Hey guys! It has been a LONG time since we have revisited the Cold Start procedure in the DCS F/A-18C Hornet, and I wanted to make an updated tutorial that reflects some of the changes! I hope this helps you guys out!
Because of your video's, I am now saving to build a gaming pc and get DCS. Not sure how I found your channel but it is very good. Thank you for putting so much time into your channel. I appreciate it a lot.
Nice tutorial! Ya missed a few things but I think Rolf commented on most of them below. Now, I know this is just a sim but In regards to closing the canopy in the "hot hot sun"; that would be a big no-no. In the "real world" you would have been feeling like a well done Thanksgiving turkey between the time you closed that canopy and starting the jet. Normally, in hot conditions, the canopy stays open until the ECS kicks in. When the aircraft is towed the brake rider will usually leave the canopy slightly cracked or opened all the way, depending on the base rules. We nearly had to perform an emergency canopy ejection once because one of our guys was stuck in the cockpit, in New Mexico, in summer with a dead battery and a missing/removed inner manual crank (cann bird). and no 1/4" speed-handle to crank it open. Luckily the tool arrived before he pulled the canopy release. I remember the muffled screaming with a panic stricken face, sweat pouring off of him, threatening to pull that handle. Man, he was pissed when he got out...and a bit lighter too...ok, enough rambling...
OMG thank you for this. I am new to DCS and the Hornet. I have followed the training videos and was never able to duplicate them for some reason. Your video is the first one I have watched that was well explained and helpful. THANKS AGAIN!!
Honestly, great video for someone whose watching for the first time. But for someone who has already seen it and just need the steps for starting the F-18C. It would be nice to have a separate video just telling us what to press w/o all the explanation about what that button or dial does. As a player who is brand new to DCS, it would be a great help to just see the procedure of what to operate so I can memorize it.
Before turning ON the APU you should run a Test Fire A & B systems and then reset Bleed Air by rotating the knob counterclockwise to turn bleed air valves in the correct position.
Formation lights are not "light bulbs". It is an electro-luminescent strip. All the form lights are the same that way on the jet. They can get STUPID bright or barely on and visible in pitch black skies at night depending on your needs.
Hey, Karl, I don't know if you'll be allowed to tell me anything, but here goes: The AN/APG-73 presents IN LAR/ SHOOT cues, along with square (friend) and diamond (foe) cues, but what about the old AN/APG-65? Did it present those same HUD symbology cues, as well. Unless I'm mistaken, it _did_ have NCTR. Thanks in advance.
Hi Spud, I always check your tutorials and have learned a lot from you. I really do appreciate all your hard work to share your knowledge. Anyway this time I'm not so impressed and I think you miss a few important steps also for the sim. Already someone commented on the missing bit test and the fireloop test. I can add a few more, no test of reserve battery, battery voltage, brake pressure, master arm or light bulbs either. Also when you start talking about the heat and want the ac to keep you cool, you should recycle the bleeds to get the ac up and running after a fire test. Now! I don't mind all those shortcuts as they have no influence in a sim where the aircraft is always in perfect condition. I do however miss a few and important steps. Set altimeter settings (not all servers fly with standard atm pressure). Also set pitot heat according to weather. You don't turn your radios on (hard to find if you haven't seen how) and that affect you if your using SRS and also all communication with atc, tankers or awacs if server settings are not set to easy communication. You might also mention nav setup, and rearm and fuel. Furthermore no trim according to weight - bad if you are heavy on a carrier takeoff. 18% spool up is enough to ignite the engines (actually in "game" it doesn't matter - you can turn ignition on immediately). Just a procedure thing, wait with parking brake release until ready to taxi (bad if you forgot to set throttle to idle) and then check nws, brakes and turn on taxi light. No mention on strobe lights which are kind of hard to find behind the throttles. You don't complete the electronic counter measures setup and would not have any protection from missiles or SAM,s ( strobe lights and finalizing ecm does belong to Before Takeoff and might not be in this startup tutorial). In fact most of my points can easily belong into other tutorials, so this tutorial is still good. I know it's criticism and I might be wrong or forgot some things, but hopefully you take it as a positive criticism. Again tnx for all your hard work.
I think they usually keep the canopy open until the air conditioning is running when in hot weather. Closing the canopy makes it a greenhouse and is probably very uncomfortable with the sun beating down on you.
I wanna be a jet fighter so I bought DCS with the F18 to get a head start and I had trouble remembering the startup, now that vid makes it so much easier ! Thanks !!!
Amazing video! Thank you. Two things I'd like to add: First, Dispenser to on or override so that you don't forget that and can defend yourself during a fight. It is often forgotten when already airborn and then it may be your death. Second, ECM to receive or at least standby because it takes 3 minutes to get ready. I know ECM is technically not implemented yet but it also is quite important for defending purposes. I hope they bring it soon.
