Thank you Sport for these DCS A-4 tutorials! They're perfect for getting up to date and learning the plane! I also really like the 80s style intro, that's just pure gold
You do know there is a small knob called 'Tracking' that will fix that static roll on your old VHS tapes, also don't place the cassette near any large magnet or bombing range. Thanks for the great tutorials on the A-4. Need more practice in the landing pattern.
I flew the A-4E in SE Asia. We never used a computer release system for standard iron bombs. There was one for special weapons that we seldom used and never in normal bombing missions. We bombed using the Mark One Mod O eyeball.
ah man, I remember testing that bombing computer. The devs JNelson and Plusnine were incredibly patient and willing to look at and fix any issues I stumbled across. I remember being so amazed at the capabilities of this old school CCRP-like bombing computer. Just enough assistance to be pinpoint accurate, while still requiring pilot skill for lateral accuracy.
I used the then "new" bombing computer only once when flying a new A4Mike. It was tricky to work and when using it it didn't get better hits than we got before when we used our eyeball and manual bombing. I think mine broke and, as I recall, we didn't bother to fix them. It had been a very long time ago, tho. Like 50 years.
Flying the Skyhawk was a real hotrod and we loved it. I used to call it a transonic Cessna 150. We had one radio and a ADF backup, one transponder and a nice auto gyro (the AJB3). It was a simple airplane. It had a ground avoidance radar that we seldom used. Might on a special night bombing mission, but we didn't have many of those. We used the A6 for stuff like that. That old Intruder was a good, but we thought very ugly airplane. We always said that if an A-6 ran out of bombs you could fly slowly over the enemy and ugly them to death! Terrible way to die.
We who actually flew the Scooter loved the little bird! We got good hits too. It could take a real beating and still fly. I enjoyed bringing it aboard. It was a good little fighter too! Really fun to fly. We wanted them to put a burner on it, but they never did, of course. BTW, later models had a drag chute. You only used it once because you had to repack it yourself. The ground crews refused to do it. That thing was a beast to put back into its canister! They gave you a baseball bat to use to pound the chute back into the canister and it took a long time and a lot of cusing to get it done. We therefore, ignored it and just dropped the hook like we always did if we wanted to stop fast or were landing on a slick/wet runway....like at Naha.
That’s awesome man! A real A-4 pilot! Gives some great insight to those of us in younger generations who are interested in flying these. I love flying the A-4 in DCS. It is a solid ground attack machine. Now if only I could get those AGM-45’s to hit something!
great tutorial. can't stress how important is is not to be fighting wind, bad trim, or other instabilities in the dive after the roll-in. if you are using the AWRS, be sure you check the kneeboard for details on when the tone clears, it differs depending on drop mode!
Hmmm; trying to recall our preparations for a bombing run. Right after start up we'd check the gun sight to see if it was reading true. We'd put 240 mills in the gun sight drum and then peek over the nose to see where the pipper struck the nose cone. If it was off we'd put that many mills on or off our sight setting. We also switched on the Stabolization Augmentation...aka the StabAug. This fixed the Skyhawks tendancey to dutch roll in the run. We sat the weapons function switch to "Guns and Guided Missles Armed". We didn't turn on the weapons master switch on when we were in the run, or getting ready to shoot the cannons. Our weapons manual that we kept on our knee board helped us compute the gun sight setting. We added 5 mills for each wing tank (I think...it's been a long time!) Anyway the gunsight setting was usually something like 160 mils for 30 degree bombing. We'd usually fly to the target at something like 18,000'. We'd fly abeam the target and when abeam we'd roll 120 degrees and let the nose fall to a 30 degree dive, which looked almost straight down. We'd put the pipper at 6 o'clock on the target and let it run along the ground. We'd time it so that it reached the target at the same instant we hit the release altitude and we'd pickle the bomb button with our thumb. We'd get a tone in our headset and we could feel the bump when the bomb came off. We'd "pickle, pause and pull". We'd apply six 6's and grunt like mad or you'd black out. As it was you'd gray out and you'd roll port (left). Then you'd release the G and roll out going back the other way. Sometimes you'd jink to avoid being shot. We seldom made more than one run. You'd one run, pickle all and get out of Dodge!
