Mig-29 and F-18 manuals?

[Yuki Nagato]

Does anyone know where to download the manuals for the expansions? I know the reference cards are in the Steam files, but the manuals are not.

[HansGruber]

Sadly I do not. The sims are generally speaking similar enough but if you have trouble or specific questions I can try to help you.

[Yuki Nagato]

Originally posted by Major Hans:

Sadly I do not. The sims are generally speaking similar enough but if you have trouble or specific questions I can try to help you.

Something I'd like to know is about the F18. Is there an RWR somewhere in the cockpit? I can't tell what way shots are coming from. I can use pad-lock to see where its coming from, but it's easier sometimes to use the RWR, especially if I want t- blahblah blah. You get the idea.

Another thing is about the MFDs. By default I think the MFDs, in the F-18, show engine information? And the other MFD shows... An artificial horizon? Totally useless. So I'm not sure how to use the MFD's.

Also, isn't there a camera angle for the third MFD in the bottom middle of the cockpit? I'm not sure how to view that. Or what that MFD is for.

[HansGruber]

Originally posted by Yuki Nagato:

Originally posted by Major Hans:

Sadly I do not. The sims are generally speaking similar enough but if you have trouble or specific questions I can try to help you.

Something I'd like to know is about the F18. Is there an RWR somewhere in the cockpit? I can't tell what way shots are coming from. I can use pad-lock to see where its coming from, but it's easier sometimes to use the RWR, especially if I want t- blahblah blah. You get the idea.

Another thing is about the MFDs. By default I think the MFDs, in the F-18, show engine information? And the other MFD shows... An artificial horizon? Totally useless. So I'm not sure how to use the MFD's.

Also, isn't there a camera angle for the third MFD in the bottom middle of the cockpit? I'm not sure how to view that. Or what that MFD is for.

All of these are addressed with a few key commands.

Shift+' and Shift+; (Shift plus the colon/semicolon and Shift plus Quote) keys are used to cycle through the various MFD displays available for the F/A-18. You can not have duplicate displays selected at the same time.

Shift+K is used to swap the two MFDs if you want to change sides for some reason.

An RWR display is available for the MFDs. An RWR display together with lock/launch lights is also located lower down in the cockpit but this will not be functional if the MFD RWR display is up. Remember that the F/A-18 has an internal ECM pod that is always carried and can be toggled with the "E" key, you don't load a pod like you do with the F-16.

Be sure to turn the audio on in the config menu, and tap the DosBox CPU speed up keys a few times if required to get better FPS.

You can push the "K" key to toggle your view to look down lower into the cockpit.
This will allow you to see the central MFD display as well as some other standby gauges, the non-MFD RWR display, fuel, etc.

The central MFD is used to show navigation data. It provides a compass display, as well as an indicator to show if you are flying to the left or right of your assigned path. If all you care about is getting to the waypoint you can ignore the left/right indicator.

Pressing the "C" key while in the look-down display will allow you to cycle between the default navigational display, the map display, and the navigational display overlaid on top of the map display.

The map is identical to the one found in the F-16 by pressing "C". Not much to explain here.

[Yuki Nagato]

Originally posted by Major Hans:

Originally posted by Yuki Nagato:

Something I'd like to know is about the F18. Is there an RWR somewhere in the cockpit? I can't tell what way shots are coming from. I can use pad-lock to see where its coming from, but it's easier sometimes to use the RWR, especially if I want t- blahblah blah. You get the idea.

Another thing is about the MFDs. By default I think the MFDs, in the F-18, show engine information? And the other MFD shows... An artificial horizon? Totally useless. So I'm not sure how to use the MFD's.

Also, isn't there a camera angle for the third MFD in the bottom middle of the cockpit? I'm not sure how to view that. Or what that MFD is for.

All of these are addressed with a few key commands.

Shift+' and Shift+; (Shift plus the colon/semicolon and Shift plus Quote) keys are used to cycle through the various MFD displays available for the F/A-18. You can not have duplicate displays selected at the same time.

Shift+K is used to swap the two MFDs if you want to change sides for some reason.

An RWR display is available for the MFDs. An RWR display together with lock/launch lights is also located lower down in the cockpit but this will not be functional if the MFD RWR display is up. Remember that the F/A-18 has an internal ECM pod that is always carried and can be toggled with the "E" key, you don't load a pod like you do with the F-16.

Be sure to turn the audio on in the config menu, and tap the DosBox CPU speed up keys a few times if required to get better FPS.

You can push the "K" key to toggle your view to look down lower into the cockpit.
This will allow you to see the central MFD display as well as some other standby gauges, the non-MFD RWR display, fuel, etc.