I have mapped keyboard keys to the dispenser override since I tend to forget to set it on and during a dogfight clicking with the mouse takes too much time.
The key to the MPCD, and by that I mean reading text/symbology with the map on, is to lower/raise the contrast. I think you lower it. That combined with the brightness and day/night mode allows you to have the map up while easily reading text and symbology. Again, just lower the contrast and it makes a load of difference.
A bit too much for noobs (which exactly what I am!), but pretty sure I'll be watching this video again as I get a bit more familiar with the F-18. Thank you for this!
Navy F/A-18s do not use position lights at all during day time ops only ANTI COLLISION lights.. and we never ever use the landing taxi light during the day period.
I just received my hp reverb g2, and warthog throttle stick combo. Here we go. Pretty nice to get to work on these at work and then get home and fly it. Who else is a tech in a fighter squadron? 425 TFS here.
Not been around for a while. Great to see you through 25k followers. Congratulations now. Another great video. I've so much of you content to catch up on!
@@karlchilders5420 In case you hadn't noticed, we're talking about a sim, and people are asking for the ability to clic on the throttle to uncage it rather than having to use a keybind, because most throttles you can buy for simming don't have finger lifts
Very well done! Been flying it on and off for years but mostly the F16 and choppers lately. I remembered the original start up but your refresh and the changes helped out a lot. Thanks :-) /Wilbuz
This is great Spud! Do you think you'll do any carrier ops videos with the Tomcat soon? The Internet is sorely lacking in high-quality Tomcat recoveries, and a lot of drivers coming over from the Hornet struggle to adapt!
You need to set your altimeter to the current barometric pressure or the known field elevation, should test the bleed valve, and although not a startup check set the takeoff trim based on aircraft weight.
Thats a great tutorial spud. Wish I had all this in an easy to follow sheet. I only have one monitor so can't go back and forth. Keep them coming your videos are great 👍
I wish they put the f/a18D model in the. I love the family model variant of the f18. I honestly feel like they should put the two seater version for all aircraft. It would be cool to play as a WSO online.
It doesn't matter all that much (in DCS anyways). I personally do it at 20%, but I've read different manuals that say to do it at something like 18%, and some that say 25%
A flew in DCS for the very first time last night. Flew the F18 and didn’t crash until I attempted a landing without remembering to put my landing gear door. I was in simulation made and had all assists turned off. The plane belly skidded all the way down the runway and never exploded.
Just a nit to pick.... if you were really worried about the virtual "hot hot sun" you would leave the canopy open until the aircraft is running and the AC is working.
Did you completely miss this? (Fire warning test (test FIRE switch in TEST A and TEST B positions) I understand it should be tested before the engine crank?
This was great video, I am use to F16 which I bought after buying my R9 gaming pc, graphic card garbage for VR oculus2 meta. Want go up from GTX1650 to RTX 3080. The F18 lands with better balance then F16.
Is there publicly available documentation for these procedures, ops limits etc? would be nice to have some written material to reference in addition to the videos.
The FCS-bit is part of the startup-checklist, but is not essential for starting the hornet. He also missed fire test A and B and the then neccessary rotation of the bleed air knob. If You would want it extremely realistic, you would have to do the preflight check first. But in DCS You can assume that all systems are working properly when you loaded the mission, at least if there are not failures activated. hardcore is this one: info.publicintelligence.net/F18-ABCD-000.pdf...see chapter 3.
Hey man, i recently got the f18 and I watched your tutorials on the f18 like bombs and mavericks and other stuff, thanks.. one last question what is the skin of the f18 it looks cool
@@Spudknocker He thought that the procedure would be entirely different and more difficult but realized that it's just an extra few steps. Also for the INS, on a carrier does it change to NAV or stay IFA?
alternatively I would add for those who find the HSI information is too hard to read due to the contrast when overlayed over the Moving Map , but still want to keep the MM, you can instead lower the maps brightness via "Gain" rokker switch on the MPCD , to make HSI symbols and alphanumericals easier to see without totally removing the map.. When brightness is set to absolute minimum it would also in fact totally disappear and be as if you turned the MM off.
I personally prefer the feel of flying the F-16, it feels more nimble and like you're more in direct control over the jet. The F/A-18 has more things it can carry (SO FAR), and some of those things are great fun. Carrier operations is also fun, and a great bonus to the F/A-18C, but I personally don't think it makes up for the fun of _flying_ the F-16, which really is the main thing you'll be doing regardless of mission, situation or mood. F-16 pros: + More fun to fly (subjective I guess) + More intuitive (also subjective) + CBU-97s are insanely powerful + AGM-65D triple racks (COMBINE CBU-97x6 AND AGM-65x6 AND YOU'LL BE A GROUND POUNDING MONSTER) + Generally a better interceptor/CAP F/A-18 pros: + Higher payload capacity + More toys that go boom (so far), including SLAM, AGM-154, Harpoons etc + Carrier ops
@@skatterpro thank you a whole lot for putting together that list. I think I’m leaning towards the f-16 now since I was almost 50:50 before. I like that the hornet has 3 MFDs and would make using AGM-65s easier and also looks more similar to the F-15. However, having the ability to both demolish ground targets and have such a superior TWR for BVR and a tight turn radius for dogfights sounds pretty great. I wouldn’t be able to do carrier stuff but tbh I probably couldn’t do that anyways. They both sound like great aircraft but either way I gotta upgrade to a new HOTAS first (probably the t16000m) because currently I’m using the thrustmaster X. Thank you for organizing that info!