Oh, gee I forgot a few things. You had to arm your bombs before you dropped them or they wouldn't go off. You never wanted to stare at the target, which was called "target fixation" or you might fly into it. You did not see your bomb hit. If you were shooting 2.75 rockets which you carried in 7 or 19 shot pods that you carried under your wings you'd not see them hit either. If you were really serious about putting the hurt on someone you fired 5" Zuni rockets which you carried in 4 rocket pods. They were much bigger than the little 2.75s. The Zuni's blasted all the way to the target and were really exciting to shoot. They got good hits too. Sometimes you'd carry four Zuni rocket pods (4@) and you'd shoot one rocket from each pod with one pull of the trigger. So jerk the trigger four times and you'd put a lot of hate and discontent out there! You could also shoot them all with one pull of the trigger, but I didn't think that was as much fun.
I'm not an A-4 pilot, but I just popped in to see how it works. On your first drop I was actually saying out loud "meh, low-tech but sufficient I guess"...and 3...2....1....smoke marker pouring from perfectly between the milvans. My mouth fell open. Holy hell! That's some bullseye shit right there. Bravo, sir. (tips my hat)
Great video, once again. I just love this era of aviation, a lot of new capabilities start to appear, but the technology is still simple and "crude" enough to understand how it works.
Thanks for the bit with the history lesson, I found it really hard to locate any accurate information about the A-4Es bombing computer. As a fairly bad and inexperienced sim pilot, I found the A-4s computer invaluable; it would allow me to deploy dumb bombs with a surprising level of accuracy, all without bombing tables or ultra acccurate/predictable flying. In fact, especially with stuff like MK-20s, the bombing was so easy I wondered if the computer was being gamey and overpowered. But it looks like its indeed a pretty sophisticated and complex system, with more features we didnt even get. For 1966 tech thats amazing. Im looking forward to a more complex implementation of a computer like this with the F-4 Phantom.
Thank you for this video, it helps so much! ! As a new A-4 pilot, i'm fighting with correct trimming of the aircraft on the bomb run. Usually it begins to slide on the left or right, so i compensate this with rudder trim. But this results in aircraft begins to roll slightly! When i compensate this roll with aileron trim, it gives much more roll effect, than you can expect from trimmer... And now is the time to pull up, and i got no time to aim correctly. Any advices about this? Your aircraft is pretty stable in dive run! Maybe there is some tricks with aircraft trimmers?
Predicting the trim necessary to overcome a disruption in coordinated flight comes with time. I've found that you want to start trimming BEFORE your aircraft is making heavy movements. I also find that unless I'm in a crazy crosswind, or dealing with an insanely imbalanced load, rudder trim is typically unnecessary. Trimming starts as a bit of a balancing act mini game, but eventually it'll be so second nature you won't notice you're doing it. Getting good at trimming the aircraft does wonders to help with landing and air refueling as well, so the skill isn't just an unfortunate necessity with aircraft lacking a fly-by-wire stability system, but instead a hugely beneficial skill to master across the board. This is one aspect of flight simulations that unfortunately gets glossed over by newer guys, and it's not stressed nearly enough how important a well trimmed airplane can be by the old folks.
I'm on mouse and keyboard and I can't pull up while holding the weapon release button but I've figured out how to loft / toss bombs with the bombing computer anyway. So what I do is I line up my sight with the target tap down arrow key (pull up) and when the crosshair meets the target I hold weapon release and the plane will keep drifting up, once weapons released, full throttle, get outta there.
Where can I learn more about the other bombing modes not present in the A4 community mod. Also, what bombing mode would the Argentinian A4's used when coming in low level against British ships in the Falklands?
The bomb modes for the A-4E can be found in the 1966 manual, however I don’t think it speaks about specific delivery tactics. As for the Argentinian A-4s, I think they used some manual Bombing and some very low-angle methods. Also, they were using A-4Bs which I’m sure had some differences to our -E model.
