FSX F/A-18 Combat Version

F/A-18 Combat Version. This is the Acceleration F/A-18 Hornet equipped with 20mm M61 cannon and a fully functional air-to-air gun mode found in the real F/A-18. With the two radar modes, the two gun sights and the flying tracers, the virtual dogfight will be very similar to a real one. You will not be able to shoot down other aircraft, but you will receive an immediate indication on your HUD if a bullet hit the bandit. The flight model is unchanged from the Acceleration F/A-18 except for allowing manually controlled flaps and reducing the arresting wire tension for smoother carrier landings. The HUD is an upgrade of the Realistic F/A-18 HUD by Jivko Rusev and Scott Printz, which allows ILS and TACAN navigation for aircraft carriers. You will also get a couple of additional gauges - an In-Flight Refueling Gauge, PLAT Camera and a Carrier Landing Gauge. By Jivko Rusev.

You will find a detailed description of the A/A Gun mode in the Air-to-Air Guns Manual that comes with the package.

Description of the additional gauges can be found in the folder.

INSTALLATION
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This package requires Flight Simulator X: Acceleration!

1. Copy the folder 'FA-18_Combat', contained in this package, to .
2. Copy the content of the 'Effects' folder, contained in this package, to .
3. Map the function 'Release Droppable Objects' to a button on your joystick and make sure the slider Repeat is all the way to the right (max).

You can choose the aircraft by selecting "Neutrino" in the Publisher drop-down menu.

NEW FEATURES
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Head-up Display
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1. Accurate F/A-18 HUD symbology
2. Transparent HUD glass
3. Blue/green color
4. Ground Proximity Warning System
5. Barometric/radar altitude
6. Caged mode

Carrier ILS/TCN Navigation
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1. Default Acceleration carrier: 111.00 MHz or TACAN channel 47X
2. Javier's Nimitz carrier: 112.00 MHz or TACAN channel 57X
3. Clemenceau carrier: 113.00 MHz or TACAN channel 77X

HUD Radar modes
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1. Radar Gun Acquisition (GACQ) sub-mode (20 degrees forward looking within 5 nm)
2. Radar Single Target Track (STT) sub-mode (TD Box, range and closure rate)

A/A Master Mode
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1. Air-to-air guns mode enabled with two gunsights:
1.1 Funnel Mode
1.2 Gun Director Mode (Gun Reticule with "SHOOT" Cue)
2. Realistic Gun:
2.1 Precise ballistic trajectory of a 20mm PGU-28/B round fired by M61A1 Vulcan
2.2 HIGH/LOW rate of fire (6,000/4,000 rpm)
2.3 Feedback if target was hit

Additional Gauges
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1. Carrier Landing Gauge (Shift+7)
2. PLAT camera crosshairs (Shift+8)
3. In-Flight Refueling Gauge (Shift+9)

Flight Model
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The flight model is unchanged from the Acceleration Hornet except for manually controlled flaps for more realistic landing speeds and arrestor wire tension reduced for smoother landings.

What the Combat Hornet doesn't do?
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You will not be able to shoot down people in mulitplayer or AI in free flight. Although this limitation can be overcome, I don't think it is necessary especially for gunnery practice. You will get immediate feedback on your HUD if you made a good shot.

Modifying for personal use
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If you wish to modify the Combat Hornet for your own personal use, you are free to do that. You can add textures, gauges, effects, sounds or change the .air file. Do not replace the aircraft.cfg or panel.cfg, only edit them as necessary!

KNOWN ISSUES
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1. With TrackIR, if you shift your head (left/right, up/down), the target box will not be exactly on top of the bandit. This is because the HUD is not collimated. Without TrackIR you will not experience this problem; there may be slight misalignment as you accelerate or decelerate, but it will still cover the target. Unfortunately HUD collimation can be provided only by the model designer. Even with misalignment, the SHOOT cue will give a correct signal to open fire.
2. To minimize the loss of HUD conformality with TrackIR, you can reduce the y-axis sensitivity and increase the deadzone.
3. You will not be able to fire in 2D cockpit view or external view. The trigger is active only in the virtual cockpit.
4. For some reason sharing the cockpit with another player in MP fails.

BETA TESTERS
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SPECIAL THANKS to the beta testing team: Orion Lyau, Christian "Sludge" Snow, Benjamin "Afterburn" Rothstein, Razgriz, Sonofabeech, Capthaltli, Mickey_Techy, IRONDAN, Steven Frost, Peter797, Frankwi, Paul French, Randall Freeman, DButler.

Thanks to Orion Lyau for his help in editing the manual.

ADDITIONAL CREDITS
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In-Flight Refueling Gauge by Andy Niko & Jivko Rusev
PLAT Camera crosshairs by Jivko Rusev
Carrier Landing Gauge by Jivko Rusev
Sound Gauge (dsd_xml_sound3) by Doug Dawson
Transparent HUD glass by Enrico B.

Adam McEnroe

Adam McEnroe is a flight sim enthusiast who has been simming since the days of FS95. Adam writes all of the download section editorials after testing each of the files. Adam has extensive knowledge using various flight simulator packages and thoroughly tests the files before writing about them. Adam also like to fly real-world aircraft in his spare time and is training for his PPL.

Should you wish, you can contact Adam via email at adam@flyawaysimulation.com.

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