How is the F-5 tiger II?

[zemzero]

I always look at it but never buy it. I could have sworn I read that the Tiger II was considered a terrible plane but am I mistaking it for the F-11 tiger?

[startrekmike]

What are you expecting out of the F-5 module? What are you thinking you would want to do with it?

[zemzero]

Something lite, less need for focus and multi-tasking.

The major aircraft (F-16, F-18, F-14, A-10, etc) feel like I'm watching a dense three hour movie, sometimes I just want to watch a five minute youtube video, you know?

[Die Pest]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AfDZkxPzNU

[Noobiecanoobie]

I bought the F-5 not long ago and have started playing with it. Also bought a campaign called Black Sea Resolve 79.

My previous experience was with the major modern jets zemzero mentioned above and a couple of WW2 planes.

So the plane is relatively simpler, in that there are relatively few flight controls and few weapon control systems. That's probably where the simplicity ends. With no auto pilot, you will manually fly and trim constantly just like WW2 planes. With lack of power or fuel, you'll manage your flight profile carefully to keep up speed. The main difference is there is no HUD, just a gun sight. Unlike WW2, it can be a radar guided gun sight. Bombs and rockets are similar to WW2, with manual control and limited (also manual) gun sight guidance. You will read steam gauges and navigate with maps and compass.

I enjoy single player campaigns and recommend ones by Baltic Dragon. The Black Sea Resolve 79 is quite different. It is fun, but the missions are relatively simple in design, with few voice overs and little direction as to what to do or whether you're doing it correctly. The missions are also very strict on winning criteria yet silent on the details. Still fun, if you don't mind skipping or replaying a lot.

So I'd recommend this plane if you want a great looking, fun to fly, analog jet fighter of the 70s. There is not a lot of single player content around for it. Apparently it can hold up against migs of its era in multi player if you practice.

[Jel]

The F5 was a decent one for its time and purpose.
Just keep in mind that it wasn´t designed to be a multirole platform. Although it´s pretty capable for AG, its main purpose was built around AA superiority. So don´t expect it to deliver anything close to an F-18 or an F-16 and you´ll find it a good system to have lots of fun with :)

[Perfect Info]

I think there's a bit of disappointment with the F5E-II in DCS World as a module. There are some older planes where development just stopped. The fan-favourite DCS modules are all still seeing some kind of ongoing life to them. Even feature-complete modules are often seeing slight reworks over the years, as developers implement improvements they accomplished in other modules. And even in-house Eagle Dynamics modules get new versions of aircraft (BS3, A-10C II), even if their monetization model charges again for the new version.

The F5E-II could have been a truly spectacular module, if they had been able to continue iterating on it to add more "modern" upgrade kits. For example, Mavericks and modern A2A missiles are both known loadouts in modern versions. And there were versions with bomb computers, which would make the aircraft much, much more usable.

So a lot of the hate on the F5E-II is because it was kind of underwhelming considering its potential. They did deliver a minimum viable product. It's a good aircraft if you operate with the expectations of its time period.

Oh, and there is also some hate because maintenance patches for bugs or deficiencies (e.g. new RWR symbology as other developers added new modules and AI assets to the game) were arriving very late. I may be wrong, but there is still some anger about problems with the artificial horizon gyroscope modelling as well as some altimeter-related problem (my recollection is a little hazier on that last one). So you do not want to operate this aircraft in IFR conditions; it's a fair-weather friend.

[Gunfreak]

The F5 is in the process of getting a major update (but it's happening on ED time, so could br years until we see it) it will get all kinds of updates both flight model, graphics etc from what I understand.

But even as is, its a very fun aircraft, its limited in what it can do but a great dogfighter.
Also the "pros' say its the best aircraft to learn the basics of BFM, with speed, energy management etc)