The manual has a guide for bombing with snake-eyes, which would be very low similar to the Argentine pilots. The manual says to set the Gunsite Elevation to 160, Fly at 400 feet, 400 knots. I found that you need to have the Weapon Function Selector Switch set to "Bombs & GM ARM". If you have it set to "CMPTR" they wont drop. I found it helpful to set the rad alt warning at 400 feet so the low alt warning goes off when you're at the correct altitude. Also, zoom out the view in cockpit so you can see the airspeed and alt gauges at the same time.
I may have missed it, but, does the computer not operate properly above 1500? I ask because I recently discovered in the book Sherman Lead that the hard deck for ground attack in Vietnam was 4500AGL which was an achievable altitude for pop up attacks in the F4-C, according to the author.
Great question. I believe it follows the same rules as FC3 aircraft, and make sure your engine is shut down, and canopy open when requesting refuel/rearm
is there ANY chance you putting up a LINK toy the Bombing range .MIZ you are useing? as I can not make them..and yours is great on the island easy to find/see :) Thanks !!
The radar is fixed straight ahead and when you press the pickle button, it locks onto whatever it is on the ground where the nose of the airplane is pointed at.
@@hueyfoo any of the slick Mk8x series and the Rockeyes are compatible with the bombing computer. I believe the custom An series of WWII bombs are good to go as well
For dcs references and manuals only. Not looking for irl info. Also i seriously doubt old a4 manuals are still itar after all these years. There are no military forces that still fly them!
"Any roll or yaw inputs while pulling up" You know how hard it is to keep the A4 level? lmao... The thing just wants to roll. It was born to roll. It can roll so fast it knocks your ass out.
What do we say to landing videos next?!
Radar tutorial
Carrier Landings?
Carrier landing please
Landing? Who needs to do that when you can go out in a blaze of glory
@Polaris Bear my words man, my words
Enigma announced today that the A4 is coming to the cold war server. Your work educating us on this mod just became more important than ever.
Thank you Sport for these DCS A-4 tutorials! They're perfect for getting up to date and learning the plane!
I also really like the 80s style intro, that's just pure gold
Voted best DCS tutorial video intor of all time.
You do know there is a small knob called 'Tracking' that will fix that static roll on your old VHS tapes, also don't place the cassette near any large magnet or bombing range. Thanks for the great tutorials on the A-4. Need more practice in the landing pattern.
Hey now, I taped over my wedding video to make that!
I flew the A-4E in SE Asia. We never used a computer release system for standard iron bombs. There was one for special weapons that we seldom used and never in normal bombing missions. We bombed using the Mark One Mod O eyeball.
ah man, I remember testing that bombing computer. The devs JNelson and Plusnine were incredibly patient and willing to look at and fix any issues I stumbled across.
I remember being so amazed at the capabilities of this old school CCRP-like bombing computer. Just enough assistance to be pinpoint accurate, while still requiring pilot skill for lateral accuracy.
I used the then "new" bombing computer only once when flying a new A4Mike. It was tricky to work and when using it it didn't get better hits than we got before when we used our eyeball and manual bombing. I think mine broke and, as I recall, we didn't bother to fix them. It had been a very long time ago, tho. Like 50 years.
These videos are so well produced, you can tell you put a lot of effort into them. Thanks for another gem!
Well done for the high quality video. A4 is hidden gem among all the modern jets in DCS. Wish most server allowed us to fly the A4
Well do i have good News for you! Enigma Just announced that it is comming to the cold war Server
Flying the Skyhawk was a real hotrod and we loved it. I used to call it a transonic Cessna 150. We had one radio and a ADF backup, one transponder and a nice auto gyro (the AJB3). It was a simple airplane. It had a ground avoidance radar that we seldom used. Might on a special night bombing mission, but we didn't have many of those. We used the A6 for stuff like that. That old Intruder was a good, but we thought very ugly airplane. We always said that if an A-6 ran out of bombs you could fly slowly over the enemy and ugly them to death! Terrible way to die.
I freaking love the music in this! Certainly adds a great feel to it!
This silly old computer makes the skyhawk my favorite cold war era mud mover !
