Hi everyone at fs.com! thank you for providing this space with all the knowledge and expertise for newcomers such as me.
I used to be an avid Flight simmer back in my youth, mostly always tended to drift towards WWII or WWi sims, something about those old warbirds and crates that always had an appeal to me. But I do remember trying some of the other modern sims such as falcon in the heyday. My favorite all time sim that I still feel nostalgic for was microsoft's combat flight simulator 2 set in the pacific war. For some reason that was the sim that got me to really immerse myself in the world and environment to the point where the machine became an extension of me.
Returning now, i'm struggling with all the basics. Feel like i don't even know how to crawl but keep trying to walk. Sims are also even more detailed now.. I don't remember fiddling with mixtures and radiators back in cfs2 but i'm all up for the increased depth and simulation. Just overwhelmed on how to get better. I have been improving.. at least I survived 3 out of 6 sorties yesterday (no kills, just stayed alive and did get a few snapshots) in RoF. I can take off and land with my chosen planes most of the times lol. But the inbetween is a mess.
Things that i'm struggling with and in which i'm asking for some direction on how to get better (hints, guides, tips, video tutorials, any resources you may know that could help me on my way):
1. Biggest issue I think is Spacial Awareness. I have trackIR (currently just using the reflectors which may be part of the problem but have a delauney IR kit coming) but I find I just can't seem to keep track of my enemy the moment we start rolling around each other.. Or I start on one dude, roll and without realizing i'm suddenly tracking another while the one I was on before is now stalling and low E somewhere behind me (eventually recovering and getting on my 6)... If i'm high I often lose track of the enemies beneath me, tried boom and zoom but between losing track of the enemy, miscalculating vectors and failing the boom, over climbing or not climbing enough... it often ends in failure. Turn fights again tend to go poorly cause I lose track under wings or under carriage.
2. Basic maneuveuring tutorials - I 've been reading In Pursuit, also have Fighter pilot: tactics and maneuvering which I haven't started. And been watching the Air combat tutorial library on youtube on BFM and Acrobatics. But even these don't seem to cover some of the absolute basics, such as proper form for reversal and extensions as i'm not sure if i'm doing these correctly. Is there a resource that really starts from the basics (crawling before walking). I mostly find that I don't know how to use my roll effectively both for SA and in managing my energy during engagements.
3. Is tacview worth it for a newbie pilot to improve their maneuvering and acrobatics?
4. I'm guessing most of my shortcomings come down to lack of practice and experience. Things like being able to properly identify angles and AOA, better intuitive sense of your engine RPMs and needs, altitude and energy management and awareness, etc. Probably the only way to increase the speed of improvement is to find a partner, is there a resource for newbies to find a mentor or a like minded studying partner?
Any other tips and hints you may send my way are more than welcomed. And I apologize if these are silly and unproductive questions, i'm not even 100% sure what it is I need or am having difficulties with...guess that is also part of being a newbie.
My setup:
hkc 34' 3440x1440 UWD monitor with gsync
Fractal Desgn Meshify S2 Black ATX Case
AMD Ryzen 9 3900x 12 core 24 threads CPU
AlphaCool 11446 Eisbaer LT360 CPU liquid cooler
Gigabyte Geforce RTX 2070 Super
xpg gammix 550 3d NAND m.2 drives (3TBS)
Samsung evo pro SSD drive (1tb)
Asus ROG Strix x570 F Gaming ATX MB
Corsair 128gb dd4 3200hz Ram
Seasonic Prime TX-850w 80+ Plat PSU
ch rudder pedals
Thrustmaster Hotas X (new stick and throttle in the mail: VKB gladiator K with SGS Premium stick, Virpil Mongoose T50 CM2 throttle)
TrackIR with reflectors (delauney in mail)
Currently owned sims (all pretty much bought within last week of steams summer sale :P):
DCS world - F18 plus its campaign
Il2 BoX - plus most of the DLC
IL2 Cliffs of Dover Blitz
Il2 1946
Rise of Flight - plus most of the DLC
Falcon 4.0
Thank you in advance for reading and any words of wisdom henceforth received
s.
