Quick Look: Digital Combat Simulator: A-10C Warthog

Drew: "I think auto pilot is engaged."
 Vinny:  "What does that do?"
Drew: "Engages auto pilot."

Man, 7:30...

Best QL of 2012.

oh my god. an hour long QL?

Thank you guys for this! =D I know it's scary, but I'm glad you guys enjoyed it.

By the way, the reason that autopilot was not engaging was because they never succeeded at turning on EAC due to skipping turning on the trim and yaw controls, and failing to set take-off trim. This is why they were rolling in flight (trim not set), and this is why they could not enable the autopilot to worry-free look at the other controls.

I was so nervous when they started to taxi and could not get the nose wheel turning going. But then they got it... and took off from a taxi-way. But they took off. So proud of you guys!

Id love to see an actual a-10 pilot sit down with this thing and try to make it fly.

Dave: EJECT!! EJECT!!

@artgarcrunkle : opinions are what they are, but I think most people could play a shooter without reading a 700 page manual...

@mbr2 : I did not know the Air Force used simulations this much nowadays, jet fuel must be too expensive. Would have thought they would have given the A-10 to the Army by now, anyway. Hard to see how you could play this game with bad eyesight, how would you see all the little buttons?

@Jumanji : well, that makes sense, but I don't know why ordinary people would ever be able to play this

Drew: "There's dudes! Alright, I need to figure out how to make a missile!"

Dave: "No, wait, I thought we were on easy mode, this time."

Drew: "No, we're not."

Dave: "What?"

Dave: "Wait, so we're not in arcade mode, at the moment?"

Drew: "No, this is not arcade mode."

Dave: "Oh god..."

Man, so good!

What a mess... in the best way possible.

Even as someone who can waste a column of T-72s with a CBU-97 after a JTAc 9-line brief, I can say Drew has some growth potential.

I mean, he's learning better than this guy, and he eventually got it.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn3VOukLB4k

"I have to get power to my stuff, sooo...."

nice.

The Tank Killer! Awesome.

QUICKLOOK OF THE YEAR CONTENDER RIGHT HERE!

This was so awesome. I really like sims for whatever reason, but am generally clueless as to how any of the stuff works in game. I think what makes these quick looks so fun is that you guys know just enough to actually do it, but it's really tense and exciting to watch. Seeing this show up in Drew's top ten made me really hopeful you guys would do a QL of this (had it in my wishlist since it came out), and this video did not disappoint.

And people say Ninja Gaiden is a hard game. At least in that you can move without consulting a set of notes.

Oh wow. that was amazing. wing downnn.

Best Quick Look I´ve seen in a long time,good stuff guys!

It takes 3 minutes because the missile seeker head needs to be cooled down using argon. It's an IR sensor so if it's not kept cool it gets too much interference from its own heat.

CCRP / CCIP is for bombing. Computer Calculated Release Point / Computer Controlled Impact Point

QL's of these sims are always the best. They always spend half the episode just trying to figure out how to work the vehicles. Fantastic.

Where the fuck is he going to plug is ipod into?

I love Quick Looks like this. 7 and a half minutes in and they've already blown up an engine without even moving. Classic. There is real drama about getting the plane to fly too. This could be the most tense thing they've ever done. Some real teamwork here.

7:30 hahaha shit

God this game is awesome. You really need TrackIR to get the most out of it though.

I love when they do the simulation videos. They're always hilarious and entertaining to watch. Please keep doing these.

@RVonE said:

Drew: "There's dudes! Alright, I need to figure out how to make a missile!"

Dave: "No, wait, I thought we were on easy mode, this time."

Drew: "No, we're not."

Dave: "What?"

Dave: "Wait, so we're not in arcade mode, at the moment?"

Drew: "No, this is not arcade mode."

Dave: "Oh god..."

Man, so good!

every time Dave said "oh god" or "oh my god" I had to laugh.

Dave's "Don't we have have to go left??!" before take off also was pure gold.

I love panic Dave :D

Way to go Dallas. I never expected a Red October quote Dave. :lol

Alarms sounding, might have something to do with that fire.....

Although I don't know shit, I was wanting to get upset(notes,.....yessssssssss!!!!) but Dave did it for me pretty damned well. Just fustration.....great QL!

EDIT-Up in the Air!!!!

This is just amazing.

I know it's hilarious, but Drew should have used his Notes from the get go.

I love Vinny's relentless optimism at all points...."Of course you can turn here"

Utter glory to be found at about 7m 45s.

awesome dubstep around 50min

Glad to see more DCS A-10c coverage!