We who actually flew the Scooter loved the little bird! We got good hits too. It could take a real beating and still fly. I enjoyed bringing it aboard. It was a good little fighter too! Really fun to fly. We wanted them to put a burner on it, but they never did, of course. BTW, later models had a drag chute. You only used it once because you had to repack it yourself. The ground crews refused to do it. That thing was a beast to put back into its canister! They gave you a baseball bat to use to pound the chute back into the canister and it took a long time and a lot of cusing to get it done. We therefore, ignored it and just dropped the hook like we always did if we wanted to stop fast or were landing on a slick/wet runway....like at Naha.
That’s awesome man! A real A-4 pilot! Gives some great insight to those of us in younger generations who are interested in flying these. I love flying the A-4 in DCS. It is a solid ground attack machine. Now if only I could get those AGM-45’s to hit something!
great tutorial. can't stress how important is is not to be fighting wind, bad trim, or other instabilities in the dive after the roll-in. if you are using the AWRS, be sure you check the kneeboard for details on when the tone clears, it differs depending on drop mode!
Hmmm; trying to recall our preparations for a bombing run. Right after start up we'd check the gun sight to see if it was reading true. We'd put 240 mills in the gun sight drum and then peek over the nose to see where the pipper struck the nose cone. If it was off we'd put that many mills on or off our sight setting. We also switched on the Stabolization Augmentation...aka the StabAug. This fixed the Skyhawks tendancey to dutch roll in the run. We sat the weapons function switch to "Guns and Guided Missles Armed". We didn't turn on the weapons master switch on when we were in the run, or getting ready to shoot the cannons. Our weapons manual that we kept on our knee board helped us compute the gun sight setting. We added 5 mills for each wing tank (I think...it's been a long time!) Anyway the gunsight setting was usually something like 160 mils for 30 degree bombing. We'd usually fly to the target at something like 18,000'. We'd fly abeam the target and when abeam we'd roll 120 degrees and let the nose fall to a 30 degree dive, which looked almost straight down. We'd put the pipper at 6 o'clock on the target and let it run along the ground. We'd time it so that it reached the target at the same instant we hit the release altitude and we'd pickle the bomb button with our thumb. We'd get a tone in our headset and we could feel the bump when the bomb came off. We'd "pickle, pause and pull". We'd apply six 6's and grunt like mad or you'd black out. As it was you'd gray out and you'd roll port (left). Then you'd release the G and roll out going back the other way. Sometimes you'd jink to avoid being shot. We seldom made more than one run. You'd one run, pickle all and get out of Dodge!
Oh, gee I forgot a few things. You had to arm your bombs before you dropped them or they wouldn't go off. You never wanted to stare at the target, which was called "target fixation" or you might fly into it. You did not see your bomb hit. If you were shooting 2.75 rockets which you carried in 7 or 19 shot pods that you carried under your wings you'd not see them hit either. If you were really serious about putting the hurt on someone you fired 5" Zuni rockets which you carried in 4 rocket pods. They were much bigger than the little 2.75s. The Zuni's blasted all the way to the target and were really exciting to shoot. They got good hits too. Sometimes you'd carry four Zuni rocket pods (4@) and you'd shoot one rocket from each pod with one pull of the trigger. So jerk the trigger four times and you'd put a lot of hate and discontent out there! You could also shoot them all with one pull of the trigger, but I didn't think that was as much fun.
Let's goooo! Been waiting for more A-4 content!
Thanks Sport!
-TinMan
How are there so many great people in this community. So many UA-cam gems… great videos. Keep it up
Love the tutorials and A-4! Keep em up.
The excellent community modules ever!! And thanks for your best tutorials.
Excellent tutorial as always. You're making me want to revisit the scooter again!
Super interesting video and high quality, subscribed !
I'm not an A-4 pilot, but I just popped in to see how it works. On your first drop I was actually saying out loud "meh, low-tech but sufficient I guess"...and 3...2....1....smoke marker pouring from perfectly between the milvans. My mouth fell open. Holy hell! That's some bullseye shit right there. Bravo, sir. (tips my hat)
Great video, once again.
