3 position flaps

[woja]

Anybody found a solution to map the 3-position-flaps to the Saitek X55 mode switch?

[JonathanBleeker]

I run a X-56 so it is pretty much the same. Go to your task bar and right click on the Saitek profile editor and select Clear. That way Saitek's default profile will be removed and the mode switch button commands will become detected by the AMS and FSX/P3D.

[woja]

thanx for the answer. Yes, now AMS detects the mode switch. But I didn't find a way yet for a setup with 3 positions. I'll keep on trying...

[JonathanBleeker]

Easy. Use the Flap Set command in the AMS.

[Kludo]

Lol I hoped I made the Flaps Set function intuitive because it sure wasn't easy to develop. I have tried to explain how it works but I guess my comm skills need some work.

Kludo you got the weapons details correct. The station stepping command you spoke of is the HEAT REJ command in the AMS. It is only for stepping through the AIM-9s as the AIM-7s have a fixed firing order. AIM-7s are referred to as radar guided missiles in the -34 manuals I have because even though they aren't active, they are still guided by the F-4's radar .

I tried to explain elsewhere that the half and full lock assignments are only for special setups (eg if you have someone playing back seater with a warthog stick as the radar cursor controller) so for all other cases the single Radar Lock command is used as you described.

And yes the nose wheel steering will engage auto lock when in boresight mode. I don't know if you have a throttle unit but one other handy command is the Cage button which will cage the radar in boresight mode for a quick change to air to air config although the only way out is to move the weapon type knob on the armament panel to "C" or use the Air-to-Air button command available in the AMS (In reality, only the WSO can use the Air-to-Air button as it is in the rear cockpit).

Finally, the Air Refuelling Release command can also be used to cage/uncage the AIM-9s from the radar.

The chaff and flares are simple trigger commands as I couldn't get any info on the countermeasure systems in the real F-4E.

@@@@@I tried to explain elsewhere that the half and full lock assignments are only for special setups (eg if you have someone playing back seater with a warthog stick as the radar cursor controller) so for all other cases the single Radar Lock command is used as you described.@@@@

That feature you just talked about right there, sounds so cool. I'm going to have to find someone one of these days and try that out. It would be awesome as heck to be able to just kind sit back there just poppin off sparrows, callin out targets, chasin vectors. (I guess the next migration will be making an E-1 Tracker or E-2 Hawkeye 2K with multiplayer seats in the back so a couple people get into the E2 and do AWACS can set us up into strike packages and BARCAP packages!!! LOL !!!!

Thank you for those points really appreciate it, the level of detail on this thing just brings it to life!!

Woja, send me a private message with your discord name or steam name, I can jump on COMS with you and walk you through it. It will be easier to explain if I just remap mine while leading you through it.

As for the ALE-29 system, it was phased out for all Navy F-4's by 1984 and went to ALE-39 (there was probably some minor exceptions to this like range birds at PT Mugu or other places), I cant say that is true for the USAF versions.

The F-4's and F-8's were the first aircraft in the US Navy to get a true ECM system. It was the ALE-29. It was mandated by the operational commander for 2nd or 6th fleet, I cant remember now, during the Vietnam war. If you look up operation shoehorn it will give you some back ground info on it (This is why there is like 15 different ECM pods for the F-4, because none of them ever really worked so they kept expediting the next grand master design to the battlefield to try it out. One or two of the systems they eventually got working as a good jammer isn't even a traditional jammer it receives the radiation from the source then emits the same wavelength, carrier signal, etc so when the radar picks it back up it thinks the plane is in a totally different place.) As for specs that's pretty easy for the ALE systems its actually pretty simple, you don't start getting complicated till you get into the digital ALE-47 systems, start adding in the AAR-47, MWS, plume detectors, disco balls, LAU-138 BOLS launchers, etc.

For the Navy phantoms when I was looking over some of the TD's and AYC/AVC's for the F4B and N and some RF-4B's, it looks like they completely phased out the ALE-29 system in the early eighties because the target completion date for having that TD completed on all airframes in the US Navy was OCT of 1984.

R/

Kludo

[JonathanBleeker]

For what it is worth no certainty shared cockpit will behave itself yet. I am giving it a redux as the last setup wasn't all that reliable.

[Kludo]

For what it is worth no certainty shared cockpit will behave itself yet. I am giving it a redux as the last setup wasn't all that reliable.

Eh it may not be perfect but the idea sounds very cool. Ive seen people able to be kind of like passengers but all they can do is watch you, with this its a double edged sword ya know? Yeah you have extra eyes, another brain and 2 more hands, but when you have 2 people having to get on the same page for something like flying, crew resource management!

Also does anyone know if we can upload files ? Like a .pdf from Adobe?

[JonathanBleeker]

Only if you zip it first.