Maybe google for "F-18 vs F-16 - A Navy Test Pilot's Perspective" Real life comparison but I think DCS's "feel" of these jets exactly mirror the pilot's descriptions. F-16 is more powerful, accelerate much quicker, has more power. F/A-18 has other advantages. For me one big advantage is that it is a Navy carrier based aircraft. Challenging and fun to fly. I like the flight model more. F-16 is more "on rails". Then again the Hornet is annoyingly slow. There is another, more modern comparison by a real life pilot (callsign Mover). He went from F-16 to F/A-18. But AFAIK he never flew off a carrier. I am sure that this would have changed his judgement a bit :-)
I'm new to the game so take my advice with a grain of salt. From what I understand, the F/A-18 is a much more all purpose aircraft, so if you start off with it you won't be limited to just mostly dogfighting. Additionally, if you want to get some more maneuverability out of the aircraft, along with some risk, you can disable the G Limiter by pulling the circuit breakers on the panel under the canopy to the right. This lets you pull some really crazy turns, but you run the risk of ripping your wings if you're not careful.
Some people live in a fantasy world at strange extremes I’ve kind of figured out. Not that he’s playing a game but he’s talking about closing an aircraft in the sun. Every rw/fw AC I’ve operated I leave the door open for start to listen to the engine start #1. I had a as350 bolt turn lose and destroy an engine cold section blade. Had I had the door open I would of heard it pinging. I took off with a damaged blade and somehow it didn’t trash the whole engine. But the airport security camera audio recorded the pinging. I didn’t hear it as the sound pushed out the back. But Mainly because it’s hot as balls. When I fly a airbus helo I don’t always with them because they have 30 sec start 30 sec shutdown until the incident. The 206L and 407 I definitely leave it open! At602 I definitely leave open. But a 1964 B707 I have ptsd from the heat in one of those while I was performing the engine run for maintenance in Texas with it 112deg outside. We had the interior 164F and I will puke just thinking about it. We had multiple starts and stops and I sit and cooked 3 hours.
Also worth noting, if you are on the boat, and the boat is experiencing an ED related moment (eg: LAG), your alignment process will be interrupted ALL THE TIME.
when i try to use the apu on switch, instead of togling like yours, it acts like a momentary button, and no matter how long I hold it it still doesn't start. any help?
I used it on carriers and the allignment never showed up to be "broken". Also I've never read/heard about not using stored heading on carriers. But your question is more than relevant. Maybe I shoud doublecheck that.
In the viper it turns the INS into a different mode that is for fixing errors whereas in the hornet it incorporates GPS signals all the time not just for fixing errors
Hello Spud!! I recently observed that the autopilot's "B-ALT" option is not acting anymore when I bring the 18 from cold start... but when I jump into a hot 18 it works good. I watched your video looking for a clue but you didn't talk about it. What am I losing?
If you don't do a Fire Test, your bleed air valves stay open. When the jet senses an engine fire it automatically shuts the bleed air valves to prevent smoke and fumes entering the cockpit, the test function will also automatically shut those valves
I’m playing dcs since several month now on the Mirage 2000 and I want to experience an other plane but I don’t know wich one I should choose between the Hornet and the F-16.
IMO F-18, because at this moment the Viper is largely unfinished. The Hornet has a very good range of both A/G and A/A weapons, decently sized screens, modern TGP, A/G radar, datalink, HMCS and some fun extras. In my opinion the Viper is still a bit too early compared to the Hornet, and I find some things about the 16 quite unintuitive/unergonomic.
Hey guys new to dcs. I've been watching videos for about 3 yrs. Never had the balls to get the pc, hotas, control panels, or rudders. Any recommendations on which aircraft to use. Multi role, a/a role oand ground support role. Help me get into it guys. I love looking at the video. I love the f14 and f22. Su 33mki, mig29 and su 57. Which one or all of them. Wait f/a 18 c.
I noticed you didn't push the bit Fcs button and the bit Fcs reset. Is this changed. I know I haven't been able to get it to " go " since the last update. when I do that it goes to restart and never changes. If that isn't required anymore that's a pretty big change that you didn't cover as such. Good video anyway, thank you.