I just love this era of aviation, a lot of new capabilities start to appear, but the technology is still simple and "crude" enough to understand how it works.
I know you've been using it for a bit, but that intro hits juuuuussst right.
Brilliant - love the 80’s video tape vibe 😀
Thanks for the bit with the history lesson, I found it really hard to locate any accurate information about the A-4Es bombing computer.
As a fairly bad and inexperienced sim pilot, I found the A-4s computer invaluable; it would allow me to deploy dumb bombs with a surprising level of accuracy, all without bombing tables or ultra acccurate/predictable flying. In fact, especially with stuff like MK-20s, the bombing was so easy I wondered if the computer was being gamey and overpowered.
But it looks like its indeed a pretty sophisticated and complex system, with more features we didnt even get. For 1966 tech thats amazing. Im looking forward to a more complex implementation of a computer like this with the F-4 Phantom.
Another great one from you Sport! :)
Love it … old school!
Very well done instructional video. I love your style.
Fantastic video! This is very much appreciated!
Great video Sport! Really well done. Cheesy 80's music included :)
Very well done & great editing!
Good one as always
Great vid as usual!
Woow! what a great channel I found!?
3:46 Damn, that was more accurate than GBU-12. With such accuracy you can kill enemies with training bomb by hitting them directly in a head!
Excellent instruction. Thanks.
Amazing 🤩
Keep doing videos! Cheers
Thank you for this video, it helps so much! ! As a new A-4 pilot, i'm fighting with correct trimming of the aircraft on the bomb run. Usually it begins to slide on the left or right, so i compensate this with rudder trim. But this results in aircraft begins to roll slightly! When i compensate this roll with aileron trim, it gives much more roll effect, than you can expect from trimmer... And now is the time to pull up, and i got no time to aim correctly. Any advices about this? Your aircraft is pretty stable in dive run! Maybe there is some tricks with aircraft trimmers?
Predicting the trim necessary to overcome a disruption in coordinated flight comes with time. I've found that you want to start trimming BEFORE your aircraft is making heavy movements. I also find that unless I'm in a crazy crosswind, or dealing with an insanely imbalanced load, rudder trim is typically unnecessary. Trimming starts as a bit of a balancing act mini game, but eventually it'll be so second nature you won't notice you're doing it. Getting good at trimming the aircraft does wonders to help with landing and air refueling as well, so the skill isn't just an unfortunate necessity with aircraft lacking a fly-by-wire stability system, but instead a hugely beneficial skill to master across the board.
This is one aspect of flight simulations that unfortunately gets glossed over by newer guys, and it's not stressed nearly enough how important a well trimmed airplane can be by the old folks.
can you go more into the radar in a future video? the differeent modes and such
I need to honestly learn it better, but it’s in the planned videos pile
great vids sport.
I'm on mouse and keyboard and I can't pull up while holding the weapon release button but I've figured out how to loft / toss bombs with the bombing computer anyway. So what I do is I line up my sight with the target tap down arrow key (pull up) and when the crosshair meets the target I hold weapon release and the plane will keep drifting up, once weapons released, full throttle, get outta there.
That’s dedication! Have you tried using an Xbox controller?
i think it shuld be possible to still have control while holding relase if you assign relase as mouse button
great vids :)
What is the LABS function on the weapon control panel for?
So LABS is a toss Bombing system that’s currently not modeled in the DCS A-4
This music makes me want to dance
Only if it’s the safety dance!
Serious Ace Combat 2 vibes
Where can I learn more about the other bombing modes not present in the A4 community mod.
Also, what bombing mode would the Argentinian A4's used when coming in low level against British ships in the Falklands?
The bomb modes for the A-4E can be found in the 1966 manual, however I don’t think it speaks about specific delivery tactics.
As for the Argentinian A-4s, I think they used some manual Bombing and some very low-angle methods. Also, they were using A-4Bs which I’m sure had some differences to our -E model.