The central MFD is used to show navigation data. It provides a compass display, as well as an indicator to show if you are flying to the left or right of your assigned path. If all you care about is getting to the waypoint you can ignore the left/right indicator.

Pressing the "C" key while in the look-down display will allow you to cycle between the default navigational display, the map display, and the navigational display overlaid on top of the map display.

The map is identical to the one found in the F-16 by pressing "C". Not much to explain here.

As always Hans your posts are informative and well written! I'll have to fly a few sorties in the F18 one of these days, now that I know what the deal is with it.

[HansGruber]

Some more F/A-18 tips:

1. You will find that the "Easy" flight model actually has some strange behavior. You will notice that the yaw axis acts odd and that when you try to drop unguided bombs or attack with unguided rockets, your aim point is off to the side quite frequently.

IIRC the "Easy" model also slows your roll rate to a crawl.

For this reason, I suggest that you play with the "Average" flight model selected if you want the least difficult flight model, and not "Easy".

**The same also applies to MiG-29: For MiG-29 I suggest the setting above the lowest. I think this is also called "Average". After you start your mission in the MiG-29, push ALT+O or Shift+O. You will see that an orange light has illuminated on the G-meter on your instrument panel. This means that Over-G damage is disabled and I highly suggest disabling this when flying the MiG-29.**

2. Underneath the HUD you will see one red and one green light. They indicate your AOA limiter and your G limiter.

I do not recall how the AOA limiter interacts with the flight models but it defaults to off. If you understand how planes fly I suggest leaving it off. If you want to experiment with this, use SHIFT+O to toggle it.

The G limiter limits your aircraft to no more than 7.5G's positive, and some number that I don't recall negative. Push the "O" key to turn off the G-Limiter. You will now be able to turn much harder in a dogfight, up to 9.9G's positive or possibly more.

BE CAREFUL when flying like this or you can easily turn so hard that you stall, but you can now turn much harder when you really need it.

3. With the F/A-18 pay careful attention to how your weapons are loaded by default. The computer does NOT always make the smartest choice for your weapons load.

Often times the computer will load both the AIM-9P and AIM-9M (If in the Kurile Islands map, this will be AIM-9R and AIM-9M) at the same time and result in you carrying single missiles on the wing hard-points.

When this happens I suggest you select to carry only one type of AIM-9 on that mission, and if air to air missiles are loaded on the wings to go ahead and load them in pairs.

The F/A-18 Hornet has one pair of missile launchers located on the bottom corners of the air intakes. On the real Hornet these can carry either the AIM-120 AMRAAM or the AIM-7 Sparrow. They can also be used to carry various air to ground targeting pods.
Because these are not modeled in Hornet, the only thing you really can load here are the AIM-120. For some reason the computer will often times leave these empty, giving you air to air loadouts of only AIM-9s, or leaving you without radar missiles when doing a bombing/attack mission. I highly suggest you make sure that you and your wingmen bring some AIM-120s with you!

4. In the main screen you'll see two guys standing at the consoles in front of you. Form (or select?) a squadron, select the Kurile Islands theater on the map, then click the guy on the left on his head. You will see the words "Ouch, Sir!" flash up on the map screen.

Now commit the squadron to the Kurile Islands theater.

You may now select the mission you wish to fly from a list.

This trick may also work with Falcon 3.0 and MiG-29.

[frosty024]

Here is everything I have compiled so far for the entire Falcon collection (including the Hornet manuals)... Still looking for MiG-29 manual and the original IBM manuals for Falcon and Falcon AT.

https://archive.org/details/falcon-collection-documentation

[Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel]

Originally posted by frosty024:

Here is everything I have compiled so far for the entire Falcon collection (including the Hornet manuals)... Still looking for MiG-29 manual and the original IBM manuals for Falcon and Falcon AT.

https://archive.org/details/falcon-collection-documentation

I have a question about one of the manuals that you uploaded to archive.org:

What version did the "Hornet Briefing For MiG-29 Pilots" manual come from? I have the original floppy releases of Falcon 3.0/Operation Fighting Tiger/Hornet/MiG-29, as well as the original Falcon Gold CD release, and I don't remember ever seeing that specific manual.

Thanks in advance! :)

[Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel]

Answered my own question: After a LOT of digging through my ancient ton of software manuals I found it... It came with the floppy version of Hornet.

[DarkenedRoom]

Used my phone to scan the Operation: Fighting Tiger manual and converted to pdf, would you Steam guys like a copy?

And the MiG-29 manual as well?

[mwirkk]

Originally posted by DarkenedRoom:

Used my phone to scan the Operation: Fighting Tiger manual and converted to pdf, would you Steam guys like a copy?
And the MiG-29 manual as well?

Absolutely! Thankyou! :)