Helpful Tips for the DCS F-4E

After making mistakes with the F-4 myself, answering some common questions, and helping others out, I thought I would put together this short video with some helpful tips on flying the DCS F-4!

[@rawnukles]

Thanks, I never knew which sidewinder had the uncaged tone and which didn't.

[@DieselThunderAviation]

My pleasure! I think that caught some people by surprise in learning some of the older Sidewinders don’t make the familiar high pitched tone when locked.

[@rwade4636]

Take off flaps 1/2; landing full. Phantom Flyer F-4C, D (slick and dog pecker), E (hard and soft wing), plus FCF RF-4C.

[@DieselThunderAviation]

Thank you for your service! As I understand it, the slat wings changed the middle position on the flap handle from 1/2 to OUT. Our D model at the hangar has the 1/2 position. For the DCS E model, (which matches the systems in the -1) the flap handle has NORM, OUT, and OUT AND DOWN positions. NORM has the flaps up and the slats are scheduled in and out based on speed and AoA. OUT pushes the slats out and flaps stay up. OUT AND DOWN has the slats out and flaps deploy to the full down position. If the landing gear is down (specifically the nose gear), the flaps will deploy in the OUT position as well.

[@rwade4636]

@@DieselThunderAviation this must have been an E mod long after I flew them.

[@Wrootplonk]

Very helpful tips! Thanks for this one.

[@jui79]

Indeed really helpful. Some weapons will not fire in case of attached fuel tank or racks...

[@DieselThunderAviation]

Glad you found it helpful. Yeah, the centerline stores limit. Can’t fire the forward Sparrows until whatever is there is gone.

[@thunderace4588]

Thank you for making this video for us Diesel Thunder.

[@Coolhand101e]

I always enjoy your Phantom videos. I gave this one a like and comment because I think many people should watch this as they start flying the DCS module. 😎👍

[@AnthonyAdrianAcker]

Great tips man! I had no clue I needed to flip the CW switch and it's working so much better now, as well as the weapon rel dial modes preventing AA release.

[@DieselThunderAviation]

Glad you found it helpful! She is very much a hands on jet, a lot more complex than the Hornet (another McDonnell Douglas aircraft) 🙂

[@ryansta]

Thanks for the tips. Looking forward to what else you post. 👍

[@oczhaal]

Thanks for these very useful tips !

[@aztec0112]

Thanks, for the great tips!

[@bbsot1]

That was super helpful indeed. Thank you so much 😊

[@DieselThunderAviation]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Andrew-13579]

Good tips!

[@MnemonicFliesDCS]

Very Nice! Thanks!

[@bTusler]

Great Video! Thanks. I have a warthog setup and I can never get the f4 level, the vsi is always climbing or diving and if I ever looked down in the cockpit as long as you did the plane will go into a hard bank and be descending down quickly.

[@DieselThunderAviation]

Thank you! Trim is your friend! The trim is driven by a DC motor so if you want to make small changes to your trim, use quick taps of the trim hat. Holding it will all the motor to spin up to full speed and it will make a large change in trim. It’ll take some practice but you’ll get the hang of it!

[@TechGaming45]

Thanks.

[@eatthisvr6]

i keep dropping the nose back down at rotation

[@lukewilliams8835]

Same but if I dont let off enough back pressure I tailstrike can be quite embarrassing

[@DieselThunderAviation]

It’s like riding an afterburner powered see-saw! Ease the stick forward as the nose rises, as it’s easy to over-rotate as you’ve learned. Extended sticks certainly help here 🙂

[@eatthisvr6]

@@DieselThunderAviation i havnt over rotated yet, i have over corrected and dumped the nose back down though

[@mrpawno4955]

Must feel surreal having the real thing at home :D

[@DieselThunderAviation]

Yeah, that’s been quite the experience!

[@FJFuentesCO]

Always, and I mean always forget to set my fuzes! 😂

[@Super_Jayhawk]

Awesome. Now do using IFF! Asking for a friend.

[@DieselThunderAviation]

I’ll add that to the list!

[@kubanskiloewe]

i have a FFB2 stick which is force always into center. Now i cant trim the F4 into level flight and center stick ! I always have to pull stick a good amount forward which i have always to press a bit....this sucks.

[@acehawk3755]

Omg thank you! That damn CW switch hahaha

[@DieselThunderAviation]

That got me too when I first started learning the jet!

[@PappyGunn]

OK, when landing, on approach, stay on the throttle. If you get behind the power curve and start to sink, beware. Then near the gound you will get into ground effect and pop up. Use the airbrakes if you need to control this. Flare the sucker, this aint an F-18. Remember it's a brick and the engines make it fly. Act accordingly at low speed.

[@engieprogramma]

i have a probleem that is i go above a certain speed my plane will only pitch up til it loses speed and i can put my stick al the way down and still pitch up till i lose speed

[@NumbersLetters_]

So can the seeker in those older aim-9's be uncaged at all, or is the lack of tone a cue that it is boresight only?

[@DieselThunderAviation]

The AIM-9B is boresight only, and also goes silent when a target is perfectly centered in the seeker. All others can be uncaged to allow the missile to track the target prior to launch. Big thing here is this is likely the first time for many with some of the older Sidewinders that didn’t make the familiar high pitched lock tone

[@NumbersLetters_]

@@DieselThunderAviation Thank you Sir!

[@M4tr00s]

So the cage button is it a press and hold or press and release button to go in to A2A when in A2G?

[@DieselThunderAviation]

Press and release to get into CAGE mode, and it’s a button on the throttle. To get out of it, you rotate the Weapon selector knob to the B position, push the Air to Air button in the WSO cockpit, or double tap the Jester context button if flying with Jester (default is the V key)

[@M4tr00s]

@@DieselThunderAviation thank you, much help

[@mrsleephare]

When you land what is the trim setting on? I can always land Jester will always make some smart ass comments about 50% of the time.

[@DieselThunderAviation]

The trim needed will largely depend on your aircraft weight. The final approach speed of an empty jet (33,000 lbs) is 142 knots. Add 2 knots for every 1,000 lbs above that (fuel and weapons). Find that speed and slow down to it and then trim for your AoA. Maintain that and 700 foot per minute or less descent rate and put her on the runway. I think they will be making some adjustments to Jester for that 🙂

[@RedTail1-1]

I've put mine in the hangar already. I know they wanted to make it super realistic, but that caused issues for me. The stick moves with the control surfaces, so as you maneuver, the stick will be moving on it's own. Without a FFB stick you have no idea what it is doing unless you look at it. I started to get kind of annoyed when I would go to turn and after I pulled the stick back a bit it would jerk back and forth. I could get used to it with a little practice I'm sure but with the limited time I have I want to actually have fun and fly missions. It might remain mostly unused for months and months until I can afford the HOTAS I want. Then there's the whole problem with how they modeled every single little system. When you take damage and check the AAR or score window you will see 60 things that were damaged. All that computing causes performance issues no matter what I set the graphics to. Not even the F-14 causes as much performance loss. I get what they were trying to do, and it's cool that they are trying to improve the accuracy of aircraft in DCS. I just don't think it was necessary to go that far. More systems simulated = more things to fail and cause bugs = more frustrated players and more frustrated devs trying to find and solve those bugs.

[@Rockethead293]

You need to disable the FFB Stick feature in general DCS settings. It's a known issue.