The manual has a guide for bombing with snake-eyes, which would be very low similar to the Argentine pilots. The manual says to set the Gunsite Elevation to 160, Fly at 400 feet, 400 knots. I found that you need to have the Weapon Function Selector Switch set to "Bombs & GM ARM". If you have it set to "CMPTR" they wont drop. I found it helpful to set the rad alt warning at 400 feet so the low alt warning goes off when you're at the correct altitude. Also, zoom out the view in cockpit so you can see the airspeed and alt gauges at the same time.
fantastic tutorial, if i may ask, what is the name of the song that plays at 4:40?
I may have missed it, but, does the computer not operate properly above 1500? I ask because I recently discovered in the book Sherman Lead that the hard deck for ground attack in Vietnam was 4500AGL which was an achievable altitude for pop up attacks in the F4-C, according to the author.
Is CCIP possible? Or would this be more like classic dive bombing? Oh NVM.. narrator mixed up CCIP and CCRP
Is the mission file for this training range posted anywhere? I would love to practice bombing with that range setup!
Perfect video! Are there any suggestions for tuning the pitch and roll axes? My stick responds really fast and I cannot enjoy the flight that much!
The manual for the mod suggests adjusting the roll axis input to Curves 20, Y Saturation 80
@@jabawocki9462Thank you very much, I will try it! 🎉🎉
So labs option (instead of computer) is for what?
LABS is a toss bombing mode, not currently modeled in the DCS A-4
Question. Maybe it's me messing somthing up. But does the a-4 not rearm or refuel after you RTB?
Great question. I believe it follows the same rules as FC3 aircraft, and make sure your engine is shut down, and canopy open when requesting refuel/rearm
Are these practicing bombs mods? Cant find it in payload list. Awsome video man. Thanks
They are. Look for BDU-33 MER-5 for the inner wing pylons
@@SportDCS Roger that...thank you bud keep rockin 🙂
is there ANY chance you putting up a LINK toy the Bombing range .MIZ you are useing? as I can not make them..and yours is great on the island easy to find/see :) Thanks !!
I’ve been meaning to finish it up and do that. Thanks for the reminder! Stay tuned!
@@SportDCS A-4'4 FOREVER :) Thanks My Dad flew them VA-212 when we liven in Lemoore in '72
Can i download this mission? Thx
just a silly question. How does it know where the target is? Any reference to it?
The radar is fixed straight ahead and when you press the pickle button, it locks onto whatever it is on the ground where the nose of the airplane is pointed at.
Does it have to be a specific type of bomb in order for LABS and CPMTR to work? In my case the BG&A mode works just fine.
@@hueyfoo any of the slick Mk8x series and the Rockeyes are compatible with the bombing computer. I believe the custom An series of WWII bombs are good to go as well
I did everything by the checklist still no luck to get the bomb to drop in computer mode. 😡
@@hueyfoo master arm on? I forget that a lot. Check in on my discord and maybe we can get you some help!
Wondering why everyone's A4 cockpits are higher resolution than mine
Check your texture settings. I have mine set to max
How do you do this range to practice?
I think @sportDCS is going to try and give us a link to his bombing range map when he gets a chance..so keep checking back here :)
The picture of a girlfriend in the cockpit 😀
I prefer the picture of my puppy in the cockpit :D
how do you know when the weapon release?
the tone should stop, you should hear a "kachunk", and the aircraft will become lighter.
AOA COMP off is not listed on knee board
It’s listed in the actual A-4E tactical manual, so in the spirit of authenticity, I included it. In the game, it doesn’t matter if it’s on or off
@@SportDCS would you post a link to the manual sir? thank you
@@pcgamernw5702 I’m not comfortable sharing links to tactical manuals, due to ITAR, but it’s easily searchable
For dcs references and manuals only. Not looking for irl info. Also i seriously doubt old a4 manuals are still itar after all these years. There are no military forces that still fly them!
"Any roll or yaw inputs while pulling up" You know how hard it is to keep the A4 level? lmao... The thing just wants to roll. It was born to roll. It can roll so fast it knocks your ass out.
*haha i have a 1995 microsoft sidewinder precision pro-*
Thanks for the great video. I kind of gave up with F5 cz of bombing issue but I may try this beauty.