Don’t sleep on the Fishbed || First Impressions || DCS World: MiG-21Bis

[@rossmum]

(Also engine restart envelope is below about 8-10km altitude, below Mach 1, above 400-600 IAS - ideally above 600 at low alt where you can't nose down for more speed - and make sure you switch the relight circuit off as soon as the engine catches as you're tapping from a very, very limited supply of pure oxygen and might potentially need a second or third relight later)

[@madaxe606]

The rear-view periscope/mirror is EXTREMELY important - don't turn it off just to save a few frames. Unlike most modules the it's actually very, very useful, and offers good rearward visibility if you use it properly. I cannot count the number of times I've spotted a bandit back there, or picked up a missile launch in time to evade and/or drop countermeasures. You can set the resolution lower if FPS is critical, but I have it maxed out just because its so helpful. I actually find I have better rear-ward SA in the MiG-21 than I do in any other plane, because of the mirror.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

I have been using it when I can spare the frames, but the footage from Enigma’s towards the end I was dropping below 20 fairly frequent

[@Freddi2211]

The External Fuel Tanks got a light in the Mig21 its down in the middle behind the Stick. The upper left one of the lights when its on its tells you the Tank is Empty. Another Indication is the Red Line in Fuel Gauge. Also when dropping your Tank early you can adjust the Fuel Gauge by Hand and turn it to the Red Line.

[@locksmith2731]

Всосать топливо на тяге и потом сбросить..

[@rossmum]

I wouldn't recommend landing with airbrakes unless you're really desperate to get down in a hurry - while it's more or less SOP for the 15 and 19, the 21 shouldn't really need it and in Soviet service it was highly frowned upon as being unnecessarily dangerous (if you need to go around, it's one more thing to have to retract, and because you're limited to mil power until the flaps come up above 30 degrees, you're not going to be able to build the speed you need to get flying again). I would also advise not cutting the throttle below ~80% N1 until at least the mains are on the ground firmly, if not all three wheels. By cutting the throttle below that, you're cutting out the boundary layer system and losing a signficant chunk of your lift while still dealing with the massive drag off the flaps. Most bounces that can't be explained by bad approach speed, can be explained by cutting the throttle while still airborne and then ending up sinking too quickly to get power back on and smooth it out. e/ the gear lever thing runs out your main pneumatic system (via constant application of the brakes, to stop the wheels spinning during retraction). The wheel brakes operate on a total loss pneumatic system and there's no compressor on board to top it up, from memory it uses nitrogen anyway rather than air. There is the on/off pull handle for the emergency brakes - they operate off a different system but only have about half the effective braking effort, and the emergency system also can't perform various other functions of the primary, ranging from some parts of the radar cooling system, regulating various engine-associated mechanisms, and, uh, *the clamshell doors for your braking chute, so you have no chute and gimped brakes if you forget*. If you lost your hydraulic system, you'd find out about it a lot sooner than landing, believe me.

[@Magpie...]

Hey nicely done video as always. I feel like the F5 is a bit stronger than the 21. Yeah the 21 has more thrust but the F5 can match it in most aspects of the dogfight and once it’s slow it can rolling scissors it’s way to behind your 3/9. The 21 can power itself into a steeper vertical climb but the f5 pilot just needs to recognise that he doesn’t need to follow that and can negate the advantage by building up more speed in level fight. The 21 can’t really convert the climb into a good hammerhead because it will just wobble. If you get the wobbles at any point just centre the stick immediately and give it a second to right itself. The only real trick in the 21s bag is being able to stand on its tail in eburner. So if you’re sixed try to bleed all the speed by doing a couple of excessive flat turns. Use takeoff flaps, roll the nose up with the rudder and pull as hard as possible. With practice you can get it to cobra like this and force an overshoot. You can also opt to do this if the F5 offers you a scissors. Lastly just beware that the stick position changes with the aru. Messing with the aru isn’t as beneficial as it is in the 19 but you do need to be aware that you may have to slacken off the pressure of the stick gradually in a fast turn as your airspeed drops. This will keep the stabilators at a constant angle and stop them ramping too heavily as the aru does it’s thing. Also I think it’s a pneumatic bottle that runs out, your hydraulics will be fine.

