine starting, Taxiing, Clearances, Airport diagrams, Takeoff roll and Rotation are all part of getting the plane off the ground. But this chapter doesn't end here. Once you're in the air the chapter continues with how to fly the plane and do all the maneuvers, including the Acrobatics.
Chapter 5: This is called Landing. Here you learn the Approach, getting your vectors to land, doing the pattern, VFR recovery, the "Break", using the ILS, On-Speed AOA, HUD Bracket and Chevrons. Once you touch down, (or Go-around) rollout, Taxi-back, and shut down instructions are given on how to Refuel, re-arm, and do your debriefing. The manual then covers the HUD tapes and how to add your flight to the Film Library for later viewing on the VCR. Last but not least this chapter covers Emergencies and Ejection.
Chapter 6: This chapter is all about Carrier Operations. It introduces you to the U.S.S. Enterprise, then gets you up to speed on the layout of the carrier. Soon you are introduced to the "Air Boss", "Catapults", "Cross Deck Pendants", "Fresnel Lens", "Meatball system" and "Landing Signals Officer (LSO)". Like anywhere else you need to taxi, get clearance, position yourself on the Launch Bar, Throttle up, and take the Cat Shot. VFR Patterns, IFR Patterns and Procedures follow next. Wave-off or Bolters are when you miss a wire, by either your own fault (bad approach, hook not down, etc.), or by equipment failure (hook skip). Study this section well if you don't want to end up in the drink.
Chapter 7: Navigation / Radar is the theme of this chapter. This is where the waypoints are discussed in detail. Steering to a waypoint and selecting them. TACAN is also covered in even more detail. Steering to the station you select and navigation symbology is described next along with using the HSD (Horizontal Situation Display) with its Color Moving-Map Display. The rest of the chapter is dedicated to the use of the Radar systems. Several Radar systems are provided (Air-to-Air, Air-to-Ground, etc.) and the use of these systems is a bit complicated because of all the sub modes you can operate them in.
Chapter 8: Defines Air-To-Ground and its Philosophy and the types of
Air to Ground Missions. Deep Air Support (DAS), Close Air Support
(CAS) and Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) are all part this
chapter. You will then learn the Measures of Success, Target
destruction, Convoy disruption, and reducing the effectiveness of Air
Defense. Then you go on to learn about the TDC (Target Designator
Control) and the concept of 4 displays. Each of the weapons and its
use are covered in detail, delivery of those weapons and fly
maneuvers you must learn to successfully use them. This chapter gets
even further into the use of the Radar and targeting system along
with your instrumentation.
Chapter 9: Defines Air-To-Air and its Philosophy and the types of Air to Air Missions. Fighter Seep (MIGCAP), Vital Area Defense (VAD), High Value Asset Combat Air Patrol (HVACAP), Enemy intercept and escort are only part of the lessons. Radar again is a very important part of this chapter. Radar modes and how they used, Track While Scan (TWS) mode, Single Target Track or STT, Auto Acquisition (AACQ) and ACM or Air Combat Maneuvering (known to many of us as "Dogfighting") are only a few of the modes you will learn in this chapter. The chapter will also teach you about Energy Management, Basic Fighter Maneuvers, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Engagements, Self-Protection, Missile detection and Gun & Missile defense.
Chapter 10: Threat Guide provides a complete list and description along with detailed specifications on weapons and aircraft you could run into while engaged in a mission.
Chapter 11: This entire chapter is dedicated to the Mission Editor / Creator. Detail instructions on its use in building your own custom missions.
Chapter 12: Multi-player mode setup and use are the theme of this chapter. Network Services Selection, Red Versus the Blue, Waypoint Plans, Hosting missions and Joining missions.
Chapter 13: Trouble Shooting. I felt this chapter was a great idea although I never did need it. With the complexity of the hardware and software today, I think every responsible game development company would include such a section. Short sections were included for Win95/NT and Macintosh.
Chapter 14: Terms - This whole chapter is dedicated to an explanation of all the Terms and Acronyms used F/A-18 Korea. But even with this exhaustive list I still found terms used that did not get added.
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