Once you get the takeoff procedures memorized (probably after doing it 3 times or so), it really don't take that long to get up and running. The longest part is probably the wait for gyro alignment and a 4.0 0.8 reading on your CDU before switching over to NAV and EGI mode -- if you don't wait you won't be able to engage autopilot (The EAC switch won't flip forward to armed - you can see that it is not flipped forward when he tries to engage autopilot - second switch left of autopilot engage button). This is the most common mistake that people make (moving before they are properly aligned).

Tutorial here: http://www.checksix-fr.com/Files/DCS/A-10C/Doc/EnablingEACInBeta3v1.pdf

I use that time to cycle through F2 and look at other people flying as well as setting up my weapon profiles.

Once you get used to flying one of the most enjoyable weapon systems to learn is slaving AGMs to your TGP.

Try this (I keep a good Google Doc full of this stuff):

Warm up AGM Mav (bring out of idle state - ~2-3mins)

Select TGP

China Hat Aft Long to slave TGP to current steerpoint (assuming target is at steerpoint, otherwise manually slew)

Make TGP SOI

Slew TGP to desired target

TMS Forward short to cycle to Point Track Mode

Hold TMS Forward Long to move SPI to TGP location

Switch to AGM, make SOI

Hold China Hat Forward Long to slave AGM (and all sensors) to SPI

Ground stabalize AGM to achieve lock (TMS Forward short)

Fire and forget

If you like DCS A-10c and want to get your hands dirty on a helicopter sim check out DCS Blackshark 2 -- it's compatible with A-10c in multiplayer now as well. A lot of the multiplayer missions I've been playing lately have Blacksharks flying in low, sniping shilkas to clear the way for the big birds.

If you have an iPad checkout iPadPit (the free version as well) or iControlDCS - they let you put your MFCDs on your iPad for touch screen controls among other things. iWarthog (all iOS devices) also works great as a handy reference with ATC frequencies, runway headings, etc.

Somebody needs to get Drew some TrackIR!

Love this game. Definitely the best flight sim to date.

@Kingloo said:

Utter glory to be found at about 7m 45s.

I have not laughed so hard in a very long time.

when the community votes on quick look of the year it is gonna be easy to forget this since it took place so early...that is unfortunate.

@Winsord said:

This was so awesome. I really like sims for whatever reason, but am generally clueless as to how any of the stuff works in game. I think what makes these quick looks so fun is that you guys know just enough to actually do it, but it's really tense and exciting to watch. Seeing this show up in Drew's top ten made me really hopeful you guys would do a QL of this (had it in my wishlist since it came out), and this video did not disappoint.

Yes, this was just fantastic. I grew up playing flight sims, generally without manuals (got a bunch of pirated floppies from some relative with BBS access). The feeling when you got off the ground and just stayed alive for a few minutes was just great, even if you rarely managed to kill any enemies. I remember Microsoft Flight Simulator 4 had a crazy World War 1 dogfight mode, which I used to play a lot, and Spectrum Holobyte had a bunch of different sims. I think SU-27 Flanker was another of these DCS style extremely realistic sims where you had to go through the entire pre-flight checklist before you could even turn the engines on, and there was the A-10 Cuba! game, which I think was really dumbed down on PC, but the Mac version had crazy modelling of pretty much everything from the physics to a procedurally generated military campaign.

I had a conversation about this very game with a co-worker today. He explained it to me, incl the APU & procedures before you can start. And now THIS, haha ... awesomeness.

This is not a game...this is a pain in the ass

hahaha, oh my god these are ALWAYS GREAT. This one was the best dave/vinny/drew simulator quick look yet

Edit: Guys...I totally just bought it...I don't even own a flightstick

Oh man, I wrote some testing software for the CMSP when I interned for a military contractor. The nongeneric name of that unit is the EWMU (Electronic Warfare Management Unit). It was originally designed for aggregating the countermeasures systems on F-16s, but I didn't know that they are installed in A-10s now.

Kinda weird seeing something you worked on turn up in a quick look

New quick look of the year. But we're only 6 days in.

I was dying when they zoomed out to third person and their plane was on fire. Oh boy. xD

Fuck yes, this thing was already on my wishlist. 

Thanks a lot guys. You HAD to set the plane on fire in the first few minutes; now everyone at work is looking at me funny wondering what's so funny about budget work.

maybe read the guide before the quick look lol

Vinny's confused pilot was great:

"uh, Betty...could you come to the cockpit, please?"

TNT this!

Instant classic QL

Really wanted to see them try and land...