[@crazygmanssimstuff]

I find the main trick the 21 has is to almost literaly cut all throttle and stop in place where the F-5 has to keep thrust going or it literally falls out of the sky so you can always pull in tighter. In this method the 21 always wins the slow scissor fight unless i'm in a heavy MiG 21 vs a light F-5. I find the biggest deciding factor apart from pilot skill is how they are loaded, but at similar weight fuel and weapon wise the nod goes to the 21, but only if you manage your weight and only take 2 missiles IMO. Thing is, there are a lot of people that fly with fat MiG-21s and that is an uphill battle against a nimble F-5. You want to be at Ideal 2000L or less at the merge. Just droping your center tank at the merge isn't enough if you want to knife fight a skilled F-5 pilot.

[@Joemate23]

Good video, I like the education style, helps pilots and it's interesting.

[@ryu1940]

Awesome video !

[@EmiGamEEr222]

Nice video bro, interesting

[@73h73373r357]

People way overcomplicate landing this thing. It lands just exactly like any Cessna. The trick is that there is a control reversal in landing: you power for descent rate and pitch for speed. If you do that, keeping your speed between 350-400, without airbrakes, your power settings will vary between 80% and 100% and you will have easy approaches. If you're speed is at or above 350 at flare, with landing flaps and properly trimmed, flaring gently is easy as well.

[@terraoftime]

The mig and the F-5 are virtually equal in a fight against eachother which is why the F-5 to this day is still used to simulate mig-21's.

[@luizengrazia5169]

Hey man, nice video! Thank you! Could you share your Reshade settings for the community?

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

I’ll try to remember to check next time I’m at the PC; I’ll add them to the video description

[@luizengrazia5169]

@@Bullet4MyEnemy We appreciate Daddy 🥹

[@rickytarr8585]

So at around 11:25, when you lock the guy, the piper jumps to his location on the hud. I've noticed this in every other Mig-21 video. I've been flying the Mig-21 since November and mine never does this. I've gone so far as to pause or screenshot the cockpit, start up DCS and match every switch's position. Still, mine never does this. Is there a switch I am missing? Or a keybind? Tried Google to no avail. Thanks.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

Y’know, I’ve been wondering the same 😅 It’s doing it for me because I was starting hot in a single player mission to make getting external views less complicated, I’ve also tried Google and matching switch positions with no joy. Whoever finds out first, come back and reply to this lol

[@crazygmanssimstuff]

​@@Bullet4MyEnemy so the piper is not suppose to move in the MiG 21 in actuality, there is a option in the special options portion of the MiG 21 to use the realistic piper which is fixed and doesn't follow locks. Most multiplyer server forces this option on so even if you have it selected as off yourself the sever will force the more realistic option.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

@@crazygmanssimstuff Ah, that makes a lot of sense and I would’ve probably never worked that out without being told lol, thanks

[@nicolette6629]

I feel like this module is great but in desperate need of an overhaul graphically and the training section with the sub par Russian guy speeding through with no pauses in the lesson like other modules

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

Have to admit I never actually use the training missions, and as a console noob for 20+ years the graphics still hold up pretty well 😅 But I don’t disagree improvements would be welcome - apparently there are some planned by Leatherneck once the Corsair releases.

[@uhavekrabs]

It is getting an overhaul. It was mentioned on the official site and 3D scans were shown off. They mentioned they got a lot more documentation on it, so a 2.0 that will be both graphical and flight improvements. Sounds like more info will come after they release the corsair.

[@HalIOfFamer]

romania, north korea, Iraq and half the africa still use this thing.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

I think somewhere they’ve upgraded it to carry Fox-3s as well, it’s like the AR-15 to the MiG-21’s AK-47

[@davido1953]

I would enjoy the challenge of landing this thing but I couldn't fly it for long with that hideous cockpit color.

[@jimlthor]

Once I realized that I should stay at or over 400 kph on landing, it made landing so much easier. You don't have to pull the nose up as high, which allows you to see. I only use the middle flaps when landing, so I can always hit the burner if something happens.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

Honestly, use landing flaps and you’ll get the handling characteristics you feel at 400kph with take off flaps, at 350 without needing anywhere close to AB power. Are you aware that the landing flaps actually use redirected jet exhaust to enhance their lift coefficient? Google “blown flaps” and give the landing flaps a go, it’s honestly kind of mental to not use the flaps called “landing flaps” for landing.

[@jimlthor]

@@Bullet4MyEnemy I was not aware of that

[@reggiekoestoer1511]

from my exp I only drop to under 400 kph after passing the beacon (400 kph with takeoff flaps; it's hard to keep 400 kph with landing flaps). Then as we get slower to 360 kph (just before the runway) I lower landing flaps for touchdown. It makes sense to keep takeoff flaps and 400 kph until the very last moment since I need that A/B in case something goes wrong.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

@@reggiekoestoer1511 Just stay at high throttle and landing flaps are totally fine

[@minisimian]

Foolish boy . Redfor doesn't use something as soft as Adamantium . The Mig 21 is pure Stalinium ... with a rocket engine attached. Paint it in a wierd Cyan paint and your invincible ...umm as long as someone doesn't shoot at you .

[@carneirouece]

oh man,.. Please, stop vocal fry. I have to make your video 2x so I could hear the voice of a real human being.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

It’s my voice, dude - can’t do much about it. Unlike being a needlessly rude cunt, which you do (or should if you’re a real human being) have full control over.

[@toast3976]

A note on the negative G thing: the MiG-21 actually can pull negative Gs for a considerable amount of time, longer than I've ever practically needed to. The issue, is between -0.2G and +0.2G, where neither the regular fuel pump nor the inverted one works. What happens, is usually people gently nose down as that's more intuitive, but it results in them spending too much time around that deadzone. Rolling inverted and pulling back on the stick is still much better, but next time you fly it, try being more agressive when nosing down.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

This is the sort of insider knowledge I live for 👌🏼 Definitely going to check this out

[@toast3976]

@@Bullet4MyEnemy My numbers might not be exact, it could be closer to +/- .5g, but i havent had it cut out when I force the stick down. I've never tested to see just how long it will go negative.

[@Dr_Jebus]

Cheers for the shout out! And yeah, my video really was focused on newer players all around, quite a lot there is common to other modules too (like how not to feck up the startup!) I 100% agree about your last point. The Mig-21 and F-5 are really well matched. In an F-5 I feel quite confident coming up against a 21, but in the 21 I feel confident against the F-5. Both have their own strengths and quirks and so, as you said, it comes down to the pilots. Keep up the great work!

[@petlemons]

Fun note on the pneumatic pressure (not hydraulic) for landing gear etc. If you run out of pneumatic pressure, not only will you be unable to use the brakes when you land. The same pneumatic system is used to open the drag chute bay. You get no brakes and no drag chute.

[@harrybirchall3308]

I love the Mig 21 because it has so many hilarious features like that

[@yoloman3607]

The true problem with the Mig-21, the reason why so many people have problems with it is the utterly dogshit ingame tutorial. It is just so damn bad and you can’t skip anything. Hell it gives you bad commands, forgets to tell you things like how to turn auto assist off, etc etc and even misleads you by making it seem like the mig-21 fire control computer won’t search for the type of missile you try to fire on all pylons.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

I’ve honestly never done any of the in-game tutorials; I remember once trying the Mirage 2000 campaign and finding it to be broken beyond belief due to all the updates the module had seen breaking all the mission triggers etc and ever since I’ve avoided anything in the single player sphere because I don’t trust anything to be up to date. KZbin tutorials are the best way, you can check the upload date to have some idea whether it’ll still be relevant or not, and you can pause it for every step as you go through it live yourself.

[@NGNMYokohama]

I feel like you left the video's thesis until @12:55 : "If you're going too slow... you're gonna die" sums up the Fishbed pretty well I think.

[@TheDAWinz]

Also fun fact: The MiG-21 radar in DCS is using the same code as the camera on the su25T/ka50, abuse that how you will 😂

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

Not sure how to make use of that ngl, but it doesn't surprise me to hear an element of something in DCS isn't modelled correctly.

[@TheDAWinz]

@@Bullet4MyEnemy The range on the camera of the SU-25T and KA-50 also affects the radar of the 21 IIRC, so if you're familiar with one or the other it should help a bit here.

[@TheSisi37]

Cool video, thanks for the good tips as usual! One thing that I find useful in the Mig21 is the emergency afterburner, especially when I get low and slow

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

Yeah, I have been using it

[@Rodz88]

Good video man. I have been flying the fishbed in Enigma's Cold War lately & im loving it. The reason I bought this module because i wanted to experience myself all the scary review about the fishbed. She is not that hard to fly, just gotta know her strength, weakness & respect the way she fly, we are good to go!

[@agdgdgwngo]

@8:26 the landing gear will still deploy, but you can't brake, steer or deploy the drag chute. If you find yourself in this situation there's a big red pull button for the emergency brake.

[@angrymancunian]

Brakes on the 21 are Pneumatic not Hydraulic.

[@drzanzibar]

This is what I needed. The quirks of this airframe

[@TheDAWinz]

Just a heads up, the fuel gauge chapter is currently taken by the Radar Chapter.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

Thanks man, no idea how that escaped my attention, must've been double checking the timestamps for about an hour prior to publication - derp. Good catch 👌

[@agidotexe7167]

great editing on this video dude, love this! Keep it up!

[@LupiinII]

Great video, as always

[@NikovK]

You forgot to mention that the red flashing lights by your gunsight are the plane saying harder daddy.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

😅 They’re “Salmon on land mode” activation lights.

[@starrfluff9236]

About landing, the MiG-21bis is supposed to have blown flaps which only work above 80% rpm, so that something to keep in mind.

[@dougroberts3840]

In my opinion, if you want to be good in the Mig-21 or any other aircraft, you have to continue to fly and practice with it, in other words, 'You need more training'

[@bakerone4880]

9:12 Lmao, imagine not arming the plane while still on the runway xD

[@BrockvsTV]

Wonder video. Thank you

[@NikovK]

Fishbed was named because Nato observers thought it was a new version of the Fishpot, which got a lousy name because they weren't impressed by it. The Fishbed is probably the winner of the bad name : good plane ratio. The Chinese domestic production of the Mig-21 is called a Fishcan.

[@Klovaneer]

Pretty sure MiG-15 holds this award and will do so for eternity.

[@regamuffin2000]

Love your vids bud, would love to fly with you, drop me a message, cheers

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

Hop on the Discord discord.gg/p8hS3Vnb

[@pvtmaguire959]

7:45 I’ll get you back for this.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

😅

[@pubgrub2]

You do not have to bind the gear handle lock if you open it during your startup.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

That’s true, but if you forget and don’t have it bound, I wouldn’t want to be trying to hold a relatively unruly airframe steady whilst pissing around with my mouse. But it might just be me that has a fiery hatred of clicking shit in a hurry.

[@pubgrub2]

@@Bullet4MyEnemy I find the aircraft decently stable after takeoff if you trim it immediately.

[@pimpslapization]

Do the Mirage F.1 and Mig15's show up as friendly when using Mig21's IFF system?

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

I haven’t really had time yet to know for sure, but my advice would be to always visually ID to be certain because it was only relatively recently I even found out the MiG-19 has a transponder to turn on, so I must’ve been showing as hostile to every 21 the whole time I’ve had it 😅 Surprisingly I’ve only been team killed once off the back of it too.

[@SuperEvilMonkee]

Yes they do, just remember to turn it on as auto start doesnt

[@SuperEvilMonkee]

@@Bullet4MyEnemy thats not how the transponder works in DCS. Doesnt matter if you had it off, you will still show as friendly to a 21. If a 21 shoot you down its because they didnt IFF properly, not you

[@rossmum]

IFF in DCS is magic and coalition-based. As long as you actually remember to turn your IFF interrogator on, whatever is on your team will come back as friendly whether it's using a Soviet or foreign IFF, and even if it doesn't have an IFF reply transponder to begin with. The 21 also cannot IFF while locked, it can only do it while in search mode. IFF and *then* lock a contact.

[@ReplayAction868]

very nice said. Its how you approach this thing. Its a life lesson i think.

[@มดแดง-ฃ3